Posted on 08/18/2009 9:51:24 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
WASHINGTON -- The gutsy admonition that "failure is not an option" has turned into the "failed public option" in President Obama's trouble-plagued, government-run health care plan.
The idea of the federal government operating another health-insurance business to compete with Blue Cross/Blue Shield and hundreds of other private plans has crashed and burned -- the victim of a massive grassroots protest movement and deepening fears and divisions among Democratic lawmakers.
The White House gave Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius the go-ahead Sunday to suggest that the administration was not necessarily wedded to a government health-insurance plan for millions of uninsured Americans. But in a bit of good-cop/bad-cop playacting, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs insisted Monday that the president was still behind a government plan and that the news media had misinterpreted her remarks. Other West Wing officials said his positions had not changed, though they left him some wiggle room.
"The goals are choice and competition. His preference is a public option. If there are other ideas, he's happy to look at them," Gibbs said. But the Democratic Party's dominant left wing smelled a hasty retreat from the ideological core of Obama's nationalized health care plan. The party was fully at war with itself, and action on health care, this year at least, appeared to be a much shakier prospect.
Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota, a leader in the health care debate who is pushing state and regional insurance co-operatives, pounded another nail in the public option's coffin Sunday, declaring that Democrats did not have the votes for it in the Senate.
Party liberals who have been among Obama's strongest supporters were furious, blaming the White House for a botched, weak-kneed strategy and -- worse -- betrayal of a solemn campaign promise to millions of voters.
"I wonder if the White House truly understands the depth of anger they'll face from the progressive side if they fail to pass health care reform with a strong public option," screamed Markos Moulitsas, founder of the radical Daily Kos Web site that has become the bible of the left's ground forces.
"We haven't busted our [expletive] the last four years to pass bank bailouts and give insurance companies everything they ever wanted. If we wanted that, we'd be Republicans," Kos wrote Monday. If Democrats "can't do the right thing here," he warned, he would lead a revolt "to rid ourselves of the corporatist hacks that infest our party."
Former Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean's Democracy for America, a liberal grassroots group, sent an e-mail to its supporters saying that "a health care bill without a public option is DOA in the House. Period." Despite denials of a changed position, the White House has seen the handwriting on the wall, tacitly acknowledging that they were losing public support at the grassroots level because of the fierce opposition at hundreds of town-hall gatherings during Congress' month-long August recess.
A Rasmussen poll for the first time in two years finds that voters give Republicans a slight edge over the Democrats on the health care issue. A USA Today/Gallup Poll reports that independents are now siding with the town-hall protesters by two to one. Another Gallup Poll says more Americans disapprove of Obama's health care plan by 49 percent to 43 percent.
Reports coming in from the town-hall meetings also reveal deep doubts in the electorate about the government's ability to run responsibly any kind of business, let alone health care. Web sites and the blogosphere were peppered this week with repeated references to the government's most notorious business failures: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Amtrak, the post office and, most disturbing of all, the Medicare program itself, which faces trillions of dollars in unfunded liabilities.
Another complaint being voiced by many Americans questioned the White House's decision to focus on a government takeover of the health care industry when the economy remained in shambles and was a much higher priority. Unemployment, home foreclosures and bankruptcies continued to rise as consumer confidence plunged and economists were forecasting a long and weak recovery period. New polls showed that confidence in Obama's economic policies has collapsed.
This week, a USA Today/Gallup Poll reported that 57 percent of those surveyed said the administration's $787 billion spending stimulus plan was either having no effect on the economy or was making things worse. Sixty percent voiced doubts it would have any impact next year or beyond. Nearly seven months into Obama's presidency, the wheels seem to be coming off his agenda. The energy tax plan is stalled in the Senate. Health care has turned into a Democratic battleground. Public confidence in his economic-stimulus plan is evaporating.
In each of these initiatives, the common denominators are more spending, deeper debt and increased taxes. At a time when the American people are tightening their belts, Fat City is getting fatter than ever.
Place not your hopes in panaceas. The last general to try for the presidency was the odious Wesley Clark.
As for businessmen, I’d say the likes of Mike Bloomberg and John Corzine (or Ross Perot)—corrupt megalomaniacs who weren’t satisfied with just money—would leave an equally bad taste.
The last Ph.d. academic was Woodrow Wilson, in retrospect, a man truly deranged.
Your lips to God's ears.
Said in the best Pat Paulsen voice.
This is a nation of pill poppers and the people don't want that to change.
I’m on board with you. One vet to another, Hooah brother.
Actually, a sizable percentage of posters here predicted it. If you paid even half assed attention to the team he put together during the primaries ,and noted just how many of his advisers served the same function under Carter - then it was pretty clear where this was going to go.
Ship, what happened to the bus?
If you want to do something for Governor Palin there is something that you can do right now that will be worth more than a million dollars later.
I am old line Republican. The Party is starting to set in motion schedules and events for 2012. They are very tentative at this point and open to whoever will be the nominee. There is an informal Romney organization consisting of past supporters and people who expect him to be the nominee.
There is no one representing Governor Palin. She needs to have at least an informal group representing her interests and communicating with the Republican organizations regularly in each state.
I would suggest that you set up such an organization, even if it is just an outline of supporters. Don't do anything in her name, just be there and be ready to be activated if and when she needs you. Don't be disappointed later if you are bypassed in her campaign structure. She will pick her own people but she needs your presence starting NOW.
What you want to do is to plan for a long primary season. She will probably win in Iowa and lose in Michigan, win in New Hampshire and South Carolina and toss up in Florida. A long primary means that she is still in the game and slugging away. The party is all but holding the door open for her but she needs people now who can speak up for her.
Just a suggestion.
Oh, one more thing. I try to always refer to her as Governor Palin. There will always be those who use "Sarah" but I think that it adds a bit of gravitas if it is interspersed with her formal title once in a while.
After all, she earned it.
Much of this can be laid at the feet of the criminally complicit, so-called “MSM” that hid Obama’s past and elevated him to saintly status. But, I also blame the so-called “independent” voters who bought the MSM lies and obfuscations about Obama, his background, and his views. The GOP fools who stayed home, or worse voted Obama, deserve excoriation, too.
Every time I hear about or read a piece in which an American “regrets” his or her vote for Obama, claiming “who knew”, I want to take a 2x4 across his or her thick skull.
BS&T, nice...
Sheesh. Whatever happen to the "given" that life is not always a bed of roses? But what would I know. I am way over here these days. Maybe my information is incorrect.
Wise man (or woman as the case might be). You have been in the trenches, I can see.
And one more thing: STOP Apologizing for America! Fool!
It is not enough to simply remove the wheels.
Bill Clinton came back stonger than ever.
Obama is counting on short term memmory for the 2010 elections.
We need to essentially strip the car of the Obama administration.
Crush the Obama socialist agenda to the point that he has MULTIPLE primary challengers.
Our pretend president cannot FAIL fast enough to suit us.
Maybe if we threw water on him he would melt like the Wicked Witch of the West.
And if so, America is about to become a banana republic, like Mexico,or worse, like Ghana.
The ghost of FDR is finally being exorcised. Funny thing, it took seventy years for the Russians to get rid of Communism and it has taken us seventy years to shake ourselves loose from the legacy of FDR.
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