Anthony Weiner: Obama Hasn't Led On Health Care (VIDEO)

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) said Obama has been hurting the cause of health care reform by sitting out the fight.

"David Axelrod said on your show that this is like we're in the ninth inning," he told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow last night. "That's not true. Our cleanup hasn't even come to the plate."

Weiner is a forceful advocate of a public health insurance option. He's said he thinks about 100 Democratic House members would vote against a bill that didn't include it.

"We've been in a scrap through the month of August, but we really haven't had presidential leadership in the way we need it most," Weiner told Maddow. He told he thought Obama's speech next week would turn things around. "If he stands up Wednesday and says to the country, we need to have a public option and here's why, it's going to get done. If he don't we'll settle for less and that will be a tragedy."

Weiner dismissed talk of an incremental approach or a bill that only deals with some problems of the health care industry. "That's not the change that a lot of people think they voted for," he said.

Watch:

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Earlier this week, Weiner attempted to explain Medicare to confused CNBC host Maria Bartiromo.

Comments

[68-lukeburlington]

Our Favorite New York Congressman speaks the Truth!!! Go Tony!!! We love You!

you can read the story between the lines at http://www.suburbanempire.com

[ErnestineBass]

GREAT site, luke. Your BillO rant was a laughriot! Well done!

[jcwtts1]

I believe the president is about to change his tone on the health care fight, and here is why, having watched him before, specifically with the climate bill in the house, his leadership style is to let the parties fight as much as they can, and then to step in and settle the matter. Look for Wed to do just that. But it isn't because this rep said he should do it, it was always the plan. And what I would remind the rep and everyone else who is whining about a tough August, the President wanted all the bills voted out before the recess. The house was slow, and the senate failed to get finance out. They have no one to blame but themselves.

J

[smithonpolitics-com]

How can Nelson say he'd support a trigger? THis means he supports a public option. Now, if he supports a public option, why is he trying to protect corporate profits at the expense of us all? The guy's logic is twisted. He's trusting profit-centered insurance companies to reduce costs under the threat of a public plan. Please Nelson. Save it. http://www.stopbackingdown.com - Public option petition

[CTtransplant]

NO trigger!!!

Never ever ever give up!!! Folks, do not forget the marches on September 13th!!!
If not now, when? If not us, who?

Kennedy was one of our greatest champions of health care reform. He carried the torch for a long time...and now it is up to us to continue to carry it!

Our elected officials in Congress receive health care mostly paid for by us tax payers, yet many are trying to make it impossible for us to purchase an affordable plan of our own :

While many of us are struggling to afford medical insurance/medical bills.
While Congress people try to stop healthcare reform.
While Congress people accept large contributions from lobbyists to prevent health care reform.

Please sign these petitions - and by all means, spread the word! Thank you!

http://www.petitiononline.com/PubOp676/petition.html
http://www.democrats.com/honor-ted-kennedy?cid=ZGVtczQ0MTA5OGRlbXM=
http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5649/t/4922/content.jsp?content_KEY=2763&tag=hk1_typ-e1

[getsmart85]

Stand firm. Democracy is facing its Waterloo. No pubic option, no support.

[elmundo6]

I must agree with the Rep. I really like Obama but I think he has to get his hands dirty on this one and go toe-to-toe for HC and the public option. I think he has spent way too much time trying to bend over backwards for people who will never agree with him on anything, just because.....

[StillAmused]

Rep. Weiner is perhaps the ONLY Congressman, other than Bernie Sanders, who's willing to DO THE MATH and lay it out, plain and simple. Should've been the Dems' point man on reform from Day One.

[oldguydude]

So the CBO can't do math?

Uh-oh.

[Martel]

Sure they can. What they cannot seem to do, what they refuse to do, is project the possibility that there will be any savings at all from the real competition that a strong, robust public option would provide, since they refuse to accept that the same type of solution employed in many of the countries with universal health care - and all of the countries on the planet except for the U.S., Turkey, and Somalia have universal health care, most of them with a single payer system - has a price tag about half that of the current U.S. system, which doesn't cover 15% of the population at all and only provides minimal coverage to another 25%.

They are fixated on the idea that because more than one insurance corporation is in the market there is some kind of existing competition - which might be true if there was such a thing as a 'free market' for health insurance, which there more than obviously is not. The entire fantasy that all markets are 'free markets' is absurd. Absent VERY strong government regulation, markets ALWAYS tend toward either collusion or monopoly among suppliers with buyers having little to no influence once either of those scenarios occurs in the market. The market for health insurance is fully rigged at this point in time, with no 'freedom' whatsoever.

[Martel]

Yes, but the problem with that is the large minority of the American population who are incredibly ignorant.

