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It’s Not Just HAMP…

Dday is right, of course, that a nominally “liberal” corrupt failure like HAMP makes liberalism look bad.  But the problem is that all of Obama and the Democrats’ failures, sellouts, and assorted disappointments will be blamed on “liberalism” because, as everyone knows, Obama is The Most Liberal President Of All Time.  So now most of America thinks that liberalism means putting corporations first and ordinary people and the Constitution last.  Or maybe that we’re all just craven hypocrites like our supposed leader.

It’s not bad enough that Obama has to repeatedly kick liberals in the face – he makes us look bad by association too.  It’s a win-win!

Add comment July 27th, 2010 at 07:23am Posted by Eli

Democratic Party Still Thinks Progressives Are Fools

Oh, so now the Democrats are worried about progressive enthusiasm:

Party officials acknowledged low morale within their left wing and urged liberal bloggers and activists Friday to keep faith with President Barack Obama in an election year as Democrats brace for losses in Congress.

“We need to find a way to get our voters really engaged in this election,” Democratic National Committee executive director Jennifer O’Malley Dillon said at the annual Netroots Nation convention. “It’s more important, every single day, to know what’s at stake.”

Earth to Democrats: Your voters are not engaged because you’ve been either ignoring them or disparaging them for the past year and a half.  You used “healthcare reform” to deliver an enormous captive customer base to a rapacious health insurance industry while doing little to rein them in, you settled for a weak and ineffective stimulus bill, you pulled your punches on financial reform, you never lifted a finger for EFCA, you’re still foot-dragging on DADT, you’ve shown no more respect for the Constitution than the Bush administration, and you shamefully hung ACORN, Van Jones, Dawn Johnsen and Shirley Sherrod out to dry because you were afraid of conservative shriekers.

You called us “fucking retarded”, and complained that we threw money down the drain by supporting Bill Halter’s primary challenge against the anti-progressive Blanche Lincoln.  Why on earth should we be enthusiastic about supporting you when you so clearly have no respect for us at all?  Why should we care if you only have 52 seats in the Senate when you did so little when you had 59 and even 60?  (Yes, I’m aware that you passed bills called healthcare reform and financial reform, but that doesn’t mean they were progressive.)

You can’t jerk us around and spit on us and call us retards for all this time and then expect us to be your friends again just because you’ve suddenly realized you need us.  Trust and friendship has to be earned, and you haven’t even tried.

6 comments July 25th, 2010 at 01:14pm Posted by Eli

Welcome To The Club

Is our Hispanic Caucus learning?

A group of Democratic lawmakers wants to use the immigration reform debate to fix one of the most hotly contested aspects of the health care law — provisions that bar immigrants from using new government programs to get coverage.

The move by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus would add a contentious new element to an already monumental task — passing a bill that puts 11 million illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship.

But the lawmakers say they’re merely following through on a pledge they made when the health care overhaul passed in March, and they expect the White House and Democratic leadership to do the same.

Some members of the caucus almost withheld their votes for health reform over what they saw as punitive, anti-immigrant measures in the bill, which bans illegal immigrants from using newly created exchanges to buy insurance, even with their own money, and maintains a five-year waiting period for legal residents to enroll in Medicaid.

They signed on only after receiving assurances that their concerns would be rectified as part of the immigration reform battle, according to lawmakers, advocates and Hill aides.

“The expectation was that everybody knew it was unfair and that a new immigration bill would correct that,” Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) told POLITICO.

Asked at what level he received such signals, Grijalva said: “High enough to feel secure about it.”

And you believed them???  Have you been paying any attention at all?  Obama promised labor EFCA if they went along with his terrible healthcare bill, and look how that worked out for them.  You really think Obama’s going to go out on a limb for you when he’s never gone out on a limb for anything progressive in his life?  Yeah, good luck with that.

Add comment July 20th, 2010 at 07:16am Posted by Eli

Good News On Healthcare Reform

For those of you who were worried that healthcare reform might eventually get watered down:

Remember Liz Fowler? The former WellPoint VP whom William Ockham noted was the literal author of the health care reform bill?

