Memo To Rahm: Do You Think We're MotherF#@kin' Stupid?
In the past few days, a disturbing reality has come into razor sharp focus -- the White House may be completely willing to go along with the lobbyist funded Senators on selling out real health care reform for America.
If anyone wanted to hold on to the illusion that perhaps President Obama was actually doing a head fake with 'moderate Democrats' in his call suggesting that they shouldn't be attacked for taking huge amounts of health industry money in exchange for creating faux reform legislation that would entrench and benefit the private insurance industry, Rahm Emanual made it clear on Monday that the compromise is a pre-approved condition at the White House.
According to the Wall Street Journal:
It is more important that health-care legislation inject stiff competition among insurance plans than it is for Congress to create a pure government-run option, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said Monday.
"The goal is to have a means and a mechanism to keep the private insurers honest," he said in an interview. "The goal is non-negotiable; the path is" negotiable.His comments came as the Senate Finance Committee pushed for a bipartisan deal.
The White House and Congress need to get the message loud and clear that so many of us have waited so long for real health care reform that we're in no mood to watch the compromise that The Public Option already represents crumble in front of us.
Eight years of the blatant corporate governance of George Bush and Dick Cheney don't make the slick, two faced corpora governance of people like Rahm Emanuel and Max Baucus go down any smoother.
We know the lies about how awful the rest of the world's health care is and how great we have it in the U.S.A. with our freedom to go bankrupt. We know that we're the only modern nation in the world where the private insurance industry is allowed to choke profits out of its citizens. Thanks to defiant American voices like filmmaker Michael Moore, we get it.
Let's give credit to Barack Obama for making us feel like we could make a difference -- like we could WIN this time. That's a powerful feeling; just ask our brothers and sisters in Iran. Are we Americans ready to show 1/100th of the courage that they showed when they braved police and bullets to let their government know they demanded change?
Are you willing to at least pick up the phone and tell the White House what you think?
On his 100th day in office, Barack Obama said:
You're who I'm working for every single day in the White House. I've heard your stories; I know you sent me to Washington because you believed in the promise of a better day. And I don't want to let you down.
You're letting us down, Mr. President.
Here's my two latest videos.
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Let's do some free association, shall we?
If I say Rahm Emanuel, Dianne Feinstein, Maria Cantwell, Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln, Max Baucus, Evan Bayh, Mary Landrieu, and Joe Leiberman ...You say?
DLC? Correct.
If I say Public Health Care Option Obstructionists ... You say?
DLC. Correct!
If I say Gramm Leach Bliley Act, which repealed Glass-Steagall and is a core reason for our current global economic nightmare ... You Say?
Um, Bill Clinton ... because he signed it? Good!
And if I say Bill Clinton ... you say?
DLC? Yes!
And if I say DLC ... you say?
Very bad for the American people? Seems like.
I know, I know I was talking to myself but it was for effect. It seems that the President's problem isn't with "Centrist Dems" as much as it is with the DLC.
(I'm curious if Bill Clinton is using his old DLC Team to undermine Obama's Presidency over what happened to Hillary? Petty, but predictable)
http://www
makes sense....l
BINGO "With friends like this who needs enemies" moment of zen
Obama is a DLC Democrat. Rahm is his right hand and Hillary is at State. I foolishly thought that Obama defeated the DLC when he defeated Hillary. Silly me.
Then the DLC will complete the murder of the United States of America that Bush and the NeoCons began. The only reason the United States or any Nation rises to a level of success in the World is because of Wise Leaders who excel at making good decisions. There is nothing genetic about the American success story. If enough bad decisions are made by American leaders (Business, Political, and members of the American Oligarchy) then we will find ourselves on par with Burma, North Korea, or Zimbabwe in short order.
Arrogance is not currency.
Don't wanna incite hatred here by any means but since when was it my responsibility as a taxpayer to make sure you get some of my money for health insurance? Yeah there is a lot of unfortunate things that occur in life everyday but the average american should be self-sufficient. Our country was not built on the gov't assisting every aspect of our lives. You really want change? Bypass all of em........
