I’m a Democrat. But I believe what Republican Abraham Lincoln believed: That Government should do for people only what they cannot do better by themselves, and no more. That’s why my education reform offers more competition, and more control for schools and States. That’s why we’re getting rid of regulations that don’t work. That’s why our health care law relies on a reformed private market, not a Government program.
- President Barack Obama, State of the Union address, 2012.
Oh dear. Am I supposed to be a good little Democrat and stand up and cheer for this kind of feel-good, all-too-conservative campaign rhetoric?
I can't. I'm too busy trying to figure out how I'm going to pay a $5000 copay on my recent gall bladder surgery. Coincidentally, I just got done reading about a woman who not only made use of the ACA's pre-existing condition plan, she posted her own picture online to thank President Obama.
I know that feeling. When I found out I was eligible for this insurance, I was so relieved, I cried. I just had to hang on long enough to get the surgery done.
But afterward, the reality sinks in. You not only went into debt you couldn't afford to get the surgery you need, you still have to come up with enough money to pay that insurance premium every month. (And you still have to come up with a way to pay the medical bills you incurred before you got the insurance.)
President Obama wants to brag about our "reformed" private insurance market? Seriously? We have this thing called the internet now, we can see what other countries do about health care. Hint: Not this.
Here's what that same young woman (she has several chronic conditions and lost her part-time job when she took leave for her surgery) wrote Monday:
I’m still stupidly bummed, broke and haven’t had any sales in the shop in like a week (despite listing five new items last week) which doesn’t help. I also don’t think I’ll be able to raise $237 before the end of the month to pay February’s PCIP premium and that sucks really bad. Without sales coming in, I don’t have enough so I don’t know what to do about that. I hate being so broke and in medical bill debt Hell. I mean, I’m thrilled to be healthy but it feels like, at what cost, you know? What good is it to be healthy if you’re ruined because of it?
She's got a point, Mr. President. Me, I still have the exact same complaint about the Affordable Care Act that I did when you were trying to pass it: The subsidies aren't enough. The co-pays are too big. This is only what passes for "affordable" when you're a millionaire politician.
These desperate times calls for big changes, not corporate-friendly tweaks of the existing system. That's what I'm still waiting to hear.
...but remember, there are no subsidies for copayments online yet. Or for premiums, unless you're covered under the pre-existing conditions plan.
If both of us were hit with these health care issues in 2014, it wouldn't be like this. Unless, of course, the insane GOP succeed at getting the whole thing repealed.
So in 2014 there will be help with co-pays and premiums? God, I hope i make it two more years before they destroy me.
The pre-existing condition plan has the subsidies built in, it's why the premium is affordable.
But the co-pays aren't. Millionaire politicians always think it's better for our character if we're on the hook for something.
A former award-winning journalist and lifelong class warrior, keeping a jaundiced eye on the Washington elite.
I guess that really depends. Of course they are lower than what the insurance co.'s would have you pay, but they still get their money.
The pre existing condition issue could have been resolved with a much smaller bill that didn't shove it up the ass of consumers while enriching the insurance companies AGAIN.
"Ironic, isn't it Smithers? This anonymous clan of slack-jawed troglodytes has cost me the election, and yet if I were to have them killed, I would be the one to go to jail. That's democracy for you." --Mr. Burns
why are only 35,000 people enrolled in that program? Somehow I doubt that number even comes close to the number of people who need it.
Additionally, one has to go six months before one can even apply, assuming one can afford the rates. That will undoubtedly weed out a lot of people from the pre-existing condition group, due to impending morbidity.
Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit atrocities.
We'd love to have you.
Of course we've got problems of our own too. (But we do have free healthcare. For the moment.)
There's a point system, and once you're over 40, you start losing points. Also, you need to have liquid cash available. For a single person, it's around $8,000. For a couple, it's around $12,000. I'm not sure what it is for families with children. In any case, not many people have 8- or more thousand dollars laying around. You also need documented proof that you have worked for at least two years in one of a list of approved occupations. You need to shot W2s or similar tax documents as proof. So just moving to Canada isn't a simple matter. I know all this because after George W. Douche was re-elected in 2004, I was seriously committed to bugging out of this backwards shit hole. Canada was my first choice. Australia and New Zealand have similar point systems. If you have a spouse or employer in Canada, that greases the wheels a bit. But without those, it's difficult.
I cannot understand why more Americans are simply not crossing it and taking all those tough, dirty jobs lazy Canadians just won't do in order to get good health care and quality free schools.
Shucks, most American won't even face a language barrier if they pick the right parts of Canada.
And they even have pro football.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Well sort of.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
You've got Hockey Night in Canada, and the piquant insights of the North's nattiest dresser, Don Cherry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdJp5-g69go
Love it.
I don't understand the point you're trying to make.
and all the excoriation of the US of America and all that is wrong with it, we don't see much of a movement northward in that direction.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
as I stated, there's a point system that makes it difficult for most people.
.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
It was a whole lot easier for my wife, an American citizen, to come here than for me to go there. And because of my sponsorship she will shortly be eligible for our health care. That's one down... Perhaps I should add that she has no intention of giving up her citizenship and I wouldn't ever ask her to.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
your fantasy football league.
