Obama "Will Do Almost Anything" for a Health Reform Bill

Everybody's assuming - probably correctly - that by "almost anything" the White House means dumping the public option, de-regulating the drug industry and handing trillions to the health insurance giants.

In other words, caving to the repug forces of hate, lies and evil.

But if Obama's going to make radical concessions to get a health care bill, why not make them in the opposite direction? Considering that he's not going to get a single repug vote as long as he's president no matter how much he deforms good legislation, why not use this opportunity to show Rahm who's boss and shove a giant, barbed, red-hot poker of a real reform bill right up the antis' ass?

Here are a few "almost anything"s the president might consider doing to get genuine health care reform:

• Inform every Democratic member of Congress and the Blue Dogs that failing to vote for a strong public option will trigger an immediate and permanent ban on them receiving a single dime in campaign funds from the Democratic National Committee, plus any and all other funding entities the president can influence. The president will also launch an immediate search for genuine liberals in each traitor's district/state to primary the traitors. The liberal challengers will receive boatloads of cash from the DNC, plus the president's own full-throated support in the primary and the general election.

• Inform every repug member of Congress that if they open their fucking pie holes and utter one more lie about the public option bill, the president will reject the bill in total and throw the full weight of his administration behind single-payer. He doesn't need their fucking votes, he doesn't want their fucking votes. This is a Democratic initiative and they can't have a single tiny piece of it.

• For pity's sake, start calling the motherfucking liars out for lying about fucking their mothers
  

If the president still needs a compelling reason to hand the repugs and antis a huge, crushing defeat on health care reform, how about because failing to pass strong legislation in the face of violent protest will cause that violence to explode.

Think about it: a tiny fraction of people, toting guns and screaming lies, could think they succeeded in stopping legislation demanded by 78 percent of this nation's citizens. It doesn't matter that they're dead wrong about everything; it doesn't matter that they themselves would benefit most from the legislation they are dead-set on stopping; it doesn't matter that the real reasons the legislation fails has nothing to do with their crazed protests.

They will believe that they succeeded. And with that victory under their belts, they will believe that if they just put ammunition in the guns and started firing, they could accomplish much, much more.

We have to have strong reform if only to drive home the lesson that violent protest cannot win.

Cross-posted at They Gave Us A Republic ....