Andy Stern to Congress: Forget About Labor If You Hack Up Healthcare Bill
I'd say "fear masquerading as a strategy" pretty well sums things up! Andy Stern sends a not-so-subtle signal to Congress and the administration that if they start hacking up the health care bill, they can forget about labor support in the midterms:
SEIU chief Andy Stern took a hard shot at Dem leaders just now for considering a scaled-down health care bill, strongly hinting that labor might not work as hard for Dem candidates in 2010 if they failed to deliver real and comprehensive reform.
“It’s gonna be incredibly difficult to stay focused on national politics if by the end of 2010 we have minimal health care and minimal changes on what’s important to our members,” he said in an interview, ridiculing the emerging Dem approach as “fear masquerading as a strategy.”
Stern unloaded on Dem leaders in response to reports today that they’re mulling either a scaled down bill to win GOPers or a broken up bill passed in pieces. His anger suggests Dems risk paying a big price with labor if they fail to figure out how to pass the Senate bill and fix it later, as labor wants.
Stern hinted that if House and Senate members don’t move forward with the Senate bill and some kind of fix, they could see union members spending more time on races for governor, perhaps at the expense of their reelection campaigns. “If something significant doesn’t happen in Congress, I hope the legislators appreciate that there are 37 governors races important to our members,” Stern said suggestively.
Stern ridiculed the idea that breaking up the bill would allow Dems to challenge Republicans with tit-for-tat legislative maneuvers. “It’s classic inside Washington to think that people who can’t afford insurance want to keep score between the Democrats and the Republicans,” he said. “They want to go to bed with a sense of security.”
Concluded Stern: “For the 31 million people who don’t have health care, for the 14,000 who lose it every day, for the 120 people who die every day, they elected this Congress to make change, not to set their sights lower when the going gets tough.”
but at this point "fear masquerading as strategy" doesn't explain it, as far as I can tell, this is exactly what the Dems want.
why else would they ditch single payer before they even started, even though it had massive popular support?
why else would they ditch the less hearty but still popular public option?
... especially with the new "Bribery is Free Speech" ruling of the court.
I am wondering if, since bribing a legislator is "free speech", when will bribing anyone for any reason also be "free speech". I might bribe a Safeway clerk to allow me to use the "15 Items or Less" checkout, even if my cart is overflowing with -items?
to the curb and reconcile the medicare bill to cover everyone.
kick them some more.
The medicare for everyone is easily done thru reconciliation.
Republicans are liars and simply cannot be trusted.
Third Party!
Will this president WAKE THE HELL UP and start leading?
From the prez's message this am, he's still croaking out the greatest soundbites he used during the campaign. The ones that no one- no one - listens to anymore.
He needs to take off his impeccable jacket, roll up his sleeves and, literally, get to fucking work. Keeping his hands clean and out of the fray has cost him, and us, everything.
START LEADING!!!!
are working on it. An "image" overhaul
But when we have the GOP literally voting NO on anything proposed, what exactly would YOU suggest Obama do? Any president can only do so much, and without the support of a single Republican...he's doing what he can.
Quit whining.
and safety glasses and say jobs, jobs, jobs . .
when he uses big words.
George Bush never had anywhere close to a 59 seat senate, let alone 60 seats, and he crammed his way down America's throat. The fact that Obama even gives the GOP whiners an ounce of inclusion pisses me the hell off. He needs to tell the republicans to kiss his ass and get some freaking work done that he was sent there to do.
Audacity of hope my ass, how about the responsibility of action?
BUSH and company were somewhat masterful at using fear......9-11,judging patriotism and wars to get what they wanted. it was perpetual politicization along with record amount of signing statements and filibuster.
a hands off approach to the entire healthcare debacale.
I suppose, by your reasoning, that it doesn't matter who the president is, if the other party opposes him/her, nothing will get done.
That's where leadership becomes vital. With the majorites he was given in congress, the fact that he couldn't get a viable insurance reform bill hammered out, long before the mid-terms are about to hand the dems an ass-whuppin', means that there was no single voice providing the impetus to quit the grandstanding and get the peoples work done.
