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Technorati'Got Out and Make Me Do It'
President Barack Obama's address to Congress Wednesday night was not just a litany of policy prescriptions. It was a call to action.
His approach took a page out of President Franklin Roosevelt's playbook.
FDR once met with a group of activists who sought his support for bold legislation. He listened to their arguments for some time and then said, "You've convinced me. Now go out and make me do it."
Even in the middle of the Depression, Roosevelt understood that the more effectively people created a sense of urgency and crisis, the easier it would be for him to push for progressive legislation -- what we now call the New Deal. FDR used his bully pulpit, including radio addresses, to educate Americans about the problems the nation faced, to explain why the country needed bold action to address the crisis, and to urge them to make their voices heard.
Having a president who inspires people to act collectively on their own behalf can make a difference. It gives people hope and courage to defy obstacles.
In his speech, Obama, the one-time community organizer, gave health care reform activists the signal to accelerate their grassroots organizing campaign to push for a bold plan that includes a public option and requires insurance companies to act more responsibly.
Over the summer, especially during the August Congressional recess, an unholy alliance of insurance industry muscle, conservative Democrats' obfuscation, and right-wing mob tactics stole Obama's thunder and put his health reform plan at risk. In his speech, Obama grabbed the initiative back. His fighting words changed the tone and shifted the momentum.
But he now understands that winning a victory on health care reform will require more than good ideas and inside-the-Beltway maneuvering with Congress. It will require a mass movement with a moral message, voter mobilization, marches, prayer vigils, stories of everyday people damaged by insurance industry practices, testimony by doctors and nurses frustrated by the insurance companies' priorities of profits over patients, and media savvy.
Part of Obama's speech was meant to reassure Americans that he did, in fact, have a real plan to fix the insurance mess. The President provided more specifics about his plan than he has in the past, explaining its key components, its benefits for people whose insurance policies cost too much or don't provide the services they need, people who don't have any insurance, and businesses for whom health insurance costs are a significant burden.
But what was especially impressive about Obama's speech was its moral vision, his insistence that in a country as great as the United States, health care should not be a privilege. This is a responsibility of a decent society.
He read from a letter he had just received from the late Senator Ted Kennedy, who asked that it be delivered after his death. Kennedy wrote: "What we face is above all a moral issue; at stake are not just the details of policy but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country."
Moreover, Obama took aim at the right-wingers - the talk show fanatics, the tea-party mob who disrupted town meetings, and their allies in Congress - who have been spreading " bogus claims" and "whose only agenda is to kill reform at any cost."
These are the extremists who have been spreading fear and confusion by warning that Obama's "socialized medicine" plan would create "death panels," subsidize illegal immigrants, pay for abortions, and force people to drop their current insurance.
Obama did not mince words. He called their claims "a lie plain and simple." This was the first time that the President used the word "lie" to describe the disgusting distortions that the extremist echo chamber -- Glenn Beck, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Sen. Jim Demint (R-S.C.), Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Betsy McCaughey, RNC Chair Michael Steele, and their ilk - have been spreading.
He challenged the right-wingers' obsessive efforts to demonize all government action as stepping stones to socialism. Obama both defended government and acknowledged its limits.
"You see, our predecessors understood that government could not, and should not, solve every problem," he said. "They understood that there are instances when the gains in security from government action are not worth the added constraints on our freedom. But they also understood that the danger of too much government is matched by the perils of too little; that without the leavening hand of wise policy, markets can crash, monopolies can stifle competition, the vulnerable can be exploited."
Equally important, Obama finally took off the gloves and came out swinging against the insurance industry as the major obstacle to significant reform.
"As soon as I sign this bill, it will be against the law for insurance companies to drop your coverage when you get sick or water it down when you need it the most," Obama declared. "They will no longer be able to place some arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or in a lifetime. We will place a limit on how much you can be charged for out-of- pocket expenses, because in the United States of America, no one should go broke because they get sick. And insurance companies will be required to cover, with no extra charge, routine checkups and preventive care, like mammograms and colonoscopies."
Obama explained that a public option is needed to challenge the insurance companies' near-monopoly. And he did so by invoking the conservative principle of competition.
"My guiding principle is, and always has been, that consumers do better when there's choice and competition," Obama said, "That's how the market works."
