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Nazareth, Pa., United States

Friday, March 19, 2010

Former Obama Team Leader Has Given Up All Hope For Change

Jacob Oberholtzer is a former Obama team leader here in the Lehigh Valley, but is disgusted by what he has seen. Here's what he has to say.

In 2008, I was a Team Leader for then Senator Obama in both the PA democratic Primary and in the General Election. During that primary, the President campaigned against insurance mandates very strongly. It was a talking point on the key difference between Senator Obama and Senator Clinton in that race. I should know. For six weeks, I talked about this issue on phones and at people’s doors. He also campaigned on transparency and open government. After this Health Care debate, I can say I feel betrayed, and I no longer am a supporter of this President, outside the respect I have for the Office.

The main part of the plan that candidate Obama ran on, was a voluntary government plan, which later became known as the Public Option, to offer citizens an alternative to the private Insurance market.

I will let candidate Obama speak for himself on this issue.

OBAMA: "Let’s break down what she really means by a mandate. What’s meant by a mandate is that the government is forcing people to buy health insurance and so she’s (Senator Clinton) suggesting a parent is not going to buy health insurance for themselves if they can afford it. Now, my belief is that most parents will choose to get health care for themselves and we make it affordable."

Here’s my concern. If you haven’t made it affordable, how are you going to enforce a mandate? I mean, if a mandate were the solution, we could use that to solve homelessness. We could simply mandate everybody to buy a house. The reason they don’t buy a house is they don’t have the money. And so, our focus has been on reducing costs, making housing available. I am confident if people have a chance to buy high-quality health care that is affordable, they will do so. That’s what our plan does and nobody disputes that.

The plan people got, includes Senator Clinton’s mandates and John McCain’s taxes on employer benefits. These are two positions candidate Obama opposed, and two positions that propelled him to the White House in 2008.

Here are the problems with the bill being considered.

First, every major cost control measure in this bill has been stripped out. Drug re-importation, the Public Option and rate regulatory committees have been gutted out of the reconciliation bill even though these are basic cost control techniques. The administration was silent as this was happening. If they objected, they did not do so publicly or put any pressure on the members of their own party.

What was left was an 80% cap on the Medical loss ratio for Insurance Companies. However, if underlying costs increase, the insurance can increase as long as they are paying out 80% for medical services. It hasn’t addressed cost, just the amount the middleman can take. The middleman is only a third of this problem we face.

The second major problem of this bill is that the rre-existing condition denial and rescission ban do not go into effect until 2013. All the sad stories President Obama would tell over the past 12 months about people suffering, and the bill waits 3 years to address them. Kind of disgusting and disingenuous when you think about it, if people are really dying because of these provisions.

The third major problem with this bill, that while revenue begins being collected to pay for the Insurance exchange through taxes in 2011, no major expansion of coverage occurs until 2014.

Page 7 of the CBO estimate has the table for decrease in the number of uninsured Americans. There is no decrease till 2014, when the number of uninsured declines an estimated 19 million.

Some of the taxes start immediately and benefits do not get paid till 2014. This is what is known as a simple accounting gimmick. The CBO scores what they are given.

Fourth, I urge you to check what is called a Cadillac plan. You may be surprised to find that what you believe is very basic insurance at your work, because of the premium outlays your employer pays and the benefits you receive, are “Cadillac.” Chances are you have made sacrifices in the form of less wages or salary for that benefit. If you are part of organized labor, you have made concessions in your contract. There is a reason why Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO had to be summoned to the White House last night. You are getting taxed more to get the CBO score where they want it, and they needed to prevent him from bolting. A lot of people are about to have another Obama pledge broken on them - no increase in taxes if they make under $250,000 a year.

Lastly, this process from the beginning has been full of Cheney and Bush-like behavior from the Obama administration, from the bait and switch on the Public Option to the private meetings with Insurance, Pharma, and Private Hospital executives.

