Former Obama Appointee Van Jones, Continues to Lead, Speaking on Healthcare:

[freshwest]

Last edited Sat Nov 16, 2013, 01:42 PM - Edit history (1)

Van Jones: Let's Stop Trying to Please Republicans

Published on Oct 29, 2013
Recorded May, 2012
Directed/Produced by Jonathan Fowler, Elizabeth Rodd, and Dillon Fitton

Van Jones: "I don't understand how this individual mandate is something that we've allowed the Republicans to define as some sort of, quote-unquote, government takeover. In fact, it's their idea. The progressives were saying we want single-payer. Myself, I would say why do you need insurance companies for health care at all. Insurance is what you buy when you don't know if something bad is going to happen. Maybe I'll crash my car. Maybe I won't. I don't know. So I'm going to get car insurance just in case. Everybody's going to get sick and die, so you know every single person's going to need health insurance. That's not something you can provide insurance for, that's called a service.

So my view, single-payer. The Republicans always said, no, that's too much government. So we came back and said, okay, no single-payer. How about a public option? So you'd a public program, everybody could join Medicare or compete with the private companies, too much government. We want individual responsibility. So we said, fine, you win. We'll do it your way, individual mandate. And then, they say that is a socialist government takeover. Well, hold on a second now. You're now a part of the pro-moocher caucus? You're saying it's okay for people to just dive bomb their way into the emergency room? Yeah, don't worry about it. Don't get any insurance. The government will pay for it. Now, you're like the pro-freeloader party?

This Republican Party, from my point of view, has taken the posture that any idea, even their own ideas, if they're championed by this president, they will oppose. And I think that discredits them. It's like chasing a bunny on the old dog track. They have a mechanical bunny. If you've ever been to a dog track, I'm from Tennessee, if you ever go to Memphis, they have a dog track and they have a mechanical bunny. And they open the gates and the dogs just go and try and chase that mechanical bunny. And I think those dogs probably think someday they're going to catch that bunny. They're never going to catch that bunny because the bunny keeps moving.

You're trying to chase the right to try to convince them to agree with you. They will run away from their own ideas if they think a Democrat embraces them. It was a Republican idea to have cap and trade, a market-based, business-friendly solution for carbon and climate problems. That was the Heritage Foundation that came up with cap and trade. We were saying carbon tax. To chase them, we moved to cap and trade and they moved on to don't do anything. Climate change isn't even real.

On health care, it was their idea to have an individual mandate and personal responsibility and don't have a big government single-payer system. We moved from single-payer through public option to individual mandate trying to catch them and now they say that the individual mandate is socialism. You will never catch this bunny. You will never, so what you need to do is stand for what you believe in and bring a majority around your own ideas and govern. And it's the biggest fallacy on the part of liberals is that that little hound dog running around that track is ever going to catch that bunny and that we will ever be able to compromise enough to appease the right wing in this country so they'll actually govern with us in a responsible way. They have to be defeated at the ballot box by a stable governing majority that can implement the changes that we need in this country, whether they want to participate or not."

I believe the ACA will lead to UHC as people's minds are changed about the 'evil government' mantra they've heard for so many years.

It's become more extreme because they are desperate and losing against common sense. People are going to wake up, which is why the Koch brothers/GOP has pulled out all the stops.

It's why the billions they invested to elect their robosigner Romney failed.

Regarding Van Jones:

He was appointed by Obama as White House Special Advisor for Green Jobs but was set upon by rightwing media:

http://www.mnn.com/money/green-workplace/blogs/van-jones-discusses-his-white-house-position

You'll note that he says he knew the agenda would go forward in his absence. He was blackballed by MSM for talking about important things, which they are paid to not cover.

