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Revealed: Millions Spent by Lobby Firms Fighting Obama Health Reforms
Six lobbyists for every member of Congress as healthcare industry heaps cash on politicians to water down legislation
America's healthcare industry has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to block the introduction of public medical insurance and stall other reforms promised by Barack Obama. The campaign against the president has been waged in part through substantial donations to key politicians.
John Jonas, who represents healthcare firms for Patton Boggs, widely regarded as the top lobbying firm in Washington. "It's a good bill in the sense that it's a net improvement in the system ..." said Jonas," (But) it's a bad bill if you think it's supposed to be a comprehensive solution to the US healthcare problems." (Photo source: PattonBoggs.com) Supporters of radical reform of healthcare say
legislation emerging from the US Senate reflects the financial power of
vested interests ‑ principally insurance companies, pharmaceutical
firms and hospitals ‑ that have worked to stop far-reaching changes
threatening their profits.
The industry and interest groups have spent $380m (£238m) in recent months influencing healthcare legislation through lobbying, advertising and in direct political contributions to members of Congress. The largest contribution, totalling close to $1.5m, has gone to the chairman of the senate committee drafting the new law.
A former member of Bill Clinton's cabinet says fears that the industry could throw its money behind the populist rightwing backlash against public insurance have scared the Obama White House into pulling back from the most significant reforms in return for healthcare companies not trying to scupper the entire legislation.
Drug and insurance companies say they are merely seeking to educate politicians and the public. But with industry lobbyists swarming over Capitol Hill ‑ there are six registered healthcare lobbyists for every member of Congress ‑ a partner in the most powerful lobbying firm in Washington acknowledged that healthcare firms' money "has had a lot of influence" and that it is "morally suspect".
Reform groups say vast spending, and the threat of a lot more being poured into advertisements against the administration, has helped drug companies ensure there will be no cap on the prices they charge for medicines ‑ one of the ways the White House had hoped to keep down surging healthcare costs.
Insurance companies have done even better as the new legislation will prove a business bonanza. It is not only likely to kill off the threat of public health insurance, which threatened to siphon off customers by offering lower premiums and better coverage, but will force millions more people to take out private medical policies or face prosecution.
"It's a total victory for the health insurance industry," said Dr Steffie Woolhander, a GP, professor of medicine at Harvard University and co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Programme (PNHP).
"What the bill has done is use the coercive power of the state to force people to hand their money over to a private entity which is the private insurance industry. That is not what people were promised."
PNHP blames a political process it says is corrupted by millions of dollars poured into the election campaigns of members of Congress and influencing the discourse about health reform by funding advertising campaigns, supposedly independent studies and patients rights organisations that press the industry's interests.
A primary target of criticism is Senator Max Baucus, the single largest recipient of health industry political donations and chairman of the finance committee that drafted the legislation criticised by Woolhander.
The committee this week twice voted against including public insurance in the legislation, with Baucus opposing it both times.
Baucus took $1.5m from the health sector for his political fund in the past year. Other members of the committee have received hundreds of thousands of dollars. They include Senator Pat Roberts, who last week tried to stall the bill by arguing that lobbyists needed three days to read it.
Baucus holds dinners for health industry executives at which they pay thousands of dollars each to be at the table, and an annual fly-fishing and golfing weekend in his home state of Montana that lobbyists pay handsomely to attend. They have included John Jonas, who represents healthcare firms for Patton Boggs, widely regarded as the top lobbying firm in Washington. Jonas, who formerly worked on the congressional staff, acknowledges that political contributions are intended to buy influence and says it works.
"It would be very naive to say they're not influenced. The contributors certainly hope they're influencing and the recipients probably ultimately are influenced," he said. "I think it's a morally suspect practice, and then you have to look at its application to see if it's morally bankrupt ... I think what's bad about the system is it's got more and more lax over time.
"When I started in this practice you did not talk issues at a fundraiser. It was impolite. And then with this need for money, the system has got coarser over time so that they go around the room asking what issues you're interested in, much more of a linkage of dollars to a discussion of the issues now."
The health industry permeates the process in other ways. At Baucus's side, drafting much of the wording of the reform, was Liz Fowler, a senate committee counsel whose last position was vice-president of the country's largest health insurer, Wellpoint, which stands to be a principal beneficiary of the new law.
Health companies and their lobby firms also recruit heavily among congressional staffers as a means of maintaining influence.
Baucus declines to discuss political donations but told Montana's Missoulian newspaper earlier this year that "no one gets special treatment".
