Obama Backing Away from Public Option - Or Is He? What's the Game Plan Now?
By Susie Madrak Monday Aug 17, 2009 10:00amI've been reading the coverage about the public option remarks yesterday, and I think I understand the likely scenario now.
First of all, don't panic. Believe it or not, Sebelius is right: The public option is not the only way to get accountability into the health care system. And a rose by any other name smells as sweet.
That said, President Obama is still claiming to back the public option.
Linda Douglass (comm director for White House Office of Health Reform): "Nothing has changed,” said Linda Douglass, communications director for the White House Office of Health Reform. “The president has always said that what is essential is that health insurance reform must lower costs, ensure that there are affordable options for all Americans and it must increase choice and competition in the health insurance market. He believes the public option is the best way to achieve those goals.”
Jim Messina (White House deputy chief of staff): "Nothing has changed. POTUS [President of the United States] has always said that what is essential is that health insurance reform must lower costs, ensure that there are affordable options for all Americans and increase choice and competition. He believes the public option is the best way to achieve those goals."
But those quotes yesterday weren't accidental; that isn't how this game is played. So this quote from Chuck Todd seems right:
The White House has been hinting at this for weeks if not months. When Kent Conrad … came out with that co-op idea, I can tell you, insiders at the White House said: ‘Boy, this is going to gain a lot of traction.’ And those conservative Democrats -- this is not about getting a bipartisan bill out of the Senate, Lester. This is about getting folks like Ben Nelson in Nebraska; Joe Lieberman in Connecticut; Blanche Lincoln, Mark Pryor of Arkansas -- getting them on board. And a full-fledged public option was making them hesitant. Co-op will be the option that probably gets ‘em done. And that’s why the White House is allowing themselves wiggle room.
Seems to me this is more of a re-branding than an actual surrender. These senators are hesitant about the public option but will almost certainly embrace something that sounds more voter friendly.
Remember, the person to watch is Howard Dean. I know he's explained why co-ops don't work, and I think the newest version will be called a "co-op" - but that doesn't mean it works the same way.
So I'm waiting to see what Dr. Dean thinks of the finished product.
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get the verdict from DEAN!
Already been told the verdict from the very people responsible for creating the health bill...
They stated No single tax payer from the beginning (as Pelosi's impeachment statement it was off the table) and now have stated that the public option is OUT>
What do you believe they will do after receiving billions of dollars from the health empire.
They can give it any title they wish now but we should know what the results will be..
A health policy that will FORCE every American they can squeeze a penny out of to pay for..
And the benefits will have less coverage and more control over the care you receive from you doctor and other providers.
This bill is not about YOU and ME,,, It is about control and profits for the Health Empire.
We know that Britain receives better health care for half the price...
Obama is just what Hillary say doing the president campaign....
OBAMA IS A PERSON WITH A SPEECH ... Now we have found that his speech do not mean s....and he does not do as he promises..
Obama and Emanuel ,,,, more republican blue dogs controlling our party..
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promi...
That's quite a judgment to make when there isn't yet even a bill to be signed. Of course, single payer was the best way to go, but we all know that politics doesn't work by the same "logic" as anything else. But there is a very good chance that this reform will make life better for many Americans. Let's at least see it before we judge.
Give me my public option, damnit!!
Why not form a group , organization or what ever to collect funds and select a candidate of our CHOICE which we would fund , support and vote for. These democrat just do not give a s... about you or me..
These arrogant democrats will do as they please without any concern for you..or me...
Democrats believe they have you vote nailed down (and do) so they go for the corporate payoffs and vote for their policies..
Democrats have become sheep as we called the republican voters for blindly following the republicans in what ever they do..
If these same d... democrat win the primary democrat elections ,,, I will not vote for them period.. If we are to be run by corporate republicans then make sure they carry the republican title..
Republicans now have it made... They have the extreme right wing republican party and they have other republicans running on the democrat ticket.. We are even paid with our money , time and effort to support and vote for them.
