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White House Believes 'Liberal Angst' Over Healthcare Will Go Away
Better it is to be of humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.
- Proverbs 16: 18-19, the Bible
My Grandma Delphia used to quote that Bible verse. I wonder if other folks heard the same from their grandmothers. I am pretty sure some folks at the highest levels in our government either didn't trust or honor their grandmothers' teachings or they just flat don't think rules of common decency and our shared humanity apply.
Many of us knew in 2008 what the Republicans had in store for us in the area of healthcare reform, and we firmly and overwhelmingly rejected those plans. Instead we took seriously the threat that a John McCain presidency meant taxation of our healthcare benefits and other healthcare horrors, and we overwhelmingly rejected those ideas. We had great angst about the potential that anyone would look at the suffering embedded in the U.S. healthcare system and allow it to continue and even grow worse.
Our angst moved us in another direction at the polls. We were promised by the Democrats that no one with an income under $250,000 per year would have any increase in taxes at all to cover healthcare reform, and we were also heartened to hear Barack Obama state firmly and without hesitation that healthcare is a basic human right.
Whew. Finally, we had firm, clear promises that seemed grounded in progressive, fair-minded ideals and common sense along with the vision of our shared humanity. Healthcare as a human right would not only be on the radar, we thought, but it would serve as the benchmark for any reform under such a leader as Barack Obama - and those elected officials who supported him.
We let down our angst a bit too much it seems. For within a few short weeks of the start of the healthcare reform discussion, in March of 2009, President Obama signaled he might consider a health benefits tax to pay for reform.
Our angst was tickled. Many of us fought through the spring and summer to be heard. Though the tea party craziness garnered much media attention, others fought as hard and as passionately with little impact. The history of this healthcare reform struggle in 2009 and 2010 will be recorded by many with varied viewpoints and various degrees of accuracy. No need to replay all of those torturous details here
And by the time we reached Christmas Eve 2009, any reference to "healthcare reform" had been replaced by the more politically practical (so some must have thought) terms "health insurance reform," and all reference to healthcare as a basic human right had long since been squelched.
By Christmas, the House had passed its version of reform and the Senate managed its own. Gone were the visions of equal access to healthcare or equal treatment as patients. Gone were the visions of a United States where healthcare was accepted as a human right and where policy reflected the granting and protection of that right.
And certainly gone were the promises made upon which so much reliance occurred. I am sure this President and this Congress understand the legal concept of significant reliance. Americans worked hard and voted in huge numbers because of what was "sold" to them from both sides of the political aisle. That contract with voters has been breached.
We have some angst now. We have a lot more angst than this President and this Congress want to acknowledge. Hence the pride and the haughty spirits my grandmother might have noticed.
In an NPR story this week, White House aides and Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer summed it up: (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122366587)
White House aides believe a lot of the liberal angst about health care will go away once the president actually signs a bill. And to the extent that the Democrats have a problem motivating their core voters, they've got time to fix it.
"We're not overly concerned about these things, first and foremost because there isn't an election tomorrow, not an election the next day," says Dan Pfeiffer, White House communications director.
Our angst will not go away anytime soon.
When we see our paystubs and our tax returns reflect the collection of our hard-earned money for the huge bail-out of the for-profit, private insurance industry instead of for the guaranteed right to healthcare, we will feel angst. When we are forced to purchase the defective financial product sold to us as health insurance or face penalties or even criminal charges, we will feel angst.
When we continue to have trouble affording truly comprehensive health coverage that provides a single standard of high quality care for all, we will feel angst.
When we cannot see a doctor without paying a big co-pay or deductible, when we bury a child whose treatment was denied by the insurance company, when we avoid seeking care because we cannot afford our medicines, when our employers cut our benefits to avoid paying the excise tax, when the insurance company CEOs continue to earn mega-salaries, obscene bonuses and retire with huge golden parachutes funded by our tax subsidies, when thousands of our neighbors and friends still go bankrupt because their coverage just wasn't good enough to protect them - oh, we will feel angst.
