Obama: 'We've Run Into Buzz Saw' On Health Care

Why does he think that any health care reform bill that comes out of the current Senate will be better than the one that already has come out of the Senate?

It's Obama's own fault. He's not a leader, and he let the process fall apart.

His talk about bi-partisanship is so damn infuriating. He doesn't get it! he just doesn't get it!

What the hell did he just say? Why can't he say something like, "The US Senate has already passed a bill that provides universal coverage, helps people who need it, gets the insurance companies off the backs of hard working americans, controls costs and reduces the deficit. I urge the House Dems to vote on that bill now, without further delay. It has been a long road to this point but now we are one final vote away from comprehensive health care reform. The Democratic and Republican members of Congress have a moral responsibility to cast an up or down vote on this historic legislation.'

I'm still stunned, mystified, disappointed and disheartened at his epic failure of leadership. All he has to do is call on the House to pass the Senate bill now, to demand swift action so that they can deliver on their promise and move on to jobs. All he has to do is say this one simple vote will get 30+ million Americans the health insurance they need, end the threat of medical bankruptcy for tens of millions of Americans, start controlling health care costs and provide health security to all Americans.

Buzz-saw? Fuck that. He should be the buzz saw. He should be fighting mad. He should be demanding that his fellow Democrats show some courage, step up to the plate, and give the American people some evidence they are fit to lead.

"Health care reform? Never heard of him... Now who wants to see me shoot some jumpers?"

When is he going to stop acting like the junior Senator and start acting like the President!?

Obama's taken a "hands off approach" during his whole presidency on this issue. And I say this as an Obama supporter. Big changes don't happen with a "hands off approach." If he can't lead, what is the point of being President?

The whole "slow it down" thing is because Obama and the Dems in congress are waiting for a decision by the health insurance industry. The decision is whether to get the Senate bill into law, or whether to drop the whole thing. And it is a difficult decision because if nothing is done the health insurance industry will collapse ("burst the bubble") in 2-3 years. Their problem is that it pits the smaller health ins companies versus the big companies. Because when the bubble bursts, the small companies will go kaput, and the big companies will swallow them to consolidate the market (or whatever is left of it).

Evidence is mounting that Obama just doesn't control the basics of the game. Surely in Politicianship 101 you learn how to brush aside, downplay, and transform all signs of weakness. Was he asleep during Cheney-Bush? Maybe he should read a book...

The ultimate oddity is that Obama can remain preternaturally calm in the midst of chaos and kerfuffle, yet not transmit one iota of that calm to those around him.

I'd like to mumble something in the it's-all-over vein -- except that it's not clear that it ever really began.

"Running into a buzz saw" reminds me of the phrease "perils of Pauline."

Next he'll be saying that he's been tied to a railroad track.

I never thought he had a lot of spine and that's why I favored Clinton in the primary. It's tragic that such a brilliant man lacks only that one attribute that would make him a great president. His hero, Lincoln finally unloaded McClellan and took the reins. Let's hope Obama can break out of his ideastic trance and somehow take control.

It occurred to me earlier today that if Obama fails on this he is Jimmy Carter...I then read Krugman's latest missive on the issue and was taken by his (Krugmans') point (echoed here by many) that Obama is in effect missing...that there is no leadership...that got me wondering again about Gary Wills view that Obama is a prisoner of the machine (see Will's NYReview of Books piece the Entangled Giant) but then I came across the following:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20100122/pl_politico/31843

Which leads me to the following: The Democratic Machine rejected Hilary because it really would have been Billary...and the reason they were against that is because B.Clinton had been a president who acted separately from the House and Senate Democrats and when needed shoved them off the nearest cliff...

what they got by backing Obama a complete novice with no backlog of favors owed, was a man they could control...a post-partisan tool who would defer to the House and the Senate...

When B.Clinton told Teddy that two years prior Obama would have been serving them coffee he wasn't being a bigot...he meant that Obama not only lacked experience...he lacked a network of people who would owe him favors...and that is exactly what Teddy and the rest of the Pols wanted...a president they could control but who would be their standard for the public...while they crafted the nuts and bolts of the agenda...

But the democrats in the House and the Senate are frauds and incompetent and all wholly owned subsidiaries of a loose affiliation of millionaires and billionaires and then Teddy went and died...

