Ripping America’s Future Away

In his essay, “Senator Conrad Says He’ll Vote Against the Public Option” Slinkerwink at Firedoglake notes . . .

In a town hall meeting with his constituents, Senator Kent Conrad, D-N.D. pushed his co-operative plan, and said that he would vote against the public option in any Senate health care package.  Conrad presented his cooperative health care proposal Thursday and said he would not vote for a government-run health care program.  The proposal has received bipartisan support for several reasons, he said. The cooperative would offer a non-profit insurance option to compete with private health care. It would not be government run, he said.

In response to Conrad’s dog and pony show “co-op plan”,  Slinkerwink notes that . . .

Conrad’s been pushing the co-operative line ever since the debate over health care reform heated up earlier this spring, and he’s a part of the Senate Finance Committee that is keeping the rest of the Senate Democrats out of their caucus talks.  And he knows full well that his co-op plan wouldn’t help the majority of his constituents.  In what’s been leaked about the Senate Finance bill, the co-operative plan actually is a series of regional co-operatives, which wouldn’t do anything to lower health premium costs for American families.

In a letter-to-the-editor published in the Grand Forks Herald on July 31, I also responded to Conrad’s betrayal of health care reform . . .

An overwhelming majority of Americans want healthcare reform legislation to include a strong public option, but Senator Conrad doesn’t care what an overwhelming majority of Americans want.  If he did, there would have been a strong public option in his Senate Finance Committee bill.  

Senator Conrad is corrupt.  There’s no other explanation for his betrayal of the American people, there’s no other explanation for his disgraceful conduct on that committee, there’s no other explanation for his refusal to support a public option.  The insurance industry has been spending more than a million dollars each and every day to kill the public option. Conrad’s committee killed it for them.  Not only did they kill it, they told the media they are very pleased with themselves.

Nothing Conrad has said, is saying, or ever will say can excuse what he has done.  In a democracy, the voices of the people are supposed to be heard.  But our voices aren’t heard, only the voices of K Street lobbyists are heard.  Corporate interests control the Republican Party, they control far too many Democrats, they control Kent Conrad.  

No one has done more talking about health care reform lately than Conrad, but talk is cheap.  It’s actions that matter, and his actions confirm in no uncertain terms that he cannot be respected, he cannot be trusted, he cannot be believed.

When he returns to North Dakota, tell him that, tell him power corrupts, tell him he’s walking, talking proof if it.            

We live in a nation being held hostage by corporate greed, corporate fraud, corporate control of Congress.  The corporate media calls this system capitalism, they call it the free market system, they call it everything but what it is.  But progressives call it what it is.  Someone has to.  Someone has to tell the truth about this corporate crime rampage that’s inflicting so much suffering across this country, that’s shattered our economy and is ripping America’s future away.    

You’re good enough to write an LTE, you’re smart enough to write an LTE, and doggone it, Al Franken is going to kick your ass if you don’t.  

I wrote seven LTE’s last September and October for Obama, Franken,  and Democratic candidates. The newspapers they were published in had a combined circulation of 100,000 in eastern North Dakota and northern Minnesota.  It’s impossible to know how many people read those letters, it’s impossible to determine what impact they had, but Al Franken only won his Senate seat by 300 votes. I don’t know if my LTE’s helped get him elected, but I know damn well he isn’t in the Senate because of my five years of blogging.