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Bill Moyers message for Obama re: health reform — Brooklynian

Bill Moyers message for Obama re: health reform

jeffrey
jeffrey
edited November -1 in The Lounge / Random Stuff
As attempts for bipartisanship have pretty much run their course (met with little else but hostility and sabotage and the usual misdirection from the right), Bill Moyers had these thoughts on this evening's show for President Obama on the subject of health reform, do or die:





Food for thought.
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Comments

  • antigone
    antigone
    Awesome. Thanks for posting. I love Bill Moyers. He hits the nail on the head. Wasn't it PT Barnum that said nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people?

    I wish Obama would grow a pair, but I never thought he was a fighter. I'm disgusted but not at all surprised at the way things are panning out. Change you can believe in - huh.
  • idlewild
    idlewild
    Ditto! However, I feel I must point a fallacy out. One of the gentleman who arrived at a healthcare/town hall meeting was black. One of the biggest media myths is that these militias are white supremacists. You will find quite a few militia groups, such as the Michigan Militia, are all inclusive. Being anti-Obama and a gun nut isn't reserved for whites only as the media will have you believe.
  • modsquad
    modsquad
    Typical of Moyers to backpedal from what he said on Maher's. I think he blamed the spineless Democrats for not passing healthcare reform. Obviously he got a landslide of emails criticizing his stance. At least he has come back to the fold, Democrats as eternal victims of a vast right wing nut case circus. No mention of the fact that most people are happy with their health care and a lot of moderate Democrats are thinking about being reelected in 2010.
  • carnivore
    carnivore
    modsquad wrote: No mention of the fact that most people are happy with their health care...
    Perhaps until they get sick.
  • jeffrey
    jeffrey
    modsquad wrote: Typical of Moyers to backpedal from what he said on Maher's. I think he blamed the spineless Democrats for not passing healthcare reform. Obviously he got a landslide of emails criticizing his stance.
    I didn't see it as backpedaling.

    There's a significant number of Democrats out there that believe the same, that he needs to stop being nice and just grow a pair, give his fellow party members on the Hill (and out there on Main Street) some spine for a change.

    Specific to these issues, just for starters, he's under fire all over the place in Democrat circles for signing that deal under the table with the pharma companies and making huge concessions to the insurance lobby when he campaigned and built public support on the idea of reform in these very areas.

    So from what I've heard, there are a lot of Democrats out there (just like Moyers) that blame the spineless Democrats (on the Hill) for not passing healthcare reform. Good for them, that's exactly the issue here.

    But yeah, if all they do is cower to lobbyist pressure by watering it down and negotiating core pillars of it away -- and then try to blame their backslide *entirely* on the misdirection and untruths coming out of the Republican party -- then yes, Democrats will only have themselves to blame, and they will be reduced to nothing but a bunch of whiners worried about their own re-election.

    They had strong momentum with these issues going through the election.

    They now finally have a majority in both houses of Congress, mostly due to this agenda put forth during the last elections cycle.

    They should be controlling this dialogue, and switch it to a monologue if need be, to get it passed.

    In retrospect it seems that all this bipartisan stuff has been time completely wasted, stalling the deal, as Republicans (in the minority) merely used it to buy time to let the most affluent and powerful among them mount baseless and distracting flank attacks, orchestrating campaigns pretending to be grass-roots and speaking as the common citizen.

    The other side didn't bother with it for many of the things passed when the tables were turned, and that's how that side got their agenda passed.

    ***edited to fix typos and to add:

    Drats. Heading out of town for the day, will pick this up with y'all later tonight.

    *tosses grenade and runs (ha)
  • antigone
    antigone
    Amen to everything Jeffrey said.

    If not now, when? Obama was elected - I won't say in a landslide, but by a decisive majority. His platform was "change you can believe in" (although I always thought his commitment to healthcare was a bit suspect, compared to other candidates). Dems have a majority in Congress - why the hell are they letting Republicans frame the argument?

    I've gotta go along with Bill Hicks here: “I'll show you politics in America. Here it is, right here. 'I think the puppet on the right shares my beliefs.' 'I think the puppet on the left is more to my liking.' 'Hey, wait a minute, there's one guy holding out both puppets!'”
  • doctorj
    doctorj
    Carnivore wrote: [quote=modsquad]No mention of the fact that most people are happy with their health care...
    Perhaps until they get sick.

    Exactly. I was reasonably happy with my top-shelf insurance until I tried to use it one time on doctors' advice.

    And that 68% needs to be compared with the 90+% in countries with some sort of universal coverage, and the 80+% who are happy with Medicare or VHA.
  • pokersloper
    pokersloper
    A democratic White House, a democratic house, and a democratic senate and Obama can't sell it. Reporters can't blame Bush anymore, and they haven't learned how to blame Obama yet, it is like watching my nephew learn to walk. I am going to make some popcorn and kick back.

    image

    I fear I might need a bigger bowl though, this could be a long four years.
  • danielle123
    danielle123
    Thanks for posting, Jeffrey.
  • boygabriel
    boygabriel
    modsquad wrote: No mention of the fact that most people are happy with their health care
    My guess is that none of these people know what rescission is.
  • pokersloper
    pokersloper
    I found a bigger bowl.
    image
  • flo
    flo
    [quote=pokersloper]I found a bigger bowl.
    image

