Obama Silent On Public Option In Speech To Senators

[democracy1st]

As President Obama finished his speech to the Democratic caucus in the Capitol's Mansfield Room on Sunday afternoon, Joe Lieberman made his way over to Harry Reid.

The independent who still caucuses with Democrats wanted to point something out to the Majority Leader: Obama didn't mention the public option.

Lieberman was beaming as he left the room and happy to re-point it out when HuffPost asked him what Obama had said about the public health insurance option, perhaps the most contentious issue still facing Democrats as they negotiate their way toward a final health care reform bill.

"Well, it was interesting to me -- of course everybody hears with their own ears -- that he didn't say anything about the public option," said Lieberman. "In other words, when he outlined how far we've come on the bill, he talked about the cost-containment provisions; he talked about the insurance market reforms; and he talked about enabling 30 million more people to get insurance. He said these are historic accomplishments, the most significant social legislation, or whatever you call it, in decades, so don't lose it."

Obama spoke for roughly 30 minutes and did not take questions, senators said afterward.

Reid told reporters that Lieberman had approached him after the meeting to note the absence of the public option, but that folks shouldn't read too much into Obama's silence on the issue. "That doesn't mean it's not an issue, because the president didn't talk about it," said Reid.

Obama's reluctance to stand up for the public option has been a source of contention between Reid, who is pushing for it, and Obama. Reid has asked five progressive senators and five conservatives to work out a compromise on the public option. The group will meet again Sunday afternoon, though without guidance from the president.

White House spokesman Bill Burton also mentioned insurance reform and affordability in his statement about the meeting, but neglected to mention the public option. "The president thanked members of the Senate for their hard work so far and encouraged them to continue forward on this historic opportunity to provide stability and security for those who have insurance, affordable coverage for those who don't and bring down the cost of health care for families, small businesses and the government," he said.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/06/obama-silent-on-public-op_n_381847.html

[williesgirl]

1. I want my money back - I gave til it hurt to get him elected, canvassed in my red county in VA,

helped with GOTV - and this is how he behaves now? If this stands, I for one will be happy to work for a new progessive party next time out. Flame away but I feel deeply about this, the two wars, the torture shit and overall reinforcement of that criminal Bush's policies. It's not what I worked nor hoped for.

[BeHereNow]

6. You are not alone in feeling betrayed.

So many of us sincerely hoped our new president
would walk his talk once elected.

So far, the only walk of consequence he has
displayed was his intention to further the
military involvement in Afghanistan.

Just think how that money COULD have been spent here at home.

BHN

[Neecy]

23. Same here

And, if this bill passes without a public option because he wasn't strong enough to fight for it and lead on it, then we're doubly screwed - a MANDATE that we fill the pockets of insurance industry sharks.

Can I have my money back, Mr. President? I'll need it to pay for the bonuses for the executives at Blue Cross...

[dgibby]

53. Speaking of PO and mandates,

does anyone know what happens if a state opts out? Are the citizens of that state still mandated to purchase insurance?

[FormerDittoHead]

50. It's an auction - the one who bids the highest wins. Now enjoy your feudalism. n/t

[newtothegame]

59. Pipe down. You made history with your vote. That should be good enough.

:sarcasm:

[Rosa Luxemburg]

2. Dear Senators I will hate you forever if there is no public option

[Bluebear]

3. "Lieberman was beaming as he left the room" - well, isn't that grand.

[Nikki Stone1]

41. The representative from Cigna is happy.

Not good for the public option.

[dgibby]

51. Pretty much says it all, doesn't it?

Palin and Matalin,et al, happy about Afghanistan, Liberman beaming about public option. Meh!

[rudy23]

56. He's Obama's mentor, and was given free reign to act the way he did.

A Progressive never would've gotten away with it without Rahm coming to curse them out and cut off their funds.

[madrchsod]

4. guess we`ll have to wait and see....

[leftstreet]

5. "enabling 30 million more people to get insurance" :puke:

How about enabling 300+ million Americans to get NOT FOR PROFIT HEALTHCARE!

[BeHereNow]

9. Exactly. How does he expect them to PAY for their insurance?

So they are now able to buy insurance.
That is not the same as access to health care, is it?

Some comfort, his speechifying on the subject,
to the people who are now able to buy insurance.
Too bad they are too broke to afford the policies.

If this is what my government considers health care reform,
than I am the queen of England.

BHN

[Bluebear]

11. Quiet. O-man is sexay sexay in his swimsuit.

:silly:

[AndrewP]

13. Yes, and really...isn't that all that matters?

Plus, the White House Holiday cards are gorgeous!!!! YAY!

[BeHereNow]

14. Bread and Circuses for the masses!

To keep their minds of their untreated medical conditions!