The Public Option went from a must have in July of 2009, to a nice to have in August of 2009, to not that necessary in the President’s speech in September. Backroom deals were made. Martha Coakley was having fundraisers with Insurance executives a week before her sound defeat in Massachusetts. They have talked out of both sides of their mouth consistently on this.

In the last two weeks of this awful debate, I read news reports, of Senator Dick Durbin, one of the so called liberals in the Senate, whipping votes against the Public Option for the reconciliation bill. The fix has been in. In the meantime, the White House is telling Public Option supporters if they get the votes, Obama will sign it.

The President and the Democratic Party sold out their supporters to private care interests and now will be subsidizing them with taxpayer funds collected by the force of the law, using the IRS. The Obama administration has been more nasty to people like Dennis Kucinich and the progressive caucus who advocated for stronger reforms than they were to people like Blanche Lincoln, Joe Lieberman, and Evan Bayh, who advocated for less.

I remind people, this debate is going on, after the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The Democratic Party and the President have made no progress in correcting the systematic problems we had, other than to throw money at the problem. The unemployment and state and federal deficit numbers speak for themselves. No solutions have been passed to prevent another financial crisis and the players involved, were all given new gambling money.

In 2008, the theme was Hope and Change. I have given up all hope for change after watching this administration and this party’s behavior in 2009-2010. This should be a wake-up call for everyone who voted for Change.

65 comments:

Bill said...

I helped make calls on Hamilton Street with Jake and share many of his concerns.

Pam Varkony has a post on her Blog that talks about the States Rights issues that is worth looking at as well.

In PA we have some excellent laws on the books that people on the left and right worked very hard to pass and they will be superseded by this Bill.

We are in this midst of passing a massive entitlement package for lawyers.

Anonymous said...

Jacob,

The media facilitated the hoodwinking of the nation during the campaign and to this day acts more like cheerleaders. It should come as no surprise that alternative new sources are flouishing while the mainstream media withers on the liberal vine.
Intelligent people can disagree but the media should be an honest broker if they want the trust and respect of the public.
The health care issue demonstrates that integrity is in short supply on the left. Thank you Jacob for breaking ranks and speaking your mind.

Scott Armstrong

not so casual observer said...

The man, his campaign and his presidency : all smoke and mirrors. He did and said what he needed to say and do and made promises to special interests to be elected and now he has no idea of how to be a president, so he delegates the process to those special interests who got him elected.

Anonymous said...

Want to know why maybe you did not get what you wanted? Try asking the idiots who were "hoodwinked" by the Republican campaign against any attempt to fix a broken health care system. Lies, lies, and more lies were offered, the most notable of which was the death panel.

Then, the woman's right to choose became an issue. Silly reasons to avoid rationa decision making

The President cannot perform miracles when his own party can't decide on what it wants and bolts at the first sign of trouble.

Finally, federalism is appropriate in managing many issues of policy. However, when it comes to health care, national interests take hold. I get tired of this battle cry "states rights." Just because I live in one area of the country does not mean I should not receive the benefits of living in a civilized country. Oh...maybe we are not civilized when we cannot provide fair and affordable medical services.

Anonymous said...

As a fellow Dem, I feel his pain and agree. The public option is the way to go...it's proven to work in every industrialized nation in the world. But I also feel that there is no way the REpublicans would allow such a huge change because the profits of the few outweigh the lives and health of the many in their value system. Unfortunately the band-aid will have to be taken off bit by bit instead of in one fell swoop

Anonymous said...

But as any of my Dem friends will tell you....Bush Was Worse!!!


really???

Jacob said...

Bush over the course of his 8 years was worse, Please don't take this as an endorsement of that administrations actions.

We are where we are today in the first place, because of George w. Bush's administration.

Jacob said...

Bill,

Watching the Federal Government this year, I've become a bigger and bigger state's rights advocate.

We have some idiots and prima dona's in PA, however, they are much easier to influence than the idiots in D.C.

Jacob said...

"This President can't perform miracles"

Rahm Emmanuel instituted something called message discipline during the fight to progressive groups. He called anyone not following his orders "fucking retarded" which is a direct quote from our colorful chief of staff.

