Michael Moore: The President Should Have Started With Single Payer
Here's another portion of Michael Moore's interview with Wolf Blitzer from Sept. 24, 2009. Michael is exactly right about one thing here. You're not seeing the passion on the left in support of the President because he started from a compromised position instead of starting with single payer and compromising from there if need be. He is also correct that if, not when, the President ever came out for single payer, you would see massive amounts of people coming out and supporting him. You're not going to see that passion on the left for a watered down giveaway to the insurance industry.
BLITZER: That's what President Obama said back in 2003. But now he's backed away from that as president of the United States and he seems to be backing away even from the so-called public option, which would allow the government -- a government-run health insurance company to compete with the private insurance companies. Is this what you wanted?
MOORE: Well, here's the -- here's the problem with President Obama on the health insurance proposal. He's a nice guy. You know, I mean, really, I believe he came into the White House with an olive branch to the people on the other side of the aisle. He believed in bipartisanship. I mean you've got to give the guy credit. He really -- he did not come in wanting to fight. He came in saying, you know, we're all Americans here and we need to fix this and we need to put aside this partisan stuff.
The other side didn't want to put it aside. The other side wanted to fight him tooth and nail. And -- and as part of his nice guy thing, he -- he backs a half measure, a public option.
BLITZER: But that might not even...
MOORE: And we (INAUDIBLE)...
BLITZER: That might not even make the final bill that he signs.
MOORE: And that may not. Well, of course not, because any time you don't fight for the thing you want, any time that you start off compromising, you're never going to get what you want. He started off with a compromise position -- let the private insurance companies still sit at the table, have a public option. He should have started with what he truly believes in, what he believed in, what he said in 2003, a single payer, national health care system, like all other Western countries have. We should have the same thing.
I know he believes in that, but he was trying to reach out and say, you know what, I'm not just going to come in here and ram this, so I'm willing to work with you and listen to your concerns. They don't want to listen to him.
BLITZER: It sounds like you think he's naive..
MOORE: I don't think -- no, I'm -- no. No, I -- no, I'm saying that he's operating with those same Christian values that I spoke of. I think that he -- I think that he is a generous person with a very open heart and was willing to work with people who had no intention of ever working with him.
So now that he's realized that, now that he's got to go back to the drawing board and come back with something, because you see, Wolf, the reason he -- you know, he's out there alone. I mean nobody really has his back on this because the base is not energized by a half measure.
BLITZER: Why is that because there seems...
MOORE: If he's going to come out . . .
BLITZER: ...to be so much rage on the right right now...
MOORE: Because -- because they believe in something.
BLITZER: ...and there doesn't seem to be the same kind of passion on the left. Why is that?
MOORE: No. Because -- because he hasn't proposed something that -- that liberals, Democrats, the left, whatever, progressive people, decent people who think when people get sick they should be able to see a doctor and not have to worry about paying for it -- you know, those kind of people. He just -- he just needs to -- when he comes forth with a single payer proposal, something that's going to provide true universal health care for all Americans, you are going to see millions of people -- millions of people -- backing him. It will look -- make those town hall meetings look like The Disney Channel.
BLITZER: But there doesn't seem to be any indication, Michael, he's about to do anything resembling that. As I said before, he seems to be backing away even from that compromise of a so-called public option.
MOORE: Right. OK, right, but he hasn't watched this show yet. So . . .
BLITZER: All right, so give me the message. If you could -- and he might be watching this interview right now. From your heart, tell the president of the United States what you want.
MOORE: Well, I would say, President Obama, first of all, thank you for taking on this job. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. So thank you for being willing to do that for us. We need you to really -- to really fight the fight for us -- us, the majority of the people who put you in there. We are the majority of this country.
Seventy-five percent of this country wants universal health care for all Americans. We're sick and tired of having the middle man -- the private insurance company -- get between us and our doctors, us and the hospital, us and the pharmaceuticals that people need. You've got to really come forth now with a program that guarantees this for all Americans. And if you do that, you're going to find tens of millions of us out there behind you, supporting you every step of the way.
Michael Moore maybe many things. But he is not a COWARD. he called it like it is on this one.
Amazing how these left wing "loons" - who are so far out of the mainstream, are right 99% of the time, while the corporate villagers are wrong 99% of the time.
Rush Limbaugh is what a smart person thinks a stupid bigot sounds like.
