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Obama Hires Former Wellpoint Exec to Implement Health Care Law
From the Department of You Just Can't Make This Stuff Up, check out this little-noticed report from the Billings Gazette today:
Max Baucus and former aide and Wellpoint Exec Liz Fowler
Liz Fowler, a key staffer for U.S. Sen. Max Baucus who helped draft the federal health reform bill enacted in March, is joining the Obama administration to help implement the new law...
Fowler headed up a team of 20-some Senate Finance Committee staffers who helped draft the bill in the Senate. She was Baucus' top health care aide from 2001-2005 and left that job in 2006 to become an executive at WellPoint, the nation's largest private insurer. She was vice president of public policy at WellPoint, helping develop public-policy positions for the company. In 2008, she rejoined Baucus to work on health reform legislation.
For some good background on Fowler and the insidious role she played in killing the public option, watch Bill Moyers' recent segment here.
Clearly, this is a telling indictment of the health care law itself, strongly suggesting that it was constructed by the Obama administration - as some progressives argued - as a massive taxpayer-financed giveaway to private insurers like Wellpoint. And let's be honest: In investment terms, Fowler has been a jackpot for the health industry. The industry maximized her public policy experience for their own uses when they plucked her out of the Senate. Then, having lined her pockets, they deposited her first into a key Senate committee to write the new health care law that they will operate under, and now into the administration that will implement said law. Any bets on how much Fowler will make when Wellpoint (or another health insurer) inevitably rehires her in a few years?
This story is also a telling indictment of the Washington media. You'll notice that the Obama administration's move was reported by the Billings Gazette, but (save for a blog entry on the Hill's website, one context-free line at the bottom of the Washington Post's gossip column, and a blurb in Congressional Quarterly's HealthBeat newsletter) was almost completely ignored by national Washington-based publications. That's not because D.C. reporters didn't know it was happening - more likely, it is because the political press corps in the nation's capital no longer sees this kind of revolving door corruption as even mildly problematic, much less newsworthy. That's how pervasive corruption is these days - ubiquitous to the point of invisible in the eyes of most of the so-called watchdogs.
82 Comments so far
Show All"You Just Can't Make This Stuff Up"
Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha.
Well "progressives", whatcha gotta say about this one?
If there was any lingering doubt that the Dems take you completely for granted, this should lay it to rest.
Poor Kucinich, he sold his soul for Obama, and this is O's answer.
Are there any Dems out there who can spin this one with a straight face?
Does anyone remember how the Democrats went apoplectic when Nader asked whether Obama was Uncle T-- for the Wall Street or Uncle Sam for the Main Street?
I remember it well. Nader said Obama had a choice, he could be one or the other. i guess it's clear which choice he made ......
In this years elections if you vote for any Congressman (women) or Senator who voted FOR Obamacare, you are part of the problem and are working against the solution.
The corporations have the two parties in their pocket, and the two parties make sure that no one comes along to spoil the 'party'.
They go through the election charade every couple of years, and who ever is out of office gets hired as a highly paid corporate lobbyist. The corporations see to it that there are no 'losers' who might get off the gravy train.
"...Kucinich...sold his soul for Obama..."
Aquifer:
What Kucinich did was get sold a bill of goods by Obama. What Kucinich did was make a big mistake on Obama's behalf. And he explained his reasons (saving this president) and they were really bad reasons. And he hasn't had the balls to go back and recant and do the mea culpa...at which I'm disappointed.
What he did was make a really big, bad mistake (for which I'm sure Elizabeth has chastized him and cut him off), but he did not sell his soul. He has been conspicuously on the right side of every issue since then. Have you got anybody else in office you can say that about?
Not everybody can boast the pristine perfect pasts that you people (and I use the term in its fully pejorative sense) seem to be operating from. Isn't it the piranhas who turn on and devour their own injured?
By the way, am I imagining it, or is Sirota getting a little sharper and a little more skeptical with each posting?
