Mr. President, Don't Compromise Our Health Away. We Need Help, Not Worthless Mandates.
By Susie Madrak Tuesday Sep 08, 2009 7:45amWill he or won't he? Everyone's waiting to see what President Obama will say in tomorrow night's speech. Will he draw a line in the sand over the public option? Despite the president's rousing speech yesterday, this article makes it seem doubtful.
Here's the problem in a nutshell: President Obama is looking for "something he can call a public option," not an actual public option. He wants a political compromise above an actual solution - an approach which may work on some issues, but is ill-suited to the magnitude of this health care crisis:
Amid fresh signs that the White House is preparing to back a scaled-down health care overhaul that would only include a public insurance option as a fallback plan, several House liberals told Roll Call that they could support such a bill depending on how it was structured.
The “trigger” approach has been considered a deal-killer by liberals on and off Capitol Hill, and the willingness of some Congressional Progressive Caucus members to entertain it reflects a recognition that a bruising August recess has imperiled prospects for reform and redrawn expectations for what is possible.
“This is a way to get a bill,” Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) said. “I believe it’s worth listening to because I want legislation that is going to, in some shape or form, expand coverage and bring down the cost of health care.”
Boy, that's a far cry from what we heard a year ago, isn't it? Because we're not all that interested in Massachusetts-style mandates that not only aren't worth anything to people whose budgets are already stretched too thin, it imposes an additional burden for the privilege. And it sounds like the progressive caucus is starting to crack.
Liberals stressed that the shift does not amount to an abandonment of their commitment to a “robust” public insurance option. They said they would only support a trigger if that approach guaranteed the same access, quality and affordability.
“I don’t want to give the impression that I’m so flexible that I’m willing to compromise away meaningful reform,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said. “But there may be a variety of ways of getting there than the one I originally formulated in my mind.”
The development could open a path forward for the White House, which has so far been vexed by the threat of a liberal rebellion in the House if it backs off a far-reaching public insurance option or a revolt by Senate moderates if it insists on one.
In advance of a make-or-break address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, President Barack Obama took the temperature of leading House liberals on a Friday conference call. Leaders of the Progressive Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus sat in on the call and reiterated their support for a strong public insurance option, Progressive Caucus Co-Chairwoman Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) said. Obama did not make any definitive statements and asked for a follow-up meeting today or Wednesday.
“It sounded like he was trying to figure out how he could get something he could call a public option, regardless of what it is,” one staffer familiar with the call said.
White House officials have been exploring the possibility of a trigger in negotiations with Republican moderate Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine), a member of the gang of six on the Senate Finance Committee that has been struggling to forge a bipartisan agreement.
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President Obama is doing the sensible thing. The liberals' position is based upon principle and doing the right thing. The conservatives' position is based upon bribes and corruption. Obama knows he can't un-corrupt the corrupt Blue Dogs and Republicans, so he has no choice but to ask the liberals and progressives to compromise on their principles.
The Blue Dogs and Republicans never feel any pressure to be bipartisan, or to compromise, because they only ever feel pressure from their corporate masters, who discourage that sort of thing.
And, as has been pointed out, corporations hasten to remind the Democratic Party generally that all those campaign donations can quickly be re-directed back to the Republicans. (Today's inevitable Supreme Court victory for corporate interests will no doubt accelerate that process.)
Maybe if we found some industry willing to bribe the progressives, we could get them to hold fast to a position, too!
"Obama knows he can't un-corrupt the corrupt Blue Dogs and Republicans, so he has no choice but to ask the liberals and progressives to compromise on their principles."
Bullshit. He can stand on principle and fail to pass legislation. Failing to pass legislation would be a clear win for insurers but it would also be a statement of principle and resolve that would raise him in the eyes of the majority who support a universal health care. It would set the stage for his reelection and for the next go around on the issue.
We are being feed a bunch of BS...and deception....
I am starting to believe that Emanuel never had any intension to including single payer or a public option from the start..
Emanuel is the one that recruited , funded and supported these blue dogs...
Emanuel goes to an area which republicans are feed up with the BS coming from their republicans candidates in office , runs a republican on the democratic ticket...
Emanuel has persuaded or Obama was never had plans to pass any policies except the centrists republican policies from the start..
If you remember Emanuel and Obama said after the election , they were going to leave the left and move the party to the center..
So being that they were already right of the center , they were talking about pushing republican policies..
Why would Emanuel and Obama load the committed with republicans and blue dog republicans if they plan on passing a health reform bill for real Americans.
