Dean: Too blunt for 2003 perhaps. What he predicted is live and in full color today.

[madfloridian]

I was thinking today about about 2003 and 2004, and how all of our Democrats should have known what was coming down the pike. They all knew where we were heading.

What reminded me that we knew then about all this?

This last week one of the largest counties in Florida in effect turned its retirees over to privatized Medicare. Oh, they provided an alternative, a supplement to traditional Medicare. The catch? It was double the cost of the private Medicare Advantage program, and most county retirees would be unable to afford the traditional supplement at all.

That is how they are privatizing Medicare right before our eyes. Getting the government out of the business. A doctor's office told me that they all wished for a return to traditional Medicare. Yet a whole large county of retirees is being turned over to a private company that will not work with the government Medicare. These programs will help devastate the traditional plan.

We knew it back then. We talked about it here a lot.

From 2003:

Dean: Big deficit suits Republican's plans to undermine Social Security and Medicare

Dean: Big deficit suits GOP's plans
By Susan Page and Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential contender Howard Dean accused Republicans on Thursday of running up the federal budget deficit so they can undermine the fiscal underpinnings of Medicare and Social Security.

"I think their principal motivation is to undo the pillars of the New Deal, particularly Medicare and Social Security, by making the budget deficit so big that those programs can't be sustained," he said at a lunch with USA TODAY and the Gannett News Service.


Democratic presidential contender Howard Dean accused Republicans Thursday of running up the federal budget deficit.

USA Today October 16, 2003

Medicare founded in 1965 which has freed young people from being responsible for their parents' medical bills....something that could often get overwhelming. The discussion should be that they are privatizing Medicare before our very eyes, and they are not saying what they are doing. Look what they did to the Medicare D drug plan. Look up the donut hole. Read about it. People who hit it are going without medications.

Both parties know it's happening, neither seems to care. Medicare HMO and Advantage plans have a history of having to be rescued.. bailed out if you want to call it that.

Howard Dean made a few other observations back then about the corporations which are being "bailed out" "rescued" right now. They were not popular things to say.

Making devil's bargains with corporations

Too many of our leaders have made a devil's bargain with corporate and wealthy interests, saying 'I'll keep you in power if you keep me in power.'"

"As long as half the world's population subsists on less than two dollars a day, the US will not be secure.... A world populated by 'hostile have-nots' is not one in which US leadership can be sustained without coercion."

"Over the last thirty years, we have allowed multinational corporations and other special interests to use our nation's government to undermine our nation's promise.

"There is something about human beings that corporations can't deal with and that's our soul, our spirituality, who we are. We need to find a way in this country to understand--and to help each other understand--that there is a tremendous price to be paid for the supposed efficiency of big corporations. The price is losing the sense of who we are as human beings."

"In our nation, the people are sovereign, not the government. It is the people, not the media or the financial system or mega-corporations or the two political parties, who have the power to create change."

It's all playing out now. Both parties knew the score.

Now a large Florida county is contributing to the destruction of the Medicare which was formed in 1965.

[MercutioATC]

1. We're making Dr. Dean's dream happen.

...and he's the one who gave us the vision. For that, I'll always be grateful.

[madfloridian]

2. Others will get credit...it is already starting.

Bloomberg says Ickes will be given credit if Obama wins.

I am gonna swat that bug someday.

I was showing hubby something in a thread, he saw your bug and asked what was that crawling on my computer. I laughed out loud.

[MercutioATC]

3. The bug dies when Obama is elected.

Until then, he'll be an annoyance to us all :)

[madfloridian]

5. LOL

:rofl:

[DinahMoeHum]

24. Will you show it as a splat ?? Can't wait to see it.

:evilgrin:

[hendo]

4. that bug gets me all the time too

I always do a double take.

[madfloridian]

22. I sure do hope Obama wins, so the bug will disappear.

eeek

[hendo]

33. but i like the bug

so i hope it is kept up even after the election.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

8. I'll be forever grateful what Howard Dean did

as the Chairman of the DNC.

My only hope is that Barack keeps him in charge. Dr. Dean has made most of the American public realize that the Pukes are nothing but smoke and mirrors.

In 2003 and 2004 the majority of Americans wouldn't or couldn't listen to what Dr. Dean was telling them.

I guess it only takes a complete breakdown of the financial system in the US to make Joe and Jane Six Pack to realize that the Pukes have been feeding them complete BS since 1980.

Screw Milton Friedman and the rest of the "Chicago Boys". John Maynard Keynes was right. Deregulation and the so called "free market" only makes the rich richer and literally screws the middle class.

Howard Dean was right. A 50 state campaign will win every time.

[madfloridian]

12. I'm with you on that.

He stuck in there to change things, even though the DC insiders did not want him.

[hendo]

6. The parties are in thier to server thier own interests

hopefully they will start to server our interests.

[madfloridian]

29. Yes, their own agendas.

:hi:

[hendo]

34. and hopefully those agendas will align with our own

both parties ignored the impending crisis.

Maybe they both should have seen this comming.

[elleng]

7. STARVE THE BEAST

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast

[madfloridian]

9. That's exactly what's happening.

:hi:

[bbgrunt]

10. Nobody said it more clearly than the good doctor. Unfortunately

too many are still unaware of the big plan.

[madfloridian]

11. Because no one tells the plan.

He was blunt about it. I have not heard anyone else say it since.

Guess there are consequences to pay.

[JCMach1]

13. Think of the parallel Universe where Dean is running for his second term

I think that must be a very different world!

[madfloridian]

21. And the world would be better off

than now.

Unfortunately those parallel universes are only in our imaginations.

