Tweet
Earl Blumenauer (D-OR)
Today, House leadership is talking about using “sidecar reconciliation” to make the fix to the Cadillac tax that the White House promised the unions. But they evidently have no plan to put in a public option to pay for it — they plan to raise taxes instead to recoup the $60 billion that will cost. Whereas the public option (or expanding Medicare) actually saves money, they plan to lift the cap on the Medicare tax and violate the President’s pledge not to raise taxes once again. Just so they can honor back-room deals with Aetna and PhRMA.
This despite the fact that a public option makes the bill 26% more popular with independents and Republicans in a swing district.
Well, 65 members of Congress pledged to vote against any bill without a public option. Now that only 51 votes are needed in the Senate to pass one, that “60 votes” excuse doesn’t fly any more. They need to honor that pledge.
And Earl Blumenauer should remember he made it.
In July, Blumenauer signed a letter saying he wouldn’t vote for any health care bill that doesn’t have a public option. But he subsequently told the New York Times that he really didn’t mean it, and he might just vote for an Aetna/PhRMA giveaway anyway. (I guess Amgen, Eli Lily and Pfizer got their money’s worth.)
Does this mean nothing to him?
This appears to be a pattern with Blumenauer: in 2007, he signed a letter saying he’d vote against any war funding bill that did not contain troop withdrawal provisions. But when the supplemental came up for a vote this year to continue funding for the wars and it didn’t have any, he voted for it anyway. It creates the public perception that ending the war by cutting off funding is apparently only something to be demagogued when Republicans are in office and there’s no hope of actually following through on it.
Blumenauer was the first Democrat to step forward and smack Alan Grayson down for speaking bluntly about Republicans:
“You cringe,” said Representative Earl Blumenauer, Democrat of Oregon and an unabashed liberal but also a buttoned-down gentleman. “We’re at risk of having a self-reinforcing corrosive process that drives reasonable people away.” He added: “It breaks my heart.”
He’s from a district with a D+19 PVI. He doesn’t do this to please conservative constituents, he does it because he likes to.
Last year the online community raised $430,000 in gratitude for members of Congress who pledged to vote against any bill without a public option. Earl Blumenauer received $3,230 of that.
Democrats need to restore public confidence that they actually mean what they say, and their actions need to match up with their words. Call Earl Blumenauer’s office and ask him if he intends to honor his pledge and vote no on any health care bill that does not have a public option. Let him know that in our recent poll, 90% thought he should return the money if he doesn’t (or perhaps, as some have suggested, give it to Hatian relief). And that 76% of those responding to another survey (10,814) think that Democrats who go back on their pledge should be primaried.
Earl Blumenauer: DC Office: (202) 225-4811, OR Office: (503) 231-2300. Let us know what you hear.
99 Comments
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About FDL Action
.
So much for the hope that they’d read the current situation as well as Jane has (from her post earlier today):
So, the return of a public option is looking less likely?
How do CPC members rise into leadership positions in the caucus? I’m wondering if maybe Lynn Woolsey should step down and be replaced with a more effective leader. Grijalva has done well, but Woolsey hasn’t done her share.
I don’t know. But it would certainly show leadership to step forward and make some statements on this.
Jane,
It’s the carrot and stick approach. Promise the money and deliver if he votes “no”.
Also, we need to draft Howard Dean for president in 2012. The Massachusetts loss reinforced the fact that people are fed up with Obama.
Jane, stop it. You’re heading toward Republican control of both houses, and your strategy isn’t going to get us a public option.
Instead, tell Earl Blumenauer to do the following: introduce a second bill to add a public option, and do nothing else. Agree to pass the Senate bill provided that the House commits to passing the public option add-on as a separate bill. The Senate would agree to take up the new bill under reconciliation procedures.
Reconciliation rules don’t allow for a law that bans insurance companies from discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, so we’d lose that. The best outcome is the Senate bill plus additional bills.
And I said “additional bills“. Each additional bill should be simple, straightforward, and politically popular. For example, a bill that reduces the excise tax, as the Democrats agreed with the labor unions to do. It’s a tax cut; can the Republicans obstruct that? You’ve quoted polling to show that people like HCR much better with a public option added: do it.
and
Democrats‘Progressives’ in the grassroots need to restore public confidence that they actually mean what they say, and their actions need to match up with their words.one way to do this would be to vote against Democratic Party candidates who continually break promises and govern against the interests of their base. I know, crazy idea – but your logic is strong, and this is clearly where it leads to.
