Blogs and Stories
The Coming Liberal Suicide
John Moore / Getty Images
As Democrats blast Obama over the public option, they risk destroying the policy they’ve been hoping for for years. John Avlon on the party’s fatal mistake. Avlon is the author of Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe Is Hijacking America.
Liberals revolt against a Democratic president’s pragmatism. Self-defeating stupidity ensues.
We’ve seen this movie before. Here’s a highlight soundbite: “The idea of all or nothing has been pursued now for nearly three decades. No one has benefitted from that.”
That was Jimmy Carter back in 1979, proposing phased-in health-care reform, creating insurance for catastrophic illness. He was opposed by Ted Kennedy and the unions who wanted to hold out for a Canadian-style single-payer system on the grounds that Carter’s plan was “too inequitable.” There were 18 million uninsured Americans then. Now there are 46 million.
In a half-century of failed health-care reforms, liberal cannibalism has been as much to blame for defeats as fear-mongering from the far right.
But still some liberals are pursuing an all-or-nothing approach to health-care reform, with 60 House Democrats sending a letter to Obama HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius stating that any health-care legislation “MUST contain a public option.” “Democrats drawing a line in the sand against conservatives in their own party?” Rachel Maddow intoned, “Pinch me, I’m dreaming.”
Time for a wake-up call. With all the hate-filled hyperbole festering around the summer’s health-care debate (Hitler references now seem to appear almost daily), it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that there is essentially one substantive sticking point separating the center from the left: the public option.
That’s the proposal that is acting as the thin-edge of the wedge in conservatives’ apparently effective argument that health-care reform represents a slippery slope toward socialism.
Remove that plank and replace it with a nonprofit cooperative based on local models that have existed in the heartland for decades—as a bipartisan group of senators has proposed—and the reasonable edge of the opposition evaporates along with most of the cost.
The creation of a nonprofit co-op—run by its members—would cost an estimated $6 billion in startup seed capital from the government. In contrast, the public-insurance option—run by a new government bureaucracy—would cost between $500 billion and $1 trillion in taxpayer dollars. If you take the president’s pledge that any health-care overhaul will be deficit neutral seriously—or if you can read a poll or balance a checkbook—you’ll quickly see that the difference isn’t trivial. It’s a fight about adding another trillion dollars to the deficit.
There are just two problems with this common ground compromise alternative: the far left and the far right.
Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America. By John Avlon. 304 pages. Beast Books. $15.95.
Liberals are arguing that without the public option there is essentially no health-care reform. That’s absurd—President Obama was right when he said this weekend that the public option was “one sliver” of health-care reform. A nonprofit co-op is another means to the end of offering uninsured individuals and families an alternative to private insurance companies as a way to increase competition and drive down costs. The reason liberals are kicking back so hard against it is that it does not achieve their desired ideological end—a step toward the Canadian-style single-payer system that Ted Kennedy and Co. held out for three decades ago.
In the run to the ramparts, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) went on with CNN’s Campbell Brown in the first wave of the pushback, arguing that liberals had already compromised and wouldn’t go any further even at the president’s request. “No one can say that we're not willing to compromise. …We did that on single-payer.”
But that’s a concession to reality, not to Republicans or Blue Dog Democrats. The single-payer plan may be the fondest wish for the far left but it’s a non-starter in the rest of the nation. That’s why the RNC is already at work trying to paint even the co-op as government-run health care. Republicans want to keep the boogeyman of socialized medicine alive as long as they can. They want to run against the public option because they know it is a fight they can win. If Obama embraced a proposal like medical-malpractice reform, performing a bit of political judo, they wouldn’t know what to do.
How Rich People Smoke Pot
Paul Schrodt is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to New York magazine, Radar, and Esquire.com.
Stars Celebrate the Super Bowl
The Daily Beast is dedicated to news and commentary, culture, and entertainment. We carefully curate the web’s most essential stories and bring you original must-reads from our talented contributors.
The 'Birthers' Began on the Left
John Avlon’s new book Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America is available now by Beast Books both on the web and in paperback. Advance orders can be placed here. He is also the author of Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics. Previously, he served as chief speechwriter for New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and was a columnist and associate editor for The New York Sun.
Queen of the Tea Party
John Avlon’s new book Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America is available now by Beast Books both on the web and in paperback. Advance orders can be placed here. He is also the author of Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics. Previously, he served as chief speechwriter for New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and was a columnist and associate editor for The New York Sun.
