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Has anyone here heard of the story of Troy? Lieberman is the insurance industry’s Trojan Horse. All by himself, this neo-Republican could bring down the Dems hold on Congress. Anger enough of Obama’s strongest 2008 supporters, and see who stays home next November. With a terrible health reform bill and the wars, Obama is risking |
a challenge in the primaries. Yes, Obama is beginning to look like LBJ.
Obama call to the Dems to pass a health reform bill, any bill, has caused him to fall into the insurance industry’s trap. Yes, the insurance industry, that pack of wolves who financed the opposition to health insurance reform, helped to organize the Tea Partiers, bankrolled the GOP, gave them all talking points that denounced Obama’s health reform as socialism. The bill, under consideration in the Senate, the health care bill that Joe Lieberman has demanded that the Dems pass, if they want his support, has no Medicare buy-in or public option, and it mandates that every citizen must hand over their sweat, as much as twenty percent in some cases — as much as twenty percent of many Americans hard earned money — hand it over — give it up– surrender it, or else — to private insurance companies. This is theft. This is unchecked corporate skinning of citizens. This is raw feudalism!. (link)
Feudalism! The fat, rich rascals of the insurance industry are quick to say no to what they call socialism, but like the greedy hogs that they are– (and because of their greed, there is a recognizable need for real reform) — these rascals have no problem with Americans working like serfs to pay them whatever they demand in term of premiums, to pay or go to jail.
Thanks to Laughing Joe, a once popular drive to provide every American with health insurance has turned unpopular.(link)(link).
Thanks to Laughing Joe? No thanks to that rascal. Did I call him a rascal? Yes. He’s a rascal, the rascal.
Mr. Obama and the Dems in the Senate, Harry Reid and his band of kow-tow-ers, can not be excused for following Laughing Joe into folly.
Mr. Obama has been told by progressives, and he need to listen, that with no public option, there is no health insurance reform. If he refuses to listen, will he pay a price in 2012? Will a new President be spending Christmas in the White House in 2013? Not if the GOP can help it. I shall discuss why in my next post.
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{ 30 comments… read them below or add one }
mediamatters.org…. great source for trash. Everything with you is greed Laura. Me senses some envy. But that’s just my opinion. I wish you had a smoking gun, but he’s not the only one with family in the business. What was it you were saying earlier about repubs turning on themselves? Seems the dems do it too. Just better.
Very interesting. Thank you for sharing.
During the Senate debate on health care reform, the Senate considered an amendment (the Dorgan Amendment),(link) which would have allowed the importation of cheaper priced prescription drugs from Canada. The pharmaceutical industry worked the Senate like a swarm of bees work a flowering weed patch. If the Amendment became law, the pharmaceuticals huge profits would have been trimmed back a bit. This vote showed that all the dark hats aren’t always on one side of the aisle. Those hats get passed around. The Amendment needed 60 votes to pass. Note how our public servants voted their interest.
48 Senators Voted Against the people and for the pharmaceuticals. Note who they are.
Akaka (D-HI)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Bennett (R-UT)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Burris (D-IL)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Cochran (R-MS)
Dodd (D-CT)
Durbin (D-IL)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagan (D-NC)
Hatch (R-UT)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Inouye (D-HI)
Isakson (R-GA)
Kaufman (D-DE)
Kerry (D-MA)
Kirk (D-MA)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Lugar (R-IN)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Schumer (D-NY)
Tester (D-MT)
Udall (D-CO)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Laura,
Thank you for that info.
Here are the real reasons Joe is trying to gut healthcare reform, and it has nothing to do with ethics or principals. It has everyting to do with greed, personal gain and patronage and his fellow Dem Senators know it. That’s why they’re so peeved.
In 2005 and 2006, Hadassah Lieberman has worked for Hill & Knowlton, a lobbying firm based in New York City, as a senior counselor in its health and pharmaceuticals practice. She has held senior positions at the Hospital of Saint Raphael in New Haven, the American Committee for Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International (APCO), Pfizer, National Research Council, Hoffmann-La Roche, and Lehman Brothers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/16/joe-lieberman-barack-obama-us-healthcare
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/joe_conason/2009/10/29/joe_lieberman/print.html
For the 2010 election cycle, when he is not even running for office, Lieberman has taken over $1 million from health care interests. He took $2 million in 2006.
http://mediamattersaction.org/factcheck/200910280002
Say it with me people…If Laura Bramble writes it, it must be true. Just like anything else on the internet it’s infallible.
And as always you are both welcome to your opinion. In fact I encourage you to continue to speak your “peace”.
