LiteSleeper's Comments (1615)

“It has nothing to do with them. It has everything to do with how we are as a nation, whether we choose to live by the rule of law or not, and frankly what other nations think of us. If other nations believe that we make exceptions to the Geneva Conventions when the whim suits us, then they will do the same. They will start reclassifying our troops in ways to make the accords null and void. It is a stoopid slippery slope that we do not need to go down any further.”

“Buchanan is not being realistic. He's just posturing to look like a tough guy by making stoopid statements like "denying medical care." Nothing about what he or you is saying is realistic. If we want other nations to respectfully treat our soldiers should they be captured, it behooves us to do the same, regardless of whether this guy is an enemy soldier, combatant or terrorist. That's realism. Strutting around making chicken hawk noises and doing stoopid things all for machismo and pride has only hurt us. Weren't you around during the Bush Travesty?”

“22% of your income is NOT an improvement. Non-enforceable regulations are NOT an improvement. Mandates are NOT an improvement. No cost controls is NOT an improvement. The ability to still rescind for "pre-existing conditions" is NOT an improvement. No matter how you try to spin this bill, it is NOT an improvement.”

“I agree. I don't understand those constantly excusing Obama's foot dragging on this issue but applaud him handing over hundreds of billions of dollars to the bankers who caused the mess. Why do the victims have to wait and have "job summits" but the perpetrators get massive immediate help and no jail time?”

“They're all in the growing pile of Obama's broken promises, next to the pile where his spine and principles are.”

“I TOTALLY AGREE! Thank you!”

“No, what they got was exactly what they wanted. A bill that looks like reform, but is reform in name only. A bill that mandates that people have to buy from them while making very little real demands upon them to change their business practices. A bill that says certain practices are banned, but which has absolutely NO enforcement mechanism. A bill that still allows insurance companies to rescind coverage if a person commits "fraud" in getting insurance, which basically means they can still rescind coverage for pre-existing conditions. A bill that hands over to them $500 billion in subsidies while again placing very little restraint on how they use that money even with the 85% medical loss ratio. A bill that leaves enforcement of these new regulations up to the states where the insurance companies are much stronger and can game the system so well that they already can't enforce regulations against them. This bill is a disgrace and it is the Democrats' "Mission Accomplished."”

“It does NOT take 60 senators. That is a Senate custom, not a constitutional obligation. So you can stop that nonsense right there. No one is demanding anything more from Obama than what he campaigned on and he isn't delivering anything he campaigned on. He in fact DID campaign on a public option and for him and his supporters to feign ignorance of that now is frankly disrespectful. He did campaign on a REAL energy bill and on green jobs. He isn't delivering on that either. The only things he is delivering on are pretty much the OPPOSITE of what he campaigned on. Such as individual mandates, lack of drug price negotiation capability for the govt, keeping guantanamo open, weakening Roe v. Wade through this disgrace of a health care bill, milquetoasty financial reform that accomplishes nothing, I mean the list just grows. The pattern from him is clear: supporters get nothing except pretty speeches and half hearted efforts while perpitrators of crime (bankers, health insurers, the rich) get subsidies, captive customers who have no choice but to buy from them, slaps on the wrists, "shaming", and no jail time. What about that is change, audacity, or hope?”

“Exactly. We on the Left are actually holding true to principles while most of these disciples of Obama are in "follow the leader" mode just like the Bushies were.”

“We're against the mandate because it is disgusting. Why is it that the victims of abuse are AGAIN paying the abusers? We got this in the bailout and now we're getting it in the insurance company bailout. Why should I be forced to buy overpriced junk insurance with inadequate subsidies? The 8% only covers premiums. As it states in the bill, we're all legally on the hook for $11,900 in out of pocket costs, which includes deductibles and co-pays. So, you could easily pay upwards of 22% of your income on health care. Does that sound like a deal to you? Anyway, why should we be forced to buy from a private monopoly that has no cost controls on what it does and we have no choice of a public competitor? That's just insane.”

