Patterico's Pontifications

8/16/2009

Is Obama Caving on the “Public Option”?

Filed under: Dog Trainer,Obama — Patterico @ 12:45 pm



The AP reports:

Bowing to Republican pressure, President Barack Obama’s administration signaled today it is ready to abandon the idea of giving Americans the option of government-run insurance as part of a new health care system.

Facing mounting opposition to the overhaul, administration officials left open the chance for a compromise with Republicans that would include health insurance cooperatives instead of a government-run plan. Such a concession probably would enrage Obama’s liberal supporters but could deliver a much-needed victory on a top domestic priority opposed by GOP lawmakers.

Officials from both political parties reached across the aisle in an effort to find compromises on proposals they left behind when they returned to their districts for an August recess. Obama had sought the government to run a health insurance organization to help cover the nation’s almost 50 million uninsured, but he never made it a deal breaker in a broad set of ideas that has Republicans unified in opposition.

You know, it doesn’t really matter that Republicans are unified in opposition. It matters that Democrats are not. But I’m willing to let the GOP take the “blame” if it kills the public “option” — which would inevitably result in government-run health care.

81 Responses to “Is Obama Caving on the “Public Option”?”

  1. The Obama Administration just can not tell the truth about anything. The Government Option is dead because the public doesn’t want the unaccountable bureaucrat counting the pills and playing doctor.

    PCD (02f8c1)

  2. Hahahahahahaha…

    I saw this thing on the CNN ticker this morning, and couldn’t help but laugh – the Democrats really are a pathetic bunch.

    One term. You can’t get away with promising everything Obama’s promised and not delivering on a single word of it.

    Leviticus (f565c1)

  3. Beware. The coops are dangerous too.

    bio mom (6eac50)

  4. That said, the vast majority of conservative arguments against government-run health care (that I’ve seen, anyway) have been… how do I say it… dense.

    Leviticus (f565c1)

  5. Sure, he’s caving…and replacing it with co-ops, which is a Fannie Freddie private/public mutant concoction.

    What could go wrong? (see financial collapse of 2008)

    Patricia (29a01d)

  6. If Obama changes the rules of the road for the insurance industry and forces them into guaranteed issue and community rating, with the tradeoff being an individual mandate, why is there a need for coops at all unless he is so worried that private insurers will find the revised rules so onerous they will abandon the market? He’s still not telling the truth about his goals.

    daleyrocks (718861)

  7. As I’ve said in the past, the first run of the ‘health care’ bill was obscenely over the top in ambiguity and complexity and would be very difficult to pass.

    This may have been for a reason. That reason is that if you try something obscene at first, the public will tire of the argument and feel victorious when the watered-down version of the bill is passed.

    Unless, of course, the administration wanted to pass the watered-down version to begin with.

    I have zero confidence that this administration is interested in any improvement in health care, and have absolute confidence that they are only interested in gaining control of health care spending for the express purpose of allocating it to politically favored associates.

    Real improvements to health care will occur proportionately with a reduction in power for the elected officials, and those bureaucrats will fight that reduction with everything they have, because getting in the way is all they have.

    Apogee (e2dc9b)

  8. Kent Conrad told more of the story today than did Sebilius for the Administration. Conrad said simply that there are not enough votes in the Senate for the public option — and there never have been.

    What makes that statement even more meaningful is when you consider the fact that the Senate leadership had set it up to take the overhaul through budget reconciliation, meaning it could be passed with 51 votes over GOP opposition. Schumer was threatening this just a week or so ago if the public option could not get included in a bill with 60 committed votes.

    What that means to me is that the public option not only doesn’t have 60 votes, it doesn’t have 51 votes in the Senate — or that there were at least 10 Dem. senators who were not willing to jam through a public option under reconciliation. Robert Byrd has already said he would not support pushing it through that way.

    Obama is going to do what Clinton didn’t do — he’s going to approach this incrementally, taking whatever he can get in a bill that will pass without too much controversy, and then declaring victory in order to protect vulnerable congressmen. After the 2010 mid-terms are past, they’ll go a little further, but without trying for the public option.

    Then, if he’s re-elected in 2012 and still has majorities in the House and Senate, they’ll go for everything in the first 6 months rather than let it drag out to the end of the summer. Most of the ground work will have been done behind the scenes and it’ll be shoved through before the opposition can get vocal again.

    Assuming he’s re-elected and the Dems maintain control of the Congress.

    Shipwreckedcrew (7f73f0)

  9. Why wouldn’t the American public buy a Kervorkiancare package that was over a 1,000 pages long that a lawyer couldn’t understand?

    -Was it Obama’s unending lies?

    -The use of the IRS to enforce a medical program?

    -The spectre of Barney Frank determining your healthcare?

    -The death panels for bread goblers?

    -The image of the UK’s famous healthcare system?

    -The knowledge that pets get better care in Canada than people?

    -Healthcare for 25 million illegals but there will be no taxes?

    -The huge taxes for all?

    -The fact that Congress exempts itself.

    -Obama’s acknowledgement that it will work just like the Post Office?

