"Many of the posts and comments urging progressives to support the health care reform bill are based on a false premise. When you remove that false premise you realize that all the arguments for passing this horrible bill are bogus... The current argument among progressives is whether or not they should support a horrible bill... That false premise is the idea that Obama and the Democratic leadership actually support health care reform, but the Republicans and the Blue Dogs have joined forces with the lobbyists to obstruct them. Obama and the Democratic leadership DO NOT support health care reform... They aren't opposed on ideological grounds or because they want to see people suffer, it's just a simple conflict of interest. There is no financial incentive for them to reform our nations health care system, but obstructing and opposing reform is very lucrative." Failure was the plan <http://riverdaughter.wordpress.com/2009/12/20/failure-was-the-plan/> Posted on December 20, 2009 by myiq2xu This health care reform clusterfuck was not an accident, it was planned...
Their primary goal is returning this country to the golden age that existed before the New Deal. No unions, no government social spending, and no regulation of banks and business. Because this country is still officially a democratic republic we still have elections, but the corporatists have been successful at rigging the outcomes in their favor. With the exception of the Big Dawg in 1992 and 1996 I watched Republicans run rough-shod over Democrats for decades... I used to get frustrated watching the Democrats get outmaneuvered tactically and many times I shook my head in disgust as they made concession after concession. The worst part was when they surrendered without a fight... But when Nancy Pelosi took over as Speaker of the House one of the first things she did was declare that impeachment was off the table. I couldn't understand why the Democrats did nothing to stop the war or end the lawless behavior of the Bush administration... Then one day the light came on in my head. It was about the time that Alberto Gonzales was telling the Senate he couldn't remember a single thing about his job as Attorney General... There was ample evidence to justify a special prosecutor or the appointment of a special committee to investigate. But all the Democrats did was make a little noise and then drop it. That's when I realized they didn't want to win... The Democrats would say the right things, but when it came time to vote they let the Republicans win. They would make speeches scolding bankers and then turn around and deregulate Wall Street. They pretend to be on our side, but their loyalty goes to the big money special interests. The Democratic leadership has gone over to the enemy, and that includes Obama, Pelosi and Reid. Why would they do something like that?... "follow the money." That is where the truth is. Last year what party and which candidate got the most money from Big Pharma and the health insurance companies? I'll give you a hint it was the same party and candidate that got all the Wall Street money. They gave him millions back in 2007 when he was a rookie Senator to start his campaign and they spent lots more buying him the nomination. You didn't really think all those career Democrat politicians in Washington suddenly got starry eyes and tingly legs just because they heard Obama make a speech did you? The party insiders helped Obama because Obama had rich and powerful friends that asked them to help Obama. The same thing goes for the media. Early on Obama was getting more media attention than he deserved, and it was mostly positive. After decades in Washington shilling for the special interests Senators Joe Biden and Chris Dodd could barely raise enough money to compete in Iowa. Even though they were both regulars on Sunday morning news shows their campaigns got little attention. Richardson, Vilsack, Kucinich and Gravel were even worse off. During 2007 the six of them combined raised about $25 million. Obama raised that much in the first quarter of the year. They took a light-weight politician with virtually no accomplishments and hired David Axelrod to turn him into Candidate Obama. He was nearly perfect for them, an unscrupulous man with no core beliefs except his own ambition. Best of all from their point of view, Obama doesn't have the strength of character to defy authority... People think that after he took office Obama made secret deal with Big Pharma and the health insurance companies. That's not true. There might have been some specific details to discuss but the basic outline of the deal was made when Obama sold them his soul in exchange for being President. Despite his promise to consider all the options Obama made sure single payer got buried. Max Baucus helped him in the Senate and the A-list progressive bloggers cooperated to keep the subject taboo on the front pages of their blogs. They started with a "robust public option" and after weakening it until it it was meaningless they still took it out. There was a provision for a Medicare buy-in for people 55-65 years old. Lieberman liked it, then demanded it be taken out. The House version included the Stupak-Pitts amendment. Who will be covered and how much will it cost? Fuck if I know, but whatever the current version says will change again before it's over. But one thing hasn't changed. Mandates... Obama and the Congressional Democrats are proposing to solve the problem of people without health insurance by making them buy health insurance from private companies. That is truly unprecedented and historic. Will there be effective cost controls and guaranteed coverage? I wouldn't bet on it, 30 Democratic Senators voted against allowing the importation of cheaper prescription drugs. It doesn't appear they give a fuck about us little people. Right now the health insurance companies are paying out in benefits about 2/3 of of what they collect in premiums. The remaining 1/3 goes to overhead and profits, and the health insurance companies are very profitable. Soon they will have their profits guaranteed by law and subsidized with tax dollars. That was the plan from the beginning. The primary beneficiaries of the plan are the health insurance companies. They invested millions and they will get back billions. The plan does nothing to reform the system. This is not half a loaf, it is a windfall for the health insurance companies disguised as reform. The Democrats didn't try to write a better bill. They didn't want one. The Democrats wanted this bill because the people they work for wanted this bill. Unfortunately we aren't the people they work for. I expect the bill to pass. The Democrats aren't worried about public opinion or job security. The A-list bloggers can't stop it, just like they couldn't stop the FISA revision. They're as useless as tits on a boar hog. All it took was a David Axelrod whispering sweet nothings and promises of insider access and they abandoned the idea of a democratic, grassroots progressive blogosphere and became the disseminators of White House talking points. Health care reform is a big shit sandwich and we're all gonna have to take a bite, but the A-listers deserve a double helping for all the help they gave the cooks. The worst part is that despite the humiliating way they were exploited and discarded most of the progressive bloggers will go crawling back to vote for Obama and the Democrats because "the Republicans are worse!" [http://riverdaughter.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/obamacare1.jpg?w=468&h\ =414] http://riverdaughter.wordpress.com/2009/12/20/failure-was-the-plan/
