Grassley: I Told Obama To Say He'd Sign A Bill Without the Public Option. Oh Really?
By Susie Madrak Wednesday Aug 19, 2009 2:00pm
"When I say jump, you say, 'How high?'"
That would be Chuck "Don't Let Them Pull the Plug on Grandma" Grassley. Why does Obama want Republican approval so badly? Protective cover for the watered-down version he promised Big Pharma and the insurance companies?
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The lead Republican senator in bipartisan health care negotiations said Tuesday that he urged President Obama this month to make clear he would accept a bill without a government-funded public insurance option.
"I told the president then that he needed to make public whether or not he could sign a bill that didn't have a public option in it," Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa said on Radio Iowa. "He didn't have to take a position against a public option, but would he sign a bill that wouldn't have a public option in it, and I thought a statement from him would be very helpful."
Grassley and the five other bipartisan negotiators met with the president on August 6 to discuss their efforts toward a health care bill that can pass the Senate Finance Committee in September, when Congress returns from its August recess.
On Saturday, Obama said the "public option, whether we have it or we don't have it, is not the entirety of health care reform."
Then on Sunday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said a public option is "not an essential element" of overhauling the health care system.
Why is President Obama so much more concerned with what Republicans want? It's a mystery!
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headlines. Pretty convenient timing.
Boycott Tyson Foods of Arkansas. Call lobbyist for Tyson Foods Chuck Penry 202 393 3921 and tell him politely that you refuse to buy Tyson chicken until Mike Ross D-Arkansas the leader of the Blue Dogs on health care gets the entire house and senate conservative Democrats to help get HR 676 enacted into law. Tell others to call. Send me email after you call to info@democratz.org
Boycott American Express who gave Max Baucus $50,000 for his campaigns. Call Joanna Lambert at 212 640 9668 and politely tell her you will not use any American Express cards until Max Baucus gets HR 676 enacted into law. Email me after you call.
Maybe because it's what the health industrial pharma complex aka his campaign donors want?
Obama gave liberal speeches & rules from right-of-center, just as Bill Clinton did. They depend on Bill Maher's admonition: "You can't govern stupid." Who gives the big $$$ will always be who they listen to. It ain't us.
Obama has not keep a single promise he made doing his campaign for president.. with the contents he promised..
Obama has switch from his supporters in the voting booth to the political funder in the Corporate ring..
Obama is not the president that I voted for when he was making his speeches on the campaign trail..
If Obama and the democrats were really serious about the concerns of the American citizens.
They would stop the middle east war (we can no longer afford it)
They would drop the tax cuts given to the wealthy by Bush.
They would renegotiate the Free Trade Bill ( which has outsourced around a billion American jobs.
Instead of him given the bailout to the Banking Empire he would have invested it into the American people... they have been the force behind the greatness of this nation..
Obama and the democrats are spitting in our faces...
The few donuts Obama has tried to toss to Americans is insulting..
The health bill was never meant to have a single payer or a public option from the start and everything they have done was a smoke screen or if you like a bait and switch...
We are our own enemy, we voted the blue dogs into office and we should have seen this coming...
In 2006 Bush called the blue dogs into his office for a private meeting so what in the h... do you think that meant..
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Obama promised bipartisanship and Health-care Reform in his campaign. Maybe he is trying to keep both promises. I think in order to realize any dream of Health-care Reform he is going to have completely abandon any hope of help from the Republicans. He has given them every opportunity for a bipartisan solution, which has resulted in nothing but sabotage from not only the Republicans but also the blue-dogs. He needs to damn them all and start to take the lead on this. He doesn't need them. Some talking head one day said that a President who loses control of his own agenda, never gets it back. Screw the Republicans and the blue dogs and steam roll the asses flat.
This was really never about Health-care Reform, but all about destroying the Obama Presidency because he's black and he's a Democrat. If 'death panels' really existed, Washington Republicans would gladly put their grandmothers before them if it meant crippling the Obama Administration and destroying any chance for 2012.
