The real reason why Obama has not pushed for single payer and backed away from the public option.

From: http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2009/06/-name-office-party-health.html

Obama, Barack (The current President)

Health Sector:$20,163,933
Health Insurance:$1,548,651
Pharmaceutical :$2,156,590
Health Pro:$12,109,983
Hospitals:$2,881,138
Nursing Homes: $244,190

Pelosi, Nancy (The current house speaker)
Health Sector:$1,289,850
Health Insurance:$201,250
Pharmaceutical:$233,700
Health Pro:$769,150
Hospitals:$177,300
Nursing Homes:$43,500

Follow the money

It wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell of passing in the current political climate.

If we can't even get the current bill approved without ridiculous amendments, what chance would single-payer have had?

Zero.

If they needed a ridiculous abortion amendment just to support a watered-down bill, they certainly weren't going to jump on single-payer.

Is single-payer the best option? Sure. Is it politically viable? Not even remotely, at least at present.

Imagine that a President Obama made a strong, clear, unambiguous call for ...... I dunno ...... maybe single payer. And imagine that he did in his inauguration speech. And imagine that he spoke to the American people often about it. Imagine if he used his bully pulpit. Imagine if he created a groundswell of support for it - as he did to get people to vote for him. Imagine if he spend some of then-vast political capital on it.

We would be in a very different place than we are now.

But as I said ...... we'll never know, now will we?

You can choose to believe that Obama was going to magically convince 46-56 other Senators to go along with single-payer, but I don't think that's terribly realistic.

doesn't even factor into it.

I'd say the OP is pretty much on the money.

You may be right. I may be right. But We Will Never Know .... because Obama NEVER made it clear what HE wanted.

The support is not there and Obama doesn't have a magic wand.

Too bad the one in DC is so dusty on this issue.

See, here's the thing. Obama NEVER said what it was he wanted, apart from vague generalities and lofty terms. Had he been clear and unambiguous, he would have won or lost based on that. And his base would know where he stood and might have been really *there* for him. The WORST that strategy would have done is gotten us where we are now - except faster.

I think, specifically on healthcare, there has been a lack of leadership.

...without even trying. In fact, single payer was kept off the table because the support is OVERWHELMINGLY in favor among the electorate, and the dem leaders, who are bought and paid for by the insurance industry, were desperate to prevent any real debate about single payer. Their "support isn't there" because it's been purchased by the industry-- putting single payer on the table would expose their conflict of interest. The only thing that causes a politician's opposition to evaporate faster than money is cowardice, and all the democratic party leaders are terrified of the groundswell of support a simple, medicare for all, single payer universal health care reform would generate.

The solution? Keep it out of the discussion, at all costs. And you bought it.

leadership that he promised. For whatever reason...

he'd fly all of our asses back to Kansas.

You live in a fantasy world if you think that the Blue Dogs would vote for single payer.

Or that Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson etc would support it.

Children show more critical thought that some of the fan clubbers.

for the fact that there were never enough votes to come anywhere near passing single payer.

It's the obsessives like you who pretend Obama can make an awesome speech and change the minds of Blue Dogs. How'd that work for Bill Clinton?

This is not Clinton. This is Obama:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=6938559#6938724

No one in their right mind is "Single Payer or Nothing". I can promise you that I'm not. (Your ill informed assertion to the contrary doesn't make it true.) My view is that is where we should have **begun** the debate. Instead, we started the debate and the negotiations with ThePartyOfNo someplace to right of the middle. That sort of amateur hour negotiating is how people get chumped all the time.

So, stop with the Single Payer or Nothing crap and pay attention to the debate. You'll be better off armed with facts about your opponent's views than not.

Common sense.

Between traitorous blue dogs and corrupticans, it's going to be next to impossible to pass even this extremely watered down version of reform.

geez, with all those people whose left.? kucinich and massa.

Nice, eh? :eyes:

Corporate tools, the lot of them.

Pray tell where the other 46-56 votes are going to come from.

Lack of support is not an excuse. It's political reality.

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:silly:

When LBJ wanted something, he knew how to twist arms.

When Reagan wanted something, he went on TV and told the audience to pester their Congresscritters.

I see NO evidence that Obama even tried to maneuver for single payer.

that would violate the separation of powers doctrine.

Seriously.

And this is a person who is always informing us that she goes to a very expensive and exclusive college. Apparently they don't teach American Government there.

don't forget */cheney. For eight years, they bullied their agenda in. I remember when we had a slight margin in Congress on the second term. The excuse was that we just didn't have enough to go against them. And, now we do have majorities, and it seems there appear to be more wolves in sheep's clothing. Because now, we can't have a strong public option because of our own party.

There is NO evidence that he did a damned thing to this bill. Where's all the *leadership* and CHANGE we were promised?

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taking bribes, sorry, taking campaign contributions

Is it the sad truth?

the future jobs, the campaign contributions, and not for US. This is not an American problem. It happens in most if not all countries, but it is fucking out of hand in the USA right now. Single payer national health insurance (public insurance) with price regulation for doctors and hospitals is the most humane and cost effective health care model to follow in the world. This is known to most people who can read about France and its health insurance program. Most congresscritters know that public health services are the norm in most countries once they can afford it. Hell Cuba and Venezuela have public health care, as do basically all of the E.U. the people in congress know this, but they vote against it as too radial in the USA. We used to lead in the USA, now we have fallen behind, because of graft largely, like in Rome of old.

you don't compromise before the fucking bill is written. You don't table single payer before it even gets a chance. You put in everything you want then you add some other crap you don't really want or need. Then you draft the bill and get to work compromising first removing the crap you didn't really need anyway. You come out much better if you don't compromise your fucking position before the debate even starts. At this point we have a lame watered down public option that will get further gutted by the Senate.

...for every issue, yeah, you'd be right on. Luckily, most humans are blessed with the ability to solve multi-variable problems using their advanced reasoning capabilities.

because it is politically impossible with dicey at best public support.

It is bizarre that the more evidence we have that there is no path to passing a single payer plan the more people pretend not only is there one but such a thing is pretty much low hanging fruit just waiting for someone to make a grab for it.

Hell, most of my more liberal real life friends are against single payer because they have such distrust for the government but also hate and fear corporations too much not to have government involvement. I'm a single payer believer because worst case, I have a vote on election day but never on a single insurance board.

Maybe its just easier for some folks to pretend we have an otherwise sane nation if we could just get leaders that reflect us but that's not reality. Reality is the country is just as nuts as the people elected and probably more so. Shit, 30% or so don't even believe in the most basic regulations.

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Go kneel before your idol.

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jc on a trailer hitch

They can't even get a strong public option through the House, let alone the Senate. Going all out for single payer as you suggest would have been political suicide.

That plus the fact that OBAMA NEVER RAN ON SINLE PAYER to begin with.

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Your posts are almost uniformly angry name-calling. If you actually represented the Democratic Party, I wouldn't want any part of it. Fortunately, that's not the case.

Recommended reading: "How to Win Friends and Influence People"

to the bottom line: profits.

That is the Occam's Razor of politics.

k&r

liberal message board and blog across the country. "Follow the money" has never been more relevant.

eom