The Washington Post article that indicated President Obama was unhappy with groups targeting centrist Democrats on health care singled out the efforts of MoveOn, DFA, the PCCC, and SEIU. Although not one of the backers of the ad campaign pressuring Democratic Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu to support affordable public health insurance, SEIU has been aggressively organizing support for inclusion of a public option in any health care reform legislation. They have set up aggressive field campaigns in 15 states as part of their Change that Works campaign.
As reported in the Washington Post, the White House is pressuring such public advocacy campaigns to dial it back:
Obama believes "we shouldn’t be focusing resources on each other," and that he "hinted that efforts are under way to discourage allies from future attacks on Democrat."
Will SEIU scale back their efforts? Not according to New Media Director Tim Tagaris:
SEIU continues to run an aggressive field operation in key states asking Congress to support a comprehensive health care plan that includes affordability, employer responsibility, and a public health insurance option.
SEIU did not respond to an inquiry as to whether they had been pressured by the White House to stop.
DFA and the PCCC have also indicated that they will continue their campaign to push Landrieu to support a public option. MoveOn has not yet responded to a request for a public statement.
You can ask MoveOn to continue the Landrieu campaign here.
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Until the President begins fighting for the public option instead of trying to rescue our health insurance system, we must not dial back the pressure. Period.
The administration wants us to go away? Too fuckin’ bad. DFA and others were doin’ their thing long before Mr Obama hit the national scene.
Mr Obama, lead, follow or get the fuck outta the way.
What? did Obama think we would all go home and back to our stables once we got the Dems in there? Just breathe a sigh of relief and say “our work is done! Thank god!”????
How can you keep ‘em down on the farm after they’ve seen gay Parie? ( Paris)
We’ve waited and watched and now, we move. Sorry Mr. Obama, but Dems have always been like herding cats. we don’t care much for totalitarianism…from ANY party.
EPu’ed
Why should they?? Mary is fighting for big Pharma & Big Health Care Insurance companies and NOT for the people who put her in office. I see her as a Wannabe Repuke with the way she speaks and by her votes in the Senate!! I say primary her ass out of office so Louisiana can have a Progressive Senator who Will try and do things for the people and not for all the Corporate shills!!
Obama needs to shut up and listen to the millions who contributed to his election and WANT/NEED Health Care! He keeps saying Public Option but he sure hasn’t been twisting any Dem arms for a system the We the People want!!
a woman on Thom Hartman who lives in Europe “Kerry Lewis” is her name…. said that the US is the number one country for medical tourism….. I know about the Mayo being a destination but really number one?
I got yer dial it back right here !
btw, just now diaried something I found at Nate’s place: – Get Out There Mr President !
thought for sure it would be India, Malaysia, or Thailand – wonder if she meant we are the #1 Tourists and not #1 destination
What utter crap:
Another rule that applies only to moderates, or does he think we’ve already forgotten this:
I’m getting really sick of being treated like a second-class Democrat because I don’t bail on the very ideas that Obama ran for office on at the sound of an administration dog whistle.
I don’t know whether the U.S. is #1 for medical tourism or not. But it is exactly the system that the “market” would create: all kinds of expensive fancy stuff for rich people, and bupkus for the hoi polloi. Thus, the medical tourists are rich. The U.S. also has the worst health outcomes of any developed country: higher infant mortality, lower life expectancy, higher incidence of all kinds of diseases like diabetes.
I think India is the #1 destination for medical tourists. 1/100th of the cost or something like that. Haven’t followed it very closely. If ya could go around the world for a buck I couldn’t get outta sight so it’s a moot point for me.
We’ll stop attacking Blue Dogs right after Obama stops attacking us.