The Right doesn't have a Clue, but when one is Spineless, Gutless, self serving, selfish, self absorbed and totally committed to taking care of only ones self and screw the rest I as a Racist White Supremacist, Nazi Christian Republican, Conservative,NEOCON, can only help that others suffer more and more so I can make more and more MONEY. Screw America save the Republican NEOCON CONSERVATIVE CORPORATIONS.
I had a double kidney operation and I have no idea how I am recovering, because I can't afford checkups. They found the tumor on my kidney when it was the size of a coin, and waited till I had a kidney shutdown before removing it when the tumor grew to a size of a grapefruit, costing me $60,000 for the operation. It would have been cheaper to take care of the coin tumor, when it needed it remove back then, and I would have had a bigger kidney left today. I'm left with 2/3 of one kidney. I have heard many worse story than mine, but I'm just one living example of needing better health care than what I got.
Do you have $60,000 in your saving accounts?
getting a job to pay for it, is another snafu, because I now have bad credit, so I am left with part time temp work wherever I can get it, that doesn't ask for credit report.
We need to reform credit reporting to NOT include medical-care-induced bankruptcy. What were you supposed to do, lie down and die for your credit rating?
I sincerely hope it gets better for you and that you stay healthy.
Michael Moore is many things and I love them all. Thank you.
As was noted above, he's not a coward. He's not afraid to say when and how Democrats could (and should) have acted like a party that actually advocates for the people and not their corporate sponsors.
I don't care if he did go after Chris Dodd.
If the US cannot find the will and the resources to do it, then its not worth playing anymore, truly game over for American civilization and empire.
This is 21stC technological advanced America, not a Graeco Roman 1stC republic of the elite, and a mass of plebes sweating and dying for the masters...
Your talk of an equipollent society displeases the masters.
Hush now and fetch more wine for the gathering lest you be chosen for the next Spartiate initiation.
whimp out, he deliberate sabotaged meaningful healthcare form to serve his corporate masters. Obama took single payer off the table and continuously undermines the public option. The piece of dung otherwise known as the Baucus Bill is Obama's bill. I love Michael Moore too but it seems he like so many liberals still haven't come to terms with whom they elected, a corporatist through and through.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/09/24
Folks who abandoned reality with their fever for Obama are now being confronted with it.
a new car purchase the way he's been negotiating on health care reform, he'd end up paying more than sticker price, get nothing for his trade-in, and get a very high interest rate on the loan. I hope his negotiation skills improve or he's going to lose a lot of battles that could have been won. What we may get stuck with on health care reform is a lot less than what was possible and what is needed.
He would end up paying double the sticker price only to have the "honor" to have the car dealer let him admire the car in the parking lot, once a week. Until someone buys it and drives off the lot with it, then all visitation rights are over.
... of course that is if he was buying a car as a proxy for a friend. If it was his money and his very own car he was shopping for... trust me I am sure he would negotiate quite well actually.
Obama may be a great law scholar, a sharp guy, a good campaigner, a great speech giver. However as a negotiator and leader, he so far has sucked donkey balls.
I think his heart is in the right place, but he better shape up pronto.
That's what I always said.
You start by asking for even more than you might expect
And then negotiate down to some kind of compromise.
You don't start the haggling process with the compromise.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm7K4VM_7Rg
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Exactly!
This is basic shit.
Has Obama never bought a fucking car?
bush bought a white house
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
somebody bought Obama.
pushing his "reform" package, the ad paid for with lobbyists he cut a deal with months ago. I want to reach through the screen and slug his self-important face.
So what it boils down to is bigPharma paying Obama for campaign PR (called "healthcare reform"), while we Americans are going to be paying megabucks to also further Obama's campaign via Obama's corporate donors (called "healthcare insurance").
For Obama, it's all about Obama, all the time. Scr*w the American people.
That's all most lawyers do these days: Negotiate settlements.
Negotiating Settlements 101 is to begin with some obscene amount then let the other side whittle you down.
Duh.
He knew exactly what he was doing when the whole health care debate started. This strategy was discussed for MONTHS by Obama, Axelrod, Emmanuel and their insurance corporate buddies.