But pols in D+19 PVI districts have never had this done to them, so they are free to make and break promises based on their own situational requirements.
but they cannot make and break promises heedlessly to their leadership or their corporate donors, because those guys extract consequences.
it would seem that the time to re-appraise the imperative to vote (D), no matter what, is finally here.
I really really really am trying to make an attitude adjustment and be positive. I hate being eeyore, but this sounds to me like the leadership doesn’t get it. And by it, I mean any of a range of plausible rationales for why we have a new GOP senator from MA:
Rationale A: Lefties are pissed because the national D party has been too corporate and isn’t deliveriing the change for which they thought they voted.
Rationale B: Tea Baggers and the GOP are gaining steam because their message that the democrats are all about giveaways and raising taxes.
Both are happening. And that means that threading the needle Clinton style is increasingly difficult. In fact, outcomes like MA-Sen show it is not working.
This leadership direction on limiting sidecar to just the tax plus the Coakley-ran-a-crappy-campaign rationale for the loss and you get a clear perspective on what the leadership is thinking: no change in approach.
That’s not heartening.
I agree completely. Woolsey usually votes well, but seems to be lacking in her capacity as leader, sadly.
That’s exactly what the post is advocating for. That’s what “sidecar reconciliation” is.
AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen Hamsher and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:
Now you’re usin’ your well developed muscle on the right folks, Sister Hamsher, you don’t need to give your ground troops to lunatic libertarians when they don’t have a single vote for your issues…when was the last time you saw Ron Paul argue for a public option??!!
Whip the progressives and go find Nancy Pelosi, she has a dog in this hunt and it’s to save her speakership and smother Rahm Emmanuel. There is no “sidecar reconcilliation” without trustin’ that ObamaRahma will fix the “final solution” Senate bill under reconcilliation…you are a lot smarter than to trust the folks that put us in this mess in the first damned place!
Whip the progressives in the House of Representatives and KILL THE BILL!!!
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE FUCKIN AMMUNITION, YOU SHOOT DESERTERS UNDER FIRE!!
The rumbles from the senate seem to indicate that they are not going to consider Health Care again this session period. They seem to be saying that the house either passes their bill as is or Health Care Reform is dead.
(See Talking Points Memo)
If that’s the case, it seems unlikely that the house can muster the votes to pass the senate version- and we may end up with nothing at all.
Sad situation.
It is all about TRANSFORMING.
A lot of Dems in congress are transformers.
The elites and some corp dems are hard at work to stop progressives.
Progressives must learn the art of Transformation.
Obama campaigned as a progressive. Once Obama got to the White House he TRANSFORMED into a Bush Clone. The power of some Dems to transform into republicans once they get to washington helps the elites maintain the status quo.
You can call it the Bait and Switch or the Hope A Dope. At the end of the day Progressive must learn how to use the power of transformation.
Michael Moore says it best, progressive must promote and elect real progressives. A lot of nice words want change american, only the actions of real progressive candidates will change america.
Not one Progressive stood up for the Public Option. (if one congress woman or man had stood up for the public option, they would now be the front runner for the white house in 2012)
Progressives need to have a Ben Nelson, Joe Lieberman, that can control legislation.
Progressive need a candidate that will tell Rahm where to shove his garbage.
All it takes is ONE
Citizen MadHemmingway:
No, Citizen, if we can kill this bill we can yank control of the party from ObamaRahma and put Howard Dean back in charge of the DNC and rebuildin’ the Democratic Party infrastructure. If Obama fights his own base he loses at both ends and he has no one to triangulate with and he’s toast in 2012 unless he falls in line. This is hardball politics and it’s what the Democrats used ta be good at…we’re ready out here in the street!
Many Massachusetts residents made that decision, others did not. You’re not from Massachusetts and it’s not an appropriate time to ride people for a decision on that front you might or might not approve of. If you’re here just to sew dissention and extend that rather long pattern of behavior on that front, you might want to think about what exactly you’re contributing here today.
“You cringe,” said Representative Earl Blumenauer, Democrat of Oregon and an unabashed liberal …”
Just another cringing demo, eh? Like he’s proud of cringing when one demo speaks the truth out loud.