    -The undead’s support of the plan?

    -The use of Gestapo tactics to deal with Americans?

    Lets face it, it was probably the realization that Obama’s corrupt posse was trying to loot the country and turn it into Haiti.

    Thomas Jackson (8ffd46)

  10. It doesn’t really matter whether or not Obama gets the public option in the 2009 health care plan. He knows full well that he just needs to pass something so that his media acolytes can write the stories about how he has brought hope and change to the health insurance industry. Once the public gets used to the Federal Government making all the decisions in health care, they can always come back and add the public option in 2011 or 2013.

    JVW (111cb0)

  11. One of the greatest thread titles I’ve ever seen over at Moonbat Central:

    http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/562/kosobus.jpg

    Even the kool-aid drinkers are starting to figure this guy out.

    harkin (f92f52)

  12. But I’m willing to let the GOP take the “blame” if it kills the public “option” — which would inevitably result in government-run health care. The United States already has government run healthcare. Medicare is government run healthcare. So is the VA.

    DCSCA (9d1bb3)

  13. If any of you read that link I posted on another thread, you know this bill is intentionally obtuse. The purpose is to put in place a set of vague mandates that bureaucrats will fill in with policies that would never pass Congress. It is worse then a pig in a poke; it is a poke that has a Tasmanian devil in it disguised as a pig. Anything these crooks pass will be a disaster.

    Leviticus, you might read some posts on my blog about policies that would be far better. Some of them are in Republican proposals, like the ability to buy insurance that guarantees lifetime insurance for subsequent chronic diseases. The same thing already exists with disability clauses in life insurance now so it is not some pie-in-the-sky idea. One thing all these proposals from the right have in common is personal responsibility.

    That is to Democrats like garlic to vampires.

    MIke K (addb13)

  14. If, as Conrad says, there never was support for a pulic option, then the thrashing they took over it was politically stupid. Add to that the thrashing over cap and trade. Amnesty ought to be coup d grace.

    lonetown (d7ec3b)

  15. More evidence of the inept administration that is Obama’s.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  16. Victor Davis Hanson said it well over at NRO:

    Ironies abound in the health-care debate. Bush was pilloried by the Obamanians for (1) not planning for the postwar occupation of Iraq; and (2) not being able to articulate the ends and means of the administration’s war. Yet in the hubris of high ratings, Obama apparently felt that he neither had to present a comprehensive finished blueprint of health-care reform, nor that he or his associates should have to sum it up succinctly and clearly. The result is that most Americans not only do not know what the administration plan is, but sense that their president does not either.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  17. Someone, anyone, show me the BHO proposal. The guy’s hands are cleaner than Michael Corleone’s ever were.

    Dude has brilliantly set-up for getting a huge chunk of the Dems’ wet dream of nationalized health care. How many Elephants have you heard say something to this effect: “The system isn’t all that broken,. We can find a way to get the un/under insured on the rolls.”? Such quotes were unimaginable even two years ago.

    Ed from SFV (c4544e)

  18. “Bowing to Republican pressure” ? WTF ?

    Nice try AP. What in the hell do they think all these protesters at town hall meetings were doing ?

    Republican pressure ? Try GRASSROOTS pressure.

    Idiots.

    DaveinPhoenix (2cbb1e)

  19. what is the “more moderate” position here, if the public option isn’t included?

    If we assume that President Obama’s goal is that all Americans are to be covered by some form of health insurance, what choices are there other than either the public option (in whatever form it takes) along side of private insurance, or a single-payer system?

    Most Americans are covered by health insurance through their employers; the ones who are not covered by health insurance generally fall into four categories:

    1. Those employed by businesses too small to offer health insurance;
    2. Those self-employed who cannot afford to pay the full ride for insurance;
    3. Those who could be covered by employer-assisted health insurance but choose not to buy it; or
    4. Those who are not employed.

    The people in the third category could (probably) be forced to buy health insurance, but that’s the easiest group with which to deal, though, even there, some would be people who simply couldn’t afford the $60 a week or whatever it cost them to participate in an employer-provided plan.

    The other three groups present far more problems. To force businesses in the first group to provide health insurance is to change the dynamics of their businesses; they will have to charge more for their products to continue to make a profit. If they do charge more, such impacts on how successful their businesses are, and some will surely go under, leaving more people unemployed. The second and fourth groups don’t have the money, period, and no employer to subsidize their health insurance; without some sort of public option, there really is no way to cover them without some form of public assistance.

    Relatively few of the people without some form of health insurance are actually able to afford it; if we find some way of covering those who are not currently insured, it will certainly involve those of us who are able to afford insurance having to shell out a little bit more to cover those who cannot.

    The economist Dana (474dfc)

  20. Super cache sucks.

    daleyrocks (718861)

  21. Your list leaves out those who are covered by existing government insurance but are too clueless to enroll and those who are in the country illegally.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  22. Shipwreckedcrew wrore:

    Assuming he’s re-elected and the Dems maintain control of the Congress.

