Tag: health care reform

When he was asking Americans to vote for him during the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama said . . .

We’re looking to fundamentally change the status quo in Washington.  It’s a status quo that extends beyond any particular party and right now that status quo is fighting back with everything it’s got, with the same old tactics that divide and distract us from solving the problems people face, whether those problems are health care that folks can’t afford or a mortgage they cannot pay.

Before Obama appointed Wall Street insiders to run his economic policies and a Blue Dog to be his chief of staff, he told us . . .

Make no mistake about what we’re up against.  We’re up against the belief that it’s all right for lobbyists to dominate our government, that they are just part of the system in Washington. But we know that the undue influence of lobbyists is part of the problem and this election is our chance to say that we are not going to let them stand in our way anymore.

Obama’s not only letting them stand in our way, he’s helping them stand in our way.  He let lobbyists write the Senate Finance Committee bill.  He campaigned for the public option, but now he’s caving to the Republicans and Blue Dogs who are telling us we can’t have it. They’ve viciously attacked the public option from the very beginning and they’re continuing to viciously attack it.

When he needed our votes, Obama condemned the very people he’s caving to now . . .

There are those who will continue to tell us that we can’t do this, that we can’t have what we’re looking for, that we can’t have what we want.   But here is what I know.  I know that when people say we can’t overcome all the big money and influence in Washington, I think of that elderly woman who sent me a contribution the other day, an envelope that had a money order for $3.01 along with a verse of scripture tucked inside the envelope.

I’m not sure what you think you know, Obama, but here’s what she knows–she knows what Democrats used to stand for, she knows what they must stand for again.  She remembers when FDR showed America what real change looks like, she remembers him winning the fight for economic and social justice . . .  

From a wheel chair.  

FDR’s legs were paralyzed, but his moral courage wasn’t, his heart wasn’t, his determination to fight for the Americans who elected him wasn’t.  Unlike you, Obama, FDR wasn’t paralyzed by moral cowardice, he didn’t reach out to Republicans, he didn’t compromise with the liars and hypocrites of that degenerate party, he governed as a Democrat because that’s what he promised he would do.    

That elderly woman who sent you $3.01 remembers when Democrats were actually Democrats, she knows how desperately America needs another Democratic President like FDR.  She believed in you, Obama.  She trusted you.  She had faith in you.  She believed you when you told her last fall, when you told all of us last fall that . . .

We’re up against the idea that it’s acceptable to say anything and do anything to win an election.  But we know that this is exactly what’s wrong with our politics. This is why people don’t believe what their leaders say anymore. This is why they tune out.  And this election is our chance to give the American people a reason to believe again.

You’re throwing that chance away, Obama.  You’re letting the losers of that election kill reform, you’re shattering the trust so many Americans had in you, you’re giving us no reason to believe that anything will really change.

Barack Obama , Feb 19, 2008

Well, The System’s Broken […] Certainly I don’t accept, in the richest county on Earth, that we should have 47 Million people without Health Insurance, and Millions of more people being bankrupted because of a Medical Bill.

[…]

As President of the United States, what I’ve proposed to do, is to make sure that we got a plan that covers ALL Americans.

[…]

The key to making this happen, is to overcome the resistance we’re going to see from Drug Companies, Insurance Companies, HMO’s. Over the last 10 years alone, Drug and Insurance Companies spent over $1 Billion, in preventing Health Care Reform from happening. That’s going to require then, a mobilization of energy among the American People, to insist on a Congress and a White House, that are actually going to deliver this time.

[…]

Sherrod Brown has come out with some pretty strong language in an interview he gave today over at TPM. It’s great to see a progressive in the Senate giving the White House the what for!

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo…

Below is the letter the Dog sent to the President today.

Dear President Obama;

Mr. President, you are in a trick bag. You have a speech to make to the Joint Session of Congress and there are no easy options for you. Health Care Reform is a signature issue for you; this is why you put it in the agenda for the first year of your first term. You have made the quite case for this being the place where your administration will have to spend the most political capital of all so all other issues from DADT to accountability to the rule of law must take a back seat so this issue can be resolved.

“Originally posted at Squarestate.net“

In an interview last week with Michael Smerconish, The Undecider said, “Winning the election is just the start.  Victory in an election wasn’t the change that we sought.”

I don’t know what change you sought, Barack, but letting the losers of the election dictate policy is not the change we sought.  That’s innovative change, no doubt about it, but it’s not change anyone who voted for you can believe in.  

Philip Elliot . . .

That election came with Obama’s promise of the government insurance option, a provision that Obama’s team now calls “preferred” but not mandatory.  Obama declined to call it a deal breaker.  He said “the press got excited and some folks on the left got a little excited” when he and top administration aides made statements indicating that a publicly run health insurance option was just one of several alternatives.

Since then, Obama has faced increasing criticism from his left flank.  “And even though some White House advisers seem to have forgotten, the reason the public option has become central to reform is simple: We’re fed up with the insurance companies and we need real accountability for them,” liberal MoveOn.org said in a message sent to its 5 million members. “They’ve had decades to fix the problems with our health care system, but they haven’t done it.”

One caller to Smerconish’s program said he sensed the administration was making a misstep. “I’m getting a little ticked off that it feels like the knees are bucklin’ a little bit,” said the caller who identified himself as Joe. “You have an overwhelming majority in both the House and the Senate, and you own the whole shooting match.  It’s very frustrating to watch you try and compromise with a lot of these people who aren’t willing to compromise with you.”