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
?
Corruption favors the wealthy.
More like:
Mr. Pistov P. Rogressive: This country is so ridden with crypto facists and both parties have sold us out and destroyed the quality of life for All Americans that I am ready to leave!
ricky: Bullshit.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Since 9-11 there has been a massive change on the border. Once very small crossings now have huge buildings (on the US side) and the Canadians are trying to play catch up. There are remote sensors and all the new fangled technology (probably drones soon, if not already) that you can imagine to catch terrorists, or migrant workers, who are for many Amerikans, the same thing.
Crossing the border has become a lot like flying; in fact I wouldn't be surprised to see pat downs implemented at the land border soon. Sort of becoming like North Korea under our Dear Leaders.
I cross the border a lot and I've really noticed a tightening of security.
I think you are overreacting. That's pretty much what the Constitution says. And, by the way, I'm politically farther to the left than most people in this country.
Apparently not further than me.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
Or anything even remotely like that?
Article I, Section 8:
Yet somehow this power to spend for the general welfare is restricted to "only what [the people] cannot do better by themselves, and no more"?
Where does the Constitution do that?
Corruption favors the wealthy.
"pretty much says" are kind of like "provide for the general welfare" in that they leave a little more wiggle room for debate than "Congress shall make no law."
I kinda liked the Texzas politician who once said "Fed-eral Gummint's got three jobs: Defend Our Shores, Deliver Our Mail, and Leave us the Hell Alone." Course by now he's probably changed his mind on number two.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Which that Texas politician seems to have read into the Constitution as well as LynneA who is, of course: "politically farther to the left than most people in this country."
Corruption favors the wealthy.
than "the bulk" of people.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
the Preamble actually says to "provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare,......"
Unfortunately, there's a difference between Providing and Promoting big enough to drive a Mack truck through (do we still make them?) - and all of our politicians are eager to split these hairs to further confuse the plebs.
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
SOTU was all smoke and mirrors. Nice rhetoric, no reality. Recap of the problems, no presentation of solutions.
Typical Obama.
"Ironic, isn't it Smithers? This anonymous clan of slack-jawed troglodytes has cost me the election, and yet if I were to have them killed, I would be the one to go to jail. That's democracy for you." --Mr. Burns
but could you suggest a State of the Union Address which was all fresh air and vision? Hard based reality with suggestion which were followed?
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
I prefer my bread without the circus, thank you very much.
"Ironic, isn't it Smithers? This anonymous clan of slack-jawed troglodytes has cost me the election, and yet if I were to have them killed, I would be the one to go to jail. That's democracy for you." --Mr. Burns
and critiquing the clowns, right. And more power to you for that.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Well, if they're gonna drive the clown car down my street...
"Ironic, isn't it Smithers? This anonymous clan of slack-jawed troglodytes has cost me the election, and yet if I were to have them killed, I would be the one to go to jail. That's democracy for you." --Mr. Burns
Me, I still have the exact same complaint about the Affordable Care Act that I did when you were trying to pass it: The subsidies aren't enough. The co-pays are too big. This is only what passes for "affordable" when you're a millionaire politician.
But...it was the best we could get!! We were told we HAD to support it...otherwise, all would be lost!!
Oh, and the only complaint you ever had about the Affordable Care Act was with all the left wing progressives who told you out of the gate that it sucked.
"Ironic, isn't it Smithers? This anonymous clan of slack-jawed troglodytes has cost me the election, and yet if I were to have them killed, I would be the one to go to jail. That's democracy for you." --Mr. Burns
telling the truth is too radical, not politically viable, won't sell, can't sell. monopoly capitalism has this country in it's grip, so you get healthcare coverage, what is given with one hand will be taken away with the other. food will go up, drugs will go up, health care costs will go up, the cost of "affordable care" will go up, the ruling class controls the market.
unless and until we have single payer, plus a cap on corporate profits, they will find a way around the system, kind of like the terminator.
thanks to DNCers and Third Wayers appeal to the DINO's and the mythological "independent" they are so anxious to win over.
In the meantime Obama et al, are selling US public schools to their corporate donors, Rupert Murdoch being one of the benefactors. There is no light between Obama and Bush's edu-privatization efforts.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/10/25-1
Stan Karp (director of NJ Education Law Center and editor of Rethinking Schools) reveals their strategy:
that they wanted a black president elected so "everyone" would swallow their pablum...
I guess its easier to enact more draconian measures this way.../s
edu-profiteers and donors here:
http://dferwatch.wordpress.com/
You cry babies forgot to mention what the cost of your surgery would have
been without the new health care ??
Come on how much would you have saved? And hell what if you just
forego the surgery to save money, how much better off would you be?
Don't forget the President had single payer universal healthy care in the
original version of this bill, the republicans killed it, nd then people like you
gave the republicans the house. GOOG LUCK, you are your own worst enemy
Obomber promised a 'public option' but it was never his intention.
More power to the Big Pharma/Health Insurance lobby was his mode from day one.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
It was not politically possible then. The thing to do, of course, is to work to make it politically possible.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
early in the process in exchange for special interests not campaigning against ACA so that he could take credit for passing a nice sounding but lame piece of legislation, similar to what Nixon did with the Clean Air Act.