The Tea Party, Day 2
John Avlon’s new book Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America is available now by Beast Books both on the web and in paperback. Advance orders can be placed here. He is also the author of Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics. Previously, he served as chief speechwriter for New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and was a columnist and associate editor for The New York Sun.
blbtampa
Do you really want bureaucrats to have access to your medical records? Several IRS agents have been disciplined for pulling up famous people's tax records, how many have pulled up the records of neighbors and ex's. Joe the Plumer had his personal records exposed by a pro Obama bureaucrat because he asked a question. HR3200 requires that you not only provide a new bureaucracy with your medical records but also your financial records. Do you want a fan of Sarah Palin or Barney Frank to have access to your records if you make some snarky comment on your face book page? How much information do you want readily accessible to any bureaucrat? Read the bill!
nickatdabeach
the 'coming' suicide? lol - it's in full swing, enjoy the ride!!
This user is no longer registered.
n--Y--nightdragon83estcruzer
I'm sorry, nothing done by conservatives recently has resurected the GOP. If anything it is crushing and shredding the party under fanatic hyperbole, driving any moderate Republicans out of the party into a confusion that only gets worse every day.
This user is no longer registered.
n--Y--nightdragon83ncopas
"angry seniors and stay-at-home-moms at town hall meetings" = domestic terrorists and the mentally insane, people who have no idea what they're arguing against, medicare recipients who are 'against' socialized medicine... and dragon, let me do u a favor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man
read that.
"do a complete about-face on said policies when faced with even the slightest hint of opposition" So gun-toting, screaming, blind right-wing morons who shout racial slurs and are completely unable to have a constructive dialog, this is the "slightest hint"?? And "complete about-face?" Typical republican... place blame, use the "straw man" and then turn around and call someone else out on doing what you're doing to remove any blame from yourself... well-played you fit right in with your fellow party members.
When will the right be interested in improving the country, and uninterested in wasting all of our time and tax money mudslinging at the left?
motrbotr
Almost 10 million of the 46 million are illegal immigrants. Last time I checked, simply living in the US doesnt make you a citizens. Stop throwing around 46 million uninsured americans.
roger37
Oh---it's only 36 million citizens. And that's better---how?
phillyb
at motrbotr. Im not a citizen, but I am a legal work visa holding immigrant who has been in the process for a green card for 4 years. When I have a green card I still won't be a citizen for a minimum of 5 years. To date I've paid over $1million in taxes INCLUDING on money earnt outside the US that my "home country" doesn't tax but the US does. Simply living here and paying taxes doesn't make you a citizen either. This bill doesn't give rights to illegal immigrants. Don't be a bigot.
cbeenthere
Do you think your employers who handle your insurance claims don't know a lot about you? And what do they do with it, you paranoid? But - don't give me ideas.
blbtampa
Yes I am. I also don't play in the street.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
estcruzer
If you want to be paranoid - think what the insurance companies have on you, these are the people that have profit as their first priority - not yhour health, and where do you go to get the OK to see a doctor - your insurance company. Not only do they have your history (remember you had to give it to them to get your insurance) they know everything you had to pay for while under their care. If you want to be paranoid, be paranoid about a company who picks your doctor for you based on the amount of money they are going to make off of you.
gtartar
Damn right, est!
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
jus1drun
cut the bs. you're on the repub payroll aren't you.
PetiteNanan
I COMPLETELY agree with you!
ncopas
well-said.
scoobian
As a former government official, I don't think most people know that if you are a Medicaid or Medicare recipient of health care, the government already knows what drugs/services you received, when you received them, who provided the services, where the services were provided, how much was paid by the government for those services and who and what doctors have provided services to you. If you are not a Medicaid or Medicare recipient and have insurance, then your insurance company has the same information and makes decisions on your health care to the degree that you represent a cost to their bottom line.
estcruzer
Yes!
moderate001
Wow - if blbtampa is naive enough to believe that the fed does not already have access to all of your health data the let me help clarify things. Everyday, there are thousands of prosecutions of prescription fraud, and in every case the defendants medical records are readily handed over to authorities by insurance companies and dosctors - all the govt. needs is the slightest whiff of evidence or suspicion to convince a judge to issue a subpoena. In this day and age, your average teenage hacker can already pull up your most personal data with barely any effort. So, stop worrying, it's already happening. The real issue is how do you prevent someone from having a motive for snooping into your health records. Right now, there is the lame and weak Hippa laws, and since your info is in so many private hands - your doctor, every drugstore and ER you ever visited, multiple insurance companies, your risks are extremely high that the ifo will be misused. If it was under govt. control there would still be opportunities for abuse, but far fewer people would have access.
