Everyone’s talking about Andrew Sullivan’s brilliant post on Obama today. I am too. Nut graf:
He was elected on a clear platform of reform and change; and yet the only real achievement Washington has allowed him so far is a massive stimulus package to prevent a Second Great Depression (and even on that emergency measure, no Republicans would support him). On that he succeeded. But that wasn’t reform; it was a crash landing after one of the worst administrations in America’s history.
Real reform – tackling health care costs and access, finding a way to head off massive changes in the world’s climate, ending torture as the lynchpin of the war on terror, getting out of Iraq, preventing an Israeli-led Third World War in the Middle East, and reforming entitlements and defense spending to prevent 21st century America from becoming 17th Century Spain: these are being resisted by those who have power and do not want to relinquish it – except to their own families and cronies.
Cronyism is very Ida Tarbull. When’s he going to get into Israel lobby theory? It explains a lot. At least Obama goes out and bashes the health insurance giants. But at AIPAC, pandereth he.
This is giving Obama too much damn credit. Is “Washington” forcing him to keep sending more troop to AfPak and deploying more drones there to slaughter wedding parties? Is “Washington” preventing his DoJ from releasing the evidence of BushCheney’s crimes? Is “Washington” forcing him to declare his opposition to legalizing pot?
Not one damn change from this guy, only more of the same as Bush dished out.
potsherd, you read my most immediate mind. Obama seems a great one for ignoring root causes of our biggest problems, posing as Mister Practical, saying let’s not be
divisive, let’s just move on. Truth is, he has met the enemy and the enemy is too
big, the Military-Industrial-Security & Military Services Complex, which bleeds over
into the Israel Lobby, Trial Lawyers and their opponents Big Insurance, Big Pharma,
the Teachers Union, and so on; he lopes along in WASPY rational sound meters–I’m afraid he and we are learning he is Uncle Tom and Uncle Moshe–he just wishes the
lethal drones he sends over Afghanistan could cure all his ills. Grecian Formula won’t help. He’s received the largest public mandate and good will for change in my lifetime, the only thing even close is JFK. Twenty years from now he will wish he took more risk, went straight to the pres bully pulpit, over the heads of all the special interests, straight to the American people, laying truth out and educating
the masses–let the chips fall where they might.
Worth repeating:
Real reform – tackling health care costs and access, finding a way to head off massive changes in the world’s climate, ending torture as the lynchpin of the war on terror, getting out of Iraq, preventing an Israeli-led Third World War in the Middle East, and reforming entitlements and defense spending to prevent 21st century America from becoming 17th Century Spain: these are being resisted by those who have power and do not want to relinquish it – except to their own families and cronies.
Obama is leading us in the style of intelligent discourse full of depth but shallow
in his actions–towards a double dip depression and WW3.
I am also disappointed. But, I recognize there is no low-hanging fruit anymore.
The low-hanging fruit that I consider relevant is the increasingly and increasingly incoherent tax code. But, that is another health care discussion, unless approached in a real revolutionary manner.
Obama’s grown tired and rather than mediative, morphed into indecisive. And, his allies that he hoped would be effective at moving legislation along similarly got tired, or confused.
I don’t think that any of the health plans going through Congress have really any chance of simultaneously accomplishing reduced costs, increased coverage, dependability of coverage. To reduce costs there would have to be some sort of percentage deductible requirement, that would restore the accountability between “consumer” and provider. Ironically, the second most cost effective plan would be a medicare E (everyone) with a mandatory $200/monthly fee per person covered. The proposals going through Congress now retain the feature of “someone else is paying for it” common to both insurance and government programs, and the multiple layers of profit,marketing and administration first in practices, then insurers.
But, who listens to me?
In this case, I hear you, Richard Witty. And I agree with what you say here. Surprized?
I’ve viewed the primary cost-reduction mechanism of health care reform (the details of which I am woefully ignorant) as lowering costs by reducing or eliminating the profits of health insurance companies. I think most of any savings will come from rationalization of their bloated and duplicated administrative bureaucracies. They’ve got a pretty nice cartel-like thing going, and it is no surprise that they are fighting tooth and nail, successfully, to keep it going. Pres. Obama’s failure to push through genuine health care reform has made me skeptical of any further serious progress in stopping and rolling back Jewish colonization of the Occupied Palestinian Territories, reducing or removing the serious threat to American national security that our involuntary subsidization creates.
