Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) says he’s an independent.

He says he’s for single payer national health insurance.

He says he’s a socialist.

If all of that is true, why won’t Bernie Sanders fight for the American people?

The way Joseph Lieberman (I-Connecticut) fights for the insurance industry?

In fact, on health insurance, Bernie Sanders will not stand up to the Democratic leadership in the Senate.

And stand for single payer.

We saw this earlier this month, when Sanders went along with the Democrats and allowed debate to go forward on what can only be described as a bailout for the health insurance industry.

Sanders could have voted no.

And explained his principled opposition to the health insurance industry bailout bill — also known as Obamacare.

And explained why single payer was the only system that both controls costs and covers everyone.

This would have put single payer back on the table.

But no.

Sanders is not willing to stand up to Harry Reid and Barack Obama.

If you have any doubts about this, check the health care poll that Sanders has posted on his web site.

Not one question about single payer.

Why not?

If Bernie Sanders is the lead advocate for single payer in the Senate, why does he ignore single payer in his health care poll?

In fact, the people taking Bernie’s poll are on to Bernie’s game.

The poll’s first question asks:

Do you think you and your family would be better off or worse off under the health insurance reforms being considered?

As of this writing, the majority of respondents answer either worse off (611) or not much difference (905).

That’s 1516 people saying worse off or not much difference, compared to 1225 who think they would be better off under the Democratic bill.

The Democratic bills in the Senate and House are worse than nothing.

They ought to be defeated.

This is not a heavy lift.

Both Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) and Eric Massa (D-New York) are single payer advocates.

Both did the principled thing and voted against Obamacare.

We need only a handful of the 88 single payer advocates in the House to join Kucinich and Massa to tank Obama’s turkey.

Or we need just a one or two single payer advocates in the Senate — like Sanders or Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) — to pull a Lieberman for the American people.

Then we can start from scratch and drive for single payer.