Looks like the President is desperate to get out from under the burden of disappointing the country by failing to follow through on his campaign promises for a public option:
[S]enior administration officials are holding private meetings almost daily at the Capitol with senior Democratic staff to discuss ways to include a version of the public plan in the health care bill that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., plans to bring to the Senate floor later this month, according to senior Democratic congressional aides.
Because Reid doesn’t want the blame for pulling the public option out when he combines the HELP and the Finance Committee bill. He made it clear that if that if the public option made such an exit, he wanted the White House to take responsibility. He doesn’t want to hold the hot potato.
While Democrats hold majorities in both houses on paper, nailing down those majorities has not been easy — particularly in the Senate, where Democrats need a 60-vote supermajority to head off a Republican filibuster.
No, Democrats would have to join a Republican filibuster in order for it to be successful. A fine but important distinction. But they don’t want the hot potato either, so they’re not saying that they’ll do that.
[T]he White House and its congressional allies are under heavy pressure from the Democratic Party’s liberal base to breathe life back into it.
That has Democratic leaders looking for ways to insert some form of the concept into a Senate bill without jeopardizing centrist support.
To that end, Obama is lavishing attention on moderate lawmakers while he continues to talk up the public option.
…but the only arm he’s twisting is Jay Rockefeller’s, to vote for the Finance Committee bill that doesn’t have a public option.
He has met repeatedly in private with Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, who has floated a proposal to allow states to set up government plans as a fallback if commercial insurers do not control premiums.
You mean "triggers." Go ahead, say it, she wants to add "triggers" which Congress historically writes to assure they never kick in. Snowe isn’t on board yet, though — apparently she doesn’t want the hot potato either.
When Obama spoke by phone recently with Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., he made a point of the breadth of support for the public option, the senator said in an interview. Cantwell authored a proposal to let states set up public plans that Democrats added to the Senate Finance Committee bill on Wednesday.
Cantwell’s proposal may be fine, but a public option it is not. Calling a hot potato something else is not going to make it less hot.
And at a closed-door meeting of Senate Democrats last Tuesday, Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin, D-Ill., marshaled polling data that in dozens of districts represented by conservative Democrats, a majority said they would back a requirement that Americans get health insurance as long as there was a public option.
If Durbin has polling data that indicates support for the public option "in dozens of districts represented by conservative Democrats," he should release it. Because trying to jam "triggers" on people is going to produce a bill that satisfies teabaggers and insurance companies, but few Democrats. Hiding the true numbers in order to obfuscate that is deceptive and not in the public interest — and it proves that hot potato is just getting hotter.
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It is possibly petty of me to be pleased that these folks are feeling the heat and searching for ways to avoid it without having to admit they are bought and wholly owned.
But I don’t care. I want them to feel all the heat that they have helped to create. It is beneficial for them.
Harry Reid should understand that any cover he gets from the White House will not help him if he is the one that fails to include the public option in the combined bill. Other Senators should understand that they elected Reid majority leader, so that his sell out would be their sell out.
How many Americans have unnecessarily died while they continue to discuss triggers, vouchers and the public option?
Jane thank you for all you do
What kind of pressure is Snowe feeling from the folks in Maine?
124 Americans a day
12,648 in the 102 days since we began our Whip Action on 6/23/9. that’s three (3) 9/11’s for those following along at home
Does Obama really want to block the public option that badly? I just can’t get my head around that. Rahm pushing what corporations want I get. But Obama going all wet noodle on it runs counter to the image he built of himself during his campaign. It just seems insane to commit political suicide by turning his back on the people that put him where he is and feed (a small portion of) the corporate beast instead.
folks did you see this
Grayson cutting through the Bull.
http://crooksandliars.com/john…..x-castella
Would really like to see Trumka, Jane, Howard Dean, Katrina and Grayson on a panel or stage together Whoa. I get chills thinking about that one
Well, if you ‘get’ Rahm and you ‘get’ that Obama chose Rahm, then using the ole transitive property, Rahm only gets what Obama wants: a health insurance bailout.
