Bobblehead Roundup: 'Isn't The Public Option Dead?'
(h/t to Heather for all videos.)
Who to believe? President Obama and some of the key Democrats are still strong on the public option, but the Sunday morning bobbleheads were all lukewarm to the idea.
Chris Wallace to Clair McCaskill this morning: "As a practical matter, isn't the public option dead?"
"I don't know," she said, and proceeded to say that the most important thing was to make insurance affordable for the people worried about whether they could buy it.
I think what she really meant was, "Anything I can do to give the illusion of being warm and caring that doesn't upset my major contributors or my Blue Dog posse in the Senate."
Meanwhile, Queen Olympia says the public option is "off the table" and couldn't pass the Senate.
"It's not on the table. It won't be. We'll be using the co-op as an option at this point as the means for injecting competition in the process," said Snowe.
I don't remember voting for a queen!
And finally, Lindsey Graham tells Chris Wallace the public option "has been dead for a long time."
I think the public option is dead. It's probably been dead a long time because the public is very afraid.
I think one thing we can say if the deficit matters, which I'm glad to hear it does, and the public option is unacceptable, then the house bill is dead, we should just throw it in the garbage can, because it's $239 billion added to the deficit.
And you know, if they're going to try foist a piece of garbage on the general public and call it a public option, well, I have to agree with Lindsey!
As long as you all understand that if you take away the public option and still try to impose a mandate, that means war - class war.
The more anger builds up the closer we get to the inevitable.
Politics is for the present, but an equation is for eternity. Albert Einstein
politicians as being mostly mindless reactionary twits these days.
is trying to protect their Corporate donors!;
WALL STREET IS BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR DOCTOR NOW.
http://investing.businessweek.com/research/st...
Wall Street Banks hold these percentages of shares in Health Insurance giants and are increasing shares by the tens of millions
United 77.32%
WellPoint 79.04%
Aetna 79.45%
CIGNA Corp. 68.71%
Coventry Health 82.25%
Health Net Inc. 79.37%
Wall Street is the enemy along with congress. Can we afford another bailout for these people and their bonus structure!
Class war has been waged for the past 30 years. By the rich against the rest of us.
There are many more of us. Let's get it on.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
end this rule by Plutocracy is Americans of every stripe . .Wing Nuts, Progressives, Liberals, etc . . lay their petty differences aside and all MARCH in unity and force on D.C.
Unfortunately the media has been successful beyond anyone's wildest expectations in pitting the masses against each other.
Consider these clips from the work of the late (d 1988) Australian sociologist Alex Carey
The first and so far only scientifically drawn study of the history of the corporate war on democracy.
CORPORATIONS AND PROPAGANDA
The Attack on Democracy
Part 1 - history through WWII
Part 2 - history after WWII
Mariah Gilardian at TUC radio (user supported) here, produced the clips.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
thanks for the clips!
there never was a serious public option to begin with.
My friends have been trying this line out, and
it stops people in their tracks!!!!!
"Christ healed the sick and NEVER asked for a dime.
When it comes to the sick, we are the last Western nation
not to follow in the footsteps of Christ."
This hits people right in the gut, end of argument.
moment of youthful foolishness he had not gotten rid of all the people who could make change.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Today, it's all about repeating an unproven statement until it finally becomes true.
his own Twitter account to be frank about it.
about his views on the Public Option on his MySpace page. Twitter does not give him the room for a nuanced opinion.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
"Today, it's all about repeating an unproven statement until it finally becomes true."
Esp. when the unproven statements have something to do with lining someone's pockets with obscene amounts of money. That's what happens when big business takes over the politicians and media.
They somwhow strayed off topic. What they meant to ask was, "Isn't the Republican Party dead?"
than have ever watched any of the Sunday talk shows.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
our government is now a corporate criminal enterprise extorting the wealth productivity of the people. And the people are so used to it and so conditioned they no longer know how to ask questions or extrapolate outcomes.
but was always terrible at extrapolosophy.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
They're already setting the nation up for another round of fleecing, imho. Obama is giving lip service to regulations again, but either he is weak and caves into corporate rats or his is indeed a corporat himself.
