So said Slog commenter PC yesterday in a comment that’s worth reading and republishing. In response to a great Eqsuire interview with Howard Dean that I linked to, PC wrote:

It’s Dean’s job to get the votes, to stir up grass roots pressure in those conservadem districts, and it’s Obama’s job, and they’re falling down on the job.

Look folks, the Stranger can’t even explain this co-op thing; can’t say why it’s no good; there’s no talking points, no message, there’s no rallies in NE and AR and ME with Obama and 50,000 screaming fans in a stadium to MAKE the god damn conservadems vote the right way.

Good god folks, we’re sitting here begging and pleading Maria Cantwell to come out the right way and we drool on her every hint like little lap dogs.

Folks, if it’s July and we don’t even have Cantwell, there’s no way we’re getting a public plan, and the reason is Obama and Dean are playing politics as usual and are NOT changing the game with the grass roots pressure like O-man promised.

You caite all the Krugman and all the articles you want and you can publish all the stern invective from Dean you want. Shit, write ten pieces trying to explain co-ops. In the end that doesn’t mean a god damn thing to the senators from freaking Arkansas Louisiana Nebraska and Maine. What means something to them is if they don’t vote the right way, they’re gonna lose their jobs.

For those here in Washington who want to put pressure on Maria Cantwell over her lack of opposition to the co-op compromise, and her wishy-washy statements on the public plan, MoveOn and others are, as Dan noted earlier, organizing a rally in front of her downtown Seattle office today during the lunch hour. Time and place details in the jump.

Public Option Now! Health Care Rally

Sen. Maria Cantwell’s District Office

915 Second Avenue, Suite 3206

Seattle, WA 98174

Thursday, July 09th, 12:15 PM

Eli Sanders was The Stranger's associate editor. His book, "While the City Slept," was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He once did this and once won...

64 replies on ““Folks, if it’s July and we don’t even have Cantwell, there’s no way we’re getting a public plan.””

  3. It is weird that Obama doesn’t just do another TV ad thingy. He’ll pose for photos with the new dog, but not aggressively push for healthcare?

    I go back to my original statement about Obama (and why I didn’t vote for him in the primaries):

    “He’s pretty and he talks good, but where is the substance that he’ll get anything done?”

  4. @2: People have been doing that all over the place. Here, on the Washington Post blog, at the NYT. Just google single payer healthcare benefits and there will be tons of articles.

    Yeesh.

  5. I like most of Eli’s writing, but the co-op coverage has been very weak. He hasn’t explained what the co-op compromise IS, to begin with.

    Not until I read this did I understand and hate the co-op proposal (by the Democratic chairman of the Senate Budget Committee):

    http://www.westfargopioneer.com/articles…

    My proposal is based on the cooperative model that is already so successful across our country. The plan calls for creating private, consumer-owned, non-profit cooperatives that would provide affordable health care to families, individuals and small businesses. These co-ops would be offered as one of several choices, including employer-sponsored plans and private insurance plans, and could help cover more of the uninsured…

    And while it would be necessary for these co-ops to receive federal support at the start, in the form of either loans or grants, the intent is for the co-ops to become self-sustaining entities – supported, owned and governed by their own members…

    Because these plans will be owned by their members, they will focus on getting the best value for consumers, rather than maximizing plan revenues or profits. Finally, the co-op plan uses the tools of the marketplace to address the health care reform principles of choice, quality and cost control.

    In other words, the government gives loans to create more insurance companies under Group Health’s model. Nothing changes for the uninsured or underinsured. Since we already have a Group Health, we’d probably just get a new Group Health-type startup. That you have to pay for, just like Group Health. That’s the co-op proposal. FUCK THAT. How is that reform?!

  6. OM is right. Just because it’s summer and your rights to single payer national health care are being sold out from under you to Big Pharma and Big Insurance doesn’t mean you can go to sleep.

    It’s not like two-thirds to three-quarters of all American citizens want single payer national health care … (oh, wait, it is)

  7. Also, Charles’ post about McNair gets like over 100 posts, but anything involving healthcare is lucky to get over 10. WTF SLOG?!?!?!?!?

  20. Maybe if I mention people like Fnarf, greg, aislinn, joh, lara, and jessica we can add some comments!

    and don’t forget Keyboard Gat! Hey Troll come here!

  21. Scary Tyler Moore? Wanna make a comment? What about whiteguy or whatever your name is.

    Hum.

    echo! echhooo! echhoooo! eccchooo!

  22. It’s too bad healthcare isn’t all the sexy or interesting. Maybe if some hawt young girl murdered healthcare we could totally wanna talk about….or what if healthcare was all rascist, then maybe people would be zomg, wtf internetz!

    Or hell, what if healthcare was like “oh gays, I totally like hate you. You all are going to hell and stuff” then it could be generate enough comments to be a top story on Slog. (the but secks 24/7guy would totally be on this post)

    *sigh*

  26. I’ve been emailing and calling both Murray and Cantwell, but what else can I do? Will the senators from other states bother to listen to email/calls from other senators’ districts?