Mr. President...stop playing Mr. NiceGuy
is going to have to decide which side he is on, and soon. He can't vacillate forever, nor can he "Serve Two Masters".
To you like the 3rd Bush / Cheney administration.
Obama kisses the republican .... while they kick him in the b...s..
This is not the leader I voted for.. He is starting to look like Harry Reid...
I really care for Obama. I think he really tries to get both sides to talk. But I am beginning to think he is say to republicans and the blue dog democrats yes master whatever you want me to do.
Has changed horses after his was elected...
I could never vote for Obama or a blue dog even if they were the only name on the ballot..
I can not believe that we worked so d... hard and long for Obama and the democrats and now they s... on us...
They must believe as in the pass ,, it will all pass over when election time rolls around..
When Republicans had 50 Senators, they could ram through legislation ... when Democrats have 60 Senators, they still can't do a damn thing. sigh.
...when Republicans have a majority, we're a "majority-rule democracy, like the founders intended." When the Democrats have a majority, we're a "consensus republic, like the founders intended."
Why do you hate America?
When the R's win an election by a teeny-tiny, questionable, suspect, margin They HAVE A MANDATE!!
If Dem's win in a Landslide, even going so far as to elect a Black American.... they still MUST be bipartisan! They still must kiss the opponent's feet even while the Oppo is kicking them in the face, lavish praise on the Oppo while the R's slander and threaten them, and do whatever the R's insist, even if 75% or more Americans
wantdemand the exact opposite.Some how these people need to find their balls.
...Obama is a secret Republican?
Hannity would rather see 15 million people suffer than see health care reform pass.
Make this video viral!!!
http://progressnotcongress.org/?p=2608
This sums up my feelings about "change", sadly
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C62KAmMzu0E
?
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It's a mystery.
the Cons can regroup for 2012.
I was a county coordinator for your 2004 U. S. Senate campaign. I, with millions of others, gave money & campaigned for you in 2008. If you do not push for the public option, you will be turning your back on me & them. I cannot speak for them, but I say this to you & the Democratic Party: You can forget 2010 & 2012. The "No Party" will defeat the "Can't Party".
...or as Bokonon says, "As it is supposed to be," neither party speaks for me. Not anymore, anyway.
ever has to sit and watch another lousy stage production of Sheer Madness.
From a president without a brain...to one without a spine.
right out of my mouth.
The president that has no brain had a spine...
And the president with a brain has no spine....
Oy!
More importantly would Grassley vote for a bill that paid for the public option. This joker isn't going to vote for anything the Democrats put out even if it was a resolution for a National Republican Party day.
i wrote the line "ich bin einer berliner" for jfk
i wrote the entire declaration of independence
these are as believable statements as grassley telling obama what to say and do
of course, susie believes anything bad about obama
despite the fact that just last week...the above cocksucker...was saying...OBAMA WILL KILL YOUR GRANDMA
christ susie, get a grip
..that CNN filed this report?? Susie's only additions are some very valid questions.
That was you? Why in H-E-double-hockey-sticks did you advise the President to tell an entire city that he was a jelly doughnut?
Not your finest hour, Joe.
get your Own Blog.
...Obama has been bought and paid for.
"Obama brand" suggested a commodified nature of a political culture that tends to reduce elections to corporate-"crafted" marketing contests revolving around candidate images packaged and sold by corporate consultants and public relations experts?
During the run up to Nov?
stay on top of things more cloesly, Madrak. You are already dated on this one!
I know you are not a big administration fan, but come on! Get with it and your opinion may be a little more worthwhile.
Maybe watch KO and Rachel.
I think the President wants to be a consensus builder, a nation healer. The problem is the republicans just want to be obstructors. I think he needs to get willing to barrel through without them. Maybe some will jump on the wagon when it finally gets out there in the public consciousness that the majority WANT a public option.
the problem though is he's been bought and paid for since he became a Senator.
all our politicians are doing exactly what they've always done, promising the moon and stars and delivering a shit sandwitch while saying "Eat up! Its yummy and its good for you!"
Most of them don't understand the impact of the internet on politics.