Consti
Do you read? In this article there is no disagreement. We are making the same factual points, using the same or similar sources. I posted links in the article that support my position. You refer to links I would have used, but they were published after I posted this article. I don’t want to say more. At first I thought you were just being difficult. Now I have another opinion. Peace.
Consti-
In a response as apropos as any of yours, could you please spell your patron saint’s name right? It’s ALINSKY…
I mention the money and power behind the Tea Party and the Libertarian movements because it is people like you who seem to think that this is a bunch of regular people who have become a noble band of self proclaimed “patriots”. There is nothing real and genuine behind this movement-it is just as fake and scripted as either the Democratic and Republican parties are. Yet, you still want to drink the kool-aid that they hand you without question despite all the evidence that shows the Tea Party for what it really is.
Say it with me people…If it’s on the internet, it must be true. Especially if it talks about the New World Order and bashes Obama. Cause no one representing the real powers that be would ever get on the internet and plant false information. Only the government does that. I mean look at how they are indoctrinating our children….
And now back to our regularly scheduled program…
D,
I’m with ya brother!
Hey, if a blind man wants to be lead off a cliff, at a certain point you just gotta let him…That kool-aid has taken his sight and his common sense already, and now seems to be taking his sense of smell as well since he doesn’t notice the stink from the crap they’ve handed him to peddle. But hell, he’s not alone so he’s got to be right. Right? Um, right?
Again you want to portray it as a rant. Anyone who disagrees with you is obviously ranting. Since I asked for clarification and all you can do is be insulting again it leads me to believe you have no arguement at all with the points that were made. Justify it to yourself as you need to my friend. Insulting is insulting and you are. If you can’t answer for your article perhaps you should disable comments.
Consti:
J and I engage in a little polite, blogging brotherly kidding of each other to lighten up the serious topics that we discuss here.
I really don’t engage you at all. I rely to comments that I think might clarify the points I’ve made in my articles or comments, for the benefit of readers.
Consti,
You rant too much for me. You jump to conclusions and you don’t read well. The link you provided supports the argument I presented in this article. The argument that you are making that this senate bill is a give away to the insurance companies is the central point of my argument. The argument that you are now making that all political parties receive money from lobbyists is a point Laura and I and Erick, too, have been making for months. I can’t see why you don’t see that ,other than you are too busy ranting to notice that you and I are both against the current senate bill. You don’t want any health reform. I want real health reform with a single payer and a public option. You should read the article. You should read Laura comments. If you really read this with a clear head, you shall see that at this point, on this issue, there is no disagreement. You bring in a lot of stuff that has nothing to do with the discussion. You keep repeating yourself. You keep jumping to conclusions. I will state again, I am not here to try to convince you of anything. I said before, some stones can’t be turned.
Again, peace.
D,
For talking about people ranting you sure stoop to our level by insulting. Thus only showing you are no better. Since you can’t produce a logical arguement to the facts that are raised against you I can only come to the conclusion that you have none. Portray us as you like, and as you see fit. But as for Christmas spirit I see you are no more in the holiday cheer than those you accuse of rants. Insults are the realm of the weak minded. If you can’t support your “facts” then all I can say is again you are writing fiction. If you will pardon the pun…. the proof is in the christmas pudding.
J:
Are you tasting the eggnod early? I think you have too much alcohol in the eggnod.
Your Buddhist Buddy is a Buddhist? Would have fooled me.
A 6 year old? Hmmm?. Methinks thou sight is cockeyed, my blogging brother. Or you are confused. Is your head spinning around? Look straight ahead and can you see your hand in front of your face? You need to check your vision, brother.
D,
You indeed are Funzy. While bludgening my Buddhist Buddy, goding him, trying (very unsuccessfully) to make him out as a crazed yeller, you then critisize him for ranting.
Then when he quite nicely rebuffs, informs you he isn’t angry and enjoys the direction your party is going, you say, it’s Chistmas and you won’t take part in his ranting.
D, I see a 6 year old hitting the kid next to him, waiting to get shoved back, and then crying to the teacher, mean ol Consti shoved him.
Thanx for the visual, it makes me smile, like an old Norman Rockwell painting.
Consti,
It is Christmas time.
I do not answer rants. The readers can stroll down and follow this exchange from the beginning. They can see for themselves who is dealing with facts and who is –. Well, I don’t want to go there. It is Christmas time.