I am sorry, Dan, this is an angst that is loaded down with intense human suffering. It isn't just political or ethical or intellectual bantering angst. It is very real human angst caused by those with prideful, haughty attitudes who cared little about promises made and the human right to healthcare so boldly proclaimed.
Oh, we will feel our angst. And we will act upon it in due time by making sure that we elect those who do support creating a nation where healthcare is truly guaranteed for all.
124 Comments so far
Show AllI suspect this will be the Democrats Waterloo. Obama increasingly appears to be the Tiger Woods of politics. He has offered up any orifice he can to his right wing corporate taskmasters.
Moral of the story: I won't be voting Democrat in 2010, 2012 or any other election year. I can hear all you third party mavens rising up in cheer. I suspect you won't be as happy when president Palin gets sworn in in 2013. That said, I see no reason to continue the fight against this corporate fascist tyranny. America will get her just deserts and there is little sense trying to stave off the inevitable.
President Palin in 2013. President Obama in 2010. All the Same.
Your powers of equivocation are lacking. Obama is a crap stain to be sure but he pales in comparison to that right wing whore.
"Your powers of equivocation"... lol.
Obama is just as disruptive as Palin.
yep!
When the Democrats call with their hands out, I say no. Your shameful record doesn't merit my support.
When the Republicans call, this independent voter tells them that if they want my support, they will have to put forward a credible plan. I've yet to see one.
When the third party candidates come around, I listen. But these folks are few and far between. And damn few of them have a clue.
So what's an angst-filled liberal to do?
This one isn't going away or throwing in the towel.
It's time to fight at the grass-roots level and demand accountability. Withhold financial support. Campaign against incumbents. Make noise. Start a movement.
Buck up!
The forces of corporate greed may be ahead in this race for America's soul right now, but if you throw up your hands and do nothing, you'll guarantee that they'll win.
Although most of the health care "reform" edicts won't take effect until 2014, the short term effects will work against stimulating the job market (the white house today announced that theyu need to improve their efforts at this).
Millions of boomers who have delayed their retirement due to the economic meltdown are now looking at the increse in health care costs resulting from Obamacare and determining that they must further delay their retirement, thereby reducing family wage job opportunities for young Americans.
Single-payer or even Medicare for 55 - 64 year olds would have given the job market a shot in the arm that no stimulus package could ever match. Not only does Obama not care about Americans' health, he doesn't care about jobs either.
Go away, indeed, Obama: Bush Shadow = Single-Betrayer! At least we can spell; that's Liberal ANGER!! Franklin, you've got nothing to fear but (our) "angst", itself!
Unfortunately, if history is any guide, the White House is correct in its calculations. When the Republicans present their latest boogeyman (or, in the case of Palin, "boogeywoman") in 2012, many of the progressives that are now screaming "never again" will swallow their anger and their principles and pull the lever for Obama.
Far too many people are locked into the iron-clad paradigm that third party candidate and independents "can't win," so they don't vote for them. And, of course, they can't win because people won't vote for them. It's as if everyone is waiting for somebody else to create a new political reality, without accepting that they may have to take the first step themselves.
Like the old Eagles song says, "Often times it happens that we live our lives in chains, and we never even know we have the key."
I disagree. At some point you have to admit defeat. When healthcare reform becomes an insurance industry feeding frenzy like auto insurance, you know your number is up. At some point you realize that delaying the inevitable works against you. Total collapse increasingly appears to be the only option at which point you stop voting. While I suspect total collapse will work in the corporate fascists favor, there is a glimmer of hope that people might wake up and do something about it. As it stands today, I have lost hope in our Democrat representatives. Modern Democrats are clearly in the pockets of big business. I'm not sure how many other people have come to this conclusion but I doubt I am alone.
Yea I agree with you lefty. I think we are headed to a collapse. The federal government has been completely corrupted by corporate money and is incapable of doing the peoples business. It will be interesting to see what will emerge from the ashes of our collapse. My guess is that it will be nothing to be proud of.
I feel I need to remind you that there are a small handful of decent democrats left in congress, but they are so few that they have very little effect on the majority. And that majority are totally corrupted by corporate money that can only be honestly described as bribery.