BHN

[GCP]

22. Yes, and isn't he playing 3-D chess?

:puke:

[TokenQueer]

Lol.

:D

[BzaDem]

30. Oh that's great. Let the 30 million people suffer, since you don't want them to have subsidies

for insurance. Yeah. You're really a progressive. :sarcasm:

[leftstreet]

33. Subsidize People, Not Insurance Companies

:thumbsup:

[BzaDem]

36. Given that what you want is obviously not going to happen

would you be comfortable with denying 30 million people subsidies for private health insurance, sentencing them to bankruptcy and/or death that they would not otherwise have with such subsidies?

[eridani]

47. They are still eligible for bankruptcy and death

The insourance companies retain complete control over payment of claimes. 60% of the bankrupt already hade the shitty overpriced insurance that congress is forcing on us.

[Bluebear]

38. +1

[bdamomma]

57. Bluebear just a question

were did you find your Christmas peace sign?

[Bluebear]

64. Momma....I "made" it...please feel free to use!

[bdamomma]

65. very creative thanks!

[BeHereNow]

43. THANK YOU!

I am livid right now at what some jerk replied to me with.
Some people have NO fucking clue.

BHN

[BeHereNow]

42. Can I have some of what you are smoking?

I have an adult child who needs medication to
live a normal life.

She has no insurance, no job and little prospect of a normal
life or access to health care which she will need the rest of her life.

I have tried numerous times to get her assistance.
So far, there is no light at the end of our tunnel.

HOW the FUCK is she supposed to cope, should anything happen to me?

She is not even able to manage getting an appointment,
much less jumping through miles of red tape to get subsidies.

You have no idea.
So STFU.
This is not a "progressive" vs "conservative" issue.
Access to health care is a HUMAN issue.
Access to buying INSURANCE or applying for subsidies to some one like my kid means NOTHING.
GET IT?
---- --- and the horse you can't even get out of the barn, much less ride.
BHN

On edit: FURTHERMORE...speaking of "progressive." Just how is it that
you are a progressive when you accept billions of dollars being spent
on our hegemonic military trampling of the world while millions of
people, who can't afford it, are now being mandated to purchase health care???
Like I said, my child has no ability to even fill out forms, much less PAY for
insurance or apply for subsidies. What is YOUR solution for that? WHERE is the solution in the current HCR bill for someone like that?
It IS NOT there.
But still we spend MORE than all the countries combined on the MIC- let's
not even start on the recent bail-out of the banksters.

[eridani]

48. The insurance on offer will make no difference in her life

It is a shitty, just barely more than catastrophic, which will require that she continue to to pay all of her costs out of pocket until a high deducttible is reached. You ssem to be confusing "insurance" with CARE.

From Dr Rachel Nardin of MA--

The study we released on Feb. 19 also reminds us that having health insurance is not the same thing as having health care. Despite having coverage, many Massachusetts residents cannot afford care. In some cases, patients are actually worse off under the reform than they were under the state's old system of free care because their new insurance has far higher co-pays for medications and care. According to a recent Boston Globe/Blue Cross Foundation survey, 13% of people with insurance in our state were unable to pay for some health services that they had received and 13% could not afford to fill necessary prescriptions. The reform does not appear to have reduced the numbers of people who were unable to get care that they needed because of the cost.

I will close with the story of one Massachusetts patient who has suffered as a result of the reform. Kathryn is a young diabetic who needs twelve prescriptions a month to stay healthy. She told us “Under Free Care I saw doctors at Mass. General and Brigham and Women's hospital. I had no co-payments for medications, appointments, lab tests or hospitalization. Under my Commonwealth Care Plan my routine monthly medical costs include the $110 premium, $200 for medications, a $10 appointment with my primary care doctor, and $20 for a specialist appointment. That's $340 per month, provided I stay well.” Now that she's “insured,” Kathryn's medical expenses consume almost one-quarter of her take home pay, and she wonders whether she'll be able to continue taking her life saving medications.

[polichick]

7. Way to use the bully pulpit - for a coward. nt

[Jamastiene]

8. Ahem

[truedelphi]

10. Obama has been rather pointedly noisy about health care.

First most emphasized topic:
Cost containment (He used the phrase "deficit neutral")

Good for that, said a lot of us who are disgusted by the high cost of nothing.

What could be better than discussing the over-inflation of the Big Medical People, the Big Insurers, and the Big Pharam people, thought many of us. (By Medical People, i don't mean docotrs, but Adminsitrators, BTW)

Let's fully discuss the high inflated prices and then roll them back!

High insurance premiums for HMO's that stall off treatment, or advise the wrong (Cheaper!) treatment.

No relationship of cost to manufacture to the price of sale to consumer - 300 pills made for two cents, then sold to the consumer for $ 11 a pill.