The US has the state of the art medical technology. It is the #1 destination for the rich. Those other countries are medical destinations for the not-so-rich. How do I know? We travel to Boston twice a year for Mr. Gnome to see the #1 guy in the world for his rare type of cancer. People from all over the world who can afford it, also go there. Fortunately we have insurance that covers the medical costs, almost. But not the travel costs.
there is no sourcing in the ceci wapo story. someone leaked that to her.
seems to me it is good cop, bad cop.
it is Rahm saying OB is making nice.
but I dont hear OB saying that to the groups.
No she was clear that people come to America for medical treatment. Then started going on the technology and research in new drugs….. but if that is true…… why are most of the tech equipment made in Germany? Several of the drug companies are based in Switzerland…..
The Boston Globe article
Novartis, based in Switzerland, has huge research centers in NJ and MA. They just opened or are opening a big tech center in conjunction with Harvard Med School in Cambridge. Mr. Gnome’s magic drug is manufactured by Novartis in Switzerland, but it was discovered here.
Nuh uh. Just cuz they get quiet doesn’t mean I have to. After all these years the congressmorons need to hear it. All day, every day. They work for us and it’s up to us to ensure they do what’s right for the country.
Novartis also makes the long acting insulin Lantis.
Obama trying to take the heat off Landrieu should tell you everything you wanted to know about where he really stands on healthcare or anything else. He is right there with the most corrupt of the corporatist elite.
We need to speak even louder than all the lobbyists the insurance and pharma companies keep hiring. So keep it up SD!
The medical tourism story demonstrates the problems with stray comments.
Who is the commenter Kerry Lewis? What affiliations does she have with the medical industry?
Where did she get her facts? How dependable are her sources? Is she talking numbers of patients? or dollars?
What procedures are these medical tourists getting? What countries are they coming from?
Ding.
what kind of rare cancer does he have?….. mine is also very rare – renal cell cancer …… 30,000 diagnosed each year and it is #10th killer….
The reason that the drugs are developed here is that the government funds the research…. any company is going to flock to a place that throws money for free for their research…..
sorry….. just something I heard on the radio….. asking if true…. Kerry Lewis a person that Thom Hartman interviews about monthly…. not sure her credentials…. she was not talking down the public option as she lives in Austria and knows how well the single pay plans work ….
Well, I for one have not backed down.
Go to web, ussenators.com, and let the politicians know the American people want and demand public option.
Have not found where we can contact the house, only our representatives.
The elimination of the public option is raping the American people,
once again.
Odum! How are you.
How goes the situation with Peter Welch?
There’s no evidence they’re getting quiet. This is an article by the same reporter who a week ago was a stenographer for Feinstein and company’s quotes about how pressure from liberal groups was “not helpful.” And even then, it only includes reports (presumably leaked by these same “centrists”) of Obama “expressing concern” about the outside pressure, but the White House “had no public comment.”
“Obama tells liberal groups to back off” is what the “centrists” and their stenographer want us to take from this story. If that were actually true, it seems to me that someone from the administration would have actually told them.
He has GIST – Gastro-intestinal Stromal Tumors. Gleevec is the drug that saved his life nine years ago and continues to do so today.
i agree. furthermore, i’d be surprised as hell (pleasantly surprised) if these organizations (moveon, dfa, seiu) went against obama or the dem leadership at this point. that would be a major turn around from last summer when the coalition was formed to support obama’s approach to healthcare reform.
so, unless there are other and better sources, i have to continue to think that obama is not putting pressure on these groups to stop what they are doing.
Ah, excellent, Jane. Peter’s a great guy… even if it sometimes our job to remind him of that ;)
Here’s some local press on the war vote push that quotes him extensively on the issue and the feedback he received:
http://www.stowetoday.com/arti…..137032.txt
Haven’t started whipping our guys for the public option yet, though. Welch should be pretty solid as he’s tried to get some ownership of the issue in the House, as should Sanders in the Senate. It will be very hard to get Leahy to commit at that level, though.
In Paris, they have single payer health insurance. It’s really too bad not many Americans have seen it work. If they had, we wouldn’t be wasting our time trying to get a piddling public health option through a reactionary political system.