Using the internet, People are better informed and able to organize horizontally rather than vertically (top-down). The politicians who count upon the votes of the illiterate & stupid are trying to make the internet their tool, but not very well. Without FOX the R's approval ratings would be around -17.
but it's just a total tragedy he inherited the destruction, disaster, and mess left by Bush Co.
according to one. You're not hard enough on Obama says another.
Please allow me to be the first one to tell you that you are too neutral,
And thanks for what you do...
unhurt. That's the bottom line. Thanks to our Corporate Culture and Wall Street hiding behind the cloak of immunity.
Consensus amongst libs = herding cats
Just drag a bag of catnip in front of them.
you know, the ones who just hate catnip, humans dragging bags of catnip -- and/or other cats.
I know this from personal experience :D
However, I have only had one kitty out of many, who disdained catnip. I have refereed many cat fights, and even participated in a few (Rule #1: Don't comb a cat when you are annoyed), and I teach my cats to hide when outsiders come into my house. At least until I tell them it is okay to come out. No telling when some Limbo-O'Reilly-Savage loving retarded relative will come to visit.
Napoleon XIV- I owe alot to Iowa Pot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmTHCDws1LQ
the liberals who patronize Whole Foods are organizing against its President who made anti-reform comments in line with his Republican fat cat friends.
The debate is far from over!
It's been no secret Mackey is a weirdo.
Believe me if I knew how to turn my backyard into an efficient year round food production operation I'd do it.
He also said that having food is not a right.
The Republican half of the bipartisan team of pollsters behind a new, controversial poll on health care has longstanding ties to the health insurance industry that critics say biased the results.
An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released on Tuesday, authored by Republican pollster Bill McInturff and Democratic pollster Peter Hart, showed a majority of respondents opposing a public option for insurance coverage. McInturff is one of the most respected pollsters in Washington, and his work is often treated as straightforward and honest. But the pollsters' decision to alter the language of their August survey has raised the eyebrows of industry observers.
The simple answer is that Obama is essentially a conservative, especially as concerns big corporations. He has never said or done anything truly to the contrary. He is doing the things he does because he believes in those things. That makes much more sense than trying to sort out if he's spineless, or bought & paid for, or has secret plans, etc. He believes in Big Corporations at home & American Empire abroad. Simple. That's why Wall Street was such a huge supporter of his campaign. He vaguely suggested vaguely liberal things enough to get progressive support, but that's about it.
Clinton failed at health care but shifted gears right away and took some wild risks to get the economy smoking down the tracks. To bad it didn't last.
goals welfare reform and NAFTA?
its what C&L commenters do best
didn't sign welfare reform hurting millions, or sign NAFTA? Wow, talk about revisionist history!
NAFTA was either right before or right after health care. I would guess it was right before, because Clinton wanted to do something for the GOP (ship jobs to Mexico and Canada, screwing workers here), and in turn, they would help pass health care reform.
Big miscalculation.
...go fuck yourself!
it's for the purpose of procreation; otherwise it's sinful.
already . .
He cant do that, Spaghetti, until he gets his hand off his pencil dick. Bwaahhaaahaaa
Obama's Corporate Health Care Scam
http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/11168...
Obama and Grassley seem to be way too close for comfort. Between Obama's "good friend Grassley" statement and Grassley's statement today one has to wonder just how screwed we are.
Let's face it...we've been played by Obama. They guy is actually worse than Bush. With Bush we knew what we had (whatever was unconstitutional), with Obama we never know until the details of his backroom deals are released. I am sure he has promised Grassley that he would ditch the public option and I'm sure that he has cut another deal with big pharma and the insurance companies. They will pass a health care bill, but it will likely make things worse...much worse and will, in the end, simply be a big government giveaway to insurance and pharmaceutical corporations. And, still, no matter how much he compromises, not a single Republican will support it in the senate.