I’m sure you’ll be thrilled to learn that WellPoint’s former VP will be in charge of consumer issues and oversight as our country implements the WellPoint/Liz Fowler health insurance bill. (h/t Glenn Greenwald)

Liz Fowler, a key staffer for U.S. Sen. Max Baucus who helped draft the federal health reform bill enacted in March, is joining the Obama administration to help implement the new law.  Fowler, chief health counsel for the Senate Finance Committee, which Baucus chairs, will become deputy director of the Office of Consumer Information and Oversight at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

I for one am relieved to see that WellPoint’s Ms. Fowler’s bold vision will not be compromised when the reform plan is finally implemented.

Add comment July 15th, 2010 at 06:25pm Posted by Eli

One More Thought On Obama Vs. Labor

Perhaps the most telling thing of all about the Obama White House’s open hostility towards labor for supporting Halter over Lincoln is that it’s not like the unions took on one of Obama’s staunchest allies.  The unions opposed Lincoln because she helped torpedo EFCA and the public option, two things which Obama supposedly (emphasis on supposedly) really wanted.

So that tells us that:

A) Obama really really hates unions,

B) Obama really really likes conservative politicians who screw him over again and again,

C) Lincoln was in fact acting as Obama’s staunch ally by sabotaging progressive initiatives he cynically pretended to support in order to get elected, or

D) Some combination of both A and C.

None of these possibilities are exactly what I would call encouraging.

Add comment June 9th, 2010 at 06:20pm Posted by Eli

My Brilliant Genius Plan To Fix Everything

Convince Obama that Wellpoint, PhRMA, Goldman Sachs, the oil industry, Pete Peterson, Lindsey Graham, Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson and Rahm Emanuel are all gay.

Because they could all use a little more “fierce advocacy.”

(Cross-posted at The Seminal)

Add comment May 19th, 2010 at 06:57am Posted by Eli

Bro(der)ken Record

Look, if we agree to stipulate that the death of centrist bipartisanship is a horrible, terrible tragedy, will David Broder agree to go away and leave us alone?  Or at least find a new topic to write about?

Okay, yeah, partisanship is bad, we get it already.  How many times are you going to write the same column?

Add comment April 2nd, 2010 at 07:01am Posted by Eli

Who Needs April Fools?

…When Republicans and Blanche Lincoln (but I repeat myself) are taking credit for healthcare reform?

…When the teabagger holding the (misspelled) N-word sign complains that teabaggers are being unfairly accused of racism?

…When anti-government militia members ask the government to provide them with defense counsel?

…When drug companies are investigating the FDA?

…When Tim Geithner laments how “deeply unfair” it is that all of the bailout’s benefits have gone to Wall Street?

…When a Democratic president embraces “Drill, Baby, Drill”?

April First is just another day now.

Add comment April 1st, 2010 at 11:34am Posted by Eli

Finally I Agree With Rahm

Rahm is absolutely right:

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has been telling Democrats a win on the health issue will reverse the slide in public opinion, just as passage of another controversial proposal, the North American Free Trade Agreement, lifted President Bill Clinton in the polls.

Yes, I’m sure healthcare “reform” will help Obama and the Democrats this year just as much as NAFTA helped Clinton and the Democrats in ‘94.

Rahm’s promise reminds me of the assurances that Dubya would bring his CEO expertise to the White House to do for America what he did for his oil companies.

Add comment April 1st, 2010 at 07:14am Posted by Eli

Lament Of The Day

If the Catholic Church were as tolerant and protective toward gays as they are toward pedophiles, same-sex marriage would be legal in every state by now.

And if it were as committed to peace and compassion as it is to outlawing abortions, we probably wouldn’t have invaded Iraq, and the healthcare reform bill would have contained a public option at the very least.

1 comment March 27th, 2010 at 11:08am Posted by Eli

Mixed Messaging

On the one hand, Democrats pointing out that Republicans were for mandates before they were against them is great for showcasing what hypocrites Republicans are, and that they’re such reflexively obstructionist assholes that they’d happily vote against their own healthcare reform plan rather than let Democrats claim what they believe to be a victory.

