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This morning, I watched the spectacle of the United States Senate passing legislation that is still sometimes called health care reform, though it is not, and thought about how the Obama administration will now work far harder to push House Democrats to accept this bad joke on the American people than Obama or Rahm Emanuel ever pushed a single Senator who caucuses with Democrats to allow cloture on debate so that the United States Senate could have voted up-or-down on real health care reform with a public health insurance option.
Now Obama is saying that the government is delivering on “the promise of real, meaningful reform.” Yes, according to Obama, the country is near the end of the health care reform battle. BarbinMD at Daily Kos takes issue with this characterization: “This bill won’t be the end all, it will be the first step. Let’s not let them forget that.” I’m not sure what BarbinMD thinks this bill is a first step toward, but she’s right to say it isn’t the end.
We’re seeing Obama’s “Mission Accomplished” moment.
Jon Walker at Firedoglake argues in Senate Health Bill Passes; US Senate Fails that the big winners here are PhRMA, health insurance companies, Obama, Reid, Nelson, Lincoln, Lieberman, and, of course, the lobbyists, “who just saw their profits jump thanks to this great opportunity to show their clients just how powerful their hold on Washington really is.” Please allow me to add that it also is a win for Landrieu, but to take issue with the assertion that it’s a win for Obama, Reid, Nelson, or Lincoln. They’re celebrating now, but they’ve shot themselves in both feet politically. I’ll give Reid, Nelson, and Lincoln enough credit to say that they are intelligent enough to feel the pain. Obama, apparently, not so much. He still wants to smile big, sell the American people a lemon, and act like he feels no pain at all. Well, the damage is being done. And the pain will be felt.
SouthernDragon at Firedoglake argues that Progressives aren’t done yet and that the legislation can still be improved. True. But, with all due respect to SouthernDragon and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), there’s no excuse for accepting this monstrosity, this bad joke on the American people, even if there are a few improvements here and there.
Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake aptly put it this way:
“If you’re fighting those who want a better bill in defense of this bill, you own this bill, not the bill you’d like to see but are doing nothing to advance.”
The fact is that this bill, this monstrosity that is still oddly called health care reform, though it is not, creates a huge liability for Obama, who has, in fact, made all the bad actors in the pharmaceutical and insurance industries his political partners. The private health insurers aren’t in the business of caring about people. They’re in business to make profit. And Wall Street types are certainly counting on them to profit big time. Progressives will spend the next few years highlighting examples of private insurance companies’ significant abuse and waste, and they will pin all of it on Obama, on this alliance which he has formed with all the bad actors in the pharmaceutical and insurance industries, and on his failure to fight for real health care reform on behalf of the American people.
Obama can’t even claim that he’s all that sure that this bad joke will accomplish “the oft-stated goal of health reform: reducing the growth rate in health care costs and expenditures – often referred to as ‘bending the cost curve,’” as Jeanne Sahadi at CNN has put it. “That growth rate is what drives federal spending on Medicare and other federal health programs,” in case you’re wondering why anyone should care about ‘bending the cost curve.’
The few improvements to our health care system, Jon Walker says,
“come at a huge cost. There is a poorly designed tax that will cause many people’s insurance to get worse, a rollback of women’s reproductive rights, and a mandate forcing people to buy low quality, expensive insurance for unregulated private insurance companies.”
“Mission Accomplished,” Mr. President. Not.
Thanks for selling us out.
President Obama is going to spend 2010, 2011, 2012, and every year of his post-presidency learning that he can’t sell empty promises to his base the way he did as Candidate Obama in 2008.
[Originally posted at Circleparkforum.]
[Cross-posted at Daily Kos, where comments are far from kind...]
122 Comments
Very, very well put and the analogy to GWB’s “Mission Accomplished” is apt.
It’s true, we’re not done yet.
As far as I can tell, all that’s left to do is make this turd as good as possible and/or raise enough voices of anger that the Senate’s bill is killed in the effort to merge it with the House bill.
I’m in favor of the latter course. I signed the petition to kill the Senate bill and made a donation to kill it.
Either way, we have to make sure that none of them – not Obama, not Reid, not any of the other sellouts and enablers – are able to use this bad joke to score political points that they don’t deserve.
Jason, I love that you keep making the comment that we’re not done yet in various threads. I panic every time I think of how things usually go and how even progressives are enabling it to go that way on HCR. It is comforting to come here and find other people who I truly believe are not going to give up the fight no matter what happens with this travesty of a bill (unlike Harkin, who I wanted to smack upside the head (mods: to wake him up, not hard enough to qualify as violence) when he talked about the public option being revisited even as Obama himself is stating that all of his goals have been met and pointing out that the public option was never one of them — surely he can’t be stupid and he’s been in Washington long enough that he can’t just be clueless about how these things work or what those statements mean).
Thanks Paula. I’m learning that we’ll never be done. :)
The bottom line here is the Republicans are able to push through their agenda with razor thin majorities or even while they are in the minority because they are willing to play hardball not only with the Democrats but also with their own and they never ever give up.
The Democrats are unwilling to play hardball with anyone. It’s just more spineless wimpery.
Obama may be chalking this up as a win, but I’m sure he won’t be so sanguine after the 2010 election and the Democrats lose their majority in one or both houses.
I’ve got to disagree with you on this one Cali. Since when is the strongarming path the Repukes took considered a success worth emulating?
Why would you expect that following their lead would PROTECT the Dem majority in 2010?