It is almost humorous watching those lackeys at Moveon.org now endorse a plan, they screamed about 3 months ago, or people that said no public option, mandates, no sale capitulate to the administration now.

At the end of the day, more people will lose coverage because of the economic crisis than will gain it by 2014.

Anonymous said...

Yawn.

Anonymous said...

Jacob said...
Bush over the course of his 8 years was worse, Please don't take this as an endorsement of that administrations actions.

We are where we are today in the first place, because of George w. Bush's administration.

9:02 AM

Jacob - this kind of statement shows you still have many miles to go on your journey. You are still buying the superficial hype lines, like you did when you threw in with Obama in the first place.

All of the things you complain about in your post are the result of the flaws Obama's opponents specifically pointed out during the campaign. Lack of experience, deceipt, arrogance without accomplishment to base it on, I could go on, but you get the point.

You need to start looking below the surface and understand before you go off shrieking about Bush and Cheney. Case in point: I'm sure you are all too familiar with Obama's positions and statements on Gitmo and Afghanistan. Almost everything he is doing now, he was against, because he was uninformed and hated Bush for the usual ideological reasons. But once Obama became informed and actually understood what was going on, he acted more rationally (though he dithered, not wanting to alienate his emotional idealogue base).

Those of us who opposed Obama did so not because of his race or even the letter after his name, but because, as he is proving even to those share your views, he was never even close to having the character, qualifications or competency. We looked at a guy who wouldn't let us see his college records, who hung out with and had questionable financial dealings with real scumbags, who held no real job, and said "This man is not ready or able to be POTUS."

And we were shocked and saddened that so many people overlooked all of that, just because they hated George Bush and wanted to be part of the cool and historical moment.

Obama is on right now, he's campaigning at GMU. Still talking, getting the Yes We Can and standing ovations from the blinded, it's all about him. But, in the end, he'll have to go back to his office, where he will continue this epic fail.

Jacob said...

George W. Bush was a bad President. His policies from 2001-2009 were a disaster for this country.

That being said,

Obama's policies from 2009-2010, have not been much better.

1)Here is the deal, if you go to war, you go to war, congress declares it and all the nations resources are utilized to one thing. Defeating the enemy. Both Iraq and Afghanistan were a disaster. Doing things half ass when it comes to Military action is silly, we should have learned that from Vietnam.

2) The Wall Street excesses of 2001-2009 happened under Bush's watch. No way to spin that. That being said, other than handing people more money to gamble, Obama has been really a eunuch on that issue.

Bush was a disaster, Obama is becoming a disaster.

Just because the democrats are stupid, doesn't mean Bush was smart.

Anonymous said...

The second major problem of this bill is that the rre-existing condition denial and rescission ban do not go into effect until 2013.

Wrong. Once the bill is signed, it will be ILLEGAL to deny a child insurance coverage because of pre-existing conditions immediately.

Anonymous said...

The third major problem with this bill, that while revenue begins being collected to pay for the Insurance exchange through taxes in 2011, no major expansion of coverage occurs until 2014.

You'd rather the federal government expend funds it doesn't have a la Bush and the prescription drug entitlement?

Obviously, someone is yet another reactionary who can't think through any issues or speak to the issues truthfully.

Anonymous said...

The President cannot perform miracles when his own party can't decide on what it wants and bolts at the first sign of trouble.

Yes, seems a number of people are confused as to the different branches of government.

Jacob said...

Children have access to S-chip.

Who the hell are you guys fooling

Jacob said...

Yes, seems a number of people are confused as to the different branches of government.

The pressure, I've seen has been on people calling for more reform, not less from the administration.

It didn't take long to figure out whose side Barack was on, and it wasn't mine.

Jacob said...

Obviously, someone is yet another reactionary who can't think through any issues or speak to the issues truthfully.

What, that you are going to tax people for a benefit they can't apply for till 2014? If this plan was so solvent why don't the taxes implemented pay for it immediately, why do you require 4 years of saving tax money to put it into effect.