He continued: "Unfortunately, in 34 states, 75 percent of the insurance market is controlled by five or fewer companies. In Alabama, almost 90 percent is controlled by just one company. And without competition, the price of insurance goes up and quality goes down. And it makes it easier for insurance companies to treat their customers badly -- by cherry-picking the healthiest individuals and trying to drop the sickest; by overcharging small businesses who have no leverage; and by jacking up rates."
Speaking to senior citizens whom right-wingers have tried to frighten by claiming that Obama's proposal would weaken Medicare, Obama said, "don't pay attention to those scary stories about how your benefits will be cut -- especially since some of the same folks who are spreading these tall tales have fought against Medicare in the past -- and just this year supported a budget that would essentially have turned Medicare into a privatized voucher program."
"The only thing this plan would eliminate," said the President, "is the hundreds of billions of dollars in waste and fraud, as well as unwarranted subsidies in Medicare that go to insurance companies -- subsidies that do everything to pad their profits, but don't improve the care of seniors."
No doubt the top executives of the major health insurance companies -- such as HealthNet, WellPoint, CIGNA, Aetna, United Health Care Group, and Humana -- were listening closely to Obama's speech. They've spent tens of millions of dollars on campaign contributions and lobbying to thwart Obama's plan. The President avoided attacking them personally, but chose instead to indict the system which they oversee.
"Insurance executives don't do this because they're bad people," Obama observed. "They do it because it's profitable. As one former insurance executive testified before Congress, insurance companies are not only encouraged to find reasons to drop the seriously ill, they are rewarded for it. All of this is in service of meeting what this former executive called 'Wall Street's relentless profit expectations.'"
"Now, I have no interest in putting insurance companies out of business," Obama said. "They provide a legitimate service and employ a lot of our friends and neighbors. I just want to hold them accountable. And the insurance reforms that I've already mentioned would do just that, but an additional step we can take to keep insurance companies honest is by making a not-for-profit public option available in the insurance exchange."
"The driving idea behind reform," Obama said, "has been to end insurance company abuses and make coverage available for those without it."
For those progressives worried that Obama's address would turn into a concession speech, abandoning his core values to pass any watered-down bill, the President proclaimed: " I will not back down on the basic principle that, if Americans can't find affordable coverage, we will provide you with a choice."
With those words, Obama issued a challenge to the American people and, in particular, to the activist organizations -- the labor unions, community groups, faith-based groups, seniors groups like AARP, netroots groups like MoveOn, Organizing for America (the group created by his campaign volunteers), and Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the key coalition spearheading the grassroots citizens campaign for health care reform. (People interested in having their voices heard should connect with HCAN).
Obama was letting them know that even the President of the United States can't reform the health insurance system on his own. To get Congress to adopt his plan - especially to get the conservative and centrist Democrats like Senators Max Baucus (Montana), Blanche Lincoln (Ark.), Kent Conrad (N.D.), Jeff Bingaman (N.M.), Ben Nelson (Neb.), Mary Landrieu (La.) and Evan Bayh (Indiana) - Obama needs an army of ground troops to join the battle. Only a grassroots movement can transform people's anger, frustrations and hopes into focused public action, creating a sense of urgency equal to the health insurance crisis facing the country.
"Now's the time to deliver on health care," Obama insisted.
Obama reminded the members of Congress that "a strong majority of Americans still favor a public insurance option of the sort I've proposed tonight." But Obama understands that powerful special interests - particularly the insurance industry - can offset public opinion unless the public is organized and mobilized.
Tonight, Obama was telling the American people that he shares their desire for bold health care reform, but he was asking for their help to change the political climate so Congress will respond to what most Americans - not the insurance lobbyists - want.
Echoing FDR, Obama was saying, "Go out and make me do it."
71 Comments so far
Show Allan Occidental prof praises an alumnus made good.
nothing new here.
The Right have no scruples or principles other than hating the Left which is why they are able to speak as one man.
The Left have so many scruples and are so principled that they are barely on speaking terms with one another and that is why they are unable to present a common front -and can also be played off against each other.
For a parody of that see the Monty Python movie "The Life of Brian" and the Judean People's Front. Or was that the People's Front of Judea?
