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H.L. Mencken said of the religious that if you believed it that you weren’t just being fooled, that you were in fact a fool.
Time to stop mincing words for our former Kossack allies.
They are not simply being fooled, they are in fact fools.
I refer you to one of Scarecrow’s articles here
It was clear from day one that this was exactly the deal the White House wanted all along. They never had any intention to do more, this is the deal they struck.
On December 16th Wendel Potter went on Countdown and showed exactly what is wrong with this bill. Sentiments that were echoed by Kos, KO, the Ed show, all of what we consider "the left".
Yet on December 26th, all of that changed. Why? The Senate bill passed and the push was on to get it thru. Now we have Kos, Ed, the entire "left" telling us we have to pass it.
They admit the bill is shit. They admit nothing has changed since December 16th. But now all of a sudden the bill is our last best hope.
And what has a year of HCR done for the Democrats approval ratings? It’s been downhill since it began. Even touching this has given the Republicans a very real chance of taking back the house. And the Democrats making their deals have made it all the worse for themselves.
Who among you thinks that after capitulating to everything the White House wanted, after seeing their approval ratings tank for a year straight, that the Dems are really going to have the force of will to try and fix this?
Especially with Immigration reform already announced as the next battle. You think the dems are going to be able to split their attention like that? Yeah man..because in that year plus that HCR has been going on they managed to get..uh…a really weak jobs bill passed…and uh…well that’s about it isn’t it…one real bill in a year.
"The Unions won’t let them drop it!" Oh really? I direct your attention here. Yep, that line in the sand the Unions laid down, that one real thing they got in concession to support the bill…got ripped out from under them. Where’s the iron will of the unions?
"But Obama secretly wants better reform, he’s just playing chess!"
Oh yeah? I direct your attention here and to this quote
Now, we can fix this in a way that is sensible, that is centrist. I have rejected a whole bunch of provisions that the left wanted that are — you know, they were very adamant about because I thought it would be too disruptive to the system
Yeah man, that really sounds like someone who’s adamant about getting single payer or even a PO in.
So let us stop mincing words. I am not here to be your friend, I am here to be honest with you.
If you believe the Democrats will go back and fix this bill later, you are not just being fooled, you are in fact a fool.
And there’s no Santa either.
Sorry.
25 Comments
No Santa so what, fat man hasn’t gotten me shit, I had to stand in line on Black Friday to get my $300 laptop (typing on it), screw him!
I said 4-5 months ago, start locally, your own State.
Ralph Nader was offered millions by Democrats to NOT run for president in 2004. I think it’s safe to say Kos was given at least $1 million to support the bill, as were other “progressives”. The wealthy Dems don’t want Obama to fail and are willing to PAY large sums for it.
There’s a HUGE difference between single-payer and that weak-ass public option that crawled over the finish line in the House. Obama rejects the single-payer-as-reform model because SP would face full opposition from doctors and hospitals. No one’s passing HCR in America with a huge backlash from the docs. SP would reduce their earnings (significantly) and it would be “game over” for reform. Obama’s big “mistake” was taking on HCR in the teeth of the Great Recession. By pushing forward, he had to emphasize more “cost savings” at the expense of coverage (hence ‘individual mandate’ replaced ‘childrens mandate’). That ticked off the “real liberals”. Many have (correctly) accepted the deficit-sensitive environment (post TARP and Stimulus) that spooked the masses against ANYTHING related to big gov’t spending (good-bye public option). The POTUS operates in the real world with no Santa required.
That doesn’t make any sense. Nurses and doctors organizations are among the strongest advocates for single-payer. Do you have any idea how much time and money of theirs is pissed down a hole dealing with myriad insurance codes, networks, companies, and coverage plans?
Nobody becomes a doctor because they want to spend two hours of every day hassling over getting paid by an insurance company that doesn’t give a shit about them, and doesn’t give a shit about their patient.
