TYT: Devastating Healthcare Quotes From Obama's Campaign

[democracy1st]

Run time: 08:30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4UZeHLxsvI   Posted on YouTube: December 24, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: December 24, 2009 By DU Member: democracy1st Views on DU: 2896

 
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Obama's Biggest Health Reform Blunder
How Big Pharma's Billy Tauzin conned the White House out of $76 billion.
By Timothy Noah



Billy Tauzin, president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, has cut a secret deal on health reform with the White House. Tauzin told Tom Hamburger of the Los Angeles Times that in exchange for the much-touted $80 billion in savings that PhRMA volunteered in June to help cover the uninsured and reduce drug prices for some senior citizens, the White House had promised to block any congressional effort to allow the government to negotiate Medicare drug prices. Tauzin is from Louisiana, where tall tales grow like weeds, and at first his assertion seemed wildly implausible. But two days after the L.A. Times scoop, the New York Times got White House confirmation. "The president encouraged this approach," White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina said in an e-mail. "He wanted to bring all parties to the table to discuss health insurance reform."

President Obama's handshake with Tauzin is easily the dumbest mistake he's made in shepherding health reform through Congress.

Tauzin revealed the deal out of pique that the House energy and commerce committee, in breaking its logjam with Blue Dog Democrats, amended the health reform bill to allow Medicare drug negotiation. "Who is ever going to go into a deal with the White House again if they don't keep their word?" he sputtered. "You are just going to duke it out instead."


It's pretty rich that Tauzin should be lecturing anybody about steadfastness. He entered the House as a Democrat but jumped to the Republican Party in 1995. He told the Baton Rouge Advocate in June 2003 that he would "complete my term and run for re-election," but in December 2004 he quit the House to become president of PhRMA, a job he reportedly leveraged with a somewhat less lucrative offer to become chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America. Tauzin is legally bound by House ethics rules not to make

with the intent to influence, any communication to or appearance before any officer or employee of any department, agency, court, or court-martial of the United States or the District of Columbia, on behalf of any other person (except the United States or the District of Columbia) in connection with a particular matter … in which the person participated personally and substantially as such officer or employee, and … which involved a specific party or specific parties at the time of such participation.

Yet Tauzin, six years prior to securing the White House's promise not to let the government negotiate Medicare drug prices, was instrumental in writing the 2003 bill that created a Medicare drug benefit … but barred the government from negotiating drug prices! (At the time, Tauzin was chairman of the House energy and commerce committee.) Unlike some other House ethics rules, the prohibition against lobbying on anything "in which the person participated personally and substantially" is supposed to be permanent. It would seem not to be worth the paper it's written on.

Why is the White House's PhRMA deal a bad bargain? Because in securing $80 billion in savings over 10 years, the White House is forgoing what could be as much as $156 billion over the same time period. That's what a 2008 report by energy and commerce's investigations subcommittee calculated to be the savings if Medicare were permitted to buy drugs at the same rates negotiated by the (much smaller) Medicaid program.


http://www.slate.com/id/2224621/

[truedelphi]

1. Please note, The Presidential nose is now so long

it is kept inside a separate wing of the White House!

[SeattleGirl]

3. Blah, blah, blah

[jgraz]

2. K&R. Absolutely devastating.

[ihavenobias]

19. Check out Cenk's new article from Huffington Post this morning on Obama.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x505034|How Progressives Can Move Obama to the Left>

[Goldstein1984]

4. I don't understand

President Obama must know that he needs progressive votes to stay in office, yet he's catering to conservative interests.

He's getting into serious trouble with many of the people who elected him.

So many contradictions. It's almost as if he thinks nobody is paying attention.

One of his advisors needs to brief him on the Internet and YouTube.

[Turborama]

8. One of his advisors needs to brief him on the Internet and YouTube.

Does he still have his personal Blackberry? I remember he tried really hard to keep it. I also remember he said he wanted to keep it real and not get stuck in the inevitable "White House Bubble". How's all that going? A genuine question, as I can't remember when and where he said it and can't find any recent news about how he's keeping in touch with real life.

(edited to fix typos created under the influence of xmas spirit)

[TheEuclideanOne]

11. No they don't!

I think that they need to keep hding both of them from the president! For their sake at least, because his advisors are the ones that I think are letting him know that everybody's loves the job he is doing and the ones that are complaining are just that whacko fringe element and they don't matter.

[TheEuclideanOne]

12. It's Intervention time!!!

For the country's sake, Michele and his closest friends need to do an intervention. They need to kidnap him and whisk him away to a big white room with a carton of cigarettes, a comfortable chair, a TV and the Internet, and force him to sit there and catch up on how the country is really percieving what he is doing. He needs to see what the reactions of progressives are and watch some of videos of his campaign vs what he is doing right now. He also needs to see how the differences between his campaign and reality are not being missed by the public.