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I admit Obama is a good actor, but man...it hurts to have gotten played so badly by this big of a chump. Pollster shows his approval all the way down to 50% now...wow! He's getting totally run by a party, the GOP, that only a month ago was called dead. How pathetic is that?
are too much like the MSMs. Create controversy and you've excited the maasses. It's like you've never left the MSM Susie.
http://www.singlepayeraction.org/blog/?p=1119
If you pay close attention, Susie's post is from CNN. If there is no push no backlash and no questioning, you will positively not want the crap they are going to spoonfeed you and call healthcare reform. Progressives NEED people like Susie right now. It's quite obvious, the Dems will give nothing favourable to anyone, without being strong armed. Excuses, excuses, excuses is all you are going to get from any of them.
I didn't know it was from CNN. The second disinformation channel.
people like you, will support Susie, and hold Obama's feet to the fire. There is no doubt about that. If everything Obama and the Dem majority have done so far is any indication, this battle is a long way from over. It's sad that politicians stir up the supporters with promises of grandiose, then can't figure out why their supporters tell them to go f*ck themselves when they act like corporate stooges.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/...
He's still saying the same thing.
I want a refund...sadly, I can't get back the time I wasted knocking on doors, making calls and, yes, I even marched in a parade for this clown. Sigh...I'ma fool:-(
proclaiming that the administration's vision of a “public option” was explicitly designed to keep it from ever evolving into single payer or anything like it early on before this became the big deal in the media.
Don't know how people missed that.
WHY IS PRESIDENT OBAMA GIVING REPUBLICANS AND BLUE DOG DEMOCRATS THE POLITICAL EQUIVALENT OF A GET OUT OF JAIL FREE CARD?
Here’s my problem with how the public “negotiations” with Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats over national health care reform have been conducted by President Obama. By repeatedly stating and or implying publicly that Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats actually WANT national health care/insurance reform, when all they really want is to maintain the status quo; Obama has unbelievably been giving Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats a POLITICAL PASS for obstructing meaningful reform. He has not been forcing them to PAY A POLITICAL PRICE for organizing dishonest and scurrilous personal campaigns to obstruct, undermine and stop meaningful national health care/insurance reform.
WHY hasn’t he been making them accountable for they’re obvious lying and blatant bad faith?
WHY has he been letting the rat bastards walk away unscathed while they are doing everything they can to screw him and the American people over?
WHY is he choosing to do that?
believe them!
I would ask, "Why do you want to lose the House in 2010 & possibly become a one-term president?" If health care reform lacks a public option, the GOP wins & then prevents Cap & Trade, Union organizing legislation, etc. As we found in the huge 1994 losses, when the president fails, his party-including Blue Dogs-get kicked-out. If the Dems won't/can't govern with large majorities & the presidency, why do they call themselves a party?
and they're all on the take and in on the scam.
It's a corporate scam.
It's a corporate sham.
companies. And they have trapped Obama into having to agree with anything they want, because he has promised that a bill will be passed. The whole charade must be tanked. Have you heard how desperate some of the talking heads, etc. are getting on TV? Jonathan Alter clearly went to the dark side. I thought he was going to cry. After you see him on the ED Show, tell me if you think his family is being held hostage until he personally gets a bill passed? He isn't the only one. No lines in the sand from progressives. That's his battle cry. Watch it and weep. Or laugh.
money is involved here? Billions, or is it Trillions by now? President Obama is probably afraid that a Public Health Plan would create more economic chaos in an already struggling economy. But the real question is really how to embarrass those in the House/Senate who are effectively on the Payroll of Big Pharma and the major Insurance companies.
(Hunter/DailyKos)
"Check out Nate Silver's chart that lists which senators get the largest percentage of corporate PAC money in relation to individual contributions. What is useful about this chart is that it doesn't just show who brings in the most corporate cash, but how dependent each senator is on that cash compared to the cash they get as donations from their own constituents.
CHART shows $$$....
Of particular note is this part though:
"Max Baucus himself is on that list too, of course. As is Grassley. And Conrad. And Nelson. And Enzi. And so on. In fact, Max Baucus' entire bipartisan "negotiating" group -- all six of them -- are on that list."