Robert Reich, the labour secretary in the Clinton administration, says the Obama White House, mindful of how the health industry killed off Clinton's attempts at reform, has grown so fearful of industry money that it has quietly reached agreement to pull back from price caps and public health insurance.
"The White House made a Faustian bargain with big pharma and big insurance, essentially scuttling both of these profit-squeezing mechanisms in return for these industries' agreement not to oppose healthcare legislation with platoons of lobbyists and millions of dollars of TV ads."
The pharmaceutical companies are apparently pleased enough that they are now putting $120m into advertising supporting the emerging legislation.
Jonas described the bill emerging from the Senate as "in realm of what is politically possible".
"Is the bill overly distorted by money? I don't think it actually is," he said. "It's a good bill in the sense that it's a net improvement in the system ... [but] it's a bad bill if you think it's supposed to be a comprehensive solution to the US healthcare problems."
52 Comments so far
Show AllThis guy must be kidding.
That's right! Doesn't he know that Obama killed single payer right at the beginning of the process? No sense engineering things from ground up when we have such friendly Insurance Companies around to build a plan around. I sure wonder what else went into making Obama's decision.
Yes sir.
"Jonas described the bill emerging from the Senate as "in realm of what is politically possible"."
So, who wins the award for being the biggest political whore?
Exactly! Great question.
This bill is the only option that is "politically possible" because our elected officials -- Democrats as well as Republicans -- do not represent us -- "we the people." More than 2/3 of the population here in the United States have NOT changed their minds -- they continue to want, and need, a robust, or very strong public option, or even better, Medicare for All, minus the loopholes -- in other words, a single-payer system.
This health care issue and the behavior of our representatives in Washington should once and for all prove that our form of government is beyond repair. Our corporations are in complete control of our lives. There is no way we can change that given the apathy of the American people and I don't want to be around when the country comes crashing down.
Hope you are all clear on what the lobbyist means when he says the bill is "a net improvement in the system".
He means that if you buy pharma and insurance stock you will benefit from the bill, while eveybody else will pay more money for less health care.
Two-thirds of Americans want a Canadian-style, single-payer national health insurance system (not the red-herring "public option"). Dems control both houses of Congress and the White House. Obama is a money-raising machine. Yet, the White House supposedly "fears" insurance industry money? Bull Crap.
All he has to do is:
1) Come out squarely for taking the greed out of healthcare insurance in this country
2) Explain that single-payer is the best way to do it
3) Explain that it works well in all the other industrialized countries in the world
4) Explain that insurance industry PR is PAID FOR out of OUR MONEY -- the obscene profits they take from our insurance premiums, while simultaneously denying healthcare to the sick and injured
Public support is already there. Money and votes would surely follow.
But, it's not just Baucus and other Senators taking the insurance/drug/hospital money as the above article represents . . . it's Obama himself. HE is the one, out in front, claiming single-payer would be "too disruptive," and that "our friends and neighbors" work in the health insurance industry. Disruptive? Yeah, for Obama's "friends and neighbors."
It's Obama who is screwing us, more than anyone else. And, not only that, but this screw job will resonate for years. People will blame the Democrats, and God knows what kind of ugly fascism will rise up in this country next.
A health care bill without a public option is a joke. How can anyone in their right mind advocate mandatory insurance for everyone without any cost controls? This country would be brought to it's knees in no time at current insurance rates. The only way mandatory health insurance could possibly work is if there is a public plan with very strict cost controls that makes insurance and drugs affordable for even the poorest of our citizens.
If mandatory insurance becomes reality at current prices, I won't pay. I won't give the greedy jerks at the top my hard-earmed money. They're going to be dragging me off to jail kicking and screaming!
You are right! That is why 380 Million was spent to kill the public option.
This is because the Insurance Companies automatically have 2 reasons for a rate increase - no preexisting conditions and no recissions which they are planning on. The only thing holding them back from huge increases was the public option which would have held their prices in line a little.
This bill should be called the "Health Insurance Windfall Profit Bill" because they will make Trillions from it.
Realize also that this bill has in effect introduced a new tax - an uncontrolled tax payable to private parties. With an estimated 60% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck this should set off a wave of backruptcies.
And to think that Obama himself tabled single payer. I wonder how they got to him.
If the public option means that it is not government funded, and the helpful reforms on paper require or allow the insurance companies to raise rates to keep the bonuses coming and stocks rising,.... it should fail.
