Obama Just Ran Out Of Slack
OPS_admin | Dec 20, 2009 | Comments 0
The media was quick to declare the Obama honeymoon over this summer. Yet supporters exhilarated by Barack Obama’s stunning win in November 2008 were still willing to cut him a lot of slack. That slack just ran out.
The simplest, most comprehensive health insurance reform –- single payer –- was off the table before the legislative effort started, replaced with an amorphous “public option.” David Sirota and others called it a violation of Negotiating 101: compromise comes at the end of the process, not at the beginning. Now the campaign to enact substantive health care reform has foundered on Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT). And on Obama’s refusal to bust heads. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel instructed Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) to cut a deal with Lieberman for his vote, even if it meant jettisoning Medicare expansion and a public option –- along with cost controls, lifetime benefit caps and drug re-importation. Reid did. So much for the Chicago-style politics Fox News warned about.
All year, progressive reform advocates tried to remain calm as the House and Senate bills got watered down. “Don’t freak out,” they told each other. At every stage, they were told “trust us” as the bills got weaker and weaker. They can expect to hear that once again as the House and Senate bills go to conference. An Organizing for America rumor in September had it that the White House was working secretly on its own bill to spring in mid October once opponents had spent themselves pushing back against the House and Senate versions.
Full Story Obama Just Ran Out Of Slack | OurFuture.org.
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If we don't change our ways soon...
A new report by the Royal Society, chaired by Nobel prize-winning biologist Sir John Sulston warns that world population must be stabilized and consumption in wealthy nations must be reduced or the entire planet is in big trouble. As the report reads: "The number of people living on the planet has never been higher, their levels of consumption are unprecedented and vast changes are taking place in the environment. We can choose to rebalance the use of resources to a more egalitarian pattern of consumption... or we can choose to do nothing and to drift into a downward spiral of economic and environmental ills leading to a more unequal and inhospitable future."This is the same warning that President Jimmy Carter gave Americans back in the 1970's - but it was ignored when Ronald Reagan came to power with a "more positive" message basically telling Americans we can do whatever we want. And then after 9/11 - Bush told us all we should go shopping and consume ever more.And now with corporations calling the shots in Washington - long-term sustainability of the planet takes a back seat to short-term profits. If we don't change our ways soon - and embrace clean, alternative energy and educate women around the plant - then we all could be headed for a rough century.-Thom(Is there any chance we will learn in time? Tell us here.) -
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