General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: This message was self-deleted by its author [View all]truedelphi
(32,324 posts)is how Obama went around all summer of 2009, telling one and all that he could not participate in the situation of using abully pulpit for anything related to the drfting of an insurance piece of legislation.
Then we come to find out that Rahm Emanuel and Liz Fowler were busy that same summer, initially using rooms in the "WH Basement" and then when activists started demanding to see the logs of whomever it was that Emanuel and Fowler were consorting with, then the meetings with the insurance CEO's began to take place some blocks away from the WH.
Together those two drafted a piece of legislation that was over 2,000 pages long, and basically written by the Industry. It was filled with give aways to the Big Insurers and mandates that will add immensely to the Big Insurers' profits, without many regulations in terms of price containment, or even ways for individuals to appeal the devious methods that Big Insurers utilize to avoid handling payments to the insured.
So there are several things going on here:
One DUPLICITY A President claims the following: 'Public option is but one tool in an entire tool box of options that Congress can employ. But since I am the President, and I am part of the Executive Branch of the US government, the separation of the three branches of government means I must bow out of the discussion until Congress has put its finishing touches on the piece of legislation that they re putting together.' (Obama's Answer given to Univ of Co student, Boulder Co, mid Aug 2009) But meanwhile his chief of staff is drafting the legislation with Liz Fowler and drafting it according to the whims and desires of the Big CEO's at Big Insurers.
Two: The wholesale deliberate evading and ignoring of what needed to be done. On this very board, I witness person after person lamenting Reagan.
But Obama is Reagan on steroids. We have gone from a nation where 9 cents out of every dollar of profit goes directly into the coffers of big banks, (circa the 1980's) to a nation where 49 cents out of every dollar of profit that is generated goes to the banks. All due to Obama appointments.
Perhaps if Obama had FDR as a template for his Administration and not Mr Reagan, (who let's face it, he praised and praised and praised in his autobiography), then we would still have a vibrant middle class. Instead, many thinking people realize we have been sold out.