    Well, that’s just it. The Democrats have remembered becoming a Shipwreckedcrew themselves, in the 1994 election, after President Clinton tried to ram through a government takeover of health care, one that was different in some details, but practically very similar to the more moderate plans that are on the table now. The Democrats in Congress are far more concerned with being able to retain their own Congressional health care coverage, by remaining in Congress, than they have ever been about providing health care coverage to everyone else.

    When health care reform was very popular, following the election of Barack Hussein Obama, the Democrats were all gung-ho for it. With the Obama Resistance increasing opposition to this socialistic plan, the Democrats in Congress are losing some of their gung-honess.

    The political Dana (474dfc)

  23. Daleyrocks,

    Re supercache, I get around it by going to Internet Options on Windows Explorer and doing “Delete All”. It’s a pain in the neck because I have to do it after every second visit here but when you just cannot wait to see what PCD wrote …. 😉

    nk (544046)

  24. the Democrats in Congress are losing some of their gung-honess

    Fue tu intencion posiblemente a escribir their cojones?

    nk (544046)

  25. No way they are actually abandoning this — they must be calling it something different is all. You know, like renaming the war an “overseas contingency operation.”

    This is a sucker punch in the making. So what’s the new euphemism?

    Federal Dog (2db423)

  26. Yesterday, if you opposed the public option, you were a racist. Today, if you oppose the public option, you are a main steam Democrat.

    perfect sense (0922fa)

  27. Check out this interesting post from Powerline. If true — and I have never been big on the idea that polls accurately reflect public sentiment — then Obamacare is an even bigger albatross than I had realized and this President’s ability to convince a skeptical public is not as impressive as we were led to believe.

    JVW (111cb0)

  28. This is a headfake, nothing less. They’ll still try to cram something down our throats. We need to stay on them until the mid-terms so we can clean out the dem trash.

    And how is it “Republican pressure” when they have a super-majority in both houses?

    Houston Native (bdabea)

  29. The co-op would still be a disaster, and ultimately force single payer. Not to mention I would assume that the mandates on insurance companies all the way down to price controls would still be in there, and also the individual mandate forced upon all of us. Even if the public option isn’t in the final bill, it will become inevitable if anything like the rest of the bill passes.

    At the same time, fortunately, none of this takes effect until 2013, and hopefully we can get the monstrosity repealed in its entirety.

    Andy (0d5f50)

  30. What I want to know about is the mandatory enforcement mechanism. How will it work when we can’t even enforce our employment eligibility laws?

    hortense (aka horace) (56e183)

  31. Kevorkian Care and ObamaTards is my great contribution to this debate.

    HeavenSent (01a566)

  32. Public Option is scratched and Rhinos will now feel they can get together with these dirt bags and come up with some form of Health Care. The bottom line as long as we have weasels like Lindsey Graham and his yellow bellied sap sucking fellow wimps we will still get it in the butt.

    Edward Cropper (d819e6)

  33. NK,Obama es loco en la cabesa.

    PCD (a5b027)

  34. perfect sense sort of captured it perfectly I think…

    my question is what do the S.E.I.U. fascists think about the view from under the bus then?

    Lindsey Graham is getting frantic for an anal warts vaccine is the deal I think.

    Speaking of faeries. I haven’t the slightest idea what in the blue faerie’s name an insurance co-op is. It sounds awful gay.

    happyfeet (d8cd81)

  35. yes. Houston Native I agree with too. They’ll get up to all sorts of fascist toolery in conference. Pelosi and Reid already promised as much and the nutless hood rat will just stand by smilin and pimpin dead grandma like da details is none hid bidness.

    He’s gonna have to let M’chelle out of hiding at some point though. She must be getting awful ripe.

    happyfeet (d8cd81)

  36. I wonder who said Kervorkian care first. I said it days ago.

    PCD (a5b027)

  37. Until they get the lawyers out of the american health care system, reform is a pipe dream. Sorry, the lawyers have gotta go.

    james conrad (6bb6e6)

  38. This could be a “fake” meant only to get past the August recess, and take some pressure off the Senate Finance Committee Dems.

    THey can now pass out a bill without a public option, and maybe garner a couple of GOP votes from the RINOs.

    The House bill will be whatever Pelosi decides it will be, and they’ll twist enough arms to get it passed out of the House with 1 or 2 votes, with the most vulnerable Dems given a pass to vote against it.

    Then, the Conference will include nothing but far left-wing wackos, with Ted Kennedy leading the way for the Dems in the Senate in his last official act before stepping down. The conference committee bill will be almost completely the version passed by the House, and will include a public option. At that point the Dems can turn it into a “Reform v. Status Quo” debate – an “Us v. Them” contest. They likely think the political standing of Obama is more than enough to swamp GOP opposition, and they’ll be able to jam it through by one or two votes in the House, and one vote in the Senate.

    Shipwreckedcrew (7f73f0)

  39. I think. Here is what I think. I think you can draw a straight line from Sarah Palin’s Facebook page to today’s frantic and incoherent retreat by Barack Obama and his dirty socialists away from what for all its many duplicities was a fairly forthright advocacy of a collectivist defilement of our health care system.

