'The Errors of Matt Taibbi'

[Jackeens]

Matt Taibbi has done it again -- written a nightmare of a story for Rolling Stone on Obama's economic sell-out of his campaign. The piece is a factual mess, a conspiracy theorist's dream, doesn't even indict Obama for his real failures (which I'll discuss in a post later today) and of course invokes the cold hands of Bob Rubin like a bogeyman at every turn. This is pernicious for a lot of journalistic reasons, but politically it's bad for progressives beacuse conspiracy theories stand in the way of good policy analysis and good activism, replacing them with apathy and fear. Here we go:

* Jamie Rubin. James P. Rubin is a former Assistant Secretary of State in the Clinton Administration and not Bob Rubin's son. He informally helped Hillary Clinton transition into her role as Secretary of State. James S. Rubin is Bob Rubin's son, and had a similarly unofficial role in the economic transition. Neither were on staff, on the advisory boards, or on an agency review team.

* Austan Goolsbee "didn't make the cut." Goolsbee remains one of Obama's key economic advisers and has the president's ear from his posts on the National Economic Council and the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board. He skipped transition work and went to work immediately in those posts.

More: http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=12&year=2009&base_name=oh_matt_taibbi

[tabatha]

1. Thank you, thank you.

Matt Taibbi has done this before:

"Taibbi may have a point here, but who would know since he has a history of mendaciousness in covering the few real leaders in Democratic politics. Dean has already been mentioned, but that was as nothing compared to the nasty, biased hatchet job Taibbi did on Wesley Clark. The piece on Clark as NATO commander was replete with inaccuracies, false assertions, and just plain lies, since the truth was widely known and available and Taibbi willfully chose to ignore it. Since then I take everything written by Taibbi with a large block of salt." Eriecanaller on Rolling Stone.

But he will be popular on DU DESPITE THE LIES !!!!! AND FALSE ASSERTIONS !!!!

I think some on the left are as bad as those on the right.

[Connie_Corleone]

3. I'll never forget that horrible article he wrote about Clark.

[sudopod]

11. Humanity as a whole has a problem with confirmation bias. nt

[janx]

12. And today's media make that worse than ever.

They prey on it.

[billh58]

75. Those on the

Far Left ARE as bad as those on the Far Right: both fringe groups are very vocal, and shout the loudest, in order to make up for their lack of numbers and influence. It is also very telling that their levels of rage, incivility, and vitriol are in direct proportion to the amount of righteous indignation they can generate during a defensive tirade.

The good news is that, when annoyed, they are fun to watch...;-)

[Sparkly]

84. Grrr...

:mad: :mad: :mad:

[femrap]

96. Sone on the Left as bad as those on the right?

Never.

[Larkspur]

2. Geithner, Summers and all the Rubinites need to be fired

They don't give a damn about ordinary Americans. Wall Street is their home and they don't want it regulated.

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

18. Well said. Kick, nt.

[Blue_Tires]

44. exactly.... that's still the bottom line...

[Dinger]

49. +1000

[polichick]

55. Yes, this is the issue. nt

[dionysus]

4. good read but don't expect any apologies from anyone.

[Cha]

32. Don't expect them to even acknowledge it..they

will dowse these facts with red herrings and think they've accomplished something.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

54. I take it you support Geithner, Summers and Rubin

are you a Wall Street CEO?

[mkultra]

66. i support geithner but not the others

and im not. I just understand economics and am not a complete socialist. I also think that Tabbia is a douch.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

72. Who is Tabbia? n/t

[mkultra]

91. Oh, did i mispell a douchbags name. Sorry there spearityall_bunfighter

[spiritual_gunfighter]

99. correct spelling

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x502160

[vaberella]

34. We'd sooner be told to apologize to Kucinich. n/t

[Forkboy]

77. And you guys wouldn't do that either.

Maybe someone can explain how the two are any different.

[Mithreal]

83. whatever. zero respect for people who mock Kucinich supporters.

[HughMoran]

5. I still remember another disaster of his posted here recently

He's become a "roll my eyes" writer.

[AllexxisF1]

6. Urgh.

So he corrects some relationship errors but evidently there is nothing wrong with the breath of the article. All you have to do is see what this Administration and Goldman Sachs cronies did to the Wall Street reform bill.

