The Insurance Industry and Drug Cartel Protection Act of 2009

[Better Believe It]

If a strong public option isn't in the final healthcare legislation passed by Congress and signed by President Obama, it should be renamed "The Insurance Industry and Drug Cartel Protection Act of 2009" because that's what it would really be.

[babylonsister]

1. Yawn. Says you? nt

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

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

[Dinger]

26. + 1

Touché.

[NYC_SKP]

2. K & U. n/t

[Faryn Balyncd]

3. K&R - - Exposing the charade is the ONLY way we will EVER get real reform

[Jennicut]

4. Perhaps Obama should not have tried to reform it.

I think its probably going to end up backfiring on him. We won't get real reform in a Dem controlled congress with the blue dogs anyway.

[jeanpalmer]

5. Probably shouldn't have tried

once it was determined that the money is not there to do real reform. As Obama says, it would be too disruptive to implement single payer. So just bag health care reform for now. I think people would understand if it were explained to them.

Going the route he's going now with a complex plan that's hard to explain and that has minimal benefit, just creates a circus that the Republicans are exploiting.

If you can't do the real thing, don't do anything.

[Jennicut]

6. No, he will be tied down into making a bill happen now

I just think given how tied to the health care industry many of the blue dogs are why even bother? He won't get much and will be blamed for it in the end.

[debbierlus]

25. If Obama led the charge for REAL health care reform with a single payer system

He could have been a revolutionary leader.

He has reduced himself to corporate spokesman for big insurance & pharm.

When you try to make EVERYONE happy, you ultimately end up making no one happy.

[vaberella]

7. Why is it always the same with you? Obama has always said he won't sign a bill w/o strong PO.

Why is that so hard to get that you want to start some crazy uprising on this board?! Further more, you should spend most of your time and energy getting people motivated on what's going on at those Townhall meetings. Your are so quick to attack Obama on all fronts your not even realizing that if there is any poor legislation that passes Congress it's due to those crazy buffoons out on the damned street. Get people worked up to counter those actions so we can get something viable done...no you and another poster just focus your energy on O who has said time and again and again that he wants a public option.

Shit I remember when others like whined ad nauseum about the public option and when the discourse finally made the PO the focus, then you now want one that's viable. My ass, at this point I'm just seeing this whine fest so you attack the President when there's a host of externals who are affecting our situation and the possibility of a decent PO.

[Better Believe It]

8. Back that claim up with some credible and current links please.

Obama also supported single player until he was elected Senator.

[JTFrog]

9. You know why.

This is the song that never ends...

[Faryn Balyncd]

11. Nothing hurts the corporate troll silent "Unrecommenders" more than TRUTH.

They swarm like angry hornets to keep your thread off Greatest Page, and to take it down whenever it has gotten there.

But Howard Dean is on your side, and knows the truth:

"If you're not going to have a public option, don't pretend you're doing health reform"
- - - Howard Dean



and the truth is, that if the Public Option is stripped from the plan, what will be left is a mandate for all Americans to purchase overpriced insurance from a private-insurance-only system - - -in short the biggest single piece of corporate welfare legislation in our history.




Thanks for posting.

I trust your post will make it back to Greatest Page, where it belongs.

[ProSense]

12. Guess Dean is a troll

because he is one of the biggest supporters of the Democrats' plan:

Howard Dean on the Politics of Health-Care Reform

By Kate Pickert Tuesday, Jul. 21, 2009

Before he was governor of Vermont, chairman of the Democratic National Committee or a presidential candidate, Howard Dean was a family doctor. But don't expect him to weigh in on the health-reform debate in a soothing bedside manner. He's packing plenty of vitriol for both critics of President Obama's health-care proposals and the special interests jockeying for seats at the negotiating table. The former governor talked to TIME about his new book, Howard Dean's Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform, political wrangling over bills circulating in Congress and why bipartisanship is for suckers.

TIME: How optimistic are you that both houses of Congress will pass health-reform bills before the August recess, as President Obama is pushing for?

Dean: I'm very hopeful the House will pass a bill. I think it's going to be very hard for the Senate. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee passed a very good bill. The Senate Finance Committee has been unable to reach a bipartisan agreement, which doesn't surprise me. Frankly, I think the Republicans have no interest in reaching one. I've long believed the Democrats are going to be on their own.

