"Sadly, I believe the fat cats are winning and that the bill Congress sends the president will be one that gives an industry with an unsustainable business model a new lease on life and a guarantee of unprecedented future profits.
So I hope the president's aides are buying lots of lipstick. He'll need all he can get to put on that pig of a bill."
Quote from Wendell Potter disparaging President Obama's caving in to the Health Insurance Industry and abandoning his election promise of Health Care reform.
President Obama seems determined to defeat himself as he back -peddles on various issues from Health care Reform to Guantanamo, to indefinite imprisonment, to denying enemy combatants their rights under international law, to ginning up the War in Afghanistan and Pakistan continuing a failing and ill-conceived policy to sending more troops back into Iraq, to not taking to task the members of the former Bush Regime for their involving the US in an unnecessary war in Iraq based upon lies, misinformation and propaganda to the abuse and torture of thousands of Iraqis to his continuing many of these practices in Iraq and Afghanistan etc.
And so is it just politics as usual ?
Last Friday I came across this item by Cenk Uygur at The Young Turks in which he was upset that it appeared Obama had caved in on Health Care Reform and had made a secret deal with the Health Care Insurance Industry. Anyway I was taken aback and did not want to believe it was true. And I couldn't find much on the net to back up the claims in a credible manner. And so I wrote a post about it bu did not publish it waiting for more details etc. or hoping Cenk had it wrong for once.
But it turns out that the worst fears about Obama by his supporters as on other issues materialized in a huge disappointment. The Republicans and the angry conservatives and their media shills are ecstatic but they will soon move on to the next issue to make sure Obama Kow Tows to their will .
Universal healthcare "a no go" - Is it just business as usual and reform of health care has all been a phony fight . The American public once again betrayed in order to please Big Business interest. Has the health care industry threaten to kill any change if they don't get what they want. The question is did Obama ever really want to bring about real reform. The American people get to keep their second rate or 38th rated heal care . Some 18,000 Americans will continue to die each year because of poor health care.
Cenk Uygur argues if the deal has been made then it is time for a real political revolution . The chances of that it appears is slim to none. The American political system has worked the way it is supposed to in favor of the rich and powerful and Obama is just another member of the ruling class defending that class. He has shown himself to be a typical American politician who doesn't really want to " rock the boat " as it were. He wants to be accepted by the elites and the rich and powerful. The goal of real Health Care Reform was in his grasp but he failed to deliver. And it appears it had little to do with the angry riled up mobs of hooligans at the Town Hall Meetings since the deal had been made months ago to placate the Health Insurance Industry and the Medical Industry and the Big Pharaceuticals . Of course now Obama can disingenuously claim he got cold feet because of all the angry mobs and attacks on his proposals
Cenk Uygur The Young Turks-No Public Option
Obama's supporters have been had
Health Insurance Industry win & American citizens lose-Betrayed By Obama
Has Obama Sold Out Already?-August 13, 2009
Watch more at http://www.theyoungturks.com
Has Obama sold out
Failure of Political Will- Obama Dog and Pony Show all a sham
Real substantive Health Care Reform Was never on the table
Kow Towing to the Republicans and the Nay Saying Conservatives
NO WE CAN'T! Rachel Maddow & Matt Taibbi pt.1
NO WE CAN'T! Rachel Maddow & Matt Taibbi pt.2
Is Obama Planning to Sign Congress' Health Care Reform Bill with Lipstick?
Submitted by Wendell Potter on August 17, 2009 at Center For Media and Democracy : PR Watch.org
Over the coming weeks, Americans will find out whether the man they elected their president is just a great orator and politician or whether he is also a great leader.
Of the central features of candidate Barack Obama's health care proposal, he said one thing was essential -- a public insurance option to compete with the private insurance industry that is now dominated by a cartel of Wall Street-driven, for-profit behemoths. Another thing Obama said he would not support -- a requirement that all of us be forced by law to buy overpriced health coverage from private insurance companies.
Many of the people who voted for Obama did so because they believed his health care proposal was the best among the field of Democratic candidates and -- no contest here -- far better than the insurance industry-backed plans advocated by the Republicans
...Having worked in the health insurance industry for nearly 20 years, I know Obama and Clinton were right in insisting that a public health insurance plan is vital to reform. A public plan not only will serve to "keep the private insurers honest," as Obama used to say before he started waffling, but it will also provide millions of people who now have no insurance at all with good coverage at a more affordable price. That's because the big for-profit insurers waste increasingly big chunks of your premium dollars on nonessential things like exorbitant CEO salaries and profits for the big institutional investors who own them. A public plan would not waste your precious dollars that way.
and Wendell Potter concludes that Obama has sold out to the Insurance Industry proving his talk of substantive reform of US Health Care was merely an empty promise to insure his election:
During his speech in Montana, Obama talked a lot of trash about the insurance industry. Don't be fooled by that tough talk. It's all part of a strategy to try get us to believe we'll get the reform he promised during the campaign. Industry leaders are in fact delighted he's denouncing their behavior, because they believe most of his supporters -- who were hopeful the stars might finally have aligned for real reform -- will be fooled into thinking the reform bill that reaches his desk will benefit them more than the special interests with their armies of lobbyists. And they know the nonprofit cooperatives Sebelius and Gibbs are now trying to sell us on don't have a prayer of succeeding. The big for-profits will never let them get off the ground in any meaningful way.
Sadly, I believe the fat cats are winning and that the bill Congress sends the president will be one that gives an industry with an unsustainable business model a new lease on life and a guarantee of unprecedented future profits.
So I hope the president's aides are buying lots of lipstick. He'll need all he can get to put on that pig of a bill.
and so it goes,
GORD.
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