In my line of work, this is called a Ponzi Scheme.

Jacob said...

BTW Obama apologist,

Firedoglake does a better job than I at deconstructung Obama's folly

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2010/03/19/fact-sheet-the-truth-about-the-health-care-bill/

Anonymous said...

Axis Sally

John Walker Lindh

Dr. Benjamin Church

Clyde Lee Conrad

John Anthony Walker

Benedict Arnold

Jacob Oberholtzer

Anonymous said...

Children have access to S-chip.

Who the hell are you guys fooling


Some children, yes. Some states require a 6-month "exclusion" period for children with pre-existing conditions. Some states require a 6-month exclusion period for all new paid insured.

You might not want to be so flip with other people's health needs.

Anonymous said...

What, that you are going to tax people for a benefit they can't apply for till 2014? If this plan was so solvent why don't the taxes implemented pay for it immediately, why do you require 4 years of saving tax money to put it into effect.

If you don't understand simple mathematics, I can't help you. Look into the massive debt the unfunded Medicare Prescription Drug program has accumulated? Why? Because the federal government started paying out benefits before it collected any premiums. It's not rocket science.

Anonymous said...

Firedoglake does a better job than I at deconstructung Obama's folly

That's wonderful. Obama;s folly? Let me guess. He's a Socialist that wants to control every aspect of my life - you know, just for kicks. Please.

Time to pitch some tea.

Anonymous said...

Anon 312, let's say for the sake of argument that you're right (and you are, despite how the Ds ridicule insurance companies for doing exactly that). Then why don't the Obama-ites quote the actual cost of Obamacare in a full 10-year period, including 10 years of revenue and 10 years of expenses?

Because it's a frigging fiscal disaster, that's why.

Jacob said...

Axis Sally

John Walker Lindh

Dr. Benjamin Church

Clyde Lee Conrad

John Anthony Walker

Benedict Arnold

Jacob Oberholtzer

Add Arlen Specter

I never swore an oath to endorse the actions of this President or the Democratic Party. I only volunteered to get them elected based on their campaign promises.

Anonymous said...

As I read the current proposal and its financial structure, it is not bad at all. Would I like more? YES. However, government moves slowly. If Republicans say there was nothing wrong with Bush, then I will say there is nothing wrong with President Obama. He is doing a good job, as far as I am seeing.

As to those who criticize Obama, I just wonder if it is because they cannot fathom how to deal with an intelligent person.

Jacob, I don't know what the hell you are looking for, but whatever it is, it does not justify mutiny from the first attempt in generations to acknowledge that health care and markets do not coexist extremely well. There is no easy solution, and unfortunately, we have over 500 people in government who think they have the best answer and do not work together very well.

Anonymous said...

Oberholtzer,

We're all very saddened that your volunteer organizing gig didn't net you the Cabinet-level appointment that you seem to think you deserve, but it's good to see that you're fastly finding your niche as a whiny little bitch.

Have fun trying to get Jake Towne elected. With a gifted political operative like you on his side, how can he possibly lose? ;)

Jacob said...

I'm going to knock on doors and hand out literature. I have no plans to do much more.

As far as the local party people go.
You got work to do selling the American people on this monstrosity of a bill.

Good luck, I'm not planning on helping you with that.

BTW, I think George would make a better Treasury Secretary than Geithner.

Jacob said...

Jacob, I don't know what the hell you are looking for, but whatever it is, it does not justify mutiny from the first attempt in generations to acknowledge that health care and markets do not coexist extremely well. There is no easy solution, and unfortunately, we have over 500 people in government who think they have the best answer and do not work together very well.

Mandated private insurance is a bridge I'm unwilling to cross with this party.

I'm sorry the 535 plus one guy this is the best solution they could come up with, but I really question the Federal government telling anyone in America they have to buy Health Insurance.

I campaigned against that in 2008. I'm consistent on this. I told people at their doors this was not part of the President's plan.

He may have changed his mind, I haven't. Nor has he communicated to me adequately enough why his mind was changed.