    It’s a rout. Good on Governor Palin I think.

    But it doesn’t signal dirty socialist defeat, it signals that to get the health care system they want the dirty socialists are prepared to go far beyond the sort of dishonest messages and stratagems we’ve seen to foisting their redistributive nightmare on our little country in conference with no pretense whatsoever of having a debate about any of the particulars.

    It’s the last days of our little republic I think.

    That’s kind of sad if you think about it.

    happyfeet (d8cd81)


  40. The Special Interest lobbyists are spending $millions, spilling their lies to the American people. So many lies that they have likely disrupted any chance of Universal health care. They have lied so much about the Canada system, and paid off so many people to give birth to their lies, that the gullible population believes them. The wealthy insurers want no change, so they can ring every dollar out of a system.wrought with fraud and corruption In the long run cost will explode and only the upper class will have the money to buy care. Lose your job and even those people will join the millions out of work unble to pay for medical care for their family.
    The Status Quo are selling propaganda and downright lies, across the TV, radio bandwidths. LIES! Lies and more lies about both Health care and illegal immigration. The facts are that President Obama has an objective of introducing a Canadian and European type single payer system.

    In truth it’s like a nationwide–MEDICARE–like all senior citizens receive now. It’s only difference their will be–NO CO-PAYS, DEDUCTIONS, NO PREMIUMS AND NO PRE -EXISTING CONDITIONS. The Special interest lobbyists, who work for the wealthy health care industry, are using every means possible to derail any kind of Universal health care. We must remember the British/English, French, German, Danish and other have been well accepted by their population for decades, with no worries about bankruptcy or Debt collectors calling. My health care in England, was first class when I lived in there, without financial worries and no distractions from profiteering insurance companies.As a child and a young man I choose my doctor and received eye and dentistry visits free of charges.

    I NEVER HAD TO WAIT FOR A SURGERY FOR MONTHS, AS THE SPECIAL INTEREST LOBBY TRIES TO IMPLY? EMERGENCY PROCEDURES WERE DEALT WITH IMMEDIATELY. One should remember that there a large majority of nefarious special interest groups, who enjoy the status quo and will fight with propaganda and lies against their profiteering. Another place where I lived was Australia, where the health care system is equally as great as England. One year I was employed by Australian Main Roads as a junior surveyor and stepped into a fire ants nest, ending up in hospital. Once again my cost was–ZERO–because I paid into the system. There is something very calming, without the worry of billing statements pouring through the mailbox demanding money and threatening you with an attorney.

    Since the inception of the European common market and the directive of open borders for cheap labor pouring into the industrialized nations, they have been overwhelmed by the impoverished needing health care. Such conditions didn’t exist before the 1960’s, as the their was no mass immigration and waiting periods. In America today and since the newest waves of legal and illegal immigration, costs to medicate these people have sky rocketed who have never paid one penny into the system. Each previous government never have restricted immigration, but allowed taxpayers to pay for their health care and welfare benefits. Each year approximately 1.5 million new immigrants are granted work visas and many become public charges.

    Now Obama is insisting on yet another AMNESTY, which will be even costlier to the American taxpayers, so says the Heritage foundation. American taxpayers should not have to subsidize US businesses, which has been happening for years? A large majority of pariah corporate executives, do not want any restrictions on foreign national workers, that is why they have tried to kill a mandated E-Verify identity data base, to extract all illegal immigrants from the working environment.

    That SANCTUARY STATES like California must rescind illegal immigrant refuge policies. That President Obama’s health care renewal plan—WILL–attract millions more impoverished people from around the world. That they can join with the 20 plus million already here, to get free medical care under the Democrats law now passing through Congress.

    Observe this PETITION to STOP any health care to illegal immigrants at: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/nohealthcareforillegals

    Brittancus (e708cf)

  41. I wouldn’t dream of denying dirty socialist health cares to illegal immigrants.

    It would be very unfair to let immigrants opt out of the dirty socialist health cares I think.

    I think illegal immigrants should get frequent check-ups and many many tests. Also, sometimes I think what we’ll find is when an illegal immigrant goes to one of Barack Obama’s dirty socialist clinics, he’s actually pretty darn healthy. BUT maybe he has a mother or a brother back in Mexico or Guatemala that is feeling under the weather. No problemo!

    I think this would be a great incentive for them to come get the cares they deserve. Health cares is a right! Especially dirty socialist health cares! This is America dammit.

    happyfeet (d8cd81)

  42. Dr. Patterico,

    Thankfully for all Americans Obamacare does not appear to be in the cards for now, but His ego will probably not stop trying. 01/20/13.

    wdr (cab4a1)

  43. Brittancus, the “lies” you are claiming are being spread by “wealthy insurance companies” are actually being told by health care practitioners in Canada and the UK themselves.

    The waiting lists for procedures in the UK’s NHS are facts that are are reported on the floor of the Parliament by the UK’s own government.

    Canada’s delays are reported in their own news media and again here. And in Canada’s own medical journals which report on the rise of “medical tourism” to help Canadians waiting for care travel to places where they can get it … like the US.