“This bill is a foregone conclusion. The only people he's going to "help" are the Blue Dogs and that will be to make the bill even worse. There's nothing left to really salvage”

“I liked the last sentence full of wishful thinking. This isn't something where Progressives come around in a couple of months. This is fundamentally a flawed and anti-Democratic bill. The process that took us here was corrupt and anti-thetical to the platform we were promised and the rhetoric used to support it. This bill is a poison pill for the Democratic Party. I just wish some of you who are reflexively fawning over Obama could see it. You've just undermined the entire rationale for the Democratic Party. You cannot tell middle class people you are on their side when you're the party forcing them to pay their abusers. No matter how much you protest that, it doesn't change the fact that it is true. Now, people will be able to truthfully say there is no real difference between the Repugs and the Democrats except by a matter of degrees. No matter what you say about the Repugs being corporate and against average working people, the Repugs will always be able to say, "well, we never forced you to pay the big insurers, the Democrats did that." What are you going to say, "we're not AS corporate kiss@ssy as they are?" People will always vote for the real thing rather than the waffler or the pretender.”

“LOL, are you kidding me? You're this stoopid? No one we fail all the time.”

“Why don't we (you) stop apologizing for Obama's spinelessness. He can't simultaneously be a strong and helplessly weak president. You can't have it both ways period. How does his fecklessness and determination to pursue a backroom deal at the expense of core Democratic principles have anything to do with our representatives in Congress whom he left in the lurch with said deal? You can keep trying to explain that away but it's really sorry and ridiculous. He chose NOT to lead and you are choosing to ignore what's in front of your face. That's your right, but don't try to get me or anyone else like me to go along with it.”

“Unless Obama does a complete 180 and actually starts behaving like a Democrat, you should prepare for losses.”

“That sounds like more Obamabot wishful thinking. If Obama and his administration could ignore 60% of the American people and 88% of his own party, what makes you think he'll entertain notions of revisiting this in 2010? If he at all cared about his base, he would have actually fought for a bill that achieved some real semblance of reform. He would have given them something for all of their hard work. No, you can pretty much expect the new refrain to be that "it's too early to mess with this legislation. Let's give it time to work." We'll be hearing that until the end of his (hoped for) second term.”

“Lol, yeah that's not happening. We'll be told, "it's too soon to change it. Let's give it 5 years to see if it works." Meanwhile in 5 years, insurers will jack up the rates beyond anything people thought was even possible and we'll all be mandated to buy it. Then we'll have another AMT crisis to have to settle every year because no one will want to fix it permanently in a way that makes the rich have to pay their fair share.”

“YAAAAYYY!!!! After we've all been impoverished!”

“Exactly Pat. Medicare Part D is a disgrace that was intended to weaken and destroy Medicare with more private contracting.”

“If the Democrats can't do anything they campaigned on even with 60 votes in the Senate, how do you suppose they are going to revisit this with less than 60 votes in the Senate, which is probable given their performance?”

“You can't have it both ways. You can't on the one hand say if we don't pass this we won't get another chance for 20 years, but then say if we pass this we can come back to it. The 20 years comment presupposes that this is such a grueling process that no one is anxious to go back to it. This is the situation even if it is passed. However, incredibly more damaging to Democrats, no one will want to change it even if it is terrible because the special interests will have more power than they currently do, no one will want to go through this fight again any time soon, and most damaging, no one will trust Democrats because they had their chance to do something and decided to pass the exact opposite of what they promised. Democrats have completely undermined their core competency of being for the little guy. Everytime someone in the middle class has to pay an escalating premium they're going to know exactly who to blame and who NOT to listen to. We'll have to wait a generation to actually fix the mess created by this bill because no one will trust the Democrats again and the Repugs don't want anything to take money out of their insurer masters pockets.”

“LOL, you 'bots are slow.”

“LOL, are you kidding me? You 'bots who supported this bill and are pushing this trash through are the ones having the Pugs sitting back and eating popcorn. This is our Mission Accomplished. It will look fine at first, and then all the terrible missing pieces and underfunded parts will start coming up like a bad lunch. And then it will just be a terrible sinkhole from which we can't escape. All because he decided to not fight again and go along with the conventional consensus. Probably in a year from now or year and a half at most. I guess that's when people like you will start saying, "No one could have seen how this was going to play out." LOL get real.”

“I didn't know Obama needed you as his personal defender. It's amazing how thin skinned both he and you are.”

“Maybe you should stop whining. Nobody asked for a perfect president. Unless, if to you Obamabots, a perfect president is one with balls.”