Update: Obama: I beg your pardon, I never promised you a …Public Option
Update 2: HotAir links Jake Tapper demolishing the BS from Camp Obama on his campaign promises on the P.O. and mandates.
Update: Obama says he did not campaign on the P.O. and that the Senate bill has all he wanted, okay let’s go to the tape as Howard Cosell would say:
…M’kay..… but yes Obama, yes in fact you DID campaign on a P.O. and so did your OFA website. My fave Dem POTUS Big Dawg lied about a bj, this ‘Dem’ POTUS lies about the centerpiece of health care reform we have worked for for DECADES. I find that a fitting summary of these 2 POTUS’ and which one is really trustworthy with the things that matter most to the lives of the American people…. YMMV….
FDL is loaded for bear and has all the many videos and web pages where Obama DID in fact promise a Public Option despite his apparent early onset Alzheimers in his WaPo interview (No offense to those suffering from Alzheimers)…
How does he lie to us, let us count the ways….no tax increase if you make under 250k HA!!!, no tax on health insurance premium deductions from payroll…check! make 86k? No subsidies AND a whopping excise tax on your family plan! Unless you are in a Union which is EXEMPT or in a SPECIAL state, one of 17 which are EXEMPT…
No individual mandate but a strong employer mandate..check! an individual mandate complete with IRS fines and penalties/granishments AND you get to insure your ADULT children through age 27 at least!(because nothing says you’re part of the dynamic generation of ‘progressive creative class’ like living in your Hillary voting mom’s basement and making her pay for your health insurance ) but no worries NO strong employer mandate survived.
A public option to offer ‘choice and competition’ to ‘keep the insurers honest’..check! no P.O. he now claims he never even THOUGHT of a P.O.!!! “What is this P.O. of which you speak??” AND no interstate competition, instead we get an insurer monopoly that holds us all hostage with a mandated product!
Prescription reimportation and bulk negotiations on RX rates in Medicare…check! WH killed Prescription Reimportation Dorgan Amendment and sold out to Big Pharma and Billy Tauzin in their very FIRST move on HCR, aka a big giant CLUE these guys were not going to ‘help’ consumers. Also the WH promised NOT to do negotiations on Medicare PT D drug prices!
You can keep your health insurance if you like it..check! Medicare Advantage, well if your Senator is a crony capitalist cutting deals in smoke filled rooms you might, just might get grandfathered in to keep your Advantage prices and bennies, ‘grandfathered’ get it, get it?! But the rest of the country is just frakked..and employer plans are expected to lower coverage levels to avoid the tax (per the CBO)
We could go on, but you get the point. It was the single biggest domestic issue on the Dem platform and it was tossed under the bus, overboard, onto the garbage heap by the MAJORITY, the DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY in the SENATE, THE HOUSE AND THE WH.
Remember it come Election Day, no matter which side of the aisle you are on, if any, this group of Democrats sold out American consumers and taxpayers and Seniors. Next they come for Social Security…..
*Rose Garden/ Xena mashup courtesy of bekhalin13
Update: Reid files cloture motions; TheHill: ‘Pharma deal holding up bipartisan rx health amendment’
Update from Kaiser, appears Dingy Harry is going to pull a fast one and IS blocking the RX Reimportation Bill from a vote, 200 Billion a year Americans spend on their RXs. Well this is just one more nail in the electoral coffin for the Democratic majority:
CongressDaily: “Senate Majority Leader [Harry] Reid plans to file a package of cloture motions next week that would allow a final vote on healthcare legislation before the Senate goes home for Christmas, a leadership aide said today.” He plans to offer “simultaneous cloture motions” for the overall bill, for a substitute amendment and for a manager’s amendment containing “key compromises.” The plan “came to light as senators from both parties wondered why leaders have not scheduled a vote on an amendment to allow reimportation of cheaper prescription drugs, which appears to have enough votes to pass” (Friedman and Edney, 12/10).
In a time of incredibly high unemployment, at least three Democratic Senators are blocking a bipartisan amendment that has the votes to pass, that will save many Americans hundreds of dollars a year or more on their health care costs..
…Democratic senators from states home to pharmaceutical companies, including Tom Carper (Del.), Frank Lautenberg (N.J.) and Robert Menendez (N.J.), object to the amendment, citing concerns about ensuring the safety of medicines entering the U.S. supply chain from foreign sources. Congress Daily has reported that Carper (D-Del.) placed a hold on the amendment, but his office refused to comment to The Hill….
