In their "Pledge to America" that the Congressional Republicans released last week to tepid response from their own base, and vociferous rejection from their far right wing, they say that they included ideas that America wants, polled from the tax payer funded website they set up "America Speaking Out" (link here). What they DIDN'T mention, but the Daily Show and Colbert DID, was that the number one idea that was most popular on the site was the legalization of marijuana. Other very popular ideas, that millions of Americans endorsed were: (links here and here and here)
- abolishing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
- divorcing from the Religious Right
- not kowtowing to the NRA and,
- denouncing Palin/Beck/Limbaugh.
...but of course, none of these centrist, popular "American Ideas" were included in the "pledge". They don't fit the Republican platform of fear for all and tax cuts for the rich - doing exactly what they've been trying to do for the last 30 years.
Instead, the "pledge" included all the good parts of the evil "Obamacare" like
- keeping children on health insurance until they are 26
- no lifetime maximum limits on what an insurer will pay
- closing the donut hole in medicare Rxs
- no denial of coverage
- no rescission, once you get sick, you can't be dropped
- being able to purchase insurance across state lines (which is IN the Obama plan, but is left to the individual States to decide)
These are, of course, all things that the far right wing libertarians are against, in their "I got mine, screw you" paradigm.
That's what happens when you open up the floodgates to your "constituents"...they actually tell you things, the rest of the world sees it, and can hold you to account. That's how my company manages products and prioritizes features:
ReplyDeletehttp://sites.force.com/ideaexchange/ideaHome?c=09a30000000D9xt
"...and it echoes, with the sounds, of salesmen... of salesmen!" =)
ReplyDelete