Cantwell’s not putting forth the Basic Health plan because she opposes a public option. She’s putting it forth because she wants something – ANYTHING – to be done for (rather than to) the people who cannot now afford insurance. Washington’s Basic Health is actually pretty decent, IF you can get on, and I think she’s trying to restore and expand it here at home since our horrible budget crunch has meant that thousands of people have been kicked off, and thousands more are slated to be kicked off because the state can’t afford it. Premiums for Basic Health are really low. If you don’t have much in the way of money, you pay something like $10 a month.
But this is not because she opposes a public option. Cantwell has come out firmly in support of a public option. In no way is she being wishy-washy about it. It took us long enough to get any sort of statement from her about her commitment to one, but when she made it, she made a very strong commitment.
Here’s this from her official website, if there’s any doubt:
“Improving Competition through a Public Option
I believe a robust public option needs to be part of health care reform. Currently, there is little competition in the health insurance industry. In fact two insurance companies, and sometimes a single company, can dominate the marketplace in most communities. Allowing people to choose between a public option and a range of private insurance companies would improve competition, resulting in better coverage for a better price. I support a public option that is accountable to the people and available nationwide. If such an option is not included in draft legislation, I will work to add one to any health reform bill before the Finance Committee or on the floor of the U.S. Senate.”
And here’s a whole ‘nother disaster looming: Nursing Homes. The article emphasizes Medicare payments to nursing homes, but remember that is a post-acute (not long-term care) benefit. Medicaid is being decimated in many states, and it is Medicaid that reimburses nursing homes for long-term care. This will be devastating, just devastating.
Jane,
Is there any word regarding how the Wyden CBO mess-up happened? I think the backstory has ties to the PO.
I’m just wondering how Obama thinks legislation gets passed. Does he think it is like magic, some grand coalescence in the minds of wise solons? Or does he remember the part about twisting the arms of people who are afraid to pass the legislation he wants? I guess we will find out.
for the ignorant (ie..me) can anyone tell me why they can’t vote for the public option?
can’t or won’t?
They do this every damn year, less and less and now even less. I need to get a camera and illustrate what goes on.
They’re cowards.
Maybe he realizes that the public option, without the option of companies and school districts joining in (as Wyden points out) would perhaps be a pool of individuals that the insurance companies don’t like. In other words it would be very expensive and not deficit neutral. The public option would need to be optional for everyone.
This is why single payer is the only system that truly makes any sense.
I guess that’s the question. Obama seems to be caught between the people that want it and the special interests that do not… but I’m just wondering where the log jam starts. How can they pass anything at all if the special interests are so powerful (trying to alleviate my ignorance a bit)
anyway I am glad that politicians are getting pressure from the people like this
if Obama would man up and say he isn’t signing anything without a ROBUST po, we’d get this train back on the tracks.
But he won’t do that.
So 124 people a day will continue to die.
Durbin must be trying to plan how Dems can kill the public Option and not lose a majority. We must tie any Dem failure to pass a good public option to losses next election. The Conventional Wisdom is Clinton lost because a Dem majority because he raised taxes and lost on healthcare.
Dems, GOPers, Blue Dogs the Press they all believe it if we can get our side to hold the line then Obama will have to cave.
And if our side doesn’t hold the line we make sure to take credit for expected Dem election losses.
Where have all the leaders gone
Long time passing
You mean in the whole history of the US, up ’til now we get, maybe, three? Washington, Lincoln and FDR? And that’s it?
From those to whom much has been given, much more might have been expected.
Cantwell’s amendment is actually pretty good. Progressives should demand that this program, in which the government negotiates with managed care organizations to provide benefits for large groups of people, be expanded from 75% of the uninsured to 100%. There would then be no reason for the health insurance exchanges.
We should continue to fight for a public option, but if Cantwell’s plan replaces the exchanges it has a decent chance of evolving into a single payer system over time.
If Cantwell’s plan gets restricted however, and the public option stays out, I strongly believe Progressives should fight to kill this health care reform bill.
Cameras, yes! Many people in those long-term care beds are as dependent on the rest of us to get their message out as they are dependent on staff and volunteers in nursing homes to care for them daily. If we don’t speak for them or help them to speak for themselves through film and videotape, then there will only be silence.