Teddy we should remember hated Carter...and not just because Jimmy kept Teddy from pulling the sword from the stone...but because Jimmy didn't know how the machine worked and Teddy did...and Teddy knew he would never be president and he had known it for a long time...but the next best thing would be having a president he could craft and mold...and who was by contemporary American political context so eloquent that everyone could pretend that it was all Camelot 2.0

So why does Obama sound like a wind-up toy...because Teddy and his pols turned the key and now their shiny new political toy is adrift...no one is in charge because everyone is in charge...the classic pattern of the true cultural meme of the democratic party versus the paternalistic old white man meme of the the republicans who are all adherents to top-down management and favoritism with a touch of Ivy League frat-boy dominance and submission...(just remember W dispensing nicknames like alms from the king to his court...get a nick name and you're in...don't get one, and like school yard punks waiting for a word from the alpha dog, you're out)

But the democrats...no...everyone has to be heard...everyone has to have a seat at the table...so when the shit hits the fan...everyone can panic...and run...and ride two horses with one ass...

And Barak is revealed to be an empty suit...

oh sure he/they may yet pull out some sort of "reform" and give everyone the it's better than nothing spiel and shtick...but the truth is out...

Obama's people didn't see Brown coming...and they didn't see what a jackass Coakley is...or that the pols/machine of Boston didn't like her...

Because they (Obam's people) really aren't very good at their jobs...and that they won for one reason and one reason only: Everyone hates W. (who has a litany of failures and gaffes so extensive he could retire the Bad President Trophy)

The saving grace of this fiasco being that people will quickly remember why they loath the republicans...but as people have been saying for years...the fissures in the hollow shell called the republic are getting bigger...and "populist" anger is as historically always able to turn on a dime...

Why is Glen Beck around...why is their an audience for Limbaugh...because All the Kings Men is a great novel...and the moment is bigger than Obama and bigger than Brown and bigger than either party...

So it goes...

I hope some progressive at this town hall gets a hold of the mike and takes Obama and the whole Democratic team in Washington to task. These guys need to know that they need to step up to the plate and deliver on the promises they made to the American people.

Couldn't he just use that gun he was gonna bring to that knife fight?

You know, and like, kill the buzz saw.

I can hear it now, President Buzz Kill.

Hot damn.

Wait - who's the alleged puppet-master? Rahm?
And to whom does Rahm owe his allegiance? Where did he cut his teeth?
Forgive the useless meandering, but this whole thing seems so weird.
Maybe he's just been sold out massively, so that Bill and Hillary can sweep back in.

He's got to pivot.

He tried to let Congress do its thing. He tried to work wih the GOP. It doesn't work, and the public doesn't punish them for obstruction.

He tried but it doesn't work. So do soemthing else. Pivot and go o nthe attack. Make the GOP pay for this and hold their feet to the fire.

Seriously, enough is enough. The lack of leadership comes from everyone knowing it is NOT WORKING and yet Obama stuck liek a broken record talkign about bipartisanship. Those two fucking months spent courting Grasshole, for instance. It's maddening. Give it up and do something else.

It's like when we watched Iraq meltdown for 3 years and Rumsfeld assure us that "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." Everyone knew we were losing badly but Bush & Co. kept claiming everyone needed to shut up and ignore reality.

Stubborn refusal to adapt and be flexible has got to stop.

'We've Run Into Buzz Saw'
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Don't worry, it's just a flesh wound. Y'all are all wee-wee'd up

Democrats NEVER had 60 votes. There were nominally 58 Democrats, Independent but loyal Bernie Sanders and Independent Joe Lieberman, who would surface every to give Democrats a heartburn.

Get it right. 60 was an illusion, and we fell for it

The Senate passed an HIR bill that the American People cannot tolerate and is very unpopular. Its that simple.

Have you seen the poll numbers for the Senate Bill? They are in the toilet.

If they could have just given on ONE piece of populist and popular policy, maybe we would have had a chance. Like a public option or medicare expansion. Something we could have SOLD!!!

But they were TOO CORRUPT to do that.

The President is doing the right thing. Take a break on HIR. Move on to the economy, jobs, and banking regulation.

Maybe re-visit HIR later.

People in government are last to realize it no longer is capable of governing.

It sounds like our illustrious editors are too caught up in said tizzy themselves to get the point. There is always more to life and more that needs to be done and focused on than the beltway and MSM's hyperventilation of the moment.

