Weekly Address: Obama demands up or down vote

[kpete]

Source: Daily Kos

Weekly Address: Obama demands up or down vote
by calchala
Fri Dec 18, 2009 at 09:12:56 PM PST

Apparently President Obama has decided that the bill has been watered down enough and is demanding that the Senate give the bill an up or down vote on everything that is in it.

This looks like a shot at Ben Nelson. Up or Down vote


Here's what the President says:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/weekly-address-president-obama-says-health-insurance-reform-will-protect-patients-a

These protections are just one part of a landmark reform that will finally reduce the cost of health care. When it becomes law, families will save on their premiums. Small businesses and Americans who don’t get any insurance today through their employers will no longer be forced to pay punishingly high rates to get coverage. This legislation will also strengthen Medicare and extend the life of the program, while saving senior citizens hundreds of dollars a year in prescription costs. And reforms to target waste, inefficiency, and price-gouging by the insurance industry will help make this the largest deficit reduction plan in over a decade.

The insurance industry knows all this. That’s why they’re at it again, using their muscle in Washington to try to block a vote they know they will lose. They’re lobbying. They’re running ads. They’re spending millions of dollars to kill health insurance reform, just like they’ve done so many times before. They want to preserve a system that works better for the insurance industry than it does for the American people.

But now – for the first time – there is a clear majority in the Senate that’s willing to stand up to the insurance lobby and embrace lasting health insurance reforms that have eluded us for generations. The question is whether the minority that opposes these reforms will continue to use parliamentary maneuvers to try and stop the Senate from voting on them.

Whatever their position on health insurance reform, Senators ought to allow an up or down vote. Let’s bring this long and vigorous debate to an end. Let’s deliver on the promise of health insurance reforms that will make our people healthier, our economy stronger, and our future more secure. And as this difficult year comes to a close, let’s show the American people that we are equal to the task of meeting our great challenges.

Read more: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/12/19/810490/-Weekly-Address:-Obama-demands-up-or-down-vote

[Purveyor]

1. I was hoping it was a 'up and down' vote on his leadership and command of party....

Oh well...maybe next time.

[grytpype]

2. Ignoring.

[Purveyor]

4. As you may...

[niceypoo]

8. We cant all have thick skin

[tavalon]

21. Well, if that's all it takes,

sign me up. :evilgrin:

[slay]

20. Ugh no kidding

I'm more disgusted by these sell out bullshit fake Dems we have running things every day. They might as well call themselves Democrats Inc. Thanks for standing up for the rights of the people over huge corporations and lobbyists when you have a 60 vote majority in the senate - oh yeah YOU DIDN'T! Did nobody in the Obama admin see Sicko? Do none of them understand the Canadian or British health care systems where all people are covered without the insurance leeches taking 27% or whatever off the top? Argh. :banghead:

[dgibby]

31. Michael Jackson was right.

They don't care about us. The man was a prophet. Who knew?

[Demeter]

22. Actually, It Is

and I'm hoping it will be a down vote, just to make the message that much clearer...

[still_one]

3. Well, at least it will get to committee then, and just maybe they will make it right /nt

[dave29]

5. Bookmark this statement from the address, I think it is important.

"But now – for the first time – there is a clear majority in the Senate that’s willing to stand up to the insurance lobby and embrace lasting health insurance reforms that have eluded us for generations. The question is whether the minority that opposes these reforms will continue to use parliamentary maneuvers to try and stop the Senate from voting on them."

This is the first time I have heard this language. I think it is maybe a signal about the process moving forward, especially when we get to conference.

[WorkingClassDemocrat]

7. I see nothing illuminating in the language

Other than he's beginning to realize that he has so alienated his base that he's very close to losing the health care debate that he has so diligently avoided participating in. If he has bothered to check the polls recently, he might have noticed that he has lost his base and the majority of the citizens. For those sychopants that still hold the irrational belief that he will swoop in on his white horse, just before midnight, and save health care, don't hold your breath. What you see is what you get. A law that says you MUST buy the insurance you previously couldn't afford.

[dave29]

14. Yeah it's gonna be awful and we're all gonna die bankrupt... I get it.

It's exactly going to turn out that way.

Welcome to DU.

[shadowknows69]

26. For some of us it most likely will.

Except we don't have enough money to declare bankruptcy.

