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When health care reform was first passed, elected Democrats told progressives not to worry about how bad the bill actually was because it would serve only as a “starter home” that would be improved on later. Since then, however, several changes have been or will be signed into law by President Obama, all of which will make the ACA worse.
The most damaging is that Obama has already signed one reduction of the exchange affordability subsidies and is expected to sign another, similar reduction in the next few days. The laws reduce the money going toward exchange affordability subsidies by increasing the penalty a family on an exchange will need to pay back if their income fluctuates slightly upward during the year. The first time, the savings were use to increase pay to Medicare providers, and the second time, to pay for repealing the new 1099 tax reporting requirement for business. The CBPP explains why this will have serious negative consequences for middle class Americans.
In addition, as part of the government funding compromise reached with House Speaker John Boehner last Friday, the President has agreed to gut two other provision of the new health care law. Obama agreed to eliminate Ron Wyden’s Free Choice Vouchers program that would have helped some people with expensive employer-provided insurance get more affordable coverage on the new exchanges.
Also part of the deal, Obama agreed to significantly cut the funding for new health insurance co-ops. While I’ve personally been very skeptical about how much of a positive impact the co-op program will have, President Obama, his advisers and top Democrats spent a lot of time telling the public they were a really good idea. They claimed they would be almost as effective as a public option at increasing competition, reducing prices, and improving quality. If we take them at their word, this is significant reduction in funding for co-ops and from their perspective should be seen as a real blow to the law.
If the health care law really is a starter home, then what President Obama has been doing is effectively letting the Republicans rip out the house’s copper plumbing to be sold as scrap for pennies on the dollar.
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We should have a contest to come up with the best re-election slogan for Obama ’12. My contribution: “Vote Obama — he’s marginally less disgusting than the other guy.”
The list of what the health care bill does is now much shorter than the list of what it doesn’t do.
Unfettered Capitalism Kills.
Thanks. I’ve been crowing for a week elsewhere that the health care reform has been being worsened in real time by the new Republican majority that people voted in by not voting last fall. I’ve had some real time experience with it in the last two weeks, and substantial degrading of my health care in the last two months. Now these facts have got the official blessing of truth from one of the FDL elite.
Believe it or not, real people are being hurt by this, they are being mauled physically by the health care system, while deals over profits and cost savings are being made over what procedures will and won’t be done to cure or fix their illnesses and injuries, and they leave whatever medical establishment they went to trusting that they would get care, totally unaware that whatever permanent loss of function they will live with was just a balance ledger calculation made to maximize profits.
Thanks for promoting staying home from the voting booths. If you know that Obama makes these kinds of deals, you have no excuse for letting Republicans win control of anything. Condemning people to disfigurement and death for what?
I’d be worried about what they’re doing to the plumbing of this “starter home” that they promised to improve on later if the damned thing had a foundation of real reform of any kind to build on.
As it is, I hope the a$$holes get exactly the shit system they want so that it’ll collapse faster.
Then we can get to work doing what should have been done early on by the failed Obama administration.
Obama and Congressional Democrats, you screwed the American people.
Don’t blame the voters for not voting for Democrats last fall. The Democrats didn’t earn the votes. If you’re not happy about that fact, blame the Democrats for selling out and failing so miserably since Obama took office.
I don’t recall anyone around here promoting staying home. Some argued that Democrats suck less and so had to be supported at all costs because Republicans suck a little more. Others argued that voting for a third party is an acceptable alternative to voting for Democrats that you don’t and/or can’t believe in. Staying home wasn’t one of the choices I recall anyone around here promoting.
The U.S. public is merely there to serve the interests of the plutocrats.
The plutocrats are parasites. You’d think that “rational self-interest” would dictate that parasites must not destroy the host, but there’s nothing rational about they way these a$$holes are pursuing their self-interests.
I actually did promote staying home, I guess, on another thread. Honesty compels me to ‘fess up’. Though actually, I did not promote it in general – my comment was that I have taken a look at my record of picking winners and realize it is as bad as the one I have for picking the winner of the Kentucky Derby. Consequently, I am officially giving up voting. I made this comment just now on emptywheel’s ‘what’s next after democracy and capitalism have failed?’