I hope someone with more time than me can put together a diary analyzing who is MORE responsible for this steaming pile of shit, and who is LESS responsible. I will continue to try to articulate my rage at the syphilitic whores in the Senate who were responsible for this, and their establishment lackey’s on the “left”, so that when this results in disaster for the Dems, I’ll be able to document that I was on record a long time ago, predicting a class 5 disaster for them over passage of this vomitous mass.
I’m in your camp. I predict that Dems will lose their majority over this abortion of a bill.
Once the bill is passed in the house (with NO Public Option and NO Medicare buy in), the celebrating by Blue Dogs, New Democrats and Centrist Low-information voting Democrats will soon end.
The (so-called liberal) Media is entirely owned by right wing big business.
The Media will help the Republicans beat Democrats over the head over this bill every frigging day from now til the mid terms and beyond.
Anyone who can’t see this coming has blinders on.
(NPR is already paying left handed compliments (subtle backstabbing) to Harry Reid.) Bye Harry, you dope. Good Riddance. I never liked you for a second. A Boxer? Are you frigging kidding?
“If you’re fighting those who want a better bill in defense of this bill, you own this bill, not the bill you’d like to see but are doing nothing to advance.”
I guess some bright person would remark here that it takes one to know one.
Obama has to pat Himself on the back because no one else will.
Like I have said many times the Congress is this Countries largest problem, and has caused every problem this Country has, and not fixed one.
We the people even with the few who tried to get some input into what happened, were stuck setting back watching, and having to take what the Congress gives us.
We forget that Obama was a U.S. Senator and has the, “think” of one. He also believes the Congress is capable of running the Country. That is why He lets them make all the decisions, and then brags about them.
We are no better because we still believe our Government works, and will continue to suport it, and vote people of both parties into office.
Dick Durbin and others are patting him on the back. I know because they have been sending me emails. They also want a monetary reward for their bravery and to help them continue to fight for me so bravely and effectively. Who would’ve seen that coming? Sheesh, if I hadn’t seen some of the comments progressives on places like Dkos have made recently, I’d ask how stupid they think we are. As it is, I guess it’s how stupid they know we collectively are.
applauding. !!
We should not be surprized that all of Washington and both parties are always patting themselves on the back.
Both parties have patted themselves on the back, while making a mess of our Country.
We sat back and watched while they spent our money on banks and wars, then patted themselves on the back for saving us by saving the Banks, and protected us by voting for the wars.
We need to all remember, that every problem and crisis this country has was caused by our Congress, and they haven’t fixed a problem yet.
We are in debt, deficit, and all most everything our Country has control over is unsustainable. They just spent almost a year debating Healthcare, and did nothing to address all our other problems.
They have not re-regulated the Banks, stopped spending on the wars, done anything to fix SS and Medicare, done anything to break our addiction to foreign oil, put people back to work, stop the foreclosiers, all of which are justa few on the list.
Yet people in Government, and our Presidents, and even the media keep patting them on the back for basically not doing their jobs.
Thank you, K-town, for a wonderful post.
Expresses what I feel, exactly. Every presidency needs a moment to remember, and I’m surprised Obama wasn’t wearing a flightsuit this morning.
When I hear people excusing this as pragmatism and knowing this was the best he could get, I point to his recent statements. If he came out and said, “Yes, I really wanted a public option and no mandates, etc. like I said in my campaign, but I believe in the separation of powers and have to be realistic about what the legislative branch is willing to do” maybe you could think that. But what he’s saying loud and clear is that he owns this, he’s happy with whatever he got out of the deal and doesn’t care if people think he lied as long as he can charmingly spin it. This wasn’t pragmatism and it won’t be revisited as long as he is President unless this gets so politically toxic that he has absolutely no other choice. And, no, I don’t expect to ever hear any version of the above statement from any President, but it sure would be refreshing as well as illustrative.
Everyone can argue about a million things in this bill but the bottom line is the bill has a mandate without a government run non profit alternative which means there will probably be a republican president in 2012.
Obama can spin it 5 million ways but the american public will see the word mandate over and over in every republican attack ad which will spell doom.
Great post..
Wonder if how much the cash reward for voting yes was.
So that even Bernie Sanders voted yes.
He is in a state that has a lot of opposition to wind farms. Bernie is for them . They are disaster for tax payers, rate payers, human health and the environment. Bernie is for them.
First Wind, with strong connections to Larry Summers and Enron , is in Vermont. They give a lot of cash rewards. So many the NY AG is investigating them for bribery of public officials. Sorry to get off topic.
Are you saying that generation of energy from wind farming is not green and essential to our being weaned off of using and depleting natural resources?
I can appreciate the Enron/Summers negativity, but wind farming as bad, per se?
People at DK are actually diarying this vote as the greatest accomplishment in social policy since, um, whenever. It’s amazing that handing billions of customer dollars to unaccountable monopolistic corporate entities has come to be viewed as a progressive accomplishment.
Today, I weep for America, as we no longer have any understanding of social democracy.
My time is too precious, or I’d go over there and ask them:
1. Why does “the most powerful nation in history” not have affordable, accessible Health Care for all its citizens [ which includes illegal immigrants ]
2. How does this Bill manage to spend so much $$$, yet deliver sub-par Health Care, when compared to Canada, Europe, Cuba, etc. ?
