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Obama Running Scared
A universal health care system based on the single-payer model appears to be a bridge too far for President Barack Obama.
A single-payer system, such as Medicare for everyone, would provide health care for all.
President Lyndon Johnson had the courage to weigh in with all his clout to win passage of Medicare and Medicaid.
President Roosevelt put all his chips on the table to win passage of the Social Security Act that makes the elderly more secure.
All around the world, governments have long made medical care available for their citizens. Why not us?
Obama clearly has no stomach for the political battle that any single-payer plan would ignite. So he's endorsed a step that would allow the government to provide health insurance coverage -- not health care -- to eligible people. Such government-sponsored health insurance is being considered in Congress as it writes health care reform legislation.
While the public plan option gets full consideration in Congress, the single-payer model has been unwelcome at the White House or on Capitol Hill.
Obama said part of the fierce opposition to health care reform has been fueled "by some interest groups and lobbyists -- opposition that has used fear tactics to paint any effort to achieve reform as an attempt to, yes, socialize medicine."
He made it clear that his idea of health care reform would allow patients to choose their own doctors and keep their own health plans.
Somehow government bailouts have been more palatable for Wall Street plutocrats who happen to be needy.
Obama stressed in a speech to the AMA in Chicago last week that he does not favor socialized medicine.
Some 47 million Americans are uninsured -- many because some employers have dropped coverage in the economic downturn. Others lack insurance because pre-existing illnesses deny them access to private insurance. There also are millions with no way to pay for soaring health insurance payments because they have lost their jobs.
Nearly all Republicans and some moderate Democrats oppose any public plan option. These are the same lawmakers who receive many government-provided perks including health insurance.
In his remarks to the AMA, Obama warned against "scare tactics" and "fear mongering" by opponents of the public plan option, which the President said should be available to those who have no health insurance.
Obama rejected the "illegitimate concern that's being put forward by those who are claiming that a public option is somehow a Trojan horse for a single-payer system."
Obama should tear a page out of LBJ's vote-getting manual and shame the heartless opponents.
The health of all Americans is our business.
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146 Comments so far
Show AllAs long as Obama and his little darlings are covered - along with his corrupt brethren and their families - all is right with the world. They only need the rest of us when the election rolls around which they easily manipulate with a clever marketing schema to persuade the herd. But the herd is being stampeded toward the precipice and will jump off without so much as a whimper.
Go in through the narrow gate. The gate to destruction is wide, and the road that leads there is easy to follow. A lot of people go through that gate. But the gate to life is very narrow. The road that leads there is so hard to follow that only a few people find it. Matthew 7:13,14 (CEV)
I'm not particularly religious...okay, I'm an atheist. However, this verse is a truism, no matter your faith. Your President, your Congress and the rest of those who rule you, find it easy as all get out to lead you all to your doom. However, if we really seek the path to a truly better life, we can find it. It's narrow, steep and a struggle to get to the goal but, it's well worth it. All I ask is that we bring along graders, back end loaders, and other equipment to add a few lanes to the narrow road. Black Anarch out.
when one chooses to kill and toxify the living world with which one directly trades molecules, concern about one's health is...late?
the hard road is the one that leads back to the beginning...the choice to kill and toxify...we must unmake that choice...
Thank You Helen. You have stated the problem simply and eloquently. However I'm sure our Liar/Worm in chief cares not a iota what you or any of us (including me who has cancer with NO COVERAGE)has to say about the issue. I'm sure he sees his doctor at the first sniffel or sneeze, and gets it paid for with our tax dollars.
wanked, you say you have cancer and no coverage!? Are you being treated at all? Can you file for Public Aid? What options have you looked into? I am so sorry for you. I really hope that you get treatment somehow.
Helen Thomas,
The truth. Your voice of clarity, concern, compassion. We need new ideas, new leaders, a new way of thinking. We don't have them yet. The glimmer, o so small, of hope, comes from people such as yourself. It's not the economy, or anything else, that will carry us forward. It's the truth. The truth. When we no longer have the truth, everything becomes meaningless. The truth has been the greatest casualty in our "war" against everything. Who can you believe? And democracy? What chance of it? Perhaps this could be a turning point. Enough people taking to the streets and effectively working to demand change, justice and representation. It could happen. Where else is there a glimmer of hope? Not in the White House.