This trigger option is the same thing which Obama called McCain's health plan in his campaign for president.... A BAIT & SWITCH..
only rewards the corporate interests, the lobbyists, and the legislators who are in their pockets. It might fly with "Wall Street" but it will not fly with the millions of American people who are in desperate need of help now -- not five years from now.
He needs to take a tough stand and not only speak about it but put action behind it. Tell them to pass what they want but if it doesn't stand up to relieve the millions of Americans who desperately need help from going bankrupt, losing their homes, etc. that HE will veto it, no questions asked.
The time for bipartisanship and compromise have long past.
Action without words is not leadership. It is wimping out.
Is long past due for keeping his promises...
If Obama was sincere about creating jobs for Americans he would have renegotiated the free trade bill as he promised along with all the other broken promises...
If Obama would have keep his promises of cutting the bill which gave the tax cuts to the wealth top 10 percent of Americans...
Stop the war in the middle east...
Renegotiated the free trade bill...
Ceated jobs with the trillions of tax dollares he gave to the banking empire,,,,
We would not need to borrow more money for a single payer health bill...
But if he had keep a single payer or public option in the health bill we would save money....
Teh health empire is not spending trillions of dollars for Baucus , blue dogs and other members of our government because they like giving money away..
They prove that with the way they cut services to the policy holders...
We spend time and effort bemoaning each swing of the corporate sword against us and our democracy.
Alex Carey, the late Australian Socialist and Psychologist did important work on the big picture.
Thanks to Maria Gilardin and her TUC radio (which needs support) here are two clips on Carey's work. Essential listening to understand the forces arrayed against democracy itself.
Alex_Carey_1_-Corporations_and_Propaganda_1230alex.mp3
Alex_Carey_2_-Corporations_and_Propaganda_1230alex.mp3
*
So someone needs to tell Steny Hoyer, who just came out to say "he was confident the House would pass a health care bill this year, but not necessarily with the new public insurance plan sought by many Democrats", to STFU.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090908/ap_on_go_...
He sold his soul long ago and has little power left.
the difference between liberals and progressives. Liberals make me nervous!
the progressive/liberals could pay larger bribes to all these corrupt officials (basically, all of them) to get them to do what is right. Since they're all just a bunch of unprincipled prostitutes who are only in it to line their own pockets, outbid the corpoprations.
Or... when the revolution finally comes, just stand them up against the nearest wall and administer the people's justice.
Obama has already missed an historic opportunity to make real change. That ship has sailed and he the one who smacked the champagne bottle on the hull and sent it off, all in the name of "bipartisanship".
make him self irrelevant faster than Obama has. It is astonishing.
He is an idiot! The American people were looking for another FDR; so this clown hires repuke-lite Rahm and fires Dr. Dean.
He is a fool! And when he gets crushed in 2012, he can reminise about what might have been if he hadn't tried to be Mr. DLC.
I have already completely lost any respect for this guy.
with corp lobbyists to refill his campaign coffers in 2012. Do you think it's a coincidence that the "reform" doesn't kick until 2013? He's obviously bribed them: You fund my 2012 campaign, I'll make sure no meaningful health reform ever gets enacted.
Obama is showing himself to be Chicago shyster through and through, more interested in the image of "being President" and passing something he "can call the public option", then actually serving the people.
for corporate favors.
See -
http://www.rollingstone.com/blogs/taibbiunbou...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-flynt/com...
If I get sick I can apply some Rousing Speech and I'll be all better.
... this whole "debate" looks as if it was set up to fail from the outset. To heck with this "public option" at this point. Once the debate has turned to how "robust" the public option will be, we are guaranteed that it won't be. Buried in the fine print of the final bill (which we probably won't have a legitimate chance to analyze before the vote) will loopholes and giveaways to Big Insurance/Pharma/Medicine and the only real "change" will be that we are mandated to but a lousy product for an inflated price.
At this point: single payer or nothing.
Given the public support, the general evil of the insurance industry, the unbelievably pressing need to reign in costs, the dem majorities, this should have been a relatively simple think to accomplish IF Obama and congressional dem leadership wanted it done.
Given that they've let the corrupt or stupid vocal minority completely hijack the debate with nary a protest in response while continuously paying lip service to bi-partisanship when thew people they're "working" with have been publicly saying "We're just in it to sabotage the whole thing" it does make it hard to accept they really want reform.
I've wondered the same thing . Obama and the gang have been a well oiled smooth running machine then comes the healthcare debate ... they seemingly come unglued and self destruct . What gives ?
