The return of the $3 million man

In case anyone thought that Joe Lieberman had become irrelevant, think again. Unfortunately, it’s the Democrats themselves who keep him relevant. In spite of the fact that this modern-day Benedict Arnold has stabbed his former party in the back numerous times (let’s try supporting McCain-Palin for a start), they continue to insist he should caucus with them. They also continue to let him keep his Homeland Security chairmanship, in spite of the fact the only thing he has investigated in this capacity is how many “czars” President Obama has. I guess investigating warrantless wiretapping and the assault on our civil rights isn’t that important. Apparently, neither is health care, at least not to the politicians. The haven’t got a care in the world since we taxpayers foot the bill.

Last week, Joe Lieberman may have put the nail in the coffin of the public option, a public option that had already pretty much been watered down by allowing the states to “opt out” of the plan. If we leave it up to Lieberman, there won’t even be an up or down vote on health care reform. He has decided to join the GOP filibuster. Here is Lieberman’s twisted logic:

“We’re trying to do too much at once. To put this government-created insurance company on top of everything else is just asking for trouble for the taxpayers, for the premium payers and for the national debt. I don’t think we need it now.”

Hell no, Joe doesn’t need health care reform. Not only is his health care (the best you can get, by the way) paid for by the American taxpayers and is granted to him for life, but he has taken $2,395,369 from the health care industry and $1,033,402 from the insurance industry over the course of his career. He sure doesn’t need health care reform. In fact, that wouldn’t work out for him. Joe LIEberman also says that there is no support for the public option. That’s not a case of being wrong. That’s an outright lie. Recent polls show strong support for the public option, and surprisingly strong support among Independents.

Let’s take a look at Joe LIEberman’s comments in detail. The notion that any of these slugs we elected are trying to do “too much at once” is laughable. God forbid they do their jobs. It seems they’ve forgotten that the American public voted for change. They wanted things to happen. Americans were sick of the status quo. Now, we have a potential health care plan that requires Americans to get coverage without giving them any real options. Joe LIEberman is the status quo. There’s no getting away from that. Let’s not forget that Connecticut is the insurance capital of the nation and that Joe LIEberman is protecting his interests. Max Bacchus and the POTUS may run ahead of LIEberman in donations from the health care and insurance industries, but not by a hell of a lot. This guy is scum in a suit, and he’s proud of it.

Now, let’s address the dismal state of the economy and the national debt. All of a sudden, it seems that LIEberman and his GOP counterparts are concerned about fiscal responsibility. Funny, isn’t it? They’ve not given a damn for the longest time. They’ve voted to continue to fund these two useless, pointless and immoral wars to the tune of $12 billion per month. Think about that. While we’re at it, let’s also take a look at the Wall Street bail out. We’ve had a lot of cheap talk on that one, but the fact is that the taxpayers have given these money grabbers billions of dollars in bail-out funds and they continue to get their huge salaries and perks. Now, can we seriously point to health care reform as a danger to the national debt? Can we seriously point to health care reform as something that will burden the taxpayers? Actually, real health care reform would help the taxpayers. Of course, you have to understand that I’m not talking about the top 1% of Americans, who have amassed more wealth (on the backs of the middle class) than the rest of the nation combined. I’m talking about real taxpayers.

How can we improve national debt and enact health care reform so that all Americans are covered? Let’s try this: End these two money-sucking wars and stop giving Wall Street billions of dollars without regulating this playground run amok. Let’s also kill the idea about bailing out GM a third time; they haven’t earned that level of confidence. Then, let’s go back to taxing the wealthy more than everyone else. You know, the graduated income tax that existed before George W. Bush took office. While the rich scream that it is unfair, the fact is that it has always been that way, even during the Reagan era. If we do all of this, we should be able to comfortably enact real health care reform, not this sham that the beltway boys and girls are proposing. The health care reform that is being championed by the Joltin’ Joe, the GOP and the Blue Dog Dems is basically no health care reform at all. It ensures that the insurance companies never have to improve their performance, and that they retain their gluttonous profitability.

It’s tough to figure out what Senator LIEberman could do for an encore, but he has managed to let us know. He announced that he will probably support and campaign for several GOP candidates in the 2010 mid-term elections. Now, it’s true that Senator LIEberman is indeed an Independent. However, any power that he has in the Senate has been given him by the Democratic party, not by the GOP. The Democrats continue to shoot themselves in the head by showing faith in a man who has done nothing but sell them up the river since before the last election. In spite of this, only one Democratic senator has had the courage to open his mouth about LIEberman’s behavior, and that’s Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA). Everyone else has remained silent. You’ve got to wonder what it will take to wake up this Rip Van Winkel majority before it is too late.