Healthcare: Don't Scapegoat Obama

It is now clear that we stand on the brink, ready to shred the last tatters of the great American experiment in democracy. We know from the polls that a huge majority favors serious health care reform, at least one poll suggesting as many as 85 percent. And yet a relative handful of nay-sayers have come dangerously close to denying us the reform we seek. These nay-sayers include a half dozen "Democratic" lawmakers whose livelihood depends on the good graces of insurance companies that stand to reap huge profits or suffer great losses from the kind of reform bill that eventually gets passed; and a minority of voters who choose to remain inexcusably but steadfastly ignorant of the issues even as they scream their opposition, and whose opinions are manipulated by the lies and fear-mongering promulgated by those same corporate interests.

It is a sad spectacle to watch as the man we elected to bring about change on any number of issues that face us as a nation is constrained by political necessity to modify his vision of significant and lasting change. I say "constrained" because I see President Obama as a pragmatist, whose political antennae are precisely sensitive to the line where what can be done crosses over into what cannot be done; and eventually as one who settles for the former. A realistic understanding of what simply cannot be achieved, given the socio-political system we have allowed to take over our country in the past half-century, may be anathema to those who long for radical change. I count myself amongst them. It is, though, sadly, a good deal better than no change at all.

The deplorable fact of the matter is that we have allowed the oligarchs to win. President Eisenhower famously warned us already in the 1950s--and with subsequently validated prescience--of the looming menace of the military-industrial complex. It seems from this perspective, in the first decade of the 21st century, that we "people" have surrendered our power largely to the corporate interests that currently have our government in their stranglehold. We have done this because we were willingly blinded to our long-term interests by the apparently irresistible appeal to our short-term gain. In allowing ourselves to be sold on the seductive--and clearly, in retrospect, deceptive--notion of "small government," we have handed the reins of our government to those who benefit most from its actions or inaction. In refusing to provide our government its lifeblood in the form of honestly paid taxes, we have foolishly ended up delivering that same money, de facto, into the insatiable hands of those who turn it to their profit. They profit from our health care and from our social services; they make money on our security, our military, even on our prisons. They make money on our money. The "privatization" of so many of the normal functions of government has resulted in fewer, more expensive, and less efficient services in virtually every area that affects our lives.

The obsessive and irrational fear of "socialism" that has gripped this country for so many decades has been manipulated by these same people. No question, socialism has produced some sickening, unconscionable excesses. But capitalism has produced no fewer. No political philosophy is immune from exploitation by those whose greed for power and economic gain exceeds their concern for the improvement of the lives of others. In this country, we have shamefully squandered a magnificent opportunity to demonstrate to the world that democracy can work, and have replaced that dream with a squalid oligarchy whose corruption is disguised by our embrace of a shabby illusion of freedom that comes in the form of material well-being.

So let's not scape-goat Obama. It's too easy for the rest of us to whine about the President's failure to persuade antagonists of what so many of us agree we need. He has done, is doing what can be done. But it's disingenuous to expect him to do it by himself. It's too big a job. Those of us who elected this man must recognize that we owe it to him now to do everything within our power to support him in his vision -- or sacrifice the right to sit back and complain. I heard one pundit say last night that we did not elect him to be a good President, but to be a great one. In order for that to happen, as it did with FDR, we must find the greatness within ourselves.

Friends, as the French say: aux barricades! Time to man (and woman) the barricades!

Comments

[rad21]

Comprehensive healthcare should empower physicians and medical science to be the driving force. Current cost-drivers are health-insurance, pharmaceutical, bio-tech, and bio-engineering companies, led by management interested in their bottom-line; hospital and nursing home administrators; medico-legal system, and consultants. Many doctors claim patients, directing their own treatment options that are not indicated, contribute to higher costs; as do families reluctant to provide basic-care and support to their sick relatives. These cost-drivers contribute to the steep and unsustainable cost-curve. None of these cost-drivers are addressed in the current debate in Congress or town-halls.

The current debate adds to the fragmentation. Complex formulary of insurance and funding only makes the healthcare system more cumbersome and inefficient, adding further irrationalities and alien motivations within the system. And good patient care is lost in the shuffle.

It is the front-line of medical care (physicians, nurses and allied medical professionals) that will make-or-break the new comprehensive healthcare. The old medical adage of "captain of the ship" is an important principle, even in the 21st century; and the one who should be held responsible to "bend the cost-curve."

