Media declared PO dead for weeks, now asking if no PO is a Gift to Insurance Cos?

[FrenchieCat]

Strange...this Media turn around.
Now, they like the PO!

So let me see if I understand.....
for months, they were actively working against the PO.
Now that they helped get the PO out,
they are saying that without the PO, bill is a gift to Insurance Companies.

Since the media is now asking the question about this "gift",
my suspicion is that it isn't such a gift after all.
Cause whatever the media says,
think opposite!

[Larkspur]

1. Ed Shultz and Keith Olbermann have said so

[gardenista]

2. Wow, most of the same talking points we're getting here...

Strange indeed...

It IS opposite day!

[T Wolf]

3. My interpretation is that they killed the PO because it actually would have helped people.

Now that the bill is going to pass, without the public option, they are free to rant about this now-good thing being dropped.

And guess who will benefit electorally from Idiot America now thinking that this "good thing" was kept out of the DEMOCRATIC bill?

[Dr Fate]

5. +1 n/t

n/t

[FrenchieCat]

8. I think now, they are doing what they can to skuttle Democrats

so that there is still a problem with passing a bill.

So, no....I don't think that the MSM is free to do anything.

[Dr Fate]

4. I'll be sure to tell all the swing-voters I know about this.

Maybe they will support mandates after all this sinks in.

[Hello_Kitty]

31. The cheerleaders have such STELLAR talking points, don't they?

The other day a DUer told another DUer who complained she and her husband would not be able to afford the $700 a month that their mandatory premiums would be. He responded with, "Sometimes people have to rearrange their priorities." I'm sure that's going to go over so well with millions of middle class people who are going to be hit with a big mandatory insurance premium or paying taxes on the plan they have now.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

6. I think you figured it out

THE PUBLIC OPTION REALLY SUCKS!!!! I guess if it makes you feel better about this shit bill, keep telling yourself that.

[FrenchieCat]

7. this "shit" bill still helps more people than you can count......

[Dr Fate]

9. Cool- hopefully we can get all those people to be the new, loyal DEM activists.

The people who the bill helps should be the people who support DEMS the most.

For the sake of DEM elections, I hope they make great canvassers, campaigners, etc.

[FrenchieCat]

11. It helps the downtrotten the most......

whether they are the voters to be targeted or not,
it is the right thing to do.

[Dr Fate]

12. Helping middle class voters/activists with costs & competition is the right thing to do as well.

As I said- DEMS should just recruit all the people who love the bill to be DEM activists/advocates, and then there is nothing to even argue about.

[FrenchieCat]

13. Middle Class voters will see their premiums go down,

the deficit go down, and pre-existing conditions covered.

The bill is still not yet done,
but I do not believe that it will "hurt"
like folks have been saying it would.

In addition, I see this bill being tweaked via the budget reconciliation process
when the 2011 budget is passed.

Furthermore....
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=433&topic_id=80261&mesg_id=80261


I think considering,
we've done better for ourselves than I would have thought.

[Dr Fate]

22. I hope it is as popular in 2010 with hard working activists as you say it will be.

If we end up with a bill that is as wonderful as you say, then no need to worry about a progressive backlash-no need to waste our time convincing those pony-wishing cry-babies of anything.

In 2010, the DNC, DCCC, etc can just recruit impoverished & centrist activists & donors that seem to like the bill.

[Hello_Kitty]

32. No, some working and middle class "families" will see their premiums go down.

Families with children are only 27% of US households yet it is always the "family of four" that is used to illustrate how great HCR is. You'll never see a chart illustrating what single adults, DINKs, or gay and unmarried straight couples will be paying. Because those people would be furious.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

39. by mandates and no apparant cost containment

thanks santa.

[Yuugal]

28. Don't count on it

People like me who have kids on Schip are going to be totally screwed. I guess the dlc thinks I have 7k a year extra to blow on healthcare but we don't and now my kids will have to go without. Schip has no copay, no deductible and costs me nothing for my kids.

http://news.firedoglake.com/2009/11/05/does-the-house-health-care-bill-eliminate-schip/

[Dr Fate]

34. Hopefully some clear-eyed centrist with extra money & time on his hands will take your place.

I for one do not see why centrists, Blue Dogs & conservatie DEMS are so worried about all those crazy Liberals not being active in 2010 or 2012- all they need to do is replace the DEM base with good, loyal centrists who like this bill.

Considering how wonderful they say the bill is, this shouldnt be a problem.