Please don’t forget Jefferson and FDR.
Trumka, Jane Hamsher, Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich, Marcy Wheeler, Christy, and now look at this guy
Grayson…punching out the truth for us
http://crooksandliars.com/john…..x-castella
“Saturday Night Live” went after president Obama pretty hard on Saturday. The sketch was intended to be funny but I didn’t find it be remotely funny because it was so true. SNL highlighted Obama’s failure to follow through on his campaign promises from a liberal prospective.
The sketch was pretty obvious in its points, and Armisen’s Obama impression was pretty awful. It wasn’t too bad, but they could have been much more pointed like Maher and Stewart were on the Dems’ lack of spines.
At this point, there should be only one goal: a single payer plan, perhaps Medicare based, which will drive every last one of the greed-profit-based health insurance companies out of business once and for all and forever. Screw the selfish bastards.
Rachel did a good job of defending Obama on the SNL skit. (you may have to scroll down a bit.)
But does he want it? The public option, that is.
Another item where the cost goes up every year.
Along with ‘assisted living’ places – there’s not controls on those, and a lot of them are owned by for-profit companies that see them as great ways to make lots of money.
Triggers and State level co ops would fit that bill. The problem is that some poseur progressives and Olympia Snowjob could end up voting for such a watered down, useless mess. A bill that they could take out to pasture and kill if it ever got close to implementation.
He ought to have a clue; it isn’t like he went from Joe Average-guy to President in one step.
I keep wondering WTF is going on at the White House: is anyone actually doing what they’re supposedly being paid for?
President Obama and the democratic party need to grow a damn spine and a pare of balls. Pretending that republican opinion matters, Well, that is utter nonsense. Correct me if i am wrong, but last November voters gave the democrats a mandate for “Change.” So where is the change? What happened to “Fierce Urgency Of Now” Mr. President?
May I add some names to your list of leaders?
Tom Harkin, Dick Durbin, Jay Rockefeller,
Maxine Waters, who urged President Obama to use the “Nuclear Option” in the Senate to pass a Health Care Bill with a “Public Option.”
I sent Alan Grayson a letter today, which read in part:
I had no choice but to take on my 86-yo demented mom’s care myself, after my repuke brother had looted her modest estate and the way overpriced corporate senior facility totally sucked caring for her anyway. Now she’s sitting on my couch, where she belongs. Between me and my partner and her daughter, who we’re putting through caregiver school and certification as she helps us, we’re all hangin on.
As for Obama, if he doesn’t get on the stick I hope his old age is spent lonely and rotting in a stinky diaper nobody changes cuz there’s no money in it.
What’s your point?
Any public option other than single-payer will be subject to adverse selection. But it’ll be fifty times worse if public options are done on a state-by-state basis.
To Fae Yin @ 12
It is a question of honor, Fae Yin, “they”, that is, Democrats in Congress, have already been paid rather handsomely by what are known as corporate “interests” to vote against the public option. It is unreasonable of us, as well as very impolite, to expect these brave and honorable men and women, who have committed their lives and destinies to public service ( usually “to” the highest bidder’s for such service, although “they” do sign all the “big” checks with our names, because you and I have to pick up the “tab”) to abandon their principles and precious virtue of being known as trustworthy.
It is all very complex, Fae Yin, and the public would be wise not to trouble their little heads with such things, permitting their betters to get on with the business of business and other such noble pursuits.
The preceding palaver, Fae Yin, is properly known as “snark”, meaning it is not to be taken totally seriously … yet aspects of it may well be “true” in the ether myths of hypocri$y which pass for honest governance in today’s America.
The concern of Congress (and the White House, it sadly appears, is the “plight” of “those too big to fail” rather than with that of those too small to matter; that is, those who cannot afford the “going” price of the bribe. In economic terms, that “state” of lacking the means is known as “ineffective demand”. In political terms, such a “state” means being, effectively, dis-enfranchised. And, in human terms, it simply means that much more pain and dis-ease is on the way for many ordinary folks.
DW
Seems like they’re doing what the other people are paying them to do, huh?