"try for a public option." He said, "Any bill I sign must include an insurance exchange, including a public option, to keep insurance companies honest."
He didn't say, "I promise to try for a public option." He said the bill "must include...a public option."
You are deluded. President "Surrender First" always gives away the house BEFORE any demands are made. He's a disaster and the health care reform bill is an abomination. Educate yourself. Maybe here.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/health/poli... Kahn Baucus public option&st=sce&srp=2&pagewanted=all
as evil cheating bastards, I am always amazed when one gets trotted out as the source
we should rely on to verify something which reinforces a point or belief of those doing the trotting.
Chip Kahn, the guy who brought us "Harold and Louise" on behalf of his insurance clients in the 1990's is no more believable in this century than he was in the last one.
Remember, just Monday and even Tuesday Obama was announcing a deal with the banks in his SOTU according to reliable sources.
Glad fiver is herfeabouts. Kahn is one of his favorite ponies to trot around one ring while L&P cackles about clowns in the other.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
That a lobbyist will lie and mislead on behalf of its client is not really up for debate. Is there anyone denying that?
But here we have a statement which the lobbyist simply has no reason to lie about. Morevoer, the White House hasn't denied this. Instead, Obama noted that while he campaigned on the public option it he never said it was a deal breaker. In other words: he never pinky sweared.
Also, when it came down to two bills, one with the public option and one without, Obama put pressure on progressive Representatives to abandon their commitment to the public option and not on those opposing the public option.
Finally, we have Obama's quote right here touting his reliance on the private market and not "a Government program."
There's not only no reason to disbelieve this POS lobbyist who the White House cut a deal with, there's plenty of verification including the President's own words last night..
Corruption favors the wealthy.
a ricky swing and a miss
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/03/23/chip...
without health care coverage of any sort. It makes their day.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
which lends even more credence to the evidence that the white house worked with both the insurance lobby and phrma to cut a deal in order to get the health insurance reform passed
I will take it personally and point out you flat deleted part of the Times article and added to something that was not there nto make it fit your desired outcome. That is not swinging and missing, it is lying.
From the NYT:
Several hospital lobbyists involved in the White House deals said it was understood as a condition of their support that the final legislation would not include a government-run health plan paying Medicare rates — — generally 80 percent of private sector rates —— or controlled by the secretary of health and human services.
“We have an agreement with the White House that I’m very confident will be seen all the way through conference,” one of the industry lobbyists, Chip Kahn, director of the Federation of American Hospitals, told a Capitol Hill newsletter.
Notice in your quote the appearance in brackets of the words [the public option.] They are not in the Times article.
Kahn didn't mention the magic words necessary to prove your point of White House perfidy, so you invented and inserted them for us.
Your credibility is zero.
Notice also in your coment attempting to refute me using the WSJ blog, that Mr. Kahn is getting credit for cutting deals with lawmakers limiting the hit hospitals took in the bill on Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement. Not cutting deals with the White House. Not killing the public option.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
for that i do apologize, i had copied and pasted from this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/miles-mogulescu...
and, i wanted to get the original link, from the nytimes, which i supplied. if you notice the huffpost article contains the quote i provided. that is where any deletion occured. not by me.
i take full responsibility for the confusion--that was bad on my part.
right back up.
And Celebrity HuffPo stayed where they always have been.
Thanks for the follow up.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
never trust a quote from huffpost without checking to make sure said quote has not been massaged by some yahoo
lesson i should have known
The Professional Left wanted this deal. So, shut up and eat your peas.
"Ironic, isn't it Smithers? This anonymous clan of slack-jawed troglodytes has cost me the election, and yet if I were to have them killed, I would be the one to go to jail. That's democracy for you." --Mr. Burns
True L&P. Remember how when those of us pointed out that Obama's health care "reform" was nothing but a Big Insurance and Big Pharma sell out, we were told that we were whining because we didn't get our pony or some such shit. Just as most of us feared, Obama's practically guaranteed a second term, so he doesn't even have to pretend anymore. If liberals think they were fucked already, just wait for what's coming down the pike in Mr Hopey Change's second term (First up, signing off on the Keystone Pipeline. You can practically bet next month's rent money on it).
If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're gonna get selfish, ignorant leaders.
George Carlin
could think was how Obama now feels free to let his inner republican out for full display,. He's able to do this by the totally unsavory republican candidates who make up his opponents. Even I have been resigned to vote for him again these past few weeks/months. But I got to tell you, most every time he opens his mouth he sounds like a republican a**hole.
ROFLMAO!
Choking on my coffee.
But it was worth it.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
to elect people to national office who have the slightest clue what it's like to be citizen un-united to the purse strings of the 0.001% or giving a shit aside from the same glib-ass specious platitudes. So it took nearly three decades for Reganomics to hit white folks outside of Pittsburgh, Detroit and the Gulf Coast? Any odds on how long it'll be before the VP steps out of the race... Or how long it'll take the GOP to go through Rubio and Christie for the perfect hooded, theocratic thug... http://www.thelostogle.com/2012/01/23/frosted...
what it's like to be one of the nameless underclass, the people you see working at mickey d's, the grocery store, picking up the trash, walking down the street with no job, no car, no public transit. the two, or three jobs people work to not even make ends meet, where the multi-national corp. with outlets in 40 countries keeps your hours below 28 so they can avoid the bother of paying insurance; this is what is going on and our most beneficent emperor says nothing about it.
when will it sink in to liberals that he is one of "them"? a technocrat, an apparatchik? a willing quisling of the corporate class?
