Mad props to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood for trying to talk some sanity to his Republican brethren.
If I were still a member of Congress, I would proudly vote for the bill that President Barack Obama is championing and I would urge my colleagues to do the same, not because I don’t believe in fiscal discipline, but because I do…
…The bill that will be voted on will reduce the deficit by about $1 trillion over the next two decades, and will reduce waste, fraud and abuse in the health care system. It will slow the rate of growth in health care costs and put America back on the path toward fiscal sustainability.
The bill will give families and small business owners greater control over their own health care. It will expand coverage to more than 31 million Americans and will include tax credits to individuals, families and small businesses, giving them the same choices that members of Congress have to purchase private coverage. It will create state-based exchanges that will bring competition and transparency to insurance markets. And it will put in place common-sense rules of the road to hold insurance companies accountable and end some of the most outrageous practices of the insurance industry.
Never again will people be denied coverage because they have a pre-existing condition. Never again will insurance companies be able to raise rates unfairly — like the 60 percent hikes expected in Illinois.
While the ultimate vote on health care may not be bipartisan, the ultimate bill certainly is.
And, while Dennis Kucinich talks a good game, he’s ultimately just as full of shit as John Boehner. He should listen to Ray LaHood. Dennis thinks his vote is worth more than anyone else’s. He needs to learn from the pros. It’s okay to play hardball with your vote up to a point. But you take the best deal you can get. That’s the difference between Ben Nelson, who actually got his language in the bill, and grandstanders like Bart Stupak who lost his.
It’d be one thing if Dennis was bluffing. But he isn’t. He’d sink the entire thing if he could.