Matt is correct in his assessment.

[Name removed]

35. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[stevenleser]

7. A devastating indictment.

Speaks for itself.

[DontTreadOnMe]

8. Matt's story was dead on

OK, a few small MINOR details were wrong, but the MAIN part of his story was DEAD CORRECT

[Phx_Dem]

16. If you don't count facts, he's right on. Just like Fox News.

:rofl:

That's like saying Fox News is right on except for "few minor errors." Tiabbi's story, YET AGAIN, is riddled with factual erros and flat-out wrong statements.

[uponit7771]

23. If the germain facts aren't correct how can it be "dead on"?

[boppers]

102. What's a germain?

:evilgrin:

[Cha]

33. That's called Denial and you just fell right through the cracks.

[camera obscura]

45. Truthiness!

[janx]

19. People don't understand that facts matter.

They also don't understand that pure opinion isn't arguable.

[DontTreadOnMe]

26. On the major point – that the Obama Administration is more of the same – he is right.

I guess the DU'ers are missing the point of Taibbi's article. THOSE FACTS they seem to blissfully ignore.

[DontTreadOnMe]

28. Show me where the FACTS are wrong with this statement:

"The point is that an economic team made up exclusively of callous millionaire-assholes has absolutely zero interest in reforming the gamed system that made them rich in the first place. . . ."

So many DUers have sold out themselves.

[janx]

30. That is an opinion, not a fact.

I might agree with it, but that doesn't make it a fact. And if a writer gets facts wrong, his opinions are weakened.

Facts are not arguable (because they are facts).
Opinions are not arguable (I like vanilla ice cream--therefore it's the best ice cream; joe blow is an asshole, etc.).
Opinions based on facts ARE arguable (Ben and Jerry's vanilla ice cream is the best because of x, y, z nature of its ingredients; joe blow is an asshole because he ripped off millions of specific taxpayers to the tune of $xxx,000,000).

So if a writer gets his facts wrong, his opinions don't mean much, whatever his intentions. It's just sloppy writing.

[nxylas]

86. Sounds like the AGW deniers

"If Al Gore got the number of dead polar bears wrong in An Inconvenient Truth, how can we trust him when he says that carbon dioxide emissions cause climate change?"

[janx]

90. Now there's an analogy!

:think:

A false one. Please don't be so quick to make assumptions. ;-)

[Cha]

42. That's his opinion and I already know he lies. And, as

for your assertion that "So many DUers sold out", that's just another opinion from someone who's defending the liar, matt taibbi.

[boppers]

101. "an economic team made up exclusively of callous millionaire-assholes" is a LIE.

A flat out, bald faced, propagandistic lie, no less.

The big clue to his mendacity? Over-reaching generalization.

Here's the trigger: "team made up of exclusively...".

For this to be true, *everybody* on the team has to be a millionaire. Not just the top players, but *everybody*. The mere presence of a single third string advisor or policy consultant or administrative assistant who isn't a millionaire proves the lie.

[jgraz]

38. Really? How, exactly, is it devastating?

Yeah, he puts up a lot of bullet points, but if you actually *read* them, you'll see that it's basically a bunch of whiney nitpicks, differing opinions and outright falsehoods.

[Kdillard]

9. Huge k and r. It is one thing to be against Obama's economic

Policies based on facts but another to write a complete hatchet job of lies.

[depakid]

10. The gist of the article was unfortunately correct

and the evidence of that is plain to see in the policies and their aftermath- though of course, these extend to many so called "democrats" in Congress as well.

In addition- many of the criticisms here are either outright ridiculous- or involve the sort of nitpicking backlash to be expected when someone writes a expose of this nature.

[uponit7771]

25. Even after passing the finance reform today? TIA

[depakid]

27. I'll wait to see the final form before judging it

and of course, will be watch regulatory and enforcement actions taken (and not taken) by the administrative agencies (including Justice).

The bottom line though- the gist so to speak is that the administration is packed with those who have poor track records- and the policies thus far are coming from the same cadre that Taibbi discusses at length. Not exactly confidence inspiring... though I'm always pleased to be proven wrong by successful results.