I’m an oldie and I don’t actually recommend this as a general principle. But my answer to emptywheel was what’s next is earthcare, and I plan to devote myself to that, because that’s where I see the need. To each his own.
I would vote if I was confident in my pick of a halfway decent candidate, confident in the reliability of the system of voting itself, confident that the capitalistic system needed to be resurrected. But it is the earth that needs resurrecting, so I’m going to put my effort there.
Happy upcoming Holy Week and Easter to all.
Yeah, just imagine what Obama could do if Democrats were to control both the House and the Senate…
…oh, wait.
Never mind.
Heh. Asset-stripping and markets manipulation (e.g. JP Morgan Chase’s precious metal commodities manipulations discussed here, here and here) direct from rich-sters writing the legislation to you, the captive profit center!
It was clear than, as now, Obama doesn’t care about health care.
All he wanted was his historic “W”
Your anger is as legitimate but misplaced. If voters had anything to do with it we would have Medicare for everybody.
totally agree with your comment!
how many dems praise OBAMACARE on the campaign trail in 2010? any?
OBAMACARE = BOB DOLE CARE = ROMNEY CARE it does not = Ted Kennedy Care
sorry real dems don’t support TEA PARTY ideas championed by OBAMA
ask OBAMA how the Clarence Thomas make over is going? I hear the WH may have to turn OBAMA back into Liberal real soon.
Apparently Obama needs hard core liberal votes, because the GOP is going to tell everybody that OBAMA is black, and progressives don’t vote for Clarence THomas type of figures.
If you asked the voters you would also have a 2 day work week, $55 an hour minimum wage, no income taxes, a new sports car in every driveway and a flat screen above the fireplace.
That makes sense. He followed W, and he’s helped to lock in much of what W did.
Well said!
As it is, Obama Compromiser-in-Chief recently called a plan to privatize Medicare “legitimate.”
Well it’s never easy to get the Genie back in the bottle, and we all knew for certain that the vapid slogan that this was a “starter” hcr law that would later be “improved” was a load of crap. OR really I should say: Sure this steaming pile will be “improved” later… improved for the benefit of the Corporations, esp BigIns, BigPharma & BigMedDevices. THAT “improvement” was a foregone conclusion.
Anyone who expected anything else was simply not paying attention.
It would NOT have made the slightest difference if McCain/Palin had won – not ONE whit of difference. Bullsh*t is bullsh*t. Allegedly O is a “Democrat,” who had majorities in both the House & Senate. And this load of crap is what we got. IF there were still “Democratic” majorities in both the House & Senate, THIS looting would STILL be happening.
There is NO difference bet “Dems” and “Repugs.” They are 2 arms of the corporate party and ALL fed pols (and many state pols) work solely and only for the upper 1% Oligarchs.
It’s Kabuki ShowTime, folks!
Maybe they knew that, if they tried to spin the turd by coating it with something shiny, too many in their based would have called BULLSHIT.
As it was, they were able to get through the election without everybody seeing them for the lying sellouts that they really are.
What bullshit logic.
If you know Obama will cave to Republicans, reward the Democrats for acting like Republicans.
WTF??
You concede the head of the Democratic Party isn’t worth a shit, we saw the shit we got with two years of HUGE MAJORITIES of Democrats to PROVE they’re not worth a shit, and your response is to reward them for not being worth a shit because somehow, someway, the Republicans are a bit worse??
Great, let’s reward the team that finishes next to last in baseball every season with a trip to the World Series too. That’s teach ‘em. They’ll work hard next year trying to improve.
What nonsense.
Oh, and by the way, technically no one here argued anyone should stay home. We argued they should withhold their votes from national Democratic candidates. And that argument still stands, because if you haven’t paid attention, the national D’s still have more power than the R’s ritht now but still acquiesce to most of their demands, proving it’s by choice.
