I Love Barack Obama, but I Must Respectfully Disagree

[louis c]

I love the President. My union office has two pictures of the President and an election poster. I'm proud I supported him and I'm ecstatic that he has won. I will continue to support him for re-election and I always answer "strongly support" to any poll.

I also understand the art of negotiating. It is difficult, especially when your opposition is trying to defeat you rather than find a compromise.

Having said all of that, it's time to give up the attempt to have health care reform for the time being. I agree with Howard Dean, this bill is awful. We can not afford to be taxed on our health care premiums. It will discourage employer participation. "The Cadillac plans" are far from that. They are expensive because of the high risk, low participation pools. I know, I'm in one. $24,000 a year for a half-assed family plan with high deductibles and moderate co-pays, and we're lucky to be in one. A 50%-50% split between employee and employer. Thats about $240 a week on a $600 a week employee with the employer kicking in another $240 a week. And you want to tax them and the employer?

We need a single payer plan or at least a public option. We need to get into a pool of 44 million people, not 44 older and sicker individuals. we need some subsidies and the employer needs tax breaks to help carry the load. We need to remove the anti-trust exemption on insurance and pharmaceutical companies, not under wright them. We need to cap their profits and regulate then like a utility.

If we can't do most of that, then just strip them of their ant-trust exemption and call it a day. If you add some regulation and cap their profits, all the better.

The Insurance companies are not the solution, they're the problem.

I love you Barack, but it's time to pull the plug. You have compromised to the point that the bill is now worse than the status quo.

Retreat and punish, that's my suggestion.

[FiveGoodMen]

1. "I also understand the art of negotiating"

If negotiating is the art of getting at least some of what you want, then don't start by saying, 'I will give you anything you want and demand nothing in return.'

Or, as you put it, 'I will continue to support him for re-election and I always answer "strongly support" to any poll.'

[louis c]

2. I understand politics.

This is the best president we're getting from the perspective of the left.

If we pressure just a handful of Democrats, the bill will die.

That doesn't mean the President sucks, it means the bill sucks.

I remember when I was just 16 years old and opposed the Viet-Nam War. After the 1968 Democratic Convention everyone stood against Humphrey and the Status Quo. We got Nixon and the rest is history. I will never make that mistake again. I will never make the perfect the enemy of the good.

I just want a good health care bill or none. I don't want a Republican president, and that's what we'll get if we divide our ranks.

[FiveGoodMen]

3. "I don't want a Republican president, and that's what we'll get"

That's what you've already got.

You just haven't noticed yet.

[louis c]

8. Come on, what are you kidding me?

Tax cuts for the middle class. Extended unemployment benefits, spending on civic projects. a liberal Supreme court Justice. Stem Cell research. increase spending on education. A jobs bill.

Give him a chance. If we can get the support of the Dem's in congress, we'll be all right.

i lived through "real republicans" and I'll tell you, a bad Democrat is better than a good Republican, just because he or she is at least trying to the right thing. Reagan was a Good Republican and accomplished everything he set out to do and he fucked the working class to the point where we may never recover. Carter was a bad Democrat because he failed to fulfill his agenda, but at least his heart was in the right place.

[JuniperLea]

5. Remind "ignored" that the president didn't write the bill...

and isn't voting on the bill... he's not in Congress... :eyes:

[David Zephyr]

4. One of the interns at our company, only 16, said today:

"People had too much faith in Obama."

I overheard that and I thought, how sad is that?

[JuniperLea]

6. More like projected too many expectations...

He's not in Congress. He didn't write the bill... he's been trying to twist arms, but that's about as far as he can go.

[David Zephyr]

7. He twisted arms to kill the re-importation of meds from Canada.

Something he promised to do.

That sort of arm twisting is unforgivable.

[louis c]

9. That's one I don't get.