$19 million and 5 purchased votes shot down the best change that could have ever come to this country.
Max Baucus got $7,734,102, Blanche Lincoln received $4,190,592, Ken Conrad took in $3,287,891, Bill Nelson was given $2,414,895 and Tom Carper accepted $1,592,380 from health industry interests. [Source, Intershame.com, Bought by the Insurance Lobby]
These Senators clearly voted against the wishes of their constituents who 81% favor the public option. Is this another example of the Government of the Corporation? In CEO We Trust.
There are roughly 72 million registered democrats in the United States. With 81% who are democrats wanting the public option that turns out to be 58 million people out of 300 million. Still not convincing enough to create public option…
I would suggest not reading into polls, they can easily be manipulated by the poll taker. According to this poll 50% are against the public option.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/july_2009/50_oppose_government_health_insurance_company
By the way, the best change that would happen to America is to get rid of both political parties, I think George Carlin would agree with me on that point.
As would I! Didn’t George Washington warn us of the dangers of a two party system? Or was that Thomas Jefferson?
Source for the 81%
If Tom is correct, and the 81% is just among Democrats, than aren’t you saying that voters for the losing candidate are no longer constituents of the winner?
Come on Doug! You’re smarter than that!
The truth is not that 81% of their constituents supported the public option. The truth is that these senators evaluated not just the desires of ALL of their constituents, but also the likelihood of passing any measure of health care reform if a public option was included, and realized that is was a no go situation. So they made an adult decision to forgo the part of the package that most Americans don’t want in order to get legislation that can pass, and that will ameliorate some of the problems with health insurance in this country.
A public option is not required to get health insurance for those who don’t have it.
Source? I read the article Doug put forth and it said 81% of democrats.
It is based on this CBS News poll and I am guilty of assuming that Intershame crunched the numbers correctly. In that regard, I have not sufficiently fact checked. Apparently this CBS News poll shows nearly half of Republican voters in favor of the public option.
The point of my post was to ask if such a large portion of the American people favor the public option, why is it being voted down? Intershame makes a decent argument for money and lobbying being the problem. However, it is likely that our Senators are doing their job well and found valid reasons that this version had to be voted down.
Rich, I contend the issue here is not about “health insurance” but rather “health care.” The uninsured want treatment not an EOB.