President Obama meets with doctors who support his reforms but excludes MD's who support "medicare for all"
Comments from Registered Members | (Register or log in to make your comment.) | AnHonestActivist 2009-10-11
Obama proclaimed back in 2003 that he was an avid proponent of the single payer system:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpAyan1fXCE
So what changed?
Goes to show you, no matter what their background, or what they say in their fancy pre-election speeches, THEY CAN BE BOUGHT. The least he could do at this point is come out and publicly state why he has changed his position. But then again, I doubt anyone would trust what he would say. I know I probably wouldn't. | Dedgurlsingblu 2009-10-09
I agree with you fairley7, a lot of the policies being put into place still work to uphold the "minority of the opulent" (Madison's words, not mine). Certainly some of the founders would have been disgusted by Obama's skin tone (especially since his mother is white), and would not have been kind enough to use the term "colored", the only thing counter to their values within Obama's character design, however, is his skin. Since race relations in the U.S. are so appalling his skin worked to misdirect and subdue the masses, while the elite who have been ruling since U.S. inception remain securely in power. I also think that the folks who voted for him should have listened. Instead of saying "Yes we can" they should have been demanding a "Yes we will" representative. | kamalchassan 2009-10-07
The American people deserve to be treated well, we take care of a lot of people all around the world. It is high time for our elected officials to work on our behalf not the spacial interest groups that work for the drug companies. Medicare for all is the best and only way that serves the American people well... | dart 2009-10-07
There are some fascinating YT videos showing how the shell game is played with punters being sucked in,confidence gained,players allowed to win and then the mark is cleaned out before the team runs off.This is US politics.Chomsky told the world health would be a big issue but the punters ignored him and bet wrong and while Nader tried to be heard the patsies were mesmerised by the shiny new blackman primed by the image of the`President` actor in `24 Hours`.Americans you have the government you deserve.There may not be another chance as a formal military dictatorship is a short step away and hardly what any founding father of the enlightenment era had in mind having escaped a monarchy and monetary control.
| fairley7 2009-10-07
In contrast to Azurblue, I'd say this is exactly the kind of thing the founding fathers would have liked -- rule and exclusive status by a small number of wealthy white guys.
Having a colored (er, black) man in the White House would have been an abomination. But, at least Obama's listening to the only people that matter. | Azurblue 2009-10-07
This is definately not what our forfathers had in mind for this country. The system is broken, but the real question is, can it be fixed? | sunrise 2009-10-07
Secret Control of the Presidential Debates:
Since 1987, the Republican and Democrat-controlled Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) has run the process, dictates terms, and excludes unwanted participants. During the 2008 presidential cycle, the Obama and McCain teams secretly cut a deal on who could participate, permissible topics, and the debate format structure.
Since independent candidate Ross Perot participated in 1992, the exercise has been pre-scripted theater without disturbing questions, shielding major party candidates from unwanted criticism, and excluding independent ones, like Ralph Nader, from participating. Before he died, Walter Cronkite called the CPD an "unconscionable fraud." so excluded the MD of disjointed voices is expected.
| 14Hertz 2009-10-07
After all that 'YES WE CAN' BS ... It's a real Pity .... looks like Obama's spine was never made of the genuine stuff after all. | sunrise 2009-10-07
separated commercial from investment banks and insurance companies. In January 2000, the Commodity Futures Modernization Act legitimized swap agreements and other hybrid instruments, at the core of today's problems by preventing regulatory oversight of derivatives and leveraging, thus letting Wall Street legally pillage and speculate, so they did.
The result was a financial coup d'etat "cement(ing) the gradual takeover of the government by a small class of connected insiders" who choose candidates, control elections, weaken financial regulations, and run the country for their own self-interest. As a result, Washington today is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Wall Street financial giants. What they want, they get, no questions asked.
| sunrise 2009-10-07
US Congress Sells Out to Wall Street:
Americans get the best democracy money can money, coming more than ever today from Wall Street. "Since 2001, eight of the most troubled firms have donated $64.2 million to congressional candidates, presidential candidates and the Republican and Democratic parties." Is it surprising that they own them? As senators, Barack Obama and John McCain got "a combined total of $3.1 million."
Influential House and Senate finance and banking committee members got $5.2 million from bailout recipients like Goldman Sachs, Citibank, AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and others. In the last election cycle, Obama received at least $4.3 million from the same ones, investments that yielded big returns.