Maybe if we called it a "War on Sickness" we'd get some results. We could have "terrorist germs" and call Cancer "The Enemy". Vaccinations could be "bacteria bombs" and regular checkups could be "troop reviews"...
Every time we declare "war" on something in this country nothing meaningful ever seems to get accomplished. No one can even talk about the "war" on drugs with a straight face anymore. And what exactly is the "war" on terrorisim? What are we trying to accomplish with these so-called "wars"? The war on drugs is a complete failure, except maybe for the prison-industrial complex. But yet we still have drugs. And there have been terrorists since there were more than five people walking the earth. Maybe if we didn't keep interfering with other countries we wouldn't have to worry as much about terrorism. That would save a lot of money that could go towards health care for all. And as for the war on drugs? When you look at all the liquor, beer, and prescription drug commercials on tv is it really going to make that much of a difference if pot, cocaine and heroin were legal. It would get the drugs off the streets and out of the hands of the violent drug cartels, and the tax revenue would help. By scaling back or eliminating these two so-called wars it should provide more than enough money for something nearly three quarters of this country is in favor of: Health care for everyone.
I believe the "war" on terrorism is a war against scary nouns that start with "t". So far we have spent about 8 years and about 1/2 trillion dollars but have yet to defeat this first noun. I suspect to it will take a long time and will be very expensive to defeat all of them.
But for some unexplained reason I hear we will not be waging war against the noun, torture. For some reason a lot of us appear to be kind of fond of that noun...
You're funny, elainem, I'm laughing! Don't forget the patriotic blood stirring martial music. Got to have that.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
Barak Obama is triangulating himself into a one term presidency. Can you say President Powel? I'll bet you can four years from now. The hierarchy in the GOP is really not keen on committing political suicide four years from now, and all the Rash Windbags can get damn over themselves. If Colin Powell wants' it he can walk to victory in 2012 easily, with Obama's triangulating himself into a political hangman's noose like crazy and doing so on foreign and domestic policy. Oh, and yes Obama is afraid of something-- all the special interest money of the health insurance industry and otherwise, but he'd better be afraid of the fact that the GOP hierachy wants power back next time and an ideological litimus test isn't gonna be in the picture. Powell's stature as being at a top level in the military does for him what it did Dwight D Eisenhower, and that's that. We could do a lot worse than a black Ike.
Ike cut the Pentagon budget twice in 19555 and 1960 and got away with it. That's not too shabby.
AD
At this point I think Powell would actually be less pandering to the special healthcare and Wall Street interests than Obama, despite his being a Republican. You are right about Ike. Powell impresses me as someone who doesn't give a damn: he'll do whats right for the country and if his fellow GOP don't like it, they can sulk.
Huh? Whenever Powell's name comes up, like a recurring nightmare, I get this image of him shaking that little vile of phooey over at the UN in front of the world audience...
What, was not it Powell, the quintessiential soldier who would obey any order directed towards him, who verified and passed on the lies to invade Iraq because they told him to...it's that 'they' which seems still to hold the power and influence even now...that 'they' that seems to make planes flying with the truly progressive voices, fall from the sky?! WE can see what they are up to, and it should not be tolerated or accepted anymore, by anyone in this country, if we are to remain on the path of the dream that is America.
Try typing:
site:commondreams.org "colin powell"
into google. Powell has been a careerist throughout his whole career. He'll do what will advance his career, and get him (into) power.
Let me help get you up to speed on the virtuous Mr. Powell.
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Political/
Collin%20Powell_Legend.html
AD, I think you underestimate the power of the fear mongering Democrats. As we get closer to 2012 they will be howling, "Oh no! The Republicans are coming! Obama will save us in his second term! He had to act like a Republican to get reelected! Now you'll see what a wonderful progressive he is...just reelect him!"
Then we will be swamped with a plethora of articles from The Nation liberals and their ilk instructing us to vote for Obama because, although not perfect, he is better than Colin McPalin.