...money to the right people. They are running the show, not the people or congress.
He's a corporatist whore. this is turning out exactly as he and his intended.
The Democratic majorities are owned by the insurance corporations.
Why in the hell did Obama introduce the subject?
Obama to cabinet: Lets fight for healthcare reform even though we're completely beholden to the healthcare industry and will certainly not only lose, but lose spectacularly, embarrassing ourselves as ineffectual politicians, strengthening our opponents and demoralizing our base before the mid-term elections!
..Government regulation. We can't have the government regulate the health care industry now can we? Look how well it worked out when we didn't let the government regulate the banking indus..oh wait.
"Hey, kiddies; we tried to get you some health care but it is important to pander to the party that just got it's fat ass handed to 'em in the last election and we don't wanna hurt their feelings or they'll call us bad things like they do already but even worse."
Praying to Cheezis for help is still free - so pray yourselves silly and get better.
that even if we are able to "review" it, how many will take the time and really understand it? It stands at over 1,000 pages as is and will be written in legalese so as to make it obfuscating. You will need to be a lawyer to interpret it -- and even then it will be "open" to interpretation.
That's how this stuff is done -- all kinds of weasel words, depending on whose side you're on and lots of wiggle room.
From what I've read, in order to understand the current draft one also needs to go back and refer to OTHER bills, which, in essence, makes the current draft about 17,000 pages long.
Thus Conyers made the crack that he'd need not one, but TWO attorneys to get through the draft of H.R. 3200.
But don't you just love how Treasury Secretary Paulson handed Bush a two page "bill" saying, "We need to loot the U.S. Treasury NOW!!! Sign it!!!"
Doh!
I just listened to C-span where they aired the dialogue between President Johnson and several Congressional members during the Medicare debate decades ago. They spoke openly of how the Right wanted to drag things out in a deliberate attempt to kill that bill. Only due to an involved President and true Congressional leadership on the Democratic side did it finally pass.
We had anjd still have no such Democrat leadership in the Senate and little participation by the President until now- which may be too late because we're not settling for a Reid /Baucus/Grassley/McConnell/Beck/Limbaugh/O'Reilly/Hannity/Coulter/Malkin piece of crap as, the Moderates hope.
Was that he'd been such a stalwart in the Senate for so long that when push came to shove he knew where every skeleton was buried, where every scandal lived etc. and he had little trouble arm twisting a little to get the votes.
To former junior Senator Obama, he is a "newbie" who doesn't know jack shit. Or where Jack shat.
Whatever.
All he seems to know is how to screw up a "good" thing. He should have DEMANDED Single Payer from the beginning as the ONLY reform that could give every American cradle to grave quality health care AND control costs.
The only problem with that is that the guys/gals who wrote all those big campaign checks called in their quid pro quo: "Single Payer Will NEVER Get Onto the Table".
And it didn't. And those doctors and nurses and others who were demanding that it be put ON the table were arrested in Sen. Baucus' committee room.
Groovy
Draw a line in the sand, threaten veto or deal out poison paybacks.
He should refuse to even talk to republicants.
He has to do all of this to keep his promises. . .
You know, the promise to NOT be an little jerk like Bush, not to demand "my way or the highway" - you know the promise to TRY to work with the GOP and not run all over the pathetic minority. . . .
Come to think of it, the pundits and (so-called) journalists demanding Obama do this or that or they won't support him, they sound a lot like Bush and not so much like Obama.
Hmmmmm
Here comes the bus.
The only question is will we be on it or underneath it.
Not when we are already a paste stuck to the soles of their shoes.
The Obama administration should have been as ruthless ,as mean and as forceful as the Repugs are , not only against the opposition party but against their own who are not team players. I don't know if Barack has it in him , maybe that is his fatal flaw , just plain too weak , too "nice guy" and not living in the real world . You cannot make deals with the devil and gain anything ! Seems to me that it's too late , he's given the MSM , the Repugs and the wing nuts momentum and a firm foot hold in defeating any meaningful healthcare reform . Sure hope I'm wrong but it doesn't look good now .
He's complicit.
There is no turning back NO compromising, these Socialist Corporations MUST go down. They GET NOTHING the (RNC) Racist Nazi Christian get nothing, the (GOP) Goofy Opposition Party gets nothing, you and the party asked for help we believed we trusted now DELIVER this is not a OPTION the other side can only WHINE Misrepresent, Lie and Manipulate, who cares. You stepped forward offered a hand in friendship, you opened OUR house and asked again for them to join you to do what is right and HELP AMERICA again they have said NO, this is a party of Corporate Socialist agenda they care nothing fr this Country ONLY what they can STEAL from it, DELIVER ON THW PROMISE< I VOTE.