Peter Dreier? More like Peter Dreamer. And yes I read the article. I listened to the whole speech too. Talk is cheap Obama, and your words are starting to be worth bargain-basement prices with us progressives after 8 months of punking us on almost every important issue. CAMPAIGN SPENDING LIMITS.
'Got Out and Make Me Do It'
___________________________
And PLEASE fix the typo in this headline; it's just one more irritant in an article that goes from the ridiculous to the sublime.
· Yr Obd't Servant
DID UP AND MADE ME BLEW IT!
Medicare for All. Everything else is bullshit.
Yep.
The fact that Sen Swine Baucus (and Obama and a host of others) haven't been pelted with broken bottles and rocks is a testament to the supine nature of our citizenry. I suspect if anything will ever rouse them, it will be attempts to collect the new tax they propose to pay for it.
Why any thinking person could continue to support Obama or any of the other thugs stealing from us when they maintain, with a straight face, that we shouldn't pay for health care (or food or shelter or jobs or education or environment or infrastructure) by adding to the deficit after they blithely (and in just two weeks or so) dump trillions on the banks--that is, money ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE greater than what they squeal about when the money will be used to help folks that aren't rich.
When the IRS comes to collect, there will be trouble.
But I may be underestimating the power of the misinformation machine. After all, there are grown people who say, and mean it: "Keep your government out of my Medicare." People who insist that babies must be born, no matter what, yet refuse to care one whit about them once they are here. People who feel right, in their hearts, that others should starve and be ill, ignorant and homeless whilst wars and bailouts and slavery and environmental destruction continue their breakneck acceleration--
The Orwellian doublethink line has truly been crossed. We are in unknown territory. Based on what I've seen, when these poor folks who can't pay the tax are hauled off to prison, others will sniff, feel it probably serves them right, and lament that their tax dollars are being spent to house the vermin...
But maybe I just need to go drink some coffee. And play with my navel. Or iPod...
Ur right.
"FDR once met with a group of activists who sought his support for bold legislation. He listened to their arguments for some time and then said, "You've convinced me. Now go out and make me do it."
Ha! Ha! Ha! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!
OMFG
E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics?
This panglossian drivel reads as if it were written by the C.D. Claptrap Dysfunctional Praiser of Poltroons.
Like Katrina vanden Heuvel and the fatuous Joan Walsh (Salon), the old-school moderate liberals remain dazzled by Obama's pirouettes whenever he prances down the runway.
No sensible person really expected Obama to snatch health care from the brink of its disastrous course by boldly putting forth single-payer-- or even the placebo "public option"-- as the mandatory centerpiece on the table.
No, instead Obama hammered a few more shiny nails into universal Amerikan health CARE's coffin, and pimped his No Insurer Left Behind scam.
It's very gratifying that the soft liberal crowd remains "half-full", but if they ever dry out, they're going to need REAL health care for their vicious hangovers.
· Yr Obd't Servant
Thank you sir. Well said!
Sad to see so many posters trying to shoot the messenger. The necessity for grassroots action is not limited to election time.
Budget time on a daily basis to effectively work toward documenting and advancing what you believe in - how do you think the opposition does it?
be the change you want to see - wasn't that Gandhi?
We are condemning the message THAT messenger is joyfully parading before us as the emperor's new clothes; transparent lies delivered by an obfuscating liar. And naming things as they are hasn't kept most of us from petitioning the government, seeking redress and educating and informing our fellow citizens about the only workable, sustainable solution that the 36 countries ahead of us have chosen, Universal Single Payer HEALTHCARE.
I don't think I have the stomach to read this, so I think I will just ask:
How the hell are we supposed to make him do what he is opposed to doing in the first place?
Trying to make Obama do anything is like making Bush do anything. Obama would sooner marginalize us and the issues and he has already demonstrated that, repeatedly, while he compromises with, panders to and caves to the Right. No one has his back because there is nothing to back. They will hate him no matter what he does and they sense he is weak and lacks an authentic commitment and for us not being Bush is not enough to rally around.
Anyone still believing this mantra of change crap is in denial.
Well said. Obama is doing one thing, he is mobilizing and invigorating the Right.
PRIMARY OBAMA OUT. He will lose to just about any RepukeliCon in the general election. I will bet good money the Black vote will stay home rather than vote for this corporatist shill.
