countdowntohealthcare.com

Right now people around the country are debating what impact the Massachusetts Senate race – which has turned Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat over to Republican Scott Brown – will have on the health care bill.

For many of us who were already frustrated with direction of this effort, there can be no doubt that this result is a major setback.

What went wrong?

We lost sight of our values.  We forgot that the target of our efforts should not have been Senators Joe Lieberman, Olympia Snowe, or Ben Nelson.   Our target should be the middle class and those struggling to make it there.

It was we Democrats who created Medicare with its high quality and low administrative costs.  And – as you know because you led the way – the public option won the support of millions of Americans and was included in first major healthcare bill to pass the House in nearly half a century.

Let’s take a step back and then charge forward based on our values.  The important numbers aren’t 60 or 59 Senate seats.  They are the 39 million Americans with no insurance.  They are the 44 years of Medicare success.  And they are the 96 percent approval ratings for Medicare among the seniors who use the program every day.

Those are the numbers we should care about.  Those are the numbers we should focus on.

We’ve tried the “any deal is a good deal” approach.  Now it’s clear the American people want us to fight for them and their future.

Anthony