HAHAH!! Angry you say? Hell son I am laughing every day at the implosion of the progressive movement. I notice you prefer to insult me instead of addressing the points I make. Typical. Run and drink your kool-aid, write your fiction. If you don’t have the nerve to address the points I make and only wish to insult and belittle then you have no leg to stand on. If you can’t defend your statements then you are no better than Alynski. “pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” What’s the matter, cant defend yourself against verifiable fact? All I hear comming from you is dogmatic talking points that have no merit in reality, and “facts” you refuse to support. Again, “Crazy ol’ Consti” doesn’t fly in the face of the fact that you can’t support your arguement. Have another glass my friend, since you STILL fail to answer any of the facts I put forth. You should stick with fiction as that seems to be your strong point.
peace
My Lord! It’s Consti being Consti again. Angry as ever, just blasting away with the insults. Shouting and on a Sunday morning. Why? Because he is Consti.
First, what is he saying? He is shouting to be shouting. Maybe he doesn’t have enough to do?
“Laura! ” he shouts, “you didn’t”. “You don”t” .”You, you , you!”
” Dfunzy!” he screams. “You ignorant liberal! Don’t tell me!”
Consti, we are in the Christmas season. Let the spirit of Christmas
shine every where.
First of all, Consti — No! No first of all. A rant doesn’t deserve a reply.
The readers of this blog are smart enough to see what you are: an angry man with too much time on his hands. Peace, little ranter.
Laura,
“Anyone who thinks that big industry and money is not involved in the Tea Party, Independent, Libertarian and Conservative movements really needs to do some looking.” – As usual you fail to include the democratic party as they are just as far in bed with big money as the rest. At least be honest about your kool-aid drinking habits as well. You only think the opposing party is powered by big money. I got news for you it’s a fact that the insurance companies paid MORE money to democratic campaigns than republicans. Look it up if you don’t believe me which I know you don’t. Again, your short term memory is affected by your kool-aid consumption.
Dfunzy,
Don’t be ignorant. Of course money and power game the system. Why don’t you tell me something I don’t know like where your “facts” come from so we can verify them? Your liberal arrogance is showing. Even Hoaward Dean says the healthcare plan is a gimme to insurance companies. So people in YOUR OWN PARTY are against it still. Implosion will be fin to watch. And you didn’t answer my question, when it happens who will you blame then? Additionally, government workers FAIL to pay taxes, so this is not all big businesses fault as you would like to lay blame. Got news for you pal, BOTH parties share the responsibility. Period. Big business doesn’t write legislation, however, the SEIU did write healthcare and that is another fact you can continue to ignore. Have another glass of the kool-aid buddy and a cookie.
J:
It is not just Wall Street controlling the Fed and Treasury. The Housing and Building Industries, and the Banks, by controlling Mortgage Lending, control HUD. Trade policy is set by multi-national US and foreign International Corporations. We could look at who lobbies the Departments, and who provide the staffs for the key appointed jobs, and we will see a revolving door between business personnel and top federal officials. Senior career people are rewarded for service to their “regulated” sectors with cushy jobs in private industry. For example, we could check out the number of SEC, FCC, and any alphabet you name, senior staffers who get cushy jobs in the industry they “regulated,” or become partners in law firms representing the industry they “regulated”.
Another point: A major reason why government is so large and wasteful is because businesses have to get their share of the gravy being passed around.
J:
We could spend the next two years discussing this.
Waters has been intrenced in the house for 20 years. She was voted in multiple lib/conserv polls as on of the 50 most powerful women in the world. She is on 6 “primary” house commitees, and chairs the powerful Housing and Urban Development.
Los Angeles riots of 1992
During the Los Angeles riots of 1992, Waters appeared on television as a commentator. Waters said “If you call it a riot it sounds like it was just a bunch of crazy people who went out and did bad things for no reason. I maintain it was somewhat understandable, if not acceptable. So I call it a rebellion.”
In its 2009 report, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) named Waters one of the 15 most corrupt members of Congress. She was also included in their 2005 and 2006 reports. (Bi-Partisan)
The when did we land on mars comment came while looking at moon rocks, and the US flag picture from the “moon”!
She’s a leader in the Black Caucus, and is a powerful MAINSTREAM Lib.
Stupid people who can’y control their tongues should not be in positions of such great power, whether you know of her or not. Her decisions effect you and US business everyday.
She is part of the beast, and business fears her, trust me. That is why you should know her.
D,
I grant you the Fed Reserve ala WallStreet are bedfellows, but make no mistake, the beast is always on top. (Make that the top bunk)
If Maxine Waters is such a big deal, how come I never heard of her until she got mentioned here? Can’t be that much of a big deal.
