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In reply to the discussion: "But we couldn't *possibly* have gotten single payer!" [View all]cui bono
(19,926 posts)345. You ignored the entire substance of my post. He DID mention the public option while campaigning
it was in his platform and he touted it a lot during his first year as POTUS.
You ignored that while dwelling on my gentle teasing about how you accidentally posted a reply to yourself. Sheesh, it was a tiny tease in good fun, no major malfunction. So let's get back to the point.
Here's the info regarding Obama and the public option again:
FLASHBACK: Obama Repeatedly Touted Public Option Before Refusing To Push For It In The Final Hours
By Zaid Jilani on December 22, 2009 at 4:00 pm
I didnt campaign on the public option, President Obama told the Washington Post. But he touted the public option on his campaign website and spoke frequently in support of it during the first year of his presidency, citing its essential value in holding the private insurance industry accountable and providing competition:
In the 2008 Obama-Biden health care plan on the campaigns website, candidate Obama promised that any American will have the opportunity to enroll in [a] new public plan. [2008]
During a speech at the American Medical Association, President Obama told thousands of doctors that one of the plans included in the new health insurance exchanges needs to be a public option that will give people a broader range of choices and inject competition into the health care market. [6/15/09]
While speaking to the nation during his weekly address, the President said that any plan he signs must include a public option. [7/17/09]
During a conference call with progressive bloggers, the President said he continues to believe that a robust public option would be the best way to go. [7/20/09]
Obama told NBCs David Gregory that a public option should be a part of this [health care bill], while rebuking claims that the plan was dead. [9/20/09]
Despite all this overt advocacy for the public option, it appears that Obama was reticent to apply the political pressure necessary to get the plan in the final hours of congressional negotiation. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) who threatened to filibuster the creation of any new public plan or expansion of Medicare told the Huffington Post that he didnt really have direct input from the White House on the public option and was never specifically asked to support it.
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), one of the most ardent backers of public insurance, blamed the demise of the public option on a lack of support from the administration. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) perhaps the most visible defender of the public option in the entire health care debate went even further, saying that Obamas lack of support for congressional progressives amounted to him being half-pregnant with the health insurance and drug industries.
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2009/12/22/74682/obama-repeatedly-touted-public/
By Zaid Jilani on December 22, 2009 at 4:00 pm
I didnt campaign on the public option, President Obama told the Washington Post. But he touted the public option on his campaign website and spoke frequently in support of it during the first year of his presidency, citing its essential value in holding the private insurance industry accountable and providing competition:
In the 2008 Obama-Biden health care plan on the campaigns website, candidate Obama promised that any American will have the opportunity to enroll in [a] new public plan. [2008]
During a speech at the American Medical Association, President Obama told thousands of doctors that one of the plans included in the new health insurance exchanges needs to be a public option that will give people a broader range of choices and inject competition into the health care market. [6/15/09]
While speaking to the nation during his weekly address, the President said that any plan he signs must include a public option. [7/17/09]
During a conference call with progressive bloggers, the President said he continues to believe that a robust public option would be the best way to go. [7/20/09]
Obama told NBCs David Gregory that a public option should be a part of this [health care bill], while rebuking claims that the plan was dead. [9/20/09]
Despite all this overt advocacy for the public option, it appears that Obama was reticent to apply the political pressure necessary to get the plan in the final hours of congressional negotiation. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) who threatened to filibuster the creation of any new public plan or expansion of Medicare told the Huffington Post that he didnt really have direct input from the White House on the public option and was never specifically asked to support it.
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), one of the most ardent backers of public insurance, blamed the demise of the public option on a lack of support from the administration. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) perhaps the most visible defender of the public option in the entire health care debate went even further, saying that Obamas lack of support for congressional progressives amounted to him being half-pregnant with the health insurance and drug industries.
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2009/12/22/74682/obama-repeatedly-touted-public/
Regarding Obama saying he never campaigned on the public option:
Obama's latest statement on this is hair-splitting at best and misleading at worst. That's even more true given how often he mentioned the public option after he got elected. And it's a good example of why the left is losing its trust in Obama. Obama could have given an interview where he expressed frustration that the math of the Senate forced his administration to give up the public option but nevertheless argued that the rest of the health-care bill was well worth passing. Instead, he's arguing that he never cared about the public option anyway, which is just confirming liberal suspicions that they lost that battle because the president was never really on their side.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/12/yes_obama_did_campaign_on_the.html
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/12/yes_obama_did_campaign_on_the.html
The presidents claim that he didnt campaign on the public option is at best on shaky ground, factually speaking. Its unmistakably true that during the campaign his plan for reform included a public option.