No discussion about why a cost should even apply to most things. In the seventies, Ob/gyn personnel decided to have all patients, whether they needed it or not, have the fetal heart moniter placed on mom's abdomen during delivery. Reason for this - so that the price to all wouold be a small surcharge, rather than an exorbitant price to the mom whose baby needed it. Fair enough, but NOW A DAYS, all of us are socked a huge surcharge for everything.

But the above discussion never happened. Obama was too busy running aroudn trying to appease the RW Teabaggers across the nation. He never had a clear message either - when responding to one Univ of Colorado student whose question was that if there was a strong public option, then Ohmigawd, no the poor insurers couldn't compete, Obama answered, "Well, uh, public option is only one of many tools and may not even be in the final version of the bill."

So "Deficit Neutral" came to mean "Cost containment" which came to mean that someone at CBO examined how many services, pills, procedures etc We the American Consumers would consume at the inflated prices. The onus was on us - we would be needy and greedy and would have inflated the budget unless the HCR bill was carefully structured to exclude many of us.


So the "reform" became an "elimination" measure. Many of us cannot benefit from the delivered HC "Reform." Thus the marginalized lower incomed will pay insurance premiums that will be over 40% of their after tax incomes, and will still have to pay up to $ 1,500 deductible. So many will not be able to afford the basics. (it will be sepecially bad for my age group, as premiums can be very costly for those of us over 45)

But hey that means that the richer people in America will have their costs subsidized by the poorer people, just like with Social Security!


Gr-r-r-r-r-r-r-r !!!!!!!!

[bluestateguy]

12. Bad reporting

Anonymous sources and rumors.

[cali]

15. this may or may not be factual, but I'll wait for a better source and a

story with more facts. I don't trust Huffypost.

[Deja Q]

19. There is a reason why they are known for being called "Huff'n'puff piece"

:)

[debbierlus]

16. Shame on him.

[bvar22]

17. "I am a New Democrat"---Barack Obama

http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=254931&kaid=85&subid=900184

"New Democrat" = Corporate Profits Pig


But who will speak for Americans who Work for a Living?

Answer: No one in the Obama Administration.



The DLC New Team
Republican Lite ONLY!
Working Class Democrats Need NOT Apply

(Screen Capped from the DLC Website)

[ClarkUSA]

26. "Two unnamed sources" are full of shit. He denied being DLC during his campaign last year...

And was never listed as a member during his entire time in the Senate.

[ima_sinnic]

29. well, I don't really believe much of anything he says anymore

whether or not he is "listed" as DLC, it is part of a person's being. It's an attitude, a mindset. And look at all the people around him, I mean, like everybody (I'm thinking of the people pictured in the DLC screenshot). Like it's only an "accident" he's surrounded by republican democrats like Rahm Emmanuel.

[Captain Hilts]

40. We know who the progressives around FDR were...

Eleanor
Hopkins
Ickes
Perkins
Wallace

But who around Obama is?

[ima_sinnic]

44. he seems to have made an effort to include none

his ludicrous "bipartisanship" and "conciliation" seem to extend only to Republicans--a kind of trojan horse way of making sure the PTB are represented and catered to in his administration. All other "groups" can bug off.

[bvar22]

32. Great marketing ploy, eh?

Run as the "anti-DLC/Clinton".
Worked too.

Then......The Reality:

The DLC New Team

(Screen Capped from the DLC Website)

Hope?
.
.
.
Nope.
Same old shit.

I just can't wait for DLC Stage 2:
"Entitlement Reforms"

[ima_sinnic]

45. yes, they're just setting the stage, dressing the window, for sucking the rest of the blood

out of us as they drain Social Security, Medicare, and anything else not earmarked for war profiteering. But they do it so nicely, with a D after their names.

[Freddie Stubbs]

55. And he certainly isn't governing like a DLCer, right?

;)

[Karmadillo]

18. Well, at least he kept his promise on escalating in Afghanistan.

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/2008-presidential-candidates/issues/candidates/barack-obama/

Do you have a plan to make health care more accessible to Americans? If so, how would you do it?

Every American has the right to affordable, comprehensive and portable health coverage. My plan will ensure that all Americans have health care coverage through their employers, private health plans, the federal government, or the states. My plan builds on and improves our current insurance system, which most Americans continue to rely upon, and creates a new public health plan for those currently without coverage. Under my plan, Americans will be able to choose to maintain their current coverage if they choose to. For those without health insurance I will establish a new public insurance program, and provide subsides to afford care for those who need them. My plan includes a mandate that all children have health care coverage and I will expand eligibility for the Medicaid and SCHIP programs to help ensure we cover all kids. My plan requires all employers to contribute towards health coverage for their employees or towards the cost of the public plan. Under my plan a typical family will save $2,500 each year. We will realize tremendous savings within the health care system from improving efficiency and quality and reducing wasted expenditures system-wide. Specifically, these savings will result from investments in health information technology, improvements in prevention and management of chronic conditions, increased insurance industry competition and reduced industry overhead, the provision of federal reinsurance for catastrophic coverage, and reduced spending on uncompensated care.