    Spare us the pro-single-payer lies that you’ve brought here.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  44. At least trolls can find the BOLD tag. The members of the NHS, in a survey a couple of years ago, voted 56% that the system was so bad it should be scrapped and they should start over. Private clinics, technically illegal, are popping up all over Canada. Maybe the troll would have a different opinion if he had been one of those patients in the NHS ambulance sitting in the parking lot for hours so the ER wouldn’t violate the new rule about no wait being longer than four hours.

    MIke K (addb13)

  45. The wealthy insurers want no change,

    The insurers have been supporting the Dem health plans. The drug companies also.

    Gerald A (78e08a)

  46. Run Sarah run!

    flag@whitehouse.gov (cab4a1)

  47. It is amazing how much the Leftists like the coward above hate/fear Sarah Palin. I agree very much with happyfeet that we have not seen the end of this noxious idea, as Pelosi/Reid/Barcky still have oodles of asshattery left in this debate.

    JD (d51050)

  48. Britannicus chortled:

    “In truth it’s like a nationwide–MEDICARE–like all senior citizens receive now.”

    Earth to Brit – Medicare is going broke and is unsustainable.

    Work on your pitch.

    harkin (f92f52)

  49. I keep making the mistake though of thinking opposing Obamacare is about health care. NPR keeps reminding me it’s just cause I’m a white poor white stupid white bigot is why I don’t want me no dirty socialist health cares.

    RAZ: There’s a lot of confusion and misinformation out there on the various plans for changing the health care system. And an essay on the website, theroot.com argues that the rage isn’t really about health care at all. The author, Kai Wright, says it’s really about the anxieties of a whole segment of America that increasingly feels shut out.

    Mr. KAI WRIGHT (Senior Writer, The Root): We’re seeing the manifestations of an anxiety amongst poor and working class white folks about what is my place in a vastly changing culture and a vastly changing economy. Those are real and meaningful anxieties, and we’re seeing a group of folks trying to exploit those anxieties.

    The fear of Barack Obama not being a citizen, to these notions that people would have to stand in front of a death panel and defend their right to live. We’ve seen a handful of folks, both in corporate media and the Republican Party try to elevate those ideas in effort to exploit those anxieties.

    RAZ: It’s almost impossible to sort of do an empirical study on, you know, on who is going to the meetings, who is expressing anger. How can you be sure that most or many of the demonstrators are poor or working class?

    Mr. WRIGHT: Well, you can’t. What we do know, and there has been some reporting on this on where the ideas are coming from. And they do seem to be coming from the militia movement. When you trace some of who the leaders are, particularly amongst the Birthers, they’re folks who have a history in the militia movement.

    It’s pretty clear who they are speaking to. And these protests, to my mind, are speaking to poor and working class whites who are feeling alienated in today’s economy and in today’s culture.

    RAZ: So your argument is that the anger and the rage of many people who are expressing it now is just being channeled in the wrong direction.

    That’s debasing how NPR stoops to naming and shaming po white trash like that and then turns around and frightens their cocooned elite rich rich rich white white white listeners who are wholly ignorant that the “militia movement” in America in 2009 is so tenuous and fatuous as to be completely subsumed in the excitement of two for one jiffy burgers down at the DQ.

    NPR is way way way more contemptuous of white people than hood rat ever imagined being I think.

    happyfeet (d8cd81)

  50. ok now I’m hungry

    happyfeet (d8cd81)

  51. OK, they may SAY they’re removing the “public option” from the bill, and they’ll obviously have to change whatever section it’s in – but you can bet there will be some tiny little curlicue added to some other section of this massive bill that will get that camel’s nose under the tent.

    Guaranteed.

    A_Nonny_Mouse (e964ee)

  52. happyfeet,

    NPR and its local affiliates may be the worst example of media groupthink on Obamacare. The other day I heard a story intro on San Diego affiliate KPBS radio flatly stating that Palin doesn’t care about facts. To them, it’s just God’s unchallenged truth.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407)

  53. Nobody in America ever has to wonder what it was like listening to Radio Moscow in the Soviet Union.

    Melissa Block. I got your driveway moment right here you dirty socialist NPR trollop.

    happyfeet (d8cd81)

  54. Feets, let’s be fair. I’m sure Melissa Block isn’t a trollop.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407)

  55. Last week it was, “Obama lied, Grandma died”.

    Now it is “Obama caved, freedom saved”.

    Yeah!

    Huey (cbc224)

  56. She sure ain’t no dirty socialist vixen.

    happyfeet (d8cd81)

  57. The purpose is to put in place a set of vague mandates that bureaucrats will fill in with policies that would never pass Congress.

    I agree with you, Mike K. Worse than congress is an elected bureaucracy managing this system. Obama will get what he wants: a majority dependent on government favors.

    “I see dead people.”

    Patricia (29a01d)

  58. No .. well at least not yet

    An administration official said tonight that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius “misspoke” when she told CNN this morning that a government run health insurance option “is not an essential part” of reform.

    Now exactly how do you have a debate when the “authors” of the bill can’t even get the program straight among themselves ?