[jgraz]

39. Yeah, cuz that worked so well with Health Care Reform

:eyes:

[Teaser]

56. HCR is working well as far as I am concerned

it's a workable mess. I'm happy with it.

[jgraz]

62. Respectfully suggest your expectations are far too low.

[girl gone mad]

13. Tim Fernholz is wrong.

"The legislation actually only allows federal regulators to use funds taxed from banks to assist them in a crisis; if they want to use taxpayer money, Congress can say no."

While it's hard to know what the final bill will look like since lobbyists keep stuffing it with last minute additions, as it exists right now, the House bill proposes to give the Fed the ability to create and spend money to rescue any financial institution it deems to be “too big to fail”, including investment houses, insurance companies, hedge funds and any other private pools money whose collapse might endanger the financial system.

Taibbi's fundamental assertion, that this administration represents more of the same when it comes to enabling Wall Street's corruption and avarice.

[girl gone mad]

29. too late to edit but what I meant to say was:

Taibbi's fundamental assertion, that this administration represents more of the same when it comes to enabling Wall Street's corruption and avarice, is correct.

I was just looking over the bill again. The Fed will get to do an end-run around congress and print money to prop up any institution the Fed chair so chooses. Fernholz is wrong, Taibbi is right. Hard to take the rest of Fernholz's criticism seriously, given that he got this fundamental fact wrong.

[jgraz]

36. Ferholz's article is nothing but distortions, nitpicks and flat-out falsehoods

I look forward to seeing Taibbi take him apart.

[Phx_Dem]

14. Matt Tiabbi is so full of shit his eyeballs are floating. This is not

the first time one of his stories have been so factually inaccurate it warranted pages of corrections.

He's about as accurate as Fox News, and he also comes off as a smug, self-centered asshole.

[HughMoran]

15. Not surprising the "do no right" crew loves it

...and makes excuses for it's inaccuracies.

Who needs Free Republic to see the face of the enemy any more?

[depakid]

17. If you'd read the article and the criticisms

you'd realize that some of these "corrections" weren't anything of the sort- they were simply differences of opinion and attribution.

Indeed- the critic lost as much credibility in my mind as Taibbi has for not fact checking certain details.

[Azathoth]

20. Heresy! This must have been written by Teh CorporationS1!!

Did you know Tim Fernholz's mother's brother's third-cousin's step-father's friend's former roomate once ate lunch at the same McDonald's that Bob Rubin used to frequent? Coincidence? I think not!

[janx]

21. AHAH!!1!

:rofl:

[chill_wind]

22. Well..... there is also this rather supportive critique of Taibbi's article

which was linked in the comments

Matt Taibbi: Obama’s Big Sellout

Edward Harrison on 11 December 2009 at 9:17 am



Matt Taibbi is one of the few commentators in the mainstream media who is not worried about ‘access’ and has, therefore, been free to write much more critically about the economic crisis and reform efforts on Wall Street.

His first piece was a polemic against Goldman Sachs, which triggered a backlash against the venerated Wall Street firm due to its incestuous relationship with Washington. Afterwards, he took on health care reform. Now, he is taking on the Obama Administration and its status quo bias. I have an excerpt below and a link to the full article. But, first, let me say a few words.

( see the rest of the write-up)

That’s it. I’ve said my piece. Here is the Taibbi excerpt now. I don’t agree with everything Taibbi says and his tone is a lot more apoplectic than mine; but that is mostly stylistic. On the major point – that the Obama Administration is more of the same – he is right. Here he talks about the Citi bailout

(see link)

Taibbi assumes intent and damns the actors as a result. He writes as if Froman and Geithner openly colluded in some way to favour Citi. But you don’t need to prove intent (see internal link), you only need to prove motive. I don’t care if Froman or Geithner ‘intended’ to favour Citi over other institutions; I care whether they were mentally predisposed to helping Citi and other large institutions at the expense of others because they ascribed unwarranted and disproportionate importance to them. Unfortunately, cognitive regulatory capture leads to crony capitalism just as outright corruption would do.



http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2009/12/matt-taibbi-obamas-big-sellout.html

Author's about:

http://www.creditwritedowns.com/about

(bold emphasis edit- mine)

[girl gone mad]

46. Barry Ritholz backs Taibbi, too..

From http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/12/did-obama-sellout-to-wall-street/">The Big Picture:

When Did Obama Sellout To Wall Street?

