An Open Letter to Gov. Howard Dean

(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

I may be the hardest individual on Democratic voices right now as it pertains to how President Obama and the Democratic majority are making decisions.  I was hard on Gov. Dean in this diary.

Gov. Dean has been one of the most outspoken voices for real health care reform, so, when he stated that the current bill, minus the public option, was a “step forward”, I slammed him as tossing in the towel.

Gov. Dean has now stepped out and stated that this bill needs to be killed.

So, here is my open letter to Gov. Dean…

(cross-posted at Daily Kos sans TU status… Meteor Blades yanked mine)

Dear Gov. Dean,

Your track record and bonafides on health care reform are well known, and, well respected.  It was your remarks, where you stated:

“I judge all these plans by whether they move things forward or move things backward,” Dean said on the CBS Early Show Wednesday. “This moves things forward.”

… it was this statement that led me, and some others, to believe that you had thrown in the towel.  Obviously, that was not the case.  You have come out now and stated what many of us have said from day 1 of President Obama taking office.  Use reconciliation to pass health care.

Harry Reid, Rahm Emmuanel, and others, are pushing for something, anything, that they can call health care reform, without actually having reform in the bill that helps America.

Gov. Dean, let me be the first thousandth person to congratulate you on taking a stand.  I agree.  Kill this bill.  Start over using reconciliation.

America does not, nor need, just another law that gives money away to an industry because that industry greased some palms in Congress.  The need is great.  The moral high ground is well defined.  And, I believe that people like myself will be behind you 100%.  

This is not about killing the idea, but, merely killing a bill that was written by an industry for that industry, a bill where five or six Senators became advocates for the worst possible bill and could stall the entire Congress.  That has to end.  The idea can live on.

If we need a bill NOW, but aren’t willing to institute the bill for another FOUR YEARS, how is that bill needed NOW?  This bill can die, the process to start reconciliation can begin.  The reconciliation process can run its course, pass the Congress, be signed into law, and become in effect BEFORE the current bills four year timeline.

Gov. Dean, I thought you had given up.  You haven’t.  So, let me say thank you for speaking up for what some of us have already said; reconciliation is the only way to get a REAL reform bill.

Let’s hope SOMEBODY in the Senate is listening to you instead of President Obama and Rahm Emmuanel.  They don’t need ANY bill to save their bacon, they need a GOOD bill, because that is all that the majority of voters will accept.