Sanders: Obama lost touch with grass-roots movement

[joshcryer]

147. The public option was on the table.

Until two weeks before the vote. Baucus was extremely angry that he was literally the only one in the negotiations to keep putting the public option. Kent Conrad, Tom Carper, and Bill Nelson would not go for it. They refused. What was he supposed to do?

Single payer was a distraction, Obama did not campaign on single payer, and there was no promise by Obama to advance single payer. Those who wanted to be seated at the table knew that they wouldn't be because they weren't in on any policy talks before the proposal was made, they had no standing, and overall they wanted to make a showing. Michael Moore wanted them to do a "reset" and "start over." But the timeline for the 60 vote window is 72 days. Putting single payer on the table would've been a complete non-starter. And because Obama didn't campaign on single payer he couldn't have been expected to do so.

But, as usual, Obama passes wide ranging legislation changing the landscape for American health care, with waivers for states to implement single payer, millions of poor people getting Medicaid expansion, free birth control, and nope, no credit, he's not a fighter, in your words, "He didn't even try. He just gave up."

"Obama just gave them what they wanted before they even asked for it."

What a crock of utter bullshit.