RETREAT : White House appears ready to drop 'public option'

Associated Press Writer ^ | August 16, 2009 | PHILIP ELLIOTT

[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.

[wolfcreek]

Obama, “Just call me ahhhh, Mr Lame Duck”

[Girlene]

White house ready to drop public option.....what exactly does this mean? Are they dropping the minimum benefit standards required for all plans? Are they dropping the requirement that all Americans must be insured? What portions of the 1,018 bill are dropped, modified, etc.?

[unspun]

These global Marxofascists will go as far as they can, as fast as they can.

They may not want their cover blown yet, but their strategy of overwhelming the American republic seems to have already been accomplished, to a great extent.

We need outers continuing to out them.

James Simpson:
“Manufactured Healthcare Crisis”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2317138/posts

[rabscuttle385]

I don’t really think it will be out of the picture until we can get this administration out of office.

Only if "we" don't replace the present administration with another bunch of power-hungry control freak statists (e.g., Romney & Co.).

[CitizenM]

What is hysterical is that the Dems have been saying that all the fuss coming from the public...has not been from REAL AMERICANS. It has been from "un-Americans," or has been contrived, funded by insurance companies, or someone, but it is not the popular feeling. They and the liberal media have dismissed the people at the Town Halls, calling them "angry mobs, " and trying to downplay the disdain people have for this HC plan.

Now, NOW...they are going to change it!!! Why??? They have been telling Americans how great it is, how much it is needed, blah, blah, blah. They have been unwilling to acknowledge anything is wrong with it. Most have not even read it. SO WHY THE CHANGE?

OH...I forgot....Obama promised "Change." This just shows they know they are wrong, and are really listening this time and are frightened out of their comfy leather chairs in DC.

Plus, it makes me so da$# angry that all this time and taxpayer money was spent creating a monster bill that was so intolerable and confusing even they cannot read it all, or interpret it. And now more time and taxpayer money will be spent to re-write it! These people have no concern for doing a good job in the first place. Plenty of ideas have been proposed for some good reforms, and less or no govt. take over health ins. But the people in DC would rather waste their time and our money creating something that they just will have to revise. It is maddening!

[Carry_Okie]

Watch the RINOs give the corporatists what they wanted all along: stealth fascism.

They just had to let us Hegel over it first.

[livius]

Only if "we" don't replace the present administration with another bunch of power-hungry control freak statists (e.g., Romney & Co.).

Personally - and maybe I'm being an optimist - I don't think statists like Romney will have a chance. If we survive Obama, the only good thing will be that many Americans have finally looked statism in the eye and found that they do not like it one bit. This is waking up huge numbers of Americans. As I say, perhaps I'm overly optimistic about my fellow citizens, but I do think Obama's assault has made an impact on some formerly apathetic folks.

[stayathomemom]

...someplace in their compromise bill will be a clause or section to allow what they could not legislatively get to be imposed bureaucratically.

Weren't these panels created in the TARP bill, or did I misread something?

[alecqss]

It does not matter. The only pertinent part of this entire bill is for the government to get full control of all (or absolute majority) of monies circulating in the Healthcare system, make it just another tax that will make the government omnipotent over people's lives.

Everything else - terms, definitions, language, promises, assurances, etc - optional.

[livius]

A concerted “fact attack” on the Dems by our GOP legislators would certainly be welcome.

[Beagle8U]

Just think how much this will raise the cost on insurance for the 85% that have it now?

You can't add a bunch of really sick people to a small insurance group without the cost skyrocketing.

If they don't allow any different rates for those with preexisting conditions, everyone else will be charged more to cover it.

A small company with 25 employees would be bankrupted by adding some walking plague queer, with AIDS and every known/unknown form of VD.

[imfrmdixie]

I think this has been the plan all along and the bill we are debating currently is a pure scam and a diversion.
The plan has been to put in a “voucher” system (ie...co-ops). The voucher plan is a plan suggested by Dr. Ezekiel Emanual....and we all know his connection to Obama. Obama and his bunch are crazy like foxes. They are socialists and know exactly how to manipulate ‘the people’ to do their will.

http://bostonreview.net/BR30.6/emanuelfuchs.php

[tet68]

Now it’s Co-ops?
It’s still collectivization no matter what name you put
on it.

These socialist shysters will try anything to get
something passed to get their foot in the door.

[defal33]

Don’t believe it.

I agree, this is a tactic; to put us back to sleep...

[Right Wing Assault]

Obama, writing an opinion piece in Sunday's New York Times, said political maneuvers should be excluded from the debate.

THAT I've got to see!

[Borax Queen]

Will we still be issued National ID cards and/or microchips? Assuming so, so they can just forget about it.

[tet68]

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.

If the media had refered to this as ...
Democrats ask for Hudna over health care...
Everyone would understand just exactly what
kind of tactic this is.

[mc5cents]

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.

It is still snake oil they are peddling. The old medicine men used the same tactic as they moved from town to town. At some point the fact that the "medicine" they sold to some people down the road doesn't work. Well, the old guy would say he already knew that and had sent the whole batch back and then pulled out a "new improved" bottle. It is as old as the hills folks and some people are still buying it. Sad.

[Jeff Head]

Obama Care is also not an option...Obama Care needs to be dropped.

I don't want bones thrown our way over a supposedly (and probably contrived) statement that the public option is dead, so they can get all of the rest of this monstrosity through the door.

Obama has made it clear that he is not trustworthy on this issue. Read his own words.

“I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care program. I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its gross national product on health care, cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. And that’s what Jim is talking about when he says everybody in, nobody out. A single-payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. That’s what I’d like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we’ve got to take back the White House, we’ve got to take back the Senate, and we’ve got to take back the House.” - Barack Hussein Obama, June 30, 2003 to AFL-CIO

Keep fighting...we have them on the run.

The slumbering giant is stiring.

OBAMA HEALTH CARE BY THE NUMBERS

EZEKIEL EMANUEL AND OBAMA HEALTH CARE
(Must Read - Shocking, cited quotes by Emanuel)

OBAMA'S BRIDGE TOO FAR

THE STORM UNLEASHED ON AMERICA

A PETITION ON FACEBOOK FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RESTORATION

...and, hehehe, that is also why so many "fishy" posters, conversations, and emails are showing up all over the nation.

FISHY POSTERS - REPORT TO THE OBAMA-COMMISSAR

[devane617]

They need to completely back away from anything proposed so far, and take a deep breath. Then, take a small piece of the pie and find a solution that we can agree on, let it play out in congress and in real life. Then move to the next step, or redo what was attempted.