Senators near deal on consumer agency

By GottaLaff

I'm surprised when anything gets done these days:

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) is nearing a deal with Sen. Bob Corker (R.-Tenn.) to propose the creation of a consumer protection authority housed inside the Federal Reserve, according to three sources familiar with the negotiations.

This would be whatcha call a major breakthrough in negotiations.

Originally, Chris Dodd and Bob Corker wanted an independent agency, one that could write, as well as enforce, rules that would protect consumers.

This is the compromise:

The proposed regulator would be appointed by the president, with a dedicated source of funding and the power to write rules, but enforcement of those rules would remain the responsibility of banking regulators.

"We know what Obama will be announcing next week"

By GottaLaff

Greg Sargent:

In another sign that Obama and Dems have already decided to try to pass reform via reconciliation without Republicans, the White House has held no post-summit discussions of any kind with GOP leaders, Republican aides tell me, suggesting Obama advisers are no longer trying to reach a compromise. [...]

So I guess we know what Obama will be announcing next week.

It is pointless to try to reach a compromise when only one side does the reaching.

That's not compromise, that's capitulation.

Video- Rep. Pence Can't Name One Compromise He's Willing To Accept

What a huge dickweed.

Poll-itics: Americans think standing for principle more important than bipartisan compromise

By GottaLaff

Dear President Obama,

Please pay attention to this poll. You did your best. You reached out numerous times, only to be kicked in the teeth. It's time for change.

Love, Laffy:

(click on image to enlarge)

More poll numbers here.

Transparency, standing up for principles, standing up to special interests... check.

VIDEO: President Obama speaks after meeting with Senate Democrats

By GottaLaff

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I liveblogged it here.

I'm hearing nothing but criticism of the latest health care reform twists and turns. I'm one of the critical ones, and I'm very disappointed and frustrated with Congress, the administration, and the giveaway to Big Insurance/Pharma. And don't get me started on Lieberman.

Someone tell me if I'm missing something.

I'm also not looking forward to 2010.

Time to go work on my optimism. It is badly needed right about now. Oh, optimism? You around? I know you're out there somewhere....

Liveblog: President Obama speaks after meeting with Senate Democrats

By GottaLaff

President Obama:

We're on the precipice of achieving... There are still some differences. We can't let differences over individual issues get in the way.. This was not a roll call, but a broad based discussion.

There is broad consensus on:

Pre existing conditions, coverage assured, costs reduced.

It gets rid of waste and inefficiencies, so largest deficit reduction plan in over a decade.

Repeat: Cost issue rumors... Cost cutting is in bill. The CBO has said this is a deficit reduction, not increase. So all the fear tactics, ads are inaccurate.

Finally: We agree on affordable coverage reforms. Every day another 14,000 lose coverage. In next decade, half under age 65 will be w/o coverage at some point. With this reform, these people will be covered, and those already covered will remain covered.

These are big changes, the most significant reform since Medicare. They will save families, businesses, and gov't. money, and save lives.

That's why AARP approves, has to pass on our watch.

Final bill won't have everything everyone wants, no bill can. But we can't allow differences over indiv. elements to stand in our way to passage.

They (families) are counting on us to show leadership. I don't intend to let them down. Stakes are enormous for businesses, whose premiums are us.

Critics fail to notice what happens if nothing gets done. If this doesn't get done, premiums are guaranteed to go up. It is guaranteed that Medicare/Medicaid will blow a hole through our budget. Guaranteed.

I don't intend to have that happen, nor does Senate.

All the criteria I laid out are met.

Assurances that prevent abuse. Plus prevention, wellness, cost cuts, guarantees, etc. It will save all of us money, reduce pressures on emergency rooms.

Still work to be done. We welcome the scrutiny from the press. I am absolutely confident that if America knows what's in this bill, and if Senate knows, it will pass because it's right for America.

I am cautiously optimistic.

UPDATE: ABORTION ELEMENTS STILL IN PLAY, per MSNBC.

