he fight for?

Simple and he suggested this when he was running in 2008 but it never permitted this to be an option when the ACA was being developed. Another promise...broken!

Even Democrats themselves stood in the way of progress.

Please stop blaming this man and learn how government works.

...and it seemed like a done deal, until Holy Joe threatened to join the Republican filibuster (thereby killing the whole ACA) unless the idea was dropped.

The Repuke congress has religious Taliborn again Fundies in its base

Its leaders won't give a dime. They will never schedule a vote in the house on any of this

Boner is beholden to these Idiots and Imbeciles

Pushing for a Medicare buy in is do-able, IMHO.

If he takes a position like that and lobbies for it, rallying our base AND in line with popular American opinion, we can put the R's on there back feet.

When you give in before you fight, YOU ALWAYS LOSE.

All three bills FAILED and it was Democrats who joined Republicans in voting them down. Conservative and moderate Democrats blocked progress.


That's what happened.

Please learn how government works.

Obamacare....

The President, our chief representative, has never joined the people to push these bills.

A winners attitude is to keep trying, not give up before you start.

The Hobby lobby decision is a perfect fork for him to push a Medicare buy in.

We can win, but you've got to win in your mind first. Life is challenging.

If at first you don't succeed, try try again. Or give up. Up to you

We can do it!

Yes we can!

Remember?

You don't remember early 2010? You don't remember on your television set, him out there alone, going to the Republicans' House? C-SPAN even covered it!! You don't remember him taking it straight to John McCain, telling him to get over the fact that he lost the election? You don't remember this man spitting out his fucking spleen, arguing in favor of the public option, something that members of Congress have? Something that I as a public employee has? (Well, maybe not exactly, but very similar?)

I can't believe how bad our memory is.

Please, people, please stop forgetting what happened in late 2009 and 2010!

You know that there were several versions of the public option proposals on the floor in BOTH chambers. There was also Kucinich's Medicare For All bill in the House and Tom Harkin's companion bill in the Senate. The public option bills got a little further than the MFA bills did, but they didn't get that far because neither the Democratic Whips in the House nor the Senate could "whip" up enough votes.

And not enough of US--yes, US Democratic, liberal voters--did enough to get on the phone, to get out there and push for what we wanted. All we did was sulk and blame Obama for everything. And meanwhile, were was Pelosi? Where was Reid? Where was all the other Democratic Party leaders?

I only remember seeing Obama going from town to town, talking to people about health care proposals, talking to people about the public option, trying to educate people about it.

It's fucking bullshit that he didn't push for the public option. That's bullshit!! You just didn't remember. People didn't watch enough of him going across this country and talking to citizens about this.

People didn't remember how he took it straight to the Republicans (remember the lunch in Baltimore!!!!!) and told them to their faces!

This makes so fucking angry because we sit here and blame one person when we didn't do shit to back this president after he was elected. All we did was whine and cry and complain and act as if he is a fucking tyrant.

Again, there were several versions of a public option bill in the House. Two in the Senate. 1 Medicare For All in the House (if not more) and at least one in the Senate.

ALL these proposals were blocked with the help of moderate and conservative Democratic worried about election. I know this for a fact because I and groups of my friends and volunteers spent countless weeks, months calling House members and Senators, trying to convince them to support the public option. THEY WOULD NOT BUDGE!! And they didn't give a damn about what the president did or said. They only cared about their own reelection!!!!

done rather than spring into action. The difference between us and the Teabaggers is that they NEVER give up! They are always pushing their agenda! They stay on top of their elected officials and hold their asses responsible! They never give up. We do have plenty to learn from them.

Should be easy enough for you to do this afternoon, right?

I didn't stop calling them for days, pushing them for public option. Kay Hagan, Vilsack...all said NO!!!

Did you do the same?

Get on the phone and start dialing all the Democratic Representatives, especially the conservative and moderate ones.

Then, call all the Senators--moderate and conservatives ones. Demand at least a public option, if not a single payer bill.

See how far it gets you.

Then report back here.

Unless you're willing to do the work, stop fucking complaining on a message board.

Learn how government works!

poring over every provision of the ACA and what was wrong with it.

Anyway - keep fighting the good fight!

public policy course and the health care reform law was the focal point of our studies that year. I separated the class into 5 groups. I had three groups of students cover the three health care proposals in the House, the two remaining ones in the Senate. I didn't realize how much work I put these students through, but they were graduate students, so it wasn't out of the ordinary. Most of these students also worked on the Hill or were at some think tank here in D.C., so they were deeply involved in this issue anyway.

I learned so much about health care reform that year apart from my own advocacy. (I had to be careful because I'm also a federal employee.) But anyway, it was great fun and I learned a lot.

But, I get so frustrated with voters--especially us liberals. We are so passionate and so involved emotionally. But we don't get involved as much physically as we should. I've always so admired that about conservatives. We used to be very politically active back during the Poor People's Movements, the unions heyday, civil rights, women's rights, environmental justice, anti-war demonstrations, etc. But these days, there are way too many issues and liberals want to fight for them all. And we should! But because there are so many issues, it is often difficult to stay coherent be organized.

And the purity tests! Oh the purity tests irk me! So we didn't get exactly what we wanted with the single payer, right? Right. Therefore, we give up so easily. It really frustrates me. Rather than keep trying; rather than continue to fight and work to throw out all those bad Democratic politicians who told me NO over the phone (they ended up losing anyway), we gave up too easily, allowing MORE Republicans and Teabaggers into the halls of our government. It has now become even more impossible to get what we want. To me, that makes entirely no sense.

Public policy is incremental. Good laws take time. Progress takes time. But people got angry because they wanted 100% change NOW!! They didn't want incremental change. They couldn't accept change in small steps. That's not the way governance works. You take small steps, change little by little. The ACA comes first. Then, we fight for a public option. I haven't given up on that. I will never give up on single payer, but if we can't get single payer for now, then we continue to push for a public option. And we continue to work for that until we get it. If states want to experiment with single payer, let them do it, by all means. Learn from those states and maybe the feds will finally get it.

I'm glad we're not giving up. I just wish there were more people like us.

Nice to see you, too!

paid maternity leave for 6 - 12 months.

did the SC say that companies couldn't be taxed if they opt out of giving employees contraception?

leave.

Today is a bad day, but I'm glad to hear him push back.

Democrats need to get into high gear, and remind ALL Independents and moderate Republicans
what is going on here. Go Blue, only way to save you from the 5 to 4 agenda ridden bastards.

USA Today posted this:

Although the details of today's ruling only affect IUDs and "morning-after" pills, now that the principle of privileging employer's religious scruples is the law of the land, it will only take, say, a corporation with a conservative Roman Catholic CEO to decide that funding any form of artificial contraception (all of which are forbidden by Church teaching) would violate their conscience. Given how SCOTUS ruled this time, I can't see how they could decide such a case except in favor of the RCC employer.

Next they will be claiming Tax Exemption for Hobby Lobby stores!

none of these cause abortions, either...

right?

if right, then the entire case was decided by idiots based on incorrect science

Couldn't it just be administrative? I actually don't know the answer to this but would like to. How would changing the age of eligibility (if it was shown not to increase the budget, let's say) take a new law that had to be approved by Congress? Hasn't this been studied as well to be a savings or deficit neutral when Health Care Reform was being considered?

At that is what one analyst said. Part of the ruling states that there are already provisions within HHS to supply these items to employees of regular religious organizations such as the Catholic Church. This is just another class of persons to add to the list, and then they are covered.

I do not like the precedent, but the women concerned do have a way to get the meds/items they need.