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
of whether Obama and the Democratic leaders wanted real reform with a real public option. And you can add the epic Democratic health care messaging fail that took place all summer. Again, you have to believe either that these folks, seasoned politicians and most of them lawyers, are either so naive that they don't understand politics and negotiating 101, or that they had a conflict of interest, financial or otherwise, that prevented them from doing what it takes to achieve what MM says they really want. I don't see any other possibility.
for trying to gain access to the initial reform negotiations which were being hosted by a DEMOCRAT, it is very naive of us to even be wondering "if they wanted real health care all along."
I honestly would like to know how many knives in the back do we need to feel before we start calling a spade a spade.
The problem with idealistic nice-guys as politicians is they have no understanding of strategy. The GOP are utter douchebags. The correct strategy for dealing with them is to fight and degrade them at all times. Get into the fray, not sit it out, remain aloof, etc. Obama thinks playing nice and giving concessions is a good way to start things off. He is wrong. This is seen as utter weakness by the GOP, and by people like me who voted for him.
Obama never fights back. I have no idea what he believes in.
Does he? Who knows what he is thinking. Rahm will tell him what he thinks, or it sure as heck seems that way.
his passivity comes from academia.
he thinks he is in a classroom and is trying to appease all sides. Sooner or later he will need to put his foot down, but with the all the Clintonites surrounding him its hard to see if this will ever be possible.
comes from having been bought off.
The people I know in the academic world are far from passive.
I just had a huge argument (we rarely, if ever, argue) about people coming around on the healthcare issue for Obama because of his strides in foreign policy this week. My husband thought that people would come around to the healthcare side via their observance of Obama working the foreign policy forum so nicely. I said that was crazy, that if you are hurting here, you don't have a job, you can't pay your rent or mortgage, can't afford food, etc., that you could care less about what's going on in Iran or at the U.N. Am I crazy?
Yes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJAd24HilCA
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I like the idea of a trigger. Pass a health care bill with a strong public option for everyone and a trigger that implements MediCare for everyone if the private insurance companies don't lower their rates. Without that stipulation, the only Trigger I like was freeze dried by Roy Rogers.
Didn't he also freeze-dry Dale Evans?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Yeah right, and if Ann Coulter had two more legs we could call her Trigger.
Don't you mean Buttermilk?
...except I like the idea that if the health insurance executives don't come around, we pull a trigger.
I understand that Moore is trying to be diplomatic, but I'm sure he realizes what the real score is. Obama is not an idiot. He knows that you don't *begin* a negotiation with a compromise.
Obama began with a compromise because the corporate wing of the party, of which he is a part, did not *want* single payer. They did a little shuffle to the right on this issue, thinking they could just isolate their liberal base, and move the scrimmage line over to a place that the DLC was comfortable with.
Obama sold us out to the corporate wing of the party. Actually, both wings and the rest of the carcass of the party is corporate owned.
Obama also took gobs of money from drug companies and the insurance industry in order to get elected.
So now, his soul sold, he gives us a few crumbs and will call it a victory.
He's WAY soft on Obama in the movie.
republicans are hording all the Viagra.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Many of my friends believe that Obama has been bought and paid for by special interests, just like most other politicians, and is hiding behind "let's work together" for cover. He can't be *that* naive to think that a black president is going to be welcomed by a neo-fascist, hyper-moralistic, pseudo-conservative rightwing party that got it's start with the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920's. Then I would have to say he's delusional too.
Personally, I really don't know. I suppose the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
Unless and until proven otherwise - many of your friends are wrong.
Just more projections.
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
Yes, because "honest until proven to be a liar" works SO WELL when applied to politicians.
Like Obama apologists keep offering for everything he has done or hasn't done or refuses to do? The man ran for the most powerful political position on the face of the globe, and now since elected, his supporters offer up all kinds of projections, what ifs, and "obama thinks" excuses, for all the Republicanisms he is doing.
Did start with single-payer.
(from 2003 see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpAyan1fXCE)
The change would be too big.
Think about it, if medical was covered for all in all circumstances all insurance would have to be reworked from the ground up. It would be like nationalizing all insurance. It would never pass as a first step.
Auto, homeowners, general liability for all businesses, etc. would all have to make massive changes as medical would be covered.
If one cannot understand the most simple facts concerning single-payer - complaining is a bit tedious.
Moore makes movies - the bullhorn tactics are just a way (the way) he expresses those issues on film. It is not old schtick just the Michael Moore gets his message out there.
