“Help, I’m being oppressed!” has already been used, and by better comedians than you.
Wasn’t this said by you not but a few minutes ago?
“No wonder We the People voted you out on your asses. What makes you think any of your criticism of his attempts to clean up your messes has any credibility?”
When you care not for the minority of the populace (which you have stated many times), that could be construed as tyranny of the majority, no?
We are back to square fucking one with you.
I’ll check back later tonight but for now bye.
For the record, I am in favor of tyranny by the majority. It isn’t the greatest form of government, but it is way ahead of whatever is in second place.
As for that old “we’re not a democracy, we’re a republic” nonsense, there is nothing mutually exclusive between being a republic and using representative democracy.
The schools in Libertopia need to spend more time on basic civics.
Just to piss you off more… the Dems sneak in a limit on insurance company benefits right under the section titled “No lifetime or annual limits”. Unreal how we’ve been sold out by both parties.
Is it time to Godwinize yet? This ONE line is begging for it.
Of course not. Monarchy is inferior because ( among other reasons ) it is prone to tyranny; not because a king or queen is inherently a tyrant. A royal who actually passes laws that help people isn’t being a tyrant.
They still have to reconcile the house and senate bills. I hope that illness financial limit gets shitcanned. The repubs wont quit trying to gut the bill, yet they will not vote for it at all.
I still say make them do an on floor filibuster. Show the American people who they work for. It would make great TV.
I think he’s just trying to get something done. A step in the right direction. Get it through.
(Why it’s so hard for a Democratic president, with a Democratic house and senate to get anything through remains a mystery to most of the world, I dare say.)
Hoping against hope, that when thinking Americans see they have not ended up standing it line for bread and swearing allegiance to Stalin, that will be the time to tighten the thing up, sharpen the teeth, give it bite.
When it works and people like it. the right will have little choice but to vote for improving it. You watch, I predict a lot of, “Well, of course,** I** was for the concept all along, it was just the details…yada, yada, yada.”
In fact, I’d wager a whole whack of people voted ‘no’ early on to appease the drug and insurance companies that they sold their souls to, largely to clear the way for them to vote yes when it counts. So when they return to their constituents they can all take credit, as in, “I voted to better my states poor and disenfranchised…yada, yada, yada!”
The calculation becomes very subtle. The “blue swine” have to calculate whether the campaign contributions from Big Money can be safely chucked overboard in favor of doing the right thing. If the people are not sufficiently grateful, then the loss of campaign money could sink them, since most of them are in pretty closely contested areas, so that loss of campaign money may be crucial.
Its really whatever they’re hearing right now: are they getting swamped with calls demanding that they flip Money the bird? Then they will, then the popularity of their move will outweigh the money issue.
But remember, a lot of these guys like to pose themselves as “centrists”, that is to say, persons of no real moral compass to speak of. They also like “moderates”. They are Dems of the Clintonista stripe, the “third way”, Republican Lite. This helps to ensure that the Pubbies in their district will not work fiercely against them, even if they won’t ever actually vote for them.
And then you got your felcher of syphilitic goats, “Fightin’ Joe” Lieberman, but that vein in my forehead is starting to throb, so I’ll just let that go for now…
Looks like they’re ready to drop the medicare age 55 provision too.
The funny thing about all this is that after all of the caving in to republicans and special interests, I wonder how much actual productive stuff is left in the bill. The post-compromise bill may indeed be a mess in a way that the original bill perhaps was not. So if we create a giant clusterfuck, it will be in part because of the kicking and screaming opposition, who will then claim that this proves that they’re right that the reforms could not work.
Bending over backwards to attempt to please the Republicans, who will never be happy anyway and will have to be dragged kicking and screaming no matter what, seems like a stupid plan in the first place. What a bunch of pussies.
I’m skeptical that the bill and the particular reform we were going to do would end up being all that good a thing anyway, but FFS the “let’s destroy America so long as it looks slightly more like the democrats fault!” republicans and the cowardly “let’s compromise with an entity unwilling to compromise” (along with “my corporate masters are at odds with my constituency”) democrat bullshit certainly will give us worse results.
And so, we see the real problem with a two-party system: it’s still fourteen different factions, they’re just much harder to keep track of.
Turns out the Republicans still control Congress. Who knew?
We knew quite some time ago, it was remarked upon frequently. The Dems are a broad coalition of similar minded people, but the Pubbies have shed just about all of their moderate centrists, and march in lockstep. Or obstruct in lockstep, more precisely.
Remember the snark about lefties being a “hive mind”, moving in brainless unity? Turns out, its the other way round. Kinda funny. Well, maybe not “funny” to the people who are going to die because of this…
When and what have they caved in to republicans? As far as I can tell, it’s the blue dogs that have been holding things up.
It is not the 2 party system that is flawed. It is the financing. We can not get our government back until we change campaign rules. It has to be funded publicly. Our representatives and senators spend a large portion of their time running fund raisers. They are not doing the job that they were elected to do. They are raising money nearly all the time. Who gives away large amounts of money without wanting something back? It is a fundamental flaw in the system. There are 1500 lobbyists beating on the doors of politicians waving piles of money in their faces to prevent the health care bill . Since politics is actually the business of being re-elected, how can they resist? They are spending 1.5 million dollars a day to stop the heath care bill from hurting them. Do you suppose the insurance companies would commit that much money if it did not pay off?
When a pol is on TV, there should be a box on the screen saying how much money he gets from whatever industry is involved in the bill they are discussing. it should be an ESPN service.
TV news shows should do the same thing. They should have a box saying how much money is being spent by advertisers on their channel when a subject comes up.
I highly doubt the blue dogs were behind all the death panel shit, which is what originally stirred up the voters (and thence, the blue dogs).
What did you expect? You elected a President and Congress that came to power on a platform of appeasement and compromise: “reaching across the aisle”. You don’t elect leaders to compromise with the other side, you elect them to do what you want.
What’s funny is how many of you thought it would be easy to institute any sort of major reform that’s against the interests of big business and the extremely wealthy. Look at Europe, or the 60s in America, for an example. Every social programme was instituted not out of benevolence, but because the ruling classes feared mass radicalization, even uprising. People fought and died for the right to unionize, the vote, better working conditions etc. Bismarck didn’t institute socialized health care in Germany because he was kind; he did it because he didn’t want to be buried in a shallow grave.
Any sort of meaningful health care reform is doomed in America until the left collectively grows a dick and radicalizes.
Lotso folk listened to the word ‘Change’ instead, and thought perhaps Obama might come around. He hasn’t yet.
Agreed. We need to get better Democrats elected; ones who are actually willing to fight. Harry Reid, Rahm Emanuel and their ilk are an embarrassment. Obama seriously needs to start working for the people that voted for him.
I am not so sure there is something wrong with the Dems we have elected. I think the need to get money causes them to make compromises they don’t want to make. Lieberman is different though. Lieberman’s wife works as a lobbyist for health companies among others. It can be seen as a conflict of interests. Perhaps he really believes that we should gut the bill . But Connecticut is a hot bed of what is wrong with insurance in America. It has a couple companies with a huge grip on market share. He of all people should just shut up and vote his conscience. But when he puts his face up front, questions can and will be asked.
This may be a once in a lifetime chance to fix health care in America. To allow it to get chopped up by those who have no intent on voting for it at all, is stupid. Just present the best bill possible and force them to vote against it. Let them go on record.
So they’re too beholden to the insurance companies and the drug companies to do what’s right for actual Americans? That’s not an excuse, that’s an indictment.
Wait, are you trying to say anyone is actually listening to voters? And paying attention to all the polls this month that show the majority are against the bill as it stands? How novel.