Blacks still overwhelmingly support the guy, according to polls I saw a few weeks ago. I'm guessing they will back him all the way up to 12. It wouldn't give him enough votes to win, though, if everybody else turns on him. So far he's lost the gays, the left, the right, and with the economy slide, the indies. And that's not even factoring in health care yet or the fact that over 50% of Amerikans now believe Afghanistan is a mistake.
This situation is ripe for someone from the left to primary him. I'd love to see it, but the "left" are so fricking disorganized that I wonder if it would happen. Even then, Obfraud, the right, and the media would completely marginalize whoever it was.
The liberal imperialist blogs are not going to turn on him, though. Hamster, that twit Moulitsas, Talk Bereft Left, Americaslog, and all the rest of them are going to stand by their man. As it gets closer to 2012, these sites will just ban anybody who isn't in the Ob camp. They have too much to lose otherwise.
And it is also not factoring in the people that wrote to Change.org or the WhiteHouse.gov websites in the first 30 days of his administration when they were soliciting suggestions for what to change. The largest question by a large margin on both websites were versions of "When are you going to end the failed prohibition on cannibis sativa and indica? We want you to lead the way in getting it relegalized."
When it was broached at a news conference, the spokesperson played stupid and when Barry was asked about it at a town hall meeting he heh hehed the idea as ridiculous. He said he wasn't going to "waste his time" that way.
PRIMARY OBAMA OUT. He will lose to just about any RepukeliCon in the general election. I will bet good money the Black vote will stay home rather than vote for this corporatist shill.
Wow, alleviating the health anxiety of Americans through "competition" with the insurance companies. I feel so much better now...
If this herd of cats wants a new ship's captain in 2010, you had better start organizing instead of just complaining about him. But you're wasting your time if you think any President can go against the money-power and save us. http://ni4d.us/
We will have a Republican President in 2012 unless a miracle happens. This administration has managed to offend almost everyone and look inept doing it.
If Obama wants us to "make him do it" then why is he making sure that there will be a huge security cordon in Pittsburgh, backed by thousands of well-armed police in who's job will be to to make sure no one will be visible to ask him or his fellow elites to do anything?
"Make him do it"? What utter bullshit!
It sickens me to read crap like this "make him do it" shit. The man sailed into office with practically the entire country having his back and 2 houses of Congress Democratic controlled.
And he still pissed on everybody. He wants so badly to be playing with the ruling class. He's given the oligarchs more than even they themselves bargained for.
I think it's time for everybody to read Joe Bageant's piece from yesterday. Unless Amerikans hit the streets en masse, for days and weeks on end, NOTHING will change. Nothing. And we just don't have it in us to do that.
http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2009/09/americans-have-become-weak-and-fearful-things.html
And, near the end of the article Joe also wrote, "I don't think we have the reservoir of cultural, moral, spiritual and political strength to turn things around. Or even conceive of what can be, other than what we've seen."
And, sadly, I believe he is correct. One percent of the population at best may read websites like Common Dreams. One percent at best take the time to, or even HAVE the time to make themselves politically aware enough to understand our current state of affairs. 99% are apathetic, or are so tired from working two or three jobs just to try to stay afloat that they only have time to work, eat and sleep.
As Joe also said in the same article, and I agree, "If I still loved this country I would weep for it."
Well said!
How does this kind of cheer leading article for Obama's enrich- the-ins.-companies-scheme arrive here at CD, a progressive site--save it for "Move on" or some other brainwashing operation for the other corporation-allied party.
Giving these pigs more of our treasure and expecting them not to change their policies whenever they wish--is like giving the banksters the dough and expecting them to be accountable which they were not or ever will be.
How about CD making "Sicko" available in at least transcript form so we can see why America is entitled to a real health care system that would benefit all of us except those that have been robbing us for years. That would certainly help our progressive cause regarding health care.
0necaptjim
Well Said!
So, how about it CD editors? How about you post Sicko here, along with Farenheit 9-11, and Moore's latest capitalism is evil?
Will CD take on that challenge or continue to post drivel like this article supporting the O'wolf-in-sheeps-clothes?
Onecaptjim,
AMEN!!!!
Obama is an amazingly skillful salesman. He has the ability to not only make a person think he is only working for their wellbeing, but also to make a person think he is the very definition of integrity. A careful reading of the framing of this speech reveals otherwise.
