Glenn Greenwald:

Via Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi explains Obama's Nobel Peace Prize by providing some very insightful commentary about who is - and isn't - eligible for Nobel Peace Prizes and why:

As the Democrats busily work on plans to make us all captive consumers of the private health insurers, the rich are cutting loose from the system. While we'll be stuck in costly Exchanges, the rich will be moving on toward their own privately reformed health system. Welcome to the world of concierge medicine.

I pray the progressives wake up soon and come out of their collective slumber before we help the Democrats pass a health insurance bail out. The reforms championed two years ago, that rested largely on providing Americans with a Medicare-like plan, open to all takers, has morphed into Romney Care. While the centerpiece progressives envisioned on health care reform rested largely on federal intervention via program, the Democrats have cleary gone the less contentious route of a federal roll via regulation. The idea seems to be create a federal role, and hopefully tighten regulations later down the road, which is laughable.

I don't mean to go too hard on jurassicpork, who has many good things to say in this post, which is worth reading (via Avedon), but when it comes to the title ("I Didn't Vote for Neville Chamberlain"), I do have a nit to pick. Er, dude, you totally voted for Neville Chamberlain. That's not something that Obama is just now revealing about himself. It was one of his selling points. He campaigned on being Neville Chamberlain, promising to bring peace in our time.

Obama in one of his 2007 ads (emphasis mine):

What frustrates single payer advocates the most is how they have been sidelined from the national health finance reform debate. People who support single payer, or enhanced and improved Medicare for All, have long waited for the chance to present their case to the American people for real health care reform via a single payer method. With the ever increasing cost of care, and the growing number of uninsured and under insured Americans, single payer advocates view inclusion of proposals that support a one payer system for financing health care an essential part of the debate.

h/t BDA in VA

As of now it looks like the final bill will contain taxes on employer paid health benefits to pay for subsidies to low income Americans to buy private insurance and a mandate that everyone have insurance. In other words a bail out for health insurance companies.

There is no popular support for taxes on employer paid health benefits. It is one of many reasons that John McCain went down to a landslide defeat.

No Republican will vote for this. Democrats will take all the blame for a tax increase to pay for a bail out of insurance companies.

It will NOT expand access to health care. It will be very unpopular. If Obama or any other Democrat thinks that AHIP will have their backs they are out of their mind.

Liberals need to block this and save the party from the leadersheep.

Obama buries the public option, worries about brand image.

Via Marc Ambinder:

The Obama administration is stunned by the angry reaction of liberal Democrats after Kathy Sebelius seemed to be walking away from demands of a public option. Apparently, the administration never intended the "public option" to be a major focus of their reform efforts.

Via the Washington Post:

[At] a time when the president had hoped to be selling middle-class voters on how insurance reforms would benefit them, the White House instead finds itself mired in a Democratic Party feud over an issue it never intended to spotlight.

 Read more…

Is the era of new politics over? 

Via the New York Times:

WASHINGTON — Given hardening Republican opposition to Congressional health care proposals, Democrats now say they see little chance of the minority’s cooperation in approving any overhaul, and are increasingly focused on drawing support for a final plan from within their own ranks.

snip

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Now I know Governor Schweitzer is the Governor of a very liberal state, Montanans are practically the French, no? And, yet, he manages to very effectively dispel myths of "socialized" medicine, and argues for single payer, in a way that may even appeal to those Hyde Park Blue Dogs.

BELGRADE - As Gov.   Read more…

Good.

Via the AP:

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration filed court papers Monday claiming a federal marriage law discriminates against gays, even as government lawyers continue to defend the law.

Justice Department lawyers are seeking to dismiss a suit brought by a gay California couple challenging the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. The administration's response to the case has angered gay activists who see it as backtracking on campaign promises made by Barack Obama.

In the court papers, the administration urges the repeal of the law but says in the meantime, government lawyers will continue to defend it as a law on the books.

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Panel hears LULAC case over ‘Texas Two-Step'

A federal three-judge panel heard an appeal by a Latino civil rights group Thursday against the Texas Democratic Party, charging that its delegate selection process dilutes the Latino vote and should be subject to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

For me the events in Texas were the most shocking part of the whole ugly primary. lambert wrote a great post on this and Wampum posted the incident report.