Tom,
I was under the delusion that the handful of Democrats you speak of would wield more power after the 08 elections. Instead, I see them further marginalized and the likes Pelosi held up as the Democrat mantle. Good luck with that.
It wont be business as usual. There are organizing capabilities that exist as never before. Obama used them, now the people have to use them. To the complainers above, I say, "Move On".
ok what's your plan?
Since third parties seem to be on everyone's minds here, and since that seems to dredge up that old bromide about supporting the Democratic candidate when the time comes because you "don't want to throw your vote away", just imagine this. What if, in 2000, you had voted for the intelligent, non-corporate whore candidate (Nader)? You got Bush anyway and you realize, if you've got a brain and paid attention to this administration, that Gore wouldn't have been significantly different. But you would have made it clear 8 years ago what Americans really wanted. Say 4 years later the Dem's were still so dense as to run John I'd-still-vote-for-the-Iraq-war Kerry and you abandoned him in huge numbers for... Nader, Kucinich, McKinney, whomever. By now you'd be much farther down the road to either taking over the Dem's or establishing a viable 3rd party. Instead you're still thinking short-term, worrying about a "Palin presidency". Who would do what?? Put Wall St. criminals in charge of the nation's finances? Continue 2 illegal, unexplainable wars in asia as she provokes a 3rd, 4th, maybe 5th? Give you a rancid "health care" reform? " Refuse to respond to the bank crisis with a WPA-style green energy project, instead, lavishing money on corrupt bankers? "But Guantanamo would still be open! And Bagram! And She wouldn't have repealed the Patriot Act!" LISTEN to yourself!!
I know we would be much farther down the road if I figured out earlier that the dems would have done the same as Bush. I'm a slow learner. Forgive me, but I've wised up now.
Rudyspeaks: Very powerful post. I recommend it to all those timid "lesser evilists" who invoke the Palin boogey-woman as a foil to demand the re-election of Obama. Your term "thinking short-term" is right on. When conservative voters stopped thinking short term when they supported "un-electable" candidates like Goldwater, they began a process of longer-term empowerment of conservative Republican government. Would that leftists had that much ability to withstand instant gratification in the interest of developing a leftist movement.
I just looked up the word 'angst' in my dictionary and it means what I hought it meant, 'anxiety.'
That's not what I feel in response to the poison pill the Dems are selling as reform.
Not anxiety. Not discomfort. Not that little twinge you get in the upper back when you have to stand in a long, long line to pay an over-priced utility bill.
What I feel ia anger. Red hot and flaming, with spears and arrows attached, anger.
The kind of anger that is inspirational, So that the next time the D-people call on the phone and want my time and my money, all they will hear is a click.
Used to be, I would give them a piece of my mind, think someone cared, soothe my ANGST, and then give them my efforts and my $$$.
I hope others have come past the ANGST stage and are inspired also.
ANGST goes nowhere. ANGER opens the door to transformation.
Yup, I agree completely. The fact that the author chose to use angst instead of anger shows the person really does not understand what is going on out here in the real world.
Oh, I understand. I used angst to reinforce the words of the WH wonk. My own life has been devastated by the healthcare crisis and bankruptcy and loss of home and much, much more. I get it... don't you worry about that.
Donna Smith, American SiCKO
Thanks for replying. Most authors that post directly here don't bother. My apologies for not knowing your situation. Sometimes it is difficult to understand an authors or posters situation from reading a single article or a post. I am seriously outraged that our government is going to force us to purchase the defective product that the health insurance industry sells. I guess due to my outrage I missed the subtlety you were trying to convey.
Fortunately by simple luck I have not had to deal with the pain that you have. I know this won't help you much, but I sincerely hope for you all the best in the future.
Take care
Tom
Thank you for being an outspoken advocate for all the people that face sickness in our communities. A lot of people are still insultated from the realities they face, some have no idea what is happening to them others are to embarassed to say anything and suffer in silence. Thank you.
"Angst" indeed is just German for "anxiety" in the same way "zeitgeist" just means "time-ghost". In other words, it meas a lot more than just "anxiety".
In English usage, "angst" means an unease that moves through and influences a society.