Everyone I hear on the media right now is AGHAST at this speech. A G H A S T.

He simply does NOT get it. This is going to spiral out of total TOTAL control. (You can see the advisors are already "hiding", NOWHERE TO BE FOUND). This will be the most INCREDIBLE fall of a politician of all time. And he didn't even get a blow job out of it (that we know of). But perhaps the Wall Street one was enough.

And, Clinton can not help you. But it is fun to watch.

I am remembering THE HEARTBREAK of how Hoax-Change bashed the anti-war people, bashed torture prosecution, bashed curtailing spying, and bashed financial regulation and reform. Bashed it to pieces.

But I predict the next "Democrat" to be thrown under the bus, by whoever is really behind all of this (it's too evil even for Obama). Can you hear the march of lobby money going back across the aisle? Listen.

Its going to get a LOT worse for Obama. A LOT. So, hang on to Geithner and Bernanke, Deadfish and Glibbs, Mr. President, March is coming fast and no one believes you can reform ANYTHING. I'm waiting for the movie. You just can't make this stuff up.

SERIOUSLY, the best thing for the Hoax-Change, at this time, is just to BECOME A REPUBLICAN. Really, I am serious. Just go for your heart. It can't be any worse than what is happening right now. I seriously think that is the only thing he can do for his own career. But, of course, it would be a continued disaster for the rest of us, but he may get re-elected if so. I can't see any future for him any other way.

A buzz-saw? Does he mean the naked guy with a truck? Is he kidding?

Barack Obama is not an epoch at all. He's the most identified politican in this lifetime. So many more dialetic experiences of your choosing and Joe Biden and his wife might office worker kink them all through timbucktwo.

"I took this up because I want to ease the burdens on all the families and small businesses that can't afford to pay outrageous rates. I want to protect mothers, fathers, children from being targeted by the worst practices of the insurance industry.

* * *

I know folks in Washington are in a little bit of a frenzy this week, trying to figure out what the election in Massachusetts the other day means for health insurance reform, for Republicans and Democrats, and for me. This is what they love to do."

This is a shockingly disengaged statement. Last I checked, you're in Washington and you're part of the "they," Barack. You need to engage and do all you can to get this done, for just the reasons you said.

While I respect Mr Harris’ opinions, these are the key questions and the factual answers.

Who are Obama's 'constituencies'? Follow the decisions:

1. Decision - Ignore previous Republican crimes and misdemeanors: Constituencies - Republican voters and Republican Congress people he hoped would go 'bi-partisan'.
2. Decision - Support a stingy stimulus full of tax breaks and pork: Constituencies - investors, special interests.

3. Decision - Kill the only option that would have slowed the cost of health care & led to universal coverage: Constituencies - Health insurance and pharmacy industries.

4. Decision - Accelerate the Bush bailout,: Constituency - Financial industry.

5. Decision - Escalate a meaningless and fruitless war: Constituencies - military and corporate mercenaries.

6. Decision - Gut real financial reform and substitute finger wagging and silly taxes and fees: Constituencies - financial industry and the wealthy.

7. Decision - Not help people with bankruptcy and mortgages remediation: Constituencies - financial industry, banks and wealthy.
and 

8. Decision - Fiddle around and not pass a jobs bill: wealthy and Republicans.

Obama’s constituencies are the health insurance and pharmacy industry, military-mercenary complex, the financial industry and banks, and the wealthy.

Why has Obama lost the support of the voters? Based on the decisions Obama has made, these appear to be the reasons for the lose:

1. Republicans are better off with real Republicans;
2. Independents, who wanted change, see the status quo protected and coddled;
3. Democrats see a so-called Democratic White House and so-called Democratic Congress pushing Republican policies and catering to traditionally Republican constituencies. 



Obama has made decisions that have hurt most Americans, and, he is either:
1. Oblivious to them,
2. Doesn’t care, or
3. Erroneously assumed the military-mercenary, health insurance-pharmaceutical, financial-banking industries and wealthy constituencies would remain loyal and rescue him from troubles.

Obama is apparently constitutionally unable to support the middle class and the traditional Democratic constituency. It is not difficult to understand why Obama's ratings and his 'agenda' have been rejected and Democrats no longer enjoy the support of the majority of voters.