I wish the President would fight as hard for the public option as he is for mandates.

[rudy23]

Sorry, but going out on TV and saying "the public option isn't dead" is not exactly a great sales tactic. Looks like sandbagging to me.

If only he would defend the public option like he's defending mandates. In that case, he's going through logistical acrobatics trying to sell this idea (which Americans already rejected) to the public.

Why is he fighting so hard for the idea none of us want, and backpedaling on the idea that we overwhelmingly want?

[DrDan]

1. an excellent question!

I can only speculate . . . and hate the obvious conclusions.

[Buzz Clik]

2. ..

[kenfrequed]

4. I think

There is the perception he was doing that on stepphanopolous this weekend. He may have just been trying to defend the possibility of Baucus' bill to keep him on board with the whole healthcre reform in general.

The problem is that the media and parts of the party are making sure that the story is ONLY about the Baucus bill when there have already been four other bills that are already out of other committees but they get almost no attention.


Maybe Colbert should do a five part series on "better know a democratic healthcare bill..."

[Buzz Clik]

6. Sorry for this....

I reconsidered my response and decide to back away -- apparently while you were responding.

btw -- your response is very good, and I agree.

[JDPriestly]

16. The L.A. Times -- continues to be a right-wing rag.

It announced the Baucus bill as "moderate." Hardly. Not moderate at all.

[polichick]

3. The WH seems to have cut deals with both insurers and big pharma...

Insurers agreed not to fight too much if there were mandates.

[TxRider]

5. Here's my take...

Obama knows he can't have it all, he's incrementalising.

The bottom line is to get everyone health care...

Once that's accepted, that everyone gets health care, then we can move the discussion to how best to do it and go for a public option.

Once that's done and accepted, we can move to single payer.

[Sebastian Doyle]

7. And that scenario is about as likely as the Easter Bunny rapturing us all to NeverNeverLand

Because once everyone is FORCED to buy corporate insurance, there will never be a need for any true reform, according to the fucked up mindset of beltway corporatism. This "pass any old shitty bill and we can fix it later" scam didn't happen with NAFTA, and it won't happen with this swindle.

Mandated corporate insurance is NOT acceptable. End of story.

[dflprincess]

14. There is no guarantee that everyone having health insurance will translate

into everyone having access to health care. If all you can afford is a policy with big out of pockets, they may still not be able to get the care they need.


If you haven't read it yet, check out this post about how "well" mandates work in Massachusetts

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6593942

[JDPriestly]

17. That approach ignores the most important problem: the excessive cost of

insurance premiums. The problems in health care delivery are primarily due to profit-taking by the corporate insurance companies. Obama is not really dealing with long-term cost reduction mechanisms. His deals with pharma, etc. do not deal with structure. They are band-aids. They won't really help.

[Democrats_win]

8. He made a great Reaganesque argument for mandates: uninsured are welfare queens.

We need to make sure that wealthy Americans get everything for free and the poor should be forced to pay for even the air they breathe.

[Laelth]

9. He hardly even mentions the individual mandate.

He knows many of us don't want that. When he does mention it, he tries to make the uninsured into the new welfare queens and blames the uninsured for the high costs of everyone else's insurance--just like a good Republican.

Frankly, I am glad he doesn't talk about the individual mandate. I get completely revolted when he does.

:dem:

-Laelth

[JDPriestly]

19. Obama actually thinks the mandates will solve the problem.

That's because he has mostly consulted with medical professionals, insurance companies and pharma.

I'd like to know how the percentage of time spent by his administration talking to people in the health care business compares to the percentage of time he talked to single payer advocates. To my knowledge, the Obama administration did not spend very much time talking about solutions with people who strongly support single payer.

Obama promised to consult with people with different opinions, but he hasn't kept that promise. He talks mostly to lobbyists. Business as usual. No change, none at all with respect to the culture in D.C.

[Laelth]

21. I continue to believe that the President's heart is in the right place.

But you're absolutely right about the process that the President adopted to craft a solution. It has been a mess, and it has resulted in a proposal that favors industry rather than the American people.

I don't feel like the President has listened to me or people like me on this particular issue.

:dem:

-Laelth

[truedelphi]

22. Hells bells, the President would have listened to you

(And to me as well) If either or both of us had just scraped together $ 30K to sit in at one of the discussions open to anyone and everyone who had the dough.

And this from the man who said only a mere twelve months ago, that things needed to be done differently in Washington. That lobbyists etc needed to be out of the game plan, while the People needed to be included.

Where did that man go??

[Better Today]

10. HARDER for PO would be damned nice and let the mandate slip away please.

[slipslidingaway]

11. Also the PO he talked about while campaigning, that any American...

would have the option of enrolling in the PO, we were told this would keep the insurance companies honest.

[valerief]

12. I wish he was on our side and worked for single payer. Sigh. nt

[rudy23]

13. I'd settle for him not working directly against those of us who worked hardest to get him elected

He's directly contradicting his candidacy, on one of the most important issue--if not THE most important. Does he think we're not going to notice?

[JDPriestly]

15. The public option might make mandates unnecessary.

People don't want the mandates because they don't want to be forced to pay excessive insurance premiums. The public option would provide an ultimately cheaper route. The public option is the key. Mandates without a robust public option will just force even more people on the fringe of the middle class into bankruptcy.

[truedelphi]

18. And someone please answer this one for me...

When George W first got in office, and started in on doing things that most (Hell probably all of) us found reprehensible, the media started in with the theory that he had to play to his base.

Then we progressives work so that Obama can get in office. And guess what. He spends the summer out there addressing the same base of people that George W used to spend his time on.

Why? When will progressives ever be part of the mix?

Pew Research Study of last years stated:
28% of all AMericans are REpublicans
32% are Dems
and the majority of 40% is independent.

Yeah a few of that 40% might be skinheads or John Birchers, but I am betting the majority are fairly reasonable independents or Green Party People. When will they get noticed?

[TheKentuckian]

20. There are very few indicators of that. Independents aren't in the middle

They are mostly people that lean one way or the other but don't claim allegiance due to a variety of factors, chiefly in my opinion that either party is too watered down for them and/or label flight. Hence, nearly every election is roughly a split. There are tonnes of Independents that used to be Republicans for sure and probably quite a few that slipped out from the Democratic party during the height of Reaganism.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

23. Don't forget that during the primaries Hillary supported mandates and Obama was against them.

One of the reasons I voted for him in the primary was because of that. We got played.