So they should NOT be rewarded with any progressive’s vote, unless that progressive chooses to support right wing policies. And they most certainly should NOT stay home. Local and state races are far too important to not have progressive input. Just don’t reward the D’s in Washington for their behavior. Or if you do, then you have no right to bitch about their behavior after that.
This sort of thing makes me so angry. I have both Medicare and Social Security and I can vouch for the fact that they are the only 2 gov’t programs that actually work properly. Checks arrive right on time and bills are paid to doctors and hospitals without problems. I expected there to be hangups but everything moves along just the way it should. Nothing has ever been questioned.
Obama care is an insult, a rip off, and above all an injury to the American people at the same time that it is a huge gift to the extortionist insurance companies. Obama lied his way into office so that he could deliver our wealth AND OUR HEALTH to rich white men in hope of becoming one of them. I could shit a better man than Obama.
You obviously know nothing about why people vote. And did you see any of the commercials the Pukes ran(which never got Democratic pushback)?
BTW, this is sincere, not snark.
Where are all of those folks posting in late 2009 early 2010 berating us for opposing this POS bill now??? Why haven’t you folks been back??? Because with the evidence since then, it seems to me that you owe some folks on this site an apology considering the tone that you spoke down to them.
EVERYTHING said at this site has proved true. From just how bad it was, to how it was going to get WORSE and not better.
I’m with you 100%, OFG.
I’ll take it a step further.
With a Republican in the WH, or a Republican controlled House and Senate, we would likely have most of the same legislation. However, there would be a lot more highly vocal pushback from the majority of the left.
It seems that OilBomber still garners the adoration of a lot of folks on the left, which causes the democratic voting base to rubber-stamp most of his actions. Were it John McCain or Mike Huckabee doing the same things people would be screaming bloody murder.
Obama was simply a tool used by the CorpoRats (H/T Woody Konopak) to lull the left to sleep. It’s worked like a charm. He’s done more damage to civil liberties, human rights, the Constitution, and our economy than Bush did in 8 years.
The idea that a Congressman or Senator would use the analogy of a “starter home” to describe what HCR was about during a time when unprecedented millions of foreclosures were ongoing, putting families on the streets and helping to crash the economy, just demonstrates how cluless they actually are.
But who cares about the fact that they work well? The problem is that the a$$holes aren’t profiting from them. Please, Twain. Get your priorities in order. /s
Ahh, don’t much believe in democracy huh??
No surprise, from a right winger.
Thanks for reinforcing that fact to all readers. Always good to remind them that the right wing of this country DOES NOT believe in democracy.
SpreadedWest. Spreading bullshit from coast to coast.
“I’ve been crowing for a week elsewhere that the health care reform has been being worsened in real time by the new Republican majority that people voted in by not voting last fall.”
There isn’t a Republican majority – The Democrats control both the Senate and the Presidency while Republicans merely have the House, though the majority Democrats like to play the drama queens gushing crocodile tears acting as if they don’t want these things happening.
“I’ve had some real time experience with it in the last two weeks, and substantial degrading of my health care in the last two months.”
Then you should be blaming the corporatist Democrats who gave you nationalized Romneycare.
“Thanks for promoting staying home from the voting booths”
You are entitled to your own opinions, but you’re not entitled to your own facts.
“If you know that Obama makes these kinds of deals, you have no excuse for letting Republicans win control of anything. Condemning people to disfigurement and death for what?”
If you know that Obama makes those kinds of deals, you have no excuse for letting Obama control anything…
That isn’t what I said at all.
Just pointing out that most voters can’t see the forest through the trees.
I think you greatly misunderstand your fellows, HW.
You’re picturing the fabled Reagan “Welfare Queen”.
I don’t want those things. I want a life where I can provide for my family and not have to worry about whether or not my car will break down, or I’ll break my arm, because I’m one pay check away from disaster and can’t afford health insurance.
I’m not begging for entitlement. I’m begging for a society in which I have the opportunity to get by. I don’t want wealth. I don’t want luxury or riches. I just want some security.
Why is that so tough for the right to understand?
Seriously. Anyway, if the R and D labels are going to mean anything, then we’d have to say that Obama’s a Republican.