First, Bernie Sanders is an independent, not a Democrat; so many Democrats would not be happy. Secondly, he has said quite openly that he's a socialist. Third, there's his religion (and Weiner's too). Blindly stupid people, of whom there are so many in this country, will never get past the second and third points. The media will quite happily sell the manufactured 'controversy' because - let's face it - that's how they make their money. So, just from a public relations view, having either of them on point wouldn't be practical. Absent those problems, of course, you would be absolutely correct.

[StillAmused]

Possibly true, but sort of like: If my aunt had a beard, she'd be my uncle. Had Obama posed the central question at the outset -- namely, what is the advantage of a private, for-profit insurance industry? -- then immediately named a distinguished panel of economists, actuaries and medical academics to address the question, he could have stepped back, hands off.

When that panel finished kickin' the living sh*t out of the insurance industry in full public view, shutting down all the 'deathers' , industry shills and right-wing howlers, we could have commenced a SANE conversation on how to intelligently design and transition to a single-payer system.

[zukervati]

Guys like him need to chill a bit. The problem is not Obama, it's the other vacillating Dumcrats who're too afraid to sign up to a single-payer option. Weiner needs to make sure he holds the line, not cave into the histrionics created by the fringe element and the MSM.
I recall strolling in Vegas a few years back and the union guys were protesting. There were probably twenty people at most who were actually protesting and the rest were just tourists gawking at the scene. The 6PM news portrayed this event as if the entire SEIU showed up to protest - the perspective gets totally distorted by the time something like this hits the b00bTube!
The POTUS is back, well rested and ready to take on all comers - including his own party. Let's see what he can accomplish before we give up!

[Martel]

I'm not giving up...but I may decide that it makes more sense to not give up in a country with a smaller percentage of ignorant and blindly stupid people. And this issue is the defining one for me; more important than boutique wars of choice and aggression, which a nation pretending to empire is not likely to refuse for a very long time.

It is true that the roadblock is composed of blue dogs. However, Obama has NOT applied pressure where it is clearly needed - at all. So he definitely shares some of the blame. He needs to get over the idea that there can be reasonable dialog between Progressives and Regressives, between Democrats and Republicans. Republicans in this time and this place will not cooperate in any way with anyone who doesn't share their desire to return to the tenth century. Since time moves on, they must very aggressively run backwards or suffer the humiliation of being caught in the present. They have no time, energy, or desire for compromise.

[pacason]

Honestly, I am getting whip-lash from Obama's position on healthcare. Just to be clear, I gave money, worked on the man's campaign, went door to door and having never done anything like that before, I like many people, felt inspired and ready to go. Now, I am disillusioned and disappointed, not because we can't get a public option or many other things that were promised, but the fact that Obama hasn't EVEN TRIED! He is banking on his progressive wing forgetting by the mid-terms or after his first term, but I will never forget this. He has really turned out to be a complete disappointment to me. I'm just a middle of the road democrat but if I feel like this, I can only imagine what liberals feel.

[iLoveOldNY]

Liberals (like me) are extremely disheartened. You hit the nail right on the head. This campaign was about reform, ethics, and health care. This is why his poll numbers are getting crushed. Hope he doesn't fumble on wednesday!

Mr. President, Colbert Nation is watching.

[Opus007]

The best is Anthony Weiner on Morning Joe. Joe was speechless. It is priceless- you can get it on youtube. Even Mika couldn't find any babble to chime in with.

[oldngrumpy]

I loved that. Weiner said we are giving 30% of 17% of our GDP to insurance companies and it doesn't go to any health care. It is overhead for an entity that provides no service, makes no product, and serves no purpose. He nailed it. I haven't seen Joe that stymied before. He broke early to compose himself and come up with something.

[aflyinyoursoup]

Not only do they provide no service, they are instrumental in denying needed (at times life saving) services if they perceive a threat to their PROFIT MARGIN!
Health Insurance Companies are a world-class scourge.....

[msbeal]

I pulled it up on YouTube. Anthony makes a lot of sense. 30 cents on every dollar spent on healthcare is going to a bunch of tall swank offices with clerks, sales people, advertisement, big shot administrators, and profit. They don't bring squat to the actual delivery of medical services.

The hidden truth is that people through their employer dole out money for services that are never questioned. The employer isn't going to get into whether your charges are reasonable. And all you ask is that they just pay it. That's an open invitation for all underlying providers to raise their prices unquestioned and unchecked. The insurance company doesn't care if prices rise, they get a percentage cut.

Through a single payer system I bet we would see savings more around 50% which is what all the other countries that have single payor enjoys.

This complaint that having leech insurance companies on our backs somehow represents 'freedom' is impossible for me to understand. Bubba yells, "Hey, it's my god given right to be ripped off!"