Jefferson CO, Alabama, or losing their piddling food stamps here in Dauphin CO, Pennsylvania... or watching drought turn to flood in TX today. Who do you think they need protection from the most?
( ) Osama bin Laden
( ) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
( ) ALEC
( ) Their corrupt city council
( ) Their boss' boss in Russia, Brazil or India
( ) Fucking Monsanto
http://www.truth-out.org/have-super-rich-sece... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornerstone_Spee... http://www.alternet.org/news/153821/how_right...
Yeah, Mr Hopey Change, sing that free-market gospel! If by now you're not convinced that this guy is really a Republican, you're not paying attention.
If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're gonna get selfish, ignorant leaders.
George Carlin
just think, those high co-pays and insurance premiums are helping out our friends in obama's beloved for-profit healthcare system
and, i am sure the obama money bundlers hope, they will in turn (despite their public rhetoric) donate to the o-man's reelection fund. QPQ.
who said reagain's dream was dead? it is morning for some, mourning for others in america.
And good luck.
If they hassle you for payment, tell them you want your gall bladder back. I deal with the past hospital bills by calling them and telling them (1) if they put it into collection, they definitely won't get paid, and (2) if they call or harass me, they definitely won't get paid. Usually they will work out something, even if you just keep in touch without a regular payment plan.
And take your time, they're happy to get anything now-a-days.
You make very valid points here, but the fact of the matter is, we were LUCKY to get what we got. If the president had insisted on any more ideas than he did, we simply wouldn't have healthcare reform. I think President Obama understands that no, healthcare is by no means perfect, but what we did get is as a result of compromise. That's the only way to truly get things done. Maybe it will get better in the future, but in the meantime, we have MUCH MUCH more than we did originally. Obama is good at looking at the bigger picture and considering the long-game, not just immediate gratification. It's simply not realistic.
real health care reform. The crazy bastard Bush got EVERYTHING he wanted (illegal wars of aggression, torture, wire tapping US), and Obama can't do better than he did with health care reform? He dealt away single payer and negotiating prices with BigPharma without even trying. He's a corporate stooge and "low information" voters like you enable him to continue on his way. Personally I want this useless Goldman-Sachs pawn gone by January 2013.
I have given up on the corrupt corporate Dems after voting for them all my life (with a few exceptions, Ralph Nader, a true PUBLIC SERVANT, twice) and nothing has changed, things get worse every year. And you want to defend him? You can't win legislative battles if you don't try. Obama's "long game" is keeping himself in power long enough to secure his place as a 1%er for the rest of his life. Nothing more.
Get real .Do you realize how close the vote was on the bill he did get passed ? He got what he could get , the public option was not possible , had no chance of passing , none . You and a lot of others just don't get it , Obama isn't all powerful , he can't snap his fingers and say OK , this is what I want , this is how it will be and it's a done deal , he needs to get bills through Congress , they have to approve it what ever it is . To top it all off the rules are so screwed up now that one person can can block even the friggin vote and it's not simple majority rule , Obama has to get 60 votes in the Senate ! It's nuts ! !00 % of the Republican party only want him to fail , it is their policy , their M.O. to obstruct and block everything he tries to do , he can't even rely on members in his own party . Bush had complete cooperation within his own party , if one stepped outta line they were in deep shit . Bush had complete power and control of Congress for all but what ? Three years ? He had a majority in both houses . We need to give Obama a good majority in Congress ... or maybe you'd be happier with Gingrich ?
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
Especially with a president who actively opposes it:
Corruption favors the wealthy.
As I recall his attempt to privatize SS flew like a lead balloon.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
efforts.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
And George Bush was subsequently rewarded as hosting the most ineffective presidency since Herbert Hoover and almost inarguably the most incompetent, ideologically-obsessed and destructive leaders to ever come to political power in the U.S., PERIOD.
If Obama did the exact same thing as completely disrespecting the Constitution's balance of powers when it came to Bush and the neocons instating this War on Terror and Iraq combat nonsense, than he WOULD be the two-faced, unabashed free-market Rethuglican his progressive/liberal critics chide him on a little too much for reasoned discourse. Since Bush succeeded the first budget surplus in nearly half a century, an America in no wars and featuring the largest expansion of its middle class ever, HE didn't face the top down vehement obstructionism Obama has faced since the second after he DECLARED his presidency. I shouldn't even have to go through all the hell that his opponents and detractors have put us through that were in NO PART related to something he violated or did wrong. If you prefer this all-or-nothing totalitarianism in getting legislation and better government into effect, than don't call America home, sweet home and get on over to China and Cuba. EVERYTHING in America, progressive or otherwise anything to the political Left, has only been realized and accomplished in increments and moderation here. Would he still be indefensible failure if he had just given the whole thing up and failed to pass ANYTHING? Are you better off right now and when the AHCA takes its full implement or when the Reich Wing reapeals it, if victorious in November, and makes us dyed in the wools slaves to corporate fascism? Take your pick but give it some critical thought with no knee-jerking attached, please...