On the other hand, is “We passed a Republican plan with no Republican votes!  Go us!” really something the Democrats want to brag about?  Especially when so many people are already worried that the bill is way too conservative and business-friendly as it is?

Add comment March 26th, 2010 at 07:13am Posted by Eli

You’re Always A Day Away

So how many excuses does this make?

First Obama and the Democrats couldn’t pass the public option because they didn’t have 60 votes in the Senate.

Then they couldn’t pass the public option because Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman were unmovable and un-getaroundable.

Then they couldn’t pass the public option because they didn’t have 60 votes in the Senate.

Then they couldn’t pass the public option because they didn’t have 50 votes in the Senate to pass it through reconciliation (even though they did).

Then they couldn’t pass the public option because they didn’t want to change the reconciliation sidecar bill, because that would force the House to vote on it again.

Now the House has to vote on the sidecar again anyway because the Senate Parliamentarian forced some changes, and the excuse for not adding the public option back is…?

But don’t worry – the Democrats assure us that they’ll take up the public option again… right after their fecklessness costs them a whole bunch of seats in the next election.  Brilliant.

Add comment March 25th, 2010 at 06:10pm Posted by Eli

Pointless Threat Of The Day

First Orrin Hatch, now John McCain:

“There will be no cooperation for the rest of the year,” McCain said during an interview Monday on an Arizona radio affiliate. “They have poisoned the well in what they’ve done and how they’ve done it.”

And that will be different… how?  It’s not a threat if you were going to do it anyway.

2 comments March 23rd, 2010 at 07:37am Posted by Eli

Wait… WHAT???

When I first saw this in my inbox, I thought maybe it was sarcasm, but no:

Thank you, Progressive Caucus, for improving health care reform

Dear Progressive Members of Congress:

Thanks to you, and the tough positions you took on reforming the health insurance industry, significant progress was made towards reforming health care in this country. We thank you for representing the majority opinions on health care reform throughout the debate and voting for change.

Sincerely,

[Insert your name here, etc, etc.)

I’m supposed to thank them for caving? I’m supposed to thank them for backing down from their pledge to vote against any healthcare reform bill that didn’t have a public option, even though a public option was almost surely attainable through reconciliation?  I’m supposed to thank them for looking the other way when Obama and Pelosi made their deal with Pelosi and legitimized the Hyde Amendment with an executive order?  Are you kidding me???

The progressive caucus had the power to force Obama to choose between the healthcare industry and anti-choice fanatics or passing his signature reform which he wanted more than anything… and they threw it away without getting anything in return.

Thanks, but no thanks.

1 comment March 22nd, 2010 at 07:56pm Posted by Eli

Defining Victory Down

President Obama says “every American will finally be guaranteed affordable, high quality health care coverage.”  The DSCC says “insurance companies won’t be able to drop people who get sick.”  And MoveOn calls it “a major progressive victory.”  But what did we actually get?

We got mandates that deliver a huge captive market to the insurance companies whose callousness and greed caused the healthcare crisis in the first place, and no public option to provide an honest alternative.  We got government subsidies for low-income families who will be forced to buy insurance they can’t afford to use.  And worst of all, we got the biggest giveaway ever on women’s reproductive rights, and an executive order enshrining the Hyde Amendment into official government policy… issued by a president who once pledged to repeal it.

We didn’t get legalization of drug reimportation from other countries, or permission for Medicare to use its bargaining power to get better drug prices.  And we sure as hell didn’t get the public option that Obama claimed to be such a huge supporter of, but never raised a finger for – even when it was attainable through reconciliation.  I am also not entirely convinced that the anti-rescission language is all that much stronger than current law, nor that the bill provides for any effective means to enforce it.

This was not a triumphant victory for anyone but the insurance and pharmaceutical industries, and the enemies of a woman’s right to choose.  It was a monstrous, multi-directional sellout, and Obama and the Democrats will reap the electoral whirlwind in November and 2012 for passing a bill that most Americans hate.

If this is victory, then why do I feel so defeated?

Add comment March 22nd, 2010 at 07:39am Posted by Eli

Dear Congress: We Hate ALL Of You.