You’re wrong. Doctors want reform and universal billing systems – they don’t want SP. SP docs get paid a fraction of what docs get here – ask a British doc.
http://www.pnhp.org/
I’m sorry, I can’t hear you over the sound of you being absolutely wrong about everything you say.
And don’t forget:
http://madashelldoctors.com/ and
http://www.calnurses.org/about-us/
I disagree with you, moonwood.
Drs. and Nurses do want single-payer.
If you read Dennis Kucinich’s interview over at DemocracyNow, it’s clear he flipped his vote because he was brought to believe that the Obama presidency hangs on his vote (and this bill) and that doomsday would have resulted had he not flipped and supported the administration.
Now that’s really believing in Santa.
See also my diary on this, “Kucinich Mistakenly Buys Into Defending the Obama Presidency”.
Forgot to add to Inquisitr, terrific job! Great, great diary especially smacking down the idea that the Dems will revisit health “insurance reform” soon!
Actually, I think Obamarahma is a trojan horse. The Wall st. bail out should have awakened the entire left that this guy was NOT going to be anything more then another DINO President like Clinton. The problem now is Clinton lucked out and caught the economy as the tide was going back up. It sure as hell was’t anything Billy Bob did he was to busy screwing everything that walked past him in skirts to give a flying fuck about something as concrete as the American economy. Obama isn’t going to get that same break cut for him no matter how much he does for the Plutocrats. No, they don’t care much for him for some reason or another , so no breaks and this time they’ll just sit behind their club walls and wait him out.
Actually, seaglass, Obama’s war votes and his vote for the FISA Bill, even after he’d gone on record as opposing our Iraq war and the FISA Bill, should have sounded an alarm for everybody. It was clear from the get-go which way the wind was blowing.
Hey everybody, ya know what?? Americans were/are so happy not to have the Republicans in for another term that they’re like creatures in the desert gasping for water when it came to Barack Obama. I never could really figure out what all the excitement over him was. Was it because he wasn’t McCain or G. W. Bush, or is it because he’s a black man?
A little of all really.
Bush put the mark of Death on the whole party. McCain being the dinosaur that he is wasn’t really ever an attractive candidate. Then he brought HER up, and no one is capable of galvinzing the left against someone like Palin is.
Then add everyone who thought that having a black man as President would wash away all our sins..and one hell of a Marketing campaign.
Yep, we got hosed.
Points well taken, Inquisitr. You know what, though? Bush proved to be an embarrassment to his own party, as well. The fact that the Republicans rose up from the grave so quickly is due to the usual self-destructing of the Democrats.
I agree. So many in both parties were disgusted, exhausted or done with Bush; Palin McCain was a loser of a ticket; and yes, although probably most did not vote for BHO solely because he is black, it was (and still is on one level) good to break the color barrier.
I had doubts about all Dem candidates, since the Clintons showed their faces as the new neo-libs; what else are any of the rest of them but neo-libs feeding at the trough of K Street? My expectations were pretty low, frankly, so I have probably not been especially disappointed or surprised, but loathing and disgust definitely describes my general demeanor.
Was disappointed but not all that surprised at Kuchinich’s capitulation. It’s like that song: “… and another one bites the dust.” They all get bought off in the end by one side or the other. And really the outcome is whatever it is. It will be a big payoff for ALL of them, no matter how they vote. The end-game will be whatever it is that the corporations want, and none of the pols are voting with “their conscience” (whatever that means anymore; surely an outdated concept in the 21st century).
It’s all just a Kabuki Show, including Kucinich.
Frankly, I think we’re hosed no matter what. Big Daddy WarBuck$ is in charge, and none of us DFH’s are going to ever see our demands met ever again forever. The Permanent Republican Majority has been achieved. The end.
And I also agree with jacqueline @10: yes, I think BHO is very much in the planning stages for his post-presidency activities and money making, and he’ll make buckets and pallets and tons of $$$$, so ‘Schelle need not worry about her expensive Gucci clothes, Jimmy Choo shoes and Prada handbags whilst swanning at Davos. And those gorgeous daughters (they are truely lovely) will have some of the finest weddings that money can buy. After all, Big Daddy Warbuck$ will picking up the tab.
