On Countdown we get some straight talk from Howard Dean about health care reform and the ridiculous talk of the need for bipartisanship with the Party of No. Not so much about the bought and sold Democratic Senators who are not in favor of a public option.
Olbermann: If there are two polls in a week that show seventy percent, nearly three quarters support for some form of government generated health insurance, why is Sen. Feinstein encountering resistance from other Senate Democrats?
Dean: One of the problems in the Senate is it becomes about the Senate instead of what's good for the country. The idea that forty members of the determined minority can obstruct what seventy three percent of Americans want is ridiculous. And you've got to put aside this notion that bipartisanship is always good. Bipartisanship is a good thing when both sides want to work together, but they don't.
The Republicans just want to kill this bill, just like they tried to kill Medicare and the Democrats have got to stand up to them. If we learned anything in the last four years, you only win when you stand up to obstructionism, and the Democrats have got to get their act together and move forward with this.
A health insurance plan without a public health insurance option is not health care reform and they need to get this done.
Dean goes on to say that the Democrats in the Senate need to get out of the bubble they live in. He also says that the American public will think it "looks" like the Democratic Senators support the health insurance industry instead of the American people if they don't get some real reform passed. I'd take Dean to task for that. It doesn't just look like they are....they are and that's the real problem here.
Dean's message is correct though. "Let the American people choose." The President needs to be willing to take on his own party if anything is going to get done with health care reform that isn't window dressing and more of the status quo. It's really pitiful that the Congress is arguing about even having a public option when what they really should be doing is supporting a single payer plan if they cared about the American people and our economy. We can't afford to keep lining insurance company CEO's pockets and paying for insurance companies to figure out ways to deny care.