He’s great at trying to build consensus, but if one can’t build enough of a consensus to isolate and break people unwilling to cooperate in defeating their own objectives, then one must be able to assess when consensus is as strong as it’s going to get, and at that point be willing to (figuratively) crack some heads. Perhaps I am being unfair, but I don’t think he has shown that he can do that on any major issue, and it was obvious from the beginning, especially to health care executives and colonial Zionist leadership in AIPAC, etc, who had and have absolutely no intention of backing down, that it would eventually come to that. Also note that his solution to the meltdown of the financial sector was to give control over ‘reform’ to a bunch of Wall Street thieves who are among those responsible for causing it!
There is a long way to go before a maximum consensus can be reached on the Israeli colonization problem, and it may not even arrive on Pres. Obama’s watch, especially with Israelis and their American partisans regularly ‘shooting themselves in the foot’, but I think that it has been reached for health care reform, and am very disappointed to see him shrinking from what he had to know was the inevitable end game. I think he is making a conscious decision to blink, and it doesn’t bode well for his ability to finish high stakes battles.
Obviously his and his subordinates’ time is limited, and they have to prioritize their efforts. However, if he doesn’t allocate enough to win the absolutely critical battles on which the future prosperity and health of America and Americans depends, no one will remember or care about the small victories when Americans have to start making interest payments on our massive national debt that are not financed by more borrowing. Avoiding a far more serious system shock than our recent recession/depression will require health care reform that enables American business to be internationally competitive (the cost of American goods and services include a fat percentage from health care provision by American companies that our competitors who have nationally managed systems simply don’t pay), and a retraction of our military to the level necessary to defend the United States and our allies (will we even be able to afford that?), i.e. no more expensive and superfluous force structure for wars to make the world safe for Israeli ethnic cleansing and colonization.
Israel doesn’t need us to be attacking multiple Islamic countries to ensure its security and Israeli political leaders damn well know it. They merely need to withdraw their colonies and prison camp guards from the Occupied Palestinian Territories and stop obstructing Palestinian national aspirations. There will be no stable, lasting peace without a viable and sovereign Palestinian state. Israelis don’t have to come in good faith to the bargaining table when neocons and the Lobby have us smashing it up.
Obama’s on record and the bills in congress now support killing the Medicare Advantage Plan option, which will negatively affect at least 9 million senior citizens; though the private plans are subject to all the charges against them; Medicare Part B
by itself sans the Advantage Plan option is responsible for much more Medicare Fraud, as is of course Medicaid. And yet Medicare doctors do not paid back for their services dollar for dollar by Medicare, but quite a bit less. The democratic congress and Obama consented to not using mass membership leverage to negotitate with Big Pharma and simultaneously kept the ban on cheaper drug imports–the sop Obama and demos have received is cutting some drug costs in
the drug doughnut hole. In contrast, both the Federal employee health insurance
and the VA do negotitate to lower drug costs. The Insurance companies still are
immune from the federal anti=trust laws; they are regulated by 50 state insurance
commissions which are politically appointed whores for the insurance industry.
If you’ve followed Obama’s allegianc to the present banking system and favored
big banks, and the background of those he’s appointed and reappointed to handle
the bail out, you will conclude he’s done nothing but set up the platform for the
next bubble and a bigger recission. The new regulations on credit card companies
have very tiny teeth and the credit card companies are already socking it to customers before the tiny teeth bite; there’s no signficant curb on excessive usury while state usury laws have gone the way of the dodo long ago.
Two amendments to identify illegal aliens with existing databases so they cannot
participate in Obamacare have been defeated on straight party lines.
Such reality does not give much hope Obama for any real progress for an end
to the I-P conflict; Obama’s spokes person has already waffled on his stance
(merely) against increased settlements. It looks increasingly like Obama will be
on board with increasing pressure on Iran but none in comparison regarding pressure on Israel. And Obama’s pushing increased war in Afhganistan, using
Shrub’s reasoning for staying there although the majority of Americans want us out of there, not just out of Iraq.
