Salon's Joe Conason : Ted Kennedy Wanted the Public Option

[flpoljunkie]

Forty years ago he began the quest for universal healthcare that became the cause of his life when he introduced his first bill outlining that goal. His final bequest to the Senate is the Affordable Health Choices Act, his version of the Obama administration's reform proposals, which was passed by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee last month. Republicans now say that if Kennedy had not been forced by illness to relinquish the chairmanship of that committee, he would have negotiated away the strongest provisions of that bill to win passage.

Kennedy's Republican friends should not make that disingenuous argument in his lamented absence. Lest there be any doubt about what he truly wanted, his bill includes a robust public option along with all the insurance reforms and cost controls that the president has endorsed since this process began.

How would he have handled the intransigence and dishonesty of the Republican opposition? We know that he could shout as well as whisper — and that he could be partisan as well as bipartisan. He believed that the time for incremental changes had passed. He was ready to fight. The tragedy of his death is not only that he didn't see the triumph he had dreamed, but that he fell before he could lead the nation to that final victory. Now that victory will have to be won in his name.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2009/08/28/kennedy/print.html

[Oregone]

1. Ted Kennedy wanted single-payer

[mikelgb]

2. Yep

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x76793

[flpoljunkie]

3. Yes, both Kennedy and Sanders supported single payer, but both realized it was impossible.

Senator Sanders has said on several occasions that Kennedy's HELP bill has a strong public option. If it's good enough for Bernie Sanders, and, of course, Ted Kennedy, it's good enough for me.

[Oregone]

4. Impossible?

With a constituency filled with naysayers like yourself, who prefer to start bargaining from a losing position, well maybe.


BTW, the Republicans rammed through a bill that mandated anal probes for anyone without a pure white complexion who wanted to travel by air. Impossible? I kid you not.

[flpoljunkie]

6. What planet do you live on?

[slipslidingaway]

7. As Waxman has stated he now follows the lead of President Obama...

even though he supported single-payer in the past.

:(

[slipslidingaway]

9. Video of Waxman, now supports the President's plan....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=336207&mesg_id=336207

[jannyk]

5. One more time - the Public Option WAS the compromise. Ted

ALWAYS wanted, and fought for, Universal Health Care!

[flpoljunkie]

8. Yes, and he died wanting universal health care and a strong public option.

[kath]

10. +1

[Jakes Progress]

11. "He believed that the time for incremental changes had passed. He was ready to fight."

That's how you say it. You don't equivocate and hem and haw and suggest he was always open for some kind of cave in. This was the fight he believed in. This is the fight we do in his name.

Ted Kennedy would not settle this time. This time it is ours.

[Oregone]

12. Its a tad disgusting how people are trying to pin his name on this cave-in

His body wasn't cold before his name became the new rallying cry for this and that. Its actually quite disgusting, especially when people use him to undermine anyone to their left who demands more from the Democratic party.

[Jakes Progress]

13. It seems that being left is no longer

a good thing to many at DU.

[Hansel]

14. Does anyone really believe that Teddy hasn't left something with Obama

or his wife Vicky making it very clear what he wanted?

I think that the Republican's are in dangerous territory trying to speak for Teddy, because he might be about to bite them in the ass from the grave. After all, he did get the last word in at his funeral on the subject from the Pope no less. I would think he would be prepared for Hatch and McCain trying to speak for him as well. He knows them pretty well.

I hope he recorded something with him laughing and saying "you guys are so predictable. I knew you were going to pull this. That's why I recorded this message."

A girl can dream can't she?

[Cha]

15. Thank you, Joe Conason! And, it will make those

who will pass what Teddy wanted, in his name ..feel exceptionally Good!

[dflprincess]

16. Every mention of the subject at his funeral and burial

talked about everyone having "access to health care" - nothing was said of only having access to health insurance.

That's all the public option is - and it won't be an option available to most of us for years. And, with its high out of pockets (at least in HR3200), it's pretty crappy insurance that will still keep people from having access to care.