[Turborama]

26. Yep, I'm down with that idea. n/t

[Umbral]

14. He knows exactly what he's doing. The majority of liberal voters will never vote GOP

and the majority will still show up and vote for whatever Dem is on the ticket. They know this, they use this, it's been this way years. The only power liberals have is a power they refuse to use.

[swilton]

17. What I find troubling

(realizing your points) Obama is either not dealing with reality

or he knows the 2012 election can be fixed

[rapturedbyrobots]

18. i think he really believes he is being progressive

that's the sad thing. he campaigned, not as a progressive, but borrowing the rhetoric of the left. he has the desire to support progressive ideas, but in a really twisted way. he doesn't understand that being a social progressive (which i think he thinks of himself as) and an economic conservative (neoliberal) doesn't work. unfortunately, i think he's finally coming to this realization, and is picking the wrong side. what this country needs is some developmentalist economists to counter this neoliberal madness and show everyone including obama that there is a way to reconcile progressive ideals with real economic policy.

[Andronex]

20. so what is the logical conclusion...

the answer is in our faces yet we prefer to believe it's all a big mistake. The ruling class know how power and wealth is acquired and but we still believe in fairy tales.

[snagglepuss]

28. Might it be possible that they would rather attract those repukes who

don't like Palin or teabaggers? They must have come to a determination that they can survive without progressives, that they needed progressives only to get Obamas foot in the door at which point they could drop the progressives and court the right.:shrug:

[change_notfinetuning]

5. Due to the nature of the job and security fears, the insulation of our

presidents is, I believe, a big factor in every one of them being so out of touch with reality. That doesn't excuse these recent statements that have mostly erased the credibility and respect President Obama had previously earned. But I think he'd do himself, as well as the country, a lot of good if he would take some trips like he did during the campaign, especially like the early ones in Iowa and New Hampshire. He needs to have more interaction with real people who have real jobs (or are really unemployed, not just a statistic), and who live real lives in real communities. He said he wants to hear all sides of issues. That shouldn't mean Rahm and the lobbyists. Real people are every bit as important in evaluating a problem and planning a solution.

Seems to me that, at this point, a little less talking and a little more listening might do Obama some good.

[democracy1st]

6. he came from those humble means,working as a community organizer,and raised by a single parent

IMO he knows exactly what he's doing.

[change_notfinetuning]

7. I get what you're saying and agree to an extent. But when you exist in a

fantasy world with no visits to reality, fantasy becomes your reality. When you hear something often enough, you might think it's real, and with the people he's surrounded himself with, he's hearing the same thing over and over. And I doubt he's hearing anything from people with humble means today. Their representatives, maybe. It's like the vast majority of kids who grow up in wealthy suburbs become Republicans. I realize one factor is their parents' influence, but they also don't see much else. Maybe if they had field trips to slum areas and inner city schools, the exposure to reality might lead to a different concept of reality than from just seeing the same privileged surroundings 24/7.

Maybe a better example is how those who grew up in the 60's/70's - protesting war, questioning authority, and getting high - moved into corporate America, becoming robotic yes-clones, Reagan/Bush voters, drug testers and supporters of war. Wealth, or at least a good amount of comfort is a great breeder of conservatism. Exposure to injustice and the plight of others less fortunate is a necessary counter as earlier memories fade. This is especially important for our elected officials, most of whom seem to have no problem relating to the more fortunate.

[DrDan]

9. you assume, of course, that he cares at least as much about the common

voter as he does about large corps.

[DisgustedInMN]

10. k & r

[ProgressOnTheMove]

13. OK it's not looking great but those still willing can only fight on the only option there is...

We'll repair things in the long run, it seems difficult now but not everything is going wrong. We can work it out, we have to work it out. They need to know we're going to push them whether folks are in or outside of the party.

[IsItJustMe]

15. Gee, go figure. Another one of those people who promise you anything and talks lots of smack. This

is what we have come to expect out of our politicians. We deserve better than this.

[izquierdista]

16. If he was going to lie and do a 180,

I wish it was about fighting the good war in Afghanistan and making a measured pullback of the troops in Iraq. If he broke that lie by calling them all home on January 21st, I would be applauding his duplicity.

[Overseas]

21. K&R. Thank you TYT !!

[20score]

22. Saving this one. K&R

[emilyg]

23. k/r

[pleah]

24. K&R

[Blasphemer]

25. K&R... nt

[grahamhgreen]

27. Brilliant analysis, unquestionable duplicity