Paul Krugman: I approve

By GottaLaff

Earlier I posted several reactions to the newest Senate health care reform compromise. Here is one more voice, one that matters to a lot of people-- Paul Krugman:

If this is the final plan, it’s better than most of us were expecting — and definitely good enough to go with.

White House Insists Bipartisan Health Care Bill Is Still a Possibility

By GottaLaff

Who's kidding who here? Any "bipartisanship" is tantamount to the Dems caving to the Rushpublics. The other side has come right out and said they will not support any bill, compromise or no compromise.

Delusional much? Or is this my sleep deprivation speaking? I kvetch, you decide:

The White House on Wednesday pushed back against reports suggesting that President Barack Obama is ready to concede that he can’t get Republican votes for health care overhaul legislation, asserting that the administration still believes a bipartisan bill is possible.

“We continue to be hopeful that we’ll get bipartisan support, and we’ll continue to work with those that are interested in doing that,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said. “The president has said countless times he will work with anybody in any party who wants to work constructively on health care reform.”

Gibbs directly rejected the contention in an article in Wednesday’s New York Times that said administration officials are “increasingly convinced” they will have to focus their effort solely on uniting fractious Democrats.

Gibbs denied that there is even strategizing in the White House about a Democrats-only option.

“There’s several more weeks to go in negotiations between Republicans and Democrats,” he said. “I don’t know why we would short-circuit that now.”

Gibbs acknowledged that many Republicans have hardened their opposition to Obama’s initiative, but he contended there are still Republicans on the Finance Committee and elsewhere who want to forge a bipartisan deal with Obama.

Deal? To the Rushpublics, a deal looks like this:

The Boehner makes my point for me:

But leading Republicans question how committed the White House has ever been to bipartisanship.

“From day one, the White House has taken a go-it-alone approach on health care,” House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) asserted in a statement. “Months ago, Republicans sent the President a letter noting areas of potential common ground on health care reform and requesting a meeting with him to discuss a bipartisan way forward,” he added.

“The Administration rejected our efforts to work together, choosing instead to craft a costly government takeover of health care and to march forward on a partisan basis solely with Democrats in Congress,” the statement continued.

Y'see, one big problem is that Democrats don't have the votes yet, all by their lonesomes. Senators Kennedy and Byrd haven't been able to vote due to illness, sadly. And then there are those pesky Blue Dogs.

Gibbs said any type of effort is possible by Obama to get an agreement on the health care bill once Congress returns, including a trip by the president to Capitol Hill.

“I think the president would orbit the moon if he thought it would help,” Gibbs said.

We'd be right there with him, all gussied up in our nifty space suits, if only he'd let us. But I have a queasy feeling that the Rushpublics would cut our oxygen supply and blame it all on a socialist government take-over of the space ship which was designed to kill us during our end-of-life orbit around Planet Public Option.

Howard Dean: "There Will Be Primaries" For Dems Who Vote Against Public Option

By GottaLaff

Paddy and I are steaming mad and don't wanna take it any more. So are so many on Twitter who have just about had it with all the vitriol, idiotic decisions, compromises, general wussiness from our side, and of course, the hostility and irrationality from the TeaDeathers.

We still have the power of our votes. Now all we need are decent candidates... who can win:

Former Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean fired one of the clearest warning shots at hesitant Democratic lawmakers on Thursday, insisting that if the party was unable to produce a health care bill with a public plan, there would be electoral consequences.

Sometimes it feels like Howard Dean is the only sane Democrat out there.

"I do think there will be primaries as the result of all this, if the bill doesn't pass with a public option," Dean said, in a phone interview with the Huffington Post.

The former Vermont governor added the caveat that he thought "cooler heads" would ultimately prevail and that a government run option for insurance coverage would be passed. [...]

Good. Now say it louder. And repeatedly. And louder.

Dean, who is a keynote speaker at the Netroots Nation conference at Pittsburgh this week, said he was "in favor" of holding recalcitrant senators and congressman accountable on health care related issues.

[...] Dean criticized talk of substituting a government run program with co-operative insurance plans, calling the latter a "fig leaf."