Squeeze your pearls Earl, make for the fainting couch, be a nice little Demo.
The notion of sidecar reconciliation *specifically acknowledges* that you can’t get limits on rescission, and pre-existing conditions etc through reconciliation. That’s in the regular bill to which sidecar of reconciliation eligible items (tax reduction, public option, medicare expansion) is attached.
Before you tell Jane to “stop it” and prognosticate on where her strategy (promulgated on, I hate to say it, a small-fringe-left-wing blog) is taking the entirety of the US and it’s powerless Democratic President and House and Senate majorities, you might want to learn a bit more about what you’re talking about.
Jerrold Nadler says that he will only vote for the Senate bill if they do the fix first, so that doesn’t wash Norske.
If you want to “kill the bill,” call Blumenauer and tell him to vote “no.” Or sit back and let them do what they’re inclined to do.
Lawrence O’Donnell spoke about “sidecar reconciliation” last night or this morning on MSNBC. He didn’t think it would work.
Good god. I’ve voted Democratic in every election since 1976, but even I’M ready to see the friggin creeps thrown out of office after the corrupt and sordid mess they’ve made out of what should have been a health insurance reform slam dunk.
Throw in the Wall Street bailout and lack of a jobs bill and we’re looking at a GOP Congress in 2011 — which Obama will probably show a clintonian eagerness to accomodate.
Citizen sporkovat:
Until I see you organizin’ regular folks against the corporatist beast that isn’t a progressive Democrat, you best keep your skanky butt in front of your computerscreen and howl at the virtual moon.
Generally I distrust any politician who sports a bowtie, unless his first name is Claiborne. Kinda twee!
Kagro says it would. He’s the one I usually go to for information on this stuff.
Yup yup. Could have / should have been Grayson.
I can’t count ten members of the House and Senate I believe in right now.
It’s spineless, weak kneed, flip-flopping dems like this asshole Blumenauer that are making the dems and progressives look like losers and incompetents to the electorate.
Dump this chump and KILL THE HCR BILL. Once everyone on the left has done a little house cleaning and whip the pee-pants blue dogs and their sympathizers into line then we can get Medicare for all passed.
The BIG lesson from the MA-Coakley-DNC cluster fuck is: “Idiot America” wants competence from their politicians – They will even vote in a backwards looking, brown shirted demagogue that promises it even if it costs them dearly…
If people want to “kill the bill,” that’s usually accomplished by voting “no.” If that’s what you want, call Blumenauer and tell him to honor his promise to do that.
Why should Unions have to compromise with the White House? who elected who?
The last time I check the Unions help Obama Win.
It is stupid for UNIONS to be asking Obama to help them, when he owes them everything.
Bush done one thing great! He done what his base wanted, period.
Progressive need to find candidates, that support progressive issues, it is really that simple.
If you are a democrat and you want to represent Aetna, put on an Aetna Jacket and run as the Aetna Candidate.
Citizen Hamsher:
Hey Sister, we’re on the same side here…if they can “fix” the bill before votin’ for the Senate abortion I’m all for it but the way reconcilliation has been explained to me we would need to trust ObamaRahma to support reconcillation AFTER the Senate bill passes…do you really think that’s gunna happen?
If the public option with Medicare tag can be “reconciled” before the Senate bill becomes law then let’s go for it…but until then let’s kill the bill and make ObamaRahm come outta the closet and run against the base in November.
When I discovered one of the largest campaign contributors to Blue Dogs like Mike Ross, was unions… I knew they were going to get exactly what they deserve for supporting such cretins.
unfortunately Howard is sounding more and more Dem. domesticated….
“Progressive need to find candidates, that support progressive issues, it is really that simple.”
Yes. The myth that “any old ‘D’ will do” died a long time ago. But it was all but forgotten about in the heady thrill of the last election.
Progressive leaders like Jane Hamsher, Howard Dean, Markos Moulitsas, MoveOn, etc. need to unite to form a political machine that will raise money to find and fund liberal primary challengers to corporadems and conservadems.
Until then we’ll just have to keep fighting these losing phone call and online petition battles.