..the corporations aren't socialist though; that's capitalism in the extreme. They are making profits on our health.
I felt this same way over the weekend watching "Nine Innings to 9/11" I think it was called. It dealt with the aftermath of 9/11 and the Yankees' run at another World Series title. They lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks but it was a good story. It reminded me of the promises w made and how we were all behind him and how he lied to us. I don't know how anyone could be satisfied by being lied to. Remember how you hated that boy or girl who said "I love you!" and then was out with someone else? Did you feel used or what? Remember how if you take this little pill, you'll lose all the weight you put on since last summer? When it didn't work, how did you feel? Stupid, perhaps?
Yes, Mr. President - Deliver on the promise!
the soaring rhetoric of the campaign?
And Obama is good at it. Its the stuff that wins elections. The actual politicking part of politics, the stuff that gets policy done seems to be kicking his but a little bit.
The obfuscation and double talk about the 'public option' on the Democratic side is damaging in and of itself.
Either you advocate public insurance, or you don't. Simple as that. That Obama has chosen to sit on the fence about this has prolonged the debate and given a huge opening to the minority party and the nutjobs and insurance shills who lead it. Stupid.
Talk of a 'trigger' is pure bullshit. That's a fallback position that is being treated as the centerpiece of health reform.
Here's the basic fact about the 'public option' that has to be stated loud and clear: public insurance only makes sense if everyone - every citizen - is in the same insurance pool. Only then will maximum economies of scale be achieved, and the contributions (taxes, premiums and deductibles) of healthy people offset the costs of caring for the old and chronically sick.
You can't go halfway on public insurance. Either you have it for everyone (with supplemental private insurance for those who want to pay for it), or you will still have millions of people who risk bankruptcy if they get sick. That's the choice.
is rigging it so that the insurance comes from a pool. the pool is prohibited from under-pricing the insurance industry. Thus, there will be zero benefit from a public option.
...the more my original prediction seems to be coming true; in the end, we will end up with no reform, just a dumb ass, do nothing bill so Obama can put that feather in his cap.
No legislation is better than bad legislation. Let's hope BO understands that. This is his legacy.
...is sent for his signature. I agree, I'd rather have nothing than garbage, but it's really up to House progressives to stand strong. If the senate can't pass it, screw em.
"No legislation is better than BAD legislation!"
Thank you for saying that.
Sadly, I believe Barack Obama wants exactly what he's going to deliver....a big payday to big insurance/big pharma corporations.
gazing in my crystal ball i see a truly rousing speech, by a masterful orator, who will talk to americans like adults and deliver a speech that fails in everyway to address the route cause of the health crisis, and only serves to further fold to health-profiteers scare tactics
and winning smile aren't as effective in bamboozling as they once were. Then there's still the train wreck economy, Vietnam redux aka Afghanistan, tent city's . . . etc.
moved here
Obama played right into the Conservative's hand, urging bipartisanship from those who would never give an inch and letting outrageous lies frame the debate. Americans are going to be stuck with the same insane healthcare we've always had, the same healthcare Americas deserves for being such an uninformed, easily misled bunch of simpletons.
Do you suppose Obama has learned anything this experience?
Sorry that I have to agree with you Lefty , it was pretty obvious from the start .
The American People overwhelmingly support health care reform with a robust public option.
Our leaders are lying to us, spinning push-polls and creating phony controversies at the behest of their corporate lobbyist masters who do not want this thing to happen.
We're not simpletons out here. We DO see what's going on. We're merely powerless to stop it.
So, again, our leaders, Democratic and Republican, are trying to sell US the idea that WE don't want this when in fact the opposition to this reform is entirely phony.
These are lies. And the media is feeding it because it's better theater than covering the pro-reform majority.
This is a flat-out lie.
............I think he learned that Rahmie's messiah, that he likes $$$$$$$, that he likes being 'popular'.......just like a rock star, he's learned that if you let enough time go by, many will fall by the wayside, he's learned to manipulate with sincerity........feel free to add your own observations.
he is a conservative. It is we who played into his hands. It is we who were played.
"Fool me once shame one me, fool me twice...well...you can be fooled again."
the president and his party can roll over Republican opposition any time they want to.