President Obama is like the AHCA his administration miraculously passed: marginally helpful, efficient enough to be built upon, and will only become a uniform disaster if Republicans win 2012 & repeal it (with all the other good he did)!
Like, not dying?
Don't tell me the only way to get things done is compromise.
Adolf Snyder and the GOP Hitler youth that stormed Lansing last year, passed the most radical fascist agenda since the days of the 1930's Wiemar republic.
They came in and said "they didn't give a damn what the democrats - or the people wanted!" They were going to do what they wanted, just like Walker and Kasich.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
but you can't take the plantation mentality out of the slave.
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
with a collar, too.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
how adorable!
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
When you figure out why your comment should be labeled as racist, report back.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
to the herring fishermen.
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
like when the dean of Clown College calls others clowns. Is it a term of endearment or a crushing display of hypocrisy?
We'll never know.
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
I said it was a compliment to be called the Dean by someone working on his associates degree there.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
derp..
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
.
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
about Haitians needing to be exploited by Western interests for their own good.
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
for you to fire up your Logical Fallacy Accusatron 3000. You should spring for the explanation option so you could try and support some of your opinions. I'm moving up to another thread so stalk away!
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Kollege to operate the LFA 3000. You have to slave your ass off just to get through the prerequisites before you can even touch that sucker.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
THAT'S RACIST!!!!!
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
it is the so-called "Affordable Care Act". One thing that common knowledge in the halls of the Heritage Foundation is the best way to kill a social program is to turn it into a "welfare" program! The "Pay Roll Tax Holiday" was Heritage's plan for Social Security; defund SS, turn it into an "entitlement" , and drag it into the bathroom (you know the drill).
A public Option would have allowed for a sustainable, long term alternative to the private health market. What Obama and the Corporate Democrats have done is execute a "back door bail out" of the Health Insurance companies! Kill any real competition (public option) and deliver thousands of customers to the Insurance Companies with Government checks in their back pockets. Bleed off the funds, closing the door to any real Health Care reform.
I agree with the writer of this post; ACA is a scam! 90% smoke and mirrors and empty web sites that lead to dead ends. As far as waiting until 2014 for this watered down plan to fully kick in; consider the countless people who have lost their lives, or went bankrupt in the interim. Strange how after TARP was first rejected it took only one week to resubmit the Banks request for "Billions" with no strings attached. When it came to Health Care, we were told, "half a loaf is better than none"; and that if we did not take this deal (ACA) that the subject would not be revisited for decades!
It is , and we are better off .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
I'm not.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
They want to help you with Medicare. Can you contact me at my website, http://susiemadrak.com?
A former award-winning journalist and lifelong class warrior, keeping a jaundiced eye on the Washington elite.
...."That Government should do for people only what they cannot do better by themselves, and no more."....
should also apply to the banksters and corpora-fascists, too?? After all, corporations are 'people' - no?
No more bailouts, no more tax advantages. Right?? Right......hah # ; [
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
Who is Barry?
Barry is the Prez.
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
Obama did say exactly that. Whether he will follow through, or be allowed to, is a whole other story.
There are huge strides yet to be made on improving healthcare. But I do not care that you're having trouble selling beads on Etsy.
But I want to say you really have a lot of nerve criticizing that chronically-ill woman for doing whatever work she can handle to try to keep herself afloat. Shame on you. A little compassion is in order for people caught under the wheels of our economy.
A former award-winning journalist and lifelong class warrior, keeping a jaundiced eye on the Washington elite.
I was getting frustrated with this site for a long time. Too much of Obama is the good guy, Republicans bad when I was seeing very little difference between the two especially from the perspective of my life. Susie you beautifully and elloquantly made the case that I have been advocating privately for quite some time. Thank you for having a blog that wasn't just a Obama cheering section piece. Its direly needed IMHO especially now when we have a President who sometimes doesn't seem to remember which party he is a part of.
Look, I was disappointed in not getting everything I hoped for. But the Dems in the Senate blew their majority with Reid's polite accommodation of GOP obstruction, and the backlash was sure and swift. What we got was this all out effort with barely concealed racism on the far right bottled up and used by the rest of the GOP to seek one thing - to regain both the WH and the 2 houses of Congress by 2012, Obama got what he could get, he was never a liberal but he was on "our" side, not another BUSH republican (War/Oil/Terrorism).
You were able to get an Ins program with a pre-exsisting cond which was impossible b4. I am self-employed I pay about $1000 a month for coverage of my family and myself. I went for a long time without covering myself and after a couple of trips to the ER figured that at 44 I had to get covered. But now there are no lifetime limits and no pre-ex cond or recission and my kids can be on my policy until they are out of college and working on their own.
Also there is a limit built in to the ACA on Corp profits, and when the 2014 deadline comes in the bigs will be dropping out because lower profit margins and Obama will have effectively killed Prvt Health care "coverage" and we will have to have single payer universal.
We are moving forward. Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth. At least you can have your surgery now without re-mortgaging your home or selling everything you have to finally qualify for medicare.