Not sure I agree with your analysis of Durbin’s motivations, but these words of yours cannot be truer:
Exactly right.
”But Obama going all wet noodle on it runs counter to the image he built of himself during his campaign.”
Maybe he’s over his head.
Maybe he’s a blue dog dem who believes in ”Trickle-Down” economics,
”what’s good for the big insurance companies is good for the USA”
Hopefully, Alan Grayson and the Progressives will fight hard for the people.
That ain’t gonna to happen. Obama’s got his ass covered, trust me.
lets take a step back: the president will get a bill with a public option.thats what the people want.
One-hundred twenty of our fellow, uninsured American citizens died today for lack of health insurance. The numbers(human beings) will continue to trend upward as a corporate owned president & Senate push through a bad bill only the insurance & pharma companies will benefit from. The Progressive Caucus will cave to pass the bad bill, also. If any part of it is called a “public option”, those who state that will be guilty of fraud. The fix to continue the screwing of the American people continues on unabated. Both parties are corrupt beyond redemption.
As Jane wrote:
Isn’t that a good thing?
Isn’t it the surest evidence that the pressure from people like us is being noticed and having an effect?
As a certain point, doesn’t the hot potato – taking responsibility for dumping the public option – get so hot that, well, they all realize that they can’t dump the public option?
To ReiszFischer @ 42
Yes, Obama’s is legacy-cla$$ ass, now, and even if all his future ”projects” and Clintonesque ”business connections” should go awry, the people of the USA will be picking up the tab, when the time comes …
We’ll be taking care of Dick Cheney’s little heath care issues as well.
Yes, Riesz, we needn’t spend overmuch time agonizing about how Obama will fair in his golden years.
How many commenters have read the article quoted in this post?
The article’s title is:
It goes on to discuss how Obama is pushing Senators to support this position.
This is going to happen. Keep the faith.
Yes the hot potato is a good thing for the people. That is the hope. That a sufficient number of congressional representives will turn their backs on big insurance in favor of the people. It is a tall order.
Obama used grassroots/netroots money and door knockers to get elected. He also used lobbyists and entrenched monied interests on Wall Street and elsewhere. He has turned his back on the former in favor of the latter. He lied about the change. Obama loves lobbyists (and the Multinational Corporations they represent). He also loves war, Dubya, Dick Cheney and domestic surveillance.
Depends on how “public option” is defined in the WH.
And let’s just say that all the talk about triggers and such that has come out of the WH makes me not quite willing to hold me breath that we’re talking the same thing.
Yes, well if the Chicago Tribune says so it must be true.
Its time to send another threatening letter to the WH. Make that several threatening letters to the WH. Lets see, we’ll get the AFL-CIO, Trumka, the 46 progressives in congress, etc….to ’strongly’ remind them that the ‘fits gonna hit the shan” if no PO.
Thanks, Jane. Well said and love the picture.
I wish Howard Dean would back SP Medicare for All and go even farther out there and show contrary leadership to heart-breaking sold out corporatist Dem majority in Congress. Nader said once re health care reform “Obama would back anything that managed to squirm through a cowardly Congress.” I think Obama wants to take a victory lap for achieving the “pre-existing condition” compromise and thinks a dullard public won’t notice everything else that is so terribly wrong if he even gets that accomplishment.
Wish Grayson and Dean would help us kick some cowardly Dem ass collectively.
Went to a lusty and robust demonstration in front of NYC Aetna last Tuesday night on behalf of Single Payer. It was heartening. Still making Congressional phone calls.
Obama needs to be reminded that ALL THE BLAME will land at HIS feet for this failure.
It could happen. We’re still waiting for him to actually do something to get a good public option (not the crap that the Blue Dogs talk about) through. Speeches are not action.
That all of the things on that list are pretty difficult issues. Granted, I think he needs to be doing some strong-arming right now.
The point of the article is that he is doing something beyond making speeches.
Now, does he need to do more? Yes, and I believe he will.