So when we look at the numbers in the senate or house the republican party has less numbers until you count their members in the democrat party... Blue Dogs ,,, Centrists ,, Obama , Emanuel , Baucus , Feinstein , Schumer and others..
So as it is with the health bill ,,, republicans will get there way and Americans will blame the democrats...
So in the following election republicans will pick up more members by having their republicans on both tickets.... So they will continue to have the controlling numbers to control our government..
My candidates tend to be Green. The problem is, there are no national parties other than Dem or Rep in my county/state. I had to declare myself a Dem just to vote in the '08 Primaries.
...single payer!
HR-676!
They take years and millions of people and will still have to negotiate with the BIg insurance Companies who have billions in profits and NO INCENTIVE TO PRICE COMPETITIVELY because they either have a majority or a monopoly in near every state...If it had been effective there would have been hundreds all over the country by now..instead of one in Oregon!!
This is a blatant attempt to divert attention away from the blue dog and knuckle dragger cave in to the HC lobbyists by the likes of Nelson, Conrad, Kyl, and the rest...Conrad took $2.4 million from HC lobbyists in the past 2 years!
Lobbyists have so much funding, they sometimes don't know how to spend it all and ask for help from others in the same business. Now that's putting your monthly payments to work.
Robert Reich here
- the 'Public Option' was the minimum
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Amy Goodman with Chad Terhune on his BusinessWeek article, "The Health Insurers Have Already Won" here
Original BusinessWeek piece here
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Wendell Potter here
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Paul Krugman here - a good overview
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Madrak:
Susie Madrak, you are a complete featherweight, go into a different line of work, you are out of your league.
will be some new, high-falutin, big, expensive, program that will cost billions to set up and put us further in the hole.
Even Reich refer to the public option as something "medicare-like."
Why can't the public option just be Medicare?
Why can't we just let citizens who don't have insurance buy into the current Medicare system? It ain't 'rocket science' (and I think someone else said that quite a long time ago). It won;t require that many changes to the current system and would provide a nice segway into universal care.
(I'm basically for universal health care - Medicare for all - but, the insurance and pharma fascists won't let that happen any time soon.)
In fact it will poke another hole in health coverage..
Why are we the riches nation on earth ,,, yet we have the worst of social programs and infrastructures in the industrialize world.
Because we are not the riches , The Global Empire has all the wealth , power and control..
Notice America can have their bridges falling down and our roads which have huge chunks out.
Yet when it comes to a corporate business they find money to put the best of road for transportation to it so you can buy their product or ship it to you..
You pay taxes on your home and land ,, yet the utilities have control over around 15 feet across the front of your land (which you pay taxes on) and you have to take care of it..
Here we have an easement in the front and the back. We do pay taxes on both but we don't have to maintain both if we fence out the easement from our back yard.
The Medical Industrial Complex and the government that they sponsor would yield to public pressure IF the public brought that pressure fully to bear.
You must fight for it.
President Obama should not budge an inch! WE NEED THE OPTION!!! Where are the Dems on this? We need their backing!
The plan is working
step 1, promise reform
step 2, stir up the rednecks
step 3, give congress the reins so they can run it into the ground
step 4, do not control the message so it looks even muddier
step 5, lobbyists POUR money into congress
step 6, drop the public option
reults
Obama looks like he tried but Congress failed him
Congress gets tons of money and the status quo which they want
MsM makes millions on stirred up rednecks
Rednecks get a voice and sway 2010 election
Repubs get a bounce back in 2010, as planned
The cycle starts again
Working people take it in the ass again!
And we'll end up getting billed for the colonoscopy.
no kiss
no lube
and the theater of the absurd opens for another season
the rich keep the proles fighting and get paid all the while
Ouch, what a pain in the ass!
1. Ruling party propose empty health care reform
2. Minority Party counter-propose meaningless health care reform
3. ?
4. Profit!
Underpants Gnomes' Approach.
Am I not surprised?
