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With momentum recently building for the public option Obama has done nothing to help it (and a fair amount to hurt it). Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is often praised for his ability to count votes. When he went to the president on Thursday to brief him about his support for the public option opt-out, Reid must have know he was extremely close to getting it passed in the Senate. A few calls from the president, some horse trading, and/or a public statement of support could have easily pushed the proposal over the edge. What did Obama do when it looked like, with a little effort, he could get a public option? He had word leaked that he would fight against the public option and wanted Snowe’s worthless trigger instead. A trigger proposal Rahm Emanuel and other had advisers have been pushing for months.
It is important to note that Obama has been consistently less than true to his word when it comes to health care reform. Obama originally claimed to be against the individual mandate; now he is fighting to make sure it is included in the final bill–even though the all-important Olympia Snowe opposes the individual mandate. Obama promised not to tax employer provided health care benefits; now Peter Orszag claims it is a critical part of reform. Obama promised to allow drug re-importation and give Medicare the power to directly negotiate drug prices; several months ago, Obama made a secret deal with PhRMA in which he agreed to actively fight against both of these proposals. And, the president has clearly broken his promise about putting all the health care reform negotiations on C-SPAN. On issue after issue related to health care reform, Obama has, for all intents and purposes, lied.
All the evidence points to one simple conclusion: Obama does not truly support a strong public option.
Maybe Obama never really supported the idea of the public option because he thought it could not work. Maybe he sold it out as part of his still-secret deal with the hospital industry. Perhaps he promised some conservative Democrats in the House and/or Senate that he would kill the public option in exchange for them not criticizing health care reform. Months ago, Obama might have secretly promised Snowe veto power over any proposal if she agreed to support reform.
Regardless of why, Occam’s razor dictates only one conclusion: Obama does not support–and likely never supported–a strong public option. There is no tangible evidence to support an alternative conclusion.
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And what are we going to do about it?
Letters, calling congress, nothing has changed his mind. He lied to us, straight up lied to us and we’re doing nothing.
We need someone to announce right now that they will challenge Obama in a primary. Imagine how much he would have to kowtow to the left if Anthony Wiener or someone went up right now and went “Obama has lied to us, his campaing was a lie, and as such I will be challenging him for the democratic nomination of 2012.”
Watch him try and placate the left then.
Because honestly, letter writing, marching, online petitions, nothing works. I campaigned for Obama, I’ve been wrtiing letters and calling ever since he got into office and it’s all for naught. He turned me from hopeful to complete and utter Cynic. He got passed my armor that 8 years of Bush had thickened, made me hope and managed to make my cynicism clamp down harder and thicker than it ever has before, and NO ONE is talking about how this is going to damage the party, because I am not alone.
Revolution is building, because the democratic party cannot be reformed.
We have the party of insanity and the party of corporations.
We need to fight and win back the Democratic soul, or just be done with it and and start a revolution to actually reform the country.
And honestly, I don’t think we can win back the Democratic party. Big business owns it now, it’s lost.
I’d like to see far more of a call to action, some action, some real actual action. Every “liberal” who is still trying to defend Obama, who stil considers it his master game of chess is a fool. Obama owns you and has tricked you hook line and sinker. A fool born every minute.
As I just posted in a comment on Jane’s post, I think there’s good reason to think you’re getting too worked up over whatever happened on Thursday between Obama and Reid.
White House aides (including Rahm) were in the room during the Senate discussions all last week, apparently with no mention of triggers until the now-infamous Thursday night meeting with Obama. And now Reid’s already scheduled a press conference today to announce his final decisions, so whatever pushback there was in that meeting, it doesn’t seem to have upset the applecart too badly.
Similarly, there have been no reports of Obama leaning on Pelosi to soften the House bill. If Obama was really determined to kill the PO by adding a trigger, then what Pelosi and Reid are doing would be flat-out, open rebellion — but that doesn’t seem to be how the WH is treating it at all.
It’s not because of the meeting.
It’s because of a long established pattern of Obama screwing over the left.
He did it on FISA, he did it on Guantanamo, he did it on the war supplemental, he did it on gay rights, and he did it on the stimulus.
