1 post tagged “universal healthcare”

But first, my commentary...

Why/How is it that all you Obama-voters didn't anticipate his so-called flip-flops, all his (ridiculously rationalized as) "disappointments," his bad nominations for cabinet-level and deputy-level positions, the unnecessary compromises he made to the economic stimulus package, his back-pedaling on torture, and on and on...

... Now, there's all this hand-wringing over Obama's "confusing" refusal to even consider single-payer healthcare.  You ask yourselves what's his strategy here, sandbagging universal healthcare, when he used to support it.  After all, back in 2003, didn't Obama say, "... [I'm] a proponent of a single-payer universal healthcare program?"¹  And then, in that same speech, didn't Obama declare that the only thing standing between Americans and universal healthcare was that "... first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House."¹  Last time I looked, Obama-- a Democrat -- was sitting in the White House, Harry Reid-- a Democrat -- was presiding over a filibuster-proof Senate majority, and Nancy Pelosi-- a Democrat --was Speaker of the House. 

Hmmm.  I think I might have mentioned something about this BEFORE the election last November.

Oh, yeh, and then there's that notorious chief of assassins and advocate administrator of torture whom President Obama has just placed in Command of all US and NATO Operations in Afghanistan:  General Stanley McChrystal.  In ousting former Commander, Gen. David McKiernan, and replacing him with McChrystal, Obama has--  in the words of Slate columnist, Fred Kaplan --"... [signaled] a dramatic shift in US strategy for the war in Afghanistan.  And it means that the war is now, unequivocally, 'Obama's War.'"  Besides referring back to the article I've linked-to above, do check out James Petras' article in AlterNet, "Cheney's Chief Assassin is Now Obama's Commander in Afghanistan."

And now, the cartoon...

How do the Republicans do it?
by Tom Tomorrow

This Modern World

¹ Here's the full quote: 

"I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care program...I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its Gross National Product on health care cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. And that's what Jim is talking about when he says everybody in, nobody out. A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that's what I'd like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House."