An Open Letter to the 317 Elected Dumocrats in Washington D.C.*
Sen. Tom Harkin, the chairman of the Senate Health Committee, said negotiators from the White House, Senate and House reached a final deal on healthcare reform days before Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts.
....Harkin said "we had an agreement, with the House, the White House and the Senate. We sent it to [the Congressional Budget Office] to get scored and then Tuesday happened and we didn't get it back." He said negotiators had an agreement in hand on Friday, Jan. 15. Harkin made clear that negotiators had reached a final deal on the entire bill, not just the excise plans, which had been reported the previous day, Jan. 14.
Mother Jones
You have been played. Rickrolled onto a web page that six months ago existed only in Republicans' wet dreams. Taken. Pockets emptied and left to die in an abandoned whorehouse South of the Mason-Dixon line.
You allowed the Republicans to play the only strategy they had: delay, delay, delay, and delay some more, ever holding out that piece of bipartisanship candy just out of reach, until something came along to derail your train. And something did! The public got so fed up with your dithering and your bickering and your political buyoffs that THEY VOTED FOR A REPUBLICAN SENATOR FOR MASSACHUSETTS. You remember that state, don't you? The lone state that voted for George McGovern in 1972. Yup, "That one!"
You could have passed a strong health care reform bill in July, any time after Senator Franken was seated. You could have pass ANYTHING YOU WANTED TO for the last three months, once Senator Kirk was seated.
May I lay it out for you, since you obviously STILL DON'T GET IT?
You were voted into power to PASS HEALTH CARE REFORM. Not sit on your very large asses for 12 months and bloviate. Like the Republicans did for eight years while the cost of health care skyrocketed.
You were voted into power to FIX THE ECONOMY. The one the Republicans broke. Worst. Economy. Ever. (Post WWII). And by sitting on your very large asses and bloviating for 12 months, you've managed the impossible: the REPUBLICANS are now successfully BLAMING YOU for the economy! Good hand sirs (and madams), well played!
You were voted into power to STOP WALL STREET FROM REALLY CAUSING ANOTHER GREAT DEPRESSION the next time they decide to go batshit insane. Not sit on you very large asses for 12 months and bloviate. Am I being repetitive here?
The President was voted into power to CHANGE THE WAY WASHINGTON WORKS. Not to instruct you to sit on you very large asses for 12 months and try to get your Republican colleagues to sing Kumbaya with you. Is that better?
But you couldn't help it, could you? You thought we were all just joking in 2008, didn't you? "Ha, ha. The people want us to go sit on our very large asses and bloviate, don't they?" the distinguished Senator from Insuriana asked. "Why, yes, yes, I believe that's what they do want, old boy!" replied the distinguished Senator from Citigroupia.
In 12 months you've managed to a) inspire your opposition, b) utterly demoralize your staunchest supporters, and c) make the rest of the population believe that you really are the incompetent bumblers you are making every effort to appear to be.
And yet, despite all your dithering, despite all your blundering and bloviating, despite your exhibitions of spinelessness that make worms look like paragons of rigidity by comparison, you still have a chance to do the right thing, or at least a right thing. After all, you actually PASSED HEALTH CARE REFORM LEGISLATION. YOU VOTED FOR IT. YOU EVEN HAD AN AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE HOUSE AND THE SENATE ON A FINAL BILL.
Nothing stops you from getting a bill onto the President's desk. Nothing stops you from flipping the bird to every Republican in the House and Senate and saying we will do this without you. Nothing, that is, other than your own lack of will, your lack of any conception that you must hang together, or you will all hang separately.
Republicans know full well that absolutely nothing would have stopped them if they were in your position from getting a bill to their President. And they are supremely confident that nothing will prevent you, once again, from failing to do so.
They are mocking you. Chortling openly. Salivating. They are tingling with more anticipation than Mark Sanford on his way to Argentina. And you are going to satiate their desires, aren't you?
And as I continue to contact my Congressperson and Senators to demand health care reform, I fart in your general direction.
Thanks for nothing.
* 1 President, 60 (soon to be 59) Senators, 256 Representatives