Fleecing the taxpayer
Dean went on to argue that “the winners in this bill are insurance companies; the American taxpayer is about to be fleeced with a bailout in a situation that dwarfs even what happened at [insurance giant] AIG.”
The White House, via underlings Axelrod and Gibbs are all on attack mode, as the Monitor reports.
The interesting observation of Randy Shannon is:
It is instructive to political observers that the White House and key Senate Democrats harshly criticized Howard Dean for pointing out the weakness of the Senate Bill. However no such harsh words were served up for Sens. Joe Lieberman, Blanche Lincoln, or Ben Nelson who have all helped to gut the life saving and cost cutting measures of the bill. One wonders if the White House has been conducting a charade while backing the sellout to big pharmaceutical companies and the insurance industry all along.
There is a credibility gap, a major credibility gap, given how early and insidiously Obama [ via Sebelius] dumped on the public option, and Obama then went to Montana to pow-wow with Baucus to make the sellout and burial certain. Then there is this tacky whitehouse.gov propaganda page that is so empty and deceptive about the "fleecing" going on that Dean's noted that it is offensive. Go figure. I think the Shannon quote has it sewn up correctly and sucinctly.
Owned by the money interests, or prove otherwise.
Taking single payer off the table at the start, the only sane appraoch in line with the people getting a fair deal, was the big-time hint from the start that a hoodwinking was in the works. And Dean's called it out. The reaction is as Shannon noted - attack Dean, be silent about Lieberman.
Go figure. It's fairly obvious. Obama is in "anything mode" where he's hidden from leadership and a stern stance about anything, to the extent he can sign anything, and then will call anything he signs "a landmark reform" and that is not anything, but pure BS front and center. There is a credibility vacuum. There is a leadership vacuum. DEAN, from the private sector, is the presently most vocal leader in all this. What is that telling us?
We most certainly would not have Medicare if LBJ had sold out the old folks the way Obama is selling out poor folks - and the rest of us. Yet, LBJ was no populist or progressive saint. He was forceful, however, and that's a leadership style from the left that's been absent for far too long. Or, when people talk forcefully from a liberal perspective, the media either does not hear, or marginalizes the voices.
The result is that the left is moribund except for a handful of voices that cannot manage to be legitimately heard by mainstream media (serving its wealthy ownership).
DEAN IS CORRECT. KUCINICH IS. CONYERS IS. GRAYSON IS. SANDERS IS. They persevere against deceit. We are fortunate patriots like them still exist.
TWEEDLE DEE VS. TWEEDLE DUM: One thing that sets me off - and it's shown in the two party dominance where there's not a true hint of difference and where the debate gets shifted ever toward the wrong set of solutions and ideas but where the gap is minimal. That failure to be forceful in speaking of a bigger view than is narrowly defined by politicians - and that most certianly is a term inclusive of union bosses, they are "politicians" in every real sense - that failure of politicians is most clearly mirrored in this item where a big-time union boss, Walter Reuther probably turning in his grave, makes the argument that Tweedle Dum is "inadequate" so that Tweedle Dee is where everyone he knows should place their bets.
Hey, both the Senate and House versions are not merely "inadequate" but are sellouts of the people.
DEAN IS RIGHT. START OVER. WHAT IS LIKELY TO COME OUT OF CONFERENCE COMMITTEE BASED ON THE TWEEDLE DEE AND TWEEDLE DUM IS NOT WORTH BEING PASSED OR SIGNED INTO LAW.
CONGRESS HAS FAILED MISERABLY AND EVERY DEMOCRAT IN EITHER HOUSE EXCEPT FOR A SMALL HANDFUL OF STALWARTS DESERVES THE LIBERAL PROGRESSIVE POPULIST CHALLENGER NONE REALLY FEAR, POLITICS BEING AS IT IS AND MEDIA COVERAGE BEING AS IT IS, IN THIS NATION, IN THESE TIMES. AND THAT IS SHAMEFUL AND A DISGRACE.