The Federal Government right now, can't control the industries they currently are regulating from bad practices. I cannot imagine what health insurance will look like when citizens are mandated to buy it, and they have lobbyist in Washington fighting new regulations.

The Supreme Court decision on campaign finance sealed the deal for me on this one.

The President can't convince the bankers who broke our country to behave, why do I think he can do so to Insurance companies.

Anonymous said...

In other words, Jacob,

You are just as reactionary as the right.

If you think that a public option is not insurance, you really do not understand finance.

The public option is merely a different form of insurance that is funded through tax dollars instead of premiums. Everyone has a responsibility to carry the burden of health care costs. It is a progressive society that recognizes that the poor cannot carry as much of the burden.

Would I like everyone to be rich? Of course. Would I like for us to have enough wealth to provide everyone with basic services without garnishing wages significantly? Of course. However, the basic rules of economics do not allow that.

Thus, a progressive system is necessary, but a difficult sell for many reasons. It takes a society that is able to be altruistic without experiencing the inherent problem of freeriders. Or at least believing that everyone is a freerider. When you are able to convince people not to abuse the system and others to accept such a possibility, perhaps, then, you can have a public option.

Anonymous said...

Robert Hanssen

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

Seoul City Sue
Shusui Kotoku

Mary, Queen of Scots

Theodore Hall

Thomas Hickey

Tokyo Rose

Jacob Oberholtzer

Bernie O'Hare said...

Wow! Looks like Jacob has committed treason.WEho will be leading the stormtroopers to yank him out of bed tonight, Geeting or Kwiatek?

Anonymous said...

Geeting is too busy designing a fiscal plan that will take us back to the stone ages by 2012. My bet is Kwiatek.

Jacob said...

Bernie,

The odd thing is, it is a bad bill. It is the Senate bill with minor changes, which had everyone mad in December.

I find it odd, now that it is a good thing.

Pitty Orwell isn't around. He'd be entertained by the current state of politics.

Anonymous said...

Jacob,

Taking a stand against the left draws an ugly response. They are an efficient slander machine, even to those who believe in government solutions but have merely strayed from the party line. Welcome aboard the USS target zone.

Scott Armstrong

Jacob said...

Scott,

This isn't really left or right. There isn't a person in his party, or group the President made a promise tom the President hasn't thrown under the buss other than big business and Wall Street.

Some of the slow ones, haven't figured it out yet.

Anonymous said...

Jacob,

Exhibit 1 anon 8:59,
2 anon 9:05

Scott Armstrong

Anonymous said...

Armstrong,

Youre competing with many many voices for Jake's attention. Let the boy have his manic episode in peace.

Anonymous said...

anon 9:21,

Are you trying to say something?

Scott Armstrong

Anonymous said...

anon 9:21,

Are you trying to say something?

Scott Armstrong

Bernie O'Hare said...

Scott, I deleted the personal attacks on Jacob.

Anonymous said...

Jake and Bernie are just mad that ObamaCare will makethe voices go away.

CUCKOO!

Bernie O'Hare said...

Actually, if Obamacare made you go away, I'd support it.

Anonymous said...

Anons of the left,

Thanks for definitively proving my point on the slandering methodolgy of the left. I'm sure you will now just further cement my case. Thanks for the help.

Scott Armstrong

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Jacob said...

Ah, bringing up the fact that I'm Bipolar,

I've been calling this plan ridiculous of mandates and no public option ridiculous since August. If this is a manic episode, this one hell of a long manic episode.

I guess because I've sought help for a mental illness I'm a non-person.

The democratic party shows its true colors.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Hey Jake,

How ironic it is that the very people who claim to want to improve our health care system would think nothing of belittling you because you have sught treatment for mental health issues. I can't imagine that you shared that information with too many people, but it has now been used against you by goosesteppers who choose slam you instead of the substance of what you are saying.

I have to apologize. Had I known about your condition, I would have cautioned you that the Internet can bea very ugly place, especially when infested by cowards afraid to sign their names.