Next we will hear about Billy Tauzin coming back through the revolving door...not that Tauzin needs a job...he has made a fortune gunning for big pharma during the past decade.
"What Kucinich did was get sold a bill of goods by Obama."
He didn't get sold anything. I don't know whether he was bribed or threatened, but he knew exactly what he was doing when he voted. He's no better than any of the other slugs in congress.
Kucinich used the excuse that he voted for Obamacare to save Obama's presidency...as if it is a presidency worth saving.
Kucinich not only cast his vote for this "reform" which is totally antithetical to what he portrayed as one of his signature issues, but, so I understand, lobbied his colleagues to do so as well. If he sees it as a mistake, why hasn't he said so? If not, then he stands behind his decision to place party over principle, president over people. Something was sold in the bargain, if not the soul of a progressive, then what?
Kucinich, IMO, was the last man standing whose positions could make a case for the possibility of reforming the Dem party "from the inside". When he folded, for the pitiful reasons he did, that case was lost. Even Sanders got something of value for his vote - Kucinich got nothing ....
I had been a staunch supporter of his, working to get him on the ballot, contributing to his campaign, even though I didn't consider him to have a "pristine past", but this was a deal breaker for me. What it clearly demonstrated was that when the chips were down and the screws tightened, he would fold. What else would he fold on?
SURPRISE, SURPRISE.
Wow! talk about hireing the Wolf to guard the Hen-House! Whats next? why not parole Madoff to run the SEC. What brains we have running this country.
This must be why Obomber has the Nobel prize!
>^^<
>>>RichardsCatz wrote: why not parole Madoff to run the SEC.
Actually, the "economic team" is a whole lot "smarter" than Madoff, and they are not so stupid as to get caught.
Its not a matter of getting caught.
Pay off the right Dems and Repugs and you go free no matter what you get caught doing.
Totally ubiquitous corruption and compliance with corporate interests. That is a perfect definition of the Obama administration. Sound familiar? A perfect segue with the Bush regime.
Obama just lost his second term, and might be impeached before his first term ends. That 2400 page HCR monstrosity was already polling poorly before this revelation.
Grayson's medicare for all bill is only four pages, and allows anyone to buy medicare coverage at cost for their age group.
Grayson's bill would cost the government virtually nothing, but would dramatically lower healthcare costs given the low 5% overhead costs of medicare. And medicare does not play tricks on the insured to increase profits.
Medicare for all would have assured Dems majority control for the next twenty years.
Instead Obama pushed and passed a repug corporate bailout bill and the dems will get all the blame at the polls.
Obama did the same thing with the four trillion dollar wall street bailout, and bankster bonus outrages.
And Obama is still giving nearly a trillion dollars a year to the repug perpetual war industry.
Obama might well end up being impeached by his own party!
special note: Force congress to pass HR 5353 "war is making you poor act" It would use war funds to eliminate taxes on the first $35,000 of each person's income, and still have money left over to reduce debt.
The Obama Administration and (most of) the Democrats in Congress deserve the blame this time, for taking the easy way out and passing this toxic GOP-written body of legislature called a Healthcare "Reform" Bill, instead of putting their heads together, masterminding and implementing a genuine Healthcare Reform Bill that entailed Single Payer with Universal Care for all Americans.
The Obama Administration and (most of) the Democrats in Congress deserve the blame this time, for taking the easy way out and passing this toxic GOP-written body of legislature called a Healthcare "Reform" Bill, instead of putting their heads together, masterminding and implementing a genuine Healthcare Reform Bill that entailed Single Payer with Universal Care for all Americans.
It's amazing isn't it. Obama might as well be a republican since he gives them everything they could possibly ask for, yet they still hate him. Limbaugh and his ilk call him a left wing extremist. A Marxist. It is astounding. It wouldn't surprise me to see him veto unemployment extensions beyond 99 weeks even if the Senate does pass it.
he gives them everything they could possibly ask for, yet they still hate him.