Good thread, Jane. For the life of me, I don’t understand why the democrats are so fearful of defining what the republicans are, which is nothing but a bunch of people who want to block the legislation and the changes that we so desperately need to try to salvage something from the 8 year clusterfuck of the Bush administration.
LET them filibuster. DARE them to filibuster. These people have a track record over the past 8 years, at least, and it aint pretty. Where is this vast reservoir of political clout that they’ve stored up by being so right about everything, that the voters will applaud their mindless obstructionist crap as being the “loyal opposition”?
They don’t have the political slack to tell Obama what color tie to wear; what the hell is he afraid of? Run the good legislation up to the hill, and keep running it up. Let’s take our chances with the voters. I aint askeered, unless Obama keeps trying to tickle the republicans feet into helping with the salvage operation. That will get NO credit from the voters, in fact, it’s the path to big losses in the mid-terms and maybe, one term for O.
I’m getting some perverse satisfaction imagining Obama’s increasing frustration and sweat that he’s finding himself between a rock and a hard place as his backdoor shenanigans are blowing up in his face and one way or the other he’s going to make a whole lot of enemies.
Thank you, Jane. You deserve a lot of the credit for making a difference by educating people, pressuring progressives to act progressively, and putting Obama in the spotlight on the hot seat juggling the flaming potato.
libby lib- Love ya.. and admire your continued support for SP. But Grayson didn’t even make FDL Actions support of robust PO pledge whip list this Summer.
Have you any reason to think it was because he’s solidly to the left (in support of SP) of that?
Jane,
I know I’m new here, and I can see that you’re working hard and have a lot on your plate, but I’d like to make a suggestion that I hope is constructive.
Why not focus a thread on what we are doing to make the potato hot (see my comment @ 45 above) and what we can do to make it hotter and hotter?
Among other things, I’ve contributed to FDL’s ad to tell Lincoln and Ross that they need to stand with Arkansas Democrats on the public option (I notice at http://www.actblue.com/page/arkansaspublicoption that we have way exceeded the amount of $ needed to air the ad) and I’ve contributed what I could at https://secure.firedoglake.com/page/contribute/PublicPlan to help FDL’s effort to raise $250,000 for our fight to stop the teabaggers from derailing health care.
I’ve asked this question a few times on your threads w/o getting an answer:
I think knowing the answers to questions like these will motivate me and others to continue working hard and TO DO MORE!
And please tell us what the $250,000 to fight the teabaggers will be used for.
We need motivation to fight the fight and to believe it can be won!
I couldn’t agree with you more! I’m enjoying watching them squirm. Did they really think we would let them get away with this duplicity? The Senators and Congress critters may have no spine but, we do and this time we LIBERALS “That’s for you Teddy, Rest In Peace” were just going to let them walk all over us? Even Obama himself must realize that it won’t be enough to say that he tried. We’re not going for that bullshit! With 60 Senators they will either comply or watch us crush them the same way we helped them crush the GOP. GAME, SET, MATCH! Keep pushing guys and thank you Jane and your army of people with a low BST. That’ Low Bullshit Tolerance!
I’ve seen you ask this before. Jane has so much reading to do that I doubt she can thoroughly read all of her threads.
It seems to me-and I can’t remember where I read it- that the ad was aired. It didn’t sway Lincoln, as we could see by her voting, but she’s probably not going to be re-elected anyway. No name republicans are beating her in the polls. So, imo she’s positioning herself to become a lobbyist for the health insurance industry.
There has been an infestation of trolls. I suggest thet get a big drink of Bis-Phenol-A because it tastes great and is less filling.
I have no problem with goblins.
Or maybe she’ll switch parties…
HA! But, shouldn’t that be LBT?
CORRECTION:
FDL isn’t raising $250,000. It’s raising $350,000. For what exactly? The number is already around $275,000
ES … wow… thanks … Grayson just came on my radar and I rush to judgment for the better re him. Thanks for the reality check! Will try to scope things out better. :)
Yeah, I tend to ask the same question over and over again until I get an answer. It’s one of my stronger characteristics.