Politics is for the present, but an equation is for eternity. Albert Einstein
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q7XH8lfGMc&eu...
With a loud shout-out to the Socialist DC Police for protecting him.
(Note, I had to stop watching half way through as I have a low tolerance for the stoopids. Hope he isn't beaten to a bloody pulp at the end.)
in this country. Bravo!
And yet at the same time, I realize that there were tens of thousands of people protesting for the "right" to have the most expensive, inefficient and inhumane healthcare system in the industrialized world. And the justapoxition of the brave (this guy) and the stupid (the teabaggers) is a tad much to take...
ABQ Journal that is. Seems like every day on top of the front page they are trying to say it's dead, whether by quoting Sen. Bingaman, or today in which they put out a poll saying it's a "hard sell" in our state. It's almost like Rupert Murdoch owns it but even worse, a local reactionary (who really loves the Dallas Cowboys, btw).
around here? He took over Kennedy's place and says it WILL pass.
http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/09/14/harkin...
My WTF moment came reading through the detailed health plan thingy on whitehouse.gov, and thinking .. oh so that was a line in Obama's video linked here last night ...
# Immediately offers new, low-cost coverage through a national "high risk" pool to protect people with preexisting conditions from financial ruin until the new Exchange is created. For those Americans who cannot get insurance coverage today because of a pre-existing condition, the President’s plan will immediately make available coverage without a mark-up due to their health condition. This policy will offer protection against financial ruin until a wider array of choices become available in the new exchange in 2013."
It is right after the public option so that is not it. McCain's deal was fed subsidies to state pools, this is a federal level pool. Hmmm. Two stalking horses? This one harder to be against?
If they already broke ya, like they did to me, there is still Medicaid
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/09/...
-is it ONLY the insurance corporations who are lobbying and advertising against reform, or what OTHER corporations are opposed to it?
It is so very obvious that Single Payer, or a decent Public Option would be a Genormous boon for just about every business in the US, domestic and foreign, that I cannot understand why the other corporations aren't advertising for it.
Or do they prefer to have the "little people" under their control, hanging on to low paying crappy jobs just to keep the crappy health insurance? Even tho it would mean disaster for everyone in the long-run?
today...non insurance companies remain quiet so their golfing buddies in the insurance companies can get theirs...the next time around...the favor is returned.
That's how Congress works too.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
http://www.madashelldoctors.com/
Spell check your protest signs. Don't want to be confused with the stoopids.
I could only listen to the first two videos. I just can't take that pussy, graham. What an ass wipe...LITERALLY!
So, we do it WITHOUT ANY REPUKES?? What's the problem? They are the party of "no", they are out to bring down the President at any cost, they are nothing but corporate shills who have sold out their pathetic souls and this country to their donars. WHO CARES IF THEY ARE PART OF THE SOLUTION??
Just go full steam ahead and get the best bill for the American public. It's time these pathetic ceo's and the insurance rip-off industry start flipping burgers down at the corner. We have been taking it in the behind since this whole nightmare of health industry evolved, and we are THE LAST of the industrialized nations to be slave to their ransoms.
Enough is enough. Screw snowe and graham and boner and no-chin mcconnell and the rest of the repuke LOSERS.
Get it done President Obama. Stand up and grow a pair Democrats!! It's now OR NEVER!!
As an outsider (Canuckistanian), i never really bought into the fantasy that USA would have single payer health care. I knew in the back of my mind that minority greed would win over majority need. Its been that way since Raygun was the puppet. The mass media is bought and owned too which certainly dont help. How stupid can some people be anyways to buy into the crap the Pukes are making up ? I figure all that is left is for Obama to figure out how he can break it to the unwashed masses that they have been lied to and screwed again. They will probably wait till there is some other major distraction going down and spring it then. I have always said that the greedy assed pigs buying off politicians to go against their constituents best interests had the upper hand. Never helps when you have right wing freaks like Roberts and Scalia bending over for corps and fellating them too. Pretty sad but expected.
The sentence "I don't remember voting for a queen!" should have been placed UNDER the picture of little lord lindsey.