Probably the closest thing to the true intent of this speech was revealed when Mr. Obama brought up the idea of single payer (which is not even on his most distant radar). In order for him to mention such an exteme concept he had to balance (dismiss) it with the most extreme right wing idea that people shouldn't be able to depend on businesses for insurance. Of course, he Only mentioned it to display the kinds of wacky thinking that are out there.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
$$$ The clearest signal that this "reform" is fraud will be if the Senate votes before the House.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
THAT will mean the democrats want to focus the blame on the progressives for not supporting a bill which, in reality, is designed to reinforce the corporate profits.
Yes, we do need to call our elected officials.
It's remarkable that credulous drivel like this should come from a "Distinguished Professor of Politics." Prof Dreier fell for every rhetorical trick in Obama's speech. Dreier apparently takes everything at face value. He's the type who probably believed that Democrats "really tried to stop the wars" during the Bush administration, just because Nancy Pelosi said they did.
That Dreier titled his piece "Go Out and Make Me Do It" reveals more than he realizes. This little FDR anecdote has been told a million times since the Inauguration. It's grown stale & wildly over-used by now, but Dreier hasn't even noticed. Anyone still comparing Obama to FDR is someone who doesn't understand either of them.
He's a "distinguished professor" at Occidental College. That probably means he's just been there the longest. I wouldn't give it too much more credibility than that.
Although I can't believe this website is finding it difficult to put up anti-Obama articles after that piece of shit speech last night. This site needs to start mining the Socialist and Commie websites. There is always great commentary at those places.
The best commentary I've seen comes from the World Socialist Website, www.wsws.org.
Here for example is their assessment of Obama's P.O.S. speech last night: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/sep2009/obam-s10.shtml.
---------------------------
Excerpt:
"...[Obama] went on to declare that his health care plan was essential to reining in the ballooning federal deficit and national debt. “Put simply,” he said, “our health care problem is our deficit problem. Nothing else comes close.”
This is a lie. It ignores the far greater role of the multi-trillion-dollar bailout of the banks, the hundreds of billions spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the half-trillion-dollar annual military budget in bankrupting the federal treasury...
...Obama’s most pronounced obeisance to corporate interests and his Republican opponents came in connection with his proposal for a government plan to compete with private insurers .... He stressed that such a plan would cover less than 5 percent of Americans and would receive no government subsidies. It would, he insisted, pose no threat to the insurance giants...
Nevertheless, Obama made clear that he was prepared to drop this proposal, which is bitterly opposed by the insurance companies...
To further assuage the Republicans, he declared that his plan would exclude so-called “illegal immigrants” and provide no funds for abortions. He went on to announce his support for Bush administration proposals to limit medical malpractice awards.
The pretense of Obama’s speech—that he was leveling with the American people—was itself fraudulent. In reality, the provisions of any health care overhaul are being worked out behind the scenes between health industry lobbyists and the politicians whose services they have purchased through campaign funds and other bribes...."
Re RichM September 10th, 2009 3:39 pm
"Tort reform" is another red herring that turns reality on its head. Killer drugs, misfiring pacemakers, gene therapy trials gone horribly wrong---these are examples of corporate torts, each of which is worthy of punitive damage awards as a deterrent. Big Pharma wants to be immunized against such assaults on its profits, but has to paint a picture of Kindly Old Doc beset by greed-crazed heirs and the trial bar vultures who follow the scent of carrion.
In reality, insurance companies in the case of Kindly Old Doc are more likely to settle, regardless of the merits of the claim, because it's just another cost of doing business which can be passed on to the consumer.
In the case of class action suits against device and drug makers, however, they fight like furies---that is, if they haven't been able to find a judge who's sympathetic to the problems of struggling corporations.
George Bush started the campaign vigorously in 2004 to bar lawsuits against pharmaceuticals. It's an issue near and dear to my hear because of what I suffered with Paxil. Here's one article I had bookmarked:
http://www.thinkandask.com/news/fdadruglaw.html
Last November those of us on PaxilProgress were awaiting the outcome of the Wyeth v. Levine case by the Supreme Court. It was a landmark case on Federal preemption, and had Wyeth won (which they didn't) it would have been pretty nearly impossible for any consumer to sue a pharmaceutical company or medical device manufacturer. Fortunately Wyeth lost. Here's one article on this case.
http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/105277/
Of course, the problem is that most lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies settle and the millions they settle for are "mere change," the drugs stay on the market and business goes on, the public never the wiser. So when I hear about tort reform I have very mixed feelings. You can't leave citizens out there with no redress. There is very little that is warm and fuzzy or good about BigPharma.