Btw, I quoted you because I wanted to put your words in BOLD.
Ding! Absolutely. Well said.
It’s just IMO it goes further than Obama. The nationally elected Democrats in Congress are JUST AS MUCH part of this CorpoRat scam. It’s not just Obama, it’s the entire D party at the national level (and, unfortunately, at the state level in some states too).
Do you really feel like you don’t have that opportunity in the U.S.? Where else is upward mobility as easy as it is in this country? Honest question.
HCR was structurally flawed the moment Obama made his backroom deals. HCR explicitly didn’t address tackling cost reduction, but instead did cost shifting where people either have to pay more for less or if they are poorer, they get subsidies (which can easily be cut…as we’re seeing now). HCR keeps the true cost of healthcare high rather than fixes the underlying problem, which could have been done throught the PO, drug re-importation, drug price negotiation, etc. If those structural changes were made, cutting subsidies for over-priced under-performing healthcare wouldn’t be an issue.
I think that was Tom Harken iirc.
You’re right. But also recognize that they’ve been complicit for at least a decade. Bush trampled all over them, or so it seemed to us at the time. In reality they were just using Bush as a scapegoat to let bad policy slide through, just like they use Boehner and others as scapegoats now.
“The Big Bad Republicans won’t let us! Filibusters! Waaaaah!”
It’s been a show for at least 10 years. Maybe longer. Who knows.
More great logic. That’s a neat trick to vote somebody into office by not voting.
Also, funny how the Democrats still control two thirds (67%) of the legislative process, yet this worsening of health care reform is 100% the Republicans fault.
Logic isn’t your strong suit, is it?
is there any doubt that Obama and the national Dems are a fraud? We are on your own and I will not vote for any Dems or GOP. I don’t who or what party I will support but it will not be a Dem or Repub. We can only guess at what backstabbing BS the President will offer up tomorrow when he annouces his cuts…”gee guys I can get the GOP to go along with cuts to defense and up taxes on the rich if you let me change SS and Medicare” “Now I don’t like these changes either but we all have to take a haircut”
Ok Obama could have did away with the Bush tax cuts last year but didn’
t; he could demand cuts in defense at anytime w/o offering SS as a barganing chip///the poor, working and middle classes have been taking haircuts for the past 30 years while the uber rich has been having a ball what is his game?
“In reality they were just using Bush as a scapegoat to let bad policy slide through, just like they use Boehner and others as scapegoats now.
‘The Big Bad Republicans won’t let us! Filibusters! Waaaaah!’
It’s been a show for at least 10 years. Maybe longer. Who knows.”
Remember the kabuki with the PO. Democrats would have loved to have the PO, just the 60 vote excuse was pulled. Then when it became 51 votes, still no PO.
And don’t forget the Democrats claiming they didn’t want tax cuts for rich either. If you’re still playing by filibuster rules, that would’ve only taken 41 to block.
Somehow, with 59 or 60 D’s in the Senate, they can’t 60 when needed, they can’t get 50 (Biden could’ve been a tiebreaker so 51 wasn’t even necessary for the PO in the reconciation vote) when needed, and they can’t get 41 when needed.
But my gosh they’re sooooooooooooooooooo much better than R’s. Really. They say so. Don’t you hear them?
When will FDL come out & state the obvious, Obama does NOT deserve to be handed the 2012 Democratic nomination for Pres.? Why won’t FDL stop whining, lead the way, and clearly argue that Obama the Pres. has done NOTHING to instill “hope” and “change we can believe in”, that he has FAILED miserably?
Exactly. That’s the history we have seen documented via FDL over that past 3 years. Thanks to Jane.
They lied and they are still lying.
They aren’t worth voting for, they don’t even attempt to undertake the will of their constituents, and YET we are berated day after day that it is the voters’ fault???? That it’s especially the fault of PROGRESSIVE, whiny, retarded (they say) voters????? Because the voters won’t vote for this shit???? Becuase the people are starting to wake up? Give me a break.
