Yup, I had to stop avoiding the subject sooner or later: the rapidly deteriorating Congressional-Executive fustercluck known as Healthcare Reform Legislation. How'd we get from a President and Democratic supermajority elected by a public hungry for reform (with, as of Inauguration Day, single-payor being the reform at the top of the polls) to single-payor lying in the morgue with a toe-tag, the "public option" in the SICU ("S" as in either Senate or "Sicko") on life-support, and even strict prohibitions against private health industry abuses in danger of being dealt away? The wild miscalculation (and misconception) on the part of much of the Democratic leadership that Obama's promise of "changing the political culture in Washington" meant making the first move towards conventional hands-across-the-aisle bipartisanship, that's how. In fact, the delusion (what we first suspected and now know was a delusion) that the GOP had any concept of "bipartisanship" beyond "you compromise, we stand firm, you come over to our side or the hell with you," as originally practiced by Dubya when he was Gov. of Texas. Now, at the time he ran, many grumbled that they wished Obama had had more legislative and executive experience. IMHO, he had plenty of that. What he needed, in retrospect, was some time in the trenches of a personal-injury litigation practice (instead of academia, Wall St., and a blue-chip take-the-high-road civil rights firm). He'd have picked up the nuts-and-bolts, down-and-dirty tools of effective horse-trading negotiation that all of us who've done those kind of cases know: ask for five times the "specials" (actual expenses), so that you can settle for your real goal of three times the specials. He (and the rest of the Congressional Democrats) should have started from the position of strength they had: if you want the moon, first demand the stars. The single-payor model should never have been taken off the table until the Republicans came up with a counteroffer that included strict industry regulation (mandatory acceptance of applicants, subsidies for those unable to buy private insurance, elimination of pre-existing condition exemptions and dirty rescission tricks) in return for mandating that everyone obtain coverage of some kind. Then the compromise position would have been all of that, with a public option (or at least a raised income eligibility ceiling for Medicaid, lowered age eligibility for Medicare, the ability to buy into the same plan Congress and Senate employees enjoy, or all of the above). Instead, it looks as if we're going to get nothing--which is what the insurance industry (which finances the campaigns of not just Republicans but conservative and centrist Democrats and faux-grassroots "citizen" front groups and handed their legislative beneficiaries the talking points that they fed the teabagger-birther-deathers) want. Why was that baloney so readily swallowed at carefully orchestrated town halls all during August? Because while liberals studied political science, conservative lobbyists studied anthropology. The cold hard fact is that FEAR WORKS, no matter how ill-founded or even absurd. Why? Because evolution hard-wired the human brain and body to respond to fear and stress, not logic and reason. Does anyone seriously believe that it was logic, reason, research and analysis that enabled our cave-dwelling ancestors to outrun animal predators, repel marauding rival invaders or survive catastrophic natural phenomena? Yeah, right. But, in a way, the Republicans have handed us liberals a precious gift: the gift of honesty and clarity--that they never had any intention of compromise or bipartisanship and that their only goal is not just to prevent disturbing their comfy status quo but to make sure Obama fails at being able to keep any of the promises he made or even goals he stated. So now we have permission to start over--ditch that idiotic "politically balanced" Gang-of-Six, put a robust public option on the table--heck, NAIL it to the table, and turn the conservatives' own philosophy against them: "we can get real reform bipartisanly or unilaterally, but we're going to pass it with you or without you. Join the march or get out of the way." Obama has a unique opportunity this Wed. when he speaks first to returning schoolchildren and then to Congress. But this time, no platitudes, no lofty and dignified oratory, no staying above the fray. That sort of stuff doesn't work now that the Big Lies have been shouted loudly and incessantily. This is what he has to say: 1. The GOP and the insurance companies are lying to you. Lying. Yup--as in "like a rug," and "through their dentally-insured capped teeth." 2. There will be NO government "death panels." We already HAVE death panels: what your insurance companies and HMO's call their Utilization Review Committees, where you and your doctors are overruled every day by twentysomething bean counters with MBAs who probably never even took biology 101, much less medical courses. They're already pulling the plug on Grandma and if we don't stop them, you're next. (Scared now? Good. You should be). 