Your response is the first I’ve heard that the ad even aired at least once in Arkansas (the brief reference to it on Countdown over a week ago only indicated that the ad existed). It was supposed to run for 2 weeks straight. Did it? Other than Lincoln having no morals or conscience (indicated by her vote on the Senate Finance Committee), what other effect has it had? Such an ad I would think would even shake a couple of other Blue Dogs in other parts of the country.
But the larger point I was making still stands.
Leadership isn’t only about identifying a problem (or, if you’re a Republican, inventing phony ones). Jane has identified the problems masterfully.
Leadership also has to be about encouraging people to make a difference and showing them that what they are doing IS MAKING A DIFFERENCE.
It isn’t debated that publicly Obama says he prefers/believes in/backs the “public option.” It’s what he isn’t doing to help make that a reality. The whole setup is highly suspicious. I think it’s possible we’ll get a public option, but not the one people expected (a robust choice available to all). Rather, it’ll be a safety net for those who still can’t get private insurance even after the mandates. You’re confident the (robust?) PO will happen, I’m confident the WH didn’t want a bloody war with the health care industry and wanted to keep a large portion of the hc industry’s money funneling into their party’s campaigns, so they’ve rigged this process to ensure the outcome will please the hc industry while technically offering some “reform”.
Rep. Grayson’s statement the other day is on the mark.
The Republicans “abstinence-only” attitude involving “Don’t have sex” has evolved into “Don’t get sick.” Yep, just abstain and everything will be fine, according to Republicans.
Of course, this “abstinence-only”/”Just say no” attitude only applies to sex and healthcare reform, not to corporate greed, using campaign donations as political bribe money, starting illegal wars, outing covert CIA agents, trashing the Hatch Act, disemboweling Glass-Steagal, endorsing torture, discarding federal bidding requirements so as to award no-bid contracts to crony pals, setting up Robber Baron media and corporate monopolies, covering for adulterous and gay conservative politicians, etc, etc, etc.
I have a better idea. “Just say NO!!” to voting for any culture of corruption Republicans and ConservaDems in the future. Let’s all abstain from supporting those individuals who keep putting profits over people, greed over the overall well-being of all U.S. citizens. THIS is an “abstinence-only” program I can believe in. Yes We Can!!!
Sorry that question is above your security classification. You do not have a need to know.
EVERYBODY DONATE TO FDL ACTION!
https://secure.firedoglake.com/page/contribute/PublicPlan
Bob Hebert has an excellent column today about the effect on Real People of the “pre-existing condition” policies of the Vulture Insurance Companies.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10…..istof.html
The letters which comment on his piece contain a litany of personal stories of pain, suffering, bankruptcy and leaving the country.
I remarked there that if Obama and the Dems were really serious about getting health care reform, they would have started on January 20 and featured 1, 5, 10 of these stories every day [I’m sure there are tens of thousands of them].
I fear, however, that part of the deal Rahm made with the insurance companies “behind closed doors” may have included a promise not to “say bad things” about them. Thus the silence.
WRONG ANSWER.
I don’t know who you are, so I’m assuming you’re a troll trying to divide people at this site.
NOBODY NEED DONATE TO FDL ACTION UNLESS THE LEADERS OF FDL ACTION HOLD THEMSELVES ACCOUNTABLE.
They ask for money, and thousands of people have given hundreds of thousands of dollars.
What I’m asking – FOR WHAT? – is an infinitely reasonable question.
I’m surprised no one here has asked it before.
Assuming you are someone of relevance, did you even read the rest of my comment?
The ad has run consistently for a week and a half now. It’ll run til Thursday I think.
Accountability Now has been down there talking to people, and it’s achieved its desired effect — everyone is talking about it, and it’s drawing potential primary challengers out of the woodwork. It wasn’t really about swaying votes, which — as people rightly note — ads almost never do.
As Eureka has said other places, it’s probably the first such attack ad from the left that Southern Arkansas has ever seen. It set the table for what is to come and made people aware of what was happening on a very broad basis – everyone saw that ad.
obama = eddie haskell of the new century
Jane,
Thank you so much for this response. May I ask who Frank33 is? His answer @ 71 makes me think that he is what I believe is called a troll. If he is someone associated with you and FDL, I recommend you have a talk with him.