gtartar
Having somebody else peep through your medical records must be far worse than dying from a curable disease because of a lack of health insurance. Go find someone that is sick and ask if they would give a shit if someone poked through their records if it meant they could receive medical care. Until you find someone that would rather die, STFU.
incognito-ergo-sum
Every time you get a prescription for a controlled substance the FDA knows. That is supposed to be how they find addicts. Mainly it is how they force doctors out of the country or into jail for giving to much pain medicine. This is the system we have now.
donquijoterocket
Didn't work for cnturd mouthpiece limpballs did it? I suppose you can produce an unbroken evidentiary line citing from primary sources to support this off- the-wall assertion, right? I don't mean some other winger rolling out personal anecdotes in which somebody's aunt's cousin goyt caught up in some doctor/prescription shopping. One thing about the residents of lower wingnuttistan you can count on them being long on accusations and short on evidence. This one of beast's resident psychics can get stuff so wrong it's lmost funny.I'm also amused at the claims that the Gopers have been somehow resurrected. All I've seen is a turning up of the volume by that 20 to 25% who never let go of the bushista dream and hold firm to the 6,000 year old earth, saddle dinosaurs, and geocentrism.
Mariafrania
To be honest, I really wouldn't care. The situations which you describe are marginal. Besides, someone always has access to your files, so if you've got enemies, it's just chance of weather they have friends who are healthcare governement bureacrats, insurance company workers, or a nurse at a doctor's office.
The ol' "let's sow some paranoia" technique is getting boring.
jayceebucco
You are flat wrong, Mr Frankie Avalon or whoever you are. There is no way in hell these "co-ops" are going to put the necessary pressure on the insurance companies. I know right wingers and now "centrists" it seems, hate government. Aim your venom where it needs to be aimed--these insurance companies who, say it with me--ARE NOT IN BUSINESS TO PROVIDE HEALTHCARE, BUT RATHER THEY ARE IN BUSINESS TO DENY HEALTHCARE. WWJD?
DD3075
The saddest thing is when I read posts from folks who may believe they are speaking intelligently, but who don't have a clue.
On insurance companies.....Blue Cross and Blue Shields are NOT-FOR-PROFIT companies.
Their purpose is not to either provide or deny health care. They PAY for the health care. And just like your auto insurance, or home insurance, you need to read (get that, READ) your insurance policy where it states EXACTLY what is and is not paid for.
Based on Federal law, about 6 years ago, insurance policy language was simplified so that anyone with average intelligence could understand it.
Tell me why ANYONE would think that insurance should pay 100% of claim costs. If your smart, you'd choose a high deductible on your auto, home and health insurance. It costs you a LOT less. Insurance is intended to cover catastrophic issues, not routine, day-to-day maintenance.
Scorpio777
Blue Cross and Blue Shield is an umbrella for many different insurance franchises. Many plans are administered by not-for-profit organizations, while others are for-profit companies. (Though all Blue Cross Blue Shield plans must pay Federal income tax under the Tax Reform Act of 1986, some plans are still considered not-for-profit at the state level.) So it is incorrect to say say Blue Cross is strictly not for profit, as DD3075 does.
ladyfractal
Perhaps you could explain something to me? Why is it that some government flunky having access to my medical records is a bad thing but some corporate flunky having access to my medical records is, at worst, a neutral thing if not an outright boon for which I should be grateful? Are not governments and corporations *both* large, powerful entities capable of exercising disproportionate power? Or is it just governments that can abuse power?
Thanks for your response in advance.
Cheers
LF
macdem1
Bureacrats already have access. Have you ever heard of Blue Cross or United Healthcare? $12/hour claims examiners are reading your personal diagnoses every day. Oh, and medicare/medicaid recipients records are already available to government "bureaucrats". Not something to worry about in light of all the other issues, like border babies, charity care, lack of preventive care for any uninsureds. Everything's great unless your parnet or kid is the one with a pre-existing condition that's not covered, or an illness that requires medication they can't afford.
jamesreid1
I'll take a government bureaucrat ANYDAY over an insurance clerk, a doctor without morals limiting care for quotas or a sociopathic executive pocketing millions while others suffer and die. Have you ever been to Canada, Britain, France or Switzerland? Or do you just believe the horsesh*t propaganda the insurance companies feed you?
notnowmooky
Yes, I don't care if bureaucrats have access to my medical records if they have a need to know. I'm not a coward like you guys. And I don't have anything to hide. Why do you men scare so easily?
whipmawhopma
I understand the points that Avlon is making, and from the beginning I thought Obama's biggest challenge would come from the hard-left, because he needs these people to play along, unlike the hard-right.