Do WE have to accomodate the Blue Dogs?
It's like being back in high school and being accused of blowing the curve because the other kids aren't doing as well ... you're supposed to be DUMBER, so they can look SMARTER.
Let's get it right. The Blue Dogs have to adjust to US, not the other way around. Enough of this "No Conservative Left Behind" nonsense.
Ya hit the nail on the head, shadow!
Every one of these Blue Dog assholes who votes against the public option should get NO money, NO support for re-election!
Let's make sure they all have true progressives running against them in the primaries.
Blue Dogs...makes them sound like their mascots on Blue's Clues.
They are Boll Weevil, white supremacist, evangelical, white sheet wearin' Reagan racist democrats.
Public option sounds like "handout to the ******s"...so of course they're against it.
Fuck THEM.
.
It really just doesn't seem worth the time, effort, and money...corporations win EVERY FUCKIN TIME...
do your best to stop buying anything from them... this is difficult with healthcare and pharamceuticals, I'll admit. But to the best of your ability, stop purchasing those things you don't absolutely need.
As I said earlier today in another post if and when people stop spending on everything, except the essentials... it'll bring the corporations to their knees. For example: do you really need to drink Coca Cola? Any soda?? No, you don't. You can drink water and not pay one cent more than your community charges for municipal water if that's the case.
Get my point? If enough people actually did this (boycott), then the corporations would see that they're NOTHING without consumers. When consumers stop consuming, there's no corporation!
Now I'm not certain in the medical realm how to enact this except to go the ERs for your health needs. I hope it's realistic. What I'm advocating is for citizens to take their power back from the corporations and their bought and paid for politicians.
I pretty much live like that anyway, and have for years...working poor and all that.
I don't need soda, I posted on here a week or so ago, about how crappy soda tastes after not drinkin any for years.
I agree...but it's seems that "they" are expert at countering our more...peaceful means to take our power back...
Call me pessimistic, cynical, whatever...but I think all this talk and stuff is great...but before we see any meaningful change in our favor...it will take more than talk.
and it's disappointing and a bummer that the great change promised seems to be a long ways away. I'd hoped for way more!
I'm doing the little I can to make a difference in my life too. Like you I haven't had soda for a very long time... can't even imagine wanting one. Yuck!! And I can't remember when I last darkened the door of a fastfood restaurant either. It's gotta be close to 15 years.
I guess one person's rebranding is another's surrendering.
Whatever happened to quality universal health care?
Nobody can prove that costs won't just drop of their own accord.
...the single lowest cost solution and the only one that is sustainable. Somehow, that's off the table.
here is the C&L "don't worry folks, let's take what we can get thread".
My answer...FUCK YOU.
Co-ops are political bullshit. Totally ineffective.
It's ALL or nothing in my book.
Co-ops are the trojan horse to discredit ALL social services as inefficient, and be another step down the road to totally dismantling the New Deal.
That has been the goal of the elites since the New Deal was enacted.
The "public option" is mostly bullshit, too, but it's the bullshit we signed up for. It's the bullshit line in the bullshit sand. It's the bullshit we can believe in. Okay, maybe not believe in, but do I hear put up with?
To compromise away the COMPROMISE is just too much.
A robust public option or no support, not a vote, not a dime, for any Democrat or any Republican, ever again.
That's it.
request for an increase to the military budget...all of a sudden watch...no talk of deficits...no talk of "saddling our grandchildren forever"...all BULLSHIT.
This ENTIRE government is bullshit. It is populated with cocksuckers who are less than prostitutes.
Can I buy you a drink?
Are you kidding?? look at what I'm like sober!!
when you're sober!!
Agreed, but I'd like to put in a defense for prostitutes. They do a difficult job and receive pretty much no social or legal support from society.
Prostitution is an honorable trade.
Politics, on the other hand, well...at least with a prostitute you get what you fucking pay for.
Hey..I said they were less than prostitutes.