I have never seen so many self- defeatists congregated in one location …
notice there is ZERO mention of the 30 year rollback on Choice over there. I swear these folks would give up Brown v Board of Education just to high five the WH and Party
congrats on the front page Knox
Yep, more corp. welfare and to hell with the public. This bill will be only made even worse if that’s possible. Amazing people are still buy the same, change you can believe in. If I’m wrong in 2012 I’ll admit it and would be happy for those that it might help but I just what to know why people have to pay for it in the first place. If I stop paying taxes for the war can I put towards health care for all in this nation?
“You can fool all the people some of the time.”
We can only hope all of the people won’t be fooled forever.
On we hope.
Let’s not kid ourselves. The vast majority of the American public are fucking idiots and yes all the people can be fooled all the time.
It’s the holidays, I’m gonna kid myself silly until the New Year kicks my teeth in and presents the sordid mess of shit that’s reality.
Till then? Slainte Mhath, with a smile and a full dram glass, baby!
Here’s the FIRST dram glass to all Pups, to FDL, Mz. Hamsher, Staff and the poodles, too. Also.
Skoal baby!
Happy Holidays, Larue. I’ll share your toast a little later – it’s a bit early on the left coast.
Early? Not on THIS day, hoss.
We’ve had the funeral this morning as Knox alludes to, this is the wake.
Slainte Mhath, baby!
Who is paying attention? Large swaths of the American public are nothing but marionettes. They will believe what ever they are told to believe. Obama and the corporatists will claim this is a victory for the American people and the under-informed and ill-informed will nod their heads in agreement. The corporate media will proclaim a glorious victory for Obama. With the exception of Moyers, Maddow and Olberman will anyone but the blogs point out the emperor has no clothes? Insurance corporations and big pharma will get richer while the middle and working classes will continue to sink lower and lower. As for Obama and tiny dancer they are no doubt making preparations for his re-election parade.
Tiny Dancer needs to be looking at his own problems, thanks to Jane. Yeah!
I’m not holding my breath despite Jane’s efforts. At some point it will be necessary to admit that any reform, including holding political criminals accountable, is next to impossible in a thoroughly corrupt and ossified system.
Not to get all pie in the sky dreamist, but I believe Mz. Hamsher’s recent push to align with the right to point out to the masses the abuse the corporate oligarchy and our bought off elected offals are forcing on us all is a valued attempt at expanding the awareness of the masses.
One day at a time . . . the word’s getting out, the libs, progs and right wing nutz are NOT the issue, the issue is the corporate facism that’s taken over our country and keeps elected offals from serving we the people.
Small gain, I’ll take what we can get, given how entrenched the corporate oligarchy is, in our daily lives.
I believe that comparing Obama’s talk about the Senate passage of their health care bill to Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” moment is a stretch of the highest order. A sophomoric contention. No consideration of how the cards were and are stacked against ANY insurance reform, given the current state of campaign financing, and the overcoming of the opposition party unanimously lined up against it.
In Obama’s case, even though the ‘mission’ is far from accomplished, the opportunity for further reform seems ahead. In Bush’s case, unprecedented death of Iraqis and US military was ahead.
I sure see a lot of self-inflicted bitterness here. How about a thought of the 30 million?
Serious question – do you really believe that the Congress will do anything to improve this in the future? They seem quite content with the entire thing. I don’t share your hope but I surely want you to be right. About the 30 million – of course, that would be a great thing, but from what I read, it looks as if they will get health INSURANCE but no necessarily HEALTH CARE. If the insurance companies can still refuse payment, what are they going to do?
It will be worse than that. I’m sure the insurance company will continue to deny actual claims for reimbursement because the geniuses did nothing about that common trick. Even if they did, the regulatory structure is such a joke that it wouldn’t stop them. But even if the insurance companies suddenly found Jesus like a death row inmate and completely transformed, those of us who need health care and aren’t as rich as senators will be screwed. I have to pay cash for medical care now, which is not fun, but at least I can save some money for it and muddle through. Once I have to pay insurance premiums or a fine, I won’t even have that cash and, in fact, will have a lot less cash on hand. But the way the insurance is set up, I’ll have copays and deductibles to pay if I go to a doctor. So I’ll be paying cash if I go to a doctor same as now but I just won’t have any cash to pay them. That means less actual health care, not more. And the premiums and penalties are so much higher than what I do spend on doctor visits now that I’ll have less food and housing, too. Which is smart in this economy because everyone knows the problem in this country is that there isn’t enough consumer spending relative to CEO salaries in the shadow economy. We really need to divert more of what might go to retail and services into Wall Street salaries if we’re ever going to get out of this mess, right? The word craptastic comes to mind.
Bingo.
James Ridgeway on how “regulation” workd in Washington:
Our system of government regulations isn’t really what we think of as regulation at all. Rather, it throws up a facade of rules, which corporations walk right through. And no wonder, since although the regulations are supposed to be arrived at independently and designed for the public good, corporations have long had a hand in writing them, as well, thanks to the power of lobbying, campaign contributions, and the revolving door between business and government.
Rather than being enacted to protect the public from the limitless greed of private industry, many regulations are actually passed in support of corporations. The worst example is probably the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is just a clubhouse for Wall Street. Another top contender is the Food and Drug Administration. The basic legislation passed by Congress in the 1930s and updated in the early 1960s set policy governing the sale and use of drugs, which demanded that companies demonstrate the proposed product is safe and efficacious. But that policy directive was quickly abandoned. Today the drug manufacturers breeze through the FDA, setting their own rules for use, establishing their own prices, and exercising their monopoly rights within the patent system which in the case of pharmaceuticals is maintained for their benefit
george:
Are we to actually believe that this administration will change all that?!!