Welcome to the 20th installment of “Considered Forthwith.”

This weekly series looks at the various committees in the House and the Senate. Committees are the workshops of our democracy. This is where bills are considered, revised, and occasionally advance for consideration by the House and Senate. Most committees also have the authority to exercise oversight of related executive branch agencies.

This week’s entry is a little different than usual. With Congress out of session until Sept. 8, there is not much going on in the standing committees. When they do get back, there will be a ton of work to get done, not the least of which will be a health care reform bill and a climate change bill. There are also 13 appropriations bills to handle. Everyone of these will certainly end up in a conference committee. This seems an opportune time to discuss that process.

What would Jesus Do about Health Care?

Good Question.

Well it sounds, like he understood how Sick People need Doctors:

Mark 2:17 GWT

When Jesus heard that, he said to them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor; those who are sick do. I’ve come to call sinners, not people who think they have God’s approval.”

(emphasis added)

GOP Health Care Obstructionists, are you Listening???

The Pharisees, thought they were doing God’s work too.

Imagine their surprise when this upstart Carpenter, from the old neighborhood, dared to stand up to their blatant self-righteousness … and dish back to them some cold, hard truth …

The Founding Fathers gave us democracy.

We have the moral responsibility to restore what was given to us, to take back what has been taken away by corrupt politicians of both major parties.  If the Democratic Party won’t restore American democracy, it will be up to Progressives to restore it.  If Democrats cave again and pass a travesty of a health care reform bill without a strong public option, there will no longer be any doubt that the two-party system has been corrupted beyond salvage.  If that happens, I believe progressives will have no choice but to dissolve all ties with the Democratic Party, establish the Progressive Party, and ask progressive Democrats in Congress and across this country to join us.  

When in the course of Democratic betrayals it becomes necessary for Progressives to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with the Democratic Party, and to establish ourselves as a New Party in the political system, our respect for the Constitution and the rule of law compels us to declare the causes which impel us to this separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that the Democratic Party is complicit in war crimes, that it is complicit in illegal NSA spying, that it is complicit in massive Wall Street fraud, that it no longer believes that all men are created equal, that it serves only the corporate masters of America, that it has granted them unalienable Rights, that among these are the right to plunder the Treasury, the right to control the media, the right to subvert the banking system, to corrupt the electoral system, to ravage our economy and reap the illicit profits of shock doctrine capitalism.

To enable the voices of citizens to be heard in the corridors of power, political parties have been instituted among Men, deriving their power from the support of their members. Whenever any political party becomes destructive of these ends, its supporters have the right to withdraw their support, and to establish a new party.  As Progressives, we have no choice left but to establish a new party, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in accordance with our responsibility to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and the progressive values upon which it was founded.  

Present circumstances dictate that a political party long established should not be rejected for light and transient causes; but when a long train of abuses and betrayals, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce an entire nation under corporate Despotism, it is the right of Progressives, it is the duty of Progressives, to condemn that party, and to establish a new party for their future security.  

As brought to you by their “Dear Leader” of their Political Cult:

Today Rush Limbaugh used Ted Kennedy’s death to keep pushing the “death book” tale, that  claim being spread on the right that Obama’s veteran’s agency is distributing manuals urging veterans to hurry up and die.

Those “death panels” really do exist

MediaMatters — August 20, 2009

To date, the media have debunked the “kill granny” lie more than 40 times. The nonpartisan FactCheck.org says the claim of mandatory counseling on ending seniors’ lives is “a misrepresentation.” ABC’s chief medical editor, Dr. Tim Johnson, said “the idea about death panels” is “not at all legitimate.” PolitiFact.com has called “death panel” claims “a ridiculous falsehood.” When the Associated Press conducted a fact check of the bogus charge, it reported, “No ‘death panel in health care bill.’ “

After former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin claimed that “Obama’s ‘death panel’ ” could decide the fate of her parents or her son who has Down syndrome, conservative radio host Larry Elder aptly called her comments “over the top.” […]

It seems Sarah’s still leading that pied-piper Twitter Parade …

Can this actually be happening?  

Are Democrats who’ve been riddled with RePug bullets for 30 years finally Bringing a Gun To a Gunfight ? ? ?

House Democrats are probing the nation’s largest insurance companies for lavish spending, demanding reams of compensation data and schedules of retreats and conferences. Letters sent to 52 insurance companies by Democratic leaders demand extensive documents for an examination of ‘extensive compensation and other business practices in the health insurance industry.” The letters set a deadline of Sept. 14 for the documents.

When asked for comment, an insurance industry spokesman mackerel pulled three hooks out of his mouth, bled all over the place, and said: “This is nothing more than a taxpayer-funded fishing expedition designed to silence health plans.”

The Tide Is Turning . . .

ActBlue has raised more than $150,000 in only 24 hours for progressive Democrats who took the pledge to not vote for any bill without a public option. House Democrats expressed strong support for the public option in their weekly caucus meeting, with everyone in support of it because their constituents had pressed them on it.   Labor is warning Democrats that they’ll sit out specific elections if any members oppose a public plan.

SOMEONE’S fucking stupidity has turned an electoral mandate for change into a RePug/Blue Dog ass kissing festival.  If that fucking stupidity doesn’t come to a screeching halt, support for “Democrats” is going to come to a screeching halt.  

I’m going to explain this to you, Rahm.

It’s called democracy.  

It’s called telling your barking Blue Dogs to shut the fuck up.

It’s called taking the Democratic Party back.

Get used to it.