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
it would not be like nationalizing all insurance. Insurance industries in Canada are still here, still separate from healthcare, still making billions profit, and still part of healthcare in situations where employers offer employees extra benefits. The man ran his entire campaign on change and then when elected, he and all his partisan hack supporters offer up umpteen excuses as to why he isn't doing this or that. All nothing more than a political copout. Would be willing to wager, that the real powers that be from Wall Street, the Banks, and the Health insurance industry, have promised Obama and his fellow Dem legislators, a nice cushy job when done public office and nice big fat campaign funds until then. How else does anyone explain political opposition to what a vast majority want?
... we passed the largest bailout package, which was larger than the cost of WWII, the Marshall Plan, and the total budget for NASA including the moon landing... in less than a couple of months.
I call bullshit.
I've been saying what Michael Moore said recently for the past six months. Not insisting on SINGLE PAYER from the get go was a tactical blunder of titanic proportions. In not being willing to fight the righteous fight and lose, Obama has surrendered victory to those who are willing to do anything to win.
We voted Obama into office to END the greed and corruption of Republican politicians and the disastrous impact of their corporatism on the vast majority of American citizens. By failing to recognize, acknowledge and confront the evil and treachery of Republican political whores, not only has he been stupidly naive and irresponsibly reactive, he has failed to be the proactive President millions of Americans believed him to be. The fact is, HE COULD HAVE DONE MUCH, MUCH MORE to achieve MEANINGFUL health care reform and he simply CHOSE NOT TO DO IT. WHY!? Instead, he is now seeking political cover behind ludicrously contrived "coops" and "triggers" to save POLITICAL FACE and NEEDLESSLY perpetuate and actually add to the damage and harm that millions upon millions of trusting Americans believed he would STOP. If he GENUINELY wanted to stop it, WHY didn't he do EVERYTHING within his presidential influence and power to do so? WHY has he timidly bowed to the REPUBLICAN fear-based politics of lies, distortions and FALSE accusation? WHY has he been such an unintelligent and weak president? WHY is allowing the RAT BASTARDS of the world to win?
I don't think so.
This is Obama.
This is the Obama who campaigned for Joe Lieberman telling people that it would be "good sense" to send him back to the Senate.
This is the Obama who voted to renew the Patriot Act - that sponsored a bill to promote "Clean (AKA "Dirty) Coal - that voted for FISA.
Nuts.
Has he not made certain that new regulations were in place to regulate Wall Street in order to insure that there will NEVER be the need to "bail them out" again?
They are back at dealing in their "exotic instruments" and "risky derivative trades" that led us to the mess we were in a year ago.
Why is he playing so soft with Wall Street and continuing to put the American People's treasury at risk of another high-tech robbery???
Anyone?? Anyone??
Even Barney Frank has walked away on this one, as people are scratching their heads wondering, WTF?!
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
but maybe it's because he likes breathing.
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
The lesson learned from the 1960s is that politicians who took a strong populist stand against the corporate government got assassinated.
So Obama would just as soon muddle through and then write his memoirs.
to start laying pressure on Michele Obama??? Prob wouldnt do any good. They've prob been THREATENED with their lives...and the girls lives. The people against reform will do ANYTHING to keep it the way it is.
is the lesson of the 1960s.
People sticking their necks out got them chopped off.
Nobody has said shit since.
he was shown the "Zapruder" film before taking the oath
whose main purpose seems to be dressing fashionably, planting gardens, and lecturing children that the responsibility rests with them to become high achievers like her and Obama. Everything corporations could wish for and more.
Moore is giving Obama too much credit.
He says that Obama abandoning a principled stand on single-payer health care is because he's a nice guy.
Obama took loads of money from the pharmaceutical industry and the health industry.
They, and creepy entities like Goldman/Sachs elected him.
We were giving a fairy tale about how it was we, with our dimes and nickles, who elected him.
Bunk.
Obama, like every other pol, is paying off the corporations who run the show.
Nice guy? Who gives a sh-t. He sold us out.
working for them. Nor proven thieves of the worst sort: Summers & Gang. A Nice Person wouldn't vote for FISA, and then thy to increase and expand the Illegal power seized by the last Group in power.
Obama is charming and charismatic, and he wants to be seen as a nice guy. I don't suppose he'd have been elected if he did not appear to be a nice, non-threatening (black) person.