They may seem content in order to offset all the Repub doom and gloom. In a country with so many citizens having such a shallow understanding of human nature (side effects of the worship of the cult of personality) being positive does have a good effect for some, particularly independents.
In my case, I hope a lot, and then try and turn that hope into action by supporting progressive legislation and officials who see the same way (or close). So, for next year, I’ll begin to push for an immediate extension of Medicare to cover folks from 55 years of age on (or even 50) through reconcilation, and/or an immediate public option through reconcilation.
Dems have got to know that once such legislation begins to take effect they will gain favor, since:
most citizens know instinctively that when you lose your good health, and have limited resources, you lose most everything, and;
most older voters tend to vote more consistently, and they are the ones who would benefit the most from extended Medicare.
Looking to the future, even some setbacks for Dems in 2010 will be offset in 2012 as the Republican lies and obstructionism come back to haunt them – thanks to the accessibility of information available through the Internet. My $.02 anyway…
Paz, I’d LOVE to believe that the Dem’s have ANY intent of using reconciliation after the first of the year to improve this mess of shit that will be passed.
But the Dem’s in the Senate are bought and paid for, and just proved it!
The corporate oligarchy is NOT gonna let any of them ‘improve’ what’s gonna get passed, that’s just seemingly improbable given the sellout the President, WH, Rahm and the Senate (and the House is about to) are foisting on the general public.
Really, really seemingly improbable, doncha think? Corporate control. Bought and sold Senators, and all elected offals. Improbable, I say.
Thanks for the thorough answer. We all hope but the well is almost dry for me. I have 4 grown children and 2 of them cannot afford health insurance. One of those is a single mother with a 14 year old daughter and works 2 jobs. I can’t tell you the worry I have about my children and grandchildren in this world where money rules and if you don’t have any, tough.
You are living proof of how this sell out is NOT going to improve your life or the lives of your children and grand children.
My heart out to ya Twain . . . . hang tough, be as well as can be.
We hope, we fight, for better.
And sorry, I used hoss when it should have been hossette, I think . . . m’bad.
I’m one of the 30 million and if you were really thinking of me, you’d kill this monstrosity as it will actually make my life much worse. Do you really think the subsidies will keep up with the premium raises? They won’t even be adequate by the time this bill reaches full effect for those who do get good subsidies based on today’s prices.
Technically the subsidies will keep up with the premium rates, which is one of the problems with passing a bill like this sans meaningful cost control. Jon Walker outlined it, though I can’t recall the link offhand, in a diary here.
Essentially the federal government is on the hook for however much money it costs to get the premium down to the (far too high) level of your income that the bill specifies. So, if premiums go up 20%, 30%, 40%, the federal government’s exposure rises accordingly. If your place in the income bracket says you can pay 9k per year in premiums, and the insurance companies want 20 grand, then the feds are out 11k. If the next year the insurer wants 25 grand, the feds are out 16k. And so on.
So not only will this bill bankrupt you personally, it also opens up a back door to the US treasury and lets Aetna, Wellpoint et all bankrupt everyone else by hauling huge sacks of cash out the back.
I don’t believe for a minute they will appropriate any more money for subsidies, even if they actually appropriate any to begin with. They want to “reform” SS and Medicare because those entitlement programs with surpluses from premiums are too big a drain on their plans for world domination, but they are going to go along with paying these subsidies? We’ll just be treated to another round of “We’re so sorry and we really want to help you, but deficit spending, China, inflationary spiral, entitlement deadbeats, lions and tigers and bear, oh my, we can’t.” Not coming up with the money to fund mandates has never stopped them before and it won’t stop them again. We’ll keep the mandates and have to figure out the financing on our own.
I’m not so sure. I mean, that isn’t money allocated for US, it’s money allocated for Wellpoint. I think they’ll raise taxes to keep that gravy train flowing.
you mean like the “defense” industry has done since 1946?
Please, consider the outrage surrounding this bill in light of the comparative silence from the left on matters of military spending.
Healthcare profiteering is a drop in the bucket.
Healthcare spending is over 2 trillion dollars per year.
Defense spending is about 700 billion. Maybe 800, with the supplementals.
So no, it’s not a drop in the bucket. It’s closer to three buckets.
The filling of the bucket begins with the first drop, hoss.
The War Machine has their reckoning coming, also.
That’s the mechanism to first pillage and rape ALL entitlement programs, then destroy them.
Nice outline. Thanks.
Like this backdoor into the Treasury?
http://firedoglake.com/2009/12/23/jane-hamsher-grover-norquist-call-for-rahm-emmanuel%e2%80%99s-resignation/
And this one?
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/12/shocker-banks-with-lobbying-ties-to-pols-get-bailouts/
And this one?
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com:80/2009/12/body-count-from-goldman-actions-crosses-into-criminal-territory.html
I never said there was only one back door :D
Of course — to have a door implies a wall and door frame which was torn down over the past twenty years.
Indeed. After Bush’s speech a few thousand Americans died in Iraq. Allowing the Insurance industry to continue to run the health care system in America will result in many, many, many thousands more casualities…and enormously more pain and suffering. Or do you actually believe the Wall Street Democrats now when they tell us this is real reform? Why in the world should any of us trust them to follow through on any of what is still left to support? Will they stop the insurance industry from gaming the system? Will they enfore the rules?