A summary of Obamas proposal still up on BarackObama.com says it Offers a public health insurance option to provide the uninsured and those who cant find affordable coverage with a real choice. And a document his campaign put together, Barack Obamas Plan for a Healthy America, says:
The Obama plan both builds upon and improves our current insurance system, upon which most Americans continue to rely, and leaves Medicare intact for older and disabled Americans. The Obama plan also addresses the large gaps in coverage that leave 45 million Americans uninsured. Specifically, the Obama plan will: (1) establish a new public insurance program available to Americans who neither qualify for Medicaid or SCHIP nor have access to insurance through their employers, as well as to small businesses that want to offer insurance to their employees
On the other hand, the words campaign on have a fairly specific meaning they imply making some issue or message a particular focus of your campaign, as in, In 2004, President Bush campaigned on terrorism. And while it was indeed a pretty weaselly thing for him to say, Obamas comment was, on that score, accurate.
http://www.salon.com/2009/12/22/obama_public/
A summary of Obamas proposal still up on BarackObama.com says it Offers a public health insurance option to provide the uninsured and those who cant find affordable coverage with a real choice. And a document his campaign put together, Barack Obamas Plan for a Healthy America, says:
The Obama plan both builds upon and improves our current insurance system, upon which most Americans continue to rely, and leaves Medicare intact for older and disabled Americans. The Obama plan also addresses the large gaps in coverage that leave 45 million Americans uninsured. Specifically, the Obama plan will: (1) establish a new public insurance program available to Americans who neither qualify for Medicaid or SCHIP nor have access to insurance through their employers, as well as to small businesses that want to offer insurance to their employees
On the other hand, the words campaign on have a fairly specific meaning they imply making some issue or message a particular focus of your campaign, as in, In 2004, President Bush campaigned on terrorism. And while it was indeed a pretty weaselly thing for him to say, Obamas comment was, on that score, accurate.
http://www.salon.com/2009/12/22/obama_public/
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Let's be clear: you asked a question, got no answer, and loudly determined my answer for me.
MannyGoldstein
Mar 2014
#16
e.g., "By not answering it demonstrates you did exactly nothing to promote single payer at the time"
MannyGoldstein
Mar 2014
#99
Why ask questions? If you have a point, spit it out without Just Asking Questions.
rhett o rick
Mar 2014
#188
Sure it is.I get accused of it here all the time. Bring up one point thats not the majority opinion
7962
Mar 2014
#304
No, he is working to make the Democratic party accountable to the needs of the people by
TheKentuckian
Mar 2014
#15
And who DID you vote for because YOU didn't vote for a public option because NO one ran on that///
VanillaRhapsody
Mar 2014
#48
Which part of "But he touted the public option on his campaign website" are you unclear on?
MannyGoldstein
Mar 2014
#73
but he didn't campaign on it....even I knew that....please tell me you are smarter than I am!
VanillaRhapsody
Mar 2014
#76
He didn't campaign on it....I have said that all along.....I told you that is WHY I supported
VanillaRhapsody
Mar 2014
#161
It was in his platform, he mentioned it in campaign speeches and he touted it during his first year
cui bono
Mar 2014
#328
Insurance and health in the same sentence does not compute, does not compute ...
MindMover
Mar 2014
#97
So you think there is no insurance in countries with Single Payer healthcare?
VanillaRhapsody
Mar 2014
#170
they do not sell basic health insurance of course there is property insurance and life insurance ...
MindMover
Mar 2014
#187
Yes I am saying he IS smarter than I! Could I have gotten the Affordable Care Act passed...
VanillaRhapsody
Mar 2014
#336
You ignored the entire substance of my post. He DID mention the public option while campaigning
cui bono
Mar 2014
#345
Mentioning it...supporting it....and running on it are very different things aren't they...
VanillaRhapsody
Mar 2014
#348
I am not missing anything.....he also put common sense-gun control "out there" after too....
VanillaRhapsody
Mar 2014
#359
I wasn't DEMANDING it.....I was for Hillary at first because I believed she was closer to it than
VanillaRhapsody
Mar 2014
#384
Look, I agree neither is what you and I want, but the way you're going about is not just wrong
Sarah Ibarruri
Mar 2014
#402
Funny I voted for Barack Obama....and he won and not by a "tiny fringe group"
VanillaRhapsody
Mar 2014
#420
No what is YOUR problem...I wasn't the one that asked that question now was I?
VanillaRhapsody
Mar 2014
#442
Okay, we're on the same side. :) I live in North Florida. I've reached my limit of Repukes
Sarah Ibarruri
Mar 2014
#443
I know what you mean. It's HARD living surrounded by Repugs and teabaggers. I can't stand it.
