After the Senate Finance Committee wrote a healthcare bill that would create windfall profits for insurers, the insurers plunged the knife into the back of the committee with a bogus report to frighten consumers on the eve of committee action. Windfall profits aren't enough for the Gilded Age lobbyists of greed. They want more! They want it all!

The president should step into the Rose Garden and denounce the tissue of lies put out by the industry and demand, and I mean demand, the inclusion of a public option in the healthcare bill.

In a sick and sad way, the insurance industry report is right, though not in the way insurers intended. The Finance Committee bill will raise premiums because it does not include the public option, and because it therefore forces consumers to buy private-sector products, punishing them if they don’t, without providing the real competition of the public option.

This bizarre act of betrayal by the insurance industry may surprise the idiot savants who believe the industry can be treated like reasonable people in a reasonable dialogue, when the truth is, healthcare costs skyrocket for a reason, which is that some people make huge excess profits from those skyrocketing costs. Those making these unjust profits will clutch and grasp them to the bitter end, they will scratch and claw, they will kick and bite, they dish out money like drunken sailors to buy and sell legislation and when all else fails, they will issue bogus reports on the eve of the committee vote.

This insurance industry report humiliates the chairman of the Finance Committee. It humiliates the president and his healthcare team. It humiliates the American people with an arrogance and contempt and greed that knows no limits and accepts no bounds.

It is time to enact the public option.

The president should fight for the public option. The Congress should pass the public option. The American people should be given the choice of the public option, and not be forced to pay overpriced premiums in the citadel of greed created by those who believe they can buy and sell legislation at will.

[Please crosspost your comments to The Hill, where this blog entry also appears.]

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About author Brent Budowsky served as Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen, responsible for commerce and intelligence matters, including one of the core drafters of the CIA Identities Law. Served as Legislative Director to Congressman Bill Alexander, then Chief Deputy Whip, House of Representatives. Currently a member of the International Advisory Council of the Intelligence Summit. Left goverment in 1990 for marketing and public affairs business including major corporate entertainment and talent management. He can be reached at Brent Budowsky served as Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen, responsible for commerce and intelligence matters, including one of the core drafters of the CIA Identities Law. Served as Legislative Director to Congressman Bill Alexander, then Chief Deputy Whip, House of Representatives. Currently a member of the International Advisory Council of the Intelligence Summit. Left goverment in 1990 for marketing and public affairs business including major corporate entertainment and talent management. He can be reached at brentbbi@webtv.net