Traitor Joe Lieberman Says To Hell With American People

[Beneath The Spin]

Senator Joe Lieberman (Independent-CT) has announced that he's prepared to side with the Republicans and filibuster healthcare reform from coming up for a vote before the U. S. Senate if it contains a public option.

He should be disgusted when he looks at himself in the mirror. He obviously he has more greed than shame.

This is the same Joe Lieberman that Democrats literally sweat blood-and- treasure for and supported in his bid for vice president in the 2000 election; the same Joe Lieberman who signed a pledge with seven Republicans and six other Democrats not to filibuster any of Bush's judicial nominations in 2005; and the very same Joe Lieberman whose Connecticut constituents polled 21 to 68%, a 47% margin, in favor of a public option.

Since a Senator cannot be recalled, the people of Connecticut should at the very least pass a resolution apologizing to the rest of America, renouncing Lieberman, and requesting that he resign.

And of course, the Democrats are through if they don't strip him of all seniority and banish him from the caucus.

Let’s take a moment to place Lieberman's treachery in perspective. Think of healthcare like buying gas. Let's say we have two gas stations right across the street from one another. At gas station "A", RepubliGas, where the average citizen is forced to buy gas; the gas is six dollars a gallon.

Not only is the price of gas high, we're forced to pay the cashier before we pump. Then after paying, if we find that there is no gas in the pump, when we go back to the cashier to get our money back, he simply points to a sign that reads, "All Sales Are Final. Purchase At Your Own Risk."

That would be fine if we had other options; but the problem with that is RepubliGas is the only gas station from where we're allowed to buy gas.

Then right across the street is DemoGas. At DemoGas the gas is only two dollars a gallon: not only that, you're guaranteed that you get the gas you pay for.

There's only one problem. DemoGas is only allowed to sell gas to the elderly, federal employees, and members of congress. So President Obama decides that's not fair. He feels that all of the people should be treated equally, so he writes legislation to that effect.

But then, Joe Lieberman and his cohorts in congress, who are being generously paid by RepubliGas, come together and indulge in all manner of political obstructionism to prevent the senate from being allowed to even vote on the matter.

Then even though the American people are shouting that it's not fair, and complain that they can't get to work, and that their children can't get to school, these so-called "representatives of the people" are completely ignoring them.

After all, they're comfortable in their lives; they're getting cheap gas for themselves; and, they're being paid well by RepubliGas just to maintain the status quo. So in short, they say: "To hell with the American people. Let them eat cake."

That's exactly what's happening with healthcare reform. So this is about more than just healthcare - it's about a system that has completely broken down. This is about a congress that we've spoiled, and allowed to give themselves so many perks and raises that they can no longer identify with the very people they're supposed to represent.

They've become a class within themselves, and have started thinking of themselves as royalty. They’ve become a group that Marie Antoinette would envy, and the very thing that our founding fathers fought hardest against.

Many of these "representatives" claim that they're worried about the cost of healthcare and they're concerned about leaving a debt on our children. But they lie.

They didn't give a wit about our children when, earlier this year, they voted themselves a $93,000 increase in, get this, "petty cash"—each. Then a month later, they gave themselves an additional $4,700 raise. They did all this while their constituents were suffering, losing homes and jobs, and the country was in the midst of the deepest recession since the Great Depression.

But now, they're willing to move Heaven and Earth to avoid giving the people who elected them affordable healthcare.

This is about much more than just healthcare. This is about maintaining the integrity of the United States as a nation "of the people, by the people and for the people."

If we let these people get away with thumbing their nose at us, after the American people have made it clear that we want robust healthcare reform, we will render ourselves completely meaningless.

During the last century, big business and the American people were a partnership. The business community hired us to manufacture their goods, and paid us a living wage that was sufficient to purchase those things that we manufactured. It was a symbiotic relationship.

They paid us well, and guaranteed a job for life; which gave us the confidence to borrow from the banks and purchase what they produced. It was perfect.

But now, in this new world economy where big business is selling their goods all over the world, and competing with countries who are paying their workers pennies a day, the American worker is no longer an asset, but a liability.

Those same American businesses that once relied on the American workers are now international in scope. So they now look upon the American worker with, our relative high wages, as an extravagance that they can do without. While they still want to sell us goods, they no longer want to pay us to produce those goods.

That’s why small businesses stepped in to fill the vacuum left by the large corporations. But the insurance industry, which became comfortable with the deep pockets of the large corporations, refused to adjust to the new reality.

That's why it’s essential that we have a public option to bring stability to skyrocketing healthcare costs under control.

It's the only way that small businesses can survive. One of the things that keep small and medium size businesses from hiring is not the wages, but their inability to maintain workers’ coverage due to the insatiable greed of the healthcare industry.

This is where the politicians come in. The insurance industry is willing to pay these politicians huge sums of money to prevent the government from reining in their greed.

Even though the politicians know that not doing something about insurance company greed is a drag on our economy, and that it’s costing the American people jobs and personal hardships, this current crop of prima donnas in office have decided to place themselves ahead of the welfare of the American people.

Yet this is the first time that a politician has been so blatant, as is the case with Joe Lieberman. He has literally told 47% of his Constituents to go to Hell. The reason he thinks that he can get away with it is because George W. Bush and Dick Cheney proved for eight solid years that the American people will let politicians get away with anything.

But if the American people ever expect to return to the standard of living that we've come to expect, we're going to have to undo that precedent here and now.

It’s incumbent upon us to network, and begin to replace every politician that gives any indication that he or she is trying to ignore the will of the people: and we should start with Lieberman. That will send a strong message to all future politicians, no matter who they are or how charming they seem to be, that in this country, it's the people who are running things.

Our failure to act on this matter will be both chilling and damning.

The fact is, if we fail to mount a forceful response to the treachery of Joe Lieberman and his cohorts, we will establish a precedent that will lead to Americans becoming the new peasants of the new world order.