  27. Here’s a story for you: I spend 40 hous a week trying to help people…people just like Sloggers, just like your mom and dad, just like everyone in the Northwest, specifically…keep themselves from falling through the cracks of the healthcare system. I want single-payer healthcare, even if it would put me out of a job. Because when people are dying from treatable disease due to lack of health care access, this is not a civilized society.

  28. I didn’t say this on the phone when I called Cantwell’s office, but maybe I should: If Maria Cantwell punks out on the public option, God help me but I am voting Republican for that Senate seat next time. What is the fucking point of having a Democrat on the finance committee if she’s not pushing for the most important item on the party’s agenda, i.e. public health care?

  29. Also, Mo, are you going to become Enigma’s counterpart for health care reform? Because that would be awesome. Except you need a website and a blog for that, and Facebook doesn’t really count.

  32. @Greg It would be nice to start a healthcare blog. Would other Sloggers want to contribute? I would be totally down. I already have a psuedo-political blog, but I haven’t updated it really at all lately. And no one knows it exists.

  33. @Greg Yeah, depending on the republican I swear it’s not a bad threat. Should we start a facebook group, then link it to her? I mean, damnit something must be done.

    I don’t have enough internet clout to make it happen.

  37. The biggest problem is that people don’t have the attention span to really talk about healthcare and all the economical issues that go along with it. We want to subsize farming, but we don’t subsidize healthcare? WTF?

  39. @7 – I think the problem is people comment based on three things:

    1. sexy pic (or gross one)
    2. fake outrage over vegans using wiener dogs to attack homeless people in Iran
    3. if Dan Savage wrote it.

    So, OM, what we need is for Dan Savage to write something titled “Gay Pit Bulls Misused by Vegans to attack Health Care” with a pic of a buff mustard-smeared hottie deep-throating a pink balloon animal.

    Now THAT would get posts.

  42. While I am shouting into the void, are there any good candidates that could go against Ms. Cantwell if she refuses the public option?

  45. I wrote another letter to Maria Cantwell, this time an email through her web site. I tried to be respectful but firm. This is really giving me heartburn.

  46. Here is an excerpt:

    “I work at a full-time job knowing that even though my pay is good and I have employer health insurance, a serious illness could easily drive my wife and I into bankruptcy. What kind of a country is this if two people with full employment can’t afford to get sick?

    “We need real health care reform and we need it this year; this “compromise” involving co-ops modeled after Group Health is not an acceptable solution. Your constituents in Washington want you to lead on this issue, particularly in supporting the public option. If a national single-payer public system hasn’t got the votes in the Senate, then the public option is the only remaining workable solution. Anything less won’t deliver effective reform and, further, will hurt the Democrats’ credibility on this issue.

    “Senator, as your constituent the public option is my number one priority this year. This is vital to me, my family, and the financial stability of our country. Again I implore you to use all the influence at your disposal to make sure that a strong, national public option makes it into the bill that goes to President Obama’s desk.”

  47. 22

    Monique,
    I feel your pain
    and totally respect
    what you are about here.

    but as you noted
    this doesn’t really have a ButtSex angle,
    and thus will never
    get a rise out of Slog.

  48. 22

    Monique,
    I feel your pain
    and totally respect
    what you are about here.

    but as you noted
    this doesn’t really have a ButtSex angle,
    and thus will never
    get a rise out of Slog.

  60. Obam wants Iran to talk with him.

    Iran tells Obama to go pound sand.

    Obama wants North Korea to talk with him.

    North Korea tells Obama to go pound sand.

    Obama tells Iran and North Korea he respects them and he will be standing by to service them if they want to pound him.

    Obama is going to fix health care ??? – give me a break – he was going to keep unemployment under 8.5% and stop the evictions of families from their homes for God’s sake – that did not go very well either.

    Just ask the newly homeless evictees without a job or health care.

  61. Just because it’s summer and your rights to single payer national health care are being sold out from under you to Big Pharma and Big Insurance doesn’t mean you can go to sleep.

    Big Pharma already sold us out 50 years ago when the Rockefellers led the charge to take over the AMA. Big Pharma owns our doctors and will own our medical care no matter who’s covering our medical insurance.

    No insurance reform will do nearly as much as reforming the way we as a nation administer health care and the way our doctors treat our illnesses.

  62. Damn! I was looking forward to all the under 30 Cap Hill baristas losing another 5-10% of their paychecks to pay for this. The ‘what-the-fuck’ on their faces when they got their paychecks would be a delight to see.

  63. Damn! I was looking for CEO’s being able to continue to deduct all $200,000 they pay for their gold-plated insurance set asides under the Bush Regime and continue to ignore the lack of health care for the under 30 baristas who tend to make the single payer health care plan functional, since they don’t get sick very often.

    Oh. Wait. That would be bad for America.

  64. This post wants to be at the top of the list, so people do your part.

    Hey Eli — how about e-mail links to Cantwell and Murray in all you posts on this topic? It makes it so easy pop over and write them a note.

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