If you don't believe in promoting the general welfare of our country, maybe it's time to consider moving.
I have thought a bit about that possibility, Titan. But isn't 350 million people sharing their resources in a single payer plan a lot better for helping people out?
Since when is it your responsibility as a citizen to line the pockets of your HMO's executives?
You're right - this country was built on slavery. rather, the fruits of slave labor. looks like we're not ready to let go of that model yet.
Good point in many ways our for profit exclusionary health care system (system?) is one of the last vestiges of Jim Crow Reconstruction policies that the south will not relinquish.
The "right to choose your own doctor" being a euphemism for discrimination.
Mr Stranahan,
Thank you for putting a voice to what so many of us live on a day in and day out basis. Either no insurance at all, or employer provided insurance that we cannot afford to use.
If the uninsured and underinsured of this country are not given a powerful voice, nothing will ever change. The billions being made by the evil twin terrors of big Pharm & the private insurors will win out over the needs of the multitudes.
Yes, a suitable standard of living will never be achieved without universal healthcare
+Lee:
Sorry dude you drank the Obama Kool-Aid. As soon as all of those former Clinton staffers and aides were hired by Obama you should have gotten your reality check.
Regardless of who is President -- NOTHING, absolutely nothing, will change in Washington with the same old Democrats in power who have been sucking the teats of the pharmaceutical and insurance industry lobbyists.
What is outrageous is that Obama is going to go off to Marth's Vineyard instead of going out to the folks in middle America who very badly need to hear from him. Americans need Obama to step up to the plate and call on them demand that their Congressmen and Senators support universal helath care and a single payer system. Every American should be able to buy into the insurance plan that the folks on Capitol Hill get to buy into and at the very same rates.
Just because we are fighting the power system does not mean we are on your side.
You sat back and let Rove and Cheney destroy the Bush name for a millenia.
We won't let that happen, and thats what seperates us, go away.
Ok, so it's ok for Shrub to go off to crawford for two months at a time, but for Obama to go away for a weekend getaway is inexcusabl
Rahm's brother is a Hollywood agent. Well, seen any REAL cinema lately? Right. So don't expect any decent health reform. Right now they want to penalize me for NOT having insurance!
15-50 million people protesting solemnly in the streets is all that will bring any change, if we can get our dolts away from the EN-TRAINMENT on the tube and the narcosis now called daily living.
When the big men and women see that their gated communities are outnumbered, they will change their mind.
It would cause them to send in the Praetorian Guards.
45-50 Million uninsured showing up in ER's for whatever treatment necessary, all at once, might, thanks to the inherent economical threat, change things.
One sixth of the entire US population.
PS Livy's "Early history of Rome" and every good account of the Roman Republic's (not the Empire) day-to-day life is, once again very recommended to read. This struggle for (health care) reform is nothing new at all, neither is the behavior of the new administration or the US Senate. Know your history and you will know what's happening.
I really enjoyed "Cheri" this past weekend, since you asked.
Vote Green Party if you want change, if you want real health care reform, if you want equal rights for everyone. It's time for a third party. Give Bernie Sanders somebody he can really caucus with.
Obama is a lost cause. He's given up on real health care reform to focus on getting more stimulus money for the bankers.
I am a socialist but I will not vote Green until the Green party actually begins to OPPOSE the Democrats instead of acting like their little brother.
It is time we got up the nerve the citizens of other countries have. We have to take to the streets and shut down the economy once and for all in order to force our elected officials to get rid of the private health care companies. They have made billions and it's time they took there ball and went home. We must be willing to suffer and endure for what is right. We are no longer free for we slave for the rich and die for profit takers.
In countries where the government is afraid of the people they have EXCELLENT health care.
Our President is afraid of having his populist image tarnished. Make a big enough scene about this and I think he'll try a lot harder to fight special interests.
Apparently we cannot take to the streets, we need them to issue us a permit 1st.