    Neo (46a1a2)

  59. I’d guess Sebelius launched a trial balloon that went over like a lead balloon with the left.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407)

  60. The Adventures of the Empty Suit and the Keystone Kops.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  61. I think the Administration also releases this type of disinformation in an attempt to disarm the right by making opponents think they prevailed on an issue. The Administration goes back to pushing the same themes, all while claiming victory because the opposition has diminished.

    DRJ (d8773e)

  62. I think the Administration also releases this type of disinformation in an attempt to disarm the right by making opponents think they prevailed on an issue.

    Nope. We learned early on to wait at least two days. If they don’t “correct a misstatement” by then, it’s legit.

    But the odds are that they will, as I heard it once so charmingly put, “back-peddle faster, bitch”.

    Does a week go by where some admin official doesn’t have to correct a statement from some other official? And we all know the only reason they are pulling this one back is because the netroots was having kittens.

    Scott Jacobs (d027b8)

  63. I’m still guessing the fundamental narrative to Mr. low info voter is that Sarah Palin said something about death panels and hood rat and thugs got thrown into disarray. They look for all the world like they got busted doing some naughty.

    happyfeet (71f55e)

  64. Neo – Are you relying on that anonymous Administration Official clarifying Sebelius’ remarks that Ambinder was posting about for your comment? Something a little more concrete rather than anonymous sounding to pander to the nutroot anger would sound a little more credible.

    daleyrocks (718861)

  65. You almost have to wonder if less people would have paid attention to Palin’s death panel blast if the liberal media weren’t talking about her incessantly. It’s almost as if they have enabled her relevance.

    Mo Dowd I think has done something like five Palin columns in five weeks – she and Frank Rich are like Newsweek with Obama covers in regards to SP.

    harkin (f92f52)

  66. Throw The Healthcare Obstructionist Out!

    More than two thirds of the American people want a single payer health care system. And if they cant have a single payer system 76% of all Americans want a strong government-run public option on day one (85% of democrats, 71% of independents, and 60% republicans). Basically everyone.

    We have the 37th worst quality of healthcare in the developed world. And the most costly. Costing over twice as much as every other county. Conservative estimates are that over 120,000 of you dies each year in America from treatable illness that people in other developed countries don’t die from. Rich, middle class, and poor a like. Insured and uninsured. Men, women, children, and babies. This is what being 37th in quality of healthcare means.

    I know that many of you are angry and frustrated that REPUBLICANS! In congress are dragging their feet and trying to block TRUE healthcare reform. What republicans want is just a taxpayer bailout of the DISGRACEFUL GREED DRIVEN PRIVATE FOR PROFIT health insurance industry, and the DISGRACEFUL GREED DRIVEN PRIVATE FOR PROFIT healthcare industry. A trillion dollar taxpayer funded private health insurance bailout is all you really get, without a robust government-run public option available on day one. Co-OP’s ARE NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR A GOVERNMENT-RUN PUBLIC OPTION. They are a fraud being pushed by the GREED DRIVEN PRIVATE FOR PROFIT health insurance industry that is KILLING YOU!

    YOU CANT HAVE AN INSURANCE MANDATE WITHOUT A ROBUST PUBLIC OPTION. MANDATING PRIVATE FOR PROFIT HEALTH INSURANCE AS YOUR ONLY CHOICE WOULD BE A DISASTER. AND UNETHICAL, CORRUPT, AND MORALLY REPUGNANT. AND PROBABLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL AS WELL.

    These industries have been slaughtering you and your loved ones like cattle for decades for profit. Including members of congress and their families. These REPUBLICANS are FOOLS!

    Republicans and their traitorous allies have been trying to make it look like it’s President Obama’s fault for the delays, and foot dragging. But I think you all know better than that. President Obama inherited one of the worst government catastrophes in American history from these REPUBLICANS! And President Obama has done a brilliant job of turning things around, and working his heart out for all of us.

    But Republicans think you are just a bunch of stupid, idiot, cash cows with short memories. Just like they did under the Bush administration when they helped Bush and Cheney rape America and the rest of the World.

    But you don’t have to put up with that. And this is what you can do. The Republicans below will be up for reelection on November 2, 2010. Just a little over 13 months from now. And many of you will be able to vote early. So pick some names and tell their voters that their representatives (by name) are obstructing TRUE healthcare reform. And are sellouts to the insurance and medical lobbyist.

    Ask them to contact their representatives and tell them that they are going to work to throw them out of office on November 2, 2010, if not before by impeachment, or recall elections. Doing this will give you something more to do to make things better in America. And it will make you feel better too.

    There are many resources on the internet that can help you find people to call and contact. For example, many social networking sites can be searched by state, city, or University. Be inventive and creative. I can think of many ways to do this. But be nice. These are your neighbors. And most will want to help.

    I know there are a few democrats that have been trying to obstruct TRUE healthcare reform too. But the main problem is the Bush Republicans. Removing them is the best thing tactically to do. On the other hand. If you can easily replace a democrat obstructionist with a supportive democrat, DO IT!

