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Related: About this forumThom Hartmann: Revealed - The Tea Party Paid for by Phillip Morris
The Tea Party of 1773 was a revolt against transnational corporate power - and its stranglehold on the British government. The Tea Party of today is funded by those very same transnational corporations. So what's happened over the last 40 years?
The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann on RT TV & FSTV "live" 9pm and 11pm check www.thomhartmann.com/tv for local listings
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Thom Hartmann: Revealed - The Tea Party Paid for by Phillip Morris (Original Post)
thomhartmann
Feb 2013
OP
Junkdrawer
(27,993 posts)1. Excellent history lesson....
You may find this post of mine from 2009 interesting....
The Bat Shit Crazy Right From Central Casting
At the beginning of August the Senate, the Administration, and Blue Dogs in the House had a problem. On the one hand, they resolved the differences between competing corporate interests and had a pretty clear idea exactly what Health Care Reform would look like. On the other hand, public opinion polls show something like 70% approval for a Single Payer solution and they knew that not even a viable Public Option was likely to be included in the final legislation. Add to that the all-too-necessary Individual Mandate and it was clear some heavy lifting was going to be necessary to sell all this to the general public as a reasonable compromise.
And then, from out of nowhere, the BSCRFCC (Bat Shit Crazy Right from Central Casting) appeared. Suddenly individual mandates and a weak Public Option wasnt the extreme Right of the debate. No, saving Grandma from Obamacare was now the extreme Right of the debate. Preventing a creep to Socialist Fascism (huh?) was now the extreme Right of the debate.
When the BSCRFCC first appeared, there were several reporters (including Rachael Maddow) that did a great job exposing their links to corporate PR firms. But almost all of these reporters assumed that the aim of this Astroturf effort was to kill reform just like they did in 1993. I disagree: all the members of the corporate compromise NEED reform.
* Insurance Companies need individual mandates to offset the rising costs of Baby Boomers who are old enough to need increasing health care, but too young for Medicare.
* Medical providers need to address the increasing numbers of uninsured to whom they are legally obligated to provide emergency care.
* Big Pharma needs to make their wares affordable to the increasing number of uninsured and underinsured who are forgoing their medications because of cost.
But what all the above DO NOT want is a widely available Public Option that would provide competition, pay Medicare-like reimbursement rates and negotiate for lower group prices.
The other phony part of this melodrama is the Republican refusal to support any kind of health care reform. I think that Republicans know that their open support for pro-corporate reform would be the kiss of death in terms of public acceptance of the bill. Watch: If the Progressive Caucus follows through on their threat to vote against reform that doesnt include a viable Public Option, just enough Republican votes will appear to push it over the top.
One last thought: It appears that the BSCRFCC was a rousing success. Indeed it seems that much more time has been devoted in the Corporate Media addressing their concerns than have been spent explaining the actual details of Public Option proposals. And that means that the BSCRFCC will be with us for some time to come, obscuring the debate on issue after issue.
Joy.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6561291
At the beginning of August the Senate, the Administration, and Blue Dogs in the House had a problem. On the one hand, they resolved the differences between competing corporate interests and had a pretty clear idea exactly what Health Care Reform would look like. On the other hand, public opinion polls show something like 70% approval for a Single Payer solution and they knew that not even a viable Public Option was likely to be included in the final legislation. Add to that the all-too-necessary Individual Mandate and it was clear some heavy lifting was going to be necessary to sell all this to the general public as a reasonable compromise.
And then, from out of nowhere, the BSCRFCC (Bat Shit Crazy Right from Central Casting) appeared. Suddenly individual mandates and a weak Public Option wasnt the extreme Right of the debate. No, saving Grandma from Obamacare was now the extreme Right of the debate. Preventing a creep to Socialist Fascism (huh?) was now the extreme Right of the debate.
When the BSCRFCC first appeared, there were several reporters (including Rachael Maddow) that did a great job exposing their links to corporate PR firms. But almost all of these reporters assumed that the aim of this Astroturf effort was to kill reform just like they did in 1993. I disagree: all the members of the corporate compromise NEED reform.
* Insurance Companies need individual mandates to offset the rising costs of Baby Boomers who are old enough to need increasing health care, but too young for Medicare.
* Medical providers need to address the increasing numbers of uninsured to whom they are legally obligated to provide emergency care.
* Big Pharma needs to make their wares affordable to the increasing number of uninsured and underinsured who are forgoing their medications because of cost.
But what all the above DO NOT want is a widely available Public Option that would provide competition, pay Medicare-like reimbursement rates and negotiate for lower group prices.
The other phony part of this melodrama is the Republican refusal to support any kind of health care reform. I think that Republicans know that their open support for pro-corporate reform would be the kiss of death in terms of public acceptance of the bill. Watch: If the Progressive Caucus follows through on their threat to vote against reform that doesnt include a viable Public Option, just enough Republican votes will appear to push it over the top.
One last thought: It appears that the BSCRFCC was a rousing success. Indeed it seems that much more time has been devoted in the Corporate Media addressing their concerns than have been spent explaining the actual details of Public Option proposals. And that means that the BSCRFCC will be with us for some time to come, obscuring the debate on issue after issue.
Joy.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6561291
pam4water
(2,916 posts)2. K&R
Snarkoleptic
(5,998 posts)3. kickski
KansDem
(28,498 posts)4. Who knew the "T" in "Tea Party" really stood for "Tobacco Party!"
Excellent overview!
Thanks for posting!
________