He's right about people who want everything day one as being the cause of gaining nothing.
Even so, I think Obama is up to the challenge.
mcmchugh99
The public option is not at all a "hard left"idea, except to the Republicans and C Streets Boys who are totally against any kind of health care reform.
We MUST have some protection for consumers against the insurance companies, which are at least as corrupt and predatory as the banks. It does not matter if it's passed with one-vote majorities in both houses of Congress. It's not as if that never happened before in history.
whipmawhopma
mcmchugh99 - Nevermind. I am confusing single payer with public option. Public option is an excellent idea.
But I still think the hard-left is going to make things hard for Obama. Well, harder than they need to be.
whipmawhopma
mcmchugh99 - I not talking about the public option. I am talking about the hard-left making things hard for Obama to get to the public option. First we start with some sort of compromise that brings about universal health care which even the blue dog will have to agree to.
After that we can go down the slippery slope to public option and socialism. Ended by a hard left to communism.
Excuse me - 'Paging ThinkAgain!'
As for the rest of your speech, I agree.
gtartar
A public option will lead to socialism and then communism?! Wow! We better get rid of Social Security, Medicare, the postal service, public schools, public radio, public highways, FDIC protection, and all the other crap that people in the past have told us would lead to socialism.
Wise up, whip. Public option may not be the best idea, but to say it is going to lead to socialism and then communism is just plain dumb.
AlanD2
whipmawhopma: People like you said the same things about Social Security and Medicare. Perhaps the "slippery slope" is a figment of your imagination.
whipmawhopma
gtartar & AlanD2 - "Irony (from the Ancient Greek %u03B5%u1F30%u03C1%u03C9%u03BD%u03B5%u03AF%u03B1 eir%u014Dneía, meaning hypocrisy, deception, or feigned ignorance) is a literary or rhetorical device, in which there is an incongruity or discordance between what one says or does and what one means or what is generally understood. Irony is a mode of expression that calls attention to the character's knowledge and that of the audience."
"There is argument about what qualifies as ironic, but all senses of irony revolve around the perceived notion of an incongruity between what is expressed and what is intended, or between an understanding or expectation of a reality and what actually happens: the literal truth is in direct discordance to the perceived truth."
I got that from Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony
I don't believe that public option or even single payer leads to socialism or communism. It leads to universal health care. Beyond that, I really can't say.
whipmawhopma
Sorry about the special characters. I forget TDB doesn't like them.
Fubarseven
Far Left Position #1: True Socialized Medicine. As a Veteran I want my socialized care, but cannot get it because I "earn to much money." So, as part of reform open up VA (true socialized medical coverage) to all who have served no matter their income. We earned it, give it to us! I would go farther and say open up VA care to all American citizens, to hell with the corporate interests.
Far Left position # 2, Compromise # 1: Open up VA car for any American Citizen who wants to buy in, to hell with corporate interests.
Far left position #3, Compromise # 2: Single payer. I'll be on medicare in a few years, so I'll have mine. Give it to all American citizens, period, to hell with the corporate interests.
Far Left position # 4, Compromise # 3: Strong Public Option, open up Medicare to any American Citizens who want to buy in, to hell with corporate interests.
Far Left Position # 5, Compromise #4: Weak public option, design a medicare style plan and open it up for those who cannot afford corporate care and regulate the hell out of corporate insurance practices.
Far left position #6, Compromise #5: Screw it, reform isn't going to happen as long as Americans remain in the thrall of Corporate media, corporate astroturf revolts, right wing distortions and lies, so withdraw support and let the lemmings partake of the stew they created for themselves.
America the beautiful has become America, Inc., for profit with no moral base outside of corporate spin.
nickatdabeach
just wait til all the lib rats begin jumping ship... what a sight to behold!!
crngndmhm
Go bury your head further in the sand
mcmchugh99
I won't jump ship because even on his worst day Obama is 100 times better than the Republicans. They are horrible in every way. That doesn't mean that I give up my right to criticize Obama if I think he is incorrect in some of his ideas.