From 1998 - 2007, financial and banking companies "spent $1.7 billion on federal campaign contributions and another $3.4 billion on lobbyists." In 1999, Glass-Steagall was repealed, the landmark 1933 law that curbed speculation and separated commercial from invest |
GERALDINE CAHILL, TRNN: Hi. I'm Geraldine Cahill with The Real News Network. This health-care story is part of a series we are doing to help Americans make better informed decisions about health-care reform. But we can only do this work with your financial support. The economic crisis has hit us hard. Please become a member today so that we can continue bringing you stories like this. ANIA SMOLENSKAIA, TRNN: On Monday, October 5, President Obama met with 150 doctors from all 50 states. According to The New York Times, "The White House said it assembled the group of doctors by working with several medical organizations, including the American Medical Association." Many were members of Doctors for America, a new grassroots organization and an outgrowth of Doctors for Obama, which worked to help elect the president. But it also appears to be working closely with Organizing for America, Mr. Obama's political organization. In an eight-minute address in the Rose Garden, the president outlined the general ideas of the five committees' drafts, but there was no mention of the public option. The doctors in attendance reiterated their agreement with an urgent need for the reform. However, no consensus on concrete measures exists in the health-care community at large. And while the president was meeting with one group, another group of pro-single-payer doctors seeking to attend the conference was refused entry.DR. MARGARET FLOWERS, CO-CHAIR, PHYSICIANS FOR A NATIONAL HEALTH PROGRAM: I'm Doctor Margaret Flowers with Physicians for a National Health Program. We represent over 17,000 physicians nationwide, and we are advocating for a national health program which is completely universal—everybody in, nobody out—and cost-saving. It allows us to take care of our patients without interference from insurance companies. And we requested a meeting with the president. We sent him a letter at the end of August, and he denied a meeting with us. The Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care, which is over 20 million people nationwide, requested a meeting. We were denied. The Mad as Hell Doctors traveled across the country to meet with the president. They were denied. Today the president is meeting with a delegation of 50 hand-picked physicians who support his agenda, rather than meeting with those physicians who are advocating for real, evidence-based reform.DR. WALTER TSOU: The health-care system is totally dysfunctional, and I totally believe that it's time for us to have a single-payer national health-insurance plan similar to what people up in Canada and Taiwan have.DR. MICHAEL HUFFINGTON: We signed on a sheet that we wanted to be admitted, even though we may not have been on the invitation list. They took our names and an hour later told us that we must leave.DR. GEORGE PAUK: Obama is excluding us doctors who have a slightly different idea about how to reform health care in the United States.FLOWERS: We're very upset that this legislation is literally being written by industry executives to benefit the health insurance industry and not to provide health care for our patients. Forty-five thousand or more patients are dying every year needlessly because they can't get health care. The suffering is immense and the time for that is to stop. We have a simple solution: Medicare for everybody. And we need to do that now.~~~MEGAPHONE: Single-payer now!CROWD: Not warfare!~~~DAVID SWANSON, ACTIVIST AND AUTHOR: My name's David Swanson. I work with AfterDowningStreet.org and Progressive Democrats of America and many other groups. And I name that one because they've had this theme of "health care, not warfare" for years now. And today that worked out very well, because they're having a conference inside the fence at the White House about health care, and we're here to say "end the warfare," and you get both messages. And, in fact, we've been trying to make clear in our chants and in our interviews that if they would end of these wars that the majority of Americans want ended, there would be more than enough money to give us single-payer health care, which the majority of Americans want, and have money left over. So it's hard to see what the problem is with that agenda other than corruption and bribes and the power of money and the corporate media and party control of Congress members who don't represent us. There was also a group of doctors outside the fence to say: why are we not even included in discussions? We support single-payer health care. Physicians for a National Health Program support single-payer health care. California Nurses Association and all of the nurses are out here to say we want single-payer health care, or at least we want it in the conversation so that something worthwhile becomes the middle ground and the compromise, rather than what we're looking at now. Donna Smith, a friend of mine who was in the movie Sicko, is here, who told me that she's talked to everyone who was in the movie Sicko, and the bills that are in Congress now would not do anything, would not have done anything to help any of them with their problems. So we want to at least move the conversation. And I think it's shameful to put doctors on the front as the face of a policy that's clearly been dictated by the health-insurance companies and the major hospital organizations and the pharmaceuticals, and this president won't even show us the visitor logs of whom he's talked to.CAHILL: Hi, again. I'm Geraldine Cahill with The Real News Network. Over the next few months, we plan to investigate, report, and debate the different proposals for American health-care reform. We will continue our series Americans Talk to Canadians about Health Care, and we will broaden that to include the experience with health-care models in Europe and in other countries. We will be holding town hall debates where people can discuss what kind of reforms will create the best system for Americans. We will do all of this without corporate or government funding. This kind of independent programming is only possible if you become a member of The Real News Network with a tax-deductible donation today. The economic crisis has made things difficult for us, as it has for many others. We need your support if we're going to produce the uncompromising journalism that people need. Please click on the Donate button and become a member now. If you are a member, please contribute again. Let us know you want us to continue this work.DISCLAIMER:Please note that TRNN transcripts are typed from a recording of the program; The Real News Network cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. |
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