How about honoring the pledges made to the folks who got you to where you are?
i appreciate spork’s comments (and diary) and don’t find them divisive at all. especially considered in the context of the past week where those of us who are MA voters and were considering not voting D yesterday have been told by front pagers who are not MA voters to “grow the fuck up,” called “naderites” and “political idiots,” etc. there were even two diaries, one by a front pager, that invoked goodwin’s law — which apparently is still suspended because the argument is not over.
i have no idea what i should have done yesterday, i guess maybe time will tell. for me it was a very hard call. but there are strong opinions on both sides and that’s ok (don’t like being told to “grow the fuck up” so much though).
That would be a start.
2012 Think of today.Dean has the ideal of Medicare we can buy into today if we want it.Think with an Adversity there an Advantage.If Obama can’t deliver
Good job Jane. You go girl. It’s about time we have someone with the courage to stand up for accountability.
We’re trying to calm things down today and be respectful of people’s decisions on that front today, and toward that end have put up this thread:
http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2010/01/20/open-thread-for-massachusetts-voters/
I hope people will feel free to use it in the spirit it has been offered and refrain from telling folks to “fuck off.”
Scale back the ObamaRama Health Care monstrosity. Make it simple. Easy to understand. And make it perfectly clear to people that someone else is paying.
Ezra Klien says, “What would be eligible through reconciliation? Well, Medicare buy-in, for one thing. Medicaid expansions. The public option. Anything, in short, that relies on a public program, rather than a new regulation in the private market. That means we’d probably lose the regulations on insurers, many of the delivery-side reforms, the health insurance exchanges, the individual mandate and much else.”
I’m happy with that. Tax the scummy rich to pay for it all and call it a day.
Future Democratic Strategist
They made a promise. They need to acknowledge and respect it, and I was happy to see the overwhelming majority of the community felt that they should.
Don’t forget PDA. Progressive Democrats of America. They have been out front and never wavered on single payer. They are supporting true progressives. Check them out. http://www.pdamerica.org
BREAKING NEWS!!!
The Moderators have officially banned any mention of the contents of the Declaration of Independence. Expect to be CENSORED if you refer to the contents of that document.
Please limit all comments to the usual mental masturbation.
A couple of points.
Why do I always feel like I’m trying to talk someone off of a ledge while being surrounded by Very Serious People screaming “STFU you DFH!” Seems the Villagers are fond of continual carnage, bloating from feeding off of carcasses.
Second, about Scott V. Martha, did it seem like he just wanted the job more than her?
Jane, I like the Sidecar reconciliation idea. Can Harry Reid really do a maneuver as exotic as this?
“Don’t forget PDA. Progressive Democrats of America. They have been out front and never wavered on single payer. They are supporting true progressives.”
There are many blogs and orgs doing good work for progress. I’m suggesting that they unite under one banner that will have real clout rather than doing it piecemeal. It would also strike some fear into the waverers like Blumenauer.
thanks. i think if posters set the tone, in general commenters will follow (might take a few days though).
“Democrats need to restore public confidence that they actually mean what they say, and their actions need to match up with their words.”
Wow. To say that that ship has sailed wouldn’t be strong enough. This country can’t be governed without public financing of elections and that will never happen. Fall of the Roman Empire Part II.
Blue Texan’s regularly scheduled post is available: Massachusetts a Big Win for Obama, Progressives
I totally agree with you!
Progressive need to get off of this silly merry-go-round with conserverdems, corp dems, and elect and support only progressive dems.
at the end of day conserverdems and corp dems serve no purpose for progressive causes.
Obama is helping the progressive base learn some hard cold lessons.
Lesson number 1, if you want progressive ideas promoted, you have better elect real progressives.
“Democrats need to restore public confidence that they actually mean what they say, and their actions need to match up with their words.”
The trouble is, too many obviously don’t. So what you’re really suggesting is that they find a way to hoodwink us yet again.
You guys really just fundamentally DON’T GET IT, do you? How on earth can any of you think that going from 60 votes to 59 in a filibuster-driven Senate gives anyone a chance at passing a public option? Do recall, to do anything via reconciliation, you still have to pass 60 vote procedural hurdles, so that is NOT a real option. The BEST we can hope for is the House to pass the Senate bill. Or we can keep the status quo. Those are the choices. Whine all we want, that’s the reality. So, because we didn’t like the process or all the details by all means, let’s bring the whole damned thing crashing down. This is pure idiocy. Are you sure, Jane, that you’re not a closet right-wing Republican? Sure sounding like one.