UTEXSpeedy
You were frustrated with this site because there wasn't enough negative coverage of Obama?
You need help.
"I think you've gone over to the bad place"
But please don't become the Right-wing blowhards, ideologues and idiots who are constantly fire and brimstoning every political stance beyond reactionary in criticizing Obama. He is not a messiah, nor a God and cannot make what the majority of Americans want happen in an instant; No president can really, because our system is designed to impose compromise and balance of powers. if he disrespected and blatantly abused that Democratic process, he'd be just as bad a Baby Bush and the Neocon monopoly that got us in this hell hole in the first place. WE GOT WHAT WE VOTED FOR: a pragmatic centrist who was neither the restless progressive most voters we're miscued on NOR the Socialist/Kenyan/Marxist/Communist/Manchurian candidate that is the icing of the fruitcake Right's worst imaginary impulses.
If you have a problem with anything, lets try getting of our buts and supporting the OWS movement and getting that damn Citizens United BS turned over so the corruptiona nd panhandling from both sides of the aisle can stp, and we (the people) will therefore be more in touch with the government than we ever have before. Obama isn't any angel, we get that he has many of the same corporate lobbyists pumping up his campaign and administration. But remember that unlike the previous one, he will lsiten and respond in earnest to our concerns whether we believe his eventual decisions are best or not. If you think that throwing him and the Dems totally out this November and giving it back to the proto-Fascists than you haven't seen Armageddon yet. Make sure you get and vote, if you want your voice to be rightfull and un-hypocritically heard...
President Obama is like the AHCA his administration miraculously passed: marginally helpful, efficient enough to be built upon, and will only become a uniform disaster if Republicans win 2012 & repeal it (with all the other good he did)!
One thing we cannot do for ourselves is pay an unspecified amount of money we don't have and can't get to pay for mandated health insurance for unemployed, uninsured adult children.
"Affordable" health care?
If we could afford it and dealing with the insurance company's exclusions and co-pays and restrictions didn't make every illness or surgery 10x worse, it wouldn't have to be mandated.
I'm a dyed in the wool liberal Democrat, but I am here to tell you there is a cliff ahead and we are hurtling toward it. The bottom is a long way down and it ain't gonna be pretty when we hit.
Cassadia
Insurance co. & healthcare industry, one in the same, keep charges high, force people to buy insurance. Most doctors are quacks, only there to mug victims of accidents and illness. What would it be like if the food industry, police, military, and fire, operated like the healthcare industry.
“The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all, or cannot so well do, for themselves in their separate and individual capacities.” The sense of this differs somewhat from that in which Obama rephrased it. It does not differ nearly so much as Susie's rephrasing accomplished simply by removing the word better. The "object" of government is key. That is something you aim to achieve if only step by step.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
. . . there is nothing in there that could not have been said by George W. Bush or any other right wing, free marketeer, Republican.
It is a wholehearted endorsement of the "let the market work it's magic philosophy," that competition - even in a legalized monopoly/oligopoly like the health insurance industry - is the best if not the only way to go.
And can we finally ditch this silly notion that Obama actually wanted, or will permit, a meaningful public option? As his own words baldly state, such "a Government program" runs counter to his basic philosophy.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
'Cause that is the very opposite of what Obama said and Lincoln's original quote spoke to. Should government undertake things it sucks at just because it can?
Hasa Diga Eebowai
The quote is on the top of the page fergoshsakes. Is your scroll button not working?
Or are you now pretending that you are no longer a right wing, free mardeteer Republican? 'Cause we know different.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
Why did Susie excise the word "better" in her title? Obviously it changes the whole sense of the statement. In other words the usual crap.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
And though your "concern" is immediately addressed with the full quote which begins the piece, that has nothing whatsoever to do with your concern trolling my comment.
I ask again: What's the opposite, Peter?
Corruption favors the wealthy.
Why did she take it out of the title? Not enough room?
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Whether it even remotely applies or not - and it certainly doesn't apply to the point I made that this Barack Obama quote is straight up right wing, free marketeer Republican.
I take it you concede the point.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
but I see no point in continuing the discussion with the willfully obtuse.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
. . . the refusal to even address the point is even stronger evidence than concession.
Thank you.
Feeble attempts to change the subject seem more an admission of attitude than anything else.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
The answer to Susie's "really"? is of course not. Because that isn't what he said and all your arguments are based on Susie's alteration of what Obama said and not what he did say. Only an idiot could not perceive the critical importance of that word "better" in the construction of the political philosophy advanced by Lincoln. That's why Susie had to leave it out. Only in that way could she create a straw man for you to make love to.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
that you are my very own John King. Thanks for the soft ball questions.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
You keep redirecting the conversation to Susie's paraphrasing of a quote she then delivered in full.
My argument stands with the full quote. Indeed, I pointed that out above when I asked if your scroll button was working. Claim all the confidence you like, Peter, but you reek of cowardice today.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
your argument on what Obama actually said then you're just plain wrong.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
But you knew that.
You were just unable to address the point - as you are right now.
Have a nice day.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
The real reason Susie left out "better" in her headline was becasue it wouldn't fit. Just look at all the empty space in that second line.
Just wasn't room.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Just Peter's attempt at distraction.