As Jon Stewart pointed out: Obama still enjoys larger majorities than Bush had when he did "whatever the #$%& he wanted."
But the minority Republicans are the problem?
Who's whining?
Corruption favors the wealthy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGcn15ODltA
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
"Any president can only do so much ..." Unfortunately, Obama has yet to do ANYTHING other than spout 7th-grade Civics class platitudes about bipartisanship.
But then he chose a Republican for COS, Republicans for many very important Posts (like Finance, DOD).
He let criminal Repugs off the hook (Ted Stevens, all the Wall Street Thugs) and WILL NOT HELP Gov Siegleman! Or the whistle-blowers sent to prison!
Obama is a Republican. He made it clear his First day in office. We were conned.
poor prez
Sat, 01/23/2010 - 09:44 — kittycollins
a hands off approach to the entire healthcare debacale (sic)...
That's where leadership becomes vital. With the majorites (sic) he was given in congress, the fact that he couldn't get a viable insurance reform bill hammered out, long before the mid-terms are about to hand the dems an ass-whuppin', means that there was no single voice providing the impetus to quit the grandstanding and get the peoples work done.
____________________________________________________________________
His aloofness looks more and more like disinterest.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
My bullshit meter just went right off the scale.
Single payer! That is the minimum.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
stages of "super industrial" globalism.
Good luck with that.
...and if they actually think the GOP is going to do ANYTHING to help them out...then they should go right ahead and abandon the Democrats.
They'll get exactly what they deserve...NOTHING.
They deserve more but they won't get it from the republicans.
Now you want to abandon the unions too?
Happy November.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
exactly what he set out to do. Take a look at the figures and guess which politician/presidential candidate took almost 21 million from the health care industry, almost three times as much as his opponent.
Barack Obama never had any intention of supporting single payer or even any meaningful kind of public option.
He's our first Blue Dog president and anyone who is still clinging to the image his handlers built of him during the campaign is simply in a state of denial.
I personally have never felt so betrayed by a politician and I've been voting for almost 50 years now.
I'll second that, and I'm in the same voting span.
Bill Clinton was a Blue Dog extraordinaire.
I gave up on Obama right after FISA, that told me everything I needed to know.
So now it is case by case. One thirty minute session will not turn me into an Obamabot but I give credit when it is deserved.
Obama is supporting Volcker against the Banksters.
Volcker is one of the very few in Washington who is not corrupt and not ambitious.
And he knows exactly what he is talking about.
Volcker wanted to actually regulate the financial system and Ronald Reagan hated him.
That is a shining recommendation to me.
James Galbraith here
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Make Wall Street pay for the depression by enacting a 1% Tobin tax on all Wall Street financial transactions and turnover, including stocks, bonds, and above all financial derivatives. Claw back any remaining money of the bailout or TARP. Reimpose the Glass-Steagall law to separate commercial banking, insurance, and stock brokerage. Outlaw credit default swaps and adjustable rate mortgages. Enact a 10% federal usury law to limit interest rates on credit cards and payday loans. Stop all home foreclosures for five years or for the duration of the present economic emergency, whichever lasts longer. Seize the Federal Reserve and make it a bureau of the Treasury, passing to issue 0% federal credit for industry and agriculture, not speculation and financial services; stop federal borrowing and start federal lending. Launch a massive program of infrastructure in the spirit of the Tennessee Valley Authority, featuring 100 of the most modern type power plants, 1,000 modern hospitals, and 50,000 miles of maglev and high-speed rail, while rebuilding the entire interstate highway system in the water systems of every American city. This is the kind of program which can create 30 million new jobs over just a few years, creating full employment in this country for the first time since 1945. The only interests that need to be sacrificed in order to get out of the depression in this way are Wall Street interests, and it is time for politicians desirous of survival to begin taking the struggle to Wall Street. Otherwise, we appear to be heading for for a seizure of power by a bonapartist regime of General Petraeus and Mitt Romney, the notorious Wall Street asset stripper and hedge fund hyena who was much in evidence at the Scott Brown rally tonight.
Quoting Nike corporation?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfQLYfTy5q8
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Cities/ColchisN...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Just Blog It™
fashioned . . Besides, we can build all the new levels we want in Second Life.