He called the #1 question on his online site “A joke” because it was about Marijuana. Cheap easy political points by ignoring a real problem in America and making a joke out of it.
He has proven to us he’s not trustworthy, so we no longer trust him.
Had this happened immediately after the election we may be able to give them some slack, but after all the shitting on the left how can you sit there and say he still has a plan?
The only plan he has is to suck up to the corporations so he gets relected in 2012.
I feel like I just had to tell you there was no Santa Claus, because that’s really how liberals like you seem to feel about the man.
Battered woman’s syndrome, Stockholm Syndrome, look them up because you have it.
I just keep thinking of Bob Dylan, “you have to serve somebody”. Honestly, all this gaming the system and treating us like children is really disgraceful. In the long run, just you watch, it will all be called: “brilliant political strategy”. I am not surprised by Obama. He never, ever risked his political career for a cause. Why the shock?
obama has been conspiring with baucus, snowe, et al to kill the public option, from the beginning of this process.
his biggest problem has been the fact that he has not wanted to leave his fingerprints at the scene of the crime.
his entire public presentation on the issue has been solely about establishing plausible deniability once the public option was killed.
anyone who has actually listened to what he has said on the issue gets it easily.
but he’s been hoping that most americans are too stupid to understand how duplicitous he’s been, all along.
what a prize we have in the white house.
bush was bad, horrible.
obama is only marginally better.
Inky, have you made any calls? This week? Didn’t think so. Righties call their legislators all the time.
Meanwhile, those who have called, are the reason the PO is still alive. It was supposed to have been zapped months ago.
By the way, Republicans love it when progressives give up. That’s why they’ve poured millions into splinter parties like the Greens: To peel off disaffected progs. (Hell, they essentially owned and operated the Pennsylvania Green Party!) That’s how they were able to lower the margin in Florida in 2000 just enough so they could steal it. Or do you really think that Gore would have been the same as Bush?
I don’t buy it. Obama’s not a king, and his coming out strongly in favour of PO at this time simply exposes him for no gain. Who would be brught over? He would energize the wingnuts and the msm against him, the latter wanting nothing more than to see him fail. This is war. In war, you have to hold back your reserves for when they are needed. As Norske has pointed out several times, they will be needed when the House and Senate bills go into conference. At that point several things will be settled: a viable PO, and an early implementation date. Since he has the votes for reconciliation, the critical votes are in the House, where PO needs a majority. That is why the Blue Dogs have to be forced kicking and stomping to vote for whatever comes out of Conference. It’s too soon for Obama to come out with, ‘you are either for me or against me, at your own risk.’ But that time is coming. probably early December.
Be patient, keep writing your reps. This won’t be done unless we force it to be done. Obama alone cannot do it, frustrating as that is to many here.
Where do you get off saying Obama never discussed triggers? Stop lying.
Jon, you are absolutely right and why the real left does not understand that Obama is a Reagan Democrat (or Blue Dog, if you prefer) is beyond me.
Like crazy, drugged zombies they continue to fantasize about Obama being a lefty, or even an honest progressive. He is not.
His wife and Axelslob dumped patients. His buddy doctors AGREE with managing/witholding care to save money (its in their own words). He cares about Wall Street, not Main Street and HE DOESN’T GIVE A CRAP THAT YOU DON’T WANT HIM USING YOUR TAX DOLLARS AS A GIANT SLUSH FUND.
I suggest that everyone watch closely to what is to come and NOT support Obama on this. I BELIEVE THIS BILL IS SO FILLED WITH CRAP THAT IT WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE TO IMPLEMENT. Then he can be flaggelated in public (and he will be, believe me) and it will be his fault.
We will just be out another tril.
(and hopefully it will be a long time before a Democrat tries to pull this crap again).
Excellent points, PW !
Wrong, and your assumptions about me are foolish to make.
I called Both Scumer and Gillibrand this week (well last week as it’s Monday)
Since the Day Obama got elected I have been making calls and sending letters, E-mails and signing petitions, making sure my friends know about the issues.
And we have crap to show for it other than being smacked around by a corporate white house.
I am sick and tired of people telling me to “get involved”, I will put my record against anybody’s. I campagined for Obama and had a lawn sign.