But you knew, and my respect for you shot up quite a bit tonight. It took a lot of courage to take a stand on an issue that you knew would make you unpopular among the Mike Flecks, Jon Geetings and Hillary Kwiateks of this world.

While I will not name them as the people who outed you, it is clearly a Democrat who knew about your situation.

I am an alcoholic and spent 28 days in rehab. I know plenty of people who have suffered from varying forms of mental illness and have gone on to make others proud.

Don't let these bastards get to you. The fact that they attacked you so viciously and so personally is evidence that your criticisms are justified. They are the persons who are diminished by these sad attacks, not you.

Jacob said...

Bernie,

I'm pretty sure I know who did this. Over the summer he was homeless and no one in the party cared to help him, because, he's an asshole. I and another friend who will remain nameless did everything we could to help him.

This poor soul, only has the party. He has no real friends, his family life is horrible, and he has an inability to hold a job.

He really never does anything, but talks a lot...and that is saying things, because I talk a lot.

I will not name him because I have honor, but I know he is reading this and the only thing I can say, is reconcile that in the confession booth, because as a Christian, one who sins, and one who begs on his knees for his own inadequacy, I forgive you for attacking a condition God gave me.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Jacob said...

I'm backing Jake Towne because the federal government has proved inadequate at solving our problems and I believe that rights to govern should be returned to the states without too much domestic interference.

I'm backing Jake Towne, because this two party system we have going is two rival gangs, that will say and do anything for power, but are unable to solve the problems our nation has.

I'm backing Jake Towne, because the federal reserve system has proven to be utterly corrupt and all parts of our financial crisis end at Ben Bernake at the Fed and Tim Geithner at the FRBNY, two people who were reappointed by this President.

I'm backing Jake Towne to send a message to both parties, that the time of Hardball and Rush Limbaugh is over, and it is time to actually solve our nations problems, not talk about them, than sell out to the biggest dollar donor.

If you want to call me Straight Jacket Jake for doing so, fine, but at the end of the day, you are the one who thinks the status quo is working, and I think looking around in 2010....that appears insane.

Jacob said...

Bernie,

Mike Fleck, Hillary Kwiatek, and Jon Geeting are not bad people, they are not the types to do this.

I know which types in the party are, and I forgive who I suspect.

At the end of the day, I rejected the party today. They are still clinging to it for dear life.

They call me sick, however, they are all lobbying for a bill, that they all know is flawed and full of some really bad defects.

They were mad at the Bush people for 8 years for playing politics over the better good of the country, they engage in the same behavior.

In a way, the hardcore democrat, is no better than the hardcore republican. Both are personality cults, that end up doing the similar things.

Lighthouse said...

"Intelligent people can disagree" Scott Armstrong

I only wish that were really true. As a conservative (more paleo than neo), to be against the war in Iraq and against the budget busting years of a GOP pres and Congress was to be thought of as an unpatriotic RINO because it was Party first, and country/principle second. Even at the local level. To question W's policies was just not to be tolerated. "Intelligent people" could not disagree.

I am not going to defend the Democrats, only pointing to a GOP flaw.

Lighthouse said...

Opening from "The American Conservative" magazine under the title "The Right Choice? The conservative case for Barack Obama" http://www.amconmag.com/article/2008/mar/24/0002/

"Barack Obama is no conservative. Yet if he wins the Democratic nomination, come November principled conservatives may well find themselves voting for the senator from Illinois. Given the alternatives—and the state of the conservative movement—they could do worse."

Interestingly, CNN exit poll data showed that 20% (thats 1 in 5) self described conservatives voted for the liberal Obama...to my point in my previous post: if not a budget busting, war mongering "neo" the GOP wanted nothing to do with you during the Bush years through the 2008 election.

I guess I see some hypocrisy in Mr. Armstrong's "Taking a stand against the left draws an ugly response. They are an efficient slander machine, even to those who believe in government solutions but have merely strayed from the party line."

Glass houses??

Lighthouse said...