Read my posts, that will give you a clue.
Who are you?
Actually no, I have not read your comments. And no I am not relevant. But perhaps I may join the Goblins. It is not necessary for Jane to speak for me. I am quite capable of doing it myself.
Sadly, I think you may be right. Remember, none of this is set to kick in for a few years until after the elections. That way, they will claim to have given the electorate reform and then the electorate won’t find out how crappy it is until way after the elections.
The fact that this is even happening so late in the debate — months after the public option was supposed to have been securely killed as per the Big Health Lobby’s stakeholders’ wishes — tells me that we’re having an effect.
With an answer like this, which you gave @ 77, to my comments @ 60, I suspected that you could not be all that relevant in the leadership of FDL and that you probably were just a troll.
Seeing it – and even thinking for a moment that you might actually be part of the FDL leadership, which for a brief moment I did – was the first time I had any thoughts of regret for ever coming to this site or giving money to the Arkansas ad or to the effort to raise $250,000 for FDL’s fight to stop the teabaggers from derailing health care or to Alan Grayson through FDL’s “Stand by Alan Grayson,” or for leaving comments at CNN’s political ticker and other places suggesting that others do the same.
Other than feeling at times like Jane is a disembodied voice (because, despite spending a fair amount of time here in the past couple of weeks, I don’t feel like I’ve met her yet), I have been infinitely impressed by her powerful and insightful posts and feel a loyalty to her that I would rather not have crushed.
Anyway, I’m not sure what explains a comment like “That question is above your security classification. You do not have a need to know.”
I was using my Remote Viewing powers. They suggested that you worked in one of them “Fuzion Centres”. Of course RV is occasionally wrong. Also I am not in FDL leadership. I am hoping to be promoted to FDL Private First Class.
Did I mention donate to FDL ACTION.
Re this and your other comments: perhaps you’re new to “these parts.”
I don’t know what you donated to FDL Action, but whatever amount it is, it doesn’t give you the right to march in, demand answers & be rude. [Frankly, NO amount would give you that right.]
For what it’s worth, the answers to your questions [which Jane so graciously provided] could have been found with a little research.
If you don’t like the way things are being run here, don’t donate. Go, create your own site, solicit contributions. But don’t come in here and pee on our carpet.
[Jane, I know you don’t need “defending,” but this rudeness just pisses me off.]
He’s twisting arms – he’s twisting the arms of those in congress who support a public option to stop supporting a public option.
Sorry you can’t recognize the difference between a reasonable set of questions and suggestions on the one hand and, on the other, rudeness.
Didn’t mean to piss you off.
Honestly, I don’t know who you are either. Like Frank33, I don’t recognize your name, Mauimom, either. Most likely, it is just me, because I haven’t been here that long.
I asked my questions and made other suggestions @ 60 because I do want to donate to FDL and because I want FDL to be the best it can be. I’ve also made contributions to DFA, the PCCC, and Health Care for America NOW!
As for your
…well, I’ll just refrain from ripping that nonsense to pieces.
I’ll only say that I believe I’m exactly the kind of person Jane intended to be here when she created this site.
Don’t forgot the first president to call for universal healthcare, winner Teddy Roosevelt. He was a good man, earning a Medal of Honor AND a Nobel Peace Prize.
But will many Murkins be able to afford insurance as presented in the plans now swirling about Washington?
What a mess.
Yes, he wants to block a public option! He is blocking it because he has already made deals with the insurance industry and PhRMA and he’s such an upstanding man that he intends to live up to the sell-out. They promised not to spent oodles of money on ads opposing health care reform, and Obama promised to see us all up the river.
Get your head around this: Obama is as big a phony as W. Actually, he’s worse. We knew we were getting a weasel in W, but we foolishly believed Obama was a man of the people and for the people when, in fact, he is a man who wanted the glory of the Oval Office, even if only for one term. He has proven, in everything he has done to date (including naming Rahm, Geithner, Summers, Rubin behind the curtain, and the rest of the money hungry ConservaDems), that he lied to us, used us for his own ambitious ends, and is now laughing up his sleeve as he changes the name of our country from the United States of America to the Corporate States of AmeriCon[job].