I would never disparage any person that actually has to work for a living...working girl or otherwise.
but with prostitues, they're supposed to get screwed, not the other way around.
Hmmm...$200 dollars to get laid? I'm not so sure she's the one gettin' screwed.
Of course...there's the "mature lady...teeth optional" for $25
LOL...sorry...couldn't resist!
"Gee, Mr. taggert, you use your mouth purtier'n a $20 whore!"
Nailed it L&P yup uh huh that's it in a nutshell bingo.
Taking us ALL back to Obama's roots. Yes massa senata, we all would just LOVE co-ops, thank you very much for not whipping us today.
Well, this computer isn't getting the job done. It's time to go to the town hall meetings. Bring cell phones and cameras. Let the "potty mouths" yell and interupt and RIOT BACK! Call the police! Show the pictures...and Rock on....looks like there's gonna be a rock fight. Get off our asses and do it like they do......FIGHT BACK. Obama needs us to be men about it. Remember: the insurance industry is ratcheting up the death threats against America and our president. That's threatening us. The insurance industry is a "gambling, risk industry"...They do threaten!
Time Has Come Today!
careful you will get edited if not banned
even if you do incite a riot you go to jail
can't make money for food in jail
can't work for a sustained political effort in jail
focus on working for the long haul
nothing happens overnight, blueamerica and electing the right kind of democrats is the answer.
Blah blah blah. I've heard this for decades.
Unfortunately, the Obama administration decided to approach this matter as a compromise rather than a demand, and Obama has now wasted valuable political capital in an attempt to recapture public sentiment in favor of health care reform. I mean, the town hall meetings were a horrendous idea -- why provide a forum for disgruntled zealots and corporate shills to air their opinions? Apparently, the lessons of the 1994 health care debate and the 2000 election protests in Florida were lost on the present administration.
I'm so, so tired of the "He's playing chess, and everyone else is playing checkers" argument -- I'd rather have an aggressive checkers players intent on winning than a timid chess player hoping not to lose.
Yea but he lost his queen.
http://belowthebeltway.com/2009/08/01/barney-...
about how Obama was "playing chess" really knew what they were talking about.
The basic strategy of chess, in the general case, involves for the most part the sacrifice of the pawns (which can be seen as the lower classes) in order to protect the ruling pieces. Since I am not a member of the ruling class, I feel less than comfortable with the idea of Obama indeed playing chess.
He should be playing Go.
I am not interested in a president playing games. I much rather have a president that does what he says, and says what he does.
This whole trying to read between the lines, and looking at the tea leaves is getting ridiculous.
I couldn't agree more!
be playing for keeps
!
memory of an assassinated president to pass meaningful legislation.
If we make this about just Obama, the anti-reformist have already won. And, they will keep winning.
We need better laws. Congress writes laws. Executive (President) enforces the laws. This is grade school material!
Congress must be held accountable, not only for the health care fiasco but for all of the problems with legislation. It is their job, they should be doing it competently or we should wake up and fire their asses. I remember the Nixon era throw the bums out ... well, guess what they are all back.
If we find we can't throw them out due to corporate spending in primaries and election cycle, we then need to take to the streets (not violently, as a civil action) until we the people do indeed have a government of, for and by the people again.
Notwithstanding the division of authority between the executive and legislative branches, it has been plain for the last 70 years that presidents wield an inordinate amount of influence in articulating a vision for the country's direction, and thus setting the table for legislation.
OF COURSE Congress must be held accountable; but to deny the fact that the administration has thus far mishandled the matter of health care reform only provides a cushion for further error.
This was clearly a trial balloon. Sebellius was sent out with marching orders to "downplay" the public option and "test the waters."
And then they got hit and the message came clear: the public option is more "essential" than either the Democratic or Republican party.
So now she "misspoke." And plausibly so, yes. It isn't THE essential element, it's only AN essential element.
Of course. Naturally.
This round goes to the good guys. If we'd all shrugged our shoulders and accepted co-ops as the compromise of the compromise, the public option would be off the table this week.
