And so the HCR debate continues… Those of you following this closely are aware of Firedoglake's Jane Hamsher's campaign to prevent the passage of the Senate version of the bill in it's current form, which Bernie Sanders has agreed to support.
Anyways, our own Odum has teamed up with Jane to get a petition going to put some pressure on Bernie. The petition can be found here.
Go below the jump for the complete email letter that went out today.
UPDATE FROM odum: Some serious Bernie pushback today. Guess we're hittin' a nerve.
Sign our petition to Bernie Sanders “If you're going after progressive votes, you better cast a tough one in the Senate first.” Sign our petition and tell Bernie Sanders to kill the Senate bill. The Senate is trying to force a dangerous health care bill to passage by Christmas. Some of our strongest allies — statesmen who touted the progressive line aggressively at first — have definitively turned their backs on us. Bernie Sanders is the latest “progressive” to fall in line as a supporter. It's ironic, since he's always been identified as left-of-Dean. It's no surprise, then, that Vermonters who know this may wonder: why is Sanders' one-time “centrist” foil Howard Dean now more progressive than he is? Join us in bringing the voices of Vermont to Bernie Sanders: You were elected based on your progressive values. Kill the Senate bill.
Just last week, we watched Bernie Sanders shout from the Senate floor, slamming his fist on the podium, demanding real and comprehensive reform for all Americans. He stood before the chamber in support of helping Americans currently enmeshed in the crisis of our disintegrating health care system. He stood in opposition to the Senate bill in its current form. Now he supports the very same bill, thereby supporting the annihilation of choice for the citizens of this country. He now supports the insurance industry by supporting the anti-choice individual mandate that requires all Americans to purchase private plans or face IRS penalties.
Dean knows this is dangerous. Sanders, a true “progressive,” should too. Sign our petition to Bernie Sanders: If you're going after progressive votes, you better cast the toughest ones in the Senate first.
Thanks for all you do. Jane Hamsher John Odum FDL Action PAC/Green Mountain Daily
Thx for working with FDL to put pressure on Bernie to do what he, and perhaps he alone, can and should do: push back against the bill to the point of making it fail. For people who are represented by Conrad, Nelson or some other ultra-conservative Democrat it would be a bit of a stretch to expect anything more than we’ve seen: the sellout of Democratic values even before the negotiations started. But for those of us fortunate enough to be represented by Bernie, we have every reason to expect more. He’s not beholden to Harry Reid, he’s a “self-declared socialist” and claims to represent a particular set of values of compassion and concern that are uniquely at stake in this debate.
I wrote to Bernie a few days ago (back when he along with Gov. Dean was voicing serious skepticism about the bill) imploring him to stand firm and vote against the bill. I got his standard form letter back, but now that we’re petitioning him en masse and insisting that he walk the walk I’d be very curious to see what he has to say for himself. I fail to see what he’s got to loose here: the GOP, the Blue Dogs and all the Villagers all think he’s a looney lefty from Vermont; they’re not going to respect him any more for “doing the right thing”. But we’re his constituents, and we will respect him a whole lot less (as in: not at all) if he caves and suddenly decides this pile of shit really smells like roses after all.
The Senate bill also reinstates the tax imposed by the IRS on the partner’s share of a healthcare premium paid by a business. It’s calculated as “imputed income” to the spouse whose employer provides benefits to same-sex partners.
One more reason the Senate bill stinks.
NanuqFC
Men are not governed by justice, but by law or persuasion. When they refuse to be governed by law or persuasion, they have to be governed by force or fraud, or both. ~ George Bernard Shaw
Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder. ~ George Washington
I want to immigrate to Canada. I, too, wrote Bernie about the health bill, but he seems to be going to sign it anyway as the about the only attempt at reform that we shall see in this lifetime — unless Vermont’s move toward single-payer can sway the nation, or parts of it, to go along with it. if we can get the legislature to do this, Vermont will have to lead the way once again.
that the person who wrote that update you linked to was barely comprehensible. I got to the bottom of it and still wasn’t sure what the hell he was talking about.
(Welch hasn’t given up on public option, Barre/Montpelier Times Argus, 12/23/09)