I see this as a problem too big to fix without a revolution of changes in the War economy. Universal Health care and war will be the central issue for the people to deal with for many years to come.
Free Clinics will continue to try as best they can and we need Cuba to help us learn how they do it better for the people who can't afford a doctor and medicine.
Lifting the embargo with free travel to Cuba for all would help break the wall of ignorance about what the word "Public" is about.
Now the war machine wants us to put the conept of Public right in the evil bag with Social.
The public option is beginning to look like another private one.
Since the National Parks, we don't seem to know what the public is.
I do not know why the pistol packin mama from Alaska was worried about death panels in the future health care plan, when we have people like John Jonas,who is a death panel advocate and thinks they are great and wants them to stay that way. You gotta love the punic, euphemism: " In the realm of what is politically possible "!
The most dismaying aspect of this is even if, for arguing, it provided minimal improvements, it will also close the door on any legislatiion on what really needs to be done to assure health care justice in my lifetime.
So, better that nothing be passed, or if it passes, we need to throw as many monkey wrenches into it as we can, so it's eventual failure happens as quickly as possible, so real reform can proceed. If that fails, we work for establishing a new social-democratic republic.
Right ...one thing for sure if it doesn't pass, we sure the hell will have the will to do better.
The US system of Governance is horribly broekn. It does not work.
It is not the PEOPLE elected it is the SYSTEM they are elected to. It invites corruption and buy offs.
Rethink that Constitution as Holy Writ. The system needs a redesign.
Reich tells us that Obama cut a deal "essentially scuttling both of these profit-squeezing mechanisms in return for these industries' agreement not to oppose healthcare legislation" because he was allegedly afraid of what industry would do to him.
What was the point in getting legislation in the first place? People were having trouble affording care. What was the deal to get the legislation passed? Make sure nothing is done to harm the profitability of the industry. Why would I want this bill to pass?
This is the latest, but not the only, example that proves our congress is selling our welfare to the highest corporate bidder. Baucus can say money doesn't influence his vote, but he isn't fooling anyone.
If the best deal Obama can make is a deal with the devil, don't tell us that is the best that can be done. Tell us representative government is broken and the Democratic majority is going to fix it.
Glad the industry had an extra half a billion dollars -- taken from us -- to buy themselves a nice piece of legislation with.
The only thing worse than that is the idea that the spent it on nothing, which is what they claim. They spent half a billion dollars but didn't get anything for it. No wonder they have to raise premiums.
Excellent comment!
"Revealed: Millions Spent by Lobby Firms"
This is a revelation?!
Actually, it's not millions spent. It's an investment -- one with the surest and hightest returns available anywhere in the U.S.
It does, however, involve a type of congessional "public offering" that is only available to "corporate persons" with suitcases filled with cash from previous investments of the same type.
I would assume that this lobbying by the corporations is the cost of doing business and hence a tax write off. So essentially, the working class pays for stuff by paying the tax dollars that would otherwise be collected. It's so funny that under a capitalist system the capitalists have it rigged so that they just can't lose.
Yes, casinos are like the financial currency system bets... except for the fact that we bet on real goods resources, food, shelter and Health care... there still is a pozi wave vibrating. In casinos it is raw MONEY.
Our laws are written by lobbyists of the Corporations that are robbing us blind and the reps and senators who pass the laws don't read them because they are written so that they can't be understood.... so nobody gets in trouble.
Cool system... BullShitism
fret not, pets. we're moving to the other mode.
Marian Cole
"It's a total victory for the health insurance industry," said Dr Steffie Woolhander, a GP, professor of medicine at Harvard University and co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Programme (PNHP).
My depression and sense of betrayal are monumental. Any other words fail.
fix this now the fox news website is a few ips down the
block. its clear that you didn't read this article or you don't understand its content. this is way beyond obama. to fix
this will take a public uprising with the army against its
citizens! the lobbyists have bought or blackmailed almost
every member of congress and we will have forced insurance
or be prosecuted. any illusion of democracy have been
shreadedto bits. this is something that would make
beezelbub shudder!
Convicted ABSCAM Congressman Ozzie Myers famously remarked, "Money talks; bullshit walks."
He didn't invent the saying, which incidentally is the generally-unstated core premise of modern neoliberal capitalism.
It's the core premise of the Hollow State, Amerika's present post-constitutional authoritarian corporate police state.
It sure is a lot easier to understand than "e pluribus unum".
After all, banksters and corporate executives are entitled to the best government money can buy. And the best "John Jonas"es, for that matter.