"This talk about co-ops is a political compromise it is not a policy compromise," he said, of the discussions currently underway in the Senate Finance Committee. "And I think most people, on both sides of the aisle know that co-ops won't work."

Dean:

"The public option is incrementalism.... But there is no incrementalism without the public option." He explained: "If you don't have a public option this bill is not even incremental, in terms of adequate health care reform... Paul is not entirely wrong. It is just that the last shred of reform is the public option."

Public option: Not optional.

H/t: Eric

Cillizza's title, not mine: The Left Rises Up Against Obama

By GottaLaff

I'm not rising up against Obama? Are you rising up against Obama? Anyone you know rising up? I may question him now and then, but rising up? I don't even feel like getting out of my chair for a snack. Rising up is simply out of the question.

Anyway, I have a theory: After the very welcome hearings today, and with more coming, and with no objection to those from the White House, I believe President Obama may be letting the facts unfurl in this way, inevitably leading right into the investigations/prosecutions we have been clamoring for.

Yes, my gut reaction to his reversal about the photos was, hey, what about all that talk of transparency? But despite my impatience to see justice done, at this point I'm, once again, albeit reluctantly, in wait-and-see mode. Why? Because most of the time, Obama is two steps ahead of the rest of us.

President Barack Obama's reversal on the release of detainee photos has angered the liberal left, a perceived poke in the eye that has left some questioning Obama's commitment to progressive policies.

In brief remarks before heading to Arizona to deliver a commencement speech at Arizona State University, Obama argued that "the publication of these photos would not add any additional benefit to our understanding of what was carried out in the past by a small number of individuals" and, in fact, the most likely effect would be "to further inflame anti-American opinion and to put our troops in greater danger."

Liberals -- particularly in the blogosphere -- immediately expressed their displeasure with the decision.

"Since he's been inaugurated, Barack Obama has demonstrated a remarkable desire to keep evidence of Bush crimes generally, and Bush's torture regime specifically, concealed," said Jane Hamsher, the founder of the Fire Dog Lake blog in an email exchange with the Fix. "Some of his supporters won't care. But others believe he is betraying promises he made on the campaign trail about transparency, and there is a growing sense that he is becoming complicit in the crimes he is attempting desperately to shield from public scrutiny." [...]

Talking Points Memo is leading its site with the headline "Obama Admin Falls Back On Bushism: Abuse Pics' Release Would Hurt Troops".

On Daily Kos, Joan McCarter, a contributing editor to the site, described the move as "an unwelcome and probably futile policy reversal" by Obama [...]

And Digby, another prominent liberal blogger, called White House press secretary Robert Gibbs' explanation of why the Administration is reversing position as rising to "Fleischeresque levels of fatuousness".

To be clear: it's not immediately clear that liberals are abandoning the president in droves. Rather, as happens with almost every president, elements of the base are coming to grips with the idea that Obama may not be the liberal hero that people thought he was when he was first elected.

Okay, stop right there. Why would anyone have thought he was a "liberal hero"? He speaks of himself as more moderate, I've posted as much several times over the past year or so. He's always made a huge deal about reaching out, compromise, meeting the other side halfway. There are no surprises here.

This is not to say that if he backtracks on a promise, he won't hear about it. But generally, President Obama has never been as liberal as the corporate media, and even some Democrats, like to think.

The more likely scenario in terms of political consequences from these decisions is that the fervent desire to elect Obama within the party's base will dissipate somewhat as liberals grow (and stay) alienated with the compromises the President makes over the next four years.

Or, we'll realize that he's a very smart man who plays well with others, and realize that nobody will ever agree with any of us 100%.

Health care compromise within reach

By GottaLaff

Ted Kennedy and Howard Dean, what are your thoughts:

President Barack Obama's top health care adviser said Wednesday a compromise is within reach on a government health plan for the middle class that wouldn't drive private insurers out of business. [...]

Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House health reform office, said a public plan could be designed to address concerns about the federal government overreaching in its role. [...]