I'm the general manager of a business that employs 15 workers. We pay them as well as possible and we offer as much as we can literally afford when it comes to their healthcare insurance.
With the ridicules increases in premiums in place, if the Gov't simply mandates us to pay for their covererage, we would have to most likely close shop. If they mandate our employees to sign up and pay (we have a few that go without), they would quit and sign up for the State funded coverage. Either way it's a bandaid that will cover a larger wound. The time is now to get on board with the rest of the world and stop profitizing peoples healthcare.
Anything less and Obama and the Dems are done.
You would then vote for whom? Republicans?
.
..Progressives are going to be the third party and they will take votes from disgruntled repubs and democrats who really want a change.
i sure hope so...
but there is also a danger that instead of a progressive movement growing and flourishing we will see the rise of right wing populism. or, the further rise of right populism. of course, generally speaking, it is faux-populism (secretly funded and controlled by the ruling class), astro-turf stuff, but, nonetheless, it would have the potential of sweeping the political landscape. and would be used as potential brownshirts to go toe-to-toe with a progressive revitalizaiton
Nobody, unless they were a true progressive dem! Otherwise, I could vote Green or skip to the next race on the ballot.
I will never ever vote for a repuke, or their evil twin the bluedogs.
If everyone of those bluedog bastards lost their seat to a repuke, what would be the difference? We would have the exact same corporate fascist power structure running our government.
Obama several times has mentioned not wanting to upset the Insurance industry ... God forbid it ! That tells me he's not very serious after all and explains why they have been so half assed in promoting healthcare reform and in responding to the wing nuts and the Repugs lies ... letting them control the debate .
they're busy deciding which of us must die.
They're trying to figger out how to "securitize" health-insurance policies, like mortgages...
...claiming that it represents 1/6th of the economy. I've got a news flash for the President: no matter what portion of the economy it represents, it isn't a legimiate fraction of it or a legitimate participant therein, because unlike other sectors, it creates zero wealth, it only parasitizes the wealth that has been created by others. This is an incredibly lame rationalization that he is deploying. Because it is purely parsitical, the goal should be to reduce it down to zero percent of the economy. For each bit of influence, impact and control these racketeers have wrested from them, our economy becomes healthier by the same amount. It is identical to the justified intolerance we officially hold for criminal racketeers; we don't tolerate them, because their every predatorily parasitical act causes harm. Obama knows this, he's just trying to provide himself any cover he can summon in order to disguise his true allegiances: the man is completely owned by the entities on whose behalf he is prostituting his office.
There is no 'political will' for a public health care option. This means large corporations are not supporting it. Hence congress isn't paid to make the change.
Everyone should cancel their health insurance. Once the providers all get fired we would see a comprehensive policy put in place within days.....
a grinding halt in one day they just don't have the courage.
to do that.
Most people still have a roof over their heads and a teevee that sez "EWE ESS AYE, EWE ESS AYE" and shows them American Idle.
Most can still afford a double shitburger with yellow plastic and a sixpack fulla alligator piss that's labled "beer."
They can still get the big game on their teevee and the up-to-the-minute newz telling them Sarah's latest wisdom.
A revolt might interrupt normal programming.
the Tattoo Convention is happening . .
?!
Gil Scott-Heron said 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS3QOtbW4m0
He was right, sort of. There probably won't be a revolution, televised or not, because the pre-emptive reactionary counter-revolution has been broadcast live on Fox News and most of the rest of the media for many years now - and the ratings are great.
...people with children and other dependents can't do that.
no matter how you look at it. Totally and completely dependent on The "System".
Scary situation to be in. Knowing The System doesn't even give a sh*t anymore.
It NEVER Did...
Wall Street doesn't care how high profits are today, only how high they will be tomorrow.
Here's a very telling article from The Wall Street Journal that validates exactly what you are saying:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1252185605467...
Every day of my life I'm grateful it's just me to worry about. Makes it sooo easy.
I can't even imagine what it's like to have a family to worry about!! Egad!! I don't make much $, I live simply, and travel light.
Actually, that's the title of one of my favorite children's books.
But back to the topic -- it is truly heartbreaking to read and see the stories of people whose very lives depend on getting expensive medications through their spouse's or parent's insurance, with the family just getting by or losing their home because of the costs.
Ever been to Italy? I hear there are some nice expat enclaves there....Isle of Capri, Tuscania etc.??
that I could morally justify bringing children into this world, if I were of that age today. The US has turned into a massively failed state, and it's not the kind of place I would want my children to be cursed to have to live in.