Short-term, significant savings (i.e no additional dollars needed) can be achieved through reforming payments to insurance and drug companies; as well as providers (doctors and hospitals) by using "Best Practice" paradigms. For more info write to glawrenc@m­vnhealth.c­om

[expired]

Dear MoveOn member,
The public health insurance option is the heart of health care reform and right now it's under serious attack.

Even some members of the administration are pushing President Obama to give in to conservatives and drop it: one senior White House adviser told The Washington Post, "I don't understand how [the public option] has become the measure of whether what we achieve is health-care reform."1

This unnamed source apparently doesn't understand that the public option is the key to lowering health care costs and expanding coverage.

But there is a group of progressives in Washington who DO understand. Sixty House Democrats have signed a written pledge to not vote for health care reform unless it includes a robust public option.2 That's more than enough to block a bill without the public option.

These representatives are already facing pressure to back down, but if we stand strong with them, we'll send a clear signal that the heart of reform can't be compromised away. Can you make a contribution to the progressives in Congress who are standing tall for the public option? Clicking the link below will take you to ActBlue, where you can donate.

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51789&id=16918-9193653-lMdAxQx&t=3

[jhNY]

By not writing his own bill, by not enumerating what must be present in any bill he would sign, Mr. Obama has brought much disappointment to his supporters, and much trouble to his presidency. By handing the job to Congress, a place wherein he spent time, but evidently too little to understand what its membership is actually capable of doing, he has now come face to face with what he's up against: everybody in there, with few exceptions and half of them named Bernie Sanders, is more or less for sale. They have taken so much campaign money from those who they are now supposed to constrain, that they can't bring themselves to oppose them, as it would be like setting fire to their own wallets.

By imagining that his attempt at health care reform might get fair and thoughtful coverage in media venues that make millions from insurers and pharmaceutical manufacturers annually, Mr. Obama has let his inexperience show, and the results, all over the airwaves, ain't pretty.

But "we" didn't buy into the fiction of smaller goverment or morning in America or no new taxes or benevolent corporatism. You might have. "We" bought into the fiction that Obama would boldly risk whatever political capital he could gather together in order to make real substantive changes happen in our domestic and foreign policies, both left burned beyond recognition by the former administration. So, yeah, there's plenty of disappointment to go around.

[Jane]

How kind of you. But this is BS. He has failed to enforce loyalty in his party, and he has failed to be truly passionate and aggressive about what he wants to do.He's a terrible negotiator. He has no REAL progressives in his cabinet. He begins bargaining with some minimally progressive plan, and then backs off. He should have started working on this with really radical ideas, and then let them push him to the center left. But he didn't. He started with centrist ideas and let them push him right. We can't embrace him if he doesn't embrace us.

[littleblackcat]

You, Sir, must get yourself and your message on every morning television show there is, and on the Rachel Maddow Show, Hardball, and Countdown. A stint on 60 Minutes, appearances on the Bill Moyers and the Lehrman News would be good as well. Check out Dave Letterman.
The people in general need to hear what you have to say and in a BIG way. These days, people do not think beyond the end of their own noses, common sense has gone by the boards, and the ability to evaluate a given situation from several points has apparently long since been discouraged.
Someone like yourself, with a number of excellent points to make and the ability to make them clearly and simply, without talking down at people while doing so, needs to be given the opportunity to get the message to as many people as possible. Good luck to you, and I do hope you succeed in any effort you make to gain as broad an audience as possible.

[tompoe]

Better we let the man we elected as president do the talking. The leading. All Clothier did was reiterate Obama's campaign promises. Duly elected as our leader, he needs to lead. Talk about his being "constrained" is garbage. Pure garbage. Bush had the Ranks arrested for wearing T-shirts that he didn't like. Obama is not "constrained". Where's the outrage that comes when we're told that 36 countries provide universal health care for their citizens at a fraction of the cost of health care in the U.S.? Where's the outrage when told the French taxpayers pay something less than $300 a month in taxes for all the superior health care they can eat, while we have 50 million (and climbing) without health care at all? Why did Obama take Single Payer off the table? Was he "constrained"? No. He never intended that we should have it. He lied through his teeth. Single Payer is the only solution that works. The world has proven that. The world of 5 billion people know the only way to give people their right to health care, is to have the government provide universal Single Payer health care. Where's the outrage? Constrained is propaganda that feeds the very ones that Clothier seeks to lay responsibility for our predicament. Obama failed the voters. We now have four more years of failed policies, on top of the eight years of Bush's failed policies.