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The House has passed ObamaCare with applause and clapping. But it will be the last Democratic hurrah for decades. The bill dooms the party come November and will dog them for many elections thereafter.
The final House vote was 219 to 212 so Obama brought in the Stupak 7 with his pledge to sign an Executive Order pledging no federal funds would be used for elective abortion. That a Democratic President would sign such an order is in itself an abomination, that a Democratic president who campaigned on womens rights is, well, an Obama abomination. See KarenM’s diary, running simultaneously here at FDL, on his campaign promises. That is shocking but expected given the dismal failures and lies of this presidency.
But while the party is celebrating now, come November they will be crying and pleading for support from anyone and everybody. A mandated sellout to the insurance industry just isn’t going to hack it with the American people and it will become more and more apparent over time that this is not real reform but propping up a sick, for profit, insurance industry. The reliable, nonprofit, nonpartisan website www.pollster.com shows Obama getting failing marks on health care reform: 52.1% disapprove of Obama’s job performance on health care, only 40.7% approve. This will only get worse once the people find out what’s in the bill. As one pundit told the New York Times:
“But once people discover that their Medicare taxes are going up, that there are deeper cuts in Medicare Advantage, that there are court challenges to many provisions, and that the process of getting it passed created a portrait of corruption, it won’t sit well.”
It hasn’t sat well so far and we still don’t know all the details of this murky bill. The Democrats slavish capitulation to the antiabortion group led by Stupak doesn’t portend well.
Like everything Obama has done so far, this is make-believe reform that is really designed to make people believe that change has arrived. But it hasn’t. The change will be for the worse. Obama’s already pulled the same deceptive stunt on us with the wars, the bailouts, unemployment, the "closing" of Gitmo and just about everything else. Social security "reform" will be next.
But Obama’s gig and that of his Democrats will be up in November. Impeachment proceedings against Obama in the new Republican dominated House will likely start early next year coupled with widespread investigations of the administration.
Pay back time is coming soon for the Democrats so you’d better celebrate today.
24 Comments
Very succinct, fflambeau! …unlike mine. I got a little carried away. And thanks for promoting my post.
I live in the Specter/Sestak area, and I’m still undecided. Still, there is some good news. Joe Hoeffel has entered the race for PA governor and I think he’s unsullied.
Go with Sestak, KarenM, he’s not perfect but he’s not a lifelong Republican like Arlen. I also liked your autobiographical touches in your comment in your diary. Keep up the good work (56 is young!) I’m in my mid 60′s.
For me, 56 is indeed young. I’m in better shape now than I’ve been in for at least a decade or more. I know it for myself, but people keep telling me, too.
As for Sestak, I’ve met him and talked to him and emailed him, and all I ever seem to get back is double-talk. And he voted for that odious FISA bill, too, after he had led us all to believe that he would be a far cry from Weldon. As well as for the continuation of the war in Iraq…
Specter at least had a reason to become a Republican (he was originally a Democrat!), since he was running in pretty conservative areas. They’re somewhat less so now. I don’t have to decide until the middle of May, and I’m not the only progressive or liberal in my community who’s unhappy with Sestak.
Sestak may sound good now, but if he toes the party line, then what? He’ll probably pull a bait and switch. Promises you his progressive vote, switches to corporate neo-liberal mumbojumbo once elected. If Obama can arm-twist all of the “progressives” into voting for this monstrosity what’s to say that Sestak would have any fortitude to stand up to him?
But remember that Arlen is running scared right now just because of Sestak and if that threat is removed, he will revert to what he’s always been: a Republican who was faithful even to Nixon. Sestak has his faults but he’s younger and not a lifelong Republican.
good point, but then if Specter does win, does he then revert to his Republican self now that he’s got another 6 years before re-election?
Good point to you. None of these people are perfect. I think you have to go with the “primary” opponent just to keep these incumbents in line. Like I said, Sestak is not perfect (he doesn’t even reply to the very reasonable KarenM’s emails!).
Oh, he replies, but it’s just more of the same double-talk. I hate that!
Frankly, there is so little difference between the two parties now, would we even notice?