-----------------------------------
It's the principle of the stolen car: it's not yours, and you'll never have to pay for any repairs, so why not run it into the ground. Doesn't cost *you* anything.
Clinton gave them everything too, and they still screamed at him and beat on him to give them more. Pathological greeds can never be satisfied because they have no basis in reality.
Every time the right wingers call Obama a socialist, he moves further to the right to prove them wrong. The right wing is playing him like a fiddle.
If you believe that, Obama's playing you like a fiddle.
>>
Clinton gave them everything too, and they still screamed at him and beat on him to give them more. Pathological greeds can never be satisfied because they have no basis in reality.
<<
Good point. He signed the repeal of Glass-Steagall and gave us NAFTA just for starters. So then they impeach him. (Yeah I know I probably have the time frame wrong, but still...)
For another perspective on Grayson's bill, read Margaret Flowers' analysis about how Grayson's plan differs from a Single Payer, Improved Medicare-for-all plan.
http://pnhp.org/blog/2010/06/15/what-about-the-grayson-‘medicare-buy-in’-legislation/
Clearly there was and is a conspiracy against the People, especially the Obama campaign citizens who worked 24/7 to get this impostor elected and the voters who got him elected. He even denied talking about and wanting a public option when campaigning. Then to lock out citizens and public option groups, even having them arrested! And now this Wellpoint spy! This does not appear to be a democracy and the people should take action. This is collusion, conflict of interest and treason against the People. We don't deserve to be constantly abused and have yet another administration run by a domestic emotional abuser. The People are owed wage increases for 37 years since we got paid more in real wages in 1973!
I was very sad to notice that in financial blogs, the commenters kept referring to the People as "PEASANTS"! When these Wall Street people start using this word, you know it comes from the top. So far, we, The Great American Worker, the most productive and educated, which every country on earth studied and imitated is now called PEASANTS, SERFS, SLAVES ...I even read a "Prayer for America" on a foreign website as the top story. One dutch blogger added that every time he thinks of the earth, he thinks of America because we too are being kicked on and abused like the planet.
Let's file a law suit, "The Democratic People (?) vs. The Bush & Obama Administration for fraud, severe hardship and crimes against the People and the Constitution"
Awesome post. My hair caught fire.
"Imposter" and "fraud" are good ways of looking at it.
Yet, he still gets attacked from the right as being a "socialist" anyway. The whole thing has to have been scripted from the start.
Law suit? Sure, let's have judges appointed by these cronies decide our fate. Sure, we'll waste our time filing a law suit while they continue their agenda to kill the middle class and the poor. We the people's avenues to power have been blocked. Voting, law suits, demonstrations all have been neutered and are now bereft of the power they once held. These corporatists have taken our Democracy. The question is, are we brave enough to take it back or will we go silently in the night.
And just when I was about to give Obama just one little eensie bitsy chance, he FOULS up again !! I'll take this over to other progressive and liberal sites that are pro-Obama. Let's see them try to get away with this !
This Liz Fowler appointment is just one of the appointments and part of the battle that for-profit health insurance is successfully waging--with the help of liberals and progressives.
Another--more dire appointment with greater impact I don't see mentioned here at CD is that of a proponent of the findings of the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care study to be chief of Medicare and Medicaid.
link here:
Obama makes recess appointment of new chief of Medicare and Medicaid
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jul2010/berw-j14.shtml
By the way, that Dartmouth Atlas study was also supported by the NY Times and progressives such as Paul Krugman.
link:
Dr. Richard Cooper, critic of Dartmouth health study, speaks to the WSWS
http://wsws.org/articles/2010/jun2010/coop-j21.shtml
This appointment and its blatant example of the revolving door system of lobbyists and congressfolks (including staffers) continually selling us out to the corporations is disgusting beyond belief. Just shows I was right when I mentioned this to my (now ex)insurance salesman who was giving me a quote on an individual health policy at the time. I had my car and home insurance with this Repub creep and I told him what I thought at the time when Fowler was writing the draft of Baucus's bill for his committee. I said it was a blatant conflict of interest for Baucus to let her do that and that the voters and patients were being sold out by her and Baucus.