What a said statement.
That sounds good, but considering I take 8 heart medications a day to stay alive, I'm gonna have to pass.
Matt Taibbi has a seven page take on the health care reform effort.
It'll take some time to get through it all, but I found it a worthwhile read.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/29...
Taibbi once again nails the whole issue in 7 pages. DEFINITELY worth the time if you want to have a serious debate about health care.
...settles for anything less than a true public option, and/or puts in place an immoral mandate forcing everyone to carry private insurance, (especially without controlling costs) he will have proven himself to be the corporate shill I've suspected him of being since his campaign days. Liberal apologists will have a hard time explaining away that doozy.
But that doesn't mean they won't bend every adjective in the book to try...
...because we don't have to. You're right. But it's not just Obama.
Can anyone doubt that he'd sign single-payer if Congress could deliver it?
No, it's bigger than Obama. If we don't get this, it means Ralph Nader is and was right: there is one party in power with two factions, allied to a single purpose...retaining power.
Robust health care reform is supported by the vast, overwhelming majority of the American people. Yet Republicans, Democrats and the administration are pretending that there's a big "controversy" over not just the public option, but everything with any teeth in it.
If we allow the public option to be bargained away, they'll set their sights on the employer mandate, then the individual mandate, then rescission, then pre-existing conditions and on and on. Each in turn will be a grandma killing socialist plot.
Yet NO ONE out here really believes that. The only polls that show a (bare) majority not supporting health reform are Lee Atwater push polls that ask "do you want a government bureaucrat deciding whether your children live or die?"
So this is bigger than Obama. We are watching the big ripoff happen, right in front of our faces. They're standing right in front of us, bathing in money and flat out lying to us about our OWN opinions.
Until the next election.
This problem is bigger than Obama, it's systemic, and Nader is/will be right as always. The trouble is a large proportion of the populace is hypnotized by the MSM and can't see things for what they really are. Luckily I think that is changing. And most of those who have a bit more perceptual lucidity continue to waste their votes on candidates who are the lesser of two evils because they somehow think third party candidates like Nader are unelectable; a meme also perpetuated by the MSM.
Have you forgotten about "Diebold"?
If push comes to shove in the future, especially if Progressives are about to take power, the results will say otherwise....regardless of the "exit polls" saying Progressives won.
We've been had.
I never trusted this guy either. But I already knew from experience that Hillary was a corporate whore, so I was hoping he would see the light when elected and do the right things.
That lasted about 5 minutes after election night, when he hired that DLC dickhead Rahm and fired Howard Dean. He has done nothing but disappoint since!
talking about revisiting the bill later, to correct errors and mistakes.
I do not recall a single instance hen that has happened, and it redounded to the benefit of the PEOPLE in over 220 years of legislating...
Here's someone who really needs a mandate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCKsEdaEvNY
n/t
When Bush rushed through the Patriot Act in the middle of the night, did he look for a consensus? When Bush/Cheney/Powell lied us into a war of choice against Iraq did he get a declaration from the Legislature to do so? Did he look for compromises with the Dems or any oppositions?
It's a tribute to the monumental pacification of the Dems that even when they have total consolidation of power, they still allow themselves to be bullied by the mongrels of the Republican party.
Vaseline as a gesture of sensitivity for them.
Hah. Blue humor roolz.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8sZ1DWsAHE
Oh course, the “Progressive Caucus” is going to crack and cave in on this one, as they usually always do….because Emanuel and Obama can hold over their heads the big bomb of withholding critical financing for their re-election or appropriation for their favored projects via the 2010 appropriation process.
Plus, the fear of Palin-Huckabee 2012 combined with the usual flim-flam of trashing anyone to the Left of the Dems who actually believe in standing up for principles rather than just mooching for whatever pablum they offer, will tend to keep most “progressives” in line…or, at least, enough of them for Obama to get this latest snake oil passed.
A “trigger” that would only begin to take effect five years past, and also include a five-year grace period, only gives time for the GOP/ConservaDem/Blue Dog alliance to repeal whatever was left of the positive reforms and leave us with what they basically wanted from the beginning: a windfall bailout for Big Insura and Big Phrama, paid for by middle- and low-income folk through higher premiums and the “individual mandate” to buy crappy private insurance with NO cost controls or insurance of real coverage. And…still, in the end, nearly 40 million remain uninsured.