I think I'm turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so.....
They organized the screamers at some town hall meetings and under the US constitution that means the governing majority has to give in to the losers in the last election. Doesn't it? Of course these clowns will be insisting the Democrats can't legislate. They'll continue to do so right up to the moment it passes.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
when I think of people called "screamers". But the fleeting mental image was well worth the mental hiccup.
"I think one thing we can say if the deficit matters, which I'm glad to hear it does," Lindsey Graham.
I thought Cheney said St. Ronny proved deficits don't matter, so the worm has turned.
by working for the Government, are out there en force telling us how the government does not work.
Funny, since that would get all these hacks fired if they were working for the private sector, since they are undermining their own employer by recognizing publicly their uselessness.
No wonder these idiots run anything they touch into the ground.
yup, some are, thanks to misinformation and corporate-sponsored astroturf movements
yet, still, despite all the effort of the GOP and right-leaning dems to scare the public, the majority of people still favor a public option.
if the public option is truly dead, its not, as the pols would have u believe, a reflection of popular will, but a top-down directive to kill meaningful reform.
Support for the public option has risen since last week from 57 percent to 68 percent
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/09/11/opi...
It certainly does! And they shouldn't expect it to be a 'cold war' either. Scum bums like Snowe will be sent back to whatever slimey hole they crawled out of!
What are you talking about "means war" we've been at war. A war that the Profitians started.
There are 3 distinct, albeit inter-related to varying degrees, elements/goals:
1) stop the "bad practices" of the insurance companies
2) expand coverage
3) contain future costs and cost of the reform
(1) will be in any Bill that comes forth
(2) is proclaimed as a goal by both Dems, Repubs and, of course, the insurance
industry. It is also the key element in respect to (3)
About (3). If there is not a PO, or some other kind of non-profit public
competition, I will consider its ability to address (3) as being key to whether the Bill is worth passing or not.
Expanding coverage is the major player in contributing to the high cost of reform. And one the administration may have trouble either financing or selling to the general public. This might be alleviated by incremental implementation, say, beginning with those who are uninsured but working or who have lost their coverage because they lost their jobs. A reminder that Social Security was also instituted in an incremental fashion over several years.
But all the emphasis on the PO has distracted from the important fiscal goal of improving the overall health delivery system. Experts consistently stress
that major cost reductions must come from improving the delivery system.
There are several major items in the House Bill that are an important step in this direction, and need to be reemphasized. In part because it will also impact on Medicare's present and future costs.
The brouhaha over increases in health insurance premiums is understandable, but not the major cost driver (but is keenly felt in terms of employer coverage and individual out of pocket expenses). However, if there not a PO/Exchange, then it will not be hard to track if the insurance industry makes "unreasonable"profits relative to overall costs of health care.
If the insurance industry operates in a more or less acceptable manner then
maybe this is what we'll have to live with. If it does not, then in future years
this will only improve chances for not only having a PO, but, hopefully, to
actually create strong public demand for a single payer system.
Sorry this is so long, but I am concerned that there will not be any Bill at all, and that would be far worse - for people as well as political - than what I've tried to outline as being acceptable at this time, if that's what it takes to get a Bill.
The careers of people like snowe,grhamn,mcconnell,whorin hatch,pence,wilson,demint,cantor,grassley,landrue,any of the blue dogs, all of the republicans 95% of the dems.
That should about put us back on track again!
republicanism is a mental illness!
Oh, please, 95% of Dems? That would be all but about 12 House members and 3 Senators.
I think there's a more than a bit of hyperbole in those figures.
are pretty much spot on I'd say. Maybe a few more in the house and maybe just a smaller few in the Senate. That's all we can really count on to stand with us, we the People. No hyperbole here or there.
Didn't Graham just say that the public plan will save Americans money when he says the private insurers can't compete in the long term with a public plan? Didn't he just make our point on how to save Americans money on health care?
Am I missing something or am I making sense of his non-sense?
I want there to be a "PUBLIC OPTION" passed... leaving these gass-bags and horses' ASSES licking their wounds and losing their next elections to HIPPIES AND LEFTIES AND LIBRULS.
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