Let's just call it "Moneycare", because that's what it is

[PurityOfEssence]

If the primary concern was the people's well-being, the bill would make sure EVERYBODY was covered. That's just for starters.

The intent is clear: sustaining Medicine Incorporated is necessary before addressing the fundamental needs of the unfortunate.

Perhaps he truly believes that unrestrained profiteering is the ONLY way anything can be done in civilization, but whether he believes that or that the power-blocs are simply too powerful to be outmaneuvered, the result is the same: neo-feudalism with guaranteed riches for the already-rich.

There was no fight here. The pathetic opening steps basically gave up anything meaningful, and the president hid cynically behind Congress and blithely distanced himself from any responsibility for the flaccid attempts made. He risked NOTHING. He stood poised to claim victory and will do so regardless of the true fallout. As always, he played both sides of the street and his stalwarts defended him against all reality. Their ranks have thinned drastically, though, and the goodwill is basically gone.

Everybody's friend, is, in the end, nobody's. All things to all people ain't nothin' to nobody.

This last election was not a movement, it was an enthusiasm in an individual, and people are getting deeply disillusioned. It will get worse. I and others feel for them, but when the bullies who hectored and attempted to crush those of us who had misgivings about this Pied Piper start posting with snivelings about feeling betrayed, empathy may be quashed by disgust.

On the bright side, some will benefit, and the boondoggle will necessitate more change. Perhaps someone with a spine who's not part of the coterie of comfort will step forward and fill this need, but even if he/she doesn't, enough individuals will band together to force something through eventually. This simply can't be sustained.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[QC]

2. KICK!

[Armstead]

3. Shhhhhh. We're supposed to be cheerleaders now

THis is a great bill. It will help people. If you don't like this bill you want people to die.

Insurance companies are benevolent. We just have to ask them to be nice and they will respond.

You must be realistic. The Democrats cannot accomplish anything, so we must settle for symbolic victories. .

Stop being a whining liberal. Stop being an ideologue.

Think Pink Fluffy Bunnies.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[PBS Poll-435]

5. !

OMFG!!!

[Forkboy]

6. Keep your private life out of this.

What you do in your own home with your own friends is your business, but we don't need to know about it.

[lunatica]

7. The source of my disappointment is that there was no fight from the beginning

I have been dismissed and attacked and accused of being a 'quitter' like Sarah Palin because I said my disappointment was with the lack of fight for us in Obama. He did capitulate by going 100% DLC and taking universal care off the table from the beginning with what can only be a pretense of bipartisan concessions. We have seen it develop into an obvious pattern in spite of the wish to make him a hero for our side.

Obama is a Centrist. A true DLC member and as such he may be quite successful, but those of us who knew there was an opportunity to go left in a truly meaningful way know he has no intention of creating anything knew. He just wants to be the more benign protector of the status quo where there are those at the top with all the power and those at the bottom who get to concede their needs and rights for the rulers. Humanity is still constructed in a pyramid shape where the masses are at the bottom holding up the few at the top with our labor. And the few at the top are those who God has favored with their birthright.

In his eyes it seems he must preserve Empire. Our Superpower status must be maintained at all cost, because to be merely an equal in the world is unthinkable and below our birthright and destiny. The crap goes on as if it's gospel spoken from the very lips of God Almighty.

edited for spelling

[PurityOfEssence]

8. Well, if it helps any, you're not alone

When he first actively courted evangelicals for his presidential bid in '06, my crap-o-meter red-lined, and with the sheer ugliness of the 40 days of Faith and Family frenzy he whipped up in South Carolina to slam Hillary Clinton, I simply couldn't look with any trust. The habitual cozying up with power and slippery both-sides-now bent to be everybody's friend and the embodiment of all hopes and dreams has long since sent me reeling.

He is a campaigner, not a leader. The parallels with Bill Clinton are stark and across-the-board, and even accepting how chronically veracity-challenged Clinton is, I believe him MUCH more than our I do our current president. They both need to be loved by everyone, and this is a hamstringing flaw for a leader to have.

There's only really one question of any interest here: is Obama playing up to entrenched privilege because he sees no other course, or is he truly one of them? Does he REALLY believe that unrestrained private enterprise--even in the extreme version of neo-feudalism into which we've morphed--is NECESSARY, or is it just expediency to attain and hold power. I see no evidence whatsoever to support the legions of Barackolytes who claim that this is all just some super-genius chess playing, after which he'll pop into a phone booth, change into his super-decency-man tights and fight the good fight for the first time in his career. None. His career has been one of accommodation and deft maneuvering for position; there's no evidence that he'll cash in these cards and do something unpopular because it's "good". Why people still believe this fantasy is astonishing, but we're seeing more and more drop by the wayside.

Being proud that 90% of the stimulus money is going through private enterprise proves quite conclusively that he's either a corporatist to the marrow or so cowed by the reactionaries that he will do nothing that doesn't first buttress the elites of private enterprise. Regardless, the result is the same.

Nope, don't much matter none at all...

[TexasObserver]

9. Wall Street and the big banks got their bailouts. Now health insurers get theirs.

Free money to the people at the top.

Trickle down, don't ya know?