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| Common Dreams flags a too common nightmare. A bought politician. |
A bought career politician, but I repeat myself. Bought and career in the context are conjoined adjectives; think Orrin Hatch, the Clintons, and I'd put Biden there with Bernie an exception. Admittedly Bernie and others - a distinct minority.
Common Dreams in the item then fleshes out the Feinstein reasoning:
Bucking growing momentum in support of a national single-payer system, as well as a trailblazing effort within her home state, Feinstein told San Francisco voters during a town hall earlier this month: "If single-payer healthcare is going to mean the complete takeover by the government of all healthcare, I am not there."
As Common Dreams reported, her remarks were met with boos and chants of "single-payer now!"
At a second town hall a few days later, when asked if she would sponsor Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) pending Medicare-for-All bill, she dismissed the effort as "a takeover of all medicine in the United States."
[... L]ess than a week after those raucous meetings, Feinstein attended "a fundraising event at the Washington, D.C., office of Avenue Solutions, a lobbying firm that represents major health insurers, pharmaceutical companies and the primary trade association for doctors."
According to reporter Andrew Perez, "Feinstein supporters at the event were expected to kick in $1,000 to $5,000 for her re-election bid." Meaning that Feinstein, who is running for her fifth full Senate term, pocketed thousands from industry groups historically and vocally opposed to a government-run, universal healthcare system—at the same time that a popular push for such a program has never been stronger.
A Republican, one honestly so, could not have stated the knee-jerk phony talking point any better, nor taken the money any better. If they'd have handed over cash she'd probably have stopped there in her tracks and counted it. Feinstein is experienced. [several links are omitted that are in the original text - interested readers should check the original]
Common Dreams then reports polling saying what we all already know, then expands on the Feinstein money suck, with the name Daschle showing up, a bought career politician before his mid-life crisis pushed him to his second career lobbying for Blue Cross-Blue Shield. The polling info:
Last month, an Economist/You Gov poll (pdf) found that 61 percent of Americans say they support "creating a federally funded health insurance system that covered every American." At the same time, legislation to create such a program has reached a record 104 co-sponsors in the U.S. House.
Corporate Dem suck-ups and/or money takers such as Feinstein, Cory Booker, that batch are out of tune with their party grassroots, per this image from the poll cited/linked by Common Dreams:
The survey is 175 pages long, in covering multiple issues and locales; and this page is among others suggesting riffs on Obamacare as well as semi-helpful changes [buying drugs outside of the rigged US market, saving a place for insurance leeches, etc.] but this is the page that reads the grassroots' best option and the grassroots know. Despite all the lying they've gotten and despite impediments such as Booker, Feinstein, the Clintons, Pelosi, Daschle, Paul Ryan, Mike Pence, Mitch McConnell and all the other unprincipled grifters and thieves; despite them all, folks know what's not Shinola.
Readers are urged to download and page through the pdf item.
BUT MUCK THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY STABLE as the long term answer. Bubba and spouse gotta go; yesterday's fish. Feinstein is proving herself ripe too.