Then I really would be an Obamabot.
whipmawhopma
mcmchugh99 - 'They are horrible in every way.'
Who is your drama coach? Republicans are confused, misguided, misinformed, fearful, lacking in certain humanitarian values, but I doubt that they are 'horrible in every way'. If so, we need to arm ourselves now!
whipmawhopma
nickatdabeach - Wake up. You're still at the beach and the tide is coming in.
ncopas
wtf? nice metaphor :P
ncopas
hah, yes a sight indeed. Also I can't wait for the second coming of jesus. And the rapture... oh and the day that god comes down and hand picks me off the earth to be king because i was such a good little republican all my life... hallelujah!
ncopas
hah, nice.. the sad thing is that this is a parody of what some people actually believe... and they're the ones always talking about liberals 'living in a fantasy world' and all that rubbish...
TravisStark
Mr. Avlon, you act as if the Public Option is the far left position and that we're just being intractable when nothing could be further from the truth. The far left position is Single Payer. That was given up from the start. Without a public option, and leaving in the individual mandate, all we're doing is funneling 46 million more cash cows to the insurance companies.
mcmchugh99
The really far Left position would be a government-owned National Health Service, as in Great Britain, but no one has proposed that.
Of course, there is more money in the bills for public hospitals and clinics, and the Public Health Service, all of which is REAL socialized medicine. No one has even seemed to notice that, however.
khayes
Ironically the British Conservatives would not dare mess with or fundamentally criticize the beloved NHS. Even the Highest Tory of them all, Maggie Thatcher, trimmed around the NHS only at the edges. The right wing here has noted all of this and further, knows from its own experiences with Social Security and Medicare here, that a public option (better still single payer a la Canada) once achieved will never be given up the American people. The Democrats should ram this through. As Bill Clinton said, Obama's numbers go up 5% immediately and in a year (2010 mid terms) even more. The Republicans know that too.
sonofloud
"Maxine Waters went on with CNN's Campbell Brown in the first wave of the pushback, arguing that liberals had already compromised and wouldn't go any further even at the president's request. "No one can say that we're not willing to compromise. ...We did that on single-payer."
But that's a concession to reality, not to Republicans or Blue Dog Democrats."
Um John, since Republicans and Blue Dogs didn't want single payer and the liberal groups did, they does make it a concession.
Saying it was a "concession to reality" is absurd. Reality isn't painting co-ops as "government run healthcare", the Republicans and Blue Dogs are.
LauraNo
Go look at the Kaiser Institute poll out today. 49%-against, 48%-for Medicare for all. Not exactly a concession to reality. We have House, Senate and POTUS, and 48% in favor. I get more than a little tired of the lies some people go out spreading around to promote filthy profits for insurance companies over life and death issues for their fellow Americans. Shame on you.
donquijoterocket
I'm wondering how it is that all the various "journalists" and "pundits" fail to note that President Obama is getting more pushback from his supposed "base" than the shrub ever did from his. Of course I guess when you're one of the have-mores and care very little for anything outside your little coterie and are being well taken care of with cuts in the tax rate there's very little to complain about.
neverlate
Obama's heart is with the Left and I do not think he will do anything to lead on this issue. Typical Liberals, happy to march off a cliff as long as it is for the "right reason."
mcmchugh99
I hardly think a public option is a radical idea, except to Republicans. But they think that everything after Rutherford B. Hayes was a radical idea.
beentheredonethat
Most of the Republicans I know don't think, they just mimic Rush
jglass54
First of all, there are a lot of messy references in all these postings to "liberals", "far left", "ultra-liberals" and just plain "Democrats. Isn't a true Democrat a liberal by definition and tradition, just as a true Republican is a conservative? In other words, calling someone a liberal is not synonymous with calling them a member of the far left, just as calling someone a Republican doesn't necessarily mean that they are on the far right. What has happened is that the Democratic Party has shifted more to the center, while the Republican Party has shifted more to the right, hence all the confusion on terms.
Secondly, why is it that when more left-leaning Democrats push for their ideas to prevail, they are criticized for eating their own and are described, as in this article, as mired in "arrogant over-reaching liberalism", whereas when right-leaning Republicans try to steer their party, as they are doing now, they are described in the media as masterful and in charge, with nary a comment such as "arrogant" and "over-reaching?"
incognito-ergo-sum
Wonderful post, going to print it out for my friends. Thank you.