Love, 50% Of The American People:

In fact, when it comes to Congress, many voters would like to start anew. Asked if they would “replace every single member of Congress, including your own representative” if they could, 50% said “yes” while 47% said “no.”

50% is an incredibly huge number for such an extreme position, and suggests that a sizable majority of Americans would be happy to replace a sizable majority of Congress.

Most striking of all:

Those that said yes were asked if they would still be game if the Democrats kept the majority in Congress, and 72% said they would, while 22% said they wouldn’t. Asked if they would go along if replacing all lawmakers would put the Republicans in control, 73% said yes and 24% said no.

The disgust with both parties is so deep that it doesn’t even matter which party is nominally in control.  And quite frankly, the more the healthcare reform debacle unfolds, the more I agree.

Add comment March 20th, 2010 at 11:35am Posted by Eli

Okay, Now Healthcare Reform Is Complete.

Welcome to the under-the-bus club!

The House Rules Committee releases the reconciliation bill through which it will vote on the measure that passed the Senate in December. As expected, the LGBT- and HIV-specific provisions that passed by the House in November will not be included in the final bill, reports HRC Backstory.

(…)

Expanding the Early Treatment for HIV Act would allow states to cover early HIV treatment under Medicaid instead of withholding treatment and funding until patients develop full-blown AIDS. That’s very important for black and Latino gay men, who are disproportionately without insurance and often learn they are HIV positive in later stages. Rod 2.0 reported in December and February the Senate and the Administration were likely to kill those provisions.

Can’t wait until the White House and Congress start “working on ENDA” once they’re “done” with health care …

I reckon that by the time they finish making bipartisan “compromises” on ENDA, the only minority group it will protect from discrimination will be rich white men.

Add comment March 19th, 2010 at 06:25pm Posted by Eli

Enronsurance

Scarecrow draws parallels between the lack of a public option in the healthcare reform bill and the lack of a public pool in the California energy market… which helped lead directly to Enron’s profiteering and CA’s rolling blackouts.  Very encouraging.  This bit in particular really pisses me off:

And we see the middlemen and their political supporters in Congress deliberately hobbling the public plan, raising its costs, and restricting access to that public option, on the theory that we shouldn’t do anything to undermine the current private insurance industry. After all, they argue, private markets are always more efficient than a government operation.

Riiiight.  Just like the insurance industry is more efficient than Medicare.  This is a completely bullshit argument which is used to obscure the real calculation, which is that healthcare “reform” must enrich rather than enfeeble the healthcare industry which donates so generously to congressmembers of both parties.

Our campaign finance system is so corrupt and fucked up that this is now the way of all reform: That it must be structured to benefit, or at least not harm, the very industries whose irresponsible greed and malfeasance created the need for reform in the first place.

Needless to say, this perverse constraint is not exactly a great foundation for effective reform legislation.  Unless you’re the healthcare industry, or the financial industry, or the energy industry, or…

Add comment March 19th, 2010 at 07:18am Posted by Eli

Great Moments In Democratic Strategery

First it looked like the Democrats might use reconciliation to restore the very popular public option.  Then it looked like they were going to use it to pass a grab-bag of minor fixes.  Now it looks like they’re going to use it to make sure that the voters hate them even more:

We’ve been waiting for days to see the CBO score to see how much the final health care bill will cost, with the goals being to both reduce the deficit and to fit under the arbitrary $900 billion cap posed by Obama.

It seems they’ve been unable to do so, as Ben Smith now reports that AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is on his way to the White House to discuss plans by Democrats to actually raise the tax on middle class health care plans in order to pay for the bill.

(…)

Jon Walker notes that adding a public option would save at least $25 billion in the bill.  The House paid for its bill by taxing the richest Americans.

And yet, faced will trying to contain the costs of this bill, Democrats’ first instinct is to raise taxes on the middle class even further. Brilliant!

Wow.  Just wow.  Has any political party ever displayed this kind of electoral death wish before?  And this isn’t LBJ writing off the South because it was important to do the right thing on civil rights; this is a prolonged pattern of promoting predatory corporate interests.

At this point I have to believe that Obama has decided that it’s in his best interest to have a Republican Congress, but I’m not sure what’s in it for all the Democrats who are going to be losing their seats.  Cushy healthcare lobbying gigs, I guess.