[Le Taz Hot]

27. +1

[DisgustedInMN]

30. Having written the White House almost daily..

... regarding this for months, I begin to doubt that Barack Obama EVER intended for any bill to be passed the wasn't like the watered down POS in the Senate. This guy, just like Bill Clinton, is a consummate corporate liar pretending to be a "populist." I believe he and his staff WERE engaged in this from the beginning, it's just that they are playing for the other side.

The question for me is this, now where do I turn? I know the Repubs are the enemy of the people. Every thing they stand for reflects that. But what the Dems have done is in some ways even worse. They have betrayed my trust and broken my hope that with the election of Obama and the HUGE majorities in both Houses of Congress, that we might actually be able to right our Ship of State. Instead, I feel stabbed in the back.

There's bad mojo cooking and having been jobless for well over a year, with absolutely no prospects to change it, well...

... you know what they say about people who have nothing left to lose...

[quark219]

34. +1 Well, said. And I'm standing shoulder-to-shoulder with you.

Metaphorically, of course.

[aaronbav]

46. I'm with you. I have been out of work for almost 2 fucking years now

and all this mother fucker has to say on jobs and workers is: "our resources are limited."

Well Barack Obama - FUCK YOU AND ALL THE OTHER GOD DAMNED WHORE DEMOCRATS THAT HAVE BETRAYED THE AMERICAN PEOPLE - Your DAY OF RECKONING IS COMING

[SlavesandBulldozers]

40. i don't either.

and welcome to DU. And i mean it unsarcastically.

I agree that "he has so alienated his base that he's very close to losing the health care debate that he has so diligently avoided participating in".

[marasinghe]

49. it should illuminate the groupies that still flock around with the excuses ... but it won't .

can't say anything he's done is a surprise to me - since i realized all along, that he was no Kucinich; just a part of the chicago political machine. but when i held my nose and supported him after the primaries, i hoped that his upbringing would provide him with a measure of empathy for the underprivileged. so much for the hope. this guy is just another elitist who likes to waltz with the wealthy - like bill clinton, or colin powell.

[rpannier]

18. He needs to explain how they are standing up to the insurance lobby

It seems the bill will make the for profit insurance companies even wealthier

[PassingFair]

29. Have you seen any of the "millions of dollars" spent in advertising against this particular "reform"

bill?

I haven't. Not one commercial. Not one flyer.
Not one phone call. Nada.

Maybe the insurance industry is ignoring
Michigan....

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

35. Interesting.

I've seen a couple of ads against but the majority have been pro-reform.
Nothing like the Harry & Louise barrage 15 years ago.

Food for thought.


:thumbsup:

[No Elephants]

41. I saw some ads a long time ago, but not lately. Seems they like what they see now.

[PassingFair]

42. Exactly. n/t

[Demeter]

23. Don't Hold Your Breath or Put Money on It

keep agitating!

[JDPriestly]

48. What process? The process of further enriching health care insurance companies.

"Moving forward." Now where have I heard that before. For Californians, this bill is in some respects a move backward. Our state legislature had -- twice I believe -- placed a single payer plan on our governor's desk. All that stood between us and single payer was Schwarzenegger -- and Republicans have no good candidate for the next election. We were this far from it.

I supported the House plan even though it did not contain single payer and would have hurt California. But what is likely to emerge now is a big step backward for our state.

[truedelphi]

6. At the beginning of this weekly address, the President's nose measured a scant

2.9 inches.

By the end of the address, the nose had assumed such hideous proportions that all aides were quite glad it was on the radio and not televized!

[niceypoo]

9. I wouldnt go that far

He might be way out of touch, but I don't think he is a liar.

[truedelphi]

12. Having caught him in several major lies starting in about March,

I regret to say I can not share your opinion.

But any man who runs for President and then makes speeches that when he ran for President he focused only on the wars, and doesn't know or understand economic matters, that man is

1) either a fool (and Obama is NOT a fool)
2) a liar

You simply do not run for the office of the Presidency of the USA and not pay particular attention to economic matters.

[Iowa]

15. Yeah, he's a liar. He's not just an average liar though... he's actually extremely good at it.

[pattmarty]

28. Yep. A black Bill Clinton.

[Yuugal]

47. He is a LIAR

“If you like your health plan, you can keep it, the only thing that will change is that you’ll pay less.”