Sarah Ibarruri
Mar 2014
#445
and they are like an anchor around our neck...they are not going to move "leftward" easily....
VanillaRhapsody
Mar 2014
#447
And the thing is, they've tried it already. It failed more than miserably, but they want it again
Sarah Ibarruri
Mar 2014
#451
You can just feel the hypocritical mysogyny heating up...its already palpable...
VanillaRhapsody
Mar 2014
#418
supporting it and believing it and campaigning on it are very different things...
VanillaRhapsody
Mar 2014
#313
supporting it ....and belief that you can pass it through both the Senate and the House...
VanillaRhapsody
Mar 2014
#301
he was brought in to quell the disrupters ... and proved a point, that this government is totally ..
MindMover
Mar 2014
#75
we are still able to converse instantaneously on this medium which certain oligarchs ...
MindMover
Mar 2014
#86
that might be your method, while others around the world are changing their world ....
MindMover
Mar 2014
#93
First, the will of the people should be how our representatives vote, not the will of someone who ..
MindMover
Mar 2014
#101
You said we lose to the oligarchs if we communicate thru this medium to our reps
MindMover
Mar 2014
#120
The right's leaders get a message out though. They know how to frame things so that they
cui bono
Mar 2014
#207
Yes, and the R's come in with their crazy demands and Obama meets them halfway
cui bono
Mar 2014
#338
24,000 posts in 2 years. I'm glad to hear you're not sitting around and surfing the web. nt
DisgustipatedinCA
Mar 2014
#392
If Democrats had gotten the job done in 2009-2010, we'd have elected more of 'em
MannyGoldstein
Mar 2014
#142
Yes they gerrymandered the hell out of varies states but thats our own fault really.
cstanleytech
Mar 2014
#186
I don't agree that gerrymandering is just an excuse. Yes, it can be overcome considering the number
cui bono
Mar 2014
#324
Gerrymandering doesn't keep people from turning out, it makes the district unbalanced to
cui bono
Mar 2014
#329
No, actually, he's whining and wanting 1 person to reverse the damage done over 33 years by him (the
Sarah Ibarruri
Mar 2014
#381
I read the OP as a reminder that we have to put more pressure on our elected officials.
A Simple Game
Mar 2014
#332
Single payer advocates were plentiful. They asked to be seated at the table during the
JDPriestly
Mar 2014
#355
No, but people who figure that Democrats don't respond to their interests, their problems, their
JDPriestly
Mar 2014
#431
The public option was in Obama's platform and he "touted" it during his first year as POTUS.
cui bono
Mar 2014
#327
Look, Manny, you're talking to the wrong group. And, as you know, what Americans want means nothing
NYC_SKP
Mar 2014
#2
Totally agree. Although in matters of military might and natural resources, we
truedelphi
Mar 2014
#218
nothing funny about an oligarchy unless you are on the inside .... looking out ...nt
MindMover
Mar 2014
#61
Yeah, but that kind of blunt political analysis doesn't get a bunch of recs and attention. nt
redqueen
Mar 2014
#257
I believe this would be one good example of statistics and representative forms of government
MrMickeysMom
Mar 2014
#423
And what makes you think we are doing what YOU described? You don't know that to be the case do you?
VanillaRhapsody
Mar 2014
#424
Okay true...but still we only had that filibuster proof majority for about 2 months....
VanillaRhapsody
Mar 2014
#37
Harry Ried HAS changed the filibuster rules....or did you miss that fact?
VanillaRhapsody
Mar 2014
#51
and all those bleary lying eyes lining up to tell us we had to do it or else ....
MindMover
Mar 2014
#53
"they implored LBJ not to push for civil rights in this first speech, since "
MannyGoldstein
Mar 2014
#98
Well, at least you don't call him a piece of shit used car salesman who sits on the couch muttering
BeyondGeography
Mar 2014
#173
So, LBJ Worked Hard, Very Hard, Huh? Guess You Think Obama Isn't "Working Hard"? Then? So, He's...
Skraxx
Mar 2014
#183
Wow, that post is full of dog whistle, even if you didn't mean for it to be.
phleshdef
Mar 2014
#194
You are exactly right. That was my first thought as well which the OP conviently overlooks
Number23
Mar 2014
#364
And you are overlooking that in both cases the majorities were with them
nadinbrzezinski
Mar 2014
#367
yeah, we need to knock on doors and get the vote out and change this country ....
