(The email requested $5 to help the Democrats get the health care bill passed in the Senate.)
Dear President Obama,
Rather than asking for $5 from me, why don’t you and Majority Leader Reid force the Democrats and that piece of garbage Joe Lieberman to toe the line?
You don’t need my money, you need some backbone to get this done. Threaten the Democrats with loss of chairmanships, committee demotions, etc., if they don’t go along. Take Joe Lieberman off all committees if he isn’t going to vote for this. Make sure Robert Byrd will be able to get to the Senate to vote - if necessary, fly him in on Air Force One and have Vice President Biden personally wheel him in on his bed if you have to - and if he can’t vote, tell him to resign so he can be quickly replaced by another Democrat in good health who can vote.
If the Senate still can’t get 60 votes, tell Harry Reid that he has to change the rules so that he only needs 51, just as the Republicans once tried to do. Threaten the 51 option first, and if it doesn’t work don’t hesitate to follow through on the threat.
President Obama, I’m disappointed in that you aren’t liberal enough and feel such an obligation to try to negotiate with the Republicans. Haven’t you figured out after almost 10 months that it just won’t work? Forget bipartisanship - we’ll pass better laws if they are agreed on by true Democrats only (no blue dogs either). If our ideals are watered down in a futile attempt to work with people who are against change, the results will suffer and then the Republicans will blame us. I am confident enough that if we legislate from the left we will get great results that no one will be able to attack - or if the results are attacked everyone will know that the attackers are lying for political purposes.
By the way, thanks for the extra $25/week and 99 weeks of unemployment benefits, and thanks for the 9 month COBRA subsidy - but can you please extend the 9 month subsidy for the full 18 months of COBRA coverage? You need to get this done immediately because anyone laid off before March is losing the subsidy at the end of the month.
To RWE:
17.5% of the country aren’t out of work (that is the true rate, not the official 10.2%) because they’re lazy and want free money. We didn’t bankrupt the country, Bush did with the illegal war in Iraq, givaways to the rich, and a complete failure to regulate our financial markets. Not to mention trashing our Constitution in violation of his oath of office, causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, stealing 2 elections, possible involvement and a definite coverup of 9/11, as well as hundreds of other crimes. He should be in prison right now, except Obama is afraid that going after Bush will make him look vengeful. I would just like to ask the President to do a little bit more to help those in need. I can survive on unemployment and still continue my health insurance, but a lot of others can’t.
To Matthew: I was hoping to get all sorts of praise for my great insight, or at least a 50-50 mix, but so far I am 0-6. So far your reply is the only one that makes any sense. We shouldn’t be governing our country in the same way as Bush and the Republicans did when they had the power. My problem with negotiating is that the Republicans don’t want to. I’d like to see a group of Republican’s say "I think this is going to be good for our country, but some aspects of the plan might be problematic. This provision might hurt small business, this provision seems unfair, I’m not sure if this part here is going to work the way you intend it to. We’d like to vote for this but it would help if you could address our concerns." Then, the Democrats can say "Yes, you’ve made some good points. I think we can do A and B, but we think doing C is going to be a big problem."
To Matthew (continued): After some more back and forth negotiations, the Democrats say, "Ok we listened to everything you had to say, we can’t do everything you asked for because that would weaken the bill too much, but you can see that we went out of your way to put in a lot of your suggestions. You said that this was overall something that would help our country, can we have your votes to pass this?"
Then the Republicans say "No. Sorry, we can’t vote for this." Unsaid but implied: "All we really wanted to do was weaken the bill as much as possible to help the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry who contribute heavily to our campaigns. We really have no desire to help the average American, we were lying."
So after all that, why did we make any concessions to begin with? This isn’t getting passed with any Republican help, so we have no need for their advice - especially since their suggestions weren’t any good, we just did this to try to get their votes.
I wasn’t really trying to say that negotiating with the Republicans to help get their support is a bad idea. If we can make some changes in order to get their votes it might be a good idea if the bill sticks to its original intent and isn’t weakened too much.
My point is that so far after 10 months, the Republicans have not negotiated in good faith and it doesn’t look like things will change, so why are we even bothering? This health care legislation is so important that I think our leaders really do need to get tough and make sure we pass this - even at the expense of being bullies. If this doesn’t get done now it won’t get done for a very long time. President Clinton tried this in his first term and the Republicans derailed it and then had the nerve to blame Hillary for it failing. The Republicans don’t want this to pass, and then they want to blame President Obama if it doesn’t pass. They expect to get enough votes in 2010 to prevent any chance of it passing anytime soon.
Why don’t you just move to Communist Cuba?
Richard | Nov 08, 2009
I think growing balls is cool but making idiots with all balls no brain running the country is BAAAAD.
Matthew | Nov 08, 2009
Sounds like the typical BS from people who don’t mind Bankrupting the Country as long as they get something for nothing.
RWE
Right Wing Extremist | Nov 08, 2009
I think I just wasted two minutes of my life reading your letter and taking the time to develop an opinion…. How is that Hope and Change working for you?????
Just be glad he bailed out the Banks so you can cash your unemployment check.
Twinkie Thief | Nov 08, 2009
JOIN Acorn!
Gottbaum | Nov 08, 2009
Obama can do it !!!
First Emperor of the US of A
truth-search | Nov 08, 2009
I like it. A shame some of those here do not know the facts about reform and the need for it in the USA.
FACT - Insurance companies in the USA admit to pushing up prices, buying politicians and not paying out claims when they should [1]
FACT - PER PERSON the USA spends more on healthcare than any other nation on the planet [2]
FACT - Obama debated his plans before the election for healthcare [3]
FACT - the chance of a child under five of dying in the USA is greater than industrialised nations with universal health coverage [4]
FACT - Obama was elected by the American people to bring in change [5]
FACT - Obama wants to stop insurance companies from screwing American [6]
FACT - The reforms Obama wants work in the Netherlands and Switzerland [7]
Let me know if my facts are wrong, but please provide proof.
The Patriot | Nov 08, 2009