Kucinich: the public option is dead, always was.

By Steve Hynd

My old pal Michael tedesco, founder of the Comments From Left Field blog, was involved in a conference call Tuesday between Rep. Dennis Kucinish and the Canadian membership of Democrats Abroad. What he heard on that call may shock you, or it might not. Kucinich was adamant that the Blue Dogs were doing exactly what the White House and health insurance industries wanted, that the so-called Public Option was always a red herring, and that it would be perhaps 8-10 years before the U.S. would have anything resembling single-payer.

Michael writes today:

In answer after answer to each question posed by the group he hammered home two distinct messages. 1) In this congress the public option is dead and 2) a public option will eventually prevail but it will be a decade long struggle.

When questioned about whether the blue-dog Democrats were in effect siding with the Republicans and/or the health care industry Kucinich said,

�It�s my opinion that the blue dogs are doing exactly what the white house wants them to do. The public option was a trial balloon. I can not stress how cynical and brutal the politics are. This is not about the public option. Anyone looking for the public option needs to look someplace else. It is not going to happen and anybody who says it is is in fantasy land.�

When asked about what can be done for American health care reform Kucinich took the position of  man with a deeper understanding of the true struggle,

�We have to take a long term perspective on this. 8-10 years down the road. This is a civil rights movement we have here. I think we are going to have single payer in the states one day. Unfortunately there are going to be many people who get sick, go broke and die before we get there.�

What Kucinich was doing was resetting expectations and delivering a hard message to the majority of Americans that support a public option today.

He was saying do not expect a public option any time soon. Whatever might get through this congress masquerading as a public option will not be worth much. And if a public option is ever to pass on a national level it will likely come only after a groundswell of grassroots effort. Reset your clocks for a long term fight.

Kucinich also charged that �In 2000 I tried to bring a bill and was asked by the head of the Gore campaign not to bring it because of the funding they were receiving [from the health care industry]."