That said, the GOP can not give up a "W/neo" litmus test and simply go to the other extreme with some sort of strict "tea party" litmus test if it expects to win elections.

I go back to Armstrong's first comment " Intelligent people can disagree ". Openly advertise as center-right, but accept a bigger tent than the candidate of the moment.

Jacob said...

lighthouse,

Nothing has changed from 2008-2010.

Ben Bernake is still Fed Chair. Gates is still Sec. of Defense.
Geithner got a promotion.

For a guy who was so angry at George W. Bush, he sure kept a lot of the Bush people around.

Iraq was being planned to be drawn down before Barack got into office.

Afghanistan got an escalation

More free trade agreements are being negotiated.

The illegal immigration discussions are the same.

These policies are not right or left, they are just insane.

The country overall is headed in the same direction it was 2 years ago.

There are some minor differences. However on the big issues, the ones that will be written about 50 years from now, what is the difference.

Jacob said...

At the end of the day, there is something seriously wrong with our political system, when two years ago, you could be adamantly against something in an election than turn around shortly after being elected and implement the things you told people you were against.

People can call me crazy for pointing that out, but it is a fact.

The President was either not that informed on the issues when he ran for President, or chose what he thought polled best to campaign on, and than did what was politically expedient when elected.

Either way, it does not paint a good picture, of this man.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Bill said...

The Bill has serious flaws and limits the ability to oversee managed care organizations.

I want healthcare reform as much or more than most people but this bill has very serious flaws. The Bill provides benefits to more but they are a mile wide and an inch deep once you look at the details of it.

Jacob raises real points and is being called a traitor. It seems that many people in the political sphere on both the left and the right have moved into a post reality world.

The Dems are willing to forgo long term progress on the issue for a short term gain. They want to say that they fixed it. As much of the Bill does not hit until 2014 they are figuring they will worry about the details later.

The Conservatives have been intent on obstructionism at every term to regain control of the legislative process.

What a fine mess we are in.

Jacob said...

You know, talking about my medical condition is fine.

Here is the deal, when I wrote this, I figured you guys might go that route, and I didn't care.

Now the winner of the last national election, campaigned against two of the key provisions of this bill.

Let me know how November works out trying to sell something, the President himself spent a year tearing apart as a bad idea in 2008.

You are about to find out, that many people didn't just like Barack Obama the personality, they liked what he was saying and the policies he advocated for.

Jacob said...

As far as my credibility, I'd have none, if I knocked on doors for this party, telling people that this plan was good or that what I said in 2008 about private mandates on insurance was wrong.

I'll take the hits on being bipolar, rather than to continue with this game you play with the voters.

Bill said...

Jacob,

Sorry to hear that you have struggles in this area. One in four Americans families have, but I guess none of the stone throwers have had these kinds of problems.

It is sad that the group I advocated for is starting to look more and more like the group I advocated against. It used to be said that the Dems had a big enough tent for open disagreement, it is not looking to be true based on the posts here and the way the machine responding.

Clem said...

Jacob said...

1)Here is the deal, if you go to war, you go to war, congress declares it and all the nations resources are utilized to one thing. Defeating the enemy. Both Iraq and Afghanistan were a disaster. Doing things half ass when it comes to Military action is silly, we should have learned that from Vietnam.

Wow!

And you say you pushed to get Obama elected based on his campaign promises?

Obama's campaign promises were antithetical to ANY possibility of doing what you say, from collateral damage issues to interrogations, to pussyfooting around to please the international community whose asses he would subsequently go on to kiss on his apology tour. The freakish liberal MSM and the hope and changers - YOUR people - cried and screamed at every possible opportunity about Bush and Cheney the Nazis.

And, btw genius, since the formation of the UN, the U.S. doesn't declare war in Congress anymore, because it's unilateral declaration will put it in violation of the Charter. Another act of pissing on our founding document, brought to you by, guess who?

You're a hypocrite, at best.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Bernie O'Hare said...

Feel free to disagree with Jacob on substance. But comments that belittle him for having a preexisting condition, will be deleted.