[polichick]

20. Yeah, funny which promises are important these days. nt

[freddie mertz]

49. And on THIS broken promise, the crickets chirp.

Not a word from the pep squad.

It sucks.

[Name removed]

21. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Thickasabrick]

24. Lieberman's just being his usual douchebaggy self. There are many

parts of the bill - public option being one of them. He didn't mention lots of parts. I've been irritated with our president about the escalation of late, but I think it is way to soon to pound on him for this.

[Canuckistanian]

25. Oh, great. Make Lieberman happy.

You know, with overwhelming public opinion in favor of the PO, and with the PO being the most talked about part of the Senate and House bills, you'd think Obama just might mention it.

But sadly, no.

So, opponents are happy. Wishy-washy supporters are happy. And the progressives are flushed down the toilet again.

Nice.

[MasonJar]

27. Now there is a shocker! What did he bother to go for?

[saracat]

28. Nothing about Stupak either I'll bet. Obama would sign anything to have a win.

[Algorem]

31. when's omama going to have a press conference?

[Cass]

34. No mention of the public option, why the hell not?

This is becoming very tedious and disappointing. A bill with no public option or with a weakened farce of a public option isn't going to cut it. I was hoping Obama would start showing a little fire in the belly for healthcare reform but I guess I am just dreaming.

[FormerDittoHead]

52. You know way. Because he doesn't want to 'own' what is to become of it.

After it's been crippled from this way to kingdom come to compromise with the Republicans who aren't voting for it, whoever runs in 2012 will make repealing the 'unwanted' public option their "mandate", if not the whole plan.

And it might be effective because I'm not going to be surprised that there's going to end up being a lot of "rich" people out there who make a whopping $60,000 a year who are going to be required to shell out $6-$12,000 a year for insurance, WON'T qualify for the public option, as well as not qualify for any assistance because they're "wealthy".

This is all worst case, however, it would be nice if he were willing to stretch his neck out a bit.

[Cass]

54. That's a good analysis and I fear you may be right.

The dem congress has an opportunity to pass a solid health care reform bill and likely won't have this opportunity again for a long time, yet blue dogs and republicans are calling the shots. Last year voters sent a clear message and rejected republican policies but our elected officials don't acknowledge it and continue to play footsy with republicans and blue dogs.

Republicans have a vested political interest in mucking up this bill and don't come to the table with good intentions.
Neither do the blue dogs, for that matter. This whole process is becoming depressing as hell.

[alcibiades_mystery]

35. How Seinfeld Explains Politics

Starting at 4:24, with the key passage 4:54-5:01.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=549HXbGI3Nk

No wait. The Left knows better! That's why they've been the dominant force in American electoral politics for the last 30 years.

[Vidar]

37. It takes work to lead less than Harry Reid, but Obama's up to it.

[moondust]

39. Lieberman is a spiteful wretch.

The Democratic Party didn't recognize him as their true leader so he's gonna get even.

[ima_sinnic]

46. gee, what a surprise--and in this case (unlike Afgahnistan) he outright LIED

sometime before getting elected: "A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that’s what I’d like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House."

Now: ""I have not said that I was a single payer supporter...."

videos of these moments in oratorial history: http://freedomeden.blogspot.com/2009/08/obama-single-payer-plan.html

So where are all the cheerleaders and sycophants telling me I shouldn't have voted for Obama if I didn't agree with his "campaign promise" of single payer?

[saracat]

63. If they can't scream "link" or "hater' they disappear. Facts bother them

[TacticalPeek]

58. Fuck that shit.

Even if he now suddenly grows into a good Democratic President, it won't help much.

The damage is done.

Fuckitall.

:grr:

[inna]

60. Absolutely disgusting.

Obama is a corporatist stooge, just like Baucus and Lieberman and Emmanuel and Co. Who needs Republicans with "Democrats" like these.

Hold on to your seats, Social Security/Medicare/"entitlement" reform is next. :grr:

[Blue_In_AK]

61. We are quite disappointed with President Obama

in this household. I have little doubt that Obama in his heart would prefer single payer, or at the very least a strong public option, but rather than confidently lead, he has let the conservatives completely frame this issue. It's very disappointing.

I wondered during the campaign if he could live up to his lofty speeches (and I got slammed pretty hard here for it), but my doubts seem to have been justified.

[varelse]

62. Well, at least Joe Lieberman is beaming

:puke: