Rachel Maddow To Obama - Ignore Medicare For All and the Public option 'at your very grave peril'

[democracy1st]

Run time: 06:15 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPIPxjLH0DQ   Posted on YouTube: February 25, 2010 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: February 25, 2010 By DU Member: democracy1st Views on DU: 5871

 
Rachel Maddow To Obama - Ignore Medicare For All and the Public option 'at your very grave peril'
The entire segment can be seen here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#35573472


Visit: http://firedoglake.com

[SemiCharmedQuark]

1. I adore Rachel

Kick and Rec!

[BrklynLiberal]

2. She is getting more and more incredible!!!!

[DrDan]

3. must disagree with one point made by Rachel

we are not making millionaires out of insurance executives - we are making them billionaires.

[FiveGoodMen]

4. Obama's peril, but lots of other people's graves.

[Enthusiast]

31. And it looks like Obama

doesn't care about 2012. Surely in his tack to the right he doesn't expect to pick up Right Wing voters. No one can convince me that Obama is that stupid.

[FiveGoodMen]

57. Which raises the question, "Does Obama know that he's just a placeholder for the next repuke?"

[Enthusiast]

67. I've asked myself that question.

I find this discouraging, to say the least.

[Walk away]

5. I would love to be able to donate so that could play as an ad on every...

television station tonight. If only every American could listen to that just once and think about it seriously.

Instead they will be glued to foxnews and listening to the fear mongers and users.

[bobbolink]

52. We HAVE donated. We have elected a Congress that can speak those words. Every day.

[ThomCat]

6. Why the HELL aren't our politicians listening to US,

Rachel, Anthony, and EVERY FUCKING AMERICAN who wants real healthcare? :grr:

:cry:

[dchill]

7. Because "The American People (tm)"...

don't want health care reform!

[PHIMG]

8. It's NEVER BEEN ABOUT US...it's about the Benjamins.

Question: "Why the HELL aren't our politicians listening to US?"

We can't get them $4,600 checks to run thier campaigns. And we can't give them $2 million do-nothing jobs after they leave congress.

And because when Democrats and big unions sells us a line of bullshit like how the magical public option will make all the insurance companies close up shop by the power of the marketplace, we take it hook line and sinker and abandon the only real grassroots movement that's been fighting for genuine healthcare reform.

Too many people think that politicians do what's best for the country. The reality: they do what's best for their own bank accounts, the elite, and the status quo in that order and when they give us change it's just enough change to fool us into thinking they've done good.

ENOUGH OF THIS BULLSHIT.

You want real healthcare reform and you want to change the course of the Democratic party? Join the Medicare for All movement. Help us grow it to the point that we can occupy D.C. with 2 of the 46 million people without health insurance. That would mean real change.

Instead we go along with the PhARMA and SEUI funded bullshit "public option" campaign that if passed would have only been available to a few million people and would have become a dumping ground for the sick.

WHY THE HELL do Democrats run away from, block discussion and debate of, send people to jail for trying to discuss THE BEST OPTION -- expanding the very program Democrats created 30 some years ago -- Medicare? Why is that? Some bullshit flawed polling that said : "people like what they have?" Bullshit -- show me someone with Cadillac insurance and I can explain to them why Improved Medicare for All is better -- very easy - $0 lifetime cap on out of pocket expense, and they can go to any doctor they want.

MEDICARE for ALL is the issue that really exposes what's wrong with the Democratic Party -- the fish rots from the head. The leadership of our party are a bunch of sold out corporate whores and it's time for us to reassert ourselves and that doesnt' mean placing all our hopes on the next OBAMA white knight who will find a way to stab us in our back and call it change.

MONEY IN POLITICS is poisoning our democracy - PEOPLE in politics is the antidote. But only if you are fighting for the BEST option, not the option that beltway-insiders with questionable loyalties tell us to fight for.

[truedelphi]

17. + 1,000. n/t

[bobbolink]

53. You're speaking too much sense. You gotta stop doing that.

:yourock:

[defendandprotect]

40. They're listening . . . but money/corporate power speaks louder --!!

[RedCloud]

56. As FSTV points out there are 8 health care lobbyists for each congress member.

I feel they are giving us the choices of a grave, a wage slave, or fight in a revolution to restore the people's government.

Those bastards are in it for the money which comes later, being a lobbyist themselves.

[GreenTea]

9. I love Rachel! A GREAT special comment near the end of her show last night

Check it out.... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3096434/ns/msnbc_tv

[notadmblnd]

10. Thank you Rachel, do you think he heard you?

[Enthusiast]

32. He already knows it.

No one can convince me that Obama is that mis/un-informed.

[bobbolink]

54. Exactly. He simply isn't what he sold himself as.

We gotta stop believing every ad we see.

[ihavenobias]

11. K & R n/t

[big lu]

12. k&R ..

excellent

[bobbolink]

58. Welcome to DU, big lu!

:toast: :party: :bounce::toast: :party: :bounce::toast: :party: :bounce::toast: :party: :bounce::toast: :party: :bounce::toast: :party: :bounce::toast: :party: :bounce::toast: :party: :bounce::toast: :party: :bounce::toast: :party: :bounce::toast: :party: :bounce::toast: :party: :bounce:

[Stevepol]

13. I hope to hell Obama is listening. Maybe Rahm let him watch MSNBC for this segment..

[liberation]

16. It is not an issue of whether or not Mr. Obama is "listening"

... there are plenty of deaf people who would have no issue doing the right thing. Heck, even if I had never heard much about health care reform... I doubt defending the interests of the insurance companies would have been the priority item if I were to advocate any course of action.

How much benefit of the doubt does this administration deserve? We can't have it both ways. We can't assume Mr. Obama is the smartest bestest president ever, and then also assume at the same time that he is unaware of the option the majority of American citizens demand in regards of any meaningful health care reform. These two assumptions are mutually exclusive. Period.

[truedelphi]

19. And to back up your argument, it was Obama himself who said in 2004,

While running for the Illinois Senate, that "Single Payer Universal Health Care For All is the best and only logical solution to the health care crisis. But to get there, we will need to have a majority in the House and the Senate, and a Democrat in the White House."

Then he gets that top position in the White House, and he gets that majority in the House and the Senate.

And then, Surprise Surprise, as though he were kidnapped by aliens and had his brain waves altered, he has Rahm and Rahm's brother orchestrating this shitty crappy legislation that allows for huge giveaways to the Big Pharma and Big Insurer interests. Thus today this very week, the Repugs now have some very strong talking points.

Perhaps the strongest of the Repugs current arguments is that there has been absolutely no examination of the over-inflated costs of everything from hospital procedures and drugs, to the over priced premiums that we end up paying.

Had Obama taken charge of this matter, he would have seen to it that price roll backs were part of the mix. After all, if President Nixon had seen to it that the American People got price roll backs back in 1973 when some insurers raised rates FOUR PERCENT, shouldn't we have them when our rates have been raised over fifty percent in the last three years?

[LarryNM]

21. K & R n/t

[Enthusiast]

33. Good points.

But I think we should consider the very real possibility that Rahm, his brother, Obama, Geithner and Summers are being bribed. I do not mean campaign donations. I mean they are talking huge money to do what these corporations want. We have to at least consider the possibility.

[bobbolink]

59. Yer busted.

Truth-speaking again, dern it.

:yourock:

[truedelphi]

69. Good to see you. And hope you are doing well.

Will be back to be active re: your recent PM.

Have to go into town and get some meds. Ow-ey infected tooth today.

[Delphinus]

14. Holy cow!!!

Whew! She nailed it. WONDERFUL!! :applause:

[xocet]

15. Senator Bayh's Conflict of Interest...

Many probably have seen this before: Wellpoint increases insurance costs in Indiana by 39%.

WellPoint Board of Directors

Larry C. Glasscock, Chairman of the Board
Angela F. Braly, President and Chief Executive Officer
Lenox D. Baker, Jr., M.D., President, Mid-Atlantic Cardiothoracic Surgeons, Ltd.
Susan B. Bayh, Attorney at Law
Sheila P. Burke, Senior Research Faculty, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
William H.T. Bush, Chairman, Bush O'Donnell & Co., Inc.
Julie A. Hill ,Owner of the Hill Company
Warren Y. Jobe, Former Senior Vice President, Southern Company
Victor S. Liss, Vice Chairman, Trans-Lux Corporation
William G. Mays, President & Chief Executive Officer, Mays Chemical Company
Ramiro G. Peru, Former Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Phelps Dodge Corporation
Jane G. Pisano, Ph.D., President and Director, The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
Senator Donald W. Riegle, Jr., Chairman, APCO Government Affairs
William J. Ryan, Chairman, TD Banknorth Inc.
George A. Schaefer, Jr., Former Chairman and CEO, Fifth Third Bancorp
Jackie M. Ward, Retired CEO, Intec Telecom Systems PLC
John E. Zuccotti, Chairman, Brookfield Financial Properties and of counsel, Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP.

[JustAnotherGen]

50. Thank you

I had not seen that before. "sigh" Post that every chance you get until he leaves office.

[bobbolink]

60. Here's what we need to do---take up collections, and post BILLBOARDS all over the nation, with this

info.

This would be a much better use of our money than donating to these traitors.

[Divine Discontent]

18. mighty kick!

:kick:

[coti]

20. Probably one of the greatest speeches she's ever given. nt

[wroberts189]

22. knr

[nilram]

23. k. & R.

[Mike K]

24. I fully agree with every positive comment -

- made here about Rachel. She is as sharp as it gets. But she seems to presume that Obama is concerned about the prospect of a second term. I personally don't believe he has any such ambition.

Obama is plainly not into power for the sake of power itself, as was the majority of his predecessors -- with emphasis on G.W. Bush. He undoubtedly and understandably is enjoying the novelty, excitement and ego gratification of flying around in Air Force One and having his ass kissed by generals and movie stars, but he is sufficiently intellectual to regard the whole circus as a transitory titillation which he soon will tire of, much in the way any intelligent young man will tire of a repetitive game no matter how elaborate.

Barack Obama is a genuinely devoted family man who would be much happier and content in the role of a university dean or something comparable, enjoying a quieter life minus the aggravation, tension, pressure and the attendant possibility of assassination. He has made his mark in the world, his family has cause to be boundlessly proud of his achievements, I have no doubt he will leave the presidency a wealthy man and his resume is a ticket to just about any endeavor he chooses to pursue.

So it would be helpful if Rachel and other pundits would not assume that Obama intends to run for a second term.

[Hardrada]

26. Marine biology?

[GreenTea]

25. Finally, the same corporate thieves, the republicans, are exposed for who they truly are!

Slimy republican fuckers!

Thanks so much Rachel Maddow & Congressman Weiner!

[NorthCarolina]

45. It isn't just the Republicans. DLC-New Dems and Blue Dogs don't exactly "endorse" HCR either. eom

[spicegal]

27. Go Rach!!! Love her, love Anthony Weiner.

She articulated perfectly, as always, the crux of the problem with our system. It is morally wrong that we've allowed for-profit insurers to take over the system. Our system is based on the WRONG incentive. People's healthcare should not be profit-focused, and certainly those who simply take your money to pay the bills should NOT be profiting. Medicare for all still makes the most sense. They could increase the physician reimbursement rates, and still have more dollars actually going toward patient care, rather than into the pockets of corporate executives.

[mmonk]

28. One of the best pieces yet on this crap system we have.

Thanks Rachel.

[DeSwiss]

29. We love you Rachel!

- Fuck the insurance companies! Medicare for all!!!!!!!

K&R!!!

[tsuki]

30. Wow. Just Wow. nt

[LittleGirl]

34. It's so simple

And Rachel explains it perfectly.

[quiet.american]

35. She's great, but you know, to say Obama is "ignoring" the issue does a real disservice to him.

Also to imply Anthony Weiner "was not allowed into the summit" does a disservice.

Rachel has to know the complexities and enormous effort that has gone into all of this. To say at this late date "Ignore Medicare for All and the Public Option at your very grave peril" is really irresponsible and complete bullshit as far as I'm concerned. Yes, it plays well to *her* constituency, but she's smarter than that.

[riverbendviewgal]

36. She is the facts lady and what a video

I think for profit insurance in America is so "sick".

I heard the American health insurance companies "love" us Canadians getting sick down in the USA...because our provincial health care insurance pays the bills... LOL.

I am American born and so happy that I chose to be Canadian

My son and husband both were treated for cancer. - no charges except for the TV and parking.

It's great to go to the doctor when I start to feel ill...It's great to have an annual physical.
It's great to go to the clinic the day I am sick....
It's great to walk in the doctors office and walk out with no bill at all.

It's great that my doctor doesn't have to call anyone to get permission for tests or treatment for me
It's great there is no worries about having any pre-existing conditions...That worry does not exist here.
It is great to not have to worry if you lose your job that you will lose your health insurance...you have it ..for life.

I am in the USA this week. I watched a bit of the health conference at a McDonald's A man was sitting in a nearby booth.
I said I don't have to worry about pre-existing conditions where I am from. He asked where is that. I said Canada. He then said you have to wait a long time though...
I said "not true"....and then I left.

I find many Americans really believe that line...It isn't true. You may have to wait for a knee surgery as my friend did. He was told he may have a year wait...but he had his surgery in two months...We prioritize up here.
The urgent operations go first. Like my son, who had seizures on a Friday, for the first time in his life, The following Monday he was getting brain surgery.

I love Canada. I stand on guard for thee.

[Fiendish Thingy]

39. As a soon to be Canadian resident, I need to know...

Your Canadian healthcare will cover medical expenses while visiting the US?

What province do you live in?
I'll be moving to BC.

[quiet.american]

63. It's nice that you live in Canada, but your points have nothing to with mine. nt

[Bluenorthwest]

41. Well, when Obama says Rachel should not have basic human

rights because of his religion, I'd say that is one hell of a 'disservice' to her and her family and to millions of Americans. I'd say that claiming some minorities are not equal in the eyes of God Almighty is irresponsible and steaming complete bullshit. Sure, it is good for pandering to his constituency, but it does great harm to millions of people.
So what say you? The oppressor deserves better framing from the community he openly disdains? Is that really a point you want to make? Obama says Rachel is not a full citizen. She says he should listen to the people. Yet you think she's in the wrong? But he's not?

[quiet.american]

61. Your reply is so wrongly hyperbolic, I don't know where to begin.

To say Obama says she shouldn't have basic human rights because of his religion is not accurate, nor has he said some minorities are not equal in the eyes of God Almighty. He has NEVER SAID THAT.

"The oppressor"? Please. Whatever.

[icee]

47. Disagree with you as strongly as is possible. Get this very clear

in your head. Obama made a deal with Pharma and Healthcare Execs in early 2009. Part of that deal was that Obama would NOT allow a Public Option. He is not playing chess. He is not working with stealth for the people. He is working for the enemies of the people while concurrently trying to aggrandize himself.

[quiet.american]

62. Yeah, because the Sunlight Foundation says so, I guess that's the last word.

"Enemies of the people."

Ridiculous.

[icee]

68. Never heard of them. Do you really somehow think pharma and

health insurance companies are NOT enemies of the people?

[Mike K]

66. "It often takes a great deal of intelligence -

- to see that which is right before our eyes." (Edmond Duranty)

[Umbral]

48. It does do him a disservice, he's not ignoring 'Medicare for All' or the Public Option -

he's actively working to kill the former and refusing to support the latter. 'Ignore' implies indifference or inaction, Obama is clearly more engaged in shaping this legislation than that.

[quiet.american]

65. On your points:

You know, I actually sat down and read the single-payer House bill to which Kucinich and other House members signed their names (H.R. 676). All thirty pages of it.

It comes across as an inept piece of legislation. Not a single cost-estimate in it, except for what to pay laid off medical professionals for two years. The bill is so bad, it could have been written by Republicans. I've seen demands across the blogosphere that CBO score it. Score what? It has no numbers in it and largely leaves it up to "the Secretary" or to "the Director," to figure it out how to make it all work.

The bill's actual sponsors couldn't be bothered to actually breathe life into it. It's an embarrassing effort. And seeing how Obama works, to submit a bill that is essentially just "ideas" about how single payer should work, with no real solutions to implementing it, was not going to give single payer the front-and-center position. Yet, it does have one or two things in it that are workable, and they are included in the House and Senate bill - namely, the Essential Benefits Package and paving the way for state-based single payer.

As for the public option, in December last year, Jacob Hacker, who is most associated with creating the concept of the public option, stated he was devastated that it was not in the Senate version, however, he presented a series of fixes that could be made to the Senate bill to bring it close to the objectives of the public option. Obama's proposals includes just about every one of Hacker's suggestions. I don't see "refusing to support the latter" as accurate.