MindMover
Mar 2014
#69
NEWSFLASH- this is a Representative Democracy. But when your goal is to be divisive on a
KittyWampus
Mar 2014
#28
OK, so if two-thirds of Americans want X, then our representatives should
MannyGoldstein
Mar 2014
#31
good luck getting the Teabaggers on board to only vote for YOUR favorite Representatives...
VanillaRhapsody
Mar 2014
#54
Ugh. Don't worry kids. Tomorrow Manny will watch "I'm just a bill up on capitol hill" and will
Squinch
Mar 2014
#32
toooo many have drunk the kool aid Manny, and on this board they have tooo ...
MindMover
Mar 2014
#104
get to universal HC would require more politcal courage than exists in the dem party.
KG
Mar 2014
#45
Actually, Medicare is not really single payer - - it's part government, part insurer, part
Hoyt
Mar 2014
#127
We couldn't, because we needed a super-majority to get anything through the Senate.
pnwmom
Mar 2014
#62
My guess is that those who vigorously supported single payer were a small minority
Kaleva
Mar 2014
#124
We couldn't have gotten it, but it still should have been part of the discussion.
DanTex
Mar 2014
#84
What did two thirds of the .01% of the world want? They're all that matter. nt
valerief
Mar 2014
#89
I say we organize an internet voting that anyone with voting rights and computer access
MindMover
Mar 2014
#125
now how long did that take you to type, an intelligent response reflecting your heartfelt feelings .
MindMover
Mar 2014
#149
the blog bully tries to limit discourse by contributing nothing but bullyisms ...
MindMover
Mar 2014
#209
Yup, remember when it was a private investment mandate with a tax credit to help the poor offset
TheKentuckian
Mar 2014
#193
There was more than two-thirds who wanted background checks, did it pass?
Thinkingabout
Mar 2014
#134
Boehner and others can yell "do what the people want", who is the people
Thinkingabout
Mar 2014
#155
Not at all. You were stating that it is the Congressional representives
GreenPartyVoter
Mar 2014
#372
There are benefits to taking the initiative, framing the debate and putting one's opponents
Maedhros
Mar 2014
#343
It's not because he wanted a PO: "I never campaigned on the Public Option."
WhaTHellsgoingonhere
Mar 2014
#164
A little from Column A, but overflooding from Column B. This is all fun and games to this poster
Number23
Mar 2014
#366
cmon madem, the rubber has not been meeting the road for many years now ....
MindMover
Mar 2014
#211
70-90% of Americans (ultimately) want peace, gun control, HSR, Medicare for all,
MisterP
Mar 2014
#191
Yeah, and Kucinich was "unelectable" so we went with the black guy with the Arab name.
Spitfire of ATJ
Mar 2014
#215
President Elizabeth Warren. Yeah, that was awesome.I loved it when Patti Smith sang at her inaugural
Kurovski
Mar 2014
#220
Kucinich supported the Redistricting plan , but the district he ran in was still Dem
JI7
Mar 2014
#375
It's the POLICY of the US to support CAPITALISM no matter which party is in power....
Spitfire of ATJ
Mar 2014
#393
We have the best government corporations can buy. The majority of people want marijuana
B Calm
Mar 2014
#224
For the 2014 election and the 2016 election all Democratic candidates should
Enthusiast
Mar 2014
#225
Uh... we should be thanking *Bernie Sanders and Ron Wyden* for single payer in America.
ProSense
Mar 2014
#249
If you have 10 fingers, i demand that you play Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #3 by lunch.
yodermon
Mar 2014
#251
If I run for the office of Concert Pianist at the BSO, and claim I'm the greatest pianist available
MannyGoldstein
Mar 2014
#254
too simplistic. the left allows 1200 rw radio stations to yell over that majority
certainot
Mar 2014
#279
The companies know what's best for the rest! 99% Austerity Baby, and good times for all! nt
adirondacker
Mar 2014
#303
Unless you explain how you get Lieberman to vote for it, you don't have a point.
jeff47
Mar 2014
#326
I read it. David Swanson did a lot of whining. The first person to respond at least had a solution
Sarah Ibarruri
Mar 2014
#383
I didn't see anything about a third party in that post. What I saw was accurate analysis
Zorra
Mar 2014
#389
I have noticed one thing about the anti-Obama, so-called libs. They sit on their fat asses and do
Sarah Ibarruri
Mar 2014
#403
That's Swanson's career. It's how he puts food on his table, how he buys his suits, how he pays for
Sarah Ibarruri
Mar 2014
#436
Start explaining how you would've gotten single-payer if you'd been president. I await impatiently
Sarah Ibarruri
Mar 2014
#379
C'mon...everyone knows Elizabeth Warren could have won in Arkansas...Alaska...Louisiana...Montana
brooklynite
Mar 2014
#405