I have no problem with using the full quote - indeed, I did.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
First Peter was not concern trolling, however you might define that. He brought the issue up before your comment attempting to totally redefine what Obama said.
There were no references to "free market" in Obama's Lincoln paraphrase nor to "magic." Those are the words of an inventor.
No longer content to invent facts, the magic conjurer in his obsession decided to invent words never spoken.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
But Peter is trying to make a very minor omission (which was immediately corrected with the full quote) into his all encompassing response/whine.
It has nothing to do with my point that this President is advocating a right wing, free marketeer philosophy. Peter is simply taking a minor point, blowing it way out of proportion and using it as an all purpose distraction. Seems familiar, huh?
What is about this quote that George W. Bush would have any problem with?
Limited government, deregulation, privatization. Throw in low taxation of the wealthy and you pretty much have W's economic platform.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
that government should intrude on people's lives to do things more poorly than they can do it themselves. Perhaps government should be making reproductive decisions for women. Silly females can't possibly know what's right for themselves. Can they?
Hasa Diga Eebowai
So, you've gone from distraction to a pathetic straw man? Typical.
Limited government. Deregulation. Privatization. That's the Republican economic platform. But it's also your own, which might explain why you're so helpless in pointing out any differences.
And government invading constitutionally protected individual rights has nothing whatsoever to do with conservative economic philosophy.
Did you catch the word "economic"? Of course you did. But hey, throw in a wedge issue. Distraction appears to be all you've got.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
I wonder where in the US constitution you might find that? Give it a read sometime Fiver. You might find a few limitations in there to the powers of government.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
My point, as you well know, is that in this statement, Obama, like yourself, has adopted the Republican economic platform. I asked you to point out a difference, any difference, and you simply can't.
You pretended your little whine about Susie's title was somehow relevant, then you switched and tried to bring abortion into the mix.
Now you pretend it's some sort of constitutional issue?
I just commented that the quoted Obama statement could have been made by any right wing, free marketeer, Republican. I made that quite obvious, and I've repeated it a few times.
Yet you'd rather feign misunderstanding and see if any of your obvious attempts at distraction might stick. That's quite telling in itself.
George W. Bush could have made that statement (with a couple mispronunciations), and so could Peter G.
I don't really know how much more simple I can make it.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
The so-called progressives and liberals are starting to sound more like proto-violent anarchists like all this nonsense and hell the country is suffering is going to happen at the drop of a hat or snap of a finger. Obama can't do THAT MUCH, THAT fast, in THAT amount of time, just like every president preceeding him. This all-or-nothing mindset on everything is exactly why the Tea Baggers and Re-thuglicans are so indescribably unpopular and divisive to the majority of Americans, so make sure your not criticizing merely the trunk and branches that are Obama and not even acknowleding the "deeper roots" of the problem!
President Obama is like the AHCA his administration miraculously passed: marginally helpful, efficient enough to be built upon, and will only become a uniform disaster if Republicans win 2012 & repeal it (with all the other good he did)!
reactionaries in denial say the cutest sweet nothings!
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
racist things.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
?
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
I have never seen people around here call themselves "real" progressives when distinguishing their higher level of righteousness.
They generally use captial "R" as if a trademark couold be involved
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
. . . that when Obama has complete control (when Republican opposition is simply irrelevant) his reaction is to the right - especially the wealthy and powerful right.
Obama just changed Chiefs of Staff from a JP Morgan Chase representative (Bill Daley) to a CitiGroup representative (Jacob Lew). Republicans didn't force Obama into this. It is something he alone did - at the drop of a hat or snap of his finger.
Obama's economy also did turn around at the drop of a hat or the snap of a finger - at least for those Wall Street Bankers and corporate CEOs. One received record bonuses in 2009 the other record profits in 2010.
And when it came to health care reform? He delivered a plan born in the Koch brothers financed Heritage Foundation and actually drafted by a health insurance representative.
Funny how he's so powerless to do anything for the majority of Americans, but has no problems benefiting the wealthy and powerful.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
You are spot on Susie - I cringed when he said that. What a load.
And let me join others in thanking YOU for stepping out from the C&L common practice of giving Obama a pass on most everything he does. When I joined this site it was with the understanding that it calls out Crooks and Liars of ANY political persuasion. But of course that has not been the routine; Obama routinely gets a pass, or those of us who complain are called trolls or disloyal to the Democratic Party. I am NOT a Democrat. I fought the corrupt Dems who ran Georgia in the 50s. I marched against a senseless war championed by Dems in the 60s. And I'm sure as hell not going to remain silent when the Dems participate in sellout out OUR COUNTRY.
Again, thanks Susie for the guts to stand up!
Another false Republican talking point he fully embraced:
"American corporate tax rates are among the highest in the world"
He's trying to co-opt the Republican's entire corporate platform.
I was very depressed after last night's speech.
By the way .. did anyone else notice the two enormous fasces on the wall behind him, on either side of the American flag?
Most recently used as the symbols of the German Fascist Nazi Party?
Previously most famously used by the Roman Empire?
I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
Just sayin'. Anyway, I believe those were installed in the 1950s, but I could be wrong about that.
Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit atrocities.