But Americans don't need that kind of nice.
What we need is a GOOD person. A strong person who will fight for what is right, not what is convenient and easy.
projected the persona of the nice guy.
with principles and who works for the American people. Unfortunately, Obama has shown himself to be none. He lies to serve his corporate masters, who will keep him perpetually in office - or so he thinks. The Baucus bill that he is pushing will force the average American to "donate" thousands of dollars annually to Obama's campaign coffers (via corporate donors), just so Obama can meet his end of secret deals he cut with bigPharma/insurance. Money that could have been used for food, housing, etc had Obama had principles and vision and opted to fight for real healthcare reform.
Obama is all about PR and image of a "nice guy"; he is really a canny politician and an empty suit.
We had one in the early primaries - Dennis K. Would that he was elected...
I was going to say Dennis but you beat me to it! He was my pick from the word go. If people are really agonizing now about Barack's failure to stand firm, then I wonder what they were seeing during the primaries and the debates.
I know what I saw, and that was that Dennis was the left-leaning candidate with principles that we were looking for. Hmmm, I suppose it was just me and you. ;-)
Moore is naive to think that Obama is a good guy who wants to do the right thing.
Obama was never for single payer, and is barely for a public option. The only reason that it's still alive is because the left/liberal activists (the ones Obama's chief of staff called f---in' stupid) are pissed off and they've stopped contributing to the DNC.
From the 2003 AFL-CIO Civil, Human and Women's Right conferecnce:
"I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer, universal healthcare plan...that's what I'd like to see...but, as all of you know, we may not get there immediately because first - we gotta take back the White House and we gotta take back the Senate and we gotta take back the House.."
Pretty clear to me in 2003. Fast forward 6 years. His wish has come true - we took it all back. So, what happened?
I knew it wasn't going to be good as soon as O started off giving up single payer before the negotiations even started.
Everything our government has done in the last 10 years is wrong because none of it has been done for a good reason!
This is all come about because of greed being the thing that is leeding everything in this country. Well greed and stupidity.
It does not matter if you do the right thing because you were forced to or you did something good by accident. If the intention for doing it in the first place was bad can the good thing ever really be good. Some good things came from the experiments the nazi's did on the jews, but does that make what they did right? I don't think so.
remember republicanism is a mental illness! As more people begin to understand it we can come up with ways to help turn some of them around. You know republican rehab! They really do need help.commit one if you can. lol!
It would have been NICE if Obama had come out in favour of single payer from the very beginning but as he is the servant of the people he must do what the people demand. He's not a dictator and as such he has simply said that health care reform is on the agenda. To say that you don't support him because he didn't insist on the details of health care reform means Americans are used to being ruled by dictators.
Government paid insurance? 65-75% IN FAVOR of it sounds like a large majority of Americans DO want it.
but Congress has to know it too. So far the teabaggers have had the biggest campaign and it's AGAINST single payer. The change to America will be so horrendous to the big Insurance Companies that Obama has to be able to point out that he's doing the will of the majority. And the majority have to DEMAND what they want, because that's what a Democracy is all about.
loudest.
That is Opera, a common mistake.
And the health care reform plan ain't over till the fat lady sings.
Michael Moore is pretty damn moving when he speaks. He does speak from the heart. Let's hope Obama gets tough instead of being just a nice guy.The Repubtards are crystal clear about who they are. Racist, inbred, deather, birther, immigrant bashing, whore mongers, pedophiles, liars, theives,fetus waving, sadistic torturers,election stealing,encephalus head mongoloids.After I go on break I'll tell you what I really think.
...but I think he's being a tad naive about Obama being such a swell, good-hearted Christian guy. Obama started with a compromise, not as a gesture of good-will, but because that's where he wanted to start. It would have cost him (and the party and the administration) exactly *nothing* to start with single payer and negotiate down. Nothing. But they started from the compromise position to keep the insurance money coming in.
To complain about Obama now would encourage FOX and it's Repug Owners. Imagine Beck or Bill O saying "See! Even that Commie, Moore, is against Obama!"
GOPers are not nice guys. The sooner Obama understands that the better. The American voter has to also understand that the GOPers are not nice guys. The GOP will watch you die before they worry about your well being. The GOPers only care about their own health and well being.
Obama doesn't really care whether we all have health care.
He just wants it over with so he can claim a victory and have another beer with Skippy.