Our Elected Misrepresentatives get the big bucks, and We the People get to keep the Change, if there is any. Can you believe it?
· Yr Obd't Servant
When I was a little kid, some seventy years ago, my father asked me a rhetorical question.
"Son, do you know the definition of an honest politician?"
"One that stays bought."
Times haven't changed much, have they.
I think Michel Moore should make a new film, “The Root of All Evil”. Since everyone here seems to understand that money is the root of all evil in Washington (and around the world), I'm sure Michael Moore understands it, too. At least I can hope Michael's next film will focus on "the root of all evil" (Nice title?) as part of a larger movement to force the Congress to reform elections, campaign finance, and lobbying. Now that seems to me to cut to the chase. I would love to see Michael get together with, say, Bernie, and Dennis, to make a film about a bill they co-author, aimed at money and politics and the destruction of the entire world, which is really what we're talking about--right? Can you see Michael following a senator and congressman around, meeting with the progressive coalitions in both houses, chasing down the “no comment” guys, framing the issues in a way that makes it clear that one is either an honest American or a crooked politician—either for or against the American people; for or against “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”; for or against the Constitution and the rule of law. Perhaps Michael Moore would be willing to use some of the money from “The Root of All Evil” to support progressive candidates as well.
I can see Michael and his cast conspiring to force the issue, to call out members who oppose such legislation, to actually make visible and public what has been secret and private. I’m willing to bet, if democrats raised the necessary money to make such a film, Michael Moore would do it for little or nothing. Maybe someone in progressive talk radio could approach Michael and get him on the air to talk about making such a film. Someone like Thom Hartmann could take the lead, and pull in every progressive radio show in the country. Donations to a fund for making Michael Moore’s new movie: “The Root of All Evil.” I don’t think raising the money would be an issue. Would you give $10?
Maybe Michael Moore should also get together with Ralph Nader and the members of the disaffected group of millionaires and billionaires of a progressive mind he has drafted to play parts in his new "practical utopian" work of fiction , which suggests that only very rich can save us. It might just be that members of Ralph’s group would be willing to be part of the film, perhaps in a roundtable setting talking about issues and solutions. They might be prepared to back progressive candidates to run against crooked incumbents. Who knows?
I mean it's really no longer a question of "what". It's all about "how". The present efforts to reform health care have revealed just how bad things really are to anyone but a fool. Wouldn't it be nice to think that this was the first part of an Obama's strategy to live up to his promises of change? Maybe he is, as Thom Hartmann likes to hope, playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers. Brilliant but doubtful. Still, in any event, the cruel revelations emerging from the life and death issue of health care have made it abundantly clear: there is a log jam blocking all reform. If President Obama doesn’t take on political corruption, which is responsible for mass murder at home and abroad, illegal wars, the maintenance of a mercenary army largely made up of brainwashed kids who couldn’t and can’t find a better job, just like the insurgents they face abroad, fraud, bribery, hunger, the destruction of the middle class and the planet’s life support system and so on, then another way must be found, sooner than later; in fact, it’s later already.
How many times have you heard the most well-intended acknowledge in passing, as they were promoting a much needed reform, that the hold up to their particular efforts is dirty money, the "bribery" of our elected officials? Anyone, after recent events, who talks about serious reform in any area, without identifying that we've got to clean up the system first, is just living in a fool's paradise: indulging in a kind of endless barren intercourse between the mind and itself. True?
So isn't this all good: only the delusional can any longer talk about any other reform, if he’s serious about any reform at all. So now that the "what" is crystal clear, and the "why", too, shouldn't there be a laser-like focus on "how" to get at the root of the problem?
What else? I don't know: perhaps some sort of class action suit against a corporation might work, though I'm doubtful and too ignorant to know. Or maybe a legislator or two could be brought up on bribery charges? Or how about treason or violating our constitutional rights? Maybe it could be framed as a civil rights issue? Impeachment….
bob
Scuttle the bill.
Restart back at Single Payer.
Election reform in '10. 3rd Party '10 and '12.
The good news here is...this will help to hasten the demise of the US, as screwed up that it already was/is. According to some like Marc Faber and Gerald Celente, it will be only a few more years give or take until the US government is complete and utter toast, largely self-inflicted. I'd say the sooner to get on with the inevitable revolution, the better.
From France; Wow you guys are f***ed, if that kind of corruption were to happen here you'd have millions of people in the streets and there are only 63 millions of us... No kidding... What are you waiting for, and i'm not talking about riots... I'll add that the media here is as bought and paid for by corporate interest, but we still know what's good for us!!! you know common sense.