Specter also has more seniority and prestige. Sestak is only in his 2nd term, and who’s going to replace him, if he should beat Specter? It’s not as if we have a huge farm team waiting to be called up in this district, where Curt Weldon reigned for so long. Sestak got in (imho) because of his military background.
My father was a lifer in the military, too. Air Force. But he was enlisted, while Sestak is an officer. Don’t let anyone tell you that “class” is not important in the military. The armed forces may be integrated, but sexism and classism still abound.
fflambeau,
I’ve been watching this incredible spectacle of politicians, organizations, factions, caucuses and pundits falling like bowling pins for weeks. Kucinich on Democracy Now! looked like he hadn’t slept in two weeks. His explanation was rambling and unconvincing. Just what went on? How did we get 100% capitulation?
Is it possible that these people were let in on something so profoundly disturbing that it trumped everything they believed in? What could it have been?
I can’t help thinking there is something huge behind all this madness other than just madness. I think it may have an economic basis. Hard times are coming. This talk about “protecting the Presidency.” What? We had the “I’m your war President” and now were getting our “Marshall Law President?”
None of what I’ve seen is logical.
Am I nuts?
I think Dennis takes this seriously and at his base, is a decent human being unlike his president and most other politicians. He must have been under ENORMOUS pressure from Obama and Rahm. I’m sure they threw everything at him, including probably some goods that the intelligence agencies gathered on him. I doubt that Eric Massa’s outing for “sexual activities” was just a coincidence, just like it was not a coincidence for Spitzer. Massa probably would have stood beside Kucinich and given him some progressive support so he had to go. Dennis would have been next, for whatever reason, even a cooked up one. Dennis made a big mistake in getting on Air Force One and another one by attending Obama’s Cleveland rally. He needed to keep his distance: be unavailable. That was a big mistake and maybe the airplane ride stroked his ego too.
No, Mepetaluma, you’re not mad or going mad. The country is. I’m in my 60′s now and this just isn’t the same country that we grew up in.
I think they just told Dennis they would single him out and blame him for everything like they did to Nader. Dennis decided to live to fight another day. He wants to stay inside the party. I think everybody, including Dennis, should bolt the Party. But Dennis made his choice and I don’t fault him for it. I fault Obama. I call on him to resign.
The point is though, workingclass, is that Dennis capitulated to this disastrous HCR Bill, like the rest of them, and, had Dennis not capitulated to this bill, it wouldn’t have passed. Moreover, this “HCR” Bill is the catalyst that propelled Scott Brown into office, and into the late Senator Ted Kennedy’s seat…by a humungous landslide.
I don’t think Dennis could have killed this bill. But I have confidence that (if he wanted to) Obama could end Dennis’ career as a Democrat. Its just my opinion.
As unhappy as I am with DK, I’m afraid I agree with you.
Sad, but true Fflambeau. That this deeply conservative, anti-choice bill is being feted by so-called progressives as a triumph, is as bizarro as it gets.
It’s the corporate tail wagging the dog now. The corporations we created are now in charge. They just throw us a few crumbs now and then. And progressives get these crumbs and call them cake.
This is what a country gets when it pursues empire. Democracy eventually gets hollowed out back home. Our institutions are a shell of their former selves. And you and I are old enough to have witnessed their destruction. Sometimes, I guess, ignorance IS bliss.
Crumbs! You’ve seen crumbs?! Where?
fflambeau and Karen M –
Hey, I just turned 64 a couple of weeks ago, so I guess than makes me about fflambau’s age. But all three of us, and I think a lot of others here, have been around long enough to have the historical perspective to realize what is happening — and what’s coming.
Keep up the good work.
Thanks BigJess. You have a few months on me, like 9. You’re right of course. Worse is to come. And under “democratic” leadership.
“The Last Democratic Hurrah?”
Hope so. Let’s boot out that sorry-ass excuse for a party, and start over.
With that choice, You might be better off just voting for a republican if it’s not a neanderthal, neoliberal, warmonger, or an AIPAC choice.
I’m just not sure how such a Republican could make it past the primary.
Independent Party all the way!!
On social security reform, as I posted yesterday, look here for a taste of what to expect. The 1500′s or 1600′s vintage with added “corporatism”. Change you can believe in!