After all, will or will not the health care industry continue to pour millions and millions of dollars into their campaign coffers?
Again, this is incredibly naive. It assumes the very folks in the Democratic Party who allowed this travesty to pass as “reform” were not themselves neck deep with the Republicans in creating and sustaining a “campaign finance” structure that permitted this flagrant conflict of interest to prevail in the first place.
It’s not a done deal yet. Recent history doesn’t inspire great confidence that the Progressive Caucus in the House will show some backbone but hope springs eternal.
Obama is a liar of epic proportions.
IMPEACH OBAMA
And then on to Bernie Sanders next!11!1! YeeeeeeeHAW!
Thanks, Knoxville. Excellent post.
Mission Accomplished — Observation, Conclusion, Recommendation
Observation: The public backlash against George W. Bush’s relentless lying and hypocrisy got Obama elected to the presidency in November 2008 with strong paper majorities in both houses of congress.
Conclusion: Given America’s historical & political amnesia with so much time between now and 2012, why not try the same tactics as the previous adminstration? It got Cheney as president a second term, didn’t it?
Recommendation: Call James Cameron’s Avatar CGI team stat — We must get rid of that deer in the headlights look in the president’s eyes whenever he talks in front of the camera and says something he knows for a fact is false or misleading.
From Rahm’s Lessons Learned while Hiking the Appalachian Trail File
I hope nobody’s so mad they take down their Christmas tree.
Good for her. People have different ways of showing their anger and seniors are quite often unique. :)
While some may claim that they are not done yet, I am afraid that Obama is set on being a one term sensation.
“If you’re fighting those who want a better bill in defense of this bill, you own this bill, not the bill you’d like to see but are doing nothing to advance.”
Why because Queen Jane, the autistic Rand zombies at FDL and the Tea-baggers says so?
So let’s say I believe in the political evolution of legislation or a people coming together to form a more perfect union, am I at fault for believing in and supporting something that can evolve and can be improved upon?
This isn’t over, and I don’t need to be told what I own or don’t own, but I do know some people who fully own their confusion and bitterness and need to demonize and scapegoat, with not a shred of proof, and cynically make gimmicky alliances. If it works for you guys maybe Planned Parenthood can make Charles Mansion their spokesmen for legalized and safe abortions. That guy knows all about that stuff and boy can he hold a room of people spellbound.
As the folks in the insurance industry watched their stocks rise to a 52 year high, they were no doubt thinking the very same thing.
Sure, and soon Rahm and Tim and Larry and Barrack will turn the trillion dollar spigot off on Wall Street and send the relief flowing to Main Street instead.
And even though the gap between what Obama and the Congressional Democrats promised us on the campaign trail makes Grand Canyon look like a crack in the sidewalk we can count on them…eventually…to “do the right thing” by the millions of suckers who bought the rhetoric, actually convinced they were intent on following up on it.
Do you believe they were sincere in their promises on the campaign trail?
Do you believe my narrative about crony capitalism and “democracy” in Washington is just a myth?
First we hang ‘em, then we convict ‘em. *G*
[Mod Note: Let's not take that any further]
Yes to the first and No to the second.
Down boy! When you stand up and display some courage and conviction and actually come up with an idea of your own, on your own, maybe then people will listen to you. Until then, eat shit and die!
And a very Merry Xmas to you as well.
Barack Obama ought to sign this legislation on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. There behind an enormous Mission Accomplished sign Jim Cramer can interview the CEOs from the health care industrial complex while Rahm and Joe and Harry and Max pass out cigars to Howard and Bernie for finally coming around and accepting The Way Things Just Fucking Are.
LOL
Thanks for the shot of reality.
What a GREAT idea!
(And, belatedly, welcome to the frontpage of FDL, Knoxville. Well-deserved, and well-reasoned indeed.)
I like that :) Great satirical imagery.
Excellent idea.
For the FDL Health Care War Room, would it appropriate to start a counter numbering the days since Obama declared “Mission Accomplished” on reforming health care?
If so, tomorrow morning around 9 or 10am would be “Day 1 since President Obama declared “Mission Accomplished” in the reforming of health care.”
Otherwise, it might make more sense to start that count after he signs this turd into law, if we don’t succeed in stopping it first.
Ignoring reality on the ground only works for so long. Bush did it, and we saw the results. When the tens of millions of people lose their employer health coverage and the good jobs and industries all relocate to countries that provide a healthy, universally insured population, Obama followers might recognize the bad deal they got.
Or not.
I haven’t given up all hope that this mess will fail, personally, though it’s becoming a longshot.
This for me explains everything about the present situation.
So let’s say I believe in the political evolution of legislation or a people coming together to form a more perfect union, am I at fault for believing in and supporting something that can evolve and can be improved upon?
Depends entirely on what you see as the fundamental problem. If you see provision of health care insurance by for-profit companies who own the Congress and WILL NOT be regulated as the problem, subsidizing and further entrenching them is not “something that can be improved upon.”
Something that can be overturned, maybe, when the “something” that you have just passed fails. But definitely not “something that can be improved upon.”
