"JULY 7, 2009 White House Open to Deal on Public Health Plan" LINK

[Blackhatjack]

Anyone think over 350 lobbyists for the healthcare insurance industry spending $1.4mil per day are having an effect on Capitol Hill?

When push comes to shove, $$ in politics calls the shots....

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124692407982802911.html#mod=rss_Politics_And_Policy

White House Open to Deal on Public Health Plan

"WASHINGTON -- It is more important that health-care legislation inject stiff competition among insurance plans than it is for Congress to create a pure government-run option, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said Monday.

"The goal is to have a means and a mechanism to keep the private insurers honest," he said in an interview. "The goal is non-negotiable; the path is" negotiable."

SKIP

"One of the most contentious issues is whether to create a public health-insurance plan to compete with private companies.

Mr. Emanuel said one of several ways to meet President Barack Obama's goals is a mechanism under which a public plan is introduced only if the marketplace fails to provide sufficient competition on its own. He noted that congressional Republicans crafted a similar trigger mechanism when they created a prescription-drug benefit for Medicare in 2003. In that case, private competition has been judged sufficient and the public option has never gone into effect.

Mr. Obama has pushed hard for a vigorous public option. But he has also said he won't draw a "line in the sand" over this point."

MORE

[global1]

1. Their Trigger Mechanism Just Shot The American People In The Back.......

I guess I expected more out of this White House. In my mind Emanuel doesn't speak for Obama - but I guess he does. Looks like he's working the back room and cutting the deals.

So giving the Dems the White House, The Senate with a 60 seat majority and The House really didn't resonate. I guess they didn't think we were serious that we wanted change. Come on - 72% of Americans are for a public plan. What does it take to get you guys to change things. You'll never get that kind of support again.

Yes We Can - Yes We Did - and No They Didn't Come Through for us.

Look's like it's 'Let's Make A Deal' time in D.C. and we got the clunker behind door number 3.

All I Wanna Say Is They Don't Really Care About Us - MJ 2009

Guess what though guys - you'll be hearing from us again in 2010 and 2012. We found out that we have the power to change things. Now that we've found out you won't come through for us - we'll just have to make more changes. If that means no second term - so be it.

I just got an e-mail today from the Democratic Party. President Obama will be in Chicago July 23 and for a $250 donation I can get a ticket to the event. I can't believe they have the gall to ask for more money when they didn't make good on the money we gave them to get them where they are today.

If I knew that the Dems were going to stand up to the Repugs and Big Insurance and Big Pharma - I would go. But now that they are going to cut a deal to water down even the public option - looks like I'll have to find another way to donate my money to effect change in the future.

I'm really disappointed.

[JDPriestly]

5. This administration does not seem to understand that it got into the White House

because, at a time of economic crisis, a lot of relatively poor people made big sacrifices to spend money and time on Obama's campaign.

Obama and Emmanuel had better listen up. They are beginning to look like a couple of swindlers. This is ridiculous. The proposed deal with the hospitals just establishes the status quo. Hospitals already provide enormous amounts of free services. This plan looks like it is no more than an excuse to cut back on Medicare benefits. This is bad news for those of us between 50 and death. Will this deal mean that we all live shorter lives for lack of medical care? The deal as I understand it will not improve Americans' healthcare. It will just force them to pay more for healthcare than ever before. Please tell me that the Obama administration is just a bad dream and that Kucinich will be inaugurated any day now.

[DURHAM D]

2. So nothing changes.

Why have political capital and why have the majority in the House and Senate and why hold the White House if you don't do anything with it? What's the damn point?

All of my life I have been a liberal Democrat. I have been a movement activist and have supported the Democratic Party and Democratic candidates with my time and money for over 45 years. I have provided housing for campaign staffers as well as providing office space, computers, cars and phones for 20 years. I have work for and donated to liberal causes since the 60s. I don't even remember how many times I have marched on Washington. I have taken time off from work and lobbied at both the state and federal level. In the 70s while living in the southwest I had attorneys from the ACLU and national officers working to pass the ERA living in my house for weeks/month. On two different occasion while they were working on a local case I had attorneys from the NGLTF living in my home for several weeks in the late 70s. I provided not just housing but food and transportation.

Why did I bother?

It didn't matter.

It was all for nothing.

I was a stupid fool.

[JDPriestly]

3. Who does Obama think the is fooling? Hospitals are required to

provide emergency care to whomever walks in the door and needs that care. Obama is trading his promise of health care for all for absolutely nothing. He needs to go back and practice law and learn to negotiated deals.

Hope? That seems to be all we get. Obama delivered the taxpayer money to Wall Street but is not delivering on the things voters want. How do we get this guy to lead instead of get lead around by his nose. This is ridiculous.

[Motown_Johnny]

4. This is how dumb I am.....

Silly me,


I assume that if we pass a single payer system (with our strong majority in The House and our super majority in The Senate) then the lobbyists would no longer have any power and we wouldn't have anything to worry about from them. How will they donate to our political adversaries when the companies they work for have just been circumvented with a government program.


Instead, we bow to them and allow them to retain their power.


I think I will go eat some paste now.

[Blackhatjack]

6. I believe Obama will push for a public option... but this is a reflection of reality on Capitol Hill

Until we get real campaign finance reform there won't be any real reform passing in Washington as long as lobbyists can spend $1.4mil a day, and the great majority of those lobbyists are former Hill staffers.

This is reality .... and it likely was decided before Obama was ever sworn in.

[global1]

7. K & R......nt

[nightrain]

8. this is politics at its worst. The corporate lobbyists have too much influence

and the Congresspeople and those in the White House are too susceptible to money.

We had hopes it could be different with Obama, but it looks like it's pretty much the same show with a few minor window-dressing changes.