Thank you,
We are waiting for "critical mass" the tipping point and it is coming... It will happen when it can't be stopped.
We will know it when we see and feel it like common sense.
Mon Dieu, merci beaucoup, mon ami!
You Frenchies may have a corporatized media, but we have transparent public bribery that we pretend not to see. Indeed, we have the best idiocracy money can buy.
Touche Jim you need to see and feel it like common sense, but it's so painfull to watch it from here... Already i had thought Bush selection in 2000 was a tipping point or his fraudulent election in 2004 would be a case for "critical mass", and i'm not even talking about all the lies the US has been fed for so long and that doctrine of American exeptionalism... And don't get me wrong i'm not trying to patronize anybody on that thread but i hurt for you people very much...
veenataos,
It is great to hear from France,
Things might not be as bad here as you think though...
But we are ready to be saved again... so please hang around.
Cheers
We could use your help!
Thank you very much.
France has the lowest unionized workforce in Europe, about 8%, but we get the biggest show for street demonstration, not that it obtains the results awaited but at least it gets the discussion going outside of vested interest. Tell you what, here everybody, by that i mean people of all age, even kids, talks about politics all the time, wether at work or family reunion, even in public transportation, it can be very heated and often downright angry and possibly ugly, but we do it because there is no other alternative, who would trust entirely a politian, an expert or a corporation to abide by commun sense. And in the end we may not agree on much but we all Know that without solidarity we as a people can't make it, and that word solidarity i rarely see it anywhere neither on CD nor any other progressive Usean sites i happen to stumble upon.
ooh yes it is the spirit that is missing here..the spirit of solidarity togetherness
There is so much anger now...it seems to dominate the atmosphere... come to think of it Solidarity has probably become another of our brainwahed evil words like Left, Liberal. Communist, Socilist, anachist, activist and now Public.
Thanks for the breath of Fresh air.
You're welcome Jim.
And to be precise i've live in the States from 1996 until 2003. And yes things are problably not as bad as i think as long as one can keep informed despite the ever so bought MSM.
The only times people would see me as truly a foreigner was when i tried to have political discussions. Anger is a step though, it's like fear you need it and it's sane as long as you can control it.
You got it Jill...We are the revolution.
"a large percentage of people want single payer heath care"
Apparently, we don't want it badly enough. Single payer healthcare is only icing on the cake really. The important stuff we already got. The 10,000 ice cream flavors, and many many more culinary delights, for carry out and instant reheating by microwave. 10,000 channels of digital entertainment piped in, 10,000 models of digital cameras and cell phones to choose from, each with 10,000 fancy features to learn. 10,000 new fashion styles to choose from. Even if we got single payer healthcare for free we might not have time for it.
The contributions of the health care industry to our elected officials clearly shows the attack on our democracy. Our elected officials are our representatives. Their task is to vote in our name in Congress. This is not happening today. Our elected officials are being paid to vote for the interests of their financial contributors.
If your Representative has sold out and is not voting as you advise, you must not vote for that person again. If your 'rep' voted for the bailout of Wall Street millionaires, voted in favor of the surge in Afghanistan, and has not signed on to HR 676 Medicare for All, Single Payer; that person is corrupt. The corrupt are voting against the will of the majority of citizen of this nation. We must kick the corrupt out of Congress and replace them with Representatives who will follow the advice of the people in their districts.
ENOUGH! ENOUGH! ENOUGH!
It is WAY PAST TIME to start calling a spade a spade. LOBBYING IS NOTHING LESS THAN BRIBERY!!!!
As such, it is against the law and should be prosecuted vigorously!
LEGAL DEFINITION OF BRIBERY: The expectation of a particular voluntary action in return is what makes the difference between a bribe and a private demonstration of goodwill. To offer or provide payment in order to persuade someone with a responsibility to betray that responsibility is known as seeking Undue Influence over that person's actions. When someone with power seeks/accepts payment in exchange for certain actions, that person is said to be peddling influence. Regardless of who initiates the deal, either party to an act of bribery can be found guilty of the crime independently of the other. Let there be no misunderstanding - we ALL KNOW that lobbying is a "tit-for-tat" interaction!!!
When a public official accepts/seeks a bribe, he or she creates a conflict of interest. That is, the official cannot accommodate the interests of another party (viz., the health insurance industry) without compromising the responsibilities of her or his official position, which is NOTHING LESS THAN representing the VOICE OF THE PEOPLE, namely, his or her CONSTITUENTS!!!
