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RETREAT : White House appears ready to drop 'public option'
Associated Press Writer ^ | August 16, 2009 | PHILIP ELLIOTT

Posted on 08/16/2009 9:16:51 AM PDT by RobinMasters

WASHINGTON – Apparently ready to abandon the idea, President Barack Obama's health secretary said Sunday a government alternative to private health insurance is "not the essential element" of the administration's health care overhaul.

The White House indicated it could jettison the contentious public option and settle on insurance cooperatives as an acceptable alternative, a move embraced by some Republicans lawmakers who have strongly opposed the administration's approach so far.

Officials from both political parties reached across the aisle in an effort to find compromises on proposals they left behind when they returned to their districts for an August recess. Obama has been pressing for the government to run a health insurance organization to help cover the nation's almost 50 million uninsured.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the White House would be open to co-ops instead of a government-run public option, a sign Democrats want a compromise so they can declare a victory on the must-win showdown.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 111th; bhohealthcare; publicoption
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To: RobinMasters

The corrupt amateurs and academics we have in charge are leaning an important lesson.

Things don’t work the same way in Washington, as they do in graduate Political Theory classroom, while writing the foundation of an academic paper.


21 posted on 08/16/2009 9:28:46 AM PDT by tcrlaf ("Hope" is the most Evil of all Evils"-Neitzsche)
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To: RobinMasters

Strategery options being utilized ?

1. Two steps forward, one step back:

Drop it for now. Pass the bill. Include it later

2. Diversion:

Public option isn`t really the critical centerpiece of legislation. THe WH computerized medical records and “reform” of Medicare will allow Ezekiel Emanuel and Obama to control costs by limiting spending,as is done in the UK, to kill off the sick and elderly.


22 posted on 08/16/2009 9:29:11 AM PDT by Para-Ord.45
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To: jamndad5

A death panel by any other name still stinks. Socialists/Leftists are great at euphemisms.


23 posted on 08/16/2009 9:30:18 AM PDT by 1951Boomer
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To: JLS
...someplace in their compromise bill will be a clause or section to allow what they could not legislatively get to be imposed bureaucratically.

A very good point. That seems to be his approach with everything, essentially using Congress and the offices supervised by it - Cabinet positions, for example - just for show, while at the same time having his czars enact things through bureaucratic magic that is outside of anybody's oversight (or even sight, most of the time).

24 posted on 08/16/2009 9:30:19 AM PDT by livius
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To: livius

Yep, to them it’s a can’t-lose strategy. Simultaneously a feint to get the opposition’s guard down—and an actual fallback in case they can’t somehow sneak it through after all.


25 posted on 08/16/2009 9:30:22 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: RobinMasters

In other words, they’re ready to kill the entire plan. Yeah, I’ll believe it when I see it.


26 posted on 08/16/2009 9:30:24 AM PDT by NotSoModerate (Report dissenters to snitch@whitehouse.gov for a $4,500 tax credit)
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To: livius
Nor do I.

The Obama administration hasn't given up on the idea of the 'public option', they've only changed PR strategies.

Rather than continue beating what even many of their own fellow democrats now consider a dead horse, they're just choosing to bury the dead one inside a Trojan horse bearing the friendlier sounding moniker of "co-ops".

In fact, I'm quite sure they had this 'compromise' ready to go from the very beginning.

It's a classic bait & switch subterfuge, only this time it's not actually a different defective product they're switching to - they're just peddling the same toxic crypto-fascist junk under a less-scary socialist name.

27 posted on 08/16/2009 9:30:24 AM PDT by leilani
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To: EternalVigilance

It is what happens when they move to Washingtopia.


