He promised exactly this: "A PUBLIC HEALTH INSURANCE OPTION"

I got confused there for a minute when I have read and heard comments that say that candidate Obama never promised a public option. I was sure that's why we spent hours and sacrificed so much to work to have him elected. I didn't think I made it up, but why then, are so many people saying he never promised it?

I looked it up today. He promised exactly this:
VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUNCpnRBf9o&feature=player_embedded

OFFERS A PUBLIC INSURANCE OPTION.

OFFERS A PUBLIC INSURANCE OPTION.

OFFERS A PUBLIC INSURANCE OPTION.
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/

Quality, Affordable Choices

If You Don’t Have Insurance, the Obama Plan:

---Creates a new insurance marketplace — the Exchange — that allows people without insurance and small businesses to compare plans and buy insurance at competitive prices.

---Provides new tax credits to help people buy insurance.

---Provides small businesses tax credits and affordable options for covering employees.



more:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/12/17/815772/-The-Obama-Plan-had-a-public-optionRemember-this-folks

(just saying...kp)

There is tremendous pressure he could apply if he chose to do so.. He has not....The deal was cut back in January..

that he promised to use if elected and still has yet to use for other certain major pending issues concerning the civil rights of a certain group of discriminated people. I think you know what I'm getting at.

Encouraging way.

At any point in time over the summer, Obama was out there with the RW Tea Bagging hecklers. Keep in mind - The progressives didn't get to meet with him - show me any film from this summer with Kooch, or Maxine Waters, or Lynn Woolsey. But the Repug Senators met with him on the issue - soemtimes over forty times!

And whenone of them asked him (A student from Boulder CO) how the Public Option would or wouldn't hurt the independent insures, Obama said

"Well er, uh, we don't even know if the final plan that Congress offers us will include the public option! And remember, the public option is only one of many tools, and again, it might not even be offered as a possibility."

This man did not WANT the public option. He wanted industry to get its licks, cuz that is how his campaign coffers are filled.

Anyway, the OP's point is that people are misrepresenting what he campaigned on.

:eyes:

"any plan I sign must include an insurance exchange: a one-stop shopping marketplace where you can compare the benefits, cost and track records of a variety of plans - including a public option to increase competition and keep insurance companies honest - and choose what's best for your family."

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/07/obama-demands-the-bill-i-sign-must-include-public-option.php

Stop talking to us like we are children. Since when is expecting someone to do what they say they are going to do is to have some kind of "magic wand"?

Total crap.

We must of course evaluate promises made without the ability to unilaterally enforce, but it is indeed unquestionable that that was a stated intent, in writing and in speeches, many times.

Damn you people and your undeniable proof and facts :sarcasm:

They cannot promise a particular result. Only say what they are for.

If you want to say Obama has not pushed hard enough, that would be fair, but that's what he wanted. He did not get it, as no President could - they have to share the power with two other branches.

He can only promise what he would be for. If a bill with the public option came to the desk and he vetoed it, he would be breaking the promise. But if it is never in the bill, he hasn't.

and never ever meant it for one minute.

man, thats cold.

So, you see, it all evens out.

:sarcasm:

He said it after he was elected too, in one town hall meeting after another. :shrug:

Many people, in fact, believed him. He said, "That’s why any plan I sign must include an insurance exchange — a one-stop shopping marketplace where you can compare the benefits, costs and track records of a variety of plans, including a public option to increase competition and keep insurance companies honest, and choose what’s best for your family."

http://uppitywoman08.wordpress.com/2009/09/07/any-bill-i-sign-must-include-a-public-option-but-not-really-because-i-lie-a-lot-in-case-you-havent-noticed/

Perhaps Obama will veto the final bill if it doesn't meet these criteria, but I have my doubts. I see Clintonian triangulation at work here. At this point, I think the President will settle for any bill. The result, I fear, will be a bill that hurts people more than it helps and that seriously harms the Democratic Party.

:dem:

-Laelth

This bill sucks, and it fucks the American people. I'm thinking about not voting at all in 2012.

I recall McCain saying repeatedly during the campaign "I know how to get Bin Laden" "I know where he is, and I know how to get him MY FRIENDS". Guess since he didn't win he's keeping it a secret unto himself?

Throw darts? Draw straws? Pick the prettiest?

Sorry. I'm cynical, but I'm not THAT cynical. Not yet anyway.



TG2012

make sure to vote for them in the primaries. This will of course require that I totally disregard the media's attempt to decide for me who is a viable candidate and who is not.

Again, thanks to jillan --


http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/02/09/prepared_remarks_of_senator_barack_obama?mode=PF


The whole thing is extremely painful to read, but here's a sample:

We are tired of being disappointed by our politics. We are tired of being let down. We're tired of hearing promises made and ten-point plans proposed in the heat of a campaign only to have nothing change when everyone goes back to Washington. Because the lobbyists just write another check. Or because politicians start worrying about how they'll win the next election instead of why they should. Or because they focus on who's up and who's down instead of who matters.

And while Washington is consumed with the same drama and division and distraction, another family puts up a For Sale sign in the front yard. Another factory shuts its doors forever. Another mother declares bankruptcy because she cannot pay her child's medical bills.

<snip>


But I am running for President because I believe that to actually make change happen -- to make this time different than all the rest -- we need a leader who can finally move beyond the divisive politics of Washington and bring Democrats, Independents, and Republicans together to get things done. That's how we'll win this election, and that's how we'll change this country when I am President of the United States


<snip>
I know what it takes to pass health care reform because I've done it -- not by demonizing anyone who disagrees with me, but by bringing Democrats and Republicans together to provide health insurance to 150,000 children and parents in Illinois.

And when I am President, we'll pass universal health care not in twenty years, not in ten years, but by the end of my first term in office. But you don't have to take my word for it. Senator Ted Kennedy recently said that he wouldn't have endorsed me if he didn't believe passionately that I will fight for universal health care as President. And if there's someone who knows something about health care, it's Ted Kennedy.

My plan would bring down premiums for the typical family by $2500 a year. We'd ban insurance companies from denying you coverage because of a pre-existing condition. We'd allow every American to get the same kind of health care that members of Congress get for themselves. And the one difference between my plan and Senator Clinton's plan is that she said she'd "go after" your wages if you don't buy health care. Well I believe the reason people don't have health care isn't because no one's forced them to buy it, it's because no one's made it affordable -- and that's why we bring down the cost of health care more than any other plan in this race.


The man who made that speech is not the same one who's sitting in the White House now. When the original returns, I suspect DU will be more supportive of him than of the current (p)resident.



TG2012

own words before a holiday break.

it is too expensive? Will I have the option to buy something equivalent but less expensive?

I'm self-employed and paying $12,000 per year with a $3,000 deductible. This is through BC/BS. I don't even use the insurance and they keep raising it. They are in to me for $15,000 before they have to shell out dollar one.

From what I'm reading - because I'm already insured - there is no option for me. I will just have to continually shell out money to them until I'm eligible for Medicare - in 4 years.