Just curious, since the many times I’ve made these points here, they’re either ignored or mocked as being Obamabot-ish, but do most here simply not agree with the “foot-in-the-door” argument in terms of societal change and legislation? I’m guessing not, since I haven’t noticed one iota of discussion in the comments or main posts about how to continue the single-payer momentum. It’s quite literally nearly 100% bash Obama or the DemocratIC Party as a whole, without distinguishing between the fake Dems and Russ Feingold for instance.
Do most here not think it’s relevant that LBJ and FDR had roughly 68 Dem Senators and several Repubs that would cross the aisle on key votes, while Obama has 58 Dem Senators, and about 10 of those are what I’d call Infiltrator Dems who are there specifically to stop Liberal reform from within the Dem Party? Is this not an important difference when discussing what Obama can do compared to previous Presidents?
Isn’t focus on clear goals an important component of movement politics? Seems to me it is when studying so many of the major successes of social movements of the past, yet there’s a growing theme of “IMPEACH OBAMA” and now even questioning of Socialist Bernie Sanders. To me, history shows scattered shoot-from-the-hip “activism” is not an effective strategy.
This bill makes things worse. It’s a foot in the door to a corporate takeover of the country, in that, for the first time in the entire history of the United States of America, citizens will be forced to hand over money directly to private corporations, who set the rate of this taxation themselves, with no input from or supervision by the legislative branch.
Remember ‘No Taxation Without Representation’? That’s what this bill is. It’s a fundamental violation of the American political compact.
and what happened the last time that phrase was used?
My ancestors on my mother’s side got driven back to England, amongst other things.
I’m not sure what you’re asking me, personally, though.
Not an apt analogy. We had representation and it sold us out.
No longer content to merely fleece the flock, the shepherd accepted a buyout offer and sold it to the wolves.
I’m not making an analogy. This bill hands over taxation power that by the Constitution was supposed to be vested in Congress over to Blue Cross, Wellpoint, Aetna et al.
When they raise premiums, from the day this passes forth, they’re raising taxes. Plain and simple.
Thanks for posting. I thought I was the only one with some doubts. I repect the people posting and usualy agree with them, so it’s possible I have a blind spot here. Maybe I’ll read something here and I will “get it”.
Hi bonkers, “The foot in the door argument” is a what’s called a heuristic. It’s a guide to action that sometimes works, but many times does not. The trick is evaluating whether it will work in particular cases.
This is not 2006, or 2007. It’s 2009, and the power of Democrats in Congress is at a high water mark. It’s not getting any better, especially if they pass a shitty bill. If they can’t pass a good bill now, they’ll never do it.
Why can’t they pass one? Because of the filibuster and the need to get 60 votes and to buy off blue dogs and conservadems. That situation will exist next year and the year after that and the year after that and so on. But by 2011, there will also be a lot more Republicans to deal with, so it will be even harder to get something through that goes against the insurance companies, or to get the door open any wider.
That’s why this moment is an important one. It’s one that we need to use to get the best bill we can. We can get a much better bill if we force reconciliation in the Senate and need only 50 + 1 there.
To make that happen we have to kill both the current House and Senate bills in conference. That’s what we should do because in the present situation the “foot in the door” heuristic just doesn’t fit the situation. The heuristics that do is “seize the day,” or “carpe diem,” if you prefer. Others that are relevant in this situation are “a fool and his money and are soon parted,” and also, “don’t buy a pig in a poke.” Both the Senate and House bills are pigs in a poke, from the viewpoint of real health care reform that will end the fatalities, bamkruptcies, and foreclosure consequences of lack of health insurance. Because they are, they deserve to be defeated.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply.
As is usually the case here, most of us are in agreement that a single-payer, Canada-style system is the best. The debate becomes about the best strategy to get there.
Yes, it’s not certain that this foot in the door will get us there. That’s why I’ve proposed for so long around here that most of us here concerned about healthcare in America should rally around the issue, yet now the prevailing sentiment is about finding common ground with teabaggers instead of Obamatrons like myself who have spent many years organizing around this issue (long before the recent debates when it’s become more safe to talk about). I feel this is incredibly counter-productive.
I simply do not agree that Dem control is at a “high water mark.” Compared to when? Certainly not compared to FDR or LBJ’s times. Hell, with 58 Dem Senators and approx 10 of those being the Infiltrator Dems who have stopped every single bit of Liberal legislation they’ve seen (long before anyone heard of Barack Obama), it’s not clear to me that reconciliation would be certain. Don’t know much about the details, but I just read a long piece explaining why that process wouldn’t even apply to several components that many wish it would.
Bottom line is that the anti-Obama crusade in many Liberal blog circles has been in full force long before he was even President. I know because I’ve been having these same debates since they started over two years ago. It sucked up tons of Liberal blog time and energy during the election, yet he won. It is sucking up tons of energy now that could applied to FOCUSED energy on fixing the real problems – the Infiltrator Dems. It could be focused on the building the single-payer momentum to the poiint where it would be unstoppable. Yet, I’m seeing all kinds of “IMPEACH OBAMA” stuff and wanting to build coalitions with teabaggers and the like.
Do you think you have more in common with teabagger nutjobs or with Obamatrons? Do you think time, money and energy trying to get Rahm Emmanuelle fired for a convoluted thing from almost 10 years ago is going to help us get to single-payer? And so on…
We agree on where we want go. We just seem to have different roadmaps.
I would suggest that progressives organize all their efforts into a progressive State with a population of above , say, 18 million and work on pushing through a kick ass Public Option, that would make obvious that Health care can be head for about half the price of Obamacare.