[icee]

70. Excellent point, Umbral. I agree totally with your position. Beware

of those who seem one thing but are actually another...including here. The insurance company has a lot of money and very long arms.

[freddie mertz]

37. Wow. Rachel has found her voice on this issue.

I was worried after she became a tad too accommodating (IMo) of the WH/Senate atrocity in recent times, and had tuned out for a while, despite my admiration for her fine reporting.

But this is clear, tough, morally unambiguous stuff.

How do I love thee. Rachel?

I cannot begin to count the ways.

[pleah]

38. K AND R!

[ChiciB1]

42. After What I Saw Yesterday... I Can't Agree With Rachel More!!! The Dance

that was put on yesterday was NOTHING LESS THAT BS, to me! I'm FED UP, I'm SICK & TIRED of the rhetoric,I'm CYNICAL to the point I can't see straight, and I'm DISILLUSIONED & FRUSTRATED beyond what I ever thought I could be!

I FEEL USELESS!

[girl_interrupted]

43. K&R Thank you Rachel & Congressman Weiner!

[redqueen]

44. K&R

[Jefferson23]

46. She is tremendous at being concise and specific on the issue and

knows how to give a gut punch in her finale...love it!

I e-mailed this clip to the WH and my two schmuck Senators, although Dodd doesn't care, he isn't running again.

[CONN]

49. You tell him Rachel

[BigD_95]

51. That was

Bloody Awesome!!!!

Good for you Rachel. I wish you could have said all that at the health care debate yesterday

[Jefferson23]

55. Advice for Democrats on a tough vote

Marjorie Margolies, who lost her House seat in 1994 because she supported Clinton's budget, says pass healthcare
By Mike Madden
WASHINGTON -- The advice is pretty much exactly what you'd expect from a loyal Democrat to wavering House members of her party, unsure whether to vote for a healthcare reform bill or not: Stop dithering, and just do it.


"There's a difference between leading and being led... I think you have to decide what is fundamentally right, and not listen to those people who are such extreme naysayers."


But the source of it might give it a little extra weight with any Democratic lawmakers anxious about becoming the 217th vote for President Obama's healthcare bill in the face of ferocious Republican attacks: Marjorie Margolies, the former House member from Pennsylvania who was pilloried, and eventually lost her seat, for providing the one-vote winning margin for Bill Clinton's 1993 tax-raising budget. (She was Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky then.) When she says sometimes tough votes are worth casting anyway, she knows what she's talking about.

Margolies had been elected in 1992, winning an open seat in a district Republicans had long held on the strength of Clinton's presidential coattails. Which only makes the similarities to this year, and the 21 new Democrats in Congress, even sharper. The debate over Clinton's budget was bitterly divided; the administration, and Democratic leaders, called it vital to helping the government recover from a recession, but Republicans recognized that raising taxes (even on the wealthy) was politically toxic, and refused to vote for it. When Margolies cast the deciding vote, she recalls seeing a nearby Pennsylvania Republican jump up and down, waving, "Bye-bye, Marjorie."

Still, she told Salon this week that Democrats in Congress now need to get past narrow concerns about their own political survival, and vote for the healthcare bill if they believe, as she does, that it's necessary.

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/02/26/margolies

[Paper Roses]

64. Rachel always produces the most lucid, logical commentary's.

If we had a bunch of congress-critters with her IQ and sense of reason, we'd have this healthcare mess cleaned up by now.

I had to laugh at the point where she said the rethugs want Medicare dropped and 85 year olds can buy insurance from Wellpoint. Like that is going to happen. Most old timers live on Social Security and would owe their monthly check plus more money to pay. Then they'd be denied because they have managed to have, after all these years, a pre-existing condition.

I think we need a group of real-life, older, non-political people to design a Medicare for all solution.

Make it binding and make the government have to find a way to pay for it. Bet there would be big budget changes then. Might even be a war or two ended immediately.

Yea, I know, that would be silly. What the heck do these guys do all day in DC. Take the little private subway fromm the barber to the gym to the cafeteria, to the bowling alley.......

The rest of us are getting to the point where we feel need of a revolution. Storm the Bastille,
man battle stations, whatever.

Will you jerks in Washington listen to us, not to yourselves?