I just heard Dan Pfeiffer the White House communications director on CNN with Wolf Blitzer say that they had to 'compromise' and make this sickening bargain with the devil because 'we have divided government'.
We didn't have divided government in 2009 as Democrats stalled, delayed, bargained, cajoled, pleaded, but took no hostages, and never blackmailed on health care reform.
Yup, I'm back there--again. I just can't forget the betrayal of the American people on the public option, and that we could have had it with reconciliation, had the White House, just been supportive.
We had the votes then for a public option through reconciliation, and still it didn't happen.
Like so many, I'm shell shocked about the debt deal. But I shouldn't be and nor should you. Anyone who followed the health care debate could see all this coming. Then, as now, the public statements coming from the White House bore virtually no reality to the behind-the-scenes double dealing and horse trading.
This morning the White House is calling it a compromise, not precisely what the White House wants. This is the same bullshit we heard on health care and the public option. But even more tragically back then, in the days when Democrats controlled all three branches of government, we could have passed the public option through reconciliation, had this been an objective of the White House.
A trip down memory lane. What the White House said--repeatedly in support of a public option, then we all know what happened.
March 26 And to say we are going to allow anybody to get health insurance -- and if you've got a preexisting condition you're not going to be excluded, but you're going to be able to obtain health insurance; and if you can't obtain it through a private plan, there is going to be a public plan that is available in some way to give you insurance, or insurers are obligated to provide you with insurance in some way -- now, that's a principle.
And this.
July 7 I am pleased by the progress we're making on health-care reform and still believe, as I've said before, that one of the best ways to bring down costs, provide more choices and ensure quality is a public option that will force the insurance companies to compete and keep them honest.
So here we are--who would've guessed. Obama has adopted economic policies that will prolong the Great Recession, fail to curb the ability of Wall Street to plunge us into another one, and has caved to unprecedented political extortion and blackmail.
This is not a good day for whatever remains of our democracy.