StephenAG says:
22 December 2009 at 2:32 pm

Appreciate it very much.

mgloraine says:
22 December 2009 at 6:55 pm

Interesting comment. You should consider putting up a diary. Here’s where you do it: http://www.taylormarsh.com/in-the-news/

Whitepaw, just load up the video with the embedded code. Should work just fine inside your comment.

I’m pretty sick of the debate to as it is useless. The Congress is going to do whatever they want and to hell with the American people. The more things change the more they stay the same huh?

To be very honest I am more disappointed in the American public than I am the Congress. It’s our government, it’s our tax dollars and NO ONE PAYS ATTENTION. We are getting exactly what we deserve because of lack of interest other than 30 second sound bites. God, how many times have I referenced that. Makes me sick.

BTW, yes it’s about health care, how do we feel about the part of the Senate bill that says no Congress CAN EVERY CHANGE

Grudgingly I’m sure, I suppose he understands better than most the effect killing it would have, as would many others who are holding their noses for this one.

Hi kris
What happened is that he was a charmer who really promised nothing that he couldn’t weasel around. He used his wiles to recruit those who’d never really paid attention to politics and were ready to cast their vote for “the ones we’ve been waiting for.” In other words – he pulled the ole okie doke, he bamboozled ‘em, he hoodwinked ‘em. Some are now recognizing it and others would never admit that they’ve been hoodwinked.

Say what?

Obama does not appear to have core principles that extend beyond himself and his immediate family.

Sad really.

I couldn’t agree more, but where to start?

And great analysis of Pelosi.

I posted this above — but all broken promises are listed here:

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2009/12/21/senate-health-care-bill-is-built-on-obamas-broken-promises/

Even so, the corporate Senators will not really be across the table from Pelosi, representing the insurance companies. It will be Rahm Emanuel, since it was he who arranged the secret deals between the Executive branch and the industry lobbies, and he’s the one who trots back and forth between the White House and Congress, calling the plays on the floor. I believe the Obama administration’s obeisance to corporate lobbies on all policy issues is Rahm’s strategy, and Obama is just following the script.

Rahm helped Pelosi become Speaker via his Blue Dog gang, which he continues to direct even from his post in the WH. He could pull the rug from under the House bill using the Blue Dogs, and since he was the one who directed the removal of the public option & Medicare buy-in in the Senate, the topic of re-including anything like them will be “off the table” from the start.

I predict that the bulk of the conference will be devoted to concocting the most draconian and punitive framework with which to address the issues surrounding women’s reproductive health, with the overriding meme being that “liberals” and “feminists” are endangering the greater good by clinging to selfish, frivolous, fringe issues like a woman’s right to control her own uterus. We will be advised to reduce our intake of LSD, seek the attainment of maturity and wisdom, and to STFU and do as we’re told, or else go vote for Nader, hahaha!

Nancy Pelosi will not start a fight she’s not certain she can win. She will not seriously attempt to re-insert a public option. She will be trying to arrive at the resolution which will best affect the 2010 elections, in her estimation. Remember how progressives were all appalled and aghast that she didn’t immediately undertake the impeachment of Cheney & Bush? Or cut off funding for the illegal wars? Or any of the cool progressive stuff we thought she should be doing? That’s because she (and Rahm) were planning for the 2008 election. Her power comes from a Democratic majority in the House. She will seek to preserve that at all costs. By planning for the 2010 election.

There will be an abundance of posturing. But I think the only real horse-trading will be over getting Stupak and Nelson to agree on the extent to which they will be institutionalizing their misogyny this time around. And Pelosi will be compelled to “approve” whatever output results in the hope that they can complete the voting and have some time to give it a positive PR spin before November.

It’s really pathetic to have such low expectations for such a major piece of legislation, but it’s probably hard to find anyone who’s enthusiastic beyond the circle of insurance execs, lobbyists, and sleazy politicians who brought us this disaster, unless it’s the Mormon, Catholic, and evangelical PACs, I mean “churches”, who typically sponsor and celebrate anti-abortion anything.

Progressives need to plan for the 2010 election also. We need to replace Blue Dogs with Progressives in the primaries. Perhaps Howard Dean could be persuaded to organize something like a Progressive “surge” in Congress to counteract the Blue Dog faction. Progressives can and should take control of the Democratic party rather than cede that power to Rahm’s corporatists.

http://www.americablog.com/2009/12/obama-doesnt-think-he-compromised-one.html

Check this out — amazing:

President Obama rejected in an interview Tuesday the criticism that he has compromised too much in order to secure health-care reform legislation, challenging his critics to identify any “gap” between what he campaigned on last year and what Congress is on the verge of passing.

“Nowhere has there been a bigger gap between the perceptions of compromise and the realities of compromise than in the health-care bill,” Obama said in an Oval Office interview with The Washington Post about his legislative record this year. “Every single criteria for reform I put forward is in this bill.”

From Avarosis: If he’s trying to cover his behind, and make the best of it, that’s one thing. But if he truly believes that he didn’t compromise on some of his core promises, then this is very troubling, as it indicates he’ll do it again without a moment’s hesitation, because he doesnt recognize caving as caving.

To beat a dead horse one more time, this is why Joe and I keep arguing that what happened during health care reform is indicative of a larger problem, and has implications far behind this debate.

I must need therapy, I am addicted to this site.

And to what end? To produce a bill that less than 40% of the public support, mostly because he spent all summer dangling the possibility of a robust public plan in their faces rather than nipping it all in the bud in July.

You can give me the 11 dimensional levels of chess theory that he had to pay lip service to a public plan in order to keep this bill from being worse than it is, and to give progressives a chance to at least fight for a better bill, but since this is pretty much what he wanted all along, what was the point of wasting so much time, raising expectations not just among progressives but the general public?

The optics on this campaign from the white House are just horrible, trying to pretend that he really fought for a public plan makes it look that much worse. Gibbs would be better off not trying to sell it, cause no one’s buying it.

Meanwhile progressives look like weak sisters and a of of his supporters are feeling disillusioned, dispirited.

The die is cast. It took all of 11 months to destroy everything gained in the last 4 years, which in the end will look like Pyrrhic victory at best.

Merry Whatever

http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/issues/HealthCareFullPlan.pdf

See bottom of page 5:

direct quote from the Obama/Biden Health Plan:

(2) NEW AFFORDABLE, ACCESSIBLE HEALTH INSURANCE OPTIONS. The Obama-Biden plan will create a
National Health Insurance Exchange to help individuals purchase new affordable health care options if they are
uninsured or want new health insurance. Through the Exchange, any American will have the opportunity to
enroll in the new public plan or an approved private plan, and income-based sliding scale tax credits will be
AFFORDABLE, ACCESSIBLE COVERAGE OPTIONS FOR ALL
provided for people and families who need it. Insurers would have to issue every applicant a policy and charge
fair and stable premiums that will not depend upon health status. The Exchange will require that all the plans
offered are at least as generous as the new public plan and meet the same standards for quality and efficiency.
Insurers would be required to justify an above-average premium increase to the Exchange. The Exchange
would evaluate plans and make the differences among the plans, including cost of services, transparent.

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2009/12/21/senate-health-care-bill-is-built-on-obamas-broken-promises/

snip

Barack Obama:

‘Through the Exchange, any American will have the opportunity to enroll in the new public plan or an approved private plan… The Exchange will require that all the plans offered are at least as generous as the new public plan and meet the same standards for quality and efficiency’

Jon Walker:
There is no public option in the Senate bill. In the health care system that Obama promise the public option was not just some “small sliver.” It was going to be the benchmark against which all private plans would need to be measured.

http://www.politico.com/politico44/