The only people who would win under this PoS are Big Insura and the GOP, who will definitely exploit the crisis to gain back power and get the “reform” they wanted all along: Health Savings Accounts and interstate portability to smash state consumer protection laws paid for by savaging Medicare and Medicaid and other social programs…and malpractice protection under the guise of “tort reform”.
We could have had much better than this, if the “progressives” had simply held out for single payer and nationalized, universal health care from the very beginning.
How are you liking “lesser evil” politics now, folks??
Sure am glad I voted for Cynthia McKinney now.
Anthony
...agree more. Fuck tactical voting, people. Vote for the candidate who best represents your belief system, not one who seems the lesser of two evils who you consider to be the most "electable". "Change we can believe" in huh? We shall soon see what Obama's conception of change really is. I hate to be so cynical about this prez, but I've been disappointed too many times to be otherwise.
Usually or always?
They're standing firm so far. Let's stand with them.
No public option, no support.
She's an example of a progressive caucus member who was drummed out of the House by the Democratic Party.
They couldn't stand her vocal support for a new investigation into 9/11 or her questioning of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians etc.
I agree Anthony. Regardless of what Obama says tomorrow night, the Progressive Caucus members will be jumping up and down applauding Obama, even as he rips their agenda to shreds.
"Going along to get along."
No public option, no support.
Period.
The public option is a POS and part of the privatization scam.
:for Obama to do some serious horse-trading and arm-twisting to garner a couple of health care votes; he can ALWAYS balk at sending funds to certain districts that don't get in line.
It ain't over "till the fat lady sings". Obama didn't mention the public option at the AFL-CIO picnic just to diss those 20,000 union supporters on Labor Day if he doesn't intend to pull a rabbit out of his pocket and get this thing passed WITH a robust public option. Watch an' learn................!!!!!
If they were going to compromise this much, they may as well have started with single-payer.
Should have started from there and worked toward the center, finishing on the, for lack of a better word, left. Instead they started from dead center (at best). Feh.
a few days after his inauguration regarding the fact that Single Payer is the ONLY way to go, with comparative graphs etc., with his "charisma" and ability to sell himself and what he truly believes in, the American people would have jumped on board. Even some of the idiot right wing wackos would have a hard time fighting, "Everybody's in...nobody's out....choose ANY doctor you want. No more "bills" to pay (unless you wanted to go to Dr. Beverly Hills and have your boobs prettified) etc. Even dimwits understand saving money and controlling costs.
Everyone would be partying and wearing their "Single Payer/Obama hats" and the Republicans would be crying in their soup.
For once in a long, long time the American People would have had something to celebrate! I mean, come on! Even American schmucks need to have a little victory ONCE in a while!
Instead I'm planning a trip to Italy to check out the scene. I'd rather be oogled at and have my ass grabbed at in Tuscania by a bunch of near-sighted Italian paramours than give one red cent to a for-profit corporation that doesn't care one wit about me AND be faced with the bloody fines/penalties that are being proposed.
...that the cynical pragmatists are right and the only way we will ever see change is when the system collapses upon itself and we rebuild it from the ashes. So it's either rough times ahead, rougher times ahead, or more of the same...until the really rough times inevitably arrive.
Ah well. "Hope" was fun while it lasted? Or can I hold a little longer? Maybe a little longer.
The msm only reports what is in the corporate interests.
They may let the ocasional slip up or might even allow something that appears to be against there design. But you can bet in the long run everything that they report suits their interests. We have had a total msm news blackout since 2000. Until we wipe out their control over the MSM we are screwed. I mean for example look at how long they made the economy appear to be doing just fine while it was in free fall since 1999. They did a great job of telling everyone that was willing to listen that the fundamentals were strong. How many times did you hear that line? I knew it was a lie the first time I heard it and it is even more of a lie today.
republicanism is a mental illness!
............during the campaign she said, 'What are people talking about, we have a great economy'
is so screwed. It's time to start over. This is the clearest, most unambiguous demonstration I can conceive of that the government no longer cares about the People. It is broken beyond fixing.
This was our proverbial day of need and they've told us all to go screw ourselves. Obama and all these alleged Democrats who are selling us out can kiss my arse. They are waging class warfare upon the the poor, the working people and everybody in the middle class. I'm pretty much out of patience with the "process" they are using to do it: our national institutions.
One more swindle of the American People.
Here - here!
Obama is no LBJ, that's for sure. Lyndon wouldn't have taken any of this pussy shit from the GOP or the Dems.