Today’s must read MSM article comes to us via Rolling Stone: Matt Taibbi’s takedown of how the Obama White House has been corrupted by Wall Street insiders — Obama’s Big Sellout.

I have been calling the President “Barack W. Obama” for some time; Obama’s Big Sellout squares up with my views of his economic team as more of the same economic policies of the 43rd president.

Ritholz is no teabagger or leftist punk. He's about as mainstream as it gets in the world of financial writing.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

76. Here is Taibbi's response to the American Spectator article

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x502160

[LooseWilly]

98. Nice... I noticed half the "critiques" of Taibbi's article seemed like re-interpretations.

Interesting to get Taibbi's reactions themselves.

(Taibbi often sounds like a self-righteous asshole... but he's starting to grow on me. Or maybe I'm becoming more of a self-righteous asshole myself... :) )

[impik]

24. Pathetic loser

With cheer-leading crowd as pathetic as he is.

[Cha]

31. Jackeens, thank you for this article from

The American Prospect by Tim Fernholz!

Course the matt taibbi version is set in stone in the outragesphere but I appreciate these facts, that taibbi ignored, to the utmost.

[amborin]

37. criticisms of Taibbi are full of holes; much evidence all around

[SpartanDem]

40. Mat Taibbi is the very definition of a tool

[Cha]

41. He's not alone..there's a whole toolshed full of them..

and not the sharpest obviously or they'd get their facts down and disingenuousness be damned.

[camera obscura]

43. I've really disliked Taibbi ever since he showed his ass on racial politics

calling Holder an idiot for suggesting America still carries some of the racial baggage of the '50s.

Typical "progressive" who only cares about liberal values until little things like "racism", "sexism", and "homophobia" become inconvenient to him.

It doesn't help that he's not nearly as clever as he thinks he is, and only hops on stories like the economic crisis after the ACTUAL journalists and political scientists have done work.

[Mithreal]

47. Calling out errors is a good thing

[chill_wind]

50. As long as the so-called fact checker gets all HIS facts right,

(see example below-- re: Rubin)

[Mithreal]

73. true

[Mithreal]

100. Argh, after investing more time in understanding this, I want my rec back

[chill_wind]

48. And for the record..

there was some question about Jamie Rubin being son of Robert, and whether Matt Taibbi was right on that. he is — here is the NYT article noting his role with the transition, and that he is son of Bob.

This is confusing because there are two Jamie Rubins. The other also worked in the Clinton administration, but as a State Dept spokesperson. The Times got confused by this, too (see the correction in that article)

Here is the LittleSis page for Jamie, note the references at the left.

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/18369

[fishnfla]

51. Dude, stop making stuff up

thanks for the link

[mcablue]

52. And how do we know Tim Fernholz' claims are right?

?

[Teaser]

58. try reading

you'd be surprised. There are many periodicals and references that are not only available on the computer network sometimes called the internet, but copies can be found at most largish "libraries".

[mcablue]

60. You basically said nothing

By the same logic, Taibbi's claims are right because the internet exists and periodicals exist.

[earth mom]

53. More denial that stinks to high heaven like the bullshit it is. nt

[mkultra]

67. you are ate up by hatred

You see only sickness and disease. Do you feel strange when you force a small across your cracked lips?

[earth mom]

105. You have no clue who I am or what I am about.

But I will tell you that I'm sick of the rich and well connected exploiting those who don't have the money or power to fight back.

And that includes American Soldiers who are fighting in a war that is based on lies, greed and religious hatred.

Those soldiers joined the military out of a sense of patriotism but also because they needed a steady and secure job.

It is criminal to ask those soldiers to put their lives on the line so corporate america can line their pockets and so Obama and the rest of his administration can please whoever in the hell they are trying to please for political reasons.

You can sit there and fling shit about who you think I am-which is totally fucking wrong-but that does not change the fact that greedy power hungry warmongers are killing innocent people on both sides of the fence for the sake of greed and power.