And … btw … I read the other day (yesterday on BT’s post?) that there is evidence that the votes that were lost, the votes that didn’t show up were …. WAIT FOR IT …
… the INDEPENDENTS that ObamaCo have been supposedly wooing.
How’s that working out?
It is interesting and sad that what is “cut” from ACA always hurts the citizens and not the corporate entities.
When they still have a majority in the Senate and the presidency, why haven’t Democrats “improved” this bill by “fighting for” drug re-importation, or simply “medicare for all”? Why…because neither party represents the interests of the citizens.
OFG, although I repeatedly tried to point out the problems with this bill before it was enacted at a variety of websites, it became obvious to me that there were too many people who still had cognitive dissonance regarding President Obama at that time. I sometimes wonder whether that was the real reason to push “health care reform” as a major item on his agenda so early in his term, even to the detriment of dealing with the economy. He and the other neo-liberals wanted to push it through while so many people still had “party loyalty” or cognitive dissonance.
Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts is saying Romney good and Romneycare good (Scott voted for it) but Obamacare, a clone of Romney care – is bad.
USAToday reports Scott Brown saying: “In Massachusetts, we found a way to get health insurance to more people without raising taxes. Obamacare should be repealed because it raises taxes and imposes a one-size-fits-all plan on the entire nation. Each state should be allowed to come up with their own healthcare solution,” the senator said.”
– Perhaps USAToday could remind the reader that Scott Brown is a liar – there is a “tax” – a penalty – state funds are used.
Those earning less than 150% of the federal poverty level get free care if they are not eligible for Medicaid. The law also partially-subsidizes health care insurance for those earning up to 300% of the FPL. Tax penalties for failing to obtain an insurance plan. Massachusetts tax filers who failed to enroll in a health insurance plan which was deemed affordable for them lost the $219 personal exemption on their income tax with amount increasing beginning in 2008, up to half the cost of the lowest available yearly premium which will be enforced as an assessed addition to the individual’s income tax, up to $912 a year.. In addition a fund of approximately $700 million, known as the Uncompensated Care Pool (or “free care pool”), was used to partially reimburse hospitals and health centers for these expenses and the expenses of non-residents, created through an annual assessment on insurance providers and hospitals, plus state and federal contributions.
So Scott Brown – found a way ” without raising taxes”? – not really.
So I agree with Brown – Obamacare sucks and is meant as a placeholder for promised welfare payments to insurance companies – but now I also know Brown is a liar.
A starter home filled with asbestos, toxic Chinese wall boards, built on oil soaked sand that is already below the water line, funded with one of those amazing adjustable rate mortgages in the bankster casino.
It’s obscene. Many people’s starter homes have been stolen, boarded up, and are out of reach for the foreseeable future.
Obama had to have the cover of slow implementation of bad policy to serve his masters. They said we’d fix a bad bill later. Win The Future. The American Dream is a lottery because hard work and playing by the rules gets you and your family screwed faster.
You assume that voting for another Democrat in 2010 in a given race would have changed the direction of the Democratic Party from the GOP-lite of Obama.
Many have concluded that at the national level – in many races – there is no point in manning those phone banks and walking door to door for Dems – post the election too many just do not give a damn about what they promised during the election – the only voice they will listen to is that of the rich and corporate as they beg for contributions. Indeed “no place else to go – F__K Them” is indeed the mantra as they chase what the corporate folks tell them are the desires of the “independents”.
Makes one pick and choose – there are still those I like – Barney – despite what some say on FDL – is one of the ones I will help – because I know he does go to bat for the non-rich and corporate and indeed does have core principles.
Obama – not so much.
???
What would you expect from Obama: the only electable Republican candidate? Please wake me when Dennis Kucinich, Howard Dean, or Bernie Sanders decide to run for President against Obama on just this issue!
A starter home downwind of Chernobyl or Fukushima.
One that is hazardous to one’s health.
Well, one reason is, Jason “The Sellout Shill” Rosenbaum isn’t affiliated here any longer.
Another reason could be that Obama’s sellout on tax increases for the top 1% last December was the final straw and many people could no longer keep up the facade of denial.
And yet another reason is that, with the bill passed, their paychecks for trolling were cut off by HCAN.