I honestly don’t think Kucinich was a Kabuki show in the beginning.
I think he’s just a coward afraid to actually buck the party machine and kill the bill. They threatened his position, and he couldn’t tolerate that.
The rest of it tho was definately all Kabuki.
Ok. I think you have a point with Kucinich, although I pretty much expected him to cave, and when I heard his talking points on the radio yesterday, I just had to turn it off in disgust. Et tu, Dennis?
Sad but unsurprising. Kucinich was probably not Kabuki show at first, but the end result is pretty much the same.
As for moonwood: you might be in denial. It’s hard to face the facts sometimes, though. I, too, am tempted to drink the Kool Aid and feel “good” about BHO. But facts are facts, and I, for one, cannot ignore the reality that is staring me in the face.
There were a few “good” things that Clinton did (but for the life of me, it’s truly hard to remember what), but Bubba(and possibly Carter before him, but I didn’t live in the USA then, so I can be forgiven for being somewhat ignorant) got the neo-lib ball rolling, and all Barry’s done is carry it on from there.
To be boringly redundant: Permanent Republican Majority – achieved. Done and done. Big Daddy WarBuck$ is in the house, large and in charge.
Agreed.
Reagan couldn’t have planned the permanent Republican majority better himself.
There’s really no necessity to assume that Moulitsas was strictly speaking bought out. Did you ever see that scene in Tropic Thunder in which Tom Cruise dances around saying, “Play – ah”? There’s been a pretty blatant narrative going one during this entire ordeal in which people who oppose the president are childish, unrealistic and marginal. The people who support the president are part of the establishment that gets things done. Remember, we’re the freaks.
The people on the left you mention aren’t fools. They’ve got jobs as pundits now. That’s better than I’ve done for myself in the past few years.
Everybody’s done what’s in their own interest. Does anybody think that Kucinich, just to take one example, is worried that he’ll lose his seat to a third party candidate to his left? Of course not.
And why should Obama even care if the Democrats hold their majorities in Congress. Come hell or high water, in 2017 Michelle will be swanning around Davos in Gucci and someone has to pay for it. They’ve got to marry off those girls. Everybody I know says I’m wrong, but I believe Obama’s already looking out for his post-presidency.
Immigration? Are you sure? They can really screw the left with that one. It pits much of the left against hard working Americans during a recession.
The immigration announcement was on Huff po
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/18/obama-backs-bipartistan-o_n_504972.html
I wasn’t calling Kos a fool. He’s a Reaganite in it for the money for sure.
I was calling the followers on his site who thinks this bill is great because we can fix it later fools. The same goes for the poeple on this site trying to tell us they will fix it later.
These people, quite literally, are fools.
Excellent points, Nathan Aschbacher. Bravo!
Has anyone around here notices how people are deserting this site – very few replys – Hmmm – maybe “the people” have a different understanding of this issue than you all do.
Deserting this site?
The posts liveblogging the Kucinich sell out got more comments than any other post ever on FDL.
The subsequent posts all got over 300+ comments
I think you mean people are flocking to this site. You however are welcome to go back to the Kossacks.
Thank you for the sanity. This was the exact same thing I posted somewhere else. I am new and still have a bit of trouble getting through all the blogs. This is exactly what I asked somewhere else.
WHAT THE HELL CHANGED? It was the biggest giveaway to insurance companies in 30 years one day, then the senate passes it and it’s wonderful and even if it’s not-we MUST save Obama’s career.
Why when Obama was the one that killed the public option months ago with his deals? AND lied about it. Not that anyone is talking about THAT on capitol hill.
Well it’s gonna pass. At least I am not expecting my premiums to go down and have little faith if I do get sick and have a pre-existing condition that they won’t price me out. (I’m nearing 50 and will be priced out anyway due to age if my husband loses his job) I am not a fool. I don’t trust insurance companies, and I most certainly no longer have any trust in the president.