Well said!
"Now, I have no interest in putting insurance companies out of business," Obama said. "They provide a legitimate service ..." --
What service is that? Making sure that as little of our money as possible goes to actual medical treatment?
Health insurance companies are completely unnecessary, immoral, and a drain on our social and economic system.
That was the exact line that put me in a tizzy. Why wouldn't O want to remove the parasites from the process? Because he has a symbiotic relationship with them. No news there.
"Now, I have no interest in putting insurance companies out of business," Obama said. "They provide a legitimate service ...:
THAT was Obama's subliminal message. The Prez was saying, "Yo, insurance/pharma, make sure I do this reform thing right because I'm beginning to catch some shit from the left."
Mr. Drier has a hearing impairment.
Sorry, Mr. Drier, what you saw and heard was a slick marketing presentation filled with all the right buzz words. Obama's good at it but unlike yourself, many of us have caught on to him a long time ago. This "reform" plan will benefit one, and only one entity...the insurance industry!!!
Wake up, we need single payor, period.
Obama stated that the insurance industry provides a "legitimate service." Will someone please tell me what that is?
Providing cha ching to run political campaigns.....legit in the eyes of everyone in that chamber.
..."But they also understood that the danger of too much government is matched by the perils of too little; that without the leavening hand of wise policy, markets can crash, monopolies can stifle competition, the vulnerable can be exploited."
-----
Nice lip service there, Barry O...you lying Yuppie asshole. To wit: your setting up of markets to crash yet again from the lack of judicious regulation, the monopolies you've helped to create with the bank giveaways, and exploitation of the vulnerable by allowing lenders to continue to pillage homeowners. There's much more, including your non-reform health-care "reform" proposals.
"Make you do it"? What, didn't events last November provide such a mandate already? Most people thought so, even those who didn't vote for you. But you, Pelosi, and Baucus took single-payer off the table quicker than you could say "campaign contributions".
You're nought but an insurance, pharma, and MIC corporation whore, Barry. What should happen is we go out and make you leave office - yesterday.
And you, Mr. Dreier - don't suffer us the indignity of invoking the ghost of FDR vis-a-vis Barry O. He isn't worthy enough to clean FDR's spectacles.
We don't need to attempt to make Obama leave office.
Obama's repeated capitulations to the people who will never support him will result in the Democrats losing control of both houses of Congress in 2010, followed by the Republican-controlled Congress impeaching Obama in 2011.
That's sounds as likely as anything else, but I'd prefer not waiting so long or hoping that the Repigs will do it.
Okay Guys!
There's the Big Speech to get Big Mo!
What a failure. Nothing new. No Plan.
The House and Senate are lardered up with commitee plans.
Sounds like "trust me, free healthcare is in the mail".
Dreier is full of professorial drivel. He accepts the myth that Obama's plan is absolutely as far as progressive activism can reasonably go. He utterly ignores single-payer, even more than Obama does, and clings to the "public option" scam as if it's some huge concession to progressives. This is what we're expected to make him go and do? I'm sure FDR would be impressed with this tepid proposal of Obama's and we just have to realize it's all we're going to get from CEO Obama. Organize those prayer vigils! Glory halleluja, change has finally come, and it's called the Public Option!
If FDR had applied Obama's strategy, the New Deal would have never happened and FDR would have been a one term president rather than a four term president.
Had it not been for Huey Long, FDR might very well have caved like Obummer. He admitted (it's documented) that Social Security & the WPA were attempts "to steal Long's thunder".
That's the only reason FDR threw us the crumbs he did. Huey Long was originially a supporter of FDR but then threatened to run against him in 1936 after realizing that FDR's reforms were woefully inadequate. Long at that time was getting more mail every week than FDR. He was wildly popular among workers. He would have had huge numbers of the working class at his back. The Socialist and Communist parties had larger constituencies back then. The country was in turmoil and going down the toilet economically.
Social Security and the other FDR New Deal reforms were just that - they were reforms to an entrenched capitalist system in order to avoid a mass uprising and a push to the left.
