I’ve said it before and I will say it again. There are legitimate issues with health care reform, and I know people on both sides of the political spectrum who oppose this bill for rational reasons. Almost none of them are politicians. That’s why you get things like this from Rep. Grijalva:
“As I weigh it, I think — for me — a ‘no’ vote is something that I continue to lean toward,” Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., the co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told Salon in a brief interview off the House floor Wednesday. “Especially the last additions — that was kind of a slap in the face for all of us who fought for the public option.”
Those provisions he’s referring to are the “Republican ideas” that President Obama has incorporated in order to placate those who oppose the bill.
Look, I’d have no issue with Re. Grijalva if he said that he thought that those provisions made the bill worse, or if he had policy objections to them. But to oppose the bill because you think you haven’t been wooed as much as others?
You know who else has been slapped in the face throughout this process? Me – and every other supporter of single payer health insurance. We were told to give it up, for nothing in return. We were told it wasn’t politically feasible, that it couldn’t be done. We were told to get on the “public option” bandwagon instead. Some did and some did not. But I find it the height of hypocrisy for those same people who told single payers to suck it up are now acting as if doing the same is the greatest possible insult.
Real people are at stake here, politicians. I have no problem with you representing your constituents and their interests. Please don’t make this about you, and especially not about your “feelings”.