After 8 years of thinking politics was a rigged game the man got me to care again.
Well now I care again and I see him betraying everything he campaigned on.
Don’t tell me “get involved”, getting involved has been futile. What has all this done? Yeah the PO isn’t dead but who cares we’re still going to get some crap half assed version because of “60 votes in the senate” which will be the WH’s cover to cave.
I may be every Republican’s dream, an angry Liberal, but we’re going to have to deal with that because I’m not alone. I will not just give him my vote “becasue it’s the lesser of two evils”, I’m done giving Dems my vote for free. Any dem who wants my vote has to actually earn it, and BO hasn’t just not earned my vote, he’s lost it from last year.
Sure I may be giving the republicans what they want, but who cares if nothing is going to change anyway? Jane said the same thing, If democrats aren’t going to stand up for real Democratic values, that are in the freaking DNC charter, then why should we even bother with them?
We need a real plan, one that can’t be ignored like phone calls and petitions.
I don’t remember Obama saying he would “fight against” a public option. Where and when did that happen? According to your source, he said he didn’t like the public option with the opt out.
They could have avoided all this baloney is Congress had just had the balls to hold hearings on single payer.
My reply to your similar comment in the previous thread.
That, if true, is to the great credit of Harry Reid and those in the Senate encouraging him not to capitulate to Obama’s purported “pushback,” not to the credit of Obama.
As with the private Obama luncheon with Pelosi on Thursday, about which I’ve seen no informative reporting, we do not know what goes on behind closed doors or in private phone calls, which is why secret deals and secret legislating is such anathema in a purportedly self-governing Republic. “The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence,” or something like that…
[Inquisitr, FWIW, I'm working on a draft Seminal diary about how we might get out of our present federal straitjacket; if I think the end-product is worthy of posting (probably sometime this week), I hope you and others will contribute to critiquing it in comments.]
mwaaah!
just saw your diary over at Big Orange – you are one fearless firedog!
Of course, Obama was lying about supporting the public option. Many of us who back single payer have been saying from the beginning that the whole debate has been a charade. Obama believes the deals that he cut with insurance companies, BigPharma, and the medical industry as well as his own plans to cut Medicare will control costs. The PO gets in the way of those deals so he has been trying to axe it or rather get someone else to axe it for him. And yes, I know those deals aren’t worth spit, that Obama has given away the store for a few empty and soon forgotten promises but these deals he’s made are his grand strategy as far as I can tell.
Obama’s performance since the beginning of his presidency has been timid and right-leaning. His treatment of the Public Option and his willingness to make deals with the Health Care shareholders, indicate that 10 dimensional chess is not a game he can play. Unfortunately, a bad game of checkers appears to be more his speed. He is poorly prepared for real change and, as far as I can figure, he could not even articulate the image of America that most of us in the liberal Bloggosphere see daily. He’s a youngster with good intentions, but without the tools to make a difference. He just doesn’t see what’s going on. That’s a pitty, because it appears that we have squandered yet another chance to re-orient the Nation in the way that FDR did.
I wholeheartedly agree with you!
Rahm/Obama are absolutely CRAZY if they think the base will turn out to vote for dems in 2010 (or thereafter) if RAHM/OBAMA dont start delivering on the campaign rhetoric (hello, public option) of the 2008 presidential campaign.
As smart as Obama is, and he is, I am incredibly disappointed in his utter lack of visible leadership. If I wanted a republican in office, I’d have voted McCain/Palin in 2008.
Love how you guys tie yourselves up in knots to avoid eating crow.
I love it when someone comes to a Left leaning place and starts bashing “you liberals”. We don’t come to your snake pit and make fun of you. Behave yourself.
If you believe the president has been trying to kill public health insurance all along then that is good news. It means you, the people here at the lake not the fifth column visitors, stopped him. It means keep it up. Keep calling your senators and representative and tell them to make the bill stronger. We always knew “public option” was going to be used as a cover for any crap they wanted to sneak through. And we know they are going to try to run out the clock and wear US out.
Only Republican presidents create laws, otherwise you deal with congress. Focus your fire. We’re almost there.