Crooks and Liars is liberally partisan yes, but us pretending to make a false equivalencies of the so-called Left being as guilt or to blame as the Right on any subject or post mentioned here isn't going to get anything solved at the end of the day. I know people are genuinely frustrated and discontented with the way our government is performing and our elected officials double-handedness, but get with reality. Obama, like any other president before or after him, cannot get anything done if he completely disregards the ideologies and platform of his opponents; the check and balances of power and our Constitution erected statutes of Law and Order to make sure of that. Could he abuse those in the nme of saving the rest of us? YES, but THAT would make him every bit as bad as Baby Bush and the Rethuglicans that got us into this hell hole int he 1st place. Instead of decrying this SOTU as mere smoke & mirrors (which most are, regardless of who's in power) and channeling the rank-and file Tea Baggers foaming at the mouth of their own hyposcrisy, lets talk about CITIZENS UNITED and OWS (how to overturn the former and empower the latter). I got my own criticism and disagreements, but Obama is all but gauranteed a second-term; just wait & see if Romney or Gingrich get elected in November. Your projections about Nazism will than become manifest reality; There IS NO ALTERNATIVE to voting for again for him, hate it or not. Supporting any third party jsut further divides the final tally and a vote for a Republican is just like boiling hot water on a frostbitten hand. NOTHING will get REMOTELY better if the Democrats get trounced this go around. I'm not a love-dovey apologist, but if your starving than hell yeah, I'd prefer that half bread loaf over inching closer to inhumane starvation. Just sayin'...please don't turn into the yo-yo's over on Faux Schnooze who contradict, doubt and trash anything with the 'Obama' and 'Democrat' label because of a few legitimate and outsized disagreements you have with him!
President Obama is like the AHCA his administration miraculously passed: marginally helpful, efficient enough to be built upon, and will only become a uniform disaster if Republicans win 2012 & repeal it (with all the other good he did)!
The thing I wonder if is that if ACA was just the starting point, when are we going to finish? Are we going to have to wait another 10 years before we try again?
C'mon President Obama, it's time to open the door again and start working on Phase II. Everybody is eventually going to get sick, that means everybody is eventually going to be bankrupted by a major illness.
What a country...
Nancy Pelosi said that we must pass the Affordable Care Act NOW...and then we could fix it later.
Unlike so many enablers in here, I do not have "IDIOT" written on my forehead. I knew then it would never happen and it hasn't.
"Ironic, isn't it Smithers? This anonymous clan of slack-jawed troglodytes has cost me the election, and yet if I were to have them killed, I would be the one to go to jail. That's democracy for you." --Mr. Burns
I don't know how the guy sleeps at night.
He took the largest people's mandate in modern history, and sold us right back to the same corporate fascists' we were rebelling against.
And he knew exactly what he was doing too.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
options. I think he sleeps well.
when it was first passed as a program benefitting mostly old white men.
Think old Frankie would have dropped his cigarette holder and apologized for passing half a loaf
to the REAL progressives of that day who were whining about it in a tone familiar to one heard around here?
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
You will not get an honest response.
Because it seems that the many curmudgeons that frequent these boards value being right above all else.
I believe that is the reason that they want Obama to lose in November. It's no longer about specific policies that they claim to care about. It's now about Obama losing.
Then, in their minds they were right.
It's pathetic.
. . . must totally suck for you. Why can't they learn to value other things?
Corruption favors the wealthy.
And nobody here wants Obama to lose in November. That's just your dishonest interpretation.
It's pathetic.
He could've said something like, "And let's not take the same slow, incremental, counsult-Wall-Street-at-every-turn-approach that delayed full implementation of Social Security and universal suffrage and continues to deny civil rights today. In the words of Neil Armstrong, let's take one giant step for mankind."
It keeps coming back to flash over substance. Obama is an advertising campaign. The product looks good on TeeVee, but when you get it home and open the package, it's just another snap-together piece of shit.
BDM, I would love to give you an answer, but I haven't had a chance in my many meetings with Obama to ask him that. He just hands me my check and gives me my blogging assignments.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Is no help but I know what you're going through Susie . I need medical care and tests done , no insurance , no $ , like millions of others our credit is shot now . Have some bad stuff going on , nothing I can do but wait until something big happens , hope to survive long enough ( again ) to get into the ER . Last trip to the ER I received bills totaling 6,000 dollars ( that's right , 6,000 dollars ) ... for a blood test and an EKG and about an hour just laying on the bed with no one around waiting for test results , that was it . Thought for sure that I was having another heart attack but symptoms were due to heart damage from last heart attack , damaged the part of the heart that controls the beat / rhythm . I could go on but you get the picture . Am eligible for medicare in March but sent the card back , can't even afford the $115 for part B or D ... what ever the hell it was . Not a flake , worked all of my life , used to make a half decent living ( and had good insurance ) had to give it up completely and go on disability , am thankful for that much. The health bill is little help to me right now but still is better than was before , has helped Karoli and her family , many others. Merry friggin Christmas , life in America the beautiful .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
You mean that series of tubes?
I sometimes wonder if the DC boys and girls know how to work a computer, much less know about the Net.
Or maybe Obama and the DC crowd thinks we're all idiots and we don't know how other countries' health care.
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