Although Obama is despised by the leftists on CD, all the middle-of-road, NPR uninformed, centrist Democrats I work with think he’s doing a great job and still sport Obama stickers on their autos. They are still saying to give him more time, can't turn an aircraft carrier around on a dime. I'm sure they'll vote for him again.
By the way, if you own a bridge in Hawaii you'd be willing to sell for a modest amount, let me know and I'll put you in contact with them.
Single payer or Medicare for everyone is the only to provide real health care reform.
The "public option", if passed, will fail. It will cover the older, sickest and poorest (really a subsidy to the private insures who will cover the young, healthy, well-off thus making their business more profitable) making the public option very costly, unable to fund itself, a fiasco (probably the intended outcome).
Helen is correct. It is my responsibility, it should be the President and congress's responsibility "The health of all Americans is our business."
Single payer or Medicare for everyone is the answer.
Amazing really - the debate unfolding before our eyes.
Congress is pulling back its sheets and what we see is the health lobby curled up next to it.
Damn the people. The truth is being revealed.
And Obama? Does Pontius Pilate's handwashing ring a bell?
Just another issue he was 'for' (while serving as a powerless State Senator) before he was 'against' (as the most powerful politician in the country).
Powell will make decisions which would be good for America? What, like his speech at the UN about the imaginary threats to us in Iraq? He knew the truth and lied anyway.
Next!
Obama underestimated the power of the entrenched interests.
Recall the quote of Rosevelt when someone asked him to do something "make me do it."
Need to generate popular support to force Obama to do things that needed done, like single payer health care.
Too bad that public opinion has been in favor of single-payer universal, Canada style health care for decades; if the public can be ignored repeatedly on such an important human rights issue, what does that say about our version of democracy?
"fear tactics to paint reform as socialized medicine?" Egad!
Who can possibly be afraid of name calling, especially from the GOP?
Every grown up knows that they need not accept the opinion of others.
We have 'socialized' Big Banking.
We have 'socialized' Big Insurance.
We have 'socialized' Big Auto Making.
Why can't we have 'humanized' medicine? A healthy nation is a happy nation!
Must we emigrate to a kinder, gentler, less corrupt country to survive and raise our children?
Don't forget Socialized Agriculture. Industrialized farming would not exist at its present state without a massive allowance from the government.
We have Socialized Media. The digital television spectrum worth MANY TRILLIONS of $$ was handed over virtually free to the criminal media monopolies who work hard to keep us underinformed and lamely entertained.
We have a Socialized Defense Department. Boeing and buddies demand at least one unnecessary war to justify their disproportionate appropriations. These conflicts are taxpayer funded gratuities.
Sioux
CYGNUS: Good points! If only the average Fox viewer could hear them!
That's not socialism, just corporate welfare bums.
Yeah, it sounds more like a form of neo-Fascism
Don't forget socialized air transport. The airline industry has received billions in federal subsidies and couldn't exist without them. Oh, and don't forget socialized energy -- the oil industry has received hundreds of billions and continues to receive huge subsides every year. The US system is Socialism for the Rich and Large Corporations, Tough Love for everyone else.
and so it goes
Maybe Obama should read a little Moussolini since we seem to be moving into a Fascistic state.
Bring America Back !!!!...........Hooray Helen Thomas, I knew she still had it in her !!!
**We really knew Obama would back down to Big AMA, Big Pharma and Big HMO on Healthcare===just as he has caved in to Big Telecons, Big Oil (seen the price of gas lately?),
Big AIPAC, and the almighty DC Military-Industrial Complex.
It was only a question of how badly He would back down !!
**Helen Thomas, please at the first press conference opportunity, ask the Prez from your front row seat, if he has seen the DVD 'Sicko" by MIchael Moore ??? If he has not, please offer him a free copy. We will get Him free ones.
**"Sicko" shows the true state of medical care in the USA and proves beyond question, the only answer is FREE health
care to all Americans because we are human beings.
**Because free healthcare is the human entitlement , Canada, Great Britain, France, Cuba, Norway are the enlightened Nations that can show Team Obama how to install it in the USA !
Medical care in the US will NEVER be Affordable for all Americans unless and until it is a free right. We are in the Era of the HOspital $100 band-aid and patient dumping onto the street if there is no "insurance" !!
