We are repeatedly asked to believe that this administration's rhetoric will match its actions.

seafan

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Thu Nov-11-10 02:29 PM
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We are repeatedly asked to believe that this administration's rhetoric will match its actions.

Edited on Thu Nov-11-10 02:37 PM by seafan

When it was Summer of 2009, we were asked to believe that this administration's rhetoric would match its actions.

Obama still wants public option for health, September 7, 2010

.....Obama's speech came two days before he is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress on the progress of health care reform, where he is expected to state his bottom-line position on the issue that has led to multimillion ad campaigns for and against and a summer full of public forums. Members of Congress have gotten an earful from those who oppose Obama's call for a government-run alternative to private health insurance.

The president, though, didn't entirely tip his hand on what he will say.

"I want you all to tune in," Obama said, drawing a laugh from the crowd.

But Obama reiterated some core principles of reform in which people wouldn't lose health insurance if they lost their jobs, where there is a cap on out-of-pocket expenses and where people would not be denied coverage because of a pre-existing medical condition.

And he made it clear that he still believes in the "government option."

"And I continue to believe that a public option within the basket of insurance choices would help improve quality and bring down costs," he said.

When this was fresh in our minds:

Senator Max Baucus during health care hearings: 'We Need More Police.', May, 2009

(as discussed near the end of this entry)

.....�There may come a time when we can push for single-payer,� (Max Baucus) said in February. �At this time, it�s not going to get to first base in Congress.�

And helping it not to get to first base was� Max Baucus. It was Baucus� own committee that held the first round-table discussions on reform. In three days of hearings last May, he invited no fewer than 41 people to speak. The list featured all the usual industry hacks, including big insurers like America�s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), Blue Cross and Aetna. It�s worth noting that several of the organizations invited�including AHIP and Amgen�employ several former Baucus staffers as lobbyists, including two of his ex-chiefs of staff.

Not one of the 41 witnesses, however, was in favor of single-payer�even though eliminating the insurance companies enjoys broad public support. Leading advocates of single-payer, including doctors from the Physicians for a National Health Program, implored Baucus to allow them to testify. When he refused, a group of eight single-payer activists, including three doctors, stood up during the hearings and asked to be included in the discussion. One of the all-time classic moments in the health care reform movement came when the second protester to stand up, Katie Robbins of Health Care Now, declared, �We need single-payer health care!�

To which Baucus, who looked genuinely frightened, replied, �We need more police!� The eight protesters were led away in handcuffs and spent about seven hours in jail. �It�s funny, the policemen were all telling us their horror stories about health care,� recalls Dr. Margaret Flowers, one of the physicians who was jailed. �One was telling us about his mother who was 62 and lost her job and was uninsured, waiting to get Medicare when she was 65.� The protesters were sentenced to six months� probation. Baucus later met with them and conceded that not including single-payer advocates in the discussion had been a mistake, although it was �too late� to change that.

Single-payer advocates have had an equally tough time getting a hearing with the president. In March, the White House refused to allow Rep. John Conyers to invite two physicians who support single-payer to the health care summit that Obama was holding to kick off the reform effort. Three months later, a single-payer advocate named David Scheiner, who served as Obama�s physician for 22 years, was mysteriously bumped from a prime-time forum on health care, where he had been invited to ask the president a question.

..... From "Sick and Wrong", by Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone, April 5, 2010

Taibbi: 'This is a referendum on whether or not we actually have a functioning government.', August 24, 2009

Mr. President, these physicians are pointing out the way., August 26, 2009

We tried to make you hear us, Mr. President.

Poll: Public Says Voice Not Heard In Health Debate, September 30, 2009

But you turned your back on us.

The public option is dead, February 23, 2010

After months on life support, the public option died Tuesday.

The White House and House leaders on Tuesday pronounced the government-run health program dead even as some Democratic senators continued their effort to resurrect it.

.....

Now, it's November of 2010.

We are again asked to believe that this administration's rhetoric will match its actions.

White House Gives In On Bush Tax Cuts, November 11, 2010, by Howard Fineman and Sam Stein, 12:16 AM

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's top adviser suggested to The Huffington Post late Wednesday that the administration is ready to accept an across-the-board, temporary continuation of steep Bush-era tax cuts, including those for the wealthiest taxpayers.

That appears to be the only way, said David Axelrod, that middle-class taxpayers can keep their tax cuts, given the legislative and political realities facing Obama in the aftermath of last week's electoral defeat.

"We have to deal with the world as we find it," Axelrod said during an unusually candid and reflective 90-minute interview in his office, steps away from the Oval Office. "The world of what it takes to get this done."

"There are concerns," he added, that Congress will continue to kick the can down the road in the future by passing temporary extensions for the wealthy time and time again. "But I don't want to trade away security for the middle class in order to make that point."

.....