I think this is the first time I have seen on a major news channel someone telling Obama that we (the American people) support him in this fight and that we (the American people) have his back. He doesn't need the republicans (who support restricting a patients choices) and the Blue Dog dems need the President much more then Obama needs the Blue
Ballsuh, Dogs.He may not have started with single payer, but hopefully he may end up there... there's nothing wrong with it.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
Moore is absolutely right. You don't start negotiations by asking for less than what you want. You start by asking for more than what you want, and hope that by the time the negotiations end, you've arrived at where you wanted to be, or close to it.
Can you imagine, going into your boss wanting a $100 a week raise and 3 additional vacation days, and asking for $50 a week and one additional day. You'd be lucky to exit those negotiations with a $25 raise let alone any additional vacation days.
To mix my metaphors Obama, really dropped the ball on this, and he's been swimming upstream all the way.
I know a few of those Townhalls had a couple of really loud stupid people and that acted like a klaxon for the other stupid people to get up off the couch and down to the meeting to yell at their congressman and all.
However I attended a very early Townhall before all that hoopla.
There were 3 "Morans" and everyone else in that room was for Universal Health care.
Sure they were drowned out because the dumb ass media focused on it for weeks, but the MAJORITY of the crowds that were not in the center of Ameristan were for Universal health care.
Obama and the democrats need to WAKE THE FUCK UP!
The OLD systems are DEAD!!@!!
Time to take care of the new Paradigm.
If we don't, the old will drag us under when the next wave hits us...
We are only at the very beginning of this storm... There is much more to come.
Just admit Obama has been extremely naive. He has been Naive if he wasn’t he would never have trusted People like Max profit Baucus. That is if he truly wanted reform, that question is still there “was he setting up Health care reform to fail?” I hope not. I don't Care if it was McCain's main attack that Obama was he is too naive if it is true it's true. If Obama wasn't purposely sabotaging Health Care reform then he was being naive. I'd rather him be naive myself.
I hope Obama Smartens up but so far it looks like he's just hopeing to get anything out there no matter how much damage it will do. No mandate without public option period mister Obama.
See http://www.slate.com/id/2228709/
First of all, the insurance and pharmaceutical companies and the HMO's would have gone after him and every other Democrat who even thought about supporting a single-payer bill. You think the rhetoric about the current effort is bad? Obama has got the pharmaceutical companies in the tent with him pissing out; that wouldn't have been the case with single-payer.
Secondly, a broad spectrum of the American Public would have screamed, "are you CRAZY?! In this economy?!!" George W. Bush--The Worst President In United States History--followed Grover Norquist's prescription for rendering the country's government impotent: Spend all the money you can, as fast as you can, for as long as you can. Tap out everything. And that's what's happened. Single-payer would even worry some liberals if we went full-boat.
Third, instituting a massive bureaucracy without addressing the shortcomings in the existing one is just asking for trouble.
President Obama is dealing in the art of the possible. A good healthcare bill now will make single-payer inevitable later.
Barack Obama went through a chrysalis between his earlier liberal progressive position statements (like on healthcare) from when he was just a junior Senator from Illinois to when he became a Presidential candidate. That's what Corporate campaign funding does to politicians. These days, an "honest" politician is one who, when bought by Corporatist Interests, stays bought by them. Rather than a butterfly, Obama has emerged as a moth, forever attracted to the flame of Corporatist Money.
As far as the "art of the possible" is concerned, just how do you explain the strong Democratic showing in the 2006 and the 2008 elections, in spite of the massive vote-caging and electronic vote tampering that was so well documented in Rolling Stone Magazine and elsewhere? A coalition of liberal Democrats, populist Independents, and remorseful repentant Republicans made these changes happen. The political base is far more liberal populist than the Congress-critters that we have elected, or what the mavins and pundits of the Corporatist-owned MSM would have us believe. That will surely change if the political base, the people who actually vote, are betrayed by our politicians.
Of course, Howard Dean is no longer running the 50 state grassroots populist show, so the Democratic hold on both Houses of Congress is no longer a certitude -- by design. There is no good healthcare bill now, excepting HR-676. A Corporatist-written healthcare bill, or some variation thereof, is pretty much guaranteed -- why? Because Obama was not out in front of the people, that bully pulpit thing, with a good healthcare plan, just a Corporatist plan. Obama has burned up a lot of his "political capital" trying to negotiate from a moderate Republican position instead of a liberal populist one. No one goes into negotiations with anything other than their "best practices" ideal position -- not if they expect to have anything remotely resembling a viable public option at the end of the day.
