Sir, having watched your statement on the current proposition I wanted to reach out. I live in Virginia, but spent most of my life in Maine. I voted for a number of Republicans in the past, I voted for Senator Collins in 1996 and again in 2002.
The current republican party seems to be in service to the rich, the Russians and the racists. To value smaller government does require this. I have probably become a Roosevelt Democrat and will rarely again vote Republican, but there should be a dynamic tension between those who wish to expand government services and oversight and those who wish to constrain it.
I'm a supervising physician in a public health clinic and I tell the clinicians and the accountants, that if either group gets everything they want, we're doing something wrong. I feel the same way about government.
If you believe that the goal of government is to serve the people, would you consider reaching out to Collins, Murkowski and a few of the others who seem like reasonable folks and forming a new party? Caucus with the Republicans, but give yourselves a chance to set a new platform?
Fixing American healthcare requires regulation and price setting, I don't think single payer would suit us as a country, but I suspect that will be where we go if the Senate passes this bill. After 10-20 years of misery for a lot of folks. All payer rate setting (including pharma), a public option in rural areas and nation wide medicaid expansion would preserve the majority of the current system intact and probably cost less. A few very rich people would make a bit less, but everyone would have more.
Respectfully,
W.W. Weaves, MD