    You have been AMAZING!!! people. Don’t loose heart. You knew it wasn’t going to be easy saving the World. 🙂

    God Bless You

    jacksmith — Working Class

    Twitter search (#welovethenhs) Check it out.

    I REST MY CASE (http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/25/why-markets-cant-cure-healthcare/)

    Republican Senators up for re-election in 2010.

    * Richard Shelby of Alabama
    * Lisa Murkowski of Alaska
    * John McCain of Arizona
    * Mel Martinez of Florida
    * Johnny Isakson of Georgia
    * Mike Crapo of Idaho
    * Chuck Grassley of Iowa
    * Sam Brownback of Kansas
    * Jim Bunning of Kentucky
    * David Vitter of Louisiana
    * Kit Bond of Missouri
    * Judd Gregg of New Hampshire
    * Richard Burr of North Carolina
    * George Voinovich of Ohio
    * Tom Coburn of Oklahoma
    * Jim DeMint of South Carolina
    * John Thune of South Dakota
    * Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas
    * Bob Bennett of Utah

    [note: fished from spam filter]

    jacksmith (7f2f61)

  67. When we get universal care, will the fees for Medicare Part B go up or down?

    AD - RtR/OS! (4404ef)

  68. Caved already! He didn’t last too long.

    Technology (80799a)

  69. #19

    Of all the dimwitted, socialist, pick pocketing comments I have ever seen! Certainly Dana you should dip into your bank account and pay for someone’s healthcare. Pay for two or three people’s healthcare if you wish.

    But what gives you the right to put your hands into my pockets to give money to someone else.

    This is the trouble with society today.

    If a mugger steals from you and gives to charity is he a crook? So why when the government does it is it a wonderful idea. It remains theft, by legal means, but theft nonetheless.

    Healthcare isn’t expensive. I’ve had since my first job. I note that those who complain always seem to live in large homes in upscale neighborhoods. They never lack cars or the latest electronics.

    Tell you what Dana why don’t you contribute to my new retirement homew in Costa Rica. I’m sure you can afford it.

    Thomas Jackson (8ffd46)

  70. Comment by Thomas Jackson — 8/16/2009 @ 11:23 pm

    I’m a simple man, so I shall speak plainly…

    Shut the fuck up, you jackass.

    To start with, we already pay for the health care the uninsured receives. Be it in $20 aspirins to federal dollars going to hospitals to help cover loss they write off (and what do you think they are writing off, summer bonnets?), our money (be it tax dollars or part of our insurance premium) covers them.

    Finding a way to get them insurance would be better for all of us. Of the ways to do that, I favor allowing the purchase of policies across state lines, allowing small businesses and individuals to get the same tax-deduction that larger businesses enjoy, and removing mandated coverages that aren’t needed.

    I also like the suggestion of the CEO of Whole Foods, to simplify tax forms to allow for easier donation from individuals to help those who really and truly can’t afford insurance.

    But such an idea is anathema to you, so I shall leave the miser to his beloved gold.

    Scott Jacobs (d027b8)

  71. Uh, Thomas Jackson, read Dana’s comment #19 from 2:22 pm one more time. You will note that he is not advocating anything in the comment, simply making the common sense argument that providing universal health insurance will involve the haves paying for the have-nots. Not to say that he favors such a course; if you read the blog at the link you will note his skepticism towards “universal coverage” in general and the Obama plan in particular.

    JVW (111cb0)

  72. Did we miss NPR calling the town hall protests agitprop? oh. I think we did.

    Silver points to Gallup polling about the recent town hall protests as a worrisome sign. In data released Wednesday, Gallup found 34% of Americans said the town hall protests have made them more sympathetic, while 21% said the protests make them less sympathetic. Of course, that leaves about half of American unswayed by the recent agitprop.*

    zowie. That’s a word our dirty socialists propaganda squad at the NPR has only had the … keen sense of irony to use 15 times in like forever. Less than that cause some of the instances are just found in comments. Looks like it’s a word that’s coming back into fashion – from 2002-2007, the word was never uttered on NPR, which famously considers all things. Those were peaceful times untroubled by agits or props one may safely suppose.

    happyfeet (d8cd81)

  73. I think my 15 times link is bust.

    Here go.

    happyfeet (d8cd81)

  74. Go the house.gov and download HR 320, Henry Waxman’s 1,017 page horror classic (available free as a .pdf). Read it and weep.

    We need to drive a nail through the heart of the National Insurance Exchange, where every policy offered will meet federal requirements. If we want to prevent the federal government from controlling every aspect of health care, that provision needs to die.

    We have to make certain that cooperatives are not medical versions of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, where profits flow to democrat supporters and losses get dumped on the taxpayer. Been there; done that.

    We must prevent the government from regulating treatments available to doctors based on some bureaucratic panel of bean counters. Last April, my 88 year old mother was dying of congestive heart failure. Today, she is zipping through Tyson’s Corner in her 325i, a one woman stimulus program. Under Obamacare she would have been buried at Arlington.