“Progressive need to get off of this silly merry-go-round with conserverdems, corp dems, and elect and support only progressive dems.”
That’s called the Green Party.
Jane, please, more posts about ponies, rainbows, boats and flowers.
Like a lot of other politicians they’re all in favor of it until the prospect of it’s passage becomes real and then they turn against it.
The plan has always been to have a public option and getting a bill through the senate required it to be dropped from that. This does not mean the PO was to be dropped altogether. Now they have to use reconciliation or somesuch to put it back in.
Without a public option the mandates are simply unacceptable.
At this point Democratic Party pretty much wiped off the face of the earth. Thank your President everyone…… “thank you President Obama”, idiot.
This whole line of thinking reminds me of when Bush asked for and received pre-approval from Congress to invade Iraq.
Bush promised he would only use this approval if war in Iraq could not be avoided by diplomacy.
Give me a break.
If HCR ‘should have been a … slam dunk’, then why hasn’t it happened in 100 years. Aren’t you making it seem a little easier than it has always been? Aren’t you just flipping us the bird?
The stimulus bill was $787B. Is that not a jobs bill?
Throw in the lack of political support from the Left and the Right will win everything from here to the end of the republic. Does that possibility delight you?
Idjits.
Worked out good for ya did it?
Bush never had 59 votes and he got every thing he wanted.
What you need is 50 votes +1, but you need the will to use them.
I totally agree. I have said we need a point person to connect with all progressive groups to send out emails to all of their addresses and get all progressives signed up to one site for forming a block of voters to tell the democrats they can not do as Rahm did and say progressives don’t matter. I just wanted to make sure we include PDA because they have done so much on progress support of candidates.. I think they reflect the views of this site. As a matter of a fact I think you would all enjoy Norman Solmons(sp) article posted a http://www.pdamerica.org today.
I clicked back to your post yesterday and only saw a link to Jon’s post about how reconciliation might work.
Sorry if this question seems stupid, but can you direct me to what you’re talking about from Kagro? Thanks.
“Democrats need to restore public confidence that they actually mean what they say, and their actions need to match up with their words”
Would be just lovely if they did, but we’re talking Lucy holding the football for potential Democratic voters. It’s time to stop playing with Lucy!
Staying home will not change things; voting for Republicans will only make things worse. Got to vote for people who are not on either of those teams.
TELL EARL TO GO POUND SAND. I’M VOTING GREEN PARTY AFTER THIS DEMOCRAT CLUSTERFUCK OF A HEALTH CARE BILL.
Well, no.
The thing he wanted most was to partially privatize social security- and that sunk his sorry ass.
It’s a lot easier to pass tax cuts- that ostensively benefit everyone- than to change an institution in which everyone is a stake holder.
You mentioned that you track stocks professionally, with reference to how much they’ve been rising in response to the Senate bill.
A post on that would be helpful.
That’s definitely a discussion that people can have, but I do not think it’s helpful to let the community tear at each other over that today. So on both sides I’m asking people to think this through, put your ideas together in a diary and post it in a fleshed-out form in a few days when it won’t be taken as personal criticism by people in Massachusetts who made different decisions yesterday based on their own conscience.
The “procedural hurdle” you’re talking about is the Byrd rule, which as Kagro says doesn’t apply in this case. But if you’d like to research a diary about why you think it does, that kind of deep analysis would help a lot of people who have been listening to Lawrence O’Donnell and don’t know what he’s talking about either.
Pfizer had a pretty good day yesterday. Still doing fine today. (Not a professional observation, but it was noticeable enough.)
I’m waiting to see how Democrats adjust course after yesterday. Hopefully, they’ll get the message right and earn my support again.
Just called the Congressman’s DC office. 1:31 CST. Was told the Congressman still strongly supports the public option. When asked if he would keep his word and vote against any House bill that did not have a public option, I was told emphatically “yes”. FWIW.
I just called his Portland office. They never heard of FDL. I referred them to the article and said unequivocally that a yes vote on Health Care w/o public option will work against him in the next election. I also referred him to the part where it is suggested he return the funding he received from community support, as outlined in the article.
She was taken a bit aback when I said what happened in Mass can happen to him!
“Staying home will not change things; voting for Republicans will only make things worse. Got to vote for people who are not on either of those teams.”