What are the potential pitfalls if the Democrats are on their own?

I think it's a very good thing. I think the Republicans have correctly diagnosed that the way to stop Obama is to stop the health-care bill. They're determined not to have a bill. In the long run, we're going to have to do this on our own.

But even if Congress passes the health-care-reform legislation that Obama wants, it will take years to implement. Can the Democrats change things fast enough that health care won't be a liability for Obama if and when he runs for re-election?

Absolutely. Put in guaranteed issue and community rating at once, so people cannot be turned down for insurance in the private sector, nor can they have their insurance taken away because of an illness. He'll get huge credit for that and there's no budgetary cost.

<...>

Do you think everyone should be allowed to participate in the public plan?

Initially, absolutely not. You can't transition this too fast. You've gotta be careful. If you dump the entire private sector into the public option immediately, I think you'd have chaos, and that's not what we want.

In your opinion, what is missing from the House and Senate HELP bills?

I'm not going to answer your question. If you do have the public option, the rest will sort itself out. So I resolved not to criticize the House or the Senate bills over other matters like taxation and things like that.

link

[Faryn Balyncd]

13. Dean says if you eliminate the Public Option, DON'T PRETEND IT'S "REFORM" - exactly what the OP says

The OP is attacking the "pretend" reform that Dean opposes - - - that is, a plan from which the public option has been stripped.


If you support the RETENTION of the public option, as does Howard Dean and the OP, the OP is ON YOUR SIDE.

[ProSense]

16. If?

Isn't that a hypothetical. Dean acknowledged that the bills include a public option.

[dionysus]

14. another day, another diaper load.

[Faryn Balyncd]

17. The OP is arguing for RETENTION of the Public Option in our bill--He is NOT arguing against the bill

He is saying exactly what Howard Dean is saying: That if the Public Option is stripped it WILL ONLY PRETEND TO BE REFORM.

[ProSense]

18. "The Insurance Industry and Drug Cartel Protection Act of 2009 "

So he's advocating for a public option by describing the bills that include a strong public option by mischaracterizing the bills title?

Ludicrous.

[Faryn Balyncd]

19. He clearly states that if the final bill is STRIPPED of the public option, bill should be RENAMED

If you favor the bill WITH A STRONG PUBLIC OPTION, and oppose its TRANSFORMATION into a corporatist bill without a public option, then the OP is ON YOUR SIDE.

[EFerrari]

15. Yep. That's about right. n/t

[Faryn Balyncd]

20. I think some need to read beyond the title. The OP opposes the HIJACKING of our bill......

.... and favors RETENTION of the public option. He/she opposes the STRIPPING of the Public option. the OP is not an argument against the passage of our bill.

[JTFrog]

27. The OP opposes anything Obama and his administration does or doesn't do.

Nuff said.

[Better Believe It]

28. You need to improve your monitoring of DU'ers posts.

Are you performing this monitoring service for everyone?

Better Believe It (1000+ posts) Thu Aug-06-09 02:28 PM
Original message
Justice Sonia Sotomayor: "a significant moment in our nation's history."

Better Believe It (1000+ posts) Fri Jul-24-09 03:45 PM
Original message
Obama: Both Gates & Crowley probably overreacted, invites them to the White House for a beer!
Good! I think President Obama said exactly the right thing today ....

[JTFrog]

29. Nothing but slight of hand that ain't foolin no one. You have zero credibility here. n/t

[PHIMG]

21. This is the result of a Democratic Party that is largely in bed with Corporate America

Ask for very little reform in exchange for tons of new pork to "regulated" industries and then compromise away the menial reforms ("To get a bill done!")

We won't get real health care reform from the sold out jokers who run our party.

We need to take back the party from the ground up, vote out the corporatists and continue to build the movement that is demanding REAL REFORM -- HR676.

[Uncle Joe]

22. Kicked and recommended

Thanks for the thread, Better Believe It.

[Faryn Balyncd]

23. or maybe, "The Insurance Industry, Drug Cartel Protection, & Blue Dog Slush Fund Act of 2009"

[debbierlus]

24. Lost in the battle between far right & Obama devotees....

A clear, factual dialogue about the details of this plan.

If people had any real understanding of the realities of this piece of crap legislation, they would be furious...

[Better Believe It]

30. Perhaps it's almost time to rename the healthcare private insurance bill?