Senator Max Baucus was the 2009 equivalent of the unconscionably recalcitrant Senators Sinema and Manchin. As the Democratic chair of the Senate Finance Committee, Baucus dithered away precious time and ultimately played a key role in the watering down of the Affordable Care Act, the centerpiece of President Obama’s first two years in office.
Obama was said to be frustrated by Baucus’s steadfast objections to single-payer health care, the senator very publicly arresting protesting physicians out of an ACA committee meeting. But Obama drew no stern lines in the sand, the Medicare-miming Public Option was stripped out, and the following year, Congress was lost to the Dems for a full decade. That was no coincidence.
The hollowing-out of the New Deal Party ran far deeper than Obama, to be sure. But as a president aligned with the corporate-friendly Clinton wing, he was, to be frank, dispositionally unable to deliver the substantial progressive change that restive voters hungered for, and might have expected from his scintillating 2008 Hope/Change campaign. But guys like Max Baucus were the banana peels littering Obama’s path.
From his V.P. perch, Biden lived that Congressional catastrophe up-close, its extensive GOP gerrymandered repercussions echoing to this day in the form of the ugly voter-suppression statehouse gambits, so he very much knows what’s at stake this time around.
And much has changed since; Biden’s politics run considerably more progressive than Obama’s, and reflecting the modern Democratic Party, even those of his former self (thank you Bernie Sanders). And in stark contrast to those much-too-meek 2009 policy strategies, he’s been very insistent on going bold, and needs to push harder still, or next year will likely present a devastating revisit of that disillusioned 2010 midterm debacle, only now we risk losing the planet as well.
Biden’s personal Sept. 30 Capitol Hill intervention gave exactly that impetus, shoring up the remarkable House Progressive Caucus revolt against an attempted vote on a “decoupled” bipartisan infrastructure bill, vitally keeping the Build Back Better budget alive to fight another day while thwarting the Democrats’ age-old predilection for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. And the president is scheduled to hit the campaign trail to bolster public support for the bill’s vibrant social safety net provisions already popular across all political sectors, presumably with an eye toward building constituent pressure against the two misguided Senate hold-outs.
But Biden’s really got to read Sinemanchin the Riot Act here; there’s too much at stake to let them Baucus this one.
MIKE WETTSTEIN Jr., Appleton, WI
Jim Sawyer’s letter, “Corporate Criminality,” in the 10/1/21 issue regarding the Northrup Grumman contract for 600 intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads left out one very crucial point.
His reminder of the statement by Gen. James Mattis warning of the “false alarm danger inherent in these weapons” didn’t go far enough.
The question needs to be asked why give such weapons to a military with the largest military budget in the world, with the most advanced technology that can’t win even protracted wars against third-world, poverty-stricken nations such as Vietnam and Afghanistan?
God help us!
GAYLE DOBBS, Murdock, Neb.
Texas Republican officials, with their privatized approach to stopping abortion in the Lone Star State, go to great lengths to protect the rights of embryos that are the size of rice grains after six weeks in their development, but Republicans show a total disregard for the rights of women in whose wombs those embryos are mandated to grow into fetuses. In 2019, ProPublica and Texas Tribune reported that at least 382 pregnant women died in Texas from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth from 2012 through 2015, according to the state Department of State Health Services. Since then, it is likely that hundreds more women have perished. State officials don’t show much concern for maternal mortality.
The state has refused to expand Medicaid to cover health care for the working poor, and about one in six Texans — over five million people — had no health insurance in 2018, almost one-sixth of all uninsured Americans. And the numbers for women are worse. Texas has the highest rate of uninsured women of reproductive age in the country; a third went without health coverage in 2018, according to a State Health Services survey. In some counties, mainly along the Mexico border, that estimate approaches 40%.
Texas Republicans are not remotely pro-life. They might be termed pro-forced-birth. But after the baby is delivered, both mother and child are on their own.
MARISA V. SANTELLA, Houston, Texas
Why is it that Republicans, conservatives and quasi-Christian legislators are so adamant about mandating that women have no freedom of choice regarding abortion and should be prohibited from getting one, under the guise of saving lives, while, at the same time, these same legislators are silent about mandating thast people get a COVID vaccine in order to also save lives, under the guise that “these people” have the freedom of choice to get vaccinated or not. Evidently to them, some people’s lives and freedoms carry more value than those of others.
MIKE EKLUND, Mercer, Wis.