At this point the only way for things to get better is for them to get a lot worse first. The Bush years weren’t enough. It will take a Great Depression II before the populace wakes up.
“Hopefully, they’ll get the message right and earn my support again.”
Yeah, they tend to get messages right, that Democrat Party. Also, the Detroit Lions tend to win the Super Bowl every year.
Um, Medicare and Medicaid were implemented within the past 100 years as far as I am aware. This wasn’t starting from zero.
I think a large part of the problem is that for some unknown, and politically tin-eared, reason it was called a Stimulus bill, not a Jobs bill. Optics matter, this exchange being a perfect example.
I think part of the critique here and elsewhere in progressive-blogospheria is that there has been a whole lot of progressive support for candidate Obama’s agenda and for the D’s party platform. But that BHO and D leadership haven’t seen fit to put any of those planks forward as aeimnngful policy proposals.
As Digby proposed in a recent post, there is nothing stopping BHO from launching a meaningful investigation of the role of torture in the conduct of the war on terra. Scott Horton piece on the Suicided Three at Gitmo is another opportunity to show the left that you care about what they care about. And all without having to worry about 60 votes or 50+1 or whatever.
Without some sort of unequivocal statements as to future support for re-election, I think asking only if he will vote against it is not enough. We have seen the waffle on too many issues other than streetcars and bikes from Earl.
That’s amazing, isn’t it? You are right, I’m afraid.
Well, he did have Ds like Lincoln, Nelson, Bayh and Lieberman. It’s not exactly apples to apples.
Bush’s sorry ass was sunk?
The way I remember it he was elected twice and managed to get two illegal wars going, reorganized a good part of the government under the DHS, aided the rich in their continual efforts to absolve themselves of any responsibility for paying taxes, passed the Patriot Act, and continued to stifle any effort to reign in the Financial sector’s casino capitalism which ended up necessitating his giving them $Trillions of our tax dollars before he left office, mostly to assure they could keep gambling and plundering the treasury.
The one thing he couldn’t achieve was the long awaited raid on the Social Security funds, but hey, a guy can only do so much in eight years.
Bush’s sorry ass wasn’t sunk, his sorry ass should be in prison, but last I saw he was standing in the WH rose garden free as you or me, being treated as if he was a respectable human being rather than a blood-thirsty liar, a war criminal, and a traitor.
The reason he has Ds like Lincoln, Nelson, Bayh and Lieberman, is that he and his team tolerate them. They had a chance to fix Lieberman and they passed on it.
What we’re witnessing is ObamaRahma clinging to the techniques of third-way politics while the democratic wing of the Democratic Party tries to decide whether to resuscitate itself.
IMHO Obama could have sold the notion of an unprecedented mandate for change, but instead he almost immediately morphed into Clinton II.
If we had wanted Clinton II, we could have voted for the real thing and saved ourselves the heart ache.
Hi Jane. My love and admiration for you is without limits ;).
It doesn’t deserve a whole post, it’s been widely noted and reported in the business media.
Every dilution of the bill in fovor of the corporate players has seen their stock rise. The biggest move began when we got the first clear outlines of what the Senate bill would look like. The group was up roughly 30% in just two weeks.
It was very funny to hear right-wingers complaining about socialism while the market was affirming that the bill was a corporate giveaway.
MODERATOR–Am I on a terrorist watchlist now? That’s creepy. Please disengage.
This household has been proactive in contacting Blumenauer’s office for several years. We have told him to basically stop facilitating the money for the developers here and to focus instead on our constitution. Asked for a letter to ask him what he has done to adhere to the oath that he took to uphold our constitution and received no letter. He refused to even vote to have a discussion in the House on the impeachment of Cheney when the others in the Oregon delegation did at least vote to have a discussion. When we called his office we were told he voted yes. We had to correct them, that the first vote to have the discussion was No, he only voted Yes to send it over to the Judicial Committee.
And this is just for openers!
He has been a career politician and we need a change.
Yeah it took the first Great Depression to get the population to go for the radical change of the FDR admin, and that was before the populace was programmed to believe that the US is indestructible and can do no wrong as we are now. I doubt however that the union will survive a second GD, and frankly I don’t have a problem with that, we need to break this up into a EU style confederacy. Let the Bible belt have their way…it will be fun watching them fight over which denomination is the true word of God.