Unless my memory has failed, or a big change has occurred, I think Obama has called on Ms Thomas only once, and wasn't pleased by her unwelcome query, whether any middle-east country (i.e., Israel) has nuclear weapons.
Questioners are pre-selected for his press conferences. That's called "openness in government."
the buck goes from my ins carrier to the pols who then support my ins carriers profit margin -
its the best gov my ins dollars can buy - if the gov would cut out the middle man my quality of service would not change, but the pol would lose his "taste"
in the end single payer would force pols to work for people not ins companies - but the pols cant stand the pay cut - so we will not see single payer soon, will we?
i propose that pols be forbidden from taking medical industrial complex dollars - this might be a good first step towards fixing the HCS.
Helen Thomas tells the truth. Obama,s heart is in the South Chicago projects but much of his governance is influenced by his "pragmatic" politiccs. Those of us in his progressive base wait for more AUDACITY and HOPE.
Helen Thomas tells the truth. Obama,s heart is in the South Chicago projects but much of his governance is influenced by his "pragmatic" politiccs. Those of us in his progressive base wait for more AUDACITY and HOPE.
Sioux Rose
Helen Thomas has always used politeness to speak truth to power. The one thing that was left out in this otherwise solid article is that it's not just the poor who don't opt for health insurance. I probably (?) could afford it, but I am too frugal with necessary expenses to spend $500-600 a month and then later be told that "my condition" is not covered. I see insurance as legalized extortion. I remember when my car was hit by flying debris in one of the hurricanes Florida experienced, and my car insurance company would not even pay for the windshield replacement. $66 a month for how many years but they can't even hand over the $200?
So long as the for-profit middle man is kept in the equation, I want NOTHING to do with it. As many have said, including Donna Smith, even if you presumably have insurance, that's not the same thing as a guarantee of acquiring medical CARE. I beef up on vitamins, get exercise, have a good diet, try to ward off stress (harder and harder given the actuality of things in the US today), and then HOPE I can retain my health. Dental costs in the U.S. are a joke. Yesterday I went to pay my car registration because fees are about to double, and I ran into a couple that lives on a sailboat. She's from Hondurus and she told me to fly to Hondurus, for about $350 round trip, and she'd hook me up with her niece, a dentist. She told me that implants there cost so much less than in the U.S. and both told me not to presume America had the highest level of dentistry. In 2002 I had caps done in Mexico, so I am no stranger to "3rd world" medical/dental applications. I am seriously considering the Hondurus option, as it would mean an interesting trip and implants for probably HALF the cost of having it done in my local area.
Thanks for your informative post. You are right about being able to go just about anywhere and receive comparable service for a fraction of the price.
Sioux: "The one thing that was left out in this otherwise solid article is that it's not just the poor who don't opt for health insurance. I probably (?) could afford it, but I am too frugal with necessary expenses to spend $500-600 a month and then later be told that "my condition" is not covered. I see insurance as legalized extortion."
Right there with you. And congress keeps avoiding this by saying the solution is just to mandate buying insurance on those who can "afford" it, and using taxes to subsidize those who can't. This will be a double whammy on middle class workers and employers. The only thing that changes is that you will have to buy it and it will cost more.
We will be forced to pay the extortion, and the insurance companies for their part will be under no obligation to do anything differently. When I look back over the years, I see larger and larger chunks of my earnings going to insurances of all types, and it looks more and more like legalized extortion. Yet, despite siphoning off the earnings of us all, the insurance companies have skipped out on their obligations and have gotten bailouts. It really looks like organized crime is running the country.
AND, what if, as was the case when we were t-boned by a stop sign runner, and were not able to work as self employed artists due to broken limbs, the insurance companies gauge your importance to society by how much money you make, and make the decision on how much to compensate you depending on your income.("Go to work at Walmart, if you are unable to continue your craft!")) Could this also happen to those with the health insurance in question...not making a huge taxable income? "Get well or die!"...(as is the case with us now). I would like to see every legislator with special interest money at stake in these decisions be banned from voting as a conflict of interest...a no brainer it seems. I still hold out hope that Barack will do the right thing, be bold, and act on the causes of righteousness that we were hoping, as progressives, he would do when we voted for him, we're still out here ...and watching.