[maggienash65]

he is helping to bring this President down and help the Morning man run in 2010

[Opus007]

The reason there is so much drama is that our Congress wants health care industry campaign money and constituent votes. There lies the rub.

Congress should get off their ego trips and stop crafting 1000 page documents to squabble over.

*******JUST LIFT THE AGE RESTRICTION FROM MEDICARE AND BE DONE WITH IT. *****
No muss. No fuss. No drama. Get it done!

I wonder if President Obama could just lift the age restriction by executive order? Do anyone know?
(That would be great- to hell with the drama queens in congress)

[meldah]

It is not the correct argument that the President hasn’t been a leader in the fight, the correct argument is that no one is following his lead. Watching the funeral of Senator Edward Kennedy I was reminded of something I read by Eleanor Roosevelt. The Monday following the death of President Roosevelt she wrote in her column My Day:

“Perhaps in His wisdom, the Almighty is trying to show us that a leader may chart the way, may point out the road to lasting peace, but that many leaders and many people’s must do the building. It cannot be the work of one man, nor can the responsibility be laid upon his shoulders, and so, when the time comes for people to assume the burden more fully, he is give rest.”

Our Congressman must be in harmony about this debate. I would say to Mr. Weiner (I apologize in advance for Mom Mode): With all due respect, President Obama has spoken, frequently, about this debate; I fear folks are not listening with their ears. ,… but when he talks do not let your mind wander on how you are going to reply. Just listen with both ears.

[tapley]

Exactly

[Martel]

Yes, he has spoken. Out of both sides of his mouth.

Look, I didn't vote for him for the purpose of having a president who would rather be popular with Republicans than insist upon the things we thought we were voting for.

I don't blame him for the political problem. That lies with the blue dogs. I blame him for not engaging in the fight. To a lesser extent, I blame him for being so naive as to believe that the right-wing in America will respond to him at any future moment in time with anything but blind hatred.

[Awake-and-Sing]

Well stated.

[CTtransplant]

Never ever ever give up!!! Folks, do not forget the marches on September 13th!!!
If not now, when? If not us, who?

Kennedy was one of our greatest champions of health care reform. He carried the torch for a long time...and now it is up to us to continue to carry it!

Our elected officials in Congress receive health care mostly paid for by us tax payers, yet many are trying to make it impossible for us to purchase an affordable plan of our own :

While many of us are struggling to afford medical insurance/medical bills.
While Congress people try to stop healthcare reform.
While Congress people accept large contributions from lobbyists to prevent health care reform.

Please sign these petitions - and by all means, spread the word! Thank you!

http://www.petitiononline.com/PubOp676/petition.html
http://www.democrats.com/honor-ted-kennedy?cid=ZGVtczQ0MTA5OGRlbXM=
http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5649/t/4922/content.jsp?content_KEY=2763&tag=hk1_typ-e1

[68-lukeburlington]

quid pro quo... I signed your links... now click mine http://www.suburbanempire.com

[chaz]

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) for President. This is our man. It's time to face reality Obama doesn't have the guts.

[PaxEterna]

I think it is less about guts than the money he took -19 millions dollars- from health care sector "lobbyists" during the campaign.

[chaz]

You might be right but I don't think so. If it was all about the money he would of done what the Republicans did when they controlled Congress and the Presidency and passed a bill giving $700 billion to insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies and called it Medicaid Part D.

[oldngrumpy]

Why are you conservatives so allergic to links?

An accusation of that magnitude deserves substantiation.

When one contributes to a federal campaign there is a questionnaire that asks, among other things, what industry you work in. During the campaign Obama was accused of taking money from a variety of unpopular sources, prime among them was finance and health care. The truth was usually that these were individuals donating from $25 to $500. I would like to see the source of information that shows that Obama took that much from "LOBBYISTS" of the health care industry. I'm quite sure that you can't produce or you would have included the link, but I could be in error.

Back to you.

[68-lukeburlington]

We agree, Tony 12' ! for America! http://www.suburbanempire.com

[ErnestineBass]

GREAT site, luke! BRAVO!

[Alabama John]

If Obama was sincere the last think he would have done is push for the public option. No way is our capitalist Congress going to doom the healthcare insurance industry to destruction, and everyone knows that a public option would surely lead to it.

If sincere, first Obama would have pushed hard for single payer which is Medicare for all. If that failed he had many ways to crack the nut. Like Sweden which has almost the same medical industry as ours, with insurance companies running the show. The big difference in Sweden being their 100% oversight of healthcare and total regulation, with profit kept to a bare bone minimum, no CEO making more then a million, and virtually no doctor retiring a millionaire. In contrast to the U.S. where most all doctors retire millionaires a couple times over.