If we cannot win by reason, we can win by example!
As I’ve said before, this travesty of a bill is more like Obama’s Katrina moment. Self-congratulatory backslapping in font of the cameras doesn’t help people from drowning in sickness and debt.
Heckuva job!
Seeing as the TradMed is pushing this bill as a monumental achievement it’s all a matter of news-cycle engineering at this point.
e.g., from the SF Chronicle: Climactic Christmas Eve vote that could usher in near-universal medical coverage passes by a 60-39 margin.
There are clearly FIVE LIGHTS, you heathens!
Clearly. That fifth one is even brighter and shinier.
“Near universal medical coverage. . .”
OMFGAM . . . . talk about false memes . . . sigh.
I’d seen that at SF Gate this morning, got a dry heave that came up.
Sigh.
The entire corporate media will carry water for the corporatists.
Yep.
*slidesdramglassover*
This ‘victory’ is but a Trojan Horse to push through the privatization of America’s commons, as pathetic as it is.
Your absolutely right. Obama is just the one to finally privatize Social Security. As only a Repubican could open up China only a Democrat can finally destroy the last vestiges of FDR’s New Deal. Of course it will be disguised as a “reform” of social security. Wall Street is salivating. They are insatiable.
I see the exact opposite.
I organized around single-payer during the 1992 election season (public forums, door-to-door, etc.). People had no idea what we were talking about for the most part. The stigma of Canadian-style healthcare was incredibly dominant in the public discourse at that time.
Hillary Clinton helped advance the conversation, but the failure of her husband to get anything done about it essentially killed that momentum and made the movement dormant for over a decade. These last few years it’s been building again, and at no point in my lifetime has there been more knowledge and excitement about single-payer in the American public discourse. Plus, the “government-run” boogeyman Lush Limpbaugh and friends is losing it’s impact, which is an incredibly positive development.
So whatever gets signed, which I agree it’s important to keep pushing now since there isn’t anything signed yet, we’ll be in a great position to really crank it up this next year or two.
This is why I maintain that our time would be much better spent right now organizing around single-payer. There’s PNHP, which is great for info, but are others aware of any groups out there, who have a proven track record in movement politics and organizing, that are taking the lead in single-payer organizing?
I see PNHP has some Action Steps, so I might need to investigate that further, and I see ACORN has some activities around “Health Care” at least, and that group is one of the best at ground-up organizing in America today (that’s why they’re being attacked). Any others?
http://www.acorn.org/index.php?id=16950
I’m with you on Medicare for All. But SP will be greatly helped if we can defeat this bill.
Jane has a new post up. If you hurry you might get a comment in before the trolls arrive.
edit: Sorry, looks like it was just a mirage.
*SPEW*
Damn, waste of good Makers Mark!!!!
Up we go!
404-Page not found?????
Evidently it appeared prematurely and got yanked.
I sure liked your comment though!
Still laughing, and it was going to me MY first comment!
*G*
Tweet chirp to Bob . . . and may all your crackers be well spread. *G*
Bob’s a shrieker, not a chirper, although he does talk a little bit. Says thanks for the cracker, BTW.
Hey, no Mz. Hamsher post, it’s BMAZ!
????????????
Norquist eh?
Use Norquist to squash Emanuel eh? Brilliant
If you do that, sit with your back to the wall and a loaded glock in your lap. With Norquist, you will need that glock. If he has his way, he will send you to the wall.
“No mortal man can, at the same time, serve his passions and his best interests.”
[Mod Note: Just so you know, we avoid violent imagery here]
Great Knoxville!
The Truth about Health Care
The VA covers Vets (govt run)
Medicare takes care of Old People (govt run)
Medicade takes care of Poor People (govt run)
health insurance companies cover Healthy People
(get sick and see how quickly you get drop, this Bill will not stop this action by insurance companies, they will just charge you so much, that will have to drop)
Knox, that image is priceless. :o)
But when I click on the link to send it to my friends, all I get in the link is the shot of Bush, himself, under the Quagmire Accomplished sign.
???
I wish I could take credit for that image! Love the teleprompter. Very nice touch.
Try clicking here to get the image. If you have a problem getting it that way, go to here to grab it there.
If neither works for you. We’ll figure something out!
Actually, wait a moment. I think it might still be possible to put the awesome image with this entire post so you can send the link with the whole thing to friends.
Jason and FDL team: Thanks!
Here’s the deal. HCR is going to pass. whether we like it or not. A republican far more odious than Obama is going to run for President in 2012. There are not going to be any third party alternatives in our lifetime. So go ahead and bash Obama all you want, but when we get President Palin in 2012 don’t say you weren’t warned.
OK, but…
yer sayin’ we can’t raise hell and move the results on this or any other issue a little more to our liking? We’re supposed to sit down and shut up, while the GOP and anti-choice fundies, the Teabaggers and the bankers can agitate and lobby and pressure all they want?
Oh, those of us playing the home game know that the rich and the media will not tolerate a President anywhere to the left of Ron the Gipper. Some structural changes need to occur before the Presidency can move left. Much as the D party works to ensure that it isn’t so, there ARE viable parties on the left, viable in the sense that they can get some candidate elected who actually walks the talk.
Happy Holidays, y’all!
I, for one, am looking forward to protesting with teabaggers this summer.
Should be interesting.