Let's do it!
I was just commenting on this in another post. Every time I hear Barack Obama clarify what one of his cabinet members says, I have to look over my back to make sure there's not a dumb conservative sheep behind me....caus
I did not walk door to door in the Heat, Wind and Rain for this Obama. If you support a Bill with no meaningful Public Option then you are a political goner. Surely you know this. Are you committing political suicide on purpose?
Thanks for your post.
I called The White House to let the President know I demand a public option..
It's going to take more than just phone calls I'm afraid. It's gonna take some really hard beating the grass to get the snakes out.
Democratic "LEADERSHIP" Council = CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
DISBAND this bunch of DINOs and FIRE their head - RAHM.
AIPAC - DITTO.
U.S. would be MUCH better off without EITHER.
Wow, a strongly worded phone call.....
Some day we'll learn from the French. No kindly little planned marches followed by cookies and self-congr
A better question is, are you "m-effin" naive? To get any kind of health-care reform, Obama will have to deal with lobbyists, deep-pocketed insurance companies and the Congressmen they support. Those people aren't going to just go away. He can't just make them disappear.
But what he can do is use his bully pulpit to work to get some kind of health-care reform, that will give people access to health care where before they had none.
Is it the utopian model of universal health care? No. But it would be better than what we had before. And if that's not good enough, I don't know what to tell you. Political reality sucks.
JimR: Do you listen to yourself. There is more of us than them. Get a backbone already.
Yes, Rahm thinks you are stupid. He also thinks you are conservative.
Rahm and the DLC democrats believe they won the 2006 and 2008 elections by running to the rights, pro war conservative sellouts of the DLC.
http://www
There are even books, about it:
http://www
Do you really believe that Rahm won by going conservative?
The GOP lost. We would have elected ANYONE from the democratic party, and the DLC and rahm liberman clinotn obama folks, used the opportunity to elect CONSERVATIVE CORPORATIST democrats.
The GOP lost, yes. But that doesn't mean most Americans are ready to accept a far-left agenda.
How's about OUT OF THE POCKET OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE for a start - then onto the CENTER-no lefties until we get the bearings correct.
JimR: No. The Americans want Universal Health Care for all. Yes. The GOP lost. If Health Care with no Public Option passes then the American people have lost. Obama is out of a job, the Insurance companies win and you have lost.
What we have is a Bush Lite right of center corporate administration that has done little different than what Bush/Cheney would have done. For all politicians you need to look at the actions, not the words.
For a President who supposedly has his party running both houses of Congress, very little of substance is getting done for the average American.
Thanks for this column. I followed your advice and called the White House. I volunteered for the Obama campaign and sent them as much dough as I could. There are several key issues----EFCA, Mountaintop Removal Mining, the support of corporate sharks instead of the poor, the unwillingness to put hundreds of billions into direct public work for the unemployed, the continued pursuit of empire-----where I am critical of the administration's mania for consensus and compromise over justice. But as I told the very gracious White House phone operator, the public health care option is non-negotiable. In fact, the public health option IS the compromise, when everyone knows single payer is the rational and fair choice. If the president really does get my message, he'll know of one more committed supporter who will not vote for him in 2012 if he backs down on the public option. I'll just sit that election out, with regrets.
What? No excuses for Obama such as, 'he's working on it (or) he's only been in office so many months etc" like we get whenever DADT amd DOMA are discussed?
Of COURSE he thinks we're idiots! 72% of the country wants a "health care reform plan" that does NOTHING to reform health care! It just uses the IRS (did you EVER want the IRS "helping" with health care?) to hunt down people without insurance. If these people can be profitable customers of the private industry they will be forced to buy from a commercial company. If they're too poor or expensive for profits to be made off them then they'll be shipped into the health care slum of the "public option". ONLY an idiot would be in favor of this!
Is this REALLY what you want as "health care reform"???
If not, you better get in touch with your congressional delegation and start letting them know how you feel about this.
YES!
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