Obama administration gave up single payer

in a secret deal to get insurance company and republican support for health reform that would include a public option, according to Rachel and her guest whose name I forgot....because they didn't think single payer had a chance to pass.

I wonder if another secret is why Howard Dean wasn't made Sec Health - did the insurance companies say "No deal" if Dean was part of it? They knew HE wouldn't cave. If I were a crooked insurance CEO making millions, I for sure wouldn't want Dean having any negotiating power.

Dean said they should go ahead and pass the bill, because, "We're right and they're wrong." Later on they'll love it.

I love Dean. Wish he'd have his own program with his own format, style, and HONESTY.

Obama ran his presidential campaign saying he did not support single payer.

Medicare, to at least get the public option.

blue dogs deal them down to a strong public option. Instead they started with nothing to bargain with and now find themselves backing too far.

our compromise position. No I did not know the specifics
as described above. I knew early the progressive activists
were pushing Single Payer. I learned that we could still push
but I knew our only hope was the PO.

Thanks for the information.

Don't you just love the Republicans they are still acting as if
the PO is Single Payer to scare people. Deals and handshakes
mean nothing to them.

He was never for it.

On Rachel, Matt Taibi was on, and they both used the word "inexplicitly" referring to single payer not even being considered. The meeting in May that included ALL concerned parties, except not one person who was for single payer. Maybe President Obama was not for it publically or privately, but lots of other senators and reps were for it and nobody asked for their 2 cents, "inexplicitly."

Nobody knows why.

My subject in the OP is wrong; I should have said the Obama administration..

...giving every person a chicken in every pot... and a pound of pot while you're at it.

Whining that we don't have Single Payer (which I personally support) on the first round of reasonable health care reform is like thinking that Billy Joel should personally sing "Happy Birthday" at everyone's birthday in America.

Gimme a friggin' break.

Are you here to crack jokes or are you serious?


YOU CANNOT NEGOTIATE FROM AN UNREALISTIC STARTING POINT. YOU CAN START HIGH BUT YOU MUST START A PLAUSIBLE PLACE.

You believe that single payer is an outside possibility, something that you could come very close to cobbling enough votes for but would be just shy and that's FALSE. It was and is not anywhere near close enough to be an effective starting point. Who do you guys think Obama is negotiating with? I know he doesn't have anywhere near the votes, you know he doesn't have the vote, why is it so hard to see pharma, insurance, AMA, Republicans, AARP, and most certainly the blue dogs in his own caucus know he doesn't have anywhere close to enough votes even to dust Biden off.

YOU CAN'T BARGAIN WITH WHAT IT IS GENERALLY WELL KNOWN YOU DON'T HAVE. People can't be sooooooooooooooooooooooo stupid to not be able to process that. All we have as a real threat is that we can refuse to give on the option that nothing can pass, that it is more of us for it than the number within the caucus that are against it.

good grief, what good does it do to have the majority??

We will lose it next year.

To negotiate starting from a plausible place does not work with the GOP.

They are and will be obstructionist no matter the plan. They WILL NOT VOTE FOR IT, EVER.

Obama has no pull with the Senate.

the trauma of assassination.

I don't ever want to have that "advantage" again.

And it doesn't really make sense because Obama never campaigned on single payer.

that Single Payer would be the view not aired.

We have been duped by a song and dance man from Chicago! I am regretting not supporting Hillary, at least we knew where she came from, and that she would fight without giving up an important bargaining position without firing a shot.

having Prez Clinton II wouldn't have been any better. Probably no worse, but certainly no better.

a few Senators in the Senate would ever vote for it.

it is what I want.

After all, if he is so bent on hell to give the GOP a seat at the writing table, then why shouldn't I be at the table too????

When you voted for a Democratic Congress and a Democratic President in 06 and 08 thinking that you were going to get universal health care and jobs, you were an uninformed voter for we never promised you that. You were voting your hopes, while we were voting for our investment portfolios.

Do you know what happens to people when they think they have been conned? Anger comes to mind.

I voted for universal health care, but I sure didn't think it meant that the commercial insurance companies could force EVERYONE to buy a policy under a new govt reform bill - that is so ridiculous!!! That's what a co-op would be for.

Do they really think they can get away with this???

Maybe the progressives should start wearing guns taped to their calves when they go to a town meeting. I don't own a gun, never did, never will, but maybe it's time to buy a kevlar vest or something..just kidding before I get hell for this too.

The only other sensible thing to do is drop the whole idea of health reform, forget about it, and concentrate on finding homes for unwanted cats and dogs.

and the proposal should have been 3 pages long instead of 1,000. Then he should have gone on TV every night (since Big Insurance is running their fear ads every night) and told of the 14,000 people who had lost their health insurance THAT DAY. And the bankruptcies, underinsurance, etc.

of Rolling Stone. This was his theory of how the deals were cut.