Sold Out Part II

So tonight the broad parameters of Barack Obama’s, Rahm Emanuel’s, and Harry Reid’s big sell out of “Health Care Reform” have become clear-

No reform at all, just a mandate that you spend 20% of your income so that Insurance Companies are guaranteed 20% profits.

Oh, and we’re going to take away your right to choose.

Thanks for nothing Democrats.

Updated!

Now with content!

BREAKING: Harry Reid caves to Lieberman/White House, kill Medicare buy-in and public option

by John Aravosis (DC) on 12/14/2009 07:32:00 PM

Liberal Reaction on Twitter to Health Care reform #fail by Reid and Obama

by John Aravosis (DC) on 12/14/2009 08:04:00 PM

Christmas Miracle?

by digby, Monday, December 14, 2009

Since a Lieberman bill is unlikely to stop at the gutting of the Public Option, Medicare buy-in and the CLASS Act (he will in all likelihood insist on cuts to the subsidies and Medicaid expansion as well) it’s finally possible for me to see a bunch of Democrats voting against health care reform. After all, it would no longer be a Democratic bill and it’s no longer an Obama bill. They will be asked to vote for a Lieberman Republican bill and that isn’t so difficult. And since no Republicans will vote even for a Lieberman bill, the bill dies. That leaves reconciliation which I’m sorry to say probably requires more guts than the Democrats and the White House have.

Anything

by digby, Monday, December 14, 2009

Sign anything? Check.

Incompetent Democrats? Check.

If this happens, we’ll have a Republican bill that won’t work, which no Republicans will vote for and which they will run against for the next decade at least.

It’s Newtie’s wet dream.

Kill Bill? Latest Flips by Lieberman, Nelson Predictable; Require Hard-Line Response

By: Gregg Levine Monday December 14, 2009 6:52 am

It is quite possible that the Senate will produce a bill that contains no public option-or, likely, a mythical and weak PO resting behind a trigger well-nigh impossible to pull-no ban on annual or lifetime caps, no repeal of the insurance anti-trust exemption, no pharmaceutical reimportation, and no real Medicare buy-in (and let me add no community rating and a meaningless loss ratio), all accompanied by an easy opt-out, and a time-lag on any benefits that could be as much as four years. It is also likely the bill will still include an individual mandate, a massive extension on patent protection for biologics, permission to sell national plans, and all the garbage that has been tossed in along the way (like money for abstinence-only education and start-up/conversion funds for state-based cooperatives). And (and I admit I am saying this without any evidence but a gut feeling), I fully expect that, when the smoke clears, we will discover loopholes in the bans on the exclusion of pre-existing conditions and rescission. With all of that, what do we have?

Rahm’s Making the White House Look Terrible

By: emptywheel Monday December 14, 2009 2:56 pm

There Goes the Rest of the Grand Public Option “Compromise”: Losing the Medical Loss Ratio

By: Jon Walker Monday December 14, 2009 3:21 pm

The CBO has just reached an absurd conclusion that will doom one of the other components in Harry Reid’s grand compromise on the public option. The strange decision on the part of the CBO could force Reid to drop the medical loss ratio of 90 percent.

…

With Joe Lieberman flip-flopping on his support of the early Medicare buy-in and Elmendorf’s decision to single-handedly sink the new MLR standard, almost every part of Reid’s grand compromise is gone. From what we know of Reid’s “deal”, the only thing that remains is probably the worthless OPM exchange within the exchange, and possibly a tweak to the Cantwell’s basic health program. Overall, the “compromise” on the public option is looking less like compromise, and more and more like pure capitulation to Joe Lieberman.

The Insanity Which Is The Double-Double-Cross On Drug Re-Importation

By: Jon Walker Monday December 14, 2009 1:23 pm

Basically every other industrialized nation on earth has dramatically lower prescription drug prices because their governments negotiate on behalf of their citizens for lower drug prices. Even for Democrats this common sense solution to our insanely high drug prices is a step too far, so Democrats have been promoting the idea of drug re-importation. Now Democrats like Obama are working hard to kill an idea they once claimed to champion because they fear several Republicans previously opposed to the idea might now support it to get back at PhRMA, in an attempt to get PhRMA to turn on Obama.

…

This has caused one of the strangest possible stand-offs in American politics. Byron Dorgan got the chance to bring up his bipartisan drug re-important amendment. My understanding is that the Democrats are now afraid Dorgan’s amendment will pass, and that would blow up Obama’s deal with PhRMA, possibly scuttling the whole bill. The reason Dorgan’s amendment might get enough votes to pass is that several Republicans previously opposed to this popular proposal are considering voting for the amendment to get back at PhRMA and turn PhRMA against Obama. Somehow, convincing a large number of Republicans to vote for one of Obama’s top campaign promises on health care reform is now seen by Harry Reid as a bad thing. Of course, drug re-importation is one of a handful of ideas yet offered that will actually “bend the cost curve,” and neither Obama, Peter Orzsag, nor Harry Reid has said anything in support of Dorgan’s amendment.

White House Wants To Hand Lieberman The Health Care Bill And A Big Red Marker

By: Jon Walker Monday December 14, 2009 12:31 pm

Rahm Emanuel is leading the charge to convince Obama to officially switch to the new Leibocrat party. The White House’s new plan to pass “health care reform” is to give Lieberman the bill, a big red marker, and tell him to have fun. Line by line, section by section, Lieberman is going to work his way through the bill cutting out every last little piece of reform.

Lieberman And Nelson Shot Down The Newest “Compromise” On The Public Option

By: Jon Walker Sunday December 13, 2009 10:32 am

It is time to use reconciliation and pass a decent bill with a public option and a Medicare buy in. It is time for Democrats to show the American people they will not be held hostage by a handful of health insurance corporation defenders like Joe Lieberman and Blanche Lincoln. They must pass reform that will actually help the American people instead of forcing them to hand their paychecks to poorly regulated private insurance companies. This is a watershed moment where we will find out who truly rules Washington. And I promise if the answer is Joe Lieberman and the for-profit health insurance corporations, the Democratic base will not turn out in 2010.