28 posted on 08/16/2009 9:31:29 AM PDT by screaminsunshine (!!)
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To: RobinMasters

Insurance cooperatives will also remove all MDs from private practice if their only ‘option’ is to be in a cooperative with vastly reduced income prospects such as with the already inadequate Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. Physicians in private practice now account for 10 additional jobs to their own self-employed numbers, and the additional jobs they support will also disappear if cooperatives are established...this amounts to several million jobs. No study has been published or ordered to determine the effect of the impact on private practice and the results on what will be resultant realities of patient choices of physician. The Dems want to get rid of at least 90% of medical specialists by any means possible. THe people they employ and peripherally related jobs will disappear by the millions.


29 posted on 08/16/2009 9:31:55 AM PDT by givemELL (Does Taiwan Meet the Criteria to Qualify as an "Overseas Territory of the United States"? by Richar)
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To: RobinMasters
"Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the White House would be open to co-ops instead of a government-run public option, a sign Democrats want a compromise so they can declare a victory on the must-win showdown".

We must not compromise. We have them on the run.

Let them WIN whatever they can...no giveaways.

The Coops must NOT have any tax or regulatory advantages over the insurance companies.

30 posted on 08/16/2009 9:32:52 AM PDT by Mariner
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To: 9YearLurker

I think his announcement of his “housing plan” today is part of a strategy to temporarily divert attention from his medical take-over plan. He hopes to make us fight on so many fronts (do we really want the Feds to become the landlord for most of America???) that we will be stretched thin and exhausted.


31 posted on 08/16/2009 9:33:02 AM PDT by livius
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To: OrangeHoof

Co-ops simply boards that are appointed by the President.

This is just single payor by another name.

However, the confusion tactic seems to be working on the MSM.


32 posted on 08/16/2009 9:33:14 AM PDT by Wiseghy ("How's that 'hopey, changy' thing work'in out fer ya?")
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To: livius

Interesting. It’s probably both diversion and yet another front in the war, as you suggest.


33 posted on 08/16/2009 9:34:22 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: leilani
I'm quite sure they had this 'compromise' ready to go from the very beginning.

You are probably right. I think they gave this a flier and met much more vocal resistance than they expected, so now they're dropping back to Plan B. It's far from over.

34 posted on 08/16/2009 9:34:34 AM PDT by livius
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To: OrangeHoof
They’re losing a lot of traction on health care so now they plan to punt and move on to amnesty and card check

They are going to be losing a lot more as the economy keeps tanking and they are TOO Marxist driven to implement the right solution
35 posted on 08/16/2009 9:35:05 AM PDT by uncbob
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To: RobinMasters
Here we go, with the three-card monte again...the dealer is the kenyan.

Any good horse trader knows to ask for more than you really want, and wind up "settling" for what you wanted in the first place.

Americans do not want government health care...PERIOD!

This "announcement" should just intensify the protests...not quell them.
36 posted on 08/16/2009 9:35:14 AM PDT by FrankR (We are only enslaved to the extent of charity we receive....INCUMBENTS OUT!!!)
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To: RobinMasters
"But for all the scare tactics out there, what's truly scary — truly risky — is the prospect of doing nothing."

BWAHAHAHAHA!! Yeah "scary" and "risky" for his political power as President going forward.

37 posted on 08/16/2009 9:35:34 AM PDT by NotSoModerate (Report dissenters to snitch@whitehouse.gov for a $4,500 tax credit)
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To: RobinMasters

I am thinkin, YEA RIGHT ON! We have em stepping BACKWARDS on this whole thing, and THAT is a great sign!

We won a battle here, but the war is far from over. We can’t let up now until the do something that means something, like TORT REFORM Perhaps????? Yea, This is a good sign!


38 posted on 08/16/2009 9:35:56 AM PDT by Danae (- Conservative does not equal Republican. Conservative does not compromise.)
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To: RobinMasters

Head fake.


39 posted on 08/16/2009 9:36:38 AM PDT by TigersEye (0bama: "I can see Mecca from the WH portico." --- Google - Cloward-Piven Strategy)
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To: angkor

When they tackle tort reform, I might listen.


40 posted on 08/16/2009 9:36:38 AM PDT by BunnySlippers (I LOVE BULL MARKETS . . .)
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