I hate to say it but I saw this coming many months ago. Once Obama started equivocating on health care reform and his private meetings with Pharma were reported it was clear what the outcome would be. That didn’t prevent me from contacting my Representatives and Senators, attending rallies, and signing every petition I could, but when I read the responses I received, it was obvious the government had no clue as to what type of health reform was needed, fair, or just for the American people. We as voters have been so marginalized over the years the writing on the wall is clear to see. The only hope now is if the 60 Reps in the House who wrote a letter earlier stating that any bill without a public option was unacceptable will follow through on that pledge.
I totally sympathize with you and your experience. I started to see the same and wrote letter after letter. That’s part of the reason I came to Firedoglake. I have to admit, though, that I never thought the result would be this bad. It’s a horrible joke on the American people.
If you haven’t seen it yet, please take a look at the FDL petition to end the Senate bill and consider signing it. To see it, click here.
Do you remember back to the good old times when we were worried that we’d end up with triggers? Now they don’t even pretend they won’t ever let us have what we want. Oh, those adorable little scamps! We’ll just have to elect more of them and that will solve the problem! I’m headed over to the DNC website to make a donation right now and then I’m gonna go check out what’s up at DailyKos!
Got an email from Obama today. I’m sure he wrote it personally and he will be sure to read my reply. At least I can thank him for my ultra-conservative family members and I finally being able to talk politics without coming to blows.
The American people got played in the worst way imaginable. The Republicans got everything they could possibly have wanted in terms of policy and politics, and the Democrats got nothing but the ability to sell the American people a turd by calling it a “historic” achievement, though it is not. And there are morons running all over Kosland defending these sellouts and enablers of sellouts and yelling about Jane “dividing” progressives. Once they stopped fighting for what’s right, what was Jane supposed to do? She’s hardly one of the bleating sheep who will just follow whatever and wherever. Sorry, I’m ranting.
I got the same email. And I thought the same thing. I remember when we were fighting for the strongest possible public option. I didn’t think that the Obama and congressional Dems were going to be so bad and/or ineffective that we’d end up with nothing but this garbage.
bonkers, you said:
I think these differences are very important and that things are certainly more diifcult for Obama than they were for LBJ and FDR, but I also think that Obama slected the wrong strategy to get good helth care reform, and made deals with insurance and Pharma companies that he didin’t have to make and failed to try to mobilize public opionion in back of a progressives bill and hurt reform by taking Medicare for All of the table, and worked behind the scenes to make this reform bill not reform at all. So, I think these things are very important differences between Obama and FDR too, and think Obama deserves a great deal of blame from from this comparison, and I don’t see why you don’t.
That’s a common refrain around here. “He shoulda started with single-payer and compromised from there!”
After seeing how close even these milquetoast tweaks to the current corrupt system are getting through, I just don’t see this happening. I’ve long thought the “bully pulpit” is really overrated, at least when you have the MajorMedia working against you (Obama) rather than with you (Shrub or any Repub).
Again, we have tactical differences. History is, as usual, a good learning point in this debate as well, since Social Security and Medicare for instance both were much weaker originally and were made stronger over several years time. If Liberal blogs existed during FDR and LBJ’s times, would they have been screaming to kill some of FDR’s original, weak proposals since they didn’t go far enough, and then try to build a coalition with someone like Prescott Bush?
This is not a dictatorship. The Infiltrator Dems are there specifically to stop Obama or anybody from doing anything too Liberal. He didn’t create this dynamic, and again, this is why I’ve long felt the rage is being misdirected in too many confused directions, and is even hurting people who could be our allies. Threatening Bernie Sanders? Do you think this is good strategy?
Every major political movement has needed some successes to build momentum. I’d say an example near and dear to those here was the Ned Lamont campaign. Whatever this health insurance tweak becomes when signed, it could certainly be used to build momentum for the single-payer movement. Instead, around many Liberal blogs, it’s demoralizing that same movement, and I don’t think Obama could be doing much more to change that, for reason spelled out above. Focus…that’s the moral of the story for me.
Agreed Knox there is the beginning of the end for Obama. There is nothing between now and the next election he can do to win over voters.
Are you talking about this at the end of the diary?
It’s sad, really. Obama could have been a great president, I think. He chose mediocrity, instead, for reasons that baffle the mind, and he ended up being a failure as a result.
Rahm and others around him are telling him that it’s just a few crazies on the far left that are angry. Not to worry. But they’re wrong. The American people know they’re getting screwed over. Obama has a whole lot more to worry about that just you and me being angry, and the harder he tries to sell this lemon, the worse it will be for him and all the Dems in ’10 and ’12.
Yes
He thinks he knows better than us Peasants.
I agree the polls support us.
Message to DailyKos. You’ve descended in the past 4 years into BEING the problem, or at least a large part of it.
Such a huge disparity that is not enigmatic: The Markos that appears on Meet The Press or Countdown or other shows makes such great sense, and hits the nail wit the hammer, over and over. The Markos at his site? Master Enabler of the pollution of progressive advancement, into the return of the dreaded Clinton Centrist Dems. It’s not a mystery though. Kos is a shrewd businessman behind that smiling babyface. There is some kind of deliberate duality that I think boils down to maintaining high advertising revenue at DailyKos caused by churning — keeping the regulars shooting it up, and letting the progressive vs centrist battle grow exponentially daily, as in kos. Churning = higher page views = higher ad revenue. It’s pretty simple to dissect the Right and Left and Mid Markos all a once.