First they came for single payer, and folks compromised

[The Straight Story]

Then they came for public option, and folks said 'ok, we can go without that and lower the buy in age for medicare', then they came for the lower buy in age and we thought 'well, we have to compromise to get this passed don't we?'.

And in the end we got what they wanted all along and the only real compromise was that we could say 'well, at least we passed some health care reform!'

If we had McCain/Palin we would not even have this much. We would still have the bank bailouts, war funding, DADT being law, but we would not have had the health care reform we wanted.

We got the choice, be screwed hard by one party, or be gently screwed by another.

Where is that party of the people I was longing for? Where is the party that was supposed to save jobs, people from losing their homes, people from not having a REAL choice in health care?

Somehow, I think the parties are both now the parties of the big money corporations.

Is there a difference in them? I used to think so, and in some ways I will say there is, but more and more I am seeing unions and avg folks like here on DU feeling alienated - and the main reason is how much $$$ we have.

Simply put - YOU and I don't matter anymore.

Because it is not about us and what we need or want, it is about what the people with money need or want.

Obama's first year? Banks got the money they needed to save them, Insurance companies got what they needed, military got what they needed and wanted - all with an intensity and speed of urgency. Wars and corporations got what they wanted/needed.

You and me? A bone.

[global1]

1. Don't Count Your Chickens - It Didn't Pass Yet - Still Got A Ways To Go.......

anything could still happen - most probably - more compromises.

[Jamastiene]

3. At this rate,

that just means it is going to get even worse before they pass it.

[Oregone]

2. What a debbie downer. A bone? WTF?

I got a $16 dollar blue-ray player on Black Friday




Well, not really, but you get the point.

[aquart]

4. WTF was gentle about this?

[libertypirate]

5. The DLC has become used to using us. /nt

[TreasonousBastard]

6. And your first misunderstanding is about just who wanted...

"single payer"?

200 million or so people in this country have what they think is perfectly adequate health insurance already. You would first have to convince them that another plan would be better for them-- and coming up with a plan that actually would be better for them would be a nice idea.

Where are you in this? Do you really know whether you'll be better or worse off under any of the plans that might actually become law, or are you and everyone else who are complaining just assuming that if you didn't get your way it has to be bad?

[sabrina 1]

7. Are you a friend of Rahm's or just another

condescending individual who assumes that the people are too stupid to know what's good for them?

How about you? How much do you know about this bill? What I do know is that the people will have no choice but to buy from a corrupt and immoral industry, an industry that has allowed American citizens to die, even when they were covered, to protect their bottom line. And I know that this bill, like Romney Care (he's a Republican in case you didn't know) will force the poor to buy premiums that will never be used by them because they will not be able to afford the co-pays.

I object on moral grounds to being forced to financially support a business that is corrupt and I want to have a choice, which I do now, not to do that. So right now, I am far better off than I will be when this Insurance Bail out passes.

You like the unconstitutional idea of forcing people to buy a product from a private industry? An industry that has given huge sums of money to the very people who are passing the law? If we were not a lawless country that allows torturers to go free and war criminals to go unpunished, (well, so long as they are wealthy and powerful) someone would be asking why such a blatant conflict of interest is being allowed in our Congress. What next, will Toyota pay to have laws passed to force us to buy THEIR products also? Would that be Constitutional?

I am not stupid enough to think it won't pass. It was bought and paid for and I doubt anyone is giving the money back now. Have you checked out how much Obama, Baucus, Lieberman et al got from the Health Care Industry to do this? Could any of them have passed a bill that would eat into their profits in any way, like expanding Medicare? Obviously not, because they didn't.

But the HMO's stocks were high this week as the bill was stripped of the PO and expanded Medicare. I'll say this for our Representatives. When you pay them well, they work hard for the money. Too bad the people can't afford their services.

[TreasonousBastard]

9. OK, I get it. Insurance companies are bad and we all should get...

healthcare for free without them.

That's pretty much what you're saying after cutting through all the rhetoric.

[sabrina 1]

10. You don't read very well either.

Healthcare for free without them? I certainly never said that. Again you assume people are stupid.

Healthcare a LOT CHEAPER and far more reliable without them, I have said that. It is not hard. They are, aside from being corrupt and willing to allow people to die, far too expensive to keep. We can't afford them. They eat up one third of all the money we have for health care, in profits.

And what do they give us in return that we can't get from the more reliable and ten times cheaper government run programs? Like Medicare, Medicaid, the VA system? We could improve those systems with all the money we are literally giving away to these middle men who are nothing but a burden on the health care system.

I do not want to contribute to keeping these people in their mansions. I would prefer to spend that money making sure that every single person, rich or poor, gets the SAME QUALITY health care, as any decent, humane society in the world already does.

This bill is discriminatory. It will give sub-standard, if any, care to the poor while the wealthy will be treated far differently. This is just not acceptable in a democracy, is it? It isn't in any of the other modern democracies. What's wrong with this country? Why would you support something like this? It's as if we are living in the dark ages compared to the rest of the civilized world. Wake up! Unless you are one of them, you are being conned. We all are.

[cabluedem]

12. Bingo. Not paying a dime for crapcare. Prison has full benefits and no work either. nt

[Username 12]

8. I'm gonna have a hard time supporting Obama in '12

Unless of course Mrs. Youbetcha! is the GOP nominee.

[cabluedem]

11. Voting third party in 12. Done with Obama.