He has been my rep for years. Calling him. I AM at the point that I will no longer vote automatically for Dems. No mas. Time to let them know you got to stand for something. HEY, it works for Lieberman. He manages to say no and get things. As my other half said, the Democrats make nothing better-the Repugs make thing much worse. Lesser evil is no longer the motivation of those awake.
Except, of course, if you consider that their inclusion in the count for who is in the majority allows the majority Dems to set the agenda, dole out committee chairmanship, and any other perks that come with the majority. Without them, we’d be a smaller minority than rethugs. We progressives are only a majority within the party. Otherwise, not so much.
I saw some interesting poll results at Huffpost.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/20/obama-backers-more-commit_n_429673.html
I’m not surprised at all. It’s what anyone who’s had their eyes open should have expected. The number I thought was really interesting was”41 percent said they weren’t sure why they opposed it.” I wish they’d have asked after that, “Where do you get your news?”
Agreed:
++BHO had an opportunity to get rid of Lieberman (though as candidate, not as President)
++BHO tolerates folks like Lincoln, Nelson, Lieberman etc on his team (I’d even say he wanted them on his team and empowers them: witness Rahm as CoS…)
++BHO is clinging to a Third Way approach;
++BHO could have sold the notion of an unprecedented mandate for change (at least since Great Depression);
++If we wanted Clinton II, we could have voted for the real thing (and should have).
However, none of that has any impact on the statement that they were in office during the Bush admin and make the “Bush never had 60 votes” argument a bit of a red herring.
Perhaps you missed my point, which was that *Bush* had *Ds like them* to tip the scales his way?
Incidentally, Jane, today we are seeing the flipside of that dynamic. All the talk in the markets today is about how weak the healthcare stocks are. That is because the traders are now uncertain about whether those companies will actually get their bought-and-paid-for Senate bill, or have to settle for something less favorable.
Which, it seems to me, has some relevance to the Coakley debate. If the markets are selling the health stocks, the election result was probably a win for the people.
!!!!!!!!!!!
That’s ‘cuz Bush had 18 blue dogs, many of whom would vote with the Rethugs for very little payback. Some lobbyists get steered in the right direction, and, well, they’re for sale to the highest bidder.
That’s the point. It worked great for the corporations, military/industrial complex, fundamentalists, the wealthy, and all those who want to destroy this country as it was intended. Not so great, in fact terrible, for its citizens. But he delivered for his constituents, the anti-Americans.
It worked though, didn’t it, where I live the majority is Repug, and they don’t want no stinkin’ government in their face. They cannot or will not see what is being done to them.
Earl is a soft pretzel, he will twist in the direction of whatever will prolong his career. There was never a question of honor or integrity, qualities sadly lacking in this present iteration of reality. I called, and was informed that she did not know how he would vote…wonderful is it not, a signed letter and then opposite land, amnesia sets in, one is confused and dazzled by greased palms at the behest of those who make the rule for us, yet operate be another. And, that quote Jane, speaks to the problem eh?
We are headed to hell in a economic hand cart, keep a steady hand on the tiller.
Or paul Simon. Im afraid to really examine Simons career very very closely though, because hes gone now, and i cant deal with disovering another trusted “liberal” is/was really just another corporate serving hack
It will be extremely important to get the proof out in front of the MSM liars about what really happened in Mass. They are already trying furiously to blame it on the left. And for those personality cultists, who go on uncritcally defending everything obama does or says, who have called us all “traitors”, notice how the white house is treating coakly.
Sure it worked, the Big Lie always works on an ignorant population. That’s why they use the technique so often and so fearlessly
Unless we rally behind a really simple slogan, like CORPORATIONS vs. PEOPLE, the people will remain ignorant of where their true interests are.
I agreed.
Add me into it.
Adolf Hitler reacts to ObamaRhama health care demise
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4aQCiRjvZY
They told you that Earl plans to stick to his pledge to vote “no”? How strange; that’s not what they told me.
I got this instead: “we’ll have to get back to you on that.”
that was entertaining fwankie,did pat buchanan put that together?
As the cost of health car goes up there are more and more strikes and threats of strikes onver businesss trying to withdraw businesses.
There are big stakes here whatever should be fought or compromed.
Anything that goes wrong is supposedly Obama’s fault and anything that goes right is assumed to nevef enen happened