[Peace-discuss] more on health care from local watchdog Nick Burbules

Tue Aug 18 17:54:08 CDT 2009

--- On Tue, 8/18/09, Nick Burbules <burbules at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Nick Burbules <burbules at gmail.com>
Subject: [PBD - Progressive Blog Digest] 8/18/2009 07:29:00 AM
To: todays-news at googlegroups.com
Date: Tuesday, August 18, 2009, 7:35 AM

NEGOTIATING WITH THEMSELVES

So, Obama starts by taking true universal coverage (“Medicare for all”) off the table, and adopts a market centered approach, expanding access to health INSURANCE. He lays down a robust public option as a necessary condition for true competition that will hold down costs – then later says it is just a “sliver” of the issue and not essential at all.

Meanwhile, Senate Dems are negotiating with people who want to strip every key provision out of the bill – and then will vote against it anyway. This is today’s
“bipartisanship” at work

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/08/grassley-i-wont-vote-for-my-own-bill-without-broad-republican-support.php
Grassley: I Won't Vote For My Own Bill

More: http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/08/grassley-says-he-would-sabotage-a-health-care-bill-whose-provisions-he-favors-in-order-to-advance-partisan-agenda.php

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/08/rnc-think-the-gop-will-support-co-ops-think-again.php
RNC: Think The GOP Will Support Co-ops? Think Again!

Watch: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#32454071

Meanwhile

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/08/house-progressive-white-house-could-lose-100-votes-if-he-scraps-public-option.php
House Progressive: White House Could Lose 100 Votes If It Scraps Public Option

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2009/08/hcr.html
[Atrios] I don't know if the progressive House Dems will hold firm, but it's certainly a more plausible story than "Max Baucus creates compromise bill that Republicans will vote for." Yet it's the latter story which gets all the attention. Dem pundits should understand that there's pretty good chance that absent good public option, there will be no health care bill.

More: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_08/019522.php

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/08/17/public_passage/index.html

Is the public option dead?

Yes: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2009/aug/17/obama-administration-healthcare-no-public-option
Public option goes pffft

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#32454458

No: http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/08/17/public_option/index.html

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/08/latest-twists-on-the-public-option.php

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/dont-panic-howard-dean-says-bill-will

Maybe: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/the-public-option-as-a-signal/

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/chip-they-should-not-bargain-by-dday.html

Who knows? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#32454058

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2009/08/making-sense-public-option

So long ago . . .

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/president-obama/flashback-last-month-obama-said-reform-must-include-public-option/
Last Month, Obama Said Reform “Must Include” Public Option

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/8/17/767126/-Baucus-proposed-Medicare-style-public-option-last-November
Baucus proposed Medicare-style public option last November

http://www.slate.com/id/2225506/
Why the Public Option Isn't Dispensable

The Big Picture

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/17/AR2009081702178.html
[Eugene Robinson] It's true that politics is the art of the possible, but it's also true that great leaders expand the scope of possibility. Barack Obama took office pledging to be a transformational president. The fate of a government-run public health insurance option will be an early test of his ability to end the way Washington's big-money, special-interest politics suffocates true reform. . . . [read on]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/opinion/18herbert.html
[Bob Herbert] It’s never a contest when the interests of big business are pitted against the public interest. So if we manage to get health care “reform” this time around it will be the kind of reform that benefits the very people who have given us a failed system, and thus made reform so necessary.

Forget about a crackdown on price-gouging drug companies and predatory insurance firms. That’s not happening. With the public pretty well confused about what is going on, we’re headed — at best — toward changes that will result in a lot more people getting covered, but that will not control exploding health care costs and will leave industry leaders feeling like they’ve hit the jackpot. . . . [read on]

Could we still get a good health care reform bill out of this mess?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-lux/the-news-of-its-death-is_b_261462.html

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/some-light-by-digby-i-had-chance-to.html

Would things have gone differently if Tom Daschle hadn’t screwed up his appointment as Sect’y of HHS?

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/08/unseen_consequences.php

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/08/grassley-says-he-would-sabotage-a-health-care-bill-whose-provisions-he-favors-in-order-to-advance-partisan-agenda.php

It only takes one

http://ktar.com/?nid=6&sid=1200460
About a dozen people carrying guns, including one with a military-style rifle, milled among protesters outside the convention center where President Barack Obama was giving a speech Monday - the latest incident in which protesters have openly displayed firearms near the president.

Gun-rights advocates say they're exercising their constitutional right to bear arms and protest . . .

http://tpmtv.talkingpointsmemo.com/?id=3219644
Rep. Gingrey (R-GA) Encourages Guns at Town Halls

More: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/08/where_are_the_limits.php

Is the Obama admin finally turning against the Defense of Marriage Act?

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_08/019521.php

http://www.americablog.com/2009/08/new-obama-legal-brief-changes-tune-on.html

The Republicans do this so well. Now they’re saying that the “death panel” characterizations of the health care bill that THEY promulgated, were in fact ginned up out of all proportion by the “far left.” And no one laughs in their face

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/8/17/768195/-Grassley-Joins-the-Far-Left

Dick Armey, liar

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_08/019510.php

Is HE still around?

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/joe-plumber-those-kind-people-i-usually-to

Christmas in August: imagine a GOP primary with Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, and Sarah Palin

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/08/bachmann-ill-run-for-president----if-god-calls-me-to-do-it.php
[Michele Bachmann (R-MN)] If I felt that's what the Lord was calling me to do, I would do it," she answered. "When I have sensed that the Lord is calling me to do something, I've said yes to it. But I will not seek a higher office if God is not calling me to do it. That's really my standard.

"If I am called to serve in that realm I would serve," she concluded, "but if I am not called, I wouldn't do it." . . .

http://www.americablog.com/2009/08/santorum-thinks-we-think-hes-dangerous.html
[Rick Santorum] "I'm sure the folks on the left see me as dangerous. They've always seen me as dangerous, and I take a little pride in that. People cannot see you as dangerous unless you're effective." . . . [read on]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/17/AR2009081702177.html
[Richard Cohen] Palinism. What is it? It is an updated version of McCarthyism . . .

Eight more advertisers, including Wal-Mart, pull out of Glenn Beck’s show

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/if-theyve-lost-walmart-by-digby-good.html

Another “mistake” in a Fox News chyron

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/08/fox-chyron-refers-to-rep-joke-sestak.php

Bonus item: The Katy Abram interview, with annotation

http://crooksandliars.com/bluegal/open-thread-222

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--
Posted By Nick Burbules to PBD - Progressive Blog Digest at 8/18/2009 07:29:00 A
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