If this really is a "center right" country like the centrists tell us, then they wont have any trouble finding center-right activists to be the new, loyal DEM base.

[Yuugal]

36. Thanks for the belly laugh :)

My blood pressure went down a little and I needed that. What makes me sick is all the shills all over this site that never once have answered my question about why poor kids need to lose their healthcare and have it replaced with forced payments to ins companies which will negate the possibility of them being able to goto the doctor.

[freddie mertz]

42. Then the Washington Dems can betray them too.

And the cycle will continue.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

15. I am laughing inside at the fact that you really think that

since the MSM is now championing the PO then it has to be a negative.

It couldnt be that the villagers put their fingers in the wind and which ever way the "conventional wisdom" wind blows, they shout it from the high heavens. I am surprised that someone who has the amount of DU posts as you dont understand this.

[FrenchieCat]

17. You can laugh all you want.

but it ain't funny.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

18. Even a shit bill will cover 30 million more people

The insurance industry consider that a win.

[Yuugal]

29. My kids will be losing their coverage

http://news.firedoglake.com/2009/11/05/does-the-house-health-care-bill-eliminate-schip/

"The Congressional Budget Office has been very clear that replacing CHIP with private health coverage will lead some children to lose their health coverage altogether, which is harmful and intolerable. Health care reform should improve the coverage children have – not take their coverage away."

[Kokonoe]

10. If 30 democrats vote No, then 30 Republicans will jump to vote Yes.

The trick is passing it as the democrats plan.

[high density]

14. Sunday morning it was full on pro-public option media mode

Even Joe Scarborough was telling us how great a public option would have been.

[FrenchieCat]

16. That is how they do it.

[rudy23]

19. Now that the PO is dead, they can act fair and balanced about it.

Two months ago, not a chance in hell.

[FrenchieCat]

23. They are looking for anyway to discredit the bill,

and build as much resentment against it as possible.

They are still on a mission, and it is to do what they can
not to pass HCR, period.

General election has more at stake in this,
than do the other giant corporate interest
who have bought and paid our News media.


G.E. to Focus on Energy and Health Care
Published: December 16, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/business/16electric.html

[mzmolly]

20. The funniest moment for me was when the Republican house leader said

it was a gift to insurance companies. I laughed ... out loud.

[FrenchieCat]

27. Yep......

that's why I question the giftiness of such.

[freddie mertz]

21. PO was "resurrected" by the "left-baggers" (ie, the people you constantly attack)

Who applied pressure to Congress and the Senate through e-mails and phone-calls.

We were at it for weeks, while some here told us to settle down and stop complaining.

This is well known.

[FrenchieCat]

24. I have applied pressure to Congress and the senate through

my emails and phone-calls....
as well, I have dogged out the media and called them out on their
interference and manipulation of the public almost everyday.

This is well known.

[freddie mertz]

25. Then good for you, FC.

I wish you would make more common cause with us here, but that is your call.

[FrenchieCat]

26. Brother, I've been making a difference on common causes

in the world at large since 2000.

right here at DU since 2003!

Don't know about what you've been doing though,
cause it appears that you showed up here way after the last election!

[freddie mertz]

40. I have a 38 year political record.

The form you see here is only a relatively recent manifestation.

[Hello_Kitty]

33. And it's thanks to us that some even worse things that were going to be in the bill didn't make it

Even Nate Silver had to grudgingly give the liberal base credit for the Manager's Amendment, though he called us "batshit crazy" just a few days before.

[FrenchieCat]

35. I agree.

My point is about the media.....
not folks here.

In addition, my point is that many of us who supported passing something,
still did what we needed to do in stating what we wanted and didn't want
en masse.

I'm not sure why you want to give Kill Bill folks more credit for the bill now,
than those of us who stuck in there, calling our congresscritters,
and telling them what we wanted and didn't want.

Constructive action is what moved this bill,
in the best way it could be moved based on the circumstances.

But whether the doomsdayers did as much as you appear to give them credit for,
is an open question.

[Hello_Kitty]

37. You really think Howard Dean and the netroots didn't have a lot to do with it?

Really?

[freddie mertz]

41. They call us "doomsayers" because we insisted on principles that pres himself

Claimed HAD to be in the final bill.

We supported the president more strongly and forthrightly than the president himself was willing to do.

[27inCali]

30. you and me both

sitting there shaking our heads at how badly the corporate powers underestimate our intelligence -or overestimate our apathy.

[uponit7771]

38. I pray they throw in the pubOption with reconciliation!!! That would just make my day