March 17, 2010--"Everything Needs A Start"

At his appearance in Stongsville, Ohio on Monday, President Obama attempted to personalize the final stages of the heath care reform debate.

He told the town hall audience a story about one of their neighbors, Natoma Canfield. She couldn't be there, he said, to introduce him because she was in the Cleveland Clinic undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatment for leukemia. She is a waitress and until recently paid for her own health insurance. Since she had another form of cancer 15 years ago, she could only get insurance with a high out-of-pocket premium--she had to pay the first $4,000 of any treatment--and that the annual cost of her policy was more than $10,000. She was lucky to be able to buy any insurance at all. But as the fees went up and up, she was increasingly unable to pay for coverage. Just a few months ago things got so bad for her that she cancelled the policy. And then just days after that was diagnosed with leukemia. Unbelievable.

So now she is undergoing at least a month of treatment and does not know how she will be able to pay her hospital bills. Her only substantial asset is her house. It was her parents' home. They literally built it.

(See linked New York Times story for a report about the rally in Ohio.)

Over the past year, Obama and others have told many stories of this kind. His own mother died of cancer, unable to pay her bills. But somehow Natoma Canfield's story stood out, moved Obama, and he worked it into one of his final speeches before the impending vote in the House and then the Senate.

But Natoma's story not only is failing to move every single Republican in Congress, but some key Democrats as well. Not the so-called Blue Dogs who are worried about costs or those who are obsessed about abortions, but a few so-called progressives both in and outside Congress

Dennis Kucinich and Michael Moore, for example, both of whom have declared that the current version of the health care reform bill is so flawed--essentially because it does not include a public option or, for Kucinich, it doesn't expand Medicare to cover everyone--that to them it is such a bad bill that they are hoping it doesn't become law.

Here's my question to them and those on the extreme left who agree with their kill-the-bill views--Why are so many white, well-off people like you telling the rest of us that the current health care legislation deserves to be defeated? Why are so few liberals calling you out for advocating a strategy that is clearly racist and classist in its effect on working people?

When told about this opposition, from her hospital bed, Natoma Canfield spoke just four words, and they were more insightful and eloquent than the thousands we've heard from the Dennis Kucinich's of the world. She said, "Everything needs a start." A start like getting 31 million people more covered.

To Kucinich and his ilk, unless everyone is covered beginning this summer the bill is not worth passing. And since it doesn't have a public option, and thus will lead to more profits for insurance companies and medical professionals, it should be resisted. To them it's better to leave the 31 million uncovered for the foreseeable future than to assent to something less than what they see to be perfect.

And further to Kucinich and Moore I say--Easy for you to play these games with people's live--literally their lives--while you live your own comfortable lives of self-proclaimed virtue. And, I ask you, don't you even know your legislative history? You who posture as all-seeing and all-knowing. Have you forgotten that the Social Security legislation that was originally passed in 1935 has been amended many, many times by Congress in attempts to improve it? In the 1950s, 60s, 70s, and 80s. Have you forgotten, if you ever knew, that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was amended the following year so as to assure that people's voting rights were protected? And closer to home, have you forgotten Congressman Kusinich that your favorite, Medicare, which was first passed by Congress in 1965 and signed into law by Lyndon Johnson, has also been amended numerous times? And in that way it has been made better? In the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. Including by your own votes Congressman.

Natoma Canfiled may not have your fancy education, your comfortable life, or your seat in Congress (or have won an Academy Award), but she knows more about how things really work than either of you, Michael Moore and Mr. Kusinich. That's what she meant when she said, "Everything needs a start."

If you had any smarts at all to go with your ego and ambition, you would know as she does that if you were to help get this friggin bill passed as it is emerging it will be a start. Just that. And that you will be able to revisit it over the years and thereby hopefully improve it.

Actually, I have a better idea. Let's not leave it to Dennis Kusinich to work on improving this bill. Let's get Natoma Canfiled healed, get her out of the hospital, and then let's help her run for Congress. She lives in Dennis Kucinich's district. Perfect. Let's help her raise the money to defeat him. He's been there too long and is too much in love with himself to any longer understand or feel the needs of "average" people.

Considering the mood the country is in, this is a real possibility. And after electing Natoma Canfield we'll have one smart waitress in Congress representing real people in place of that stuffed shirt from Cleveland.

(End note--Reports are circulating that Dennis Kucinich is having second thoughts and may "hold his nose" and vote for the bill. He has a press conference scheduled for later today. Maybe he is feeling the heat from President Obama. More likely, he doesn't want to face someone such as Natoma Canfield in a primary battle. Above all else, including principle, he loves being in Congress. And the spotlight. But, in the meantime, I'll take his vote.)