Dennis Kucinich After Meeting President Obama on Healthcare Reform

[democracy1st]

Run time: 06:37 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJoEUCd7f-I   Posted on YouTube: March 05, 2010 By YouTube Member: MoxNewsDotCom Views on YouTube: 326   Posted on DU: March 05, 2010 By DU Member: democracy1st Views on DU: 1555

 
http://MOXNews.com/
March 04, 2010 CNN



President Obama began his meeting with leading House progressives by bringing in a letter from an Ohio woman who wrote him to say that her skyrocketing premiums will soon cause her to lose her health insurance.

"It was a very serious, low-key discussion. If this was a piano, you're hearing very deep chords here," said one member who asked for anonymity.

Obama argued to the group of progressive members that his health care reform bill should be looked at as the foundation of reform, that can be built on in the future. He asked them to help gather votes for the final health care battle and promised that as soon as the bill was signed into law, he'd continue to push to make it stronger. But in a matter of weeks, he stressed, he could sign into law legislation that would lead to 31 million new people being insured, including the woman who wrote him.

It has been surprising to some people that he is still fighting for health care reform, Obama told the group. "He said, and I think he's absolutely right, that a lot of people, I think, are surprised at his persistence that in some ways this health care reform has been lifted from the near dead to becoming a reality in the next couple of weeks," said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.). "He said, quite specifically, that what we could say to people was that once the bill passes the president made a commitment to work to make improvements down the road."

Attendees included Reps. Lynn Woolsey (Calif.) and Raul Grijalva (Ariz.), Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-chairs; Schakowsky and Lucille Roybal-Allard (Calif.), the CPC's Health Care Task Force co-chair; Rep. Barbara Lee (Calif.), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus; and Reps. Madeleine Bordallo (Guam), Donna Christensen (Virgin Islands), Danny Davis (Ill.), Mike Honda (Calif.), Dennis Kucinich (Ohio) and Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.), Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair.

Of those, only Kucinich voted no, but Christensen and Bordallo don't have a vote on the House floor. None of the members, including Kucinich, indicated that they would vote any differently this time around. "I think left the meeting leaving the impression with the president that he's a no-go," said Schakowsky.

But, said one attendee, Obama pointed Kucinich toward single-payer language that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was able to get into the bill. Kucinich fought for an amendment that would allow states to adopt single-payer systems without getting sued by insurance companies. Obama told Kucinich that Sanders's measure was similar but doesn't kick in for several years. "He definitely wrote it down," said one member of Kucinich, suggesting that he'd look into it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/04/obama-to-progressives-thi_n_486426.html





http://kucinich.house.gov/

[Truth2Tell]

1. "He definitely wrote it down...," suggesting that he'd look into it.

As if Kucinich isn't already familiar with Sanders state by state provisions. What a stupid quote.

[Lorien]

4. And that it doesn't kick in for several years, giving the insurance companies time to strike

it down. People are dying NOW and still, it's just a political game to the repugs and DLCers.

[pundaint]

2. Dennis was wrong about Obama not campaigning on single-payer, but I'll give him a pass as long as

he keeps rejecting turning America's health over to the greedy, do no good, insurers.

[Tx4obama]

3. Obama did NOT campaign on single-payer

During the campaign Obama ALWAYS said that single-payer was NOT an option at this time.

[Lorien]

5. Yes he did:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpAyan1fXCE

He HAS the White house, the House and the Senate.

[freedom fighter jh]

8. Do you have a date for that clip?

It was kind of muffled, but in the end I think Obama said "We have to take back the House." If that's what he says, it indicates that the clip was from before 2006, when the Dems took back the House. So maybe he was for single payer when he ran for the Senate in 2004.

I do remember, during the presidential campaign, looking at Obama's website and wondering why he had to keep the insurance companies involved in health care. As I recall, throughout the campaign he always said he'd keep the insurance companies in.

[Mithreal]

9. "Reports on the Internet date this statement as June 30, 2003."

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/jul/16/barack-obama/obama-statements-single-payer-have-changed-bit/

[Tx4obama]

10. That is an OLD clip BEFORE the Presidential campaign.

During the presidential campaign Obama 'always' said that single-payer would NOT be on the table.

[Mithreal]

6. Have any response to Lorien's post or are you feeding your crickets?

When DU'ers mention, oh yes he did, all we get for a response is silence or simple denial. When people investigated what Obama said in the past, they should have known that was all just politics. At the very least, President Obama is a flip flopper, at worst, a corporatist liar.

Discussion of that video and Obama the single payer advocate:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/jul/16/barack-obama/obama-statements-single-payer-have-changed-bit/



Excellent work, Obama and friends for wasting most of a year trying to get a single Republican vote, not like there were any other pressing matters. The Dem majorities were too much pressure anyway.

[Enthusiast]

7. Well, he did.

We all know single payer is THE only solution. We all know it.

Maybe investors should consider investing in manufacturing and bringing jobs back to America instead of investing in ethereal products like health insurance and derivatives.

Health insurance serves no purpose. It only makes the delivery of health care less efficient. It is no way to make a profit. There are millions of more constructive ways to make money than hurting people, than contributing to their early deaths.