Thursday, January 21, 2010

Some insight about Massachusetts

I have just read a brief article called Lessons Not Learned by Laura Flanders that is published on the Common Dreams site. But it is part of a comment to that article that I want to share with you now:

As a native of MA I can tell you this......The people of MA are pissed! They wanted relief from the highest health care costs in the nation and instead got a program that forced them to buy insurance. And the insurance industry ran with it and raised rates dramatically.
...
These health plans that help the rich corporations and suck the money out of common citizens are way out of bounds. I voted for Obama. I never expected this level of corporate ass kissing. I won't vote for him again. And I won't vote for anyone that supports a plan that forces me to buy anything from a private corporation.

I have a lot of sympathy with this writer. And I agree. I simply don't see how a mandate to buy health insurance without offering a public option can possibly be right.
~~~

2 comments:

  1. Teresa7:44 AM

    A note about what she said, "I will not vote for him again," referring to Obama. Obama has always wanted a public option but he had to give that up because the Republicans refused to accept the Bill with that in it and conservative Democrats whose people have been brainwashed by Republican TV adds on the public option and said they could not vote for the Bill with a public option included. It is not Obama she should be upset with. He had the guts to try and help the American people get off the health care merry-go-round. The blame lies with Big corporations who run this country and their contributions to the Republican party who keep the corporations in business and help to promote their agenda (and which relates to your more recent post about corporations buying congressional votes, as well). Agree that it's horrible!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well, yes, Teresa. A lot of blame goes to the "Blue Dog" democrats. But here's the thing: Obama went into his administration with a majority in both houses - and a super majority in the Senate. He won the general election by a HUGE margin - both in the popular vote and the electoral college. That's a mandate. That's political capital. How much more advantage does a president need? And he was willing to take the public option off the table? I think some people are seeing an ineffective president who can't get members of his own party in line. Mind you, I don't think that voting for a Republican is the solution but I can see how Democrats in Massachusetts just got disheartened and just stayed home.

    ReplyDelete

New policy: Anonymous posts must be signed or they will be deleted. Pick a name, any name (it could be Paperclip or Doorknob), but identify yourself in some way. Thank you.