    Bowls are round. I bet even your nephew knows that. Go smoke another one.
  • pokersloper
    pokersloper
    Well, I don't smoke, but four more years of Obama care, and I might have to start :)
  • rosweed
    rosweed
    Got a question about universal health care? Ask me. I'm a Canadian. Happy to have a great paying American job. Happy to have dual citizenship so when I get sick (and we will all get sick) I can move back to Canada and have health care. I will not end up homeless or bankrupt or both because I am an American. I'm an Ameradian or a Camerican. Aren't you jealous?
  • pokersloper
    pokersloper
    I work for the schools. I have union health care. When the world ends, when it is only darkness, there will be cockroaches and union cards left standing. My union card beats your Canada card.
  • rosweed
    rosweed
    Okay, sure. You believe that.
  • pokersloper
    pokersloper
    image
  • doctorj
    doctorj
    pokersloper wrote: I work for the schools. I have union health care. When the world ends, when it is only darkness, there will be cockroaches and union cards left standing. My union card beats your Canada card.
    Does your union health care cover yourself, your partner, your children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents, and all your neighbors? Does it continue to provide the same quality of care and the same outcomes, lifelong, even if you e.g. got fired for misconduct? Does it cost 9% of GDP instead of 16%, and relieve the burden from your employer who can then provide better working conditions, spend more per student, give you a pay raise, etc.?
  • rosweed
    rosweed
    Is that a Cartman cartoon screen save? Do you know that that's satire? Do you know that a Canadian system will cost you less, result in a higher level of health care, and you won't have to fight with insurance companies to pay for what should rightfully be yours? Really, spare us the cartoons. Elucidate your position.
  • pokersloper
    pokersloper
    doctorj,

    As I recall, I was speaking about MY benefits. And as I also recall, I expressed great frustration that Obama, a democratic president, can't get a democratic house and a democratic senate to accept his plan. Odd that Oama can't get it done even when the democratic party rules the land. But I draw the line with Canadians making fun of the states. That is like a minor league baseball team, no, a minor league cricket club, making fun of the Yankees.
  • pokersloper
    pokersloper
    My position is...

    image
  • jeffrey
    jeffrey
    Oh My God!! You Killed Canada!

    You Basterrrd!

    :lol:
  • pokersloper
    pokersloper
    jeffrey is my new favorite brooklynianer
  • jeffrey
    jeffrey
    that sounds like a sandwich. or a donut.
  • pitu
    pitu
    A very clever friend of mine sent this article on health care my way. And suggests that we all read it, and then go to D.C. and throw dog poop at our electeds unless they are named Weiner, Kucinich, Wydens or Sanders.

    http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/29988909/sick_and_wrong/
    MATT TAIBBI wrote: Sick and Wrong: How Washington is screwing up health care reform – and why it may take a revolt to fix it
    MATT TAIBBI
    Posted Sep 03, 2009 11:33 AM

    Let's start with the obvious: America has not only the worst but the dumbest health care system in the developed world. It's become a black leprosy eating away at the American experiment — a bureaucracy so insipid and mean and illogical that even our darkest criminal minds wouldn't be equal to dreaming it up on purpose.

    The system doesn't work for anyone. It cheats patients and leaves them to die, denies insurance to 47 million Americans, forces hospitals to spend billions haggling over claims, and systematically bleeds and harasses doctors with the specter of catastrophic litigation. Even as a mechanism for delivering bonuses to insurance-company fat cats, it's a miserable failure: Greedy insurance bosses who spent a generation denying preventive care to patients now see their profits sapped by millions of customers who enter the system only when they're sick with incurably expensive illnesses.

    The cost of all of this to society, in illness and death and lost productivity and a soaring federal deficit and plain old anxiety and anger, is incalculable — and that's the good news. The bad news is our failed health care system won't get fixed, because it exists entirely within the confines of yet another failed system: the political entity known as the United States of America.
    the rest of this lengthy piece at http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/29988909/sick_and_wrong/
  • doctorj
    doctorj
    pokersloper wrote: But I draw the line with Canadians making fun of the states.
    Canadians like make fun of the States (for one thing, it's like fish in a barrel, and it's also a release from a certain feeling of insecurity in the face of the dominant cultural and military power). So do the British, the French, Scandinavians, Japanese, Australia/NZers, and so on... but not when it comes to health care. That's tragedy, not comedy. I'm with the Camerican: I'm here to take a job from an American, pay your crazy bargain basement taxes while I'm in my peak earning years, and don't leave my apartment without three health insurance cards for my family good on separate continents (two of which cost me nothing). So I'll be fine; it's my US-only friends I worry about.
  • pokersloper
    pokersloper
    Obama is really good at campaigning..for President. But when it comes to health care reform, he can't convince his own political party, political allies and the American people what needs to be done. Heck, Obama can't even speak to school children without a mess.

    I am deciding if I should be laughing and saying "I told you so" or crying. I am sure I will be doing much of both over the next four years.

    I need more popcorn.
  • rosweed
    rosweed
    pokersloper wrote: I work for the schools. I have union health care. When the world ends, when it is only darkness, there will be cockroaches and union cards left standing. My union card beats your Canada card.
    I'm glad you're happy with your little world that doesn't seem to include any compassion or empathy for the rest of the people in this country. I'm in an enviable position, too, because I have lifetime health care when I return to Canada. I'm not so smug and self centered that I don't wish the same thing for everyone. Enjoy your popcorn.
  • pokersloper
    pokersloper
    I'm glad you're happy with your little world that doesn't seem to include any compassion or empathy for the rest of the people in this country. I'm in an enviable position, too, because I have lifetime health care when I return to Canada. I'm not so smug and self centered that I don't wish the same thing for everyone. Enjoy your popcorn.
    Interesting comment. Let me reiterate my position on this topic:

    image
  • pokersloper
    pokersloper
    Health care under President Obama's watch:

    image

    Man did President Obama fool you all.
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