Next up: cap and trade. "Cap" isn't, um, "the" essential element, right? We can make up for it with more trade.
Or did I just "misspeak?"
(BTW, everyone should go see "In The Loop." "Wag The Dog" meets the British version of "The Office." Great "inactive statement" farce.)
Sebelius can play with my balloons.
It is all a farce, and mere bitching about it will not do anything.
But bitching ABOUT the bitching will do...what again?
They just removed the (previously) uncontroversial end-of-life counseling provisions from the Senate bill. Why? Bitching.
Never underestimate the power.
They just removed the provision that would allow insurance (public options) to pay for the doctors time while counseling patients on the decisions they are faacing? Why are they against the doctors getting paid for their time?
or "How I Wasted My Political Capital"
Here's what Dean said this morning on Morning Joe. He said the bill coming out of the house will have the public option in it. The bill from the senate will not have the public option in it. He said they should go to reconciliation and since they know they will probably get no republican votes on the final bill anyway, they should put the public option in the final bill and the dems should or will pass it.
Wow, I can't imagine there's ANYONE who is surprised by Obama's latest attempt to cave in to the neocons.
Hasn't this guy got any BALLS?
Just another Democratic wimp.
it seems premature to me. this could be strategy. obama is up against the opposition in political history.
... the famous "playing dead" strategy. Brilliant!
;-)
i forgot he's had 6 plus months to fix everything.
Oh, and by the way, fox and friends this morning seemed to think the public option was dead so they started bitching about the co-op proposal. The rascals refuse to be pleased.
Of course. And when the bitch-out the co-ops, they'll start bitching about the pre-existing condition regulations. And when the Dems cave on THAT, they'll start bitching about provisions against removing sick patients from the rolls after a lifetime of paying premiums. And when the Dems cave on THAT, they'll start bitching about Obama celebrating fuckin' Flag Day.
You know who else had a flag? Hitler.
You know who else had a flag? Hitler.
I laughed!
this is capitalism. there's too much money/influence from K-street in wahington. obama has intentions of health care cost reform but congress/lobbyist write the bill/legislation. the notion that obama is trying to create an illusion/attempt at health care reform but has alternative motives to not deliver isn't fair in my thoughts.
override BHO's veto?
The way news reports were painting it, the going looked pretty grim. I don't care so much about the public option as long as some reform happens. The healthcare industry has too long been an oligopoly that can do anything they want. Either way, as long as I see results, I am happy.
.. is that nothing short of a single-payer public option (but it can be Canada-style public insurance not British public system) will stop the market forces that create the current situation.
With no competition, and yet another "reform" regulation, insurance and healthcare companies can still do what they do. They will just need a little more paperwork to file to document the loophole they decide to use. They are creative, if none are in the legislation, they can make new ones. They can charge you for the added paperwork too.
The minority, the guys who LOST last November, are telling the majority what they can and can't have? WTF?
I know it's too early, but if there is no public option, then Barack and Joe have cowered down to the crooks, liars and loonies. If the final healthcare bill is not up to code, I'm sitting the next election out.
Please gentlemen, show us you're not like the other politicians. Prove us wrong.
Don't sit the election out, vote socialist.
And while you are at it, enlighten ten of your friends to do the same.
You will never take the country back by voting Republicrat.
I'll support the Dems next election IF they get this thing through with a public option. Carrot and stick.
But, seeing as how they won't, I'm going full commie. The Greens are too right wing for me now.
Comrade!!!
.
>...then Barack and Joe have cowered down to the crooks, liars and loonies." They won't have cowered down, they will prove that they are to be counted as being one of them.
And, yes, a robust public option really is that important.
Progressives need to push back, not delude ourselves. We should push for medicare for all--for single payer. Public option was the compromise, and even that we'll have to fight for.
to the whitehouse today are overwhelmingly for public option or medicare for all.
The 'Public Option' is far less than Medicare for all.
Medicare for all is the LEAST we should have.