My ex-agent's reply, " Well she was hired to draft the bill because of her expertise".
Really, the arrogance of these shitheads! So, Obama is clearly just as arrogant and corrupt a sellout as Baucus. I can just see him saying, " Hell of a job there, Max! You played those chumps like a fiddle on HCR and you sure know how to pick a good lobbyist to help out on that".
Remember the TV series GET SMART ???
It was so ahead of its time
P.S. Cris Hedges,,,,,why did you not report this
when you did your piece this week about
the Obama thing???
You don't need to answer Cris, I already know
why, and that is just the reason.....that....I...
We get it Baboon, you hate Hedges, but unlike your boy Greenwald - who still believes in democrats which is evident with his site accountability now, Hedges support third party candidates.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081103_only_nader_is_right_on_the_issues/
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081229_why_i_am_a_socialist/
http://accountabilitynowpac.com/
BABOON said, "Cris Hedges,,,,,why did you not report this
when you did your piece this week about
the Obama thing???"
Maybe he doesn't read the Billings Gazette.
This is an interesting story, all right. But if the point of it is to highlight some kind of conflict of interest, I'm pretty sure you can find a few more people. Obama's announcement of his "economic team", his choice for Interior, etc., during the transition days should have proved beyond doubt that those who had voted for him had been had. But you still can't blame people for hoping, I suppose.
No , I sure don't blame them, especially the young voters.
Americans thought they were doing the right thing, and
indeed they were , both in the 2006 and 2008 elections.
Americans were on their way to totally destroying the
Republican Party, which should have been destroyed right after the "Blow Job" impeachment.
The Democrats colluded with much intention to restore
and build the Republican Party back.
Since the Cold War, both parties have been in collusion, I
sure didn't expect everyone in American to have my understanding of this...
But I sure expected the educated baby boomers to know
history and how pathetic the Democrats have been the last
fifty or so years. (or more)
In my judgement, it is too late now to regroup and snatch
our government back from the thugs that own it.
If my wife during the decades of the eighties and ninties
could have a penny for everytime she heard me say
"Americans are going to wake up some day when the money is
all gone and look around and wonder where all their rights
went", she could be retired right now instead of wondering
how she can afford to go to the doctor and get all the tests
that a woman her age needs, hell she can't even afford the
doctors visit on her wages.
This is just what happened, everyone woke up during the
Bush Administration and blamed that Adminstration for every-
thing that has happened over the last forty years, and because they were asleep, they still believe that the
Democrat Party is the party that their parents always told
them that is was, and even back then it was a myth.
My son is twenty-five years old. He and most of his
friends supported Obama. Beacause of this, I did not go on
rants about the Democrat Party to him during the elections.
He knew damn well I wasn't voting for Obama, but I never
expounded since I was glad that he was somewhat involved
with the political process.
I doubt he or any of his friends will ever vote again.
That is what the Obama presidency has done to many of the
young Americans that voted for him. They won't even talk
about the political process, or current events. He and
his friends shut me down even if I brought up the BP Gulf
of Mexico disaster.
Right now, he is trying to design his own solar cells
to install on his house........I am proud of this.......
Even though I hate proudness
It's probably hard for your son to admit that his "old man" was right about Obama. (I think it's often hard for kids to admit their folks are right about anything!) But maybe you could tell him that it's hard to get it right in the early stages of political involvement, it often takes a few trips around the block before you understand that you have to carefully look behind the curtain to see who the "wizard" really is.
When I was posting here before the election, I remember expressing my fear that this is what indeed might happen once O's excited fans got a good look at the real O. I hope your son and his co-generation don't pull up their tents and leave the process; the stakes for them, and for us all, are just too high ......