If you’ve got a couple hundred Reps and Senators in DC, it’s quite possible to have a few idiots who talk smack. Look at that Foxx woman, the Republican Rep from VA, I think. You talk about Maxine Waters not knowing about us not landing on Mars?
J:
What? The only tail on your butt is an elephant tail!
You keep mentioning what Maxine Waters said as if she runs the country.
So you think the beast is government giving orders to business?
I think it is business giving orders to government. The financial crisis that came to a head in 2008 is just one prime example of business interests controlling government departments.
Wall Street told government what it wanted done and got it done.
“Save us! Open the vaults and rescue us! Give us the damn money.”
It is not by accidents the bankers of Wall Street hightailed it to the government for help. Henry Paulson, formerly the boss at Goldman Sachs, then the Sectary of Treasury, dictated the terms of the big bankers bail-out to the Wall Street bankers advantage. Rarely are things as transparent.
Really D?
Tell that to “BIG TOBACCO”, “BIG AUTO”, “BIG BANKS”, BIG OIL, who Dem. Rep. Maxine (What year did we land on Mars anyway?) Waters, recently stated we will own you (See: YOUTUBE.COM, Maxine Waters Slip), 20% of the population receiving their sole income from, 50% receiving a portion of the richer peoples money in the form of various sub’s or benies,Very soon Big Insurance, and 40% of the anti-left brain crowd, right Funzy? Tail My BUTT! (I mean nothing weird by that last line)
J:
If you had left off the part about the “lib infected mind. The left side is almost non-functional,” your comment wouldn’t be too bad, but then you wouldn’t be you.
One point of clarification: do you think the government is the beast? From my reading, the government is at most the tail. Big money and wealth, big business and industry, seem to be the head, the body, the arms and the legs of the beast; if not the entire beast that drives government.
DF,
I am always amazed at the lib infected mind. The left side is almost non-functional. The funny thing is, I do agree with some of what you say. I think we should agree first. Here is what I agree with.
Insurance companies are “self-serving”. Lieberman, very much like you, has a desire to do what is right, but appears double minded to the outside observers who favor left brain thinking (logic).
He thinks the public option would destroy private enterprise, and he’s right. What he doesn’t realize, or more likely is ignoring, once this behemoth is passed, it will take only 51 votes to re-add the public option. That’s what will soon happen.
That will make you happy, and he can rightfully say, that’s not what he signed up for.
Remember when doctors were free market. House calls were made to establish lifelong customers, an office visit was $35-40. That was in my youth, and I ain’t that old. A slight majority of families in the 60’s didn’t have insurance except for catastrophic.
Enter the Government. As FDR’s generation grew old, entitlement grew. With more and more of our greatest generation enjoying the socialist give-me’s, insurance companies found more and more ways to extract money from the beast. The beast found the more they gave, the votes they got. Which side of the beast could give (and get) the most was the new way of getting power.
The Insurance companies grew strong, greedy and less efficient as they changed from businesses competing for customers, into businesses competing for unlimited public funds.
They knew someday, when they were fattened enough the beast would eat them. That time has come, and the smartest are positioning themselves to be useful to the beast so they may live a bit longer.
Now everyone wants to be the beasts friend, to become part of the beast.
FreedomWorks backs the Tea Party and Freedom Works founder is Dick Armey, who until he was asked to publicly separate himself from the firm in August due to the negative publicity his questionable ethics was bringing the activity of their clients, was a lobbyist for DLA Piper from 2003-2009. Dick Armey worked with FreedomWorks the entire time he was with DLA Piper. DLA Piper’s clients include Sanofi Pasteur (pharmaceuticals), RiteAid Corp., Metropolitan Health Networks, Medicines Co., Bristol-Meyers Squib, AIG, AON Corp., American Council of Life Insurers, Applera Corp., Equitas, Maine Veterans Homes, National Fraternal Congress of America, New York Presbyterian Hospital, all of whom are either in the health care , pharmaceutical, or insurance business. They also represent many financial firms who hold considerable assets in healthcare and insurance in thier portfolios, like Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Charles Schwab, and Morgan Stanley. You should see the number of energy and transportation interests they represent- no wonder the Tea Party leaders are anti-global warming and environmental causes. But there’s no organized oposition to healthcare reform by corporate interests, right? Forget what the healthcare interests SAY-there actions speak far louder.
For complete lists of lobbyists and lobbying firms, as well as the clients they represent, go to http://www.opensecrets.org.