Yep. Not to mention, destroying the Democractic Party brand in the process.
Obama tends to give in to Republican demands or, more likely, he’s doing what he thinks is the right thing to do. He was never all that big on health CARE; he actually called his plan health INSURANCE reform legislation.
I don’t think he has a big investment in the portions that protect the little people; it was passed to protect the profits of the big health insurance companies and some other big health industry players, such as Big PhRMA, big hospital chains. It was not set up to protect doctors’ pay.
Perhaps this gives this nation a second, sooner than expected chance to push for SINGLE PAYER, universal health care, such as Medicare for All Improved.
Go read the Physicians for a National Health Program site:
http://www.pnhp.org/
Begin pummeling your representatives with demands for this, for single payer with choice to buy private insurance, instead of the confusing, unhelpful, and now increasingly defunded ObamaCare for corporate profits.
Destroying the Dem Party was a feature, not a bug. Who needs two corporatist parties anyway? Especially when one has pesky people with those ideas from the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party.
Too bad we can’t vote Obama and his corporatist pals out of the Dem Party…. They’re so fond of Republican ideas and talking points, tell them to get a room and join the R Party!
Where I’m from, voting is the responsibility of citizens. If your actions bring Republicans to power, and their platform is repeal of health care, anti-abortion laws and draconian austerity measures, then you are responsible for your actions. Especially if those actions were taken with political intent.
In response to OldFatGuy, if you deliberately don’t go to the polls to express your anger at Democrats, you did so to remove Democratic votes. Who benefits? Who wins? Or did you think you could punish Democrats in a closed conservative system with two parties without rewarding Republicans? Logic isn’t my strong suit, but it’s a stronger suit than it is in a lot of people and it doesn’t need to be particularly strong to do that calculation. Can you do it? Or is it that you just like to walk away from the result?
That, too, is a feature, not a bug.
Again, Obama called his legislation health INSURANCE reform. He gave the big insurance companies to force people to purchase from them and protect their bloated profits.
The only program which will help all the people, save Medicare, and give better outcomes is some form of single payer. Go read Physicans for a National Health Program.
http://www.pnhp.org/
NO, I don’t. I assume that preventing a Republican takeover, having not succeeded in unseating bad Democrats and replacing them with real Democrats, was still necessary, because Republicans were and are still capable of damage that must be prevented, which is what they’ve proven and is the subject of this post by Mr. Walker. If you lose the primary challenge, sometimes you have to put off the fight, or take it to the streets or the states instead, because getting pissed off and staying home and letting the Republicans in to wreck the place isn’t a good interim solution.
Absolutely correct! It was structurally flawed when Obama took single payer off the table.
Here, too, it’s a feature not a bug.
Obama told us so: He called it, when he wasn’t trying to fool the rubes, the voters, that is was health INSURANCE reform…to protect their businesses, their profits, their hold on the market.
Mandates were necessary as fewer and fewer can afford their offerings….
Hint: Hook up with Physicians for a National Health Program.
http://www.pnhp.org/
So, where you’re from, citizens have to vote against candidates rather than for candidates.
When a democratic process reduces citizens to that, there’s something very wrong.
The point you’re missing is that the Democratic Party and the Republican Party represent the same establishment. The role of the Democratic Party is to make you feel like there’s a fight, feel like you have a side in the fight, and feel like everything that can be done to stop the American people from getting screwed over again and again and again is being done, when in reality there is no fight, you don’t have a side, and nothing is being done to stop the American people from getting screwed over again and again and again.
If you want to vote to sustain that bullshit shell game, no one at FDL or who visits FDL frequently like me is stopping you.
On the other hand, more and more Americans are starting to see the game for what it is and are saying that they’ve had enough of it.
jeez. these measures are just brutal and punitive and beyond the worst that I could have imagined. (i.e., the penalties imposed on families whose incomes fluctuate, the yanking back of the subsidies we thought would be there for them, the whole revoltin’ ball of wasx.) I’m having trouble getting my mind around the level of misanthropy, the plain cruelty, the sadism, that drives O and the rest of the gang.
