Senator McConnell dismissed the President’s substantive involvement in the debate, dryly noting the president “would sign anything the Congress sent him, provided it had ‘Health Care Reform’ written at the top of the page.It's not just McConnel who is saying this. We also have Robert Reich, who has always been an extremely big booster of the Obama campaign and later the Obama Administration, so when he says this:
Big Pharma and big insurance hate the public insurance option even more than they hate big Medicare discounts. And although the President has sounded as if he would welcome it, political operatives in the White House have quietly reassured the industries that it won't be included in the final bill. At most, the bill would allow the formation of non-profit 'cooperatives' that wouldn't have the scale or authority to squeeze the profits of private industry, or a 'trigger' that would allow states to form public insurance options eventually if certain goals for cost savings and coverage weren't met.Which is a clear statement against his own political interest.
He cannot bring himself to voice it explicitly, is that Barack Obama and his people do not care about healthcare reform, but that they are looking for phony reform for 2012.
The results of White House "Axis of Weasel" on this is plain to see, with , as Rockefeller's public option amendment being voted down, as well as Schumer's weaker tea public option.
It gets worse, of course, with Baucus proposing that nationwide standards on insurance be written by the insurance industry in his bill.
He is suggesting that the National Assn. of Insurance Commissioners write binding regulations on insurance company behavior, it has issued advisory regulations for some years, with , "States would be permitted to deviate from the standards only by appealing to the Department of Health and Human Services."
What's more because the NAIC is a private organization, there would be no requirement for public meetings or public access to records.
It's mice to know that there are a few bright spots, but, as with the case of Sen. Byron Dorgan (!)
offering an amendment allowing for drug reimportation, but you know that Rahmbo , with the President's full approval, will go all out to kill this, because the White House has already cut a deal with health insurers and pharma to boost their already obscene profits by requiring people to buy health insurance.
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