Iowapinko:
I got angry early. I never had any illusions but what we got was even worse than I expected. I did like you except that my callers didn't hear a click, they heard an earful of anger: about Obama, about the Blue Dogs, about the Senate. I think sometimes they hung up on me while I was too furiously answering their calls for more cash to notice if they were still there. But it was very therapeutic. And better, the calls tapered off.
I'm now doing the same with the mailings disguised as "questionaires"--as if they even look at our answers! I hope they give up on them, too; it would make my trash/recycling day a lot less hectic but until they do I'll answer and certainly not donate a postage stamp to return them.
I wish more people would do this. It sounds silly: are the grunts sending them out actually going to read/listen? Normally I'd say no, but this year I suspect that the sheer volume of anger or just silence might have some effect. Not on Obama, of course, but there must be many people slaving away listening to our answers and reading our irate responses to cause some ripple effect at HQ.
And have you noticed how many different Democratic campaign organisations there are nowadays?
Absolutely. The arrogance of the Obama hacks just infuriates me more.
The fire in the belly is becoming manifest.
Bush was 'over the top,' arrogantly corrupt and a majority of our fellow citzens reacted admirably, with what they believed was a vote for change.
Obama is corrupt too, even more insidiously because he has blatantly violated the social contract of democracy. We're not getting what we thought we were voting for. We got scammed once again, played for suckers, this time it seems especially excruciating because so much is 'on the line.'
Yes peole will die. Already have and many more to go. Greed is lethal, it has taken mostly 3rd world victims so far, maybe we are becoming 3rd world compatriots sooner than we thought.
VIOLENCE IS NOT THE RIGHT RESPONSE.
Any violent reaction on the part of our fledgling left will open the door to fascism in a split nanno-second. They'd love it, it would immediately shift public sentiment to their side, so much so that it wouldn't surprise me if they instigated an event themselves.
The corporate D's have over-played their hand. They've allowed people to see what's behind the curtain of power. It's our role to guide people to understand the malevolence they see behind that curtain and to believe that we can work together to replace it with good.
That's a whole lot more work and a lot less fun than fantasizing about armed revolt. We're all much too acculturated with the super-hero paradigm. It will lead us astray.
Don't ever foget our strengths. We have the truth. We still, miraculously, albeit with strings attached, have the vote.
Don't ever forget, they have the tools of death and violence. If the struggle ever shifts into that context we will lose.
Anger in response to what is happening is our key to real transfrmation. And right now, it is manifesting broadly.
It will be the challenge of our lives to work to channel that anger into legitimate social justice and the kind of world that affirms all people. Better eat your veggies and get plenty of rest people. We have lots to do.
Unfortunately "NPR story this week, White House aides and Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer summed it up: (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122366587)" is no longer available.
Hmmm...
Gary
Curious. I was just able to pull it. Your Internet access provider may be blocking it.
Opps, left one of the parentheses on the url. My boo-boo. It works and thanks for the article.
Of course NPR still doesn't get it. From the article:
>>Why all this frustration from inside the president's own ranks? Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York has a theory.
"Despite the fact that the president wages an aspirational and ideological campaign, he's turned out to be a very transactional president, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. You have to make deals to get legislation passed," Weiner says. "But the problem is that many people in Congress don't know what he believes about some of the big issues we are considering."
And that's ironic, Weiner says, considering President Obama has made more progress toward the Democrats' cherished goal of universal health coverage than any other Democratic president in a century. In what Weiner says should have been an unvarnished win for Democrats, Obama has actually lost support from his base.
"[It] may be it's because their expectations are too high, but it could also be the president hasn't shown them the type of fight that they would like to see," Weiner says.<<
What fight? He turned over a let them butt-fu(k him.
Gary
Unless of course your latte is underwater from melting ice caps.
Unless wars for resources continue to grow worse as population explodes and the wars now gathering on the Mexican border continue to spread into liberal la la land, and conservative rapture.
Unless of course China and our other creditors shut off the money flow and let us starve to death, as they did North Korea just ten years ago.
Unless the air you breath and the water you drink become so poisonous, your latte kills you.
Unless the population continues to grow at three people per second and you end up living in a cardboard tent, governed by feudal thugs.
