"White House as Helpless Victim on Health Care" by Glenn Greenwald

[StarfarerBill]

"Of all the posts I wrote this year, the one that produced the most vociferious email backlash -- easily -- was this one from August, which examined substantial evidence showing that, contrary to Obama's occasional public statements in support of a public option, the White House clearly intended from the start that the final health care reform bill would contain no such provision and was actively and privately participating in efforts to shape a final bill without it. From the start, assuaging the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries was a central preoccupation of the White House -- hence the deal negotiated in strict secrecy with Pharma to ban bulk price negotiations and drug reimportation, a blatant violation of both Obama's campaign positions on those issues and his promise to conduct all negotiations out in the open (on C-SPAN). Indeed, Democrats led the way yesterday in killing drug re-importation, which they endlessly claimed to support back when they couldn't pass it. The administration wants not only to prevent industry money from funding an anti-health-care-reform campaign, but also wants to ensure that the Democratic Party -- rather than the GOP -- will continue to be the prime recipient of industry largesse."

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/12/16-2

[polichick]

1. My question remains: Is Obama a willing corporate water carrier, or...

...simply naive/arrogant about his own powers to convince corporate criminals to help out?

[KoKo]

3. asked myself that too many times to count.

I thought when he bailed banks out and put Bernanke and Geithner in charge that he would call in the favors he did for them. When he didn't push regulation reforms...I wondered why. But, I thought when he started health care reform he'd get a winner since he'd already helped out big business. What I didn't think of was that since he bailed out big business then Big Pharma thought they were owed the same treatment and he caved into them.

He's either an Empty Suit or has realized the Powers that Be control it all and he's just a figurehead. Both of those thoughts are frightening. Perhaps there's some middle way, we just don't know about...but I sure can't figure out about what it might be.

[polichick]

4. I've felt the same way - banks, healthcare industry, and lately the...

...military industrial complex. What will happen with global warming initiatives?!

[DJ13]

2. Right on the money

described perfectly by Digby:

Obama can say that you're getting a lot, but also saying that it "covers everyone," as if there's a big new benefit is a big stretch. Nothing will have changed on that count except changing the law to force people to buy private insurance if they don't get it from their employer. I guess you can call that progressive, but that doesn't make it so. In fact, mandating that all people pay money to a private interest isn't even conservative, free market or otherwise. It's some kind of weird corporatism that's very hard to square with the common good philosophy that Democrats supposedly espouse.