Does anybody recall Obama on TV repeatedly demanding that the GOP accept the public option?

[brentspeak]

Does anyone recall his recruiting Bill Clinton to appear in a joint televised appearance to urge the GOP and conservaDems to allow a public option?

Does anyone remember Obama sending Joe Biden over to the Republicans to deliver a "take it or leave it" message on the public option within the HCR bill?

???

[DesertFlower]

1. no.

[ljm2002]

2. Nope. n/t

[appal_jack]

3. nuh-uh

[jrthin]

4. NO. nt

[Duer 157099]

5. Yes!

But then I woke up.

[Echotrail]

6. No. n/t

[myrna minx]

7. No. n/t

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[brentspeak]

10. You have a selective memory

I've been here for years and have posted good things about the Democrats (emphasis) repeatedly -- and have likewise blasted the Republicans repeatedly. I've even posted a few positive things about Obama -- but there hasn't been much to praise him for, besides his public calling-out of the US Chamber of Commerce during the last election cycle, and maybe a couple of other not exactly remarkable things. As it stands, he's essentially pushing forth GOP-type legislation while simultaneously both destroying the Democratic party and harming the nation in the process (mandated, non-cost controlled private health insurance without a public option was a GOP idea; NAFTA-like "free trade" treaty with S.Korea is a GOP goal; acceleration of war in Afghanistan is a GOP-supported idea; current tax deal, including Social Security-trojan horse payroll tax holiday, is almost completely a GOP deal, etc.)

You conflate "Democrats" in general with "Obama" in particular. Obama and his people (the President and his administration) have bashed the House Democrats more than I (a mostly powerless person posting on the Web) have criticized him.

[Enthusiast]

36. Plus one. nt

[DrDan]

9. of course not . . . . and because of his lack of energy in that respect,

I can only conclude that the PO was a minor irritant in the plan.

[tomm2thumbs]

11. the remote control wire from the Health Care lobby didn't reach that far

apparently the GOP has gone wireless

[ibegurpard]

12. yup..he will go to the mat for conservative policy that's for sure

[JoePhilly]

13. No ... let's impeach him!!!

[polichick]

28. His new buds will get to that soon enough. nt

[democrat2thecore]

14. Sadly, no. -- nt

[AtomicKitten]

15. He had bigger problems with the dim-witted screaming about death panels and socialism.

The urgency currently has to do with time running out before the end of the year and all kinds of unsettled business: the Dream Act, repeal of DADT, Defense Authorization Bill, and ratifying the START Treaty.

[jtrockville]

16. Keep in mind, PO was a compromise.

Health care (not necessarily health insurance) for everyone was the goal.

[niceypoo]

17. Not once

I do, however, recall him saying he wouldn't extend the Bush tax cuts for the rich

[Pistarkle]

18. Yes and he did, BUT...

WE criticized the President and Democrats when we didn’t get the public option but WE didn’t fight for it. We let the Tea Party and health insurance industry do ALL of the squawking and we didn’t start raising Cain until AFTER the fact! If we learn anything from this, it should be that if the President wants what we want WE have got fight ALONG with the President to get it!

[polichick]

27. You must be kidding! nt

[Pistarkle]

33. Did you?

Did you write, email, call, fax any GOP legislators FOR the public option? I did. The records will show that the President NEVER campaigned on the term "public option". His campaign message was to "REFORM health care to insure quality, affordable health care for all". The term "public option" popped up in the words of Lawmakers and Tea Partiers during the Health Care Reform debates and we all bought into it. It seemed like a good idea to me at the time, but we can't blame the President for not getting what he didn't promise! He campaigned on Health Care Reform and that's what we got even if it wasn't as much as we wanted. Democratic Presidents have been trying to reform health care since the President Kennedy era and President Obama was the only one to get it to the point of legislation. Like Social Security and Medicare, once it passes legislation, it can be expanded. (If the new Republican majority doesn't wipe it off the slates). If you wanted the public option, you should have fought for it like the Tea Partiers and health insurance industry fought against it - and got what they wanted!

[Milo_Bloom]

41. You're joking right?

http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/issues/HealthCareFullPlan.pdf


He talks about the PUBLIC PLAN in the campaign documents.

"Barack Obama and Joe Biden will ensure that all Americans are empowered to monitor their health by ensuring
coverage of essential clinical services in all federally supported health plans, including Medicare, Medicaid,
SCHIP and the new public plan."

"Quality and efficiency. Participating hospitals and providers that participate in the new public plan will
be required to collect and report data to ensure that standards for health care quality, health information
technology and administration are being met."

[Enthusiast]

37. That's what I was thinking.

Kidding, surely.

