I support Harry Reid, but he needs to support the public option

I just got an email from Firedog Lake, encouraging Nevadans to call their neighbors and ask them to contact Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s office, telling hime to stand up and stand strong for including a robust public option in the Senate’s health insurance reform bill.

Then earlier today, when I should have been working, I happened to glance at The Las Vegas Gleaner. Sigh. It was all too true. Harry Reid is perceived, perhaps rightfully so, by far too many Nevadans as Mr. Nice Guy. I know that I’ve anguished over the same nagging doubts. The polls do indicate that he tries too hard to build consensus and make nice while the other side has absolutely no intention of returning the ‘favor’.

Amid all the varying measures by pollsters, it’s all too clear that Nevadans are not sure whether Harry Reid is their guy on the tough issues and not just the guy who brings home the bacon - sorely needed these days - of jobs, jobs and more stimulus money.

We’re gonna need two or three of those jobs when our health insurance fails us, Senator.

And, fail it still could. Furthermore, we’d only have ourselves to blame for not holding our elected representatives feet to the fire.

According to The Huffington Post:

“Among the well informed, it was relayed that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was looking at whether he could pass a public option with an opt-out clause for states in the final Senate package. Reid would then work to make sure that a more robust, national public plan (which he himself favors) would be included in health care reform once the Senate’s bill was merged with the House’s version.

“The goal is to have the strongest possible bargaining position as possible,” said one progressive health care strategist who has worked with leadership in Congress and the White House. “The opt-out option is the best of all the compromises and it puts Reid in decent position going into the conference committee.”

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/22/chess-match-reid-working_n_330638.html

Opt-out option my ass. The only ones I see able to opt out are the insurance companies when they don’t feel like insuring somebody who might cost them a dime. The opt-out option is pure chicken shit politics. If it’s a chess play then it had damn well better win, because there’ll be hell to pay.

Yes, there are a lot of balls in the air right now, but the only one that had better hit the ground and roll is the public option. Progressive Democrats are not going to accept less, and keep Senator Reid as Majority Leader.

It’s just that important.

Last night, we went out for a joint birthday celebration with some friends and I literally couldn’t believe what I was hearing about how Medicare was going to be taken away yada, yada. The misinformation machine - financed by lobbyists from the insurance industry - is working overtime. They are reportedly spending in excess of seven million dollars a day now to make sure that you don’t get real reform, and they can continue sucking the American public dry as a monopoly.

Outrageous!

I know that Senator Reid is made of tough stuff, but now is the time to show it … unambiguously, without doubt, without reservation. It’s what Nevadans want, and what America needs.

“The numbers say it all,” said PCCC’s Adam Green. “If Harry Reid starts acting like a strong leader and passes the public option, he solidifies his standing with Democrats and Independents and has a chance to survive 2010. If he continues to be weak — refusing to unify the Democratic Caucus behind an up-or-down vote and allowing the public option to be watered down to nothing — Democratic senators will likely be looking for a new Majority Leader in 2011.” from The Las Vegas Gleaner

Tell us which side of the fence you’re going to be on, Senator Reid: ours or the insurance industry? Are you committed to us or political brinksmanship?

Quit playing to the center, Senator. It’s time to fish or cut bait.

maven

P.S. - I’d love to be able to tell Sen. Olympia Snowe what she can do with herself … since she’s so publically adamant about not supporting a public option.