!!!
suckers!
you could have used all the rage from bush to cut off the head of the monster by having publicly funed elections but you actually trust that any politician would actually stand for something other than lining his own pocket.
obama is weak and corrupt and america has been reduced to a third world country. in a short time the streets of america will be like the corrupt war torn countries in africa.
where do you think your corporate masters will be then.
suckers!
?
Especially with polling numbers so high in favor of a public option?
The opposition is not from voters; it is from insurance money. How does "re-branding" in any way address this opposition unless the re-branding directly and positively affects insurance profits?
They figured it worked for Phillip Morris and for Blackwater.....
Susie M., I think you are deluding yourself.
It's hard to realize that Obama is not the politician we thought he was. Granted, Obama is much better than Bush/McCain, and Obama may still prove me wrong by pulling a rope-a-dope on the Senate (bunch of assholes if you ask me), but my gut doesn't sense it.
I'm sorry Susie, but Obama is surrounded by many of the same Demo beltway crowd that think they know what's good for the country, but are strongly influenced with only what's good for their status in Washington.
Also, why do these assholes play with my emotions. Do they think I'm stupid or something? (Maybe they do.)
As far as a final verdict on Health Care legislation, I've come to trust Bernie Sanders. What's good for Bernie Sanders is good for me.
endlessly bitching about it and discussing it while they get their way because we don't actually do anything about it. Talk is cheap. And distracting.
Talk is cheap and free (for now), maybe that's why we've called Freedom of Speech.
This issue of Public Universal Health Care as a Human Right will not fade, and it will be a defining principle for Progressives and their roll with the Democratic Party in the future. It will be in back of our minds for the rest of our political lives.
As far as distracting -- if I can distract the boneheads who compromise everything away that I thought I was voting for, then I shall be doing a lot of distracting. So, I will put my bumper sticker in the window, vote and canvass (if I think the politician can keep a pledge), hold that street sign on the corner, and when I'm on the Internet, I will
bitchdistract.You only distract those who think like you do from acting. The others don't care what you think or do, as long as you do not revolt.
People should back off Susie Madrak. She has shown that she deserves our respect and I will continue to show her just that.
I have to beleive the PO will happen. I refuse to beleive that Obama and the Democrats will not hear us with such high public support.
This is a warning to ALL Democrats in Congress in case they don't. If we don't receive a strong PO out of this, I will actively campaign against ALL Democrats in the upcoming elections. Proceed with caution Democrats because it could cost the party dearly.
I agree with your comment and especially the part about Susie. Often times I don't agree with her, but I would never disrespect her or her posts. I try to treat people the way I hope they would treat me.
I also do not believe Obama is just another bought and paid for pol. I remember during the campaign something would come up and everyone would say he couldn't get beyond it, but he always did. I think this too shall pass.
What was it the great sage said?
I was teasing my hair and it bit me.
And a greater sage answered,
"Twas probably just a crab."
Fang?
you and curtilingus are making my side hurt from laughing. thanks, I needed a good laugh.
This is just flat-out disorganization that is going to confuse the hell out of voters. Talk about mixed signals.
Why can't the Democrats get their collective act together?
but the Democrats are way behind the Repuks in framing the debate, probably because they are honest.
They should have named it "Freedom" Health Care or "Mom's Apple Pie" Health Care or even "Ronald Reagan Is Our Hero" Health Care. The Republican bigots would have a hard time arguing with that.
LOL!
When your message is we are trying to help people by giving them the health care they need and the other side is screaming, They're going to kill people, who the hell are the people going to hear first?
Obviously, the Dems HAVE no coordinated game plan. They're just making it up as they go along.
Those three little birds have a plan......
I thing thas plon G
Why not? Perhaps its time for its time for a national referendum, with 3 or 4 clear options?
referendum."
In fact, many people would reasonably say that last November WAS a referendum, however...
