Can you believe the
gall of progressives willing to mention that Bernie Sanders deserves responsibility for his support of the Lieberman/Obama/Baucus Healthcare Privatization Act?
First Jane Hamsher said that Bernie Sanders deserved responsibility for his assistance to the private health insurance companies at the expense of the American people.
Now Cenk Uygur today is doing is the same.
Who do these progresssives think they are? Don't they know that they are expected to loyally support anything that Joe Lieberman's and Max Baucus's contributors say is good?
Uygur writes (my bolding):
If you look at Dean's policies, they are right down the middle of the country. That's part of the reason his 50 state strategy worked so well. But the establishment media hate him. Why? Because he points out when they're doing something wrong - and he winds up being proven right in the end. There's nothing that irritates the establishment more than that.
As things stand, Howard Dean is perceived to be to the left of all of the Democratic senators in Washington (not because he's more liberal than Bernie Sanders or Harry Reid; it's because unlike them, he's willing to fight for his positions (sorry Bernie, at this point, it's true). That's unconscionable. Washington has shifted so far right that Dean is considered some sort of wild-eyed liberal. We have to move it back if we are to have any hope that Obama will move further left (and much closer to the true center of the country).
So, how do we do this? It's not pretty, but it's necessary. We have to attack Obama relentlessly from the left. Right now he is a giant that is unmoved by anything in his left flank, he keeps looking to his right and ducking and worrying and moving to accommodate them. They are so loud and so visible. It's hard to miss them. We have to make him look left. We have to shake him off his foundation.
What unmitigated gall these progressives have in daring to criticize their elected representatives. Do they think we live in a democracy or something?
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Remember, folks, we still have time to stop this corrupt little bargain the Senate passed this morning and move to reconciliation where we have to votes to pass under reconciliation's 50 vote process:
- A robust public option
- A Medicare buy-in for those 55 to 64
- Reasonable subsidy levels to ensure affordability
- A funding mechanism that forces the wealthy to pay their fair share
- Changes to expand Medicaid
Rahm Emanuel, Max Baucus, Joe Lieberman, Aetna, Cigna, HealthSouth, WellPoint, and UnitedHealth all think the game is over.
But there is still time to derail this corrupt little bargain and deliver genuinely good healthcare reform for the American people.
Stop the Senate bill. Move to reconciliation.