Health Care Tide Turning - OR - Don't Mess With The Astroturf

Ms. Pelosi was kind enough to point out that in her learned opinion, the "grassroots" movement against socialized medicine (let's just call it what it really is) is really just "astroturf" (you know ... fake grass.) In other words, we're just a bunch of phonies.

Since she uttered that pearl of wisdom, the action by voters has increased dramatically and there now are significant indicators that the tide is indeed turning.

First, the White House is backing down on the "public option", meaning that in order to reach a compromise bill, they are willing to discuss a bill where there is not a government run plan to "compete" with the private sector health care companies. I always thought this was an interesting concept, since the government will find it very easy to compete. After all, they don't need to show a profit and if they loose money, no problem! Just raise taxes. Try doing this in a private business. Yes, I know that if socialized medicine passes, the politicians will immediately try to get the public option inserted, but the significance here is that a dictatorial administration is now looking to compromise. Pressure does indeed work.

Second, our pals at Rasmussen (they survey likely voters only) shows that a whopping 54% of voters believe that passing no healthcare "reform" is better than passing the bill that's currently pending in congress.

Third, the White House has stopped flag@whitehouse.gov. You may recognize this as the site set up by the administration so that people could "rat" on their fellow citizens for spreading "fishy" (their word, not mine) information about healthcare. In other words, if your neighbor says something you don't like, just let us know and we'll handle it. In pre-war Germany, the government used to reward kids for reporting their parents for "fishy" conduct.

None of this means that the we've won anything, but it does mean we're making progress. Keep up the pressure by going to the town hall meetings, by contacting your representatives and by encouraging others to do the same.