Take a look at his resume, hardly anyone but PBO has one so impressive. Obama chose well and I'm glad to see more coverage of him:

Van Jones



Anthony Kapel "Van" Jones (born September 20, 1968) is an American environmental advocate, civil rights activist, and attorney. He is a co-founder of four non-profit organizations including Rebuild the Dream, of which he is president. In 1996, he founded the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, a California non-governmental organization (NGO) working for alternatives to violence. In 2005, he co-founded Color of Change, an advocacy group for African Americans.[1] In 2007, he founded Green for All, a national NGO dedicated to "building an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty."[2] In 2011, he founded Rebuild the Dream, a national advocacy organization working towards a fairer economy.[3] His first book, The Green Collar Economy, was released on October 7, 2008. It won the Nautilus Book Award and reached number 12 on the New York Times Best Seller list.[4] In 2008, Time magazine named Jones one of its "Heroes of the Environment".[5] Fast Company called him one of the "12 Most Creative Minds of 2008".[6]

In March 2009 Jones was appointed by President Barack Obama to the newly created position of Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, where he worked with various "agencies and departments to advance the administration's climate and energy initiatives, with a special focus on improving vulnerable communities."[7][8] In July 2009 he became "embroiled in a controversy"[9] over his past political activities, including a public comment disparaging congressional Republicans, his name appearing on a petition for 911Truth.org, and allegations of association with a Marxist group during the 1990s.[10][11] For these issues, Van Jones was heavily criticized by conservatives.[12] Jones resigned from the position in early September 2009.[9] "On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me," Jones said in his resignation statement. "They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide."[10]

Jones is currently a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a senior policy advisor at Green for All. Jones also holds a joint appointment at Princeton University, as a distinguished visiting fellow in both the Center for African American Studies and in the Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Jones

I would vote for him in 2016 if he ran for POTUS. It appears the Democrats have an 'embarrassment of riches' to choose from for candidates for office now...

[Pretzel_Warrior]

1. wow! I wish I could rec this a hundred times. VERY WELL SAID

and this guy got run off because of things he'd said earlier in his career.

[freshwest]

2. Another of our young geniuses, ready to take America to a better place.

I didn't find any offense at what he said, or more importantly did, earlier.

Adlai Stevenson said:

If we value the pursuit of knowledge, we must be free to follow wherever that search may lead us. The free mind is not a barking dog, to be tethered on a ten-foot chain.

And that is exactly what the GOP has been doing for a long time, with their complicit media. It's time for us to take our freedom of mind back.

[brer cat]

3. What a blast from the past, freshwest.

My earliest memories of politics is of people teasing my father for being a "Stevenson man" and always losing.

My favorite is a real classic:

"If the Republicans will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them."

Thanks.

[mountain grammy]

4. My mom always said "Stevenson's too smart for America!"

Van Jones is absolutely one of my favorite Obama nominees that Republicans dismissed, reminding me of one of my favorite JFK quotes: "Mr. Nixon in the last seven days has called me an economic ignoramus, a Pied Piper, and all the rest. I’ve just confined myself to calling him a Republican, but he says that is getting too low." True then, more true now.

[IrishAyes]

5. Van Jones - future POTUS.

Note the absence of a question mark. Couldn't happen soon enough for me. I've been watching him for a few years now, never disappointed. If I'm still alive when he runs, this blood red town where I retired will pine for the good old days when all they had to put up with was my support for Barack Obama.

They may spare me from a lingering old age yet! Two have outright offered already, and a few others expressed thinly veiled warnings. Well, they ain't seen nothin' yet!

[sheshe2]

6. Oh my!

From what I read at the wiki link, Van Jones was smeared for speaking the truth. The Repukes obviously can't handle the truth.

Sad that he was drummed out of the Obama Administration by the liars and cowards. Yet his voice was not silenced.

Stunning OP, freshwest. Thank you.

The Color of Change~

[libdem4life]

7. Have seen him on pundit/talk/news shows. His presence stands out. One of our assets.

[hopemountain]

8. just keep doing what you're doing van jones!

speaking truth to the machine.
i wonder whether he does have aspirations to run for office - any office. whenever i see his name mentioned i tune in because i have a thirst for his level of intelligence, integrity, and forward thinking.