It’s as if our whole political system and died and been replaced by a single evil, leering monster that’s out to get us all.
It doesn’t reduce citizens to that. The general election is just the wrong place for protests. Primaries are the place for protests. And referenda. And most importantly? The streets. That’s what the public commons are for. Silent public commons and nobody voting on voting day are two signs of a healthy dictatorship, whether you think you’re expressing yourself or not.
You have an odd notion about what elections are for.
Whatever. You came here to put down people who have a different view of the situation and who expressed themselves about it in a different way than the way you think is right and to blame them for the problems in our political system that aren’t their fault.
Well, you don’t seem any happier about Obama’s ability to bend over for stupidity anymore than I am. So, according to you, now that the election is over, you should be screaming for a primary challenger to knock Obama’s ass out as the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination because he’s been a total failure in office rather than blaming voters for the outcome of the last election, no?
WTF?
This is BULLSHIT.
The Democrats do NOT OWN my vote. If I (or anyone else) didn’t vote for anyone in the national races (Congress and White House) then why not say it removes Republican votes??? The ONLY way you can say it removes Democratic votes is to say that the Democrats have some sort of a “right” to my vote.
What complete bullshit.
My vote is MINE. And everyone else’s vote is THEIRS. No party or individual has a right to count those votes and then subtract them if they don’t vote. A party or individual must earn our votes, and if they don’t, there is no “subtraction” because they never had our votes to begin with.
Why do you consider yourself to be a slave to the Democratic Party such that they own your vote and if you don’t vote it’s a subtraction from their total? And again, if someone doesn’t vote, why isn’t a subtraction from the Republican instead? Like I said, some serious logic flaws here.
Yes of course and so elite rule must be maintained so as to keep the masses in their place.
Last I looked, there were more than two parties on the ballot.
Who else is running? To announce a third party candidate would mean that Jane Hamsher would have to give up her reticence toward third parties.
They need corporate Dems because the Reps have to cater to the Christian fundies, the propertarian Right, and so on.
OFG: I was wondering that too. As a then (and now) HCR bill protester (after it became clear that the entire thing had turned into a simple kabuki act designed to find a way for Big Pharma and AHIP to extract yet more rent from us), I was actually asked — point blank — why I hated poor people; why I wanted people to get sick and die.
Nowadays — not a PEEP. Nothing. Crickets.
It’s cold comfort being right, but then again, some days that’s the only comfort around.
I’ll bet Obama could find a way to cater to Christian fundies. Didn’t he have some reps from those groups, oh, at his inauguration? Some singer when he announced for the Dem primary? heh.
Ever heard of a two person zero sum game?
And they all can and do win?
so much of a mistake to build a healthcare (non-) system on such a fragile substructure as Medicaid! Who knew?! (Many of us.)
Where? What challenger? If there’s a primary challenger, I’ll be happy to vote for one.
Even in a two person zero sum game (which elections are NOT), not picking either of the two doesn’t mean a specific one “lost” those votes. Which one?? How do you pick?? Again, if someone doesn’t vote for either Democrats or Republicans, what the hell makes you say those are lost from Democrats? They could just as easily be considered lost from Republicans. So, if all those folks that stayed home in 2010 had voted instead, maybe the Republicans would’ve taken both the House AND Senate.
You simply CANNOT claim the Democrats somehow “own” or has a right to anyone’s vote.
They all CAN win. And some do. There are two third party (or non-Republican or Democrat) candidates serving in the United States Senate right now, that beat both a Democrat and a Republican on the ballot.
Wanna try another one?
Uh, you’re making my point.
At the very least, according to your own argument, you should be screaming that Obama sucks and calling for another Democratic presidential nominee in 2012 right up till the convention. If you want to raly behind the sellout POS Obama after the convention, you’re free to support this wolf in sheeps clothing.
I for one have no interest in or desire to support or validate Obama’s lies about being on the side of the American people. If the guy who won the 2008 election ever comes back to do the job as president, fine. Otherwise, I’m not going to support, validate, or vote for this sellout.