Democrats Ponder Health-Care Suicide

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/10/04-4

<snip>
If Democrats enact something like the health-care bill emerging from the Senate Finance Committee, they may call it a legislative victory and it may keep the campaign donations flowing from the insurance industry, but the Democrats would surely infuriate millions of American voters.

Indeed, it seems like some Democrats, such as Sens. Max Baucus and Kent Conrad, have lost themselves so much in the inside-Washington reeds of legislating a convoluted compromise acceptable to the insurers, that they are inviting an angry backlash from average Americans.

The danger for Democrats is that this industry-friendly legislation would impose new burdens on citizens, including government fines for failing to sign up for a health-insurance plan, without guarantees that the coverage won't be almost as crappy and expensive as it is now. The bill rejects a public option that would put competitive pressure on private insurers.

Plus, key elements of the bill, like the so-called shopping "exchanges," aren't to take effect until 2013, meaning that Americans will have watched this messy process unfold for months and then be told that the current system, which has cruelly pushed millions of sick people into bankruptcy, will get four more years to bankrupt more Americans.

By contrast, Medicare, the single-payer health system for senior citizens, was signed into law on July 30, 1965, and took effect on July 1, 1966, less than a year later.

...more

and his political career must die in his next primary.

They will no longer be the party of FDR.

The DLC will have succeeded in one thing and that is in totally destroying the Democratic Party.

This might be the action that leads to an independent movement or the death of both political parties.

But a disturbing number of people are still hoping for something different.

FDR: You got that right
ER: It's so sad...

and those in it can see what is going on, the man must be in the need of a major sedative.

until 2013.

i'm absolutely dismayed and i've never been so disappointed by the political process as i am now.

:(

Because it doesn't matter how much money the insurance industry gives these clowns for their reelections, it won't buy one single vote of anyone that's pissed off.

...for non-compliance, without even offering a public option, the Democrats lost control of the Massachusetts state legislature for the first time in a generation. After all the protests clogged the jails.

Oops.

That didn't happen -- in fact, this week there was a Boston Globe poll showing 2-1 support for the Massachusetts plan, with only 11% of respondents voicing support for repeal.

And the State House losses? Still 10-1 Dem in the lower House, 7-1 in the Senate. With a Democratic governor.

Let me know when the riots start.

Fuck the sick people--who cares about them? They're a minority.

bill. As such I have no idea why people fear it becoming THE Democratic bill?

:shrug:

I too don't understand why it's the only bill talked about.

act as if Baucus is the final bill. I doubt anything from Baucus makes it into the final bill.

There are many provisions in the Baucus bill that I'm sure I don't like any more than you. But it is clear that that is the direction the merging of the bills is going. It may very well be amended on the floor (and then again in Congress), but it will very likely start out with many components of the Baucus bill. I doubt I will be able to convince you until the bill hits the floor, but at that point there won't be any need for more debate over it.

Reid, Baucus ready to split on public option as vote nears
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x486538

virtual knee pads from me for Christmas for giving the insurance companies a fabulous blow job.

It's hard to fully absorb the enormity of what has taken place. Only 11 months ago today, the Democrats were in a position where they could have marginalized the Republican Party as a force in US politics, for decades to come. Today, they are on the verge of party suicide, having accomplished the near-impossible feat of bringing the utterly-discredited Republicans back from the grave.

The net result of the Obama administration will be to have breathed the Republicans back to life, while impoverishing most Americans & continuing most of Bush Jr's policies. At the end of the Obama era, the USA will still be ruled by the same 2-party system that has ruled since the Civil War -- a fantastic triumph for the plutocracy, & an unmitigated disaster for everyone else.

The function of the Dem Party has nothing to do with "serving the public." Its mission, rather, is stabilizing the political system -- providing the illusion of "choice" while offering no real choice, & ensuring continuity of corporate rule. // This is the ONLY possible outcome in a system that forces voters to choose between 2 big-business parties. The "magic ingredient" is the gullibility of voters who believe Democrats are "The Lesser Evil."

The concept of "60" is just so ridiculous.

Baucus is not going to get "ENACTED"

All of that shit is going to get thrown out.

because they want things to look as bad as they can possibly make them look.

Big pharma, big insurance and big medicine with their huge campaign donations.

It seems less likely that we will get a public option as time goes by. Why even have reform? It'll just inject more money into a pool of private insurers to get more people covered, but it won't do anything to lower costs.

Combine that with a mandate and you see how potentially dangerous this is for Democrats, and the country as a whole. People will be forced to pay for something they cannot afford, and will for the first time put actual legitimacy into the GOP's "change you can't afford" message.

I'd rather see reform not pass if there's no public option. Without it we are just giving the insurance companies even more power and making the system worse for the individual.

This is a potentially huge clusterfuck for the Democratic Party and our government as a whole. Mark my words, if this passes with a mandate but no real public option the Democrats will lose BIG in 2012, and the Republicans will come back to deregulate and undo any small bit of actual progress Dems will have made from 2009-2013. Furthermore millions of people will be forced into bankruptcy by what is essentially a corporate mandate. Disgusting that this is even being discussed.

I will lose nearly all faith in the political process if it goes down this way. I hope that it doesn't.

]br]


Fool me once, shame on you

fool me twice? I don't think so







tax speculation

end the war