My kids have SCHIP and they can't keep it.

[CreekDog]

19. you're ridiculous

and not even funny as you probably intended. :eyes:

[regnaD kciN]

10. Too bad he didn't give that speech BEFORE Asshole Joe sank the public option...

The time to have demanded an up-or-down vote was then, not after the bill was eviscerated. :grr:

[truedelphi]

11. Timing is everything and it is very hard to see how a guy

Who had timeing down perfectly when facing a vast crowd of serious contenders during his run for Party nomination, suddenly gets the timing all wrong every step of the way in terms of the HCR Bill.

Very carefully controlled mis-steps, these!

[regnaD kciN]

16. I don't think he got his timing "all wrong every step of the way"...

I think, over the last week or two, the White House got so caught up in "we gotta get this done right now," that they made a number of missteps. Rushing agreements without due thought, and lashing out at those who threatened to interrupt the "sprint to the finish" were Obama's two worst errors. Even if he suspected that the only thing we could get through would be a bill with a mandate but no public option (and it's been apparent for some time that he's convinced that, although a public option would be desirable, it would be possible to obtain much the same results without one), the rush did make it look like he was brushing-off his base...and that's more than half the battle. It would be possible to have a non-public-option bill get enacted and succeed in the goals of health-care reform -- and still lose the war for political survival by making your base feel you abandoned them, just as it would be possible to fail at passing health-care reform -- and still win that political-survival war by making those who backed you feel that you were willing to "go down swinging" for them.

[truedelphi]

45. Oh please - the last week or two are irrelevant

If LBJ had spent the summer surrounding the passage of the Civil Rights Act chasing down Segregationists at town hall meetings every moment of every other day, while meanwhile his Chief of Staff was meeting with members of the KKK, what would the Civil Rights act look like today?

Do you not understand - this President and his Rahm-controlled Administration has had NO TIME or ANY POLITICAL ENERGY for We The People.

In fact, Rahm insisted over the summer that if you wanted a seat at the table for the Health Care "Reform" efforts - you had to cough up 30K bucks!

It is a very telling and informative fact that the President uttered the following mealy mouthed statement as response to a Univ of Colorado/Boulder student, a student who was concerned that if there was a public option, insurers would Be put out of business:

"Well, uh, we don't know if the final version of the HCR bill will contain a public option, and again, the public option is only one of many tools we have for the reform efforts." (Aug 2009,paraphrased)

This is akin to LBJ telling some segregationist "Don't worry, we white people won't lose any Rights of yours under the Civil Rights Act - we don't even know if the Act will apply to any Blacks!"

[kelly1mm]

13. I am sure this is a great post but I could not stop laughing after the "Obama

demands" part long enough to read it ....

[rpannier]

17. He just closes his eyes and pretends he's talking too/about Liberals

Then said it

[dgibby]

32. That was my first response, too,

followed closely by :wtf: :argh: :grr:

[24601]

24. When a senator, did he alwaus back an up or down vote? I

seem to recall a filabuster or two - not when it mattered of course, like on FISA.

[shadowknows69]

25. Water isn't more "Watered Down" than this bill.

[Blasphemer]

33. Willing to stand up to the insurance lobby? lol

It's a wonder he can say these sorts of things with a straight face.

[closeupready]

36. Yawn.

Wake me up after they've made this blank piece of paper law.

[freddie mertz]

37. I hope they don't give him that vote.

Seriously, this needs to go down.

[eilen]

38. "Weak. Waffling, wavering, ambiguous and overwhelmingly concessionary. "

That has been his record on health care reform, ahem, health insurance reform. Now he is demanding?

(quote by Ralph Nader in 9/09 when questioned how he thought Obama was doing. Seems to me his powers of observation are not only sharp, but prescient.)

[ShortnFiery]

39. Yes, when the PRODUCT will turn out to be a luscious GIFT to the Insurance Cartels,

Obama can "get tough."

That's one hell of a CORPORATE Leader ... the people can "eat cake." :grr:

[Froward69]

43. DID any one else hearit ?.. McCain said...

"Happy Holidays" at the end of his rebuttal.

I almost did hear it, I was yelling back at the radio.

[madmx19790]

44. disappointing

[marasinghe]

50. coulda used a demand for single payer; but that woulda been one dimensional & not chess i guess. n/t