The "people" are sick and tired of the WHOLESALE BRIBERY that is taking place within the CURRENT healthcare debate. Max Baucus, for example, and his cohorts have made a joke of the whole debate, shown their true colors ("anything for money"), and made a charade of our entire governmental system.
They should all be indicted for bribery - being lackeys of the health insurance industry while totally ignoring the people who ELECTED them to represent THEM!!! They are making a complete mockery of our political system and should all be EXPELLED from our government!!!
AREN'T WE ALL SICK AND TIRED OF THE TERRIBLE CHARADE OUR GOVERNMENT HAS BECOME?!?!?!?
Well stated.
What we all need is campaign finance reform so that people elected to office no longer need to go begging for enough money to run their campaign.
"Revealed: Millions Spent by Lobby Firms Fighting Obama Health Reforms
Six lobbyists for every member of Congress as healthcare industry heaps cash on politicians to water down legislation"
But . . . we've known this for at least a freaking YEAR.
How do we make bullshitism a crime?
It looks like we are on our own now We can't wait for Obama.
So many folks we know need help now.
Solidarity or bust.
Hey America,
Many of you complain that the world has recently 'rejected' you for the Olympics, and has disrespected you in many other ways. That is because they DO NOT RESPECT YOU. And for good reason; you do not deserve their respect---you have not earned it.
But the world fears you. They do not trust you or your lack of integrity. They do not believe you when you say you will do something ---unless it is invade another nation----for the most ridiculous reasons.
And now, your 'whore houses at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, and 'those other houses' are selling the health care for a majority of you to the 'big johns of big business' in exchange for the 'services of the whores you elected'.
And all you can do is wait for the next election; for 'some new whores'.
Is that like changing 'dirty underwear for dirty underwear'?
And all the while the 'whores' are telling you 'oh baby you are my favorite'---so you will keep coming back.
And you do.
For just a little while longer.
The world watches you as you destroy your selves, and when you have reached a certain 'low level'; they will divide you into 'separate pieces' some large 'chuncks' of still belong to us; so they can stay safe from you -----in the future. We have proved ourselves to be 'honorable people', we keep our word, and do not shed the blood of the innocent, or steal, or cheat or lie.
"If the USA were another nation the USA would invade the USA to keep the world safe; and they would be justified."
John Jonas is just another tiresome example of people who have sold their souls. He is no longer human. He is a robot who will repeat any lie that is told to him by his masters.
where in HELL is Obama? His behavior as chief executive is deplorable!! Is this BUSH/OBAMA? So far all he has done is cobble together a clearly failed health program, and despite a super majority can't pass it. Is this guy a plant? Nothing is too rotten, too despicable for republicans. A Manchurian Candidate perhaps? I voted for this individual, and so far?, he's accomplished nothing, nothing atall. Goddamnit!, we don't need more republican trash!! OR DUMBOCRATS EITHER!!
And where the hell was YOUR brain, IRIQUOIS227 , when you voted for this bullshitter? We would have gotten the same if any of the other Establishment D's had won, including H. Clinton, Dodd, Richardson, Edwards, Biden. As you may remember, Kucinich was excluded from the later debates, and 3rd party candidates will never again be allowed equal time since Ross Perot scared the bejeezus out of them in '92.
"Bullshitter" is an apt description for Obama, as is was for Bush. (What was it a former Bush operative said? "We gave the environmentalists the music, and industry the action?" Something like that, anyway.)
I'm dismayed, however, by your next statement. That old "they're all the same" fatalism is counterproductive. There were (and are) major differences in the candidates you mention. Knowing those differences is crucial. Study their voting records.
Why don't you study this: you're being taken to the cleaners every time you think there's a whit of difference between the rubber-stamped DLC or RNC establishment hacks that they put up to give you a "choice" in candidates. It's not fatalism or counterproductive to tell the truth because you'll know what you're up against, though it IS counterproductive if you hope to elect the same old lying, bought-and-paid-for thugs.
The "major differences" you claim are only in perceived rhetoric when on the stump, not in actual results of their policies. As for voting records, show me where Clinton's, Dodd's, Biden's, Richardson's, Edwards', or Obama's is significantly better one from another. Perhaps on an occasional issue here or there they've tossed a few scraps, but in general they've all voted for the benefit of the corporate, war-mongering MIC state that they've been paid to represent.