Sioux Rose: I live in Costa Rica now, and just had a root canal done on a molar. It cost $175. I believe at my dentist in the US this would have cost at least $600 and probably closer to $800.
Mr. Obama is a weak leader, and as such, he lies, equivocates, and obfuscates.
He will be nothing more than a shill of the ruling Wall Street elite.
What bewilders me is that so few people understood or appreciated that before the election. Yet, the information is available.
But, his campaign did win the Advertising Age award for 2008.
Oregoncharles
Yes, Obama did win that award from the advertising industry! Take another look at the music video, "Yes We Can." Although I was far from being an Obama supporter, that video did soften me up a little! "Maybe, just maybe." I thought to myself. HA! See, if it can work a little dark magic on an old tough shoe like myself, think of how easily the rest of America, the ones who have gotten so accustomed to their daily bucket of bs from the msm, they don't even question the odor, let alone the content.
Our Prez has no spine. I've been wondering why the Big O, a black man (or half black), does not embrace reasonable ideas such as single-payer. And after some armchair psychoanalysis I've come to the conclusion it is because of his need to be loved (you know is life-story of the missing father). The Big O (as in zero) wants to please everyone, and so he talks from both sides of this mouth. Of course, I could be wrong, but for the life of me I don't understand why Obama is unable to do the right thing. And he does not push policies that are radically different (think outside the proverbial box), this country will be in even bigger trouble.
Our Prez has no spine. I've been wondering why the Big O, a black man (or half black), does not embrace reasonable ideas such as single-payer. And after some armchair psychoanalysis I've come to the conclusion it is because of his need to be loved (you know is life-story of the missing father). The Big O (as in zero) wants to please everyone, and so he talks from both sides of this mouth. Of course, I could be wrong, but for the life of me I don't understand why Obama is unable to do the right thing. And he does not push policies that are radically different (think outside the proverbial box), this country will be in even bigger trouble.
Our Prez has no spine. I've been wondering why the Big O, a black man (or half black), does not embrace reasonable ideas such as single-payer. And after some armchair psychoanalysis I've come to the conclusion it is because of his need to be loved (you know is life-story of the missing father). The Big O (as in zero) wants to please everyone, and so he talks from both sides of this mouth. Of course, I could be wrong, but for the life of me I don't understand why Obama is unable to do the right thing. And he does not push policies that are radically different (think outside the proverbial box), this country will be in even bigger trouble.
Obama is wasting so much energy trying to please people that don't like him and didn't vote for him that he is alienating everyone who did vote for him. He ran on a platform of change. He was elected because most people in this country recognized the need for radical change. For better or worse, at least Bush didn't worry about pleasing people who didn't like him no matter how terrible his policy ideas were. We need to stop voting for presidents who have "daddy issues"
Highkarate: I like and agree with the points you make: 1)I do believe he's narcissistic. Being the first "black" editor of the Harvard Law Review might make a person believe that s/he is special. And he obviously thought he was pretty good looking, judging from some of the poses he strikes in those early b/w pictures; 2) Having a dad who was African and abandoned you, could make a person feel not particularly sympathetic to people of African descent.
Incidentally, during the primary season, on one of the TV channels they spoke to some of his roommates/friends at Harvard. I recall one very attractive colleague of Obama's, who was Iranian born, say that Obama, even back then, talked of being the prez.
Bottom line: you've got to have a pretty high opinion to be convinced you can be the first black POTUS, more so when you've got a "weird" name. I do not mean to imply a black person ought not be the POTUS.
POTUS, SCOTUS and, for the Congress of the US, CO(I)TUS.
Oregoncharles
How about the "Hopelessness of hope"
I keep hoping someone will answer this call but no one ever does. Here goes ...
List all the things Obama has done for ordinary people. Presumably there are some or progressives wouldn't have voted for him. Clue me in.
Obama should tear a page out of LBJ's vote-getting manual and shame the heartless opponents.
He has neither the character nor the courage. His only gift is presentation.