Obama lied and 45,000 people died and will continue to die under his Health Care Reform bull. I’ve had it with him and intend to do all I can to ensure that he does NOT get a second term. AND, I refuse to support any Democratic committee, organization, or cause as long as the sell-outs who currently hold seats in the Senate and the House are still there. They ALL need to be dumped and replaced by new, 3rd party individuals who are not tied to any current members of the Democratic or Blue Dog ring of medical industrial complex prostitutes.
To save the country the Democratic Party will need to be destroyed and a new progressive party takes it’s place.
Thank you so much Jane for being one of the few to keep making this potato hotter! I think this is great. Now they are searching for ways to try to include something half way decent instead of trying to hand us a bunch of crap and act like everything was out of their hands. Who do they think they’re kidding?
What is wrong with all you people who are attacking Knoxville? I don’t think the person asked such a terrible question and I don’t think s/he peed on anyone’s carpet. These comments sound exactly like the Teabaggers. They are trying to shut out all questions and to stifle any kind of reasonable discussion on any issue. Why are the FDL commenters doing that here? Folks, the Democracy we are all fighting so hard for should also apply here. Stop attacking each other. Target the proper people–the right-wingnuts, not each other!
Puppethead you wrote: “Does Obama really want to block the public option that badly? I just can’t get my head around that. Rahm pushing what corporations want I get. But Obama going all wet noodle on it runs counter to the image he built of himself during his campaign.”
Obama is all about image and promises and no follow through. Haven’t you noticed that Obama called a WH conference on health care reform in Feb. and failed to invite a single speaker for single payer. He took it off the table immediately and instead substituted the weaker “public option” as an option. But then he met in secret behind locked doors with insurers (breaking his campaign pledge to hold all health care reform in public and televise them live on C-SPAN) and lo and behold, Obama began talking about “insurance reform”. In Colorado, he gave a speech about the “public option” being a sliver. You have to look at what Obama does and not what he promised to get elected. There’s a big difference and not in just in the area of health care reform!
Good link. Sad and morbid as it may be, perhaps we or MSNBC should showcase one American per day who dies because of no health insurance. Human faces and names with the unsaid message “will you be next?”
thank you jane. you are an inspiration to us all. we know you will never sell out.
Well there you go pulling back that curtain again, Jane. (Hmm, I think I just made an unintentional SNL pun.)
You’ll be savaged, by those who refuse to see the writing on the wall, and by those who are frantically trying to cover up the writing on the wall, for this common sense, rational analysis.
Cantwell’s plan, while it may help some people, is not a public plan and hopefully the rapid response by many on the left against calling it a public plan will be effective. It’s not that it isn’t a good thing, but it is not a public plan.
And frankly, it’s not a stable thing either. One thing that has not received enough attention is that Washington’s Basic Health Plan is shaky from a financial standpoint and their legislature has been looking for ways to cut people from its rolls all year. There was a state budget cut and they were openly trying to reduce the number of people who have Basic Health Plan coverage even as the demand for it increased. There are 15,000 people on the waiting list for this plan.
It’s worth taking the time to read about Washington state’s problems with their admirable attempt to provide health insurance for low income people who don’t qualify for Medicaid. But when considering this plan, remember that some significant percentage of the money spent on this health care plan goes to the profits of insurance companies. This is not a non-profit thing. The state is negotiating rates with insurance companies to cover these people. The state officials admit that people are making choices between food and rent and that many will go uninsured. How many more could be covered if the insurance company middlemen were taken out of the equation?
Obama and his advisers seem desperate to ensure he serves only one term. I’m already sure I’ll not work actively for his reelection. I will certainly not give money, go to a rally, or display a bumper sticker or yard sign. Sure I will not vote Republican, too. But I may just end up in ‘neutral’ and simply not bother to vote.
Yes…we need a rally in late Oct and a lobbying day…with all of the folks mentioned stirring us up
Tell me this, why cant we say President Obama? why is it Obama this, obama that, he is the President of the USA.Give the man his due.
You & me & 150 million other disappointed people…