Sounds like you're a student of Huey's too!
I found it quite interesting and significant that he was being damned by both the "liberal" and "conservative" wings of the Money Party even while he still lived. They surely were terrified by that man! Even 5 years after his (oh-so-convenient-for-FDR) murder, they were *still* villifying his memory, and indeed have never really stopped. Growing up in the '40s and '50s I never heard one good word about him. It was nothing but "dictator", "commie", "anti-democratic"...never one single word about the free textbooks to poor kids, abolishing the poll tax, breaking the grip of the plantation class, or pulling Louisiana into the twentieth century with roads, bridges, hospitals, and a decent public university. And not even a *whisper* about his "Share Our Wealth" program.
Contrast that with the drumbeat for FDR. Oh he saved us! He pulled us out of the Depression! He gave us Social Security! He gave us the WPA with all that neat artwork and sturdy construction. He helped unions get a foothold. No mention of how he let Morgenthau shift the income tax off the backs to the über-wealthy onto ours, or how he tried to sabotage Huey by manipulating federal monies and siccing the FBI on him, or how he violated Coughlin's First Amendment rights by illegally ordering his postal privileges revoked, or how his touted wealth-redistribution reforms after Huey's murder were all form and no substance.
Yass, FDR was a veritable saint and we should all keep a shrine to his memory, but that Huey Long character? ptui! ptui! Nothing but a would-be dictator.
Dr. Drier, is Obama's pig with the best lipstick rhetoric can buy your idea of what we are all supposed to be marching in the streets for? The public option on his plan is so small you need a microscope to see it! And even on this pathetic stump of an option, Obama signaled he is willing to negotiate on that!
The end result of his plan, which will probably pass, will be to force all of us who don't already have a tolerable employer plan to pay for jacked up insurance while the poorest of us only are allowed to have a premium-driven public option which is far too small to "keep the insurance companies honest." There will be a cap on how high payments can be, but guaranteed ordinary people will not be able to afford the insurance before the cap takes over.
I would gladly "go out and make him do it" for single-payer. This plan will just continue the suffering of American citizens until we finally do the right thing years from now and institute single-payer.
It's worse than that. It won't matter if your employer's plan is "tolerable" or not.
The plan announced by the Senate Finance Committee, run by Senator Baucus, calls for forcing you to buy your employer's plan, period. This is another gift to big corporations like WalMart who offer junk policies to their workers, many of whom choose to go with Medicaid, instead. But now they won't get to choose Medicaid; they'll have to buy whatever junk their rapacious employers offer.
That's my understanding as well. If your employer offers you an insurance plan and you don't take it, you will NOT be eligible for the public option.
I think having a public option will spur many employers to drop health insurance plans altogether. The problem with that is the public option will probably be crap even if it manages to corral in millions more people when employers opt out of offering anything.
We are truly screwed. Frankly, this whole FUBAR mess sounds worse than if McCain were in office. I don't think McCain would have even attempted anything this convoluted other than tax credits for those already insured.
And don't forget some of those plans are structured to make the employer money, or the underlings plan finances the gold plated plan for the owners and top management.
The public option, if triggered co-op, health exchanges (or similar nonsense) doesn't push it off the cliff, is likely to be a dumping ground for high-risk cases that the insurance companies don't want to insure anyway.
Just as the insurance industry was happy to allow the gov. to insure the over 65 crowd in 1965 Medicare legislation, the insurance industry will glaedly agree to a token public option that is limited to high risk cases.
Obama did make clear that the bill will criminalize individuals and businesses that refuse to submit to mandatory insurance company extortion.
Obama tells us that the "public option" will provide competition to the private insurance bandits and "keep them honest." But that would only be true if all of us were free to join the public option. Anyone who doesn't like a Ford can buy a Toyota, right? But in the Obama plan, if you don't like the insurance your boss provides, you're stuck with it. You can't simply switch to the public plan which, if Medicare is any guide, will be cheaper and will provide a wider range of doctors.
So when Obama talks about the Public Plan providing corrective competition, HE IS LYING. Unless public pressure can open the public option to everyone. But, considering who owns Congress and the Executive, that's not very likely, is it?
The insurance companies get 40 million new customers, and the talk about "competition to keep them honest" is, unless we can organize a gigantic campaign in a hurry, just propaganda.