WHY ISNT THIS NATIONAL NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now we come to the heart of the problem with our democracy today.
blue cross/blue shield/blue baby is currently your number 2 campaign contributor. keep it up and soon they'll be your number one donor for 2010!
which is a warming feeling. my premium payment will go to ibx, and then right to you chuckles!! you're welcome.
who says corruption and ethics violations don't pay?
I voted for you because I thought you would keep your campaign promises. I am deeply disappointed that you are so determined to have a bipartisan health care reform bill when the rethugs will veto ANYTHING you try to pass.
WITH ALL DUE RESPECT, WAKE UP, SIR! The rethugs are NOT your friends. They will continue to lie and obfuscate the issue until the country goes bankrupt as YOU are predicting.
Dont waste your time trying to twist their arms. Do some arm twisting on the blue dog dems and the conservative dems. YOU DO NOT NEED ANY RETHUG TO GET A HEALTH CARE BILL PASSED. JUST GET ALL THE DEMS IN LINE!
Lyndon Johnson was not one of my favorite presidents; he had some serious flaws. BUT, he knew how to get bills passed that were for the good of the people.
Mr. President, I beg you to grow a spine and dont waste any more precious time on the rethugs.
he would be willing to use reconciliation. He has said he thinks 55 or so Senators should be able to pass legislation.
He will use it if push comes to shove, bet on it!
even remotely resembling a working "public option" in any bill that gets to his desk...
And he will lose it.
and you like to play wingnut like games too! Where in the above statements is public option mentioned. But, since you do play the put the word in the mouth game like the Palins of the world, I'll put up 1,000,000 widgets!
?
at least answer their constituent's valid questions, without strongarm tactics and/or the calling in of police to remove people that are just asking questions?
http://www.singlepayeraction.org/video.php
This all strikes me as a negotiation strategy, from both sides. Grassley needs to look tough on Obama for his constituency, and Obama needs to look flexible in order to de-polarize congress. This, coupled with the threat of the 'nuclear option', or what have you, of ramming the reform bill through the conference committee, seems like a carrot and stick approach.
it was a strategic blunder of galactic proportions. you never start negotiations where you want them to end. if he really wanted a public option he should have started by pushing for single payer
Actually, there is a successful strategy of starting negotiations in this way. You state what you want, and then show what worse (for your opponent) options are also available if they don't want to make a deal.
It's for the repugnicans to choose between a seat at the negotiating table or a conference committee settlement. I'm for whatever gives us the better healthcare system in the end. If that's rolling over the repugs, then I'm all for it. But if Obama can demonstrate that he was the flexible one and the republicans left him no choice, then he maintains a greater store of political capital.
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would have been on the table from the beginning. As you know, it wasn't. To those of us who know how to negotiate, and I expect to all of you who are new to negotiating, this was a MAJOR mistake. One they cannot take back, unless they tank the whole thing and start all over again in a few months. Withdraw all offers.
Obama needs to depolarize his own party. We know many Dems are bought & paid for political whores like the ENTIRE GOP is. But sometimes you should actually do something for the public good. Even Republicans, Birthers, Deathers, Tea Baggers & the sadly ignorant should have guranteed health care. They don't want it for progressives of course, but we actually care about our fellow human beings.
No mystery. He's a striver. He's struggled his whole life to be accepted by that half of his 'family' that's not black...He has always wanted to be accepted by the elites. The Dims aren't elite enough. He needs the approval of the Owners, it validates him.
The question should be: What makes anyone believe that a "striver" like Obama would disappoint those whose approval he so desires; that he'd bite the hands that curried him?
if he doesn't straighten up fast, and do at least a majority of his campaign promises, he is a one term president going down in history as a failure. It's too bad. So much hope and promise, but the corporate donations win out. To be categorized as a bigger failure than GeeDubya would be enough to make most people commit suicide.
he could do worse than Bush. That's just not possible.
would be worse than Bush in history footnotes.
.
So he married a white, beautiful, blue-eyed, right!
Any projections here? There are plenty on the wingnut side ya know!
n/t
Why do you assume Grassley is telling the truth?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/...