Get rid of fucking Rahm
See, that's why social conservatives are against civil unions for gay couples
It says union innit.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
i'm not so sure i'm absolute/correct about this but to me people have been socially engineered especially over the last 20 years to become more individualistic.........narcissistic. to me the partnership of corporations/government seems more interested in taking away/eroding our democracy. maybe i'm being heavy i just believe corporations/big business government are not interested in democracy....."we the people"...but rather imperialism, growth,power and profit(Darwinian Capitalism). i personally, don't believe many people/demographic(s) understand that their health care insurance could be taken away and/or become less comprehensive/less affordable. now with more fear due to the ongoing economic downturn/widening gap people have become even more self- protectionists. they don't understand how this widening economic gap is/will affect them. look at the foreclosure crisis. there are those people that have lost their homes/value because their neighbor foreclosed. the pendulum needs to swing toward the "collective".
Maybe we can subsidize people to watch TV, blog, post on the internet.
Some liquidity is better then nothing.
and Israel already does that, why do trolls disappear on Fridays after 4:30?
That's when they get paid in fish heads.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
the GOP pays with fish anus' tho
Izzat like donut holes?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I send my resume?
Social Engineering 101 here
Start with the Ad and the Ego here
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
I believe the union(s) will ultimately react to what the reality is this Fall. If the Dems do pass it in a series of smaller packages,and the ultimate result is acceptable, the SEIU and others will not throw a hissy fit.
I've e-mailed Stern to not put the Dems in an impossible situation, given the new realities of post-Massachusetts. I think he's just putting pressure on the wavering Dems who don't want to do anything.
At least I hope so.
Yes, by all means, force the House to pass the Senate bill to appease the labor unions. Then the House Democrats can spend the next nine months explaining why they passed a piece of corporatist rubbish that forces 35+ million people into the maws of an insurance industry that has no cost controls or competition, but now -- once again -- has the ability to drop you for pre-existing conditions, all under the pain of fines if they refuse. They will also have to explain why they passed a bill containing anti-choice provisions, wholly inadequate subsidies, and the properly reviled "Cornhusker Kickback." They will have to explain why they passed a bill that the chairman of he DCCC has characterized as "irretrievably tarnished." And when these explanations fall flat -- and they will -- the President will, as usual, leave them twisting slowly, slowly in the wind. Good luck with that!
now just BUY their own candidates that will obey their wishes and serve their whims now? It's perfectly legal now, why not use that power? Fight fire with fire. Yes, I know, all this corruption will eventually doom us all, but I say, let's just speed things up, I grow tired of this slow painful death thing.
...since @ 1789..."a republic if you can keep it"...
"...Dems risk paying a big price with labor if they fail to figure out how to pass the Senate bill and fix it later, as labor wants."
That's kinda of what I think. However, in the interest of getting all viewpoints across, here's what U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich thinks.
http://www.youtube.com/russiatoday#p/u/9/69r5...
(About a 5 minute clip)
Our democratic congress at work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXPTrS2HHh4
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Each one of our corporate overlords can be brought to their knees by a simple (organized, I know right?) boycott. Let's start with a simple one, the airlines, duh.. Want lower prices? Nobody fly for two days! Watch the shit hit the fan! When Americans (despite our elected "representatives" ladder climbing and ass kissing) stop handing money over to these crooks and liars for a day or two they will be at our mercy instead of the other way around. Wake up America, there is no Goliath that cannot be undone.
Namely, upon passage, how difficult it will actually be to "fix" the Senate bill. I agree with him that unions are better off with the Senate bill + fixes, but successful passage of the piecemeal bills would be even better again. Given that dichotomy, and the fact that our cowardly Congress will take passage of this bill as the chance to run away from health reform for years (if not decades), I have to assume that Stern has not looked at all the likely possibilities in this legislative fight. He's been a pretty effective leader for labor, but nobody is better off with SEIU behaving like the other "veal pen" progressive groups. Andy, please reconsider; I like that you're willing to issue an ultimatum, but this is not how to push the politicians if the goal is really to improve things for your members and society at large.
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