Under attacks from the right and severe lack of backbone from the left, health care reform is starting to wobble on its feet. While I remain a steadfast supporter of reform on both moral and economic grounds, the process is in trouble. Between lies and half-truths being tossed by the Republicans in the face of reform and the Democrats inability to properly deflect them, the ship is taking on too much water and without some change will probably founder. This should not happen.
I think it can be saved — and I think we can benefit from a good, solid bill that enacts real reform — but the President and his supporters must change course and tactics and must do it soon or however poorly-designed the arguments of the opposition may be the American people, and ultimately the support beneath the bill, will fall away into oblivion.
Get On Message — The White House must get their entire staff back on a single, solid, concise message. Instead of coming out of the chute with guns blazing, this administration has sauntered into the park holding a bill on a platter and were surprised that they were attacked from the bushes. Put on the battle gear, grow a pair, give out the orders to everyone on the team, and get marching in lockstep. The message from the White House must be solid, without holes, and consistent.
Stick to Your Guns — Speaking of a consistent message, the President must come out on national television in front of Congress and say, “This is what we want for health care reform — points A, B, C. Anything else, I will VETO — period.” And he must stand behind that decision, no matter what the polls say, no matter how the votes appear to be swinging. If you’re going to be bold, you have to stick to it or nobody will believe you, and right now, nobody thinks anyone’s really serious except the fear-mongers.
Public Option or Bust — The President’s punch list for reform must include the public option without it being a possible drop point. It is the only way true reform can happen and everyone knows it. Quit listening to the detractors and waffling on it. This is not a recipe for doughnuts, it’s health care reform.
The Buck Stops Here — President Obama must come out and state exactly how they are going to pay for reform, whether in the form of savings, taxes, discounts, or other means. The numbers must be clean, clear, and understandable without an accounting degree. He must stop skirting around the fact that in order to pay for this, people will have to be taxed. We citizens are not stupid, and if you tell it how it is, we’re likely to back you, but you cannot hide from what is the truth. If you’re going to sock it to the rich, then say that. If you’re going to raise all of our taxes by a margin to cover everyone else, tell us how much. We want to know the bottom line and then we’re likely to sign the check.
Go to the People — The President must engage the public media like he did during the candidacy and go on any newscast, talk show, and public media that will listen. He must call a national address and engage all networks. Taking along the solid, concise message of the first point, he needs to present it to the American people over and over, using graphs or videos or flowcharts or dayglo chimpanzees — whatever visual aids will help everyone understand the benefits and costs of health care reform and how it will affect them. Almost everyone I know is confused and knows little about what this bill will or won’t do and that must stop. Everyone should be talking about it around the water cooler and we should all know the exact picture, whether or not we agree with it.
Tighten the Screws — Once all this has been done, the White House must then put enormous pressure on its Democratic base in both houses to perform and align with their message. If that means calling every representative into a conference and having a Come-To-Jesus talk, so be it. Stop the sound bites of Democrats waffling within their own swimming pool while the Republicans dance outside and point fingers — it’s embarrassing.
Stop Beating the Dead Horse — The entire Democratic party along with the White House must stop talking of “bipartisanship”. It is worthless. We all well know that most Republicans do not want to reform health care and therefore will at best water down the reform and at worst kill it, this sort of bill must not be signed with the least bit of dilution.
If Necessary, Go Down Gracefully — If, after all this solidarity, marketing to the public, demands of the Congress, and adherence to a clear principle you cannot get the votes, you can’t get them — simple as that. This is Landmark Reform™ — it might not happen this round, although we need it desperately. But the clear and simple way of ensuring that, if it dies, you will not be able to resurrect it for another 10-20 years is to waffle and cajole and weasel and compromise it into a small, weak shadow of its original intent. Better to lose and lose big than to be decimated into pieces too small to put together again or, worse yet, to implement a bill that ends up being a drooling half-wit representation of Real Change.
We need to have health care reform. I think most Americans want health care reform, but we all want it to be done correctly, clearly, and decisively. This can and should truly be a huge turning point in our history as a country.
Dismantle Medicare entirely, in very short phases, as the “public option” is phased in. There are many, many problems with the reform plan as it stands. We are taxed by the federal and state governments over 33% of our income already. Make this work, O government divine…and what ever kind of health care system you come they come up with, they should have to use themselves. This way we’ll be sure that we’re getting top notch care, right?