[donheld]

30. No he did not EVER.

[Pistarkle]

34. Did you?

Did you write, email, call, fax any GOP legislators FOR the public option? I did. The records will show that the President NEVER campaigned on the term "public option". His campaign message was to "REFORM health care to insure quality, affordable health care for all". The term "public option" popped up in the words of Lawmakers and Tea Partiers during the Health Care Reform debates and we all bought into it. It seemed like a good idea to me at the time, but we can't blame the President for not getting what he didn't promise! He campaigned on Health Care Reform and that's what we got even if it wasn't as much as we wanted. Democratic Presidents have been trying to reform health care since the President Kennedy era and President Obama was the only one to get it to the point of legislation. Like Social Security and Medicare, once it passes legislation, it can be expanded. (If the new Republican majority doesn't wipe it off the slates). If you wanted the public option, you should have fought for it like the Tea Partiers and health insurance industry fought against it - and got what they wanted!

[Milo_Bloom]

42. The President promised the public option during the campaign.

See link above.

[Cali_Democrat]

19. The public option could have passed with only Democratic support if you consider reconciliation

GOP support wasn't necessary and wasn't needed. All of them would have voted against health care reform with or without the public option.

[AtomicKitten]

24. The problem is that it didn't have enough Democratic support in the Senate.

And here's why: http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2009/09/committee-members-opposed-to-p.html

[Exilednight]

58. You can only succeed if you try, but you fcan fail without trying. Ask yourself honestly:

Did Obama try as hard to get HCR as he is trying now to get these tax cuts?

[2Design]

20. never plan on us having it - did back room deals then too

[QC]

21. He only campaigns against his friends, not his enemies. n/t

[treestar]

22. Wouldn't that look kind of dumb?

Why go on TV demanding something that's not happening? Don't you just look dumb for insisting?

Why don't more DUers get on TV and demand everything they want? That'll make Congress vote for it.

[Milo_Bloom]

51. They had the votes for the public option.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/83641-sanders-senate-has-the-votes-to-pass-public-option-via-reconciliation

And it had 77% popular support

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/20/new-poll-77-percent-suppo_n_264375.html



THe only reason it didn't happen is that the ADMINISTRATION pulled the public option from their plan released the week before the vote.

[boppers]

23. Yes, No, No.

Of course, the GOP would have been happy to "leave it" on HCR, and deliver absolutely nothing, so that's a big difference.

[Warren Stupidity]

25. nope

[polichick]

26. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have forgotten any of those events. nt

[emilyg]

29. no

[Beacool]

31. Nope, it didn't happen.

:eyes:

[glitch]

32. Excellent point! K & Fing R nt

[killbotfactory]

35. Obama: Public option should be part of reform (9/7/2009)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32718713/ns/politics-white_house/

Senate Democrats blocked the public option, the GOP wasn't having any of it. But if they hadn't, and a public option was included in the reforms, do you think Obama would have objected?

[old mark]

38. I was out sick that day....nt

[WiffenPoof]

No, I don't recall...n/t

[WiffenPoof]

39. No, I don't recall...n/t

[Supersedeas]

40. No, and on top of the the Media gave very little if only marginal consideration of liberal positions

Including followi-up with interviews of Repukes who have forced a crisis to get tax cuts for the super wealthy.

[polichick]

43. It's sure becoming clear who we're dealing with - question is, what now? nt

[Vinca]

44. I recall reading that he bargained it away behind closed doors.

[zulchzulu]

45. Well, there was the State of The Union speech in 2009... if that counts...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/09/AR2009090901771.html

Granted, it was only in front of an international audience with EVERY Republican in the room...

:crazy:


Of course, there were some others:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/15/obama-takes-up-public-hea_n_215736.html

http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/president-obama-strongly-supports-publi

[JamesA1102]

49. Don't confuse the demagogues with facts nt

[ipaint]

46. No and he certainly didn't ask an ex president to appear with him to

emphasize the importance of a public option in keeping premium prices down. In fact the mantra here was the president stays out of all congressional legislation and he couldn't under any circumstances insist on certain language in the final bill. Impossible I was told.

[Enogero]

47. ouch

[JamesA1102]

48. So you're saying that the President never promised a public option?

And why is the public option considered the do all and end all of healthcare reform?

[Milo_Bloom]

50. I remember it CLEARLY!

It was right on the heals of the 1.5 trillion dollar stimulus package

and just before they passed that energy policy that really worked to tackle climate change.

I am not sure if it came BEFORE or AFTER the lobbyists all left Washington b/c of campaign finance reform.. but definitely before they broke up the "too big to fail" banks.


Yeah.. that's when it happened!

[Raine]

52. Gosh NO I must have missed it

funny thing though I have on MSNBC all the time yet still some how *missed* it :yoiks: ... either that or he NEVER DID! :mad:

[TheKentuckian]

53. I can't believe I missed that! DAMN YOU BOURBON!!!

[avaistheone1]

54. Shiver me timbers...NO!

[Dokkie]

55. No

But since Clinton failed in passing his HCR and theres 0 chance of republicans listening to a democratic VP

[Dinger]

56. As A Matter Of Fact, No

Hmmm. Why not?

[joshcryer]

57. Um, he ran his platform against a public option.

[Skittles]

59. fuck no

that would require COURAGE