Okay neoprogs and libs still believing in Teh Oneness, riddle me this. Why oh why would The Hill which loves them some Obama report that the WH deal and the 3 Pharma state DEMOCRATIC Senators are blocking a TRUE BIPARTISAN, COST SAVING BILL THAT HAS THE VOTES TO PASS, THAT THIS PRESIDENT CAMPAIGNED ON??? Because it is true.
The message did not seem mixed to McCain, whom Obama defeated in the race for the White House last year. “The fix is in,” he said.
Durbin, asked if they are WHIPPING AGAINST THIS AMENDMENT, didnt say No, he said ‘well we did ask how they are voting…” THE FRAKKERS!!! One of the ONLY effective price reforms that will directly, immediately LOWER healthcare costs to AMERICAN CONSUMERS and they are KILLING IT?
Please call these yahoos and tell them WE DEMAND A VOTE!! Prescription reimportation should be allowed in FREE MARKETS with OPEN TRADE!!!!
A deal between the White House and the pharmaceutical industry is holding up a bipartisan amendment to allow the importation of cheaper prescription drugs from abroad, according to a member of the Senate Democratic leadership.
…Dorgan’s measure, which would permit bulk exports of medicines from countries such as Canada, enjoys broad and bipartisan support and likely has the backing of more than 60 senators, which would guarantee its adoption on the healthcare reform bill.
Tension between the White House and Democratic supporters of the so-called drug reimportation amendment is primarily behind the delay, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Thursday.
“There’s a political subtext here,” Durbin said. “It has to do with whether or not we can do as part of the impact on pharma in this bill and whether or not there are other things that are higher priorities.”
The White House and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) struck a deal this summer to limit the drug industry’s financial exposure under reform to $80 billion over 10 years, though its terms have never been fully disclosed.
President Barack Obama was one of the 35 co-sponsors of Dorgan’s drug reimportation legislation when Obama served in the Senate. In addition, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was a leading supporter of the House version of the bill when he served in the lower chamber….
HYPOCRITES!!!! And these Obots who railed against the Big Dawg and HRC are silent on this????? WTH???!?!?!?
Update: Sen Carper confirms quid pro quo! Is Pharma the Chamberlain of the health care wars? YES!!!: Boehner to Big Pharma: Don’t be an appeaser….
Update: Courtesy of HA, Sen Carper CONFIRMS the quid pro quo deal b/w phaRma and TOTUS for the ad buy. He is actually whining about it, apparently not grasping the IMMORALITY snd perhaps ILLEGALITY of the deal. He is upset that Baucus isn’t sticking to the right $ figure! What a maroon!
Okay Seniors, it is up to you. TOTUS promised you could buy RXs from Canada and he sold you down the river for a 150m ad buy and buy in from phaRma for reforms.
CALL YOUR CRITTERS! JUST SAY NO TO THE QUID PRO QUO!
Right on John!
In a scathing, borderline condescending, “dear colleague,” Boehner urged Tauzin to unwind PhRMA’s deal with President Barack Obama and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to support health care legislation in exchange for profit protection under rules established in the controversial 2003 prescription-drug bill….
…Drugmakers agreed to find tens of billions in savings in order to trim the federal government’s prescription-drug tab under Medicare in exchange for other protections, like allowing the industry to preserve a lucrative rebate structure under Medicare Part D and the White House’s agreement to oppose any move to force the government import lower-priced drugs from Canada. The industry also committed to spend $150 million to advertise in support of health care reform – although it has not yet endorsed any of the four bills to pass out of committee.
Boehner’s letter, which is excerpted after the jump, speaks for itself. But the central thrust is that PhRMA cut a bad deal, in large part, because Democrats will eventually renege, Boehner argues. It reads like a jilted lover laughing at his ex-girlfriend after she gets dumped by the replacement boyfriend. Check it out.
These are EXCERPTS of the letter:
“Dear Billy,
“Appeasement rarely works as a conflict resolution strategy. This is as true in the arena of policymaking as it is in schoolyards across America. When a bully asks for your lunch money, you may have no choice but to fork it over. But cutting a deal with the bully is a different story, particularly if the “deal” means helping him steal others’ money as the price of protecting your own.
“The simple truth is, two wrongs don’t make a right. And the short-sighted health care deal PhRMA struck with the Obama Administration at your urging provides confirmation of this time-tested maxim on an epic and tragic scale.
“The “bully” in this case is Big Government. At your behest, PhRMA has chosen to accommodate a Washington takeover of health care at the expense of the American people in hopes of securing favorable treatment and future profits. It’s a short-sighted bargain that leaves your own customers and employees behind. And it now has all the markings of a deal gone sour.
Moderate in the Middle 