Bill Moyers: Mr. President, We Need a Fighter

The special comment in the above video was aired on Bill Moyers Journal last night. (You can read the text here.)

Bottom line: Mr. President and Democratic members of Congress -- wake up and supply some fight and real leadership in the health care reform debate. Repub Senator Olympia Snowe is probably one of the one or two thinking beings in America who thinks a "triggered" public option would be effective. Even the terminology is rank. Trigger this.

I find it profoundly hypocritical for the Blue Dog Dems to be leading the charge against a strong public option given their supposed dedication to cost savings. The public option is perhaps our most effective tool to hold down insurance premiums for ordinary people. Why would so-called "fiscal conservatives" be against it? I'm sure the millions of dollars of "campaign donations" they've accepted from the health care industry have nothing to do with it.

We need the President and others to start applying the pressure on the disloyal Dems who make up the Blue Dog coalition to get into line or else on this signature issue of the Democratic Party for many decades. Hey Mr. Prez -- it's time to stop harassing the LOYAL Democrats in the Progressive, Black, Hispanic and Asian-American Caucuses and start THANKING them for their hard work on behalf of the agenda you SAID you supported when you ran. Enough is enough.

I urge you to express yourself about these issues at the White House feedback site. I don't know if Obama is still listening to the voters who got him elected, but it's worth a try.

PS: Recent polling shows widespread support for the public option and a readiness to vote against Dems who don't get with the program. In other words, progressives in Congress are in tune with mainstream America, not the Blue Dogs.