Add comment March 18th, 2010 at 11:27am Posted by Eli

Purity

Perhaps I’m just imagining it, but the enemies of womens’ choice seem to be a lot more universally opposed to the Nelson “compromise” in the Senate bill than liberal healthcare advocates are to its lack of a public option.  Despite the fact that Nelson is a lot closer to Stupak than No Public Option is to Public Option, and the fact that reconciliation could be used to pass the public option, but not to pass Stupak.

At any rate, I certainly don’t see a whole lot of bishops or Blue Dogs saying, “Come on!  This is a historic once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to roll back women’s rights!  Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good!”

I really really hated having to choose between choice and the public option, but choosing between choice and forcing people to buy crappy private insurance policies they probably can’t afford to use isn’t very difficult at all.  But one that, amazingly, Obama and the Democrats are still on the brink of getting wrong.

It’s a double epic fail.  Like saying that everyone has to give up their bathroom privileges in exchange for mandatory shit sandwich lunches every day (”But look! Now everyone gets a lunch! Isn’t that awesome?”).

Add comment March 18th, 2010 at 07:25am Posted by Eli

Why I’m Fed Up

As Gregg very effectively points out, it’s funny how Obama and the Democrats couldn’t be bothered to make an effort on behalf of the public option, much less single payer, dithering endlessly and fruitlessly with Republicans and immediately capitulating when conservative wankers like Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson say they’ll vote no… yet now that the healthcare reform bill has transformed into a huge windfall for the insurance industry (and antichoice fanatics), they’ve pulled out all the stops to push for its passage and aggressively (and apparently effectively) attack any Democrats who hold out.  They’re even getting creative with arcane procedural workarounds.

So, to sum up: Public option/single payer?  Not worth the slightest effort to defend.  Gutting abortion rights and forcing people to buy insurance from the private companies who made healthcare suck in the first place?  The most important bill ever, and woe unto any Democrat who votes against it.

I guess it’s all just a matter of priorities, and Obama and the Democrats clearly have the wrong ones.

Add comment March 17th, 2010 at 07:25am Posted by Eli

Remarkable.

That Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen could write so many words about how healthcare reform is doomed and everybody hates it because they hate Big Government without ever once mentioning the public option and how overwhelmingly popular it is.

I’m sure it’s just an oversight; so many people seem to have forgotten all about the public option lately.

Add comment March 12th, 2010 at 11:32am Posted by Eli

Wankers Of The Day

Harry Reid and Dick Durbin.

After all their pro-public-option posturing, now they’re urging Senate Democrats to vote against any amendments to the woefully inadequate and public-optionless reconciliation bill, even if they’re popular and/or they personally support them.

Great plan, make Democrats vote against popular healthcare policies that they support… in an election year.  They must be worried that the base isn’t depressed enough.

(Gee, I guess Bernie didn’t get the memo…)

Add comment March 11th, 2010 at 08:41pm Posted by Eli

Gang Of 14: Yer Doin It Wrong

Lindsey seems a little unclear on the concept:

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) wants to revive the bipartisan Gang of 14 — this time for health care reform, not judicial nominees.

But most of his moderate Democratic colleagues aren’t rushing to R.S.V.P.

Graham said Tuesday that a coalition of Republican and Democratic senators could rescue the Senate from an institutional disaster brought on by the use of the parliamentary maneuver known as reconciliation to finish the health care bill.

“Many Republicans who were ready to pull the trigger on the nuclear option on judges are now glad they didn’t,” Graham said. “This place would have ceased to function as we know it. If they do health care through reconciliation, it will be the same consequence. So if you are a moderate Democrat out there looking for a way to deliver health care reforms and not pull the nuclear trigger, there is a model to look at.”

I wouldn’t mind seeing something like the original Gang Of 14 compromise, where the majority agreed not to eliminate the filibuster in exchange for the minority agreeing not to use it.  But this is more like the minority party agreeing not to use it in exchange for the majority party not making them want to.

What both “compromises” have in common, of course, is that the Democrats cede power to let the Republicans get their way.