Obama’s move on Israel has backfired. He now seems to be committed to increasing pressure on Iran in exchange for Israel doing nothing whatsoever to end the occupation. Another damned “compromise.”
Good work.
I consider relevant is the increasingly and increasingly incoherent tax code.
We had a really interesting proposal in this context. But it was buried fast. So far I managed to get everything I wanted to get accepted by my tax authorities through, and yes it is usually saving taxes. Although I hate to search the specific legal paragraphs or combination that help me to succeed. What I can easily see from this rather limited point of view is the chances to not pay any taxes at all if only you have enough experts. I never managed to pay none at all, but I am sure some do. …
Concerning health care, complex as life and dead. I’ve witnessed people on the so called (gesetzliche Krankenkasse) strictly legal health insurance your compulsory health insurance versus private health insurance get better treatment than the supposedly better off privately insured. Dead often isn’t fair but it seems more democratic than our systems.
LeaNder, many American corporations manage to end up not paying any taxes at all; this is at the very least ironic since they make tons of money and are given the status
of actual human beings by statutory interpretation of our laws as “persons.” Further,
or in addition, money allocation in lobbying is protected “free speech.”
And of course capital gains are taxed at a significantly lower rate than income attributle to individuals or partnerships. And the tax codes offers tons of
offsets, deductions, exemptions, credits for corporations–not available to individuals and partnerships.
I’ve heard, correct me if I’m wrong, that Germany has a mix of public and private
universal health insurance. Please elaborate on Germany’s hybred system of national health care. It might help us over here since at this juncture, that’s what
looks like will happen here. Thanks.
Sullivan supported invading Iraq, and now he’s on Obama’s case for not cleaning up his mess fast enough?
Never heard or read this: Nut graf nutshell paragraph. …
It makes sense and is very familiar to me; though I have never seen the methodology
discussed before–it’s probably taught early on in Journalism 101.
Obama is just another Israel Lobby’s proxy in the White House. In fact, his administration has the highest number of Israel-Firsters since 1948. Obama may talk tough but at the end of the day – he will do what Tel Aviv wants him to do. Zionist-regime is more paranoid about Iran than Hamas these days. Zionist Lobby is in its full swing to push America and the ZOG countries into another war for the survival of the Zionist entity – which could turn into WW III.
“In Israel, a country stolen from the Palestinians, fanatics control the government. One of the fanatics is the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu,” – Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of US Treasury.
link to rehmat1.wordpress.com
Funny everyone egnors the very real possibility of a usa revolution by some of the 600 malitias which are heavily armed. As for the ww3 if thats what it is to be named when it is simply a revolt to the idiologies that opress peoples basic human rights and allow others to incite such idiologies as factually true (the occupation) . With all the littles girls being taught to shoot the arabs and how when it was told the madrassaa where teaching children the reasoning for the genocidal attacks backed with usa money by the usa policies will have to be addressed as what is … defensive from both sides however there is always that inevitible draw back as to why and wh0m was there originally native to the land and the reparations from the usa and uk for the support of the genocidal twisted people calling themselves jews when they are not in any way..they are zionist with a really bad insane streak. Lets hope all the original NON supporters do the right thing and change their names so as not to be included as one of the problems. With the young girls being tought to kill and write on bombs too will make every little zionist girl a legit target of the oppressed so as not to have this fiasco ever happen again. Unfortunately level heads are not in charge in either genocidal camp just twisted and brainwashed people…are they worth deprogramming and can they be deprogrammed …probably not. And as a result of revolution here in the usa and then abroad in Palestine there will be new powers in the relm of world control. Never mind the global warming problem which is inevitibally going over the 2.5 % sending the world as a whole into an ice age…what a great present to leave our children ..broke, used, abused, hungry,homeless, all becuase of a book called the bible which is folklore and fairytales at best not a title to kill and regress as humanity has in the case of the zionist mind and their supporters whom are just as illogical .