AlanD2
neverlate: Why shouldn't we? You conservatives marched over a cliff for Bush's two wars and the Great Recession.
neverlate
And you want to do the same? Can you not learn from our mistake?
ginsushark
dang, if democrats would only listen to guilliani's speech writer.
obviously an "independant" and a "centrist"
Picachu
Ironic that the ultra-liberals will have a hand in the right wingers ability to defeat health care reform. Extreme ideologies on either end of the spectrum do not benefit most of us who live somewhere in the center.
redstatebluedude
Okay thanks for sharing. Now take your "no, we can't" attitude and go away please. We'll do it without you too.
maspring
"But still some liberals are pursuing an all-or-nothing approach to health-care reform,"
False:
All or nothing would've been single payer. They did compromise right out of the gate. What you're seeing is Democrats finally drawing a line in the sand for something meaningful.
Personally, as someone who wants this to work, I think a line in the sand is appropriate.
If it succeeds, fine. If it fails and it causes the Democrats to lose for another 8 -12 years, so be it.
Give the country a nice long look at a Palin presidency. Let the insurance bills double.
Democrats have got to learn that they're dealing with a cultural movement that will never be swayed by logic or reasoned argument.
This doesn't appear to be crystal clear to them yet.
Once it is maybe they'll learn how to marry rational policy decisions with the necessary bloodthirsty killer instinct required to handle the Right.
sophia5
Obama won the election thanks to moderates.
Many of those moderates might be shifting
the other way thanks to the Government Power
Grab under Obama.
Obama will lose to Romney in 2012.
Ritarita
HA!
Lose to
The used car salesman?
Sophia-
You've finally developed
A sense of humor.
Veronicaxy
Rita be nice to Sophia! She's even copying your prose style and as they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery -- soon she'll be slipping in the blue paint too. Just watch.
And Sophia what exactly is a Government Power Grab? Once defined, could you apply it to both sides? Very educational.
Ritarita
Hmmm.
Now that you
Mention it Veronica-
She does look a bit like me.
She didn't used to
Post that way.
I'll be keeping an eye out
For signs of blue tendencies.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
This user is no longer registered.
n--Y--Portmanteaumcmchugh99
Thirty years of Republican rule left the United States in the crapper in every way. I saw it happen myself. Obama is simply trying to clean up the mess, working within a very corrupt and dysfunctional system.
CarmanK
This country was in trouble with the Bush/Cheney administration: war of choice, 5000 americans dean, financial ruin, loss of real wages, rich got richer and more arrogant, government agencies were inept and incompetent (Katrina) FDA-people and animals died from food poisoning, environment deteriorating, science denied and of course the imperial presidency just to name a few. President Obama has stopped the slide into oblivion for the nation and its people. His administration has returned to governance, the economic issues are being addressed. The repugs rule for the rich and powerful, the dems govern for all the people. The dems believe in democracy the repugs want "economic aristocracy'. Obama and the dems stopped the hemorrhaging and our nation will recover and so will its people.
This user is no longer registered.
n--Y--Portmanteaubobj72
Woudda' thought you might have found that "lookin' glass" between 2000 and 2008. The 'Reflection' got REALLY UGLY in 2008!
EdinNJ
The day that the Republican party "leaders" decided that defeating this bill would bring about Obama's Waterloo was the beginnning of the tide changing on this issue.
Can't you feel it. The left has be reinvigorated by all the biased reporting on these town halls. Reform will pass, and with a public option, one way or another, probably through a split bill and reconciliation. After all is said and done, it will be hailed as the defining achievement of any recent presidency. All this despite all the attacks from the far left and the right.
Then what will the Republicans, Blue Dogs and the DC concern trolls do? You are all getting played, and it's a joy to watch.
jsdc007
Co-ops are great, but work only in certain settings. Moreover, most districts are dominated by one large hospital and/or insurance system. Best of luck trying to negotiate with the CEO of one of those if you're a co-op. You'd be laughed at. Unless, the government adds in provisions that would give co-ops more teeth, they will have no ability to bring down costs.
robbep
As soon as I learned that you were a speech writer for the maya I stopped reading your spin. I am sure you are so concerned about what liberals want.
Thank you.
As a first time user, your comment has been submitted for review. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two for your comment to be reviewed, depending on the time of week and the volume of comments we receive.