FYI-people like YOU who do not speak out against these crimes have blood on their hands too.

The bad karma of your passive acceptance and cheerleading will kick you in the ass someday.

[Teaser]

57. facts don't matter, dammit

all that matters is that I'm mad and I need someone to tell me who to be mad at.

That's where Taibbi comes in.

[NashVegas]

59. Ain't It TOO FUCKING BAD Matt Drank the Kool-Aid In 2008

And spent the spring going on Real Time to tell us how horrible Hillary Clinton was?

[spiritual_gunfighter]

61. Read and learn something

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=502076&mesg_id=502076

[bvar22]

63. The American Prospect ?

:rofl:

I'm sure there will be another flailing and failing "rebuttal" on The American Prospect's other site:
http://www.dlc.org/



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

(Screen Capped from the DLC Website)

[Yavin4]

64. Taibbi Is Trying To Sell A Narrative That Bob Rubin and Goldman Sachs Control The Obama Admin

And he bends the actual facts to prove his thesis. That's dishonest journalism, and it's not true.

[bvar22]

65. Please, PLEASE go to the link and read the comments:

Yeah, I'm sure a lot of folks are actually going to take your word over Taibbis

How does it feel to be a second rate Ari Fleischer? Apologia is all the so-called progress media has left.

Really, these countless apologies for Obama are getting tired.

Your priorities seem a bit out of whack here. Instead of critiquing Taibbi's critique, how about making your own? You seem to have enough evidence for one, and yet, you choose to defend Obama instead.

Soullite is dead on with this one. TAPPED has become the new FOX, just for a much smaller audience.

3 comments say you are a douchebag, tim.

let's make it four, shall we ?

More apologies. Most of your critiques of Taibbi are irrelevant or barely make a dent in Taibbi's narrative. Read your own text again: you call the CFPA 'somewhat compromised', reaffirm that Karen Kornbluh has been shipped off to Siberia, etc. I'm tired of so-called progressives tamping down on outrage with these strained apologies. This is the time for populism.

[Vinnie From Indy]

68. This thread is mildly amusing!

It is amusing in that many on the thread show an underdeveloped understanding of debate. More to the point, it is obvious that many on both sides have wedged themselves in believing that everything is all black or all white. This absolutist viewpoint is a mistake. The fact is that the world is usually grey and perfection is an extremely rare commodity in any field.

While Taibbi may be mistaken on several factual elements of this story, it is a mistake to dismiss out of hand the central theme of his article and those elements that are correct and support that theme.

Beware those encouraging you to suspend reality and insist on perfection. Use your own intellect to differentiate between the wheat and the chaff.

[chill_wind]

78. This works for me:

I don’t care if Froman or Geithner ‘intended’ to favour Citi over other institutions; I care whether they were mentally predisposed to helping Citi and other large institutions at the expense of others because they ascribed unwarranted and disproportionate importance to them. Unfortunately, cognitive regulatory capture leads to crony capitalism just as outright corruption would do.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/

[flyarm]

69. Harry Reid Slips Lifetime Limit Into Senate Bill

Harry Reid Slips Lifetime Limit Into Senate Bill

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2009/12/11/harry-reid-slips-lifetime-limit-into-senate-bill/

Harry Reid Slips Lifetime Limit Into Senate Bill
By: Jane Hamsher Friday December 11, 2009 8:34 am

When President Obama gave his speech on health care on September 10, he promised that there would be no limit on lifetime benefits under the health care bill:

They will no longer be able to place some arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or a lifetime. We will place a limit on how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses, because in the United States of America, no one should go broke because they get sick.

Harry Reid didn’t agree evidently. Reid, who is solely responsible for crafting the bill that he introduced in the Senate, decided that there should be a limit on lifetime benefits. So when people get sick and have huge bills for things like biologic drugs that cost $50,000 or $100,000 a year, whose bills could become “unreasonable” because Congress is granting drug manufacturers “indefinite monopolies” (per Henry Waxman) that prevent generics from coming to market to compete with them, Harry Reid thinks they should eventually be cut off:

A loophole in the Senate health care bill would let insurers place annual dollar limits on medical care for people struggling with costly illnesses such as cancer, prompting a rebuke from patient advocates.