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Stacey: I agree with the Medicare dismantlement, although they will have to phrase it in such a way that the seniors don’t get their Depends in a bunch. 33%? Really? My effective Federal tax is around 16 – 17% or so and my State tax..well, I don’t know where that sits. I suppose if you work in Property and Sales taxes you might approach 33%, but…. Well, at any rate, say the government comes to you and says, “Look, we’re going to tax you at 34%, but with that slight raise, we’ll be able to cover EVERYONE in the States with health care.” Why wouldn’t you? I think that’s the issue at hand and when people get all huffy about taxes going up, they don’t realize that for a slight hit we get enormous gain, and that needs to be emphasized to the public from the administration.
While I appreciate the sentiment of, “they should have to use it, too!”, I don’t think you will see, even with this major reform, a going-away of the “I have money so give me better care” scenario; rather, you will still have those sorts of situations (and indeed, the Republicans are scrambling to ensure that this is still possible) but instead of it being a situation of, “money or NOTHING”, you will have, “If you have money, you can have really KICK ASS healthcare coverage, and if you don’t have money, you will have pretty good healthcare coverage, enough to keep from bankrupting you.” I think that’s a step in the right direction — nobody wants to give away free lunches, but at the same time, everyone should feel terrible about the family gone destitute over paying for a surprise cancer attack.
I totally agree…my uncle and aunt ARE that family with the surprise cancer attack, and their Blue Cross doesn’t cover nearly the cost of the chemo and radiation treatments for my aunt. We did a fundraider that raised 3 grand, and it didn’t touch what they owe after the insurance paid. AFTER!!! the insurance paid! It’s sickening.
What I don’t condone is Congress voting on what’s good for the rest of us and having special perks for themselves. We are ruled by an oligarchy and it quite frankly makes me sick. I firmly believe all politicians are evil and can be bought, so there is no real partisan side to my argument, they are all disgusting assholes as far as I’m concerned. I just think they would keep the common good in mind moreso if they were subject to it themselves is all.
Yes, after federal, state, medicare and social security taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, gas taxes, license plates fees, etc. 1/3 of our income is sucked away. I don’t think the government is entitled to that much, let alone 34%. We don’t see a tax refund, in fact we either break even or owe. I have very strong feelings about taxes, and those who tell me I don’t see the “big picture” because I don’t want to be taxed even more and am very vocal about it really tend to irritate me. I want to know what makes their argument such an enlightened one.
Better management of the funds already coming in, along with a reduction in useless government services would be a much better start than increasing taxes at all, in my opinion, but it’s doubtful our legislator can even begin to grasp that concept, let alone discuss it and implement it.
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Awww…I must be one of those who isn’t worth arguing with! LOL (I really enjoy discussing things with you Nathan)
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Stacey: On the contrary, I rather enjoy our discussions. I’ve just been working 12 hour days this week so haven’t had a ton of spare time to formulate responses or thoughts. We can certainly agree on the, “Better management of the funds already coming in, along with a reduction in useless government services” aspect of it; I think that’s something we as citizens always need to push for and government representatives need to take to heart. I think in some ways they always DO try to cut down, but one person’s definition of “worthy” often conflicts with another’s — or with another’s special interest.
Just for the record, while the government has really good healthcare right now, it’s not something special only for Congress. It’s a pool of plans (some 1,500 I believe) that are offered to all Federal employees from a pool of insurance providers that give quotes to the government every year. Gov’t employees DO have to pay premiums and copays and so forth, although arguably the plans are cheaper, cover more, and there are more perks than most typical business plans, like being able to be treated at military bases and so forth. And they make arguably much higher salaries than you or I could ever hope to make. However, businesses like Google have better health plans than the government does, for instance, so in this case it’s really more of a matter of the business providing a better option than the government getting something special for them alone.
And that…is at the heart of the matter, of course. Right now, if your business is lucrative enough or has a big enough pool of people, you can have really good health insurance because they have the resources to pay for it. But if you are blessed with a small business, you may have bad or no insurance at all through them, which means you get to go private, and that completely rapes most people of their money. My previous employer had a lot of older employees working for them, which means the pool was much higher risk and I paid a lot more money for a lot less coverage than I do now, and nowadays I have very good coverage. It still costs me a pretty penny, but at least I’m getting more bang for my buck. But most people aren’t that lucky, and so that’s why we need a public option to cover those who aren’t.
I’m not as prone to thinking that the majority of my tax dollars are a waste; for instance, I rather enjoy many of the social programs the government implements — public school, roads, fire and police protection, the park system, and so forth. So I’m willing to pay into the system if I’m assured that, in general, a group effort by everyone results in a better implementation than what could be accomplished privately, and in this case, I think healthcare is definitely one of those that could be. Will it be perfect? Hell no. Everyone will find SOMETHING to bitch about, I’m sure. But — I think it’s better than the alternative, which we have now, and which sucks.