Hey, Beckwin

[Day]

Hey at least he isn't trying to make you queer with every post.

[Kuya]

lol

[Kuya]

This one seems pretty indefensible, but i believe in your ability to defend anything, Beckwin. Make me proud.

[Beckwin]

i can argue pretty well for sure, but what makes you think I want to defend each and every thing that obama does? really now, I've voiced dissatisfaction about obama's WoT handling in General, and have expressed certain reservations about aspects of the bailouts.

find something else to do broski

[Kuya]

Hey Beckwin, remember when Obama was an advocate of universal healthcare? HAHAHAHAHA

[Beckwin]

he still is as far as i can tell

[Kuya]

Rx and the single payer | Salon

May 22, 2009 | In 2003, a young Illinois state senator named Barack Obama told an AFL-CIO meeting, "I am a proponent of a single-payer universal healthcare program."

Single payer. Universal. That's health coverage, like Medicare, but for everyone who wants it. Single payer eliminates insurance companies as pricey middlemen. The government pays care providers directly. It's a system that polls consistently have shown the American people favoring by as much as 2-to-1.

Fast-forward six years. President Obama has everything he said was needed -- Democrats in control of the