Re: “Congressmember Barbara Lee, the lone vote for peace after the Sept. 11 attacks” by Amy Goodman [10/1/21 TPP]
In my opinion, the second worst tragedy of the 9/11 attacks (after the death of 3,000 Americans and the tsunami of sorrow that engulfed us) was the Islamophobic response that swept over our nation.
Even some unfortunate Sikhs (who are not Muslims) were slaughtered in a frenzy of hate here in the US, only because of their attire and dark skin.
We need to keep in mind that the wild-eyed terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center belonged to the fundamentalist Wahhabi branch of Islam, and are a small minority.
Paradoxically, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has a dismal record of human rights abuses but a strong bond of friendship with the US, is the power center of Wahhabism. In fact, Wahhabism is that nation’s state religion. And most of the 9/11 terrorists came from that brutal dictatorship.
Conversely, 90% of the one billion Muslims throughout the world belong to the peaceful Sunni branch of Islam. And they, like us, only want to mind their business, and to live in peace.
Let’s also remember that Islam, like Judaism and Christianity, is a monotheistic religion based on the Bible. It encourages justice, charity and generosity — and reveres Adam, Noah, Abraham and Moses as prophets.
And let’s never forget that many Christians here in America are not lacking in religious fanaticism and have stained our soil with the blood of their victims. They too are casualties of hatred against people about whom they know very little, or not at all.
Their only means of escape from that intractable limitation is by learning about those whom they hate. Making friends with at least one Muslim would be a good start. And if they do, a pleasant surprise awaits them.
“Most gracious are those who walk on Earth in humility, and when we address them, we say, ‘Peace’” (Islamic prayer)
DAVID QUINTERO, Monrovia, Calif.
“Kudos to the Guy Who Foresaw the Ravages of Climate Change: Too Bad He was Mocked,” by Dick Polman [10/1/21 TPP], recalls Al Gore’s repeated warnings of climatic hardships — repeatedly ignored. But Al’s dour predictions of ecological ordeals were anticipated long before his pleas were shrugged off.
According to the September/October, 2021, edition of the Saturday Evening Post, speculation at the Swedish Geological Institute in 1950 hinted at global warming as a menace. Indeed, observation of flora and fauna migration, oceanic and atmospheric changes and barometric pressure suggested stormy weather ahead.
One is reminded of the legendary prophetess, Cassandra, who couldn’t persuade anyone that her always-correct forecasts were accurate. Even after Al’s warnings have been validated, there are some still unconvinced of their clear validity.
WILLIAM DAUENHAUER, Willowick, Ohio
Thirty-eight years ago, on Oct. 23, 1983, 241 brave US Marines and sailors were murdered when a truck bomb exploded next to the military barracks in Lebanon. The Reagan administration was grossly negligent in failing to protect the servicemen, as no precautions were made, even after previous attacks by radicals had occurred.
Two days after the bombing, the US invaded Granada, overwhelming communist construction workers who were building a new airstrip on the island. Reagan gave the excuse for the invasion that American citizens at an unaccredited medical school needed to be rescued, which was news to them.
There were no consequences for the terrorists’ actions in Lebanon. All of the focus was on how Reagan saved the US from a communist invasion. During the 1984 presidential election, American voters developed amnesia about Lebanon, thanks in part to the puppet press and incompetent Democrats.
Reagan went on to serve a second term as president, during which [more than 69,000] Americans died of the AIDS virus. Reagan ignored the suffering and resisted calls for more funding for a cure of the disease. It was not politically popular to help gay men who were critically ill.
I wonder which is more responsible for the most deaths: Reagan’s handling of the AIDS epidemic, or Trump’s handling of the coronavirus crisis?
STEPHEN H. LANDUYT, Quincy, Ill.
Editor Notes: The first cases of what would become known as AIDS in the US were reported in June 1981 with five cases, including two deaths, in Los Angeles. By the time Reagan publicly uttered the word “AIDS” in 1985, over 12,000 Americans had died and the virus had begun to spread swiftly through hemophiliac populations and injection drug users. By the end of 1988, there were 82,362 cases reported and 61,816 deaths. Today, more than 1.2 million people live with AIDS in US. More than 700,000 people in the US have died of AIDS in 40 years. More than 400,000 Americans died of COVID during Trump’s final year in office and 300,000 more have died in the past year, most of whom refused COVID vaccines, with Republican officials supporting their freedom to refuse vaccines and masks.
From The Progressive Populist, November 1, 2021
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