Olbermann SPECIAL COMMENT on Medicare: 'Social Safety Net is This Country's Greatest Accomplishment'

[Hissyspit]

Run time: 05:34 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6BVvRwRYbg   Posted on YouTube: July 12, 2011 By YouTube Member: MiniRtist Views on YouTube: 13   Posted on DU: July 12, 2011 By DU Member: Hissyspit Views on DU: 7270

 
CURRENT TV Countdown w/ KEITH OLBERMANN - 11 July 2011:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/11/993474/-Special-Comment:-The-Nations-Purpose?via=siderec

MON JUL 11, 2011 AT 03:05 PM PDT
Special Comment: The Nation's Purpose

by Keith Olbermann

- snip -

In fact, defending the people of a nation is, at its heart, about keeping them alive and, in whatever economic system they find themselves, at least afloat. It is not only the primary responsibility of any government, but it is also the only true rationalization for any government.

- snip -

And that is why the social safety net that this country has stitched together, piece by iece, over 75 years, against the unceasing protests of the greedy and the ensconced and the divisive and the xenophobic, that is why the social safety net is this country's greatest accomplishment, and the greatest evidence that every once in awhile "American Exceptionalism" is based not in flag-waving but in reality.

This is not a Comment going into intricate, Krugmanesque analysis of the impact of the proposed "trimming" of Social Security on those who are now 70 but will later be 95 (valuable though that is). Although Sam Stein's chilling report about a possible increase in the minimum age for Medicare eligibility is a component, this is about what we are supposed to be doing, and what a President - a President of a government (to turn to a cliche in hopes that its real meaning will fight its way to the surface) of the people, by the people - is supposed to be doing.

This is addressed to President Obama directly:

And if this deal with the Republicans takes a dollar away from those people who do not have a dollar to spare, while preserving the millions for those who have millions more if this deal keeps intact funding the mechanisms we have for killing people while cutting the mechanisms we have for keeping people alive and healthy, then it is a betrayal of everything that makes this country great.

This is, obviously, something that should be in the hearts of all of us, all the time. Just as obviously, it is not, and I feel it is the time it be said, loudly and clearly. It is also obviously more than a mere American issue. This is about the world, and our species.

MORE

[Larkspur]

1. Another great Special Comment by Keith

I'm disappointed in Obama. Betraying working Americans over SS and Medicare in order to get the Rethugicans to like him, has become nauseating to watch. I pray that the Senate and Congressional Dems will reject Obama's proposed cuts to SS and Medicare and even to medicaid.

[chervilant]

12. If

Mr. Obama is complicit in cutting SS, Medicare, and Medicaid, he will kill me and others like me as SURELY as if he put a knife through our hearts.

[MsPithy]

2. Amen!

That's it. Amen!

[proverbialwisdom]

3. Thank you for the post. I can't wait to watch the video.

[Ruby the Liberal]

4. Brilliant! k&r

:applause:

[dennis4868]

5. this is too funny...

Anyone see Lawrence O'Donnell tonight...Obama is playing a freakin game of chess with the repubs and he's kicking their ass! He put SS and Medicare on the table for a debt cutting plan he knew the repubs could not agree too (because of tax revenues) and now the repubs look pretty bad (walking away from a $4 trilliuon debt cutting plan). DO YOU PEOPLE NOT GET THIS? The media, especially the PL, need to learn that Obama is a long game guy, doesn't care about the short game wins. Olbermann is one of these people and he gets all hyped for nothing...VERY FUNNY!

[sabrina 1]

8. I wonder what Laurence O'Donnell was drinking tonight?

Who cares 'what the Republicans look like'?? What is this, a beauty contest? Game playing is not necessary. He's the president. Let them threaten to allow the country to default, they WON'T do it in the end. It's all a game in which they play, willingly, the bad cops while he expects us to believe that he has to bargain away more of the social safety net for the least among us. Who DO they think they are kidding.

We get it alright. We got it when we heard he was 'playing the long game' on the PO and Offshore Drilling and Mandated Insurance and so many other major issues.

Maybe if he hears from enough people like Keith, he'll begin to understand that his duty is to the American people, NOT to his friends on Wall St. who have contributed NOTHING but grief to this country for decades now. Or maybe not.

If he needs their money to get himself elected, it will only be because he did not stand up for those elected him and I hope they are ready to spend a lot. But if he had fought for the people who elected him last time, he would have won without needing their billions this time.

[truth2power]

26. I always appreciate your posts, Sabrina. You are one of those who sees

through all the muck and madness to what's really going on.

Terrible things are going on in this country, and Obama is right in the thick of it. 10th dimensional chess, indeed!! :(

[sabrina 1]

37. Hi truth2power.

Terrible things are going on in this country, I definitely agree with you.

[JDPriestly]

10. I get that Obama offered us seniors and those a few younger

than us so that he could make political points with Republicans and the younger generation.

I don't think it will work. A lot of young people are having to deal with unemployed parents in their 50s -- and the impossibility of finding a job for themselves.

I know one out-of-work and struggling couple who threw their out-of-work son out of the house. That is tragic. I guess they lost their patience. Their frustration took over. Poor couple. Poor kid. And they are not unique.

Obama is dividing the country. He tries so hard to be a uniter that he is actually achieving the opposite.

Big mistake, Obama. Young people know that when elderly people suffer, young people suffer too.

[Liberalynn]

21. exactly

if the Medicare/SS age gets raised that is less jobs opening up for younger people too, because the older ones will have to hang onto their jobs longer. That's even if their empolyers will let them stay on. Many employers practice defacto age discrimination to try and get younger less experienced people in who they can pay less.

And as you pointed out J.D. The financial burden of caring for their parents will fall on the younger members of society anyway with no place to turn for, for help.