It is without precedent, but then again this is an issue that is so fundamental, perhaps the only (nonviolent) means of effecting true change is to bypass ALL the special interests and their paid spokesmen, and put it to a vote. (Would be interesting to see Congress argue AGAINST allowing the public to decide democratically wouldn't it?)
How about ads that said...
"Medicare...has operated more efficiently than private healthcare since it's inception. Shouldn't it be available to everyone?"
"Woman opening letter...'reading'...your claim has been denied due to a pre existing condition....voiceover...isn't this healthcare rationing? Medicare for all...it's right for right now."
If I can come up wiht this in 10 minutes...and i'm a so-called mindless idiot...why can't the White House and hteir Hollywood cronies turn out stuff like this?!?!
How about this for a commercial against regular medical insurance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0_1F0_20mE
Too funny!
Where are those leftwing Hollywood elitests.
Holding fund raisers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06idaVz84Z0
Jim Dean and DFA
http://www.democracyforamerica.com/activities...
Congressional Swithcboard: (202) 224-3121
Yes. Signed. Will see about getting groups here on this later tonight too.
Moderate, occasionally armed (with no intention of using arms against country), redneck southerner will rabble rouse. I don't see my rep. on the supporter list, and he is not a blue dog either.
So, we have been debating this for 60 years, FIX IT NOW!!!
The public option is not the only way to get accountability into the health care system
accountability? is that what the current worry is? i thought it was supposed to be about getting everyone in the country covered, and putting an end to healthcare profiteering. then the inside the beltway conventional wisdom (see, bullshit) declared that health reform was about the budget and $$. but now it is about accountability?
the public option in itself was a cop-out, but now that is what the left has to hope for? screwed again.
We all need to write the White House. I try to do it daily. Let's get busy organizing!
threads like this one make it sound like you're starting to carry the water for the elites who you are all so happy to have access to.
My advice...stop inviting them to your events. Stop giving them the opportunity to suck you in and using you.
The same way we can tune out the MSM...we can tune you out.
The internet is still open territory, and true progressive sites can be established very easily.
We are PROGRESSIVES, and as progressives we've had enough of watching the legacy of FDR, JFK, and MLK be undermined at ever turn. We are tired of being marginalized by being called unpatriotic, unAmerican, socialists, communists and made to be perceived as some great threat to this country.
Without Progressives...there would BE no middle class. No black vote. No women's vote. No unemployment insurance. No Social Security. No 40 hour work week. No paid vacations....and I can go on and on.
The elites in this country never GAVE the people anything. The people had to take it. It's all they understand.
People who brought about change were people from all stripes.
yeah...alot of them wound up wearing stripes.
Progressivism isn't identity politics. Want to know who progressives are...working people.
Want to play politics on this and win...do what the GOP told the Dems not to do when the Dems took over...make this a CLASS WAR.
Watch the GOP shit themselves in fear. That's how FDR got the New Deal passed. He went right to the people with his fireside chats. He educated them, and they rose up en masse against the elites...and elected him to FOUR terms.
as a Nation. We became to comfortable.
As the middle class grew...it got fat and happy...and forgot its roots. They got lazy...and then elected the flag waving Ronald Reagan into office...and he proceded to shove it up the ass of the people that elected him.
The rest as they say...is history.
Reagan convinced people the country operated for the benefit of the hard working, the newly arrived, or the oppressed.
So people went to sleep and enjoyed consumerism, MTV, entertainment, or sports while others began the process of robbing everyone of nation and future.
As of today Reagan probably couldn't imagine how wildly successful it's been.
He must be smiling in his grave.
Ummm...Reagan probably cannot recall why he is smiling in his grave.
Down here, I don't think we are dumber. Yes, you could be insulting and say the south is as dumb as it was before, but that is simplifying it to much.
You are losing the propaganda war down here. You are losing to Fox and WND.com. Period. It is a media war for the lower class. The elites are winning it.
is indeed dumb. If a simple propaganda campaign can make them proactively work against their very own interests?
Although, that could be said about large portions of the population of the US... not just the South.