Obama's headed to become the next Carter, unless tomorrow's speech says "I will veto a bill with no public option".
And the Cubs will win the World Series.
... to corporate America by the people we elected. It's about time we throw the bums out lock stock and barrel. Don't vote for the incumbent no matter what. And certainly if Obama signs a bill without a public option I will not vote for him... even if Glen Beck is running against him.
It's time to move to France, free and best in class healthcare, guaranteed 35 hour work week, and 4 weeks vacation.
?
The mandates aren't worthless - they are worth billions to the insurance companies.
When things like this are being circulated in email to BCBS employees?
Health Policy and Strategy Associates, LLC
Robert Laszewski
September 2, 2009
Client Update
You might recall Hillary Clinton presenting the Russian Foreign Minister with a “reset button” earlier this year—as a way to demonstrate the new administration’s eagerness to improve relations.
The joke in DC this morning is that Obama wants it back so he can use it for health care.
The latest word is that the President is getting ready to “take hold” of the debate. There is talk of a speech next week where he would lay out just what he wants—trying to make clear to the American people what he is after and, more importantly, make it clear to his own party.
Any “reset” will almost certainly not contain a public option. Intriguingly, the leaks coming out of the White House continue to mention “other ways of holding the market accountable” toward saving money. With co-ops falling flat as an alternative, I have no idea what they are talking about.
Republicans continued to back away from saving the effort last week. In the Saturday Republican radio address, Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) gave the Democrats little hope of a bipartisan deal. Enzi is one of the “gang of six” in Senate Finance that has been trying to find a deal.
Enzi said that the Democratic bills would “actually make our nation’s finances sicker without saving you money.” He also said the Democrats would “raid Medicare” and intrude “in the relationship between doctor and patient.”
That certainly doesn’t sound like someone trying to find common ground.
Much of the chatter over health care now focuses on what Plan B needs to be—what kind of more limited bill could they get the votes for.
In a recent update, I pointed out that many people have been calling for doing far less with insurance underwriting reforms at the core. But as I pointed out, insurance underwriting reforms are not possible without also giving everyone the financial assistance necessary to get an adequate cross section of risk in the pool. The House bill now calls for $775 billion for the insurance subsidies (up to 400% of poverty) and $450 billion for a Medicaid expansion (up to 130% of poverty). Backing that off to a much more limited subsidy—perhaps 250% for the insurance subsidies and 100% for Medicaid—would still cost at least $800 billion to $1 trillion.
With public discontent over health care also focused on another trillion-dollar entitlement expansion at a time of record deficits, a “pared back bill” will hardly be an easy Plan B.
The administration really is between a rock and a hard place—back off and incur the wrath of liberals upset this rare opportunity for health care reform is being “wasted” or continue to upset mainstream Americans that have created a nose dive in the polls for the President.
On top of that, the Republicans are giving no sign of letting up.
The Democratic bills minus the public option or even co-ops are still more than a thousand pages long.
A thousand pages I don’t see critics suddenly wanting to leave alone.
Obama really does need a complete do over. My sense is that anything short of that continues down the same dead-end path he is on.
806 North Fairfax Street • 201 • Alexandria, Virginia • 22314
(703) 727-9517 • robert.laszewski@healthpol.com
I might add it seems to have NOT been sent to black employees but can't confirm that.
if cost doesn't come down significantly this is all for none. a family of four pays $12,000 for health care insurance. in ten yrs a family of four will be paying $25,000. fewer businesses/corporation are offering inclusive medical coverage. the underinsured demographic are going bankrupt and losing their homes. so more people enroll for medicaid with unemployment and stagnant wages. so that cost that's rising is shifted to the TAX payers. health care insurance cost reform is an economic necessity period.
............and spare me any more 'firey' speaches, please. Talking the Talk is NOT walking the walk. Less gab, O-bought-ma. And, everyone else seems to know that talk is cheap.
I am starting to already look beyond this Dysfunctional Administration.
I Hope if the Dems. get another chance at running things again witch i am not sure they ever will,i hope they will learn there lesson.
One would have thought that after watching that other Dysfunctional Clinton Administration Make every mistake in the Book. I thought that the Hope and Audacity Guys would have learned a few things. I guess you should never underestimate the Greed of the American System. The only Freedom in this Country is the Freedom for the Few to exploit the Many.
that I understand is the language of acts. Their words mean nothing. Less than nothing. I don't want to hear excuses or rationalizations. Their actions will tell all I need to know about what they are really about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I56CNnM0180
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