UPDATE: White House denies giving in on Bush tax cuts, November 11, 2010, by Greg Sargent

The story is overwritten. Nothing has changed from what the President said last week. We believe we need to extend the middle class tax cuts, we cannot afford to borrow 700 billion to pay for extending the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, and we are open to compromise and are looking forward to talking to the Congressional leadership next week to discuss how to move forward. Full Stop, period, end of sentence. -----White House comm director Dan Pfeiffer

The question remains, though, whether the White House will hold fast to Obama's demand last week that the extension of the tax cuts for the middle class remain permanent while extending the high end ones temporarily. The main sticking point is that Republicans won't allow the two categories to be extended for different durations, because that would force them to push for just an extension of the cuts for the rich later.

Time will tell who is telling the truth.

The barbarians have reached the gate for our Social Security and Medicare., November 10, 2010

Trumka: The chairmen of the Deficit Commission just told working Americans to �Drop Dead.� , November 10, 2010

The chairmen of the Deficit Commission just told working Americans to �Drop Dead.� Especially in these tough economic times, it is unconscionable to be proposing cuts to the critical economic lifelines for working people, Social Security and Medicare.

Some people are saying this is plan is just a �starting point.� Let me be clear, it is not.

This deficit talk reeks of rank hypocrisy: The very people who want to slash Social Security and Medicare spent this week clamoring for more unpaid Bush tax cuts for millionaires.

What we need to be focusing on now is the jobs deficit. Working families already paid for Wall Street�s party that tanked our economy. If we actually want to address our economic problems, we need to end tax breaks that send American jobs overseas and invest in creating jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and green technologies.

Pelosi, political left rip proposal from debt commission chairmen, November 10, 2010

The chairmen of President Obama�s fiscal commission sparked a political firestorm Wednesday with the early release of a report proposing sweeping changes to Social Security, Medicare and the tax code.

The plan would reduce the deficit by nearly $4 trillion over the next decade by making dramatic spending cuts and overhauling the tax code by wiping out deductions, such as the popular tax break on mortgage interest. ((seafan note: Don't miss that one.))

Labor unions and liberal Democrats lit into the preliminary proposal, which the two chairmen touted as the first serious plan to tackle the country�s growing debt.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said it was �simply unacceptable.�

�Any final proposal from the commission should do what is right for our children and grandchildren�s economic security as well as for our nation�s fiscal security, and it must do what is right for our seniors, who are counting on the bedrock promises of Social Security and Medicare,� she said in a statement.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said the chairmen had told �working Americans to �Drop Dead,�� while Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) faulted the report for cutting Social Security benefits while reducing corporate and upper-income taxes.

.....

Obama to Congress: Stop shooting down deficit proposals, November 11, 2010

Good morning from The Oval, and happy Veterans Day -- President Obama is in Seoul, South Korea, where today he said lawmakers in the United States should hold off on comments about his fiscal commission's proposals to slash the federal budget deficit through spending cuts, ending tax breaks, and a revamping of the Social Security system.

"Before anybody starts shooting down proposals, I think we need to listen, we need to gather up all the facts," Obama told reporters.

He added: "If people are, in fact, concerned about spending, debt, deficits and the future of our country, then they're going to need to be armed with the information about the kinds of choices that are going to be involved, and we can't just engage in political rhetoric."

Obama said he will await the commission's Dec. 1 formal report before commenting in detail. Members "are trying to round up 14 votes for certain aspects of the recommendations, and I want to make sure that they've got the room and the space to do so," he said.

.....

This is indefensible.

We saw the same cool detachment during the health insurance reform battle.

Not now, Mr. President. You must LEAD.

Why won't you say publicly that this deficit commission's mandate does not include looking at the solvency of SS and Medicare, which makes their calculated threats to SS and Medicare supremely irrelevant?

And why won't you say that you will oppose all of these radical plans aimed at gutting our social safety net by the likes of Alan Simpson, for crying out loud? But, then, you put him on this commission.

Here are the steps that need to be taken NOW.

1. Raise the cap on Social Security.

2. Increase taxes on the wealthy.

3. Let Bush's tax cuts expire at the end of December 2010. (Oh, and jettison this farce of a deficit commission. Looking at SS and Medicare solvency is not part of its mandate anyway.)

4. Expand Medicare for everyone.

5. Slash the "Offense" budget. (And how wise is it to arm both sides of the India-Pakistan conflict?)

These steps would go a long way toward pulling ourselves out of this mire.

As painful as it is to face, this administration is not up to the job of fighting for the people's interests or of resurrecting the now-moribund rule of law.

In a time of great crises affecting our nation, this man just does not have what it takes.

The image that was sold to us was an illusion. The rhetoric does not match the action.

We desperately need more than rhetoric, Mr. President. You are losing us. The people need rapid action, for it is nearly too late to reverse this downward spiral for so many people.