It has taken over 30 years of the government-sponsored rape and pillage of American taxpayers at the hands of the private for-profit healthcare insurance industry -- there is no "making single-payer inevitable later", not for 10, or 20, or 30, or even 50 years down the line. I make that claim based solely upon the non-linear rate of increase of healthcare costs in this country against the stagnant, even decreasing, wages of the middle class and poor here -- the Healthcare Insurance Complex business plan is unsustainable. What's happening now is a TARP-type Healthcare Insurance Complex (too big to fail?) bailout.
Get a clue, Magoo!
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
-- John F. Kennedy
That you haven't addressed any of the points I made. Single-payer is a non-starter. I'm for single-payer. Howard Dean is for single-payer. Bernie Sanders and other members of Congress are for single-payer. President Obama is for single-payer. However, there is not enough of a majority in Congress to ram through legislation--a majority like the one Lyndon Johnson had after the 1965 election.
The Republicans are fighting tooth-and-nail to avoid reverting to the position they were in after 1932--the last time their laissez-faire malfeasance plunged this country into an economic abyss. They have talk radio, 24-hour talk cable TV stations, foundations, think tanks, corporations, and other organizations dedicated to getting people in this country to think and act counter to their own interests.
The reality is that single-payer wouldn't get through this Congress. Period. Deride me all you like. To quote another "blind" man, "I'm blind; not oblivious."
Okay. So, you think that the Healthcare Insurance Complex is somehow NOT engaged in a full-court press ALREADY?
Between the 1.5 Million USD per DAY that the H-I-C is spending on their Congress-critters, PLUS nearly the full weight of the MSM mavins and pundits (TeeVee, Radio, and the Press) organized against Single-Payer, PLUS all the 9-12ers, Tea-Baggers, etcetera -- how is THAT not a full-court press?
Obama did not “get Big Pharma in the tent”. They were already there, ever since the Republican/AARP victory of Medicare Part D. The new players “in the tent” were the Healthcare Insurance providers -- and their cooperation was induced by the Senate HC forum, which not only pulled the Single-Payer Option off the “table” but also arrested protesters. Obama has not supported the Single-Payer Option since he became a Presidential candidate. What he is for, and has spoken repeatedly about, is Healthcare Insurance Reform -- not Healthcare Reform.
The “broad spectrum of the American public” that you claim opposes a Single-Payer Option is smaller, a LOT smaller, than you make out -- it is “political theater” magnified by the Corporatist MSM, not unlike the “broad spectrum” of bussed-in protestors that shut down the Florida ballot recount in 2000.
Facts tend to have a liberal bias. The CBO has taken a second, more thorough look at HR-676 and determined that this program would save 100 Billion USD over a ten year period. But, of course, this does not include any Corporatist H-I-C TARP-style bailout like the Max Baucus bill includes.
“Instituting a new, massive bureaucracy” is not part of HR-676. It uses the existing Medicare infrastructure, expanded only enough to handle the additional patients. OTOH, the Max Baucus bill would create a huge bureaucracy that would mirror that which the H-I-C already employs to DENY patient coverage. Medicare has a 3% overhead, while the H-I-C has a 30% overhead, much related to Boards of Directors salaries and bonuses, buying Congress-critters and employing their lobbyist “minders”.
Finally, Obama is NOT dealing in the art of the possible -- he is dealing in the Healthcare Insurance Reform that will rape and pillage both the USA taxpayer AND the Treasury -- the same deal that he and Rahm Emanuel cooked up with the Corporatists. The “possible” is what 72% of the American voters want, the equivalent of HR-676, if only their bought-and-paid-for Congress-critters would represent them instead of Corporate donors. There is no “good healthcare bill” currently in existence besides HR-676 -- only some etherial smoke-and-mirrors promise to be hacked together “in reconciliation”. If it looks and feels like Obama’s HC Insurance Reform, plus a trigger and big bucks for the H-I-C, there will be no future Single-Payer Option. The whole Obama/Emanuel meme of “turning down the good in favor of the impossible” is pure unadulterated BS.
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
-- John F. Kennedy
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