Obama turns his back

It’s been nearly two weeks now since I’ve posted. I have been busy elsewhere, but I have also been in a state of something akin to shock.

No, it’s not the Massachusetts Senate results. We saw that coming. Martha Coakley ran a pathetic campaign against a determined challenger.

No, it’s the change that has come over – or is it the revelation of the true character of – Barack Obama.

Can you believe the man who took the stage in Boston in 2004 and held the crowd spellbound with idealistic rhetoric like this – “It is that fundamental belief — it is that fundamental belief — I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sisters’ keeper — that makes this country work.” – has now, after refusing to demonstrate leadership on the bedrock issue of health care reform, preferring instead to cut deals with Health, Inc., and produce a bill that not only facilitates a massive transfer of wealth from us to them but also succeeded in diminishing the power of his own party, after charting a fiscal policy that bailed out millionaires and their billion-dollar companies while leaving millions of average Americans to struggle and suffer, and after asking for a huge increase in military spending, pledged to freeze domestic programs in the middle of the worst recession since the 1930s?

Barack Obama, shame on you.

UPDATE – Krugman’s on it – On every level . . . .

And Michael Lind, writing at the Center for American Progress blog, has a few tart words of his own – Snakeoil

Later,

Here it comes . . . .

The Supremes are expected to announce their decision in the Citizens United case tomorrow. I will be shocked if they decide anything but the expected overturn of a century’s worth of jurisprudence on direct corporate political contributions, opening the flood gates to many, many millions of dollars of corporate cash (yes, I know, unions, too, but they don’t have anywhere near the kind resources that are at the command of the bosses) cascading into our elections.

This will be a dark day, indeed.

Later,

Health Care “War Room” Set Up By Firedoglake

If you weren’t already aware of this – FDL health care war room

Later,

Late (Saturday) Night Listening

It’s so cold outside, I can hear branches cracking in the woods up behind the house. A great way to keep warm on a night like this is to build a big, rolling fire, brew a hot cup of chai, and crank up the Dead, seen and heard here at a stop on their memorable European tour in 1972:

BTW, here’s the band’s website – Dead Net

Later,

Obama to House: Eat your spinach

The White House is pushing hard to get Pelosi and House Dems to roll over for the Senate on health care reform.

Didn\'t he campaign on the opposite position?

Here’s hoping the Speaker pushes back.

I’m encouraged remarks like this – Yeah, he did

And Greg Levine, at Firedoglake, has the proof – Got that Cadillac walk . . . .

And the Post today has a decent piece on taxing benefits, which I consider to be a magnificently stupid idea – Lots of people drive \"Cadillacs\"

Later,

Twelfth Night

January 6th is Twelfth Night, or Epiphany – 12th Night – a sort of Mardi Gras without the Lent. It’s also one of my favorite Shakespearean plays – Or, What You Will

My favorite version is the 1996 film with Helena Bonham-Carter, Imogen Stubbs, Ben Kingsley, Nigel Hawthorne, and a host of others. I’d post the trailer, but I don’t like it very much. The movie, however, I love. I understand Ann Hathaway did a great turn as Viola this past summer in the Shakespeare-in-the-Park series.

Later,

Health Insurance Fraud – Guess Who’s Guilty . . .

A report that came out last fall (first I’ve seen it, and I don’t recall any media coverage at the time) from George Washington University’s School of Public Health and Health Services that states health insurance fraud costs somewhere (depending on who’s estimating) between $68 billion and $220 billion a year. That would be a LOT of patients or doctors or both gaming the system, but it turns out they’re not the biggest culprits. In fact, the biggest problem is (wait for it) –

The McPaper-esque version

The Full Monty

Suzy Khimm at The New Republic is on the case, it seems – TNR story

Remember, these are the same people – to use the term loosely – who are driving health care policy, who are paying megabucks to lobbyists (and political coffers) to protect their billions in profits, and who are cutting deals with a prostrate White House while royally screwing the rest of us.

Later,

MVP of the 00s

Jayson Stark, at ESPN, explains it all – Stark on Albert

Spring training’s only weeks away!

Later,

Six Million People

NYT, over the weekend.
That\'s 2 percent of the population

Later,

Ping Pong

From the estimable Jonathan Cohn, at The New Republic (emphasis mine):

EXCLUSIVE: Dems ‘Almost Certain’ to Bypass Conference

Jonathan Cohn January 3, 2010 | 10:50 pm

Now that both the House and Senate have passed health care reform bills, all Democrats have to do is work out a compromise between the two versions. And it appears they’re not about to let the Republicans gum up the works again.

According to a pair of senior Capitol Hill staffers, one from each chamber, House and Senate Democrats are “almost certain” to negotiate informally rather than convene a formal conference committee. Doing so would allow Democrats to avoid a series of procedural steps–not least among them, a series of special motions in the Senate, each requiring a vote with full debate–that Republicans could use to stall deliberations, just as they did in November and December.

“There will almost certainly be full negotiations but no formal conference,” the House staffer says. “There are too many procedural hurdles to go the formal conference route in the Senate.”

One reason Democrats expect Republicans to keep trying procedural delays is that the Republicans have signaled their intent to do so. On Christmas Eve, when the Senate passed its bill, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell memorably vowed [1] in a floor speech that “This fight isn’t over. My colleagues and I will work to stop this bill from becoming law.”

“I think the Republicans have made our decision for us,” the Senate staffer says. “It’s time for a little ping-pong.”

“Ping pong” is a reference to one way the House and Senate could proceed. With ping-ponging, the chambers send legislation back and forth to one another until they finally have an agreed-upon version of the bill. But even ping-ponging can take different forms and some people use the term generically to refer to any informal negotiations.

Whatever form the final discussions take place, a decision to bypass conference would undoubtedly expedite the debate, clearing the way for final passage (if not signing) by the end of January. And, as long as both chambers still get their say, that’s a good thing.

Yes, Republicans are sure to complain that they’re being excluded from deliberations. But given their repeated efforts to block not just reform but even mere votes on reform, it’s not clear why Democrats are obligated to include them in discussions anymore.

No, it’s not, and for people like me, it never has been. The R’s (and Rahm Emmanuel) have always seen this as a political fight, not a question of the best policy for Americans. They have intended, from the beginning, to hand Barack Obama a major defeat, and there was never, as far as I can discern, a point in time in which they negotiated in good faith. Besides, their buddies at Health, Inc., made out like bandits, and they beat down the popular-in-America-if-not-in-DC public option.

Now, the downside of this approach, as I see it – and please weigh in – is that, in the absence of a formal conference, leadership will be more likely to just sigh and rubber-stamp the Senate bill. I imagine Speaker Pelosi’s getting some heat to do just that. So perhaps CSPAN’s request to televise the proceedings might keep things honest – relatively speaking, of course.

Later,