    End of life services in Section 1233 must go. Forcing people over 65 to meet a panel of bureaucrats trying to sell seniors on assisted suicide rather than “costly” treatment is not playing well.

    Why are union workers and politicians not forced into the plan?

    Why are democrats blocking amendments to prohibit coverage of illegal aliens who are presently clogging hospital ERs with pregnant women?

    Why should they force young people who do not want insurance to buy it?

    Why are they resisting prohibiting publicly funded abortions?

    Why will they not pass tort reform instead?

    Americans want no government health care. What part of “no” do they not understand?

    arch (57f2ef)

  75. Was listening to NPR on the drive last week.

    Three different ‘experts’ talking about Obamacare and all three said variations on the theme that anyone against the plan was a victim of a disinformation campaign.

    No mention of tort reform, no mention of alternative plans at cost-control such as that mentioned above from the co-founder of Whole Foods. His ideas have been advocated by conservatives for a while but it’s a nice compilation. On NPR, just gibberish and fear-mongering, the very thing they accuse the death panel blast of doing.

    Oh yeah, and Canada’s HC system is ‘implodong’:

    harkin (f92f52)

  76. […] Malkin thinks that the Obama administration’s softening on its proposed government-run health insurance plan is more a trial balloon than a white flag. […]

    The Greenroom » Forum Archive » The Public Option - Individual Mandate Two-step (e2f069)

  77. The Republicans are holding up health care nationalization? How?

    Let me point out to you that (a) you are ignorant of how Congress is constituted and (b) you are ignorant

    House of Representatives requires 50%+1 to pass a bill. Number of Democrats in the house is easily 50%+1.

    Senate requires 50%+1 to pass a bill, unless a bill is “fillibustered” — a term with various forms and meanings throughout the years, but generally meaning requiring 60 votes to get a bill passed. There are 60 Democrats in the Senate.

    So, Mr. Brain Surgeon, with a Democrat House and Senate that can just pass these bills as-is, why aren’t they? The Republicans could vote “NO” 100%, and they could not stop the bill.

    The only thing I can think of your response is that your post was a parody. Because it doesn’t even rise to the level of error.

    steve miller (0fb51f)

  78. At this point the only option I’d go for, given the current administration and congress, is no health or insurance bill at all. For lots of salient reasons, including illegal immigration, not increasing or adding new beaurocracies, government incompetence, etc. etc.

    But the main reason is they have entirely lost my trust. I would confidently expect, as have other posters above, that a Trojan Horse would be included, by whatever name, to put a socialist foot in the door.

    No matter what problems we have, the odds are great that anything this Congress does will make it worse. Until we have a sane Congress that represents the people to at least some degree, I wish they’d just stay on vacation.

    jodetoad (059c35)

  79. jacksmith shows the mendacity of Democrats perfectly. Faked statistics and blame Republicans.

    Hilarious.

    SPQR (5811e9)

  80. Hey Scotty tell us again why a mugger who robs you and gives to a charity is not a criminal.

    Then why is the government doing the same thing not stealing.

    Its trolls like you that can justify taking food off my plate and taking money out of my children’s mouths to benefit those who will not work t6hat have given us communism.

    Whenever someone says “we’d all be better off” watch out he’s trying to steal you blind.

    You are just another mugger.

    Oh yes I forgot, no doubt a union member who missed the opportunity of roughing up someone’s granny.

    So compassionate of you. You’re as hypocritical as you are sophmoric.

    Thomas Jackson (8ffd46)

  81. #71

    And what’s not common ssense about donating to my retire home fund. If you believe the Constitution allows this then you are either ignorant or uninformed. Now if you wish to ignore the Federal government’s success in running anything then you lack commonsense and have no reason to use this phrase except as a laugh line.

    If you believe commonsense dictates a government that runs the VA, Indian Reservation System, Amtrak, and a whole host of agencies that can’t account for billions of dollars should take over another 15-17% of the economy then you are rationalizing ineffective government, waste and mismanagement and should be put out of your misery.

    Dana’s comments surpass banality suggesting that those who are uninsured cannot afford insurance. If this were true why don’t the dhimmies just propose healthcare insurance be counted as a complete tax credit?

    Could it be that this would mean they couldn’t redistribute wealth and impose their little fascist fantasies on those of us who actually toil for a living?

    I suggest you embrace Scott and visit Canada, and get your medical treatment there or in the UK.

    Maybe you’d learn what the difference is between medical care (take two aspirin and call us in six months) and medical treatment (you need a coronary bypass).

    We have a far better health system if:

    The AMA didn’t control the medical schools.
    Tort reform was instituted along with forcing lawyers to accept fixewd fees instead of using a lottery system.
    The Dhimmies would allow interstate health insurance competition.
    The government stopped adding mandates that cause health insurance to skyrocket because their kiddies are head cases and dopers.
    Finally the dhimmies might enforce our laws rather than advocating we pay for illegal aliens with AIDS.

    But of course he doesn’t favor government controlled healthcare the casual reader will note his partisan opposition to it. You have demonstrated your comphrension its time for you to post as another sock puppet.

    Thomas Jackson (8ffd46)


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