3. We DON'T want to kill the private sector. We LIKE the private sector. It generates income for you, you get to buy more stuff and we don't lose tax revenues. The more it spends on you, the less government has to and the less you have to pony up at tax time. What we want is to make the insurance industry straighten up and fly right, and give YOU a CHOICE. You like your insurance coverage (probably because you never really had to test it yet)? You can keep it. We may not be able keep your doctor from retiring or going to a different plan, or keep your employer from switching plans or dropping coverage because they can't afford it...........BUT YOU'RE NOT GUARANTEED THAT NOW, anyway!!! If we can present you a cheaper and better plan, the insurance industry will have to clean up its act to keep your business---and THAT's what they're afraid of. Do you REALLY want them to be able to keep taking more and more of your money and giving you less and less value for it? 4. So what's in our plan? Heck, we don't know for sure yet........because those obstructionist bast......er, scoundrels in Congress won't even sit down with us and let us draft it. But we do know that whatever we come up with is gonna be a darn sight better than what we've got. 5. So those jerks are yapping about "socialism" and "government control?" And you want government to keep its mitts off your Medicare and veterans' benefits? Guess what: Medicare and the V.A. ARE "government programs." Heck, they're single-payor! With Medicare, you choose your own doctors, you and they decide what to do, and the government picks up the tab. Why not let other people at least BUY into that, if not get the same deal that seniors and vets do? 6. We're on a roll now about "socialized" medicine--but did you know we're the only major CAPITALIST nation without universal and affordable healthcare for everyone? You can look it up. (Go ahead. I'll wait). And guess what else used to be privatized, and was a freaking disaster? Firefighting! (commercial firefighting companies used to get into drunken brawls and even set fires)! Mail delivery! You think the Postal Service is bad? Nobody remembers the Pony Express, huh? And are FedEx and UPS any cheaper and do they deliver on Saturdays or overnight on Sundays? (Thought not). We already have: socialized libraries, socialized police, socialized road repair, socialized mass transit, socialized garbage collection and socialized schools----that's right, some of you may be able to send your kids to private school but most of you can't. What if we made every parent in America pay K-12 tuition, huh? And we have government-run military.....oh, that's right.....Haliburton, Blackwater, Xe......look how well those mercenaries are doing! Catch those pix yet from Iraq of those wild "contractor" (easier to spell and pronounce than "mercenary") parties where Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner is doing Jello shots off VanOwen's butt? (Oh, sorry, the kids are listening. Hey, they had to find out sometime). (Oh, how I'd love to see the overnight Nielsens for something like that!!) And while we're on the subject, when it comes to taxes, grow up. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. You want a decently paid, big enough military? Libraries? Good schools that don't cost more than college? Roads that won't wreck your axles and swallow your cars? Water and sewers? Fire departments? Real police departments instead of Paul Blart, Mall Cop? Taxes are the rent and dues we pay to live in the greatest country in the world......or what would be the greatest country in the world if people could afford to get sick without going broke. And you media conglomerates? (I won't name names, but some of your stations broadcast via Clear Channels to Infinity and beyond). Stop characterizing those proposed airplay royalty payments to artists as a "music tax." If it doesn't go to the government, it isn't a "tax." (And listeners don't pay it anyway--you broadcasters do. In fact, those college, streaming public radio, mom-and-pop labor-of-love and dorm-room Internet stations already do.....and YOU lobbied Congress to make them pay it). If that bill passes, some of the great soul, blues and country artists you grew up listening to (or their descendants) are finally going to get paid for they musical gifts they gave us. Bobby Rush, Melissa Bean--shame on you. Of all people (I'm talking to YOU, Mr. Rush), you ought to have known better than to vote "no." Good on ya, Jan Schakowsky, for being on the side of the artists. It's a sad state of affairs that in today's America, the surest way to demonize anything is to call it a "tax." (That hard-wired visceral adrenaline thing again). In short, it is September 2009. We have a Black President. We have huge majorities in Congress and the Senate. Republicans: We won. You lost. Get over it. Democrats: We won. They lost. Grow a pair. End of rant--I have rehearsing to do. See you at First Friday, Fox Valley, and FARM.