Unless some disease spreads and your town can't afford healthcare, and you all die.
Obama has to live in this society too, as do the member of Congress. At this point I think they are all suicidally depressed.
I for one won't get punked again. I never expected wonders out of Obama but I really did not believe he would be this bad. He has gone back on his word on so many things so quickly that it has been pretty stunning even to a cynic like me. I see no substantial difference between the two parties of the oligarchs, so why bother voting for either.
If Palin does run and win in the next election, there really won't be much to worry about, the current policies will simply be continued, but at least she'll be entertaining as hell as she verbally bungles her way around the planet. Plus an idiot like her will be the perfect leader to rein over the final collapse of the country of idiots the United States has become.
Can you imagine Palin "doin' that negotiatin' thing" face to face with other world leaders, say, Putin, for example, or Netanyahu? She'll just wink at them and everything will be okay. You betcha!
Maybe if she does a Monica? She does have a sexy mouth.
Gary
It doesn't matter at this point.
People can not afford health care in the USA and they are dying. This new plan from Obama and the Dems will just make it worse.
The environment is trashed. Wars rage for resource and the country is bankrupt financially.
These are realities for all of us, including Obama, and the Democrats and Republican in office.
All they are doing is prolonging the causes of destruction.
But the ice caps are melting. People are dying without health care. Wars get worse as resources diminish.
Obama and his family have to live on this planet in this society that they helped to create. Short term profits, short term pride, will lead them to the same society as you and I.
What happens next is anyone's guess. But if history repeats itself, I'd say look for a Russian style mafia society, only with better weapons.
queerplanet: "Obama and his family have to live on this planet in this society that they helped to create." NO THEY DON'T - They are Overseer Class and Master always takes care of his faithful Overseers. They look at you and your children as a piece of meat, profit on the hoof like cattle standing cheek by jowl up to their fetlocks in cow shit and mud - waiting to be thrown into the grinding vat. THEY WANT US DEAD. It's called Demographic Collapse. "History doesn't repeat itself" the MAsters simply do what they did in Russia over here (for the same reasons) - like Larry Summers set up in Russia back in '93 - no health care, no jobs, no pensions, no savings, homeless elderly, and life expectancy for males - 47 years (and glad to be dead). They aren't kidding and they are going to take no prisoners - total economic collapse followed by demographic collapse. Can't have demographic collapse if you provide health care for the 'cattle' can you? That is the battle we are in - Life or Death, Winner takes all. Sound familiar? We're not in Kansas anymore Toto.
Progressives, get over your corporate stockholm syndrome and do this
I have seen and spoke to a lot of well meaning Democrats wanting to make change in Washington and they issue petitions that do not include a boycott of the friends of those who would block progressive action and legislation. Such Democrats unnecessarily tie their left hand behind their backs. I urge people to consider boycotting the friends of those conservatives in congress in order to force them to sit up and take notice and capitulate to our demands. In our country money appears an important factor in getting action done. We need to go on a purchasing strike against the friends of regressives in order to force them to cooperate with us. It appears peaceful and legal in an atmosphere of legalized bribery in congress. We need to take back control over our purchases and how the profits get spent especially how they get used for legalized bribery in congress.
If you don't like a particular TV program, you call their sponsors and tell them you will boycott them until the program either goes off the air or changes to your liking. This works similar with political parties, politicians and their sponsors (campaign contributors).
Go here to bust the conservative power from both parties in congress
http://liberal.posterous.com/the-liberal-democratic-party-of-the-united-st-1
If you have a blog please post this on your blog. I want to get at least 100,000 people to sign these petitions, the first two which you can demand single payer health care and a fix to the Medicare prescription drug benefit
http://bit.ly/public_option
http://bit.ly/drug_benefit
http://bit.ly/traitorjoe
http://bit.ly/single_payer
http://bit.ly/single_payer_baucus
http://bit.ly/single_payer_california
http://bit.ly/EFCA
http://bit.ly/10_an_hour_min_wage
http://bit.ly/women_freedom_of_choice_act
http://endthewars.democratz.org
Those guys in the White House don't know what they're talking about. People aren't angst ridden, they're fucking pissed off.