Sometimes younger people are smarter than their elders. My niece was wise enough to vote for Nader because she had a heart for him and paid attention to the issues and what each candidate stands for. I used to be ignorant too until she brought me here. It has been nearly a year and I am amazed at how my reading on this site has forced me to slowly see politics like never before. I think we elderlies and youngsters need to get together and find ways to systematically make the changes. This year, I'll be happy to vote Green since Carnahan isn't saying much on the issues and Blunt is winning the "small business" vote anyway. Who knows what 2012 has in store for us? I hope we can better rally around a strong independent progressive at the rate Obama is going.
When I was working on the Nader and a local Green campaign 2 years ago, I met a young man who was, likewise, a Nader supporter. He was way ahead of where I was at his age. I took the opportunity, as a boomer, to apologize to him for the lousy state of everything we have left his generation and those to come .....
I hope there are many, and more to come, like your niece and that young man .....
What gives my joy (not hope, but joy) is that young Nader supporters are actually supporters.
I remember talking to Nader 'supporters' when he first ran that said we should vote for him in order to push the Democrats leftward. What a terrible idea! As if that would work - not only doesn't work in the long run, but not even in the short run.
The problem is, the dissillusioned youth may not want to have anything to do with the political process and instead tend their own gardens and solar projects, the lunatic extremist right does NOT think this way. They are taking over the political process virtually without resistance. When your son finds that he can't even find the materials for his solar project, or cannot begin to afford them is working for $4.00 an hour after minimum wage, unemployment insurance are abolished and union organizing outlawed by the political process, he will regret abandoning the process.
If the 'process' could actually benefit us, it would've been illegal from the beginning. Disillusionment isn't a bad thing. It's the process by which you come to see what real. What's real is that, no matter who picks up the guns of government, we all still get screwed. I find it strange that you would cut this man down for simply living his life and refraining from the illusion that he can live yours for you. Pick up Walden by Thoreau and read it.
The only thing preventing progressives from succeeding in building the kind of world they want is their idiotic, sycophantic, and dogmatic adoption of pacifism. The extremist right make no bones about the fact that they have the guns, inclination and ability to impose their wishes on the rest of us. Why won't so-called 'progressives' wake up and realize that their lack of commitment to self-defense is why they are marginalized? I wonder what would happen if a million progressives showed up on capitol hill armed like the Tea Baggers are at their rallies...
If you aren't going to simply refrain from the rigged game of politics as this 'disillusioned' young man and his friends are, then you had better be willing to back up your ballets with bullets, because the powers that be aren't listening to your ballots anymore. Otherwise, shut up and take what you got coming to you. I'll never understand how people hold pacifism as an ideal when even a moma squirrel will fight to the death to defend herself.
I'm no pacifist.
There were a whole lot of idealistic leftists and anarchists in Germany in the 1920's and early 1930's who wanted to do away with the liberaloid Weimar Republic - mostly by driopping out of the whole mess.
In 1933, they got their wish.
Your son and I, same problem- disillusioned with bullshit.
Deputy Director of the Office of Consumer Information and Oversight at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Does this position require Senate confirmation? If so, we should be hounding our Senators to reject this appointment!
The Death Panels win.
And all that abuse that Nader supporters such as myself took when he said there wasn't a dime's worth of difference between the two parties. Liberals have a lot of damage for which they are personally responsible to fix.
Yeah, sure. Just eat expensive healthy organic food from upscale grocery stores and all will be right with the world.
Right, and ignore the fact that many illnesses still have genetic links and environmental factors. Even people with the healthiest diets and fitness levels succumb to cancer. Grete Waitz, 9-time winner of the New York City Marathon, got cancer. Lance Armstrong got cancer. Linda McCartney, strict vegetarian, got cancer (and unfortunately died of hers). I could come up with many more names. I am very fit and have a healthy diet but needed major surgery (illness was unrelated to poor diet or unhealthy lifestyle).