Anyone who thinks that big industry and money is not involved in the Tea Party, Independent, Libertarian and Conservative movements really needs to do some looking. These Americans who think they are fighting against corruption and big interests are being manipulated by some very powerful, and in many cases foriegn and multinational, corporations. They are fighting FOR the very same interests that have no qualms about attaching a dollar figure to them and measuring their worth accordingly and who spend the money to corrupt Washington (read up on K Street, DeLay, Boehner, Nordquist, Abramoff and co.) Guess what, the poor and the middle class (most Americans) aren’t worth a whole heck of a lot when you look at the total distribution of wealth- one of the great perks of allowing free market economics and capitalism to become the foundation of your government. Rights have no dollar figure that can be attached to them, neither does life, so how much value do you think they have in the capitalist overview? Here’s a clue-none. All is a cost-benefit analysis, with those in positions of power and priviledge deciding what the defintion of benefits are and who’s benefit is held as primary. Guess what, it’s not my benefit or your benefit that they are concerned with.
Keep drinking that Kool-Aid, Consti…
Consti:
It is clear that you do not understand how the political process really works in this country. How big money and wealth game the system, how shifting alliances are formed, and dissolved around particular points of interest, how people keep a card in here and there to continue to participate in the game, how the best PR that effects public opinion decides the winners and the losers. You seemed fixed on finding the guys you like and the guys you don’t like, and you think that everything you don’t like is done by the guys you don’t like. In truth ,people keep showing up in different places, as long as where they show up serve their current interest.
For the benefit of the readers of this article I shall briefly sum up the facts — The insurance industry opposed real health reform — single payer, public option, and did everything to derail it, including financing the tea party and filling the coffers of the GOP opposition, and writing talking points and position papers for the opposition. The insurance industry flak, Laughing Joe Lieberman , strongly opposed health insurance reform, until Obama caved on all the key issues of his reform, to get a Senate bill. He needs Lieberman’s vote, to get a bill out of the Senate. The bill he has,
is a bill Lieberman likes and the insurance industry loves. This is as of today. Tomorrow or later to day, things could change. The Senate bill could change. And even if it doesn’t , the House bill is far different than the Senate bill. There will have to be a conference between the two houses of the Congress to agree on a single bill, before it can be passed into law.
There is strong opposition to the current Senate bill from advocates of reform, and there may be no bill that passes the Congress. This would suit the big money and wealth boys of the insurance industry just fine. They are doing pretty well with the status quo. And they would have won the game.
Oh, yes Consti:
Those are the facts. I know you have your facts, Consti facts. You have stated them. The reader now have the facts and they have your facts. Let them decide and do the checking on their own. I am not going to engage in pointless back and forth on what your facts are. P eace.
Yeah actually I read it twice. I always do before I comment. However this is the sentence I was referring to.
“Yes, the insurance industry, that pack of wolves who financed the opposition to health insurance reform, helped to organize the Tea Partiers, bankrolled the GOP, gave them all talking points that denounced Obama’s health reform as socialism.”
You stated that the Insurance companies are backing the opposition to reform. At least that’s what the sentence reads as. It’s well known that the insurance companies backed Healthcare reform from the beginning. Search the news sites and you will find MULTIPLE articles stating that insurance companies backed the plan.
Simply trying to dismiss it as being “crazy ol’ Consti” doesn’t detract from the sentence you put in your article or the way it reads. If I am reading it wrong (possible) and you are inferring that the insurance companies are supportive of the plan why cast them as “the pack of wolves”? It pretty much reads as a negative and untruthful fact you are trying to present. It also shows a lack of short term memory on your part.
No one outside the Democratic party is doing anything successful to stop the Healthcare reform. Period. The Dems are doing a fine enough job of imploding over this issue and frankly don’t need the help. There is so much arguing going on in their party that is plastered in the public view that recent pols show them in dire numbers. Historically this is what has happened before, and I’m watching it happen again.
I will repeat myself because I have said it before. When the party implodes and looses the majority who will you blame? Beck, Rush, O’Riley, tea party, little old grandma’s, or will the democratic party “man up” to the responsibility?
Time will tell my friends. Time will tell.
Consti:
Did you read that article? Or did you just think what you imagined I wrote?
There you go again, being Consti again. No one who read the article would have written that comment. The link you referenced supports my argument.
Perhaps you missed the memo but insurance companies BACKED Obama-care. You should get your facts straight. And again, you try to drum up this ghost of insurance companies backing the tea party, the GOP, let me guess they backed up the AARP too. Even the SEIU has backed away from it’s support of Obama care.
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/72537-union-pulls-back-on-supporting-senate-bill
Quit writing fiction D and read a news article once in a while.