Some People never look at the bigger picture and the unintended consequences of their actions.

[Hydra]

39. He isn't scoring points with this "Young person"

Everything they take from "somebody else" is also taking from me, whether today or tomorrow. Everything they destroy, like the Gulf of Mexico, stays destroyed for my entire life. Every right they strip from the constitution is one more we'll never see again.

He isn't offering the younger generation anything...and the Republicans would happily destroy the entire world for a dollar.

[L0oniX]

50. Mean while I will have to sacrifice myself on the alter of the greedy savage f*ckers.

[chervilant]

13. OMG!

I find NOTHING amusing about this.

[neoralme]

14. You have a real strange perception of what is funny. Republicans, of

which Obama is one, do not not look bad to their corporate string pullers. They look bad to Democrats who may well mount an email attack to Bernie Sanders to show their rage.... Olbermann knows exactly what Obama is doing, and it is not remotely what you seem to think he is doing.

[Lucinda]

15. IF that is what he is doing I find nothing funny about it.

He is stressing out many people, the elderly and disabled for example, who don't need this kind of worry.

[jtown1123]

23. You're way off.

Obama is what he is. He's not some magical wizard. He wants to trim these programs and has since he took office.

[slay]

24. We don't need some joker playing games - we need a LEADER - yes I saw Lawrence - and he's full of it

Lawrence is a Clinton insider who peddles propaganda for establishment Dems. He also thinks Paw-len-tay is gonna be the GOP nominee. That's why I watch Keith - I just happened to be visiting my dad who was watching O'Donnell last night.

[jtown1123]

25. Yep. Many people forget a lot of these media types are shills for the DEMs

[roxiejules]

30. If this is only a clever game of chess....

then I don't understand why he is also dismantling our Public schools (inlcuding appointing the person who is making sure it is done), not supporting the Unions....and has appointed the same people who created the Great Bank Robbery to manage the store.

[Fearless]

46. People's lives are not bargaining chips.

[Hubert Flottz]

6. I couldn't agree more with KO on this one.

Using seniors future for political bait should cost anyone who does it dearly.

[Citizen Worker]

7. And it will cost Obama dearly.

[JDPriestly]

9. Excellent.

Keith and Current need to have a better, easier link from Google.

I try to Google Keith's show and I can't find it. I'm not very proficient at using the internet so it is my fault. But then there are a lot of Americans like me who can just use e-mail and Google and a few other on-line programs, but aren't very efficient here.

I wish I could just Google Keith Olbermann and get to his show, not to a lot of boring articles about his show.

[Lucinda]

16. This is one source to watch the program:

http://www.justin.tv/crrnttv#/w/1459649744/3
They play the Current channel programming. I think Countdown repeats several times a day.

[JDPriestly]

35. Thanks.

[tavalon]

11. Well spoken

And I am glad that, on our side, we are not blindly loyal when that loyalty is to something so wrong as tearing at the social safety net.

Thank you, Keith Olbermann. I believe you to be a good man. I believed President Obama to be a good man, too, but my confidence in that assessment is shaken.

[neoralme]

18. I am glad you finally understand what is happening. When you

start putting it all together, you may well come to understand the the massive fraud perpetrated on Democrats in 2008. It will be up to us to save the Party because what Obama is now doing will be as lethal to it as rat poison is to humans.

[Lucinda]

17. Thanks for this!

:hi:

[me b zola]

19. K&R

[Liberalynn]

20. This man gets it

He never ceases to amaze me, how well he gets it. Thanks for posting this.

[wysimdnwyg]

22. Keith's most powerful SC in quite a while

Towards the end of Keith's tenure on that other channel, his Comments became routine and ordinary. They had lost the punch that drove them early on when he was doing one or two a year. This one brought it all back. Screw NBC, THIS is "must see TV".

[slay]

27. Very, very, very powerful - the best thing I've seen on TV in quite a while.

Obama needs to watch this 24/7 until it sinks in!!!!

[2Design]

28. terrific and so glad Al Gore is behind this man and alan grayson running again

[Hubert Flottz]

29. Kick

:kick:

[dogindia]

31. k and massive r...n/t

[backtomn]

32. Important, YES....but, MOST important ???

I would say that being the first free country (not completely controlled by royalty) and our protection of minorities and minority views are just a bit more important......some of the rest of the Bill of Rights might fit in here somewhere. Also, had we not grown to a more wealthy country, like most in the world, that safety net might not look like much. Hyperbole aside, I would still say that our safety net is important.

[florida08]

33. glad you posted this

"for your presidency sir is not important except for the impact it has on other lives"

[YvonneCa]

34. WONDERFUL Special Comment! Everyone should see this...

...http://current.com/shows/countdown/videos/dont-cut-care-mr-president-pt-1

[DeSwiss]

36. K&R n/t

[Major Hogwash]

38. Correction : WAS this country's greatest accomplishment.

They'll tear it apart right after they modify it.

[myrna minx]

40. K&R n/t

[ck4829]

41. K&R

[Swampguana]

42. that was powerful

[WillyT]

43. HUGE K & R !!! - Thank You !!!

:kick:

[rbnyc]

44. K & R

I'm there.

[Whisp]

45. to me Keith always seems like he's auditioning for a movie part..

I just am not that into him at all.

anyway, carry on

[humblebum]

47. When all the jobs are gone for the middle class and

there is very little money being made in this country, hence less tax revenue, where is the money for the social safety net going to come from? BRING BACK THE JOBS! It is all about jobs.

[dflprincess]

48. And the sad thing is, even at it's strongest, the social safety net

in the U.S. has always been pretty pathetic when compared to the safety nets in other countries.

And now a "Democratic" wants to make it worse.

[L0oniX]

49. K & R ...I f*cking hate this f*cking @$#%*^&!