GE: Obama's corporate sponsor
http://www.twine.com/item/12949257h-vxl/ge-ob...
No wonder there is no negative vibes on MSNBC towards Obama.
national health care across and use propoganda to do it, I say go for it.
If the corporation turns a profit but it inures to the benefit of the common good, it better, or it violates it basic principle.
What you have pointed out does not distract from progress except in the myopic minds of some.
profit in health care is the opposite of the "common good"
medical devices like MRI's, etc. I, personally, want these things. Are you implying that GE will be selling health insurance policies? Duh! Try to get it straight. Rabble-rousers will be thoroughly ridiculed.
GE's only interest is in profits. Read the article please. They are in bed with Obama big time. They do not invest millions and millions on politicians without a big payback. If you don't have the money to pay for an MRI or a Catscan, it matters not what corporation invented it. It matters WHY they invented it. $$$$$
They are legally obligated, as a corporation, to maximize them for their shareholders. And tell me, why did they invent MRI's, etc.? Are you suggesting that they give free X-ray machines to all citizens? What are you saying?
I did read the articles. That's why I am asking you WTF you are talking about? What does GE have to do with health INSURANCE reform? Following your logic, or lack thereof, if people cannot afford medications, then the dirty bastards who manufacture them should be what...killed...imprisoned...put in public stocks? What? Eeyore.
confused and disoriented in the town meetings
Without public option all the bill will do is require all people to buy insurance, create a windfall for the industry, that can then set prices and polices regarding what will be covered, and what not, co-pays and deductibles carte-blanche.
Like the bank meltdown, they'll get too big to fail, and would be in a position to get government bailouts when the economy collapses under the rest of us.
I bet Grassley doesn't know much about anything any more. He is a Republican right?
Republicans are living in the Bronze Age. They are not about to change.
they are not about to learn something new, for the better. that's not what they are about.
I suspect he is actually a grasshopper. A very large well fed grasshopper. Has anyone seen him with his jacket off?
Why in the hell is Obama even talking to this senile kook for? Or any of the Luddites and idiots in the
Looney PartyGOP? How many times do they have to tell the President to get fucked before he realizes that they ain't joking? Sheesh.If the only difference between a public option and something else is the question of lowering costs, then
that realilty, if it is one, will become apparent in time. And then we will have the groundwork for moving towards single payer. But until then, we need to not destroy everything if there is an alternative that meets the other requirements of a public option.
And in the time between, we need to keep up the dialogue about single payer. We need to not convince Democrats but the majority of the American public.
And not give the Republicans anything to make them believe they're relevant to anything....
lowering costs is not the only difference.
the difference is between insurance companies making a profit from, say, childhood leukemia, and not-for-profit public option where the denial of loved one's health care is not tied to the bottom-line.
So, the American people overwhelmingly said fuck you to this old dickhead and his party of corporate fascist theives in the last two elections, but this old turd thinks he should tell 200,000,000 people what they are going to get because he is one of 40 psychopath's that mostly represent small states.
The founding fathers created the Senate in order to make the small states fell good about themselves and join the larger ones. I don't think they ever foresaw the day that a small group of Senators from minisculey populated states would be able to screw over the wishes of 75% of the people.
Is Iowa actually going to re-elect this steaming pile next year?
I would absolutely think I was fucking crazy. I swear John when I get back to work in Sept or Oct. my conscience dictates I donate money.
It is sad when you see an athelete playing far beyond his time. Unable to perform above the "Mendoza Line level". A fading image of what they once were.
The more I see and hear of Grassley to more I reflect of what sort of caliber player in Congress he once was. Or at least what grandious membrance he thought of himself.
Grassly is probably becoming a short-timer for this world. The man looks like a walking cadaver, with what appears to be an accumulation of the effects of long-term alcohol over-indulgence and the intermediate effects of congestive heart failure. Strange way to be spending his ever-dwindling number of days allotted to him.
Grassley will be pushed out the door too, like many other Reslug liars and racists like him.
Nobody cares what the Reslug loser and MINORITY leader has to say about anything especially his habitual lies about Health Care.
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