Add comment March 11th, 2010 at 07:20am Posted by Eli

Massa:Beck::Al Capone’s Vault:Rivera?

Poor Glenn Beck.  Massa was serving up all kinds of juicy tidbits about groping and tickling and naked browbeating, but because he wouldn’t come out and say that Rahm or Obama did horrible corrupt illegal conspiracy things to force him out of office, the whole interview was a waste of time.

1 comment March 10th, 2010 at 11:36am Posted by Eli

That’s A Terrible Idea!

I am just not at all comfortable with the idea of making Medicare a government service…

Add comment March 10th, 2010 at 07:07am Posted by Eli

Trying To Pull The Woolsey Over Our Eyes

Lynn Woolsey’s attempt to convince us that she’s not a total spineless weakling on the public option is quite remarkable.  She starts out with an excellent defense of the public option, then pledges to… push for a separate public option bill right after the current monstrosity passes.  Right, because that would totally happen.  The only chance to pass the public option is now, when the White House is desperate for a win on healthcare.

This is strongly reminiscent of Candidate Obama’s promise to fight to strip telecom immunity from the FISA reform bill… immediately after he voted for it.  And look how well that worked out.

Reading Woolsey’s op-ed was like watching Ron Carey in High Anxiety: “I get it… I get it… I get it… I don’t get it.”

(Side question: Has anyone in the Senate leadership yet given any kind of coherent explanation for why the public option isn’t in the reconciliation sidecar?  I know Gibbs – who is not in the Senate – said it didn’t have the votes, but otherwise it seems more like the public option simply hasn’t occurred to Harry, and all the Senators who have signed the public option are just a vague buzzing noise in his ear.)

1 comment March 9th, 2010 at 07:22am Posted by Eli

Great Moments In Sales

In their latest e-mail blast, apparently the DNC actually thinks this is a good thing:

On Fox News Sunday this morning Mitt Romney defended the individual mandate, which was in the health care plan he championed as Governor, as the “ultimate conservative plan”

See it HERE:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzdhJ3CsYLQ

DNC National Press Secretary Hari Sevugan offered the following response to Romney’s declaration:

“We know that ensuring everyone is covered and expanding the risk pool will lower costs, but it certainly speaks to the bipartisan nature of the President’s plan that Governor Romney calls the idea of an individual mandate the “ultimate conservative plan.”

Romney Defends Individual Mandate as “Conservative.” “What we did, I think, is the ultimate conservative plan. We said people have to take responsibility for getting insurance, if they can afford it, or paying their own way. No more free-riders.” [FOX News, 3/7/10, See it HERE:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzdhJ3CsYLQ]

DNC National Press Secretary Hari Sevugan offered the following response to Romney’s declaration:

“We know that ensuring everyone is covered and expanding the risk pool will lower costs, but it certainly speaks to the bipartisan nature of the President’s plan that Governor Romney calls the idea of an individual mandate the “ultimate conservative plan.”

Oh yeah, I am soooo stoked to run out and support the Senate’s healthcare plan now that I know that Mitt Romney has endorsed the individual mandate as “the ultimate conservative plan” – I’m gonna get on the phone to my congressman right away!

2 comments March 7th, 2010 at 03:27pm Posted by Eli

So Now He’s In A Hurry?

Funny how Obama’s patience was nearly infinite when the public option was in the Senate healthcare bill with Republicans and conservadems trying to take it out, but now that the public option is out with liberals and moderates trying to put it back in, he can’t get it passed soon enough.

If it weren’t for his solemn promise to “revisit” the public option at some unspecified future time (just like his promise to “revisit” NAFTA!), I might think that he really really doesn’t want it.

Add comment March 5th, 2010 at 07:02am Posted by Eli

Wankers Of The Day

Shorter Tom Harkin and Debbie Wasserman Schultz: We really like the public option, but it is necessary to destroy healthcare reform in order to save it.  Or something.

Democratic support for the public option looks more and more phony and insincere every day.  Like Obama, they want it dead, but they know it’s popular and don’t want to take the blame for killing it, so they play Reluctant Pragmatist Acceding To Reality.  Pathetic.

Add comment March 2nd, 2010 at 11:32am Posted by Eli