It would have been one thing if Obama had fought like hell for at least ONE GODDAMN THING progressives wanted in this bill, and then lost.
It's quite another to have been betrayed from the get go, and then attacked when we registered legitimate complaints about this horrible bill.
Progressives in my congressional district are already talking about organizing a boycott of the 2010 election, where a long standing democrat has a viable GOP opponent for the first time in many years. We're going to stay at home, or leave that box blank.
It's the White House, the DNC and the DLC that's going to be experiencing some "angst."
Obama is taking the same path as Clinton which means governing from the right to win the basically conservative independent voters while losing only a very small number of more liberal voters knowing that within the limits of a two party system many disenchanted voters will have no other place to go. They believe that America is much more right wing than liberals think it is.
Obama makes Clinton look like Karl Marx.
Or maybe Chico.
I would like to see Daddy Long Legs appear at his next press conference in a dirty trench coat, crushed top hat and curly blond Shirley Temple wig. He will answer each question with a maniacal grin on his face and the use of an Indian taxi horn. One beep for yes, two beeps for no and three beeps for "fuck you".
A several months ago I sent the following email to Frank Lautenberg, Robert Menendez, Bernie Sanders, and Pat Leahy. I know, that sounds like preaching to the choir, but my reasoning was that they have a voice line to the White House through which to convey some public sentiment of dissatisfaction. In the most recent election, to test my determination, I have decided not to vote for Corzine here in NJ. I originally though of going Socialist, but I believe that the Independent Daggett is the better choice. He could possibly win. As far as the Republicans are concerned, Christie is your typical shallow, self serving, self possessed, " couldn’t care a wit for my fellow citizens and or humanity in general" fraud ( I sincerely believe that uppermost in any Republican politician’s mind is "How much money can I make from this?"). These US are in dire need of a third party.
----------------------------
I have voted in every national election since I was old enough to do so, 46 years ago. The times I have voted for a Republican can be counted on one hand, actually on one finger – Christy Todd Whitman. I have always considered the Democrats the lesser of two evils. The only two presidential candidates I have gladly voted for were Jimmy Carter and Barak Obama. If there is no public option in the final health plan, I will never again vote for a candidate of either of the two major parties. As I consider it a civic duty to vote, I will vote only for third party candidates.
At this point there isn't much left to save. Carbon based energy sources will dwindle within the next few decades (except coal which may have a couple of hundred years left but like nuclear waste is quite filthy) , carbon dioxide pollution will continue - we are already passed the 380 ppm CO2 level, global warming will accelerate, and the US economic and cultural dominance of the world will disintegrate. The complete waste of the wealth of this nation will continue with funds being poured into wars and production of war machines, into a totally corrupt health care system, and into the kleptocratic corporate beast. Quality of life will only exist in ones memory. This is Obama's big test. If his administration fails at the US health system overhaul, his presidency will be a failure as will the performance of his political party.
When the two major political parties start winning elections in the low 40's percentile range, the electoral system might go through a change. The process is skewed to a two party system, and it clearly doesn't work.
richsmith2 - Very polite. Very civilized. In another 'age' perhaps effective. They now however have flunkies who delete those emails all day long, add the numbers, then throw the numbers away after they get the next corporate check. Get over it. All they understand is FEAR. Are you prepared to make them AFRAID, like we're afraid? Are you prepared to make them SCREAM in pain as we scream? We don't put down a rabid dog because it's guilty. Do we.
This is Obama's big test. If his administration fails at the US health system overhaul, his presidency will be a failure as will the performance of his political party.
Daddy Long Legs' presidency is already a failure and a grand one at that. George Wanker Bush was not the only Best Friend of Failure. The Democrats dipped their bread in that gravy a long time ago.
where is "Audacity of Hope"?
In co-opting the word.
I think after Obama we now know why "hope" was one of the things that the Greeks kept locked up in Pandoras box...
It was replaced with the audacity of BS.
where is "Audacity of Hope"?
Six feet under!
Audacity of Hope was a typo. It was supposed to read the Mendacity of Hope.