The Bat Shit Crazy Right From Central Casting…

At the beginning of August the Senate, the Administration, and Blue Dogs in the House had a problem. On the one hand, they resolved the differences between competing corporate interests and had a pretty clear idea exactly what “Health Care Reform” would look like. On the other hand, public opinion polls show something like 70% approval for a Single Payer solution and they knew that not even a viable Public Option was likely to be included in the final legislation. Add to that the all-too-necessary Individual Mandate and it was clear some heavy lifting was going to be necessary to sell all this to the general public as a “reasonable compromise”.

And then, from out of nowhere, the BSCRFCC (Bat Shit Crazy Right from Central Casting) appeared. Suddenly individual mandates and a weak Public Option wasn’t the extreme Right of the debate. No, saving Grandma from Obamacare was now the extreme Right of the debate. Preventing a creep to Socialist Fascism (huh?) was now the extreme Right of the debate.

When the BSCRFCC first appeared, there were several reporters (including Rachael Maddow) that did a great job exposing their links to corporate PR firms. But almost all of these reporters assumed that the aim of this Astroturf effort was to kill reform just like they did in 1993. I disagree: all the members of the corporate compromise NEED reform.

* Insurance Companies need individual mandates to offset the rising costs of Baby Boomers who are old enough to need increasing health care, but too young for Medicare.

* Medical providers need to address the increasing numbers of uninsured to whom they are legally obligated to provide emergency care.

* Big Pharma needs to make their wares affordable to the increasing number of uninsured and underinsured who are forgoing their medications because of cost.

But what all the above DO NOT want is a widely available Public Option that would provide competition, pay Medicare-like reimbursement rates and negotiate for lower group prices.

The other phony part of this melodrama is the Republican refusal to support any kind of health care reform. I think that Republicans know that their open support for pro-corporate reform would be the kiss of death in terms of public acceptance of the bill. Watch: If the Progressive Caucus follows through on their threat to vote against reform that doesn’t include a viable Public Option, just enough Republican votes will appear to push it over the top.

One last thought: It appears that the BSCRFCC was a rousing success. Indeed it seems that much more time has been devoted in the Corporate Media addressing their “concerns” than have been spent explaining the actual details of Public Option proposals. And that means that the BSCRFCC will be with us for some time to come, obscuring the debate on issue after issue.

Joy.

You say, "If the Progressive Caucus follows through on their threat to vote against reform that doesn’t include a viable Public Option, just enough Republican votes will appear to push it over the top."

I'm not convinced by that. I think they may have let loose more than they can handle -- metaphors about riding tigers and trying to put genies back into bottles come to mind -- and that it would be political suicide for any Republican to support the bill at this point.

We may yet end up getting screwed in exactly the way that the insurance and pharmaceutical companies want us to get screwed -- but a lot of unexpected things can happen between now and then. At any rate, it should be a good show.

1.) Have a completely safe seat

or

2.) Are from districts where support of Health Care Reform would be seen as a plus

But, you're right: it should be a good show.

:hi:

Seriously, I have never seen a more poor run lobbying effort than the one that was done with OFA with the resources they had.