It's a step in the right direction if implemented correctly. People can still screw up a good plan or program (hence FEMA).
One thing I read about the co-op program is that it could help establish some national regulatory body to govern all health care insurance. Which is needed anyways.
There is no way regional co-ops can compete against multinational insurance companies.
They are set up to fail.
And the politicians are going to sell it to us by saying..."Trust Us".
Yeah...right. Been there...done that...and had to PAY for the shirt.
which is the main reason why we are in the pickle we find ourselves in right now.
Health Care or Obama?
If the administration fails to deliver a good plan, those of us who worked for the campaign, will once again be apathetic and 2010 could be precarious. I voted for Hope & Change and I am getting tired of regressing instead of progressing. I will be dead before we move forward in this country!
this isn't just an American problem it's humanity as a whole. Especially when you take into account people's almost infinite appetite for distractions.
gets past Congress, and find excuses why it couldn't be any better...
arrive in the showrooms and malls around 2011. About the same time all the mortgage-backed-securities currently sitting in Wall Street's vaults melt into a monumental puddle of radioactive goo.
The "co-op" is a republican idea. From what I've heard, there is no track record of it ever working.
The co-op idea is exactly what insurance corporations desire. They can control co-ops and they can destroy them.
Obama's mediocrity on healthcare reform, I mean, health insurance reform, I mean, co-op reform, I mean, NO REFORM is catastrophic at this point. His GD bipartisanship is killing his own party, and it will lead to the downfall of this country, economically.
Thanks to Harry Reid, and his generous gift of delay (summer recess) to the Senate, what was left of the Democratic Party is quickly dying.
Damn all these people. Damn the republicans for hating this country so much. Damn every one of them.
And again I say:
Why didn't Obama FIRST break up the right-wing ownership of media before tackling ANY major reform? The media has been spreading nothing but propaganda. Certainly this president has enough gray matter to realize this...then again, it's looking doubtful that he did. Either that, or he's just a republican himself.
After seeing the lunatics at the town halls crying "fascism!!!" you really think taking their right-wing pro-corporate media away from them would help matters? Obama would be playing right into their hands by proving all their fears real.
I know, you don't care, but actions have consequences, and the fruitcakes must be dealt with as the very dangerous people that they are.
But as always, in theory, Obama could have just done anything he wanted now that he's King. It's so easy, according to the Liberal hordes.
Damn, are there any people left here who live in the real world?
That first sentence of yours is so off-the-wall, I need to use the handy-dandy "Ignore user" feature here. Bye.
Why didn't Obama FIRST break up the right-wing ownership of media before tackling ANY major reform?
Because it would take a Constitutional amendment.
He can't get agreement in his own party about Health Insurance Reform, I PROMISE you he couldn't get any support for breaking up the media monopoly...
Actually, I don't think it would take a Constitutional amendment any more than the break-up of Ma Bell.
One has Freedom of Speech, not Freedom to all outlets.
Look at the way liberalism has been effectively silenced by the MSM.
All they need to do is amend or pass a successor to the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and restore the Fairness Doctrine.
They could probably Trust Bust a number of them already by just getting the DOJ involved.
I AM watching Dean. And Dean is saying, "You can't really do health reform without [the public option]".
Source here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32446157/ns/polit...
The republicans have got to love it as they sit back and see the dems fighting amongst ourselves and ripping into the president. That was their job but now we are doing it for them.
When you have a president that is glaringly mincing and dicing his words from one week to the next, what do you expect? I mean really, it's nice of you to report on how we're fighting amongst ourselves. But what do you expect?
You don't sound as pissed off as your name suggests.
I've been watching and listening to this man, Obama, backslide and change his wording since he took office. Now he appears to be breaking his promise in true healthcare reform.
You aren't pissed off about this?
Do share your alternative solution.
to the perfect corporatist solution. Too little, too late.
The GOD of Washington D.C.
if Team Obama didn't bail out the banks, wall street, the corporations, and big finance.
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