The legislation that originally passed the Senate health committee last summer would have banned such limits, but a tweak to that provision weakened it in the bill now moving toward a Senate vote.

[flyarm]

70. I Can Believe It’s Not Medicare: Schumer, Baucus “Fixing” Buy-In Plan

I Can Believe It’s Not Medicare: Schumer, Baucus “Fixing” Buy-In Plan
I Can Believe It’s Not Medicare: Schumer, Baucus “Fixing” Buy-In Plan
By: Jon Walker Friday December 11, 2009 7:45 am

Allowing younger people to buy into Medicare sounds like a good idea. Medicare is a well-run and cost-effective program. The problem is that the latest reports indicate this “Medicare buy-in” idea might not really be Medicare at all, it might in fact be fake Medicare:

Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said efforts were under way to address concerns raised by senators, including the low reimbursement rates for hospitals and doctors.

“All of the problems that people have mentioned, we are mindful of,” said Schumer, who worked to develop the package with 10 moderate and liberal senators. “Every one you have mentioned has been brought up in our discussions, and we didn’t ignore any of them.”

snip: as per DU rules:

This change would result in this fake Medicare program having much higher premiums and a smaller provider network. It would also result in greater administrative overhead. This fake Medicare would lack almost all the benefits of Medicare. A Medicare buy-in program that does not actually allow people to fully buy into real Medicare is a farce. Beware: it looks like we are about to get fake Medicare for Christmas.


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Harry Reid, Crook for PhRMA, Tries to Kill Drug Reimportation
By: Jane Hamsher Friday December 11, 2009 6:08 am

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2009/12/10/harry-reid-... /

snip:

The CBO says that drug reimportation would save the government $19 billion dollars, and the public $100 billion dollars. In reality, however, Jon Walker estimates it could be more like $400-$500 billion, if the reimported drugs pressure the price of US drugs down.
Sounds like a good thing, right? Except Harry Reid uses his control over procedure to do what Harry Reid wants to do. (Tell that fish story about “60 votes” and Joe Lieberman being the block to anything to someone else.) And what he wants to do is block Dorgan’s drug reimportation bill, and protect Obama’s PhRMA deal.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2009/12/09/the-public -... -“deal”-that-does-not-sound-like-it-is-even-a-deal-yet/
Public Option “Deal” Does Not Yet Sound Like It is Even a Deal
By: Jon Walker Wednesday December 9, 2009

What is in this deal that might not be a deal? The answer is that I don’t really know, and it seems like most of the Democratic senators don’t even know yet.

Medicare Buy-In

It sounds like the vague outline of the deal includes an early Medicare buy-in for some subset of people between the age of 55-64. (Whether this is a buy in for Medicare or for Conrad’s fake Medicare is not yet determined.) It at least sounds like this program might not be just a temporary stopgap, and will start in 2011.

That buy-in option would initially be made available to some uninsured people aged 55-64 in 2011, three years before the exchanges open. For the period between 2011 and 2014, when the exchanges do open, the Medicare option will not be subsidized–people will have to pay in without federal premium assistance–and so will likely be quite expensive, the aide noted. However, after the exchanges launch, the Medicare option would be offered in the exchanges, where people could pay into it with their subsidies.

Remember, the exchanges, at first, will only be open to roughly 10% of Americans, so it is only a very small group of 55-64 year olds who would have the option of buying in to Medicare. With this provision, the devil really is in the details. It could be done well, or it could easily devolve into a worthless Medicare buy-in in name only.


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

CWA Slams Senate Health Care Bill: “Would Make our Health Care System Worse”

http://workinprogress.firedoglake.com/2009/11/20/cwa-sl ... /

CWA Slams Senate Health Care Bill: “Would Make our Health Care System Worse”


By: Michael Whitney Friday November 20, 2009

The Communications Workers of America just put out a statement hitting the Senate health care bill, specifically slamming the regressive excise tax on health care plans. Their statement (emphasis mine):

The Senate bill’s proposal to tax health care benefits would make our health care system worse, not better. This new tax, which is opposed by the majority of Americans, would affect millions of families. Average families who clearly don’t have “Cadillac” health care plans would owe thousands of dollars in new taxes.