[tom_paine]

25. Don't be too sure of that...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schrodingers_cat

Of course, if that was the case, how much could we charge people, and damned near everyone would want to go, to "slide" to the alternate universe where Gore was allowed to take his rightful position in 2000, or any of them?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sliders

[madfloridian]

35. You could charge anything you wanted at times like these...

to provide that "slide" into the alternate universe. Just the thought of it...

[democracy1st]

14. K & R

[canetoad]

15. Privatising social security and medicare

isn't that another way of saying genocide?

[madfloridian]

16. Medicare Advantage plans and the harm to traditional: LTTE from hospital CEO

This just proves that Congress KNOWS these programs are takig money from traditional Medicare. Congress barely passed a veto proof plan to keep Medicare from cutting payments to doctors by 18%.

Bush admin won't agree to any cuts in funding the Advantage plans.

http://cjonline.com/stories/100508/opi_340437988.shtml

"Against the backdrop of election-year politics, Congress has been locked in battle with the Bush administration over the issue of payments to physicians who serve Medicare patients.

This year, deliberations broke down and Congress adjourned without resolving the issues in dispute. In general, Congress wanted to stop Medicare cuts by reducing the amount of money paid to Medicare Advantage — the private health insurance plan option offered to beneficiaries

..."The Bush administration refused to agree to any reductions to the private health insurance plans. Eventually, enough votes were mustered to override the president's veto, forestalling the threatened Medicare physician cuts for at least another 18 months.

It is evident that many in Washington have yet to realize that the Medicare Advantage program has become a disadvantage to Kansas seniors. The problems have been well-documented. Retirees under the Medicare Advantage program are often bounced between the federal government and the sponsoring insurance company when claims are disputed.

The program is also more costly. Medicare Advantage plans are paid up to 17 percent more than traditional Medicare, and they spend less than projected on seniors' medical expenses. In 2005, for example, Medicare Advantage plans projected that 90 percent of total revenue would go toward paying medical expenses, but they spent only about 85 percent for medical expenses. This difference helped earn an extra $1 billion in profits."

TOM BELL, president and chief executive officer, Kansas Hospital Association

[JNelson6563]

17. Great post MF.

Dean has been right all along. I love that he's head of our party and doing an excellent job. This guy really, really means what he says and wants to help make things better.

Cheers,
Julie

[madfloridian]

20. Agreed, Julie...

He is one of the very few I believe that about....that they sincerely want change.

[bbgrunt]

18. k and r

[Greyhound]

19. At what point will Amerikans finally say, "these guys are always right, let's try what they say"?

I'm fucking sick of telling people that we're making another blunder and being laughed off as some kind of nut, and then watching it happen a few years later. Usually I don't even bother anymore.

Though it is reprehensible, I can understand why the ruling class views us with such contempt.

[tom_paine]

27. At the same time the 1930s Germans finally said, "Hey, those Jews are right about the Nazis."

Which is to say, never in this life.

And it doesn't matter how right we are about how many things. It doesn't matter how far we can seem to peer into the future to our "unconscious" compatriots.

Hell, I used to predict shit so far into the future that people couldn't even remember me saying the prediction by the time it happened. It's literally a no win.

And yes, I too, can understand why the peasantry is viewed with such contempt in most nations throughout history, even many of the "free" ones.

Yet still, I will NEVER abandon the Founding Fathers' enlightenment belief that IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THIS WAY.

Oh well, maybe the next civilization will get it right (if there is one, considering the environmental calamity that is coming, too).

But first, a couple centuries or millenia of Dark Ages, brought to you by BushCo.

[Tracer]

23. I like and admire Obama so much, but ...

... I loved Howard Dean.

The first time I heard him speak, I was shocked to hear him tell the truth! No platitudes, no bull s**t, and a wonderful passion and enthusiasm.

[madfloridian]

32. Yes, no platitudes. Good point.

Hubby and I were watching his speech to the CA DNC meeting, and we both cheered when he said he wanted to know what in the world so many Democrats were doing voting for Bush's unilateral war on Iraq. That was in March 2003

[nikto]

26. HOWARD DEAN...

...would make a great, visionary President.


Too bad that too many Americans are too fuckin' dumb to realize that.:grr:

[madfloridian]

31. People want "safe" not "visionary" unfortunately

They want their president to be like joe six pack, and they want them to be comfortable to have a beer with.

Unfortunately tney don't especially care if they are highly intelligent. :eyes:

[nikto]

28. Somebody should exhume the body of Milton Friedman...

...and use it as the target in a mass-PISS-PARTY.

[madfloridian]

30. From The Nation...his best ideas were never covered by the media.

Dean's best lines--evocative suggestions rather than explicit policy pronouncements--were not widely reported. In his brisk, scattered manner, he was talking about power, inviting people to contemplate the deteriorated condition of our democracy, expressing his solidarity with their skepticism and alienation. Audiences responded, but this sort of talk was too soft and allusive to constitute "news." Dean's style was indeed "hot"--"angry," the reporters said--but they simply couldn't deal with his reflective side; it didn't fit the caricature."

He offered concrete ideas...never covered.

Nor did they take much interest in concrete ideas, unless a rival accused him of heresy. Dean called for a labeling law for mutual funds--full disclosure on the fees they charge investors. He wanted a Fannie Mae for small business. And a national commission on how to restore democracy--no politicians allowed. He wanted to confront the concentration of oversized corporations and break up media conglomerates. In addition to full financial disclosure by corporations, Dean called for full social accounting: "Why shouldn't companies be accountable to investors and the public on other important matters like environmental standards and labor relations? Knowledge is power."

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20040308/greider

Greider was right, it was too much for the media to handle. It did not fit their spin mode.

Sarah Palin is more their style....and that is just tragic.