A wonderful show of mass hypnotism and delusion. Medicare for all. Anything less, and the citizens have lost again. But, the messages get slicker and slicker, don't they?
Just imagine if those who worked for health insurance companies actually produced something of value for our country. Imagine what the BILLIONS of dollars paid to the CEO's alone would do. Folks, we are being brainwashed to swallow this bitter and unpalatable pill called reform. The reality seems to suggest, however, that we will be starting from scratch, very soon in the United States. A stake through the heart of the health insurance industry should top the list.
Dr. Dreier --a professor of political science?!?!-- seems not to have grasped that if Obama was really open to being "made" to do it, he'd never have appointed the people he appointed, starting with that Likudnik Emmanuel.
It's a con game, dishonest as hell. It's equivalent to the New Age nonsense about how you can live forever if you're just determined enough. If you die, then it's not a failure of the theory, it's a personal failure in you.
It stinks.
Political science, like most professions, rewards groupthink and alienates those who think outside the box.
Single payer..all else is BS.....
That's right...I'm a cynic....and proud of it!..What politician do you trust?
Watch that golden rhetoric..it'll suck you in everytime.
Actually, nationalization isn't b.s. Single payer is the compromise to nationalization.
I trust Dennis Kucinich and his fight for single-payer because all else is B.S....also!
During the campaign people were comparing Obama to FDR, JFK and MLK.
Once elected Obama appeared to be taking more of an LBJ guns and butter approach.
Now we know that Obama is all guns, butter for the top 2% and crumbs for the 98%.
By the time Obama gets impeached in 2011 or loses to Palin in 2012 we will be comparing him to Dubya.
Drier hasn't got a clue if he is still comparing Obama to FDR.
Obama will lose in 2012 but it won't be to Palin. The republicans will come up with a fresher face.
q
True.
You are talking like a 2-party believer. How about we get behind D.K. (Who is a TRUE PROGRESSIVE DEM) in your scenario or look to a third option?!
Hey, I'd vote Dem for Kucinich, but what are the odds the Dems would nominate him?
Remember that long list of Dems in the early primary? The front runners sold one issue after another to lobbyists for the money to defeat them.
We need an election that a poor man can win. That's some major campaign reform, and the only people who will vote in favor - outside of maybe 3 people in Congress - are private citizens in public referendums.
2010 and 2012 look like good years to at least start. Look how many people are currently unhappy about elections. It's not just the usual "nothing I do ever counts" or the Nader-Kucinich-McKinney progressive arc that's upset. A lot of Ron Paul folks would line up behind election reform, and we'd get a lot of disillusioned Dems, too.
We might even get support from individual Republicans outside the libertarian fold, many of whom imagine that the "liberal media" is out to get their "populist" fascists. They're hallucinating, but that won't keep them from the polls.
Instant runoff voting
Campaign finance reform
Single payer health care
Does anyone check these headlines before they're posted?
"'Now, I have no interest in putting insurance companies out of business,' Obama said. 'They provide a legitimate service and employ a lot of our friends and neighbors.'"
The same thing could be said about organized crime.
q
The same thing could have been said about slavery prior to the Civil War.
The author of this article is way off the mark. Examples:
1) If Obama was extending an invitation to "make me do it" he would not have allowed single-payer advocates to be excluded at the onset of the discussion, he would not have allowed Max Baucus to have single-payer advocates arrested, he would not continue to refuse to meet with single-payer advocates (Mad as Hell Doctors, for example)...
2) "Insurance executives thwarting Obama's plan" ? Although we still don't know what Obama's plan is, we DO KNOW that Obama keeps repeating alot of insurance/pharma cartel talking points like "we know that most Americans are happy with their insurance" and other B.S.
3) The AARP may be an activist organization, but its primary mission is promoting the insurance/pharma cartel's agenda.
Re raydelcamino September 10th, 2009 10:52 am, who begins,
"3) The AARP may be an activist organization..."
The AARP is basically a subsidiary of United Health/Oxford with a 501(c)(3) tax exemption.
The same is true of the Lewin Group, whose opinion polling, suggesting broad satisfaction as per your point 2), is often cited by town hall screamers as "independent" and "objective."
Astroturf, both of them, down to their polystyrene roots.