For example, she said one compromise might be that the public plan pays hospitals and doctors rates similar to what private insurers pay. That would address fears that government would use its muscle to pay rock-bottom prices for medical services, allowing the public plan to charge discounted premiums that private insurers couldn't compete with. [...]

Even if the government plan paid private-market rates to doctors and hospitals, it could still cut costs, DeParle said. A government plan wouldn't have to turn a profit, and could also save on administrative expenses.

However, DeParle acknowledged that ideological objections to government's role would be hard to overcome.

Most Americans may not realize it, but government already pays nearly half of the nation's health care tab. Government programs cover seniors, poor families, and many children. Obama has proposed to expand that.

His plan would offer middle class workers and their families the option of enrolling in a public plan, along with private insurance, through a new kind of purchasing pool. [...]

If a public plan was open to all employers and individuals, and paid doctors and hospitals the same low rates as Medicare, it would become the dominant insurer in the country, the study found. But if the plan were open only to individuals and small businesses, and paid rates similar to private insurers, its impact would be limited. In that case, the public plan would mainly be helping groups that now have a hard time getting private coverage.

The insurance industry remains skeptical, and some Republican lawmakers say any kind of public plan would be a deal breaker.

Let's be honest. To the Rushpublics, any plan would be a deal breaker.

ObamAgenda

By GottaLaff

Commenter Ady said this in another thread:

"Obama is extremely pragmatic. He'll always be wiling to give a little to accomplish his long term goals."

Commenter Nellcote then linked to a substantial piece about Obama and his environmental policies that ended with this:

“Obama is not defining his agenda with any particular focus on what the environmental community would want him to do,” [Dan Esty, a Yale professor and environmental economist who was a founding member of Obama’s advisory committee] says. “It’s a uniquely Obama vision of how to go forward - it’ll be attractive across a broad public spectrum, but it won’t be universally acclaimed by the environmental community.” Still, those who’ve known Obama longest remain hopeful that he’ll be able to navigate the challenges that lie ahead. “Community organizers are pragmatists,” says Galluzzo, the South Side organizer who once trained Obama. “It’s not about being an idealist, it’s about moving the agenda forward. You learn politics as the art of the possible.” In the choices Obama has made as he’s progressed from the South Side to Springfield to Washington, Galluzzo sees the same tensions confronted by every grassroots activist: idealism marbled with pragmatism, a readiness to compromise to get things done, a willingness to settle for incremental change. “When Barack Obama becomes president we’ll have an environmental president,” he says. “But will he be a purist on every environmental issue? The answer is no.” Ultimately, Galluzzo says, Obama’s environmentalism is predicated upon an unwillingness to allow the perfect to become the enemy of the good. The question is whether that will be good enough.

This, to me, sums things up perfectly, and not just about Obama's enviromental policies. The expectations of his presidency are so high right now, he couldn't possibly live up to them. But he does seem to know how to take steps in the right direction, accomplish a few things, and vastly improve on what we've had up until now.

Health care compromise makes Hillary and Obama supporters happy

By GottaLaff

I told ya so! I told ya the Democratic Platform meeting was all touchy-feely swell!

Democrats shaped a set of principles Saturday that commits the party to guaranteed health care for all, heading off a potentially divisive debate and edging the party closer to the position of Barack Obama's defeated rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Sing it with me: Kumbaya:

The party's platform committee moved smoothly through a range of issues for the fall campaign and approved a document that will go to the Democratic convention in Denver later this month for adoption.

There was little dissent — or room for it — in the day's meeting and a compromise on health policy took one flash-point off the table.

Obama, soon to be the Democratic nominee, has stopped short of proposing to mandate health coverage for all. He aims to achieve something close to universal coverage by making insurance more affordable and helping struggling families pay for it.

Advisers to Obama and Clinton both told the party's platform meeting they were happy with the compromise, adopted without opposition or without explanation as to how health care would be guaranteed.

In return for the guarantee, activists dropped a tougher platform amendment seeking a government-run, single-payer system and another amendment explicitly holding out Clinton's plan as the one to follow.

There now. That wasn't so hard, was it?