Taxing health care benefits is a bad public policy that would hit millions of families hard as employers cut back health care benefits to avoid the tax. The idea that this tax will curtail rising premiums is just wrong.

CWA supports health care reform that is fairly financed, and the House bill has a better approach. It fully funds health care reform by making large employers pay toward their workers’ coverage, adding a modest surtax on the wealthiest Americans and including a public option.

CWA will work with Senate Majority Leader Reid and other Senators to produce a bill that will provide the real health care reform that working and middle income families deserve.

Those are strong words from one of the country’s most influential unions, going beyond the AFL-CIO’s tepid praise and SEIU’s lauding of the Senate for the bill. CWA was part of an ad pushed by AFL-CIO member unions last month hitting the same excise tax in the Senate Finance Committee bill, but appears to have gone one step further than other major unions with this statement.


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Public Option Grand Compromise Becomes A Grand Big Nothing
By: Jon Walker Tuesday December 8, 2009
snip;
For starters, the Medicaid expansion has completely been dropped, even though it would have been a big money saver for the government:

This afternoon, Jay Rockefeller said that the new proposal to expand Medicaid coverage for those who are 133% to 150% above the federal poverty line was dropped during a meeting of key legislators this morning. “I was sad this morning,” Rockefeller told me and a few other reporters. “We walked in, and it was 133 to 140, then it’s staying at 133… So we didn’t get anything.”

Now we are getting reports that the Medicare buy-in is not really a buy-in. . . or really Medicare. Senators are looking at restricting the Medicare buy-in so completely that it will be an option for almost no one. It will likely only be for a very tiny segment of poor and very unhealthy 55-64 year-olds:

Negotiators are considering limiting consumers to those who would qualify for high-risk insurance pools already set up under the Senate’s health care legislation. This would mean primarily those who have been uninsured for a certain amount of time, have a history of poor health or are unable to get insurance because of a preexisting condition.

Adding insult to injury, the “Medicare” this tiny fraction of people could buy in to might end up not even really being Medicare:

Conrad said that he’d propose having the Medicare buy-in be treated as “a separate pool” that could have negotiated rates, rather than those set by the existing Medicare program.


http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2009/12/08/public-opti ...

[andym]

71. The best part of the article is here

"Is it disconcerting that employees of the financial industry make a ton of money? Yes. Is it the revolving door between Washington and Wall Street problematic? Yes. Does the Administration take it too easy on the banks? Absolutely. Are White House advisers too centrist for progressive tastes? Sure. But when you try and tell that story with a lot of lies and innuendo, and misunderstand the basic policies that these people are producing, you don't hurt them. Now anyone who criticizes the Administration will just be lumped in with Taibbi's meandering conspiracy. (Sidenote, I thought it was Goldman Sachs we all had to be worried about?) The problems Taibbi tries to describe aren't some kind of ridiculous cabal. They come from group-think and structural influences and as a result of a complex interplay of interests and institutions; the policies they produce aren't either good or evil, they're in need of analysis to determine which help regular people, which hurt them and how to change the latter into the former.

Doing the work is hard. But if you want to make a dent, you have to do it. "

------------------
I would like to see the author expand on these points, they are apropos and can have constructive consequences if acted upon.

[Cha]

80. Writers like matt taibbi are intellectually dishonest and lazy..

It's too much trouble for him not to be a booagbear:scared:

Taibbi does a disservice but in bashing Obama he has a captive audience.. so why put himself out?

[Mithreal]

82. May be a teensy bit of truth there, but is still ad hominem and therefore "intellectually dishonest"

Compared to all the "lazy" "journalists" out there this isn't even close to a fair charge.

Maybe if he didn't have a personality or used less loaded language people would be more likely to approve of him, but he wouldn't be Matt Taibbi anymore.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/25329027/bush_apologizes_the_farewell_interview_we_wish_hed_give/print

[Cha]

87. I disagree..I stand by my post.

[Mithreal]

88. I respect your opinion. Just disagree.

[Mithreal]

81. "you don't hurt them" - Wouldn't hurt them with the "truth" either.

"But when you try and tell that story with a lot of lies and innuendo, and misunderstand the basic policies that these people are producing, you don't hurt them."

[PurityOfEssence]

74. Obama said that on 9-11 we were attacked from Afghanistan; who's worse?

Just because someone gets certain things wrong doesn't negate EVERYTHING he says.

Yes, the article was rather sloppy, but that doesn't refute the core point: this is power-stroking of the most cynical kind, and IT WON'T WORK over time.

[ipaint]

79. The one minor error of Matt Taibbi

"When we went to print with the latest Rolling Stone piece about Obama’s economic hires, a couple of my sources advised me to expect some nastiness in the way of a response from Obama apologists. One jokingly suggested that there would be a waiting period to see if anyone even read the piece first, and only if there was enough negative buzz would I start getting hit with the charges of being an irresponsible conspiracy theorist, factually sloppy, and so on."

http://trueslant.com/matttaibbi/2009/12/12/on-obamas-sellout-bailout-tarp-rubin-goldman-sachs-robert-bob-tim-geithner-hamilton-project-derivatives-financial-reform-citibank/#more-1170

[jonnyblitz]

85. aah, GREAT rebuttal to this American Prospect piece.

thanks for posting.

[ipaint]

89. You are welcome.

It's not a sloppy article, he told the truth. The problem is some people don't want to hear it. Obama is a very conservative, pro big business, pro free trade dlc democrat. It would be unusual if he didn't stack his administration with longtime industry insiders. Unfortunately for him he picked the ones that created the problem he's dealing with. I don't think that was an accident.

Taibbi is being attacked in the same fashion that republicans were attacked by fellow repubs for being critical of bush when he was in office. The practice is rather cultish but to be expected.

[Hamlette]

92. Why is it that left leaning journalists go after politicians on the left but not vice versa?

Right leaning journalists say they didn't support Bush NOW, but they spent the last 8 years trashing dems who dared to say something as mild as "the arms inspectors couldn't find WMD, maybe we shouldn't go to war in Iraq". Each and every f-ing one of them call us unpatriotic, stupid, traitors.

Ok, Shepherd on Fox, twice during the 8 Bush years, said he disagreed with some Bush policy (a no brainer like torture if I recall) but apart from that, anything?

Taibbi seems like the anti-rock star rock star wanna be

[ipaint]

93. Probably because real journalists don't tow the party line if it means lying.

Good journalists question authority regardless of side. Helen Thomas comes to mind. So doesn't Bill Moyers and William Greider.

[Hamlette]

94. then we're doomed

if progressive thought is under attack 100% of the time but the media (old and new) I don't see any hope.

I'm not asking honest critics to shut up, Just provide a little context.

[ipaint]

95. Progressive thought?

It's not progressive to put the criminals in charge of the bailout, or the murdering ins. companies in charge of health care reform. Facts are facts. Administrations on both sides for the last 30 years have been about increasing the power of the hoarders at the top with the price being paid by workers, the poor and now the lower middle class.

Of course we are doomed. Between climate change, the massive hoarding of wealth allowed by unfettered capitalism worldwide and resource wars we probably have a couple more generations before the whole mess collapses if we are lucky.

The honest critics are trying to tell people the truth.

[apocalypsehow]

97. Excellent article, and one that contains, you know, *actual facts*. Taibbi's been owned. n/t.

:thumbsup:

[boppers]

103. Tabbi writes for Rolling Stone. That's pretty damning in itself.

Getting political news from Rolling Stone is like getting political news from Comedy Central. Or Faux.

Sure, it may be funny, or snarky, but accurate? Uh..., no. It's a *music* magazine.

What's up next: Perez Hilton on Foreign Policy?

[Enrique]

104. not much of a debunking after all

other than Jamie Rubin, it doesn't really produce any factual errors (Taibbi has done much much worse in other articles), just different interpretations, and isn't very convincing that its interpretation is any better than Taibbi's.

[Moochy]

106. Thank Gawd it Passed!

It's good to have some longknives out those pom poms' were getting boring!11

Taibbi = pariah !!!!1111 plus he's balding!