A new poll finds Canadians overwhelmingly love their health care and oppose the Canadian Medical Association's proposal to privatize their health care system:

New poll shows Canadians overwhelmingly support public health care  

Group says advocates of private system are out of touch with most Canadians

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug. 12, 2009

Contact:
Michael McBane, national coordinator, Canadian Health Coalition, (613) 277-6295, www.medicare.ca

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How Johnson did it.

Via Helen Thomas

I covered the battle to create the Medicare system back in the 1960s. The cries of "socialized medicine" worked for years until President Lyndon B. Johnson rammed Medicare through Congress in 1965.

Johnson signed the Medicare legislation on former President Harry Truman’s desk in Independence, Mo. Truman had first proposed a health care program for the elderly back in the 1950s.

Truman, still feisty at age 81, was all smiles.

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Last Tuesday night I emailed Barney Frank(my rep.) after becoming incensed with his recent comments claiming advocating for Medicare for All, which he’s “always supported” was “suicide”. I told Mr.

The Health Insurers Have Already Won! Thanks Obama! Thanks Congress! Thanks Progressives!

Victory party at Stephen Hemsley's pad!

Via Business Week:

Not only that, Medicare Part D (death) is the model.

Never forget who Rahm Emanuel works for.

No, President Obama; We Should NOT Shut Up About Health Care Reform

I was a supporter of yours in the election and for the first time in your Presidency, I'm totally and completely at a loss trying to understand your words. Like many progressives, I've tried to be patient with disappointments such as your heel dragging on granting equal rights to gay men and women or your continuation of some Bush policies. ...

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On Saturday a vocal group of nearly 100 gathered at Pickering Square in Bangor to demand health insurance reform in America. The target of the demonstration was the harm done to the American people because insurance companies cruelly are organized with insistence for high financial return and callous disregard for health outcomes. Anthem properly was singled out for quite strident criticism. The quality of the speakers and the compelling stories told along those lines make this event very worthwhile. A link to my 24-minute video of the full program is above right.

WLBZ/WCSH television provided statewide coverage, story HERE. The Bangor Daily News also has a story up on the web, HERE.

Locally the Maine People's Alliance (MPA) and labor-oriented Food AND Medicine supported this event. The related national organizing effort is under the flag of Health Care for America Now, a broad coalition of labor, economic justice, and other social change groups that promotes "10 principles for reform that have been endorsed by President Obama and more than 190 members of Congress."

But isn't there is a huge problem here? I note a distinct lack of analysis, even misconception, about where the mushy Obama reforms are going. In the excellent, moving statements of the doctors and other reform activists heard Saturday, nobody bothered to try to explain how insurance company anti-health behavior and high costs will be controlled if we follow the Obama path of keeping them all in place.

A couple of days ago, Anne posted a comment that included this:

Obama’s infected people with the belief that they cannot act with strength, cannot use the power of the majority, must signal compromise and must concede at the first sign of conflict. I cannot tell you how annoyed I am to see people who used to be considered serious champions of liberal (a much better word, thank you) causes allowing Obama’s inability to lead, and his aversion to conflict, to soften and muddle and weaken their positions and their resolve; actually, it’s way more than annoying – it’s galling.

By STEVEN THOMMA AND DAVID LIGHTMAN
McClatchy Newspapers (Who should know better)

The White House is ramping up its behind-the-scenes lobbying of Congress. President Barack Obama is signaling that he could drop some key principles of his campaign if necessary to jump-start negotiations, opening the door to broad tax increases and a plan that could, he now concedes, push people into a government-run insurance program against their will. Senate Democrats also said last week that they were heading toward agreement again after a momentary stall.

President Obama's town hall meeting on health care delivered a sickly rating Wednesday evening.

The one-hour ABC News special "Primetime: Questions for the President: Prescription for America" (4.7 million viewers, 1.1 preliminary adults 18-49 rating) had the fewest viewers in the 10 p.m. hour (against NBC's "The Philanthropist" debut and a repeat of "CSI: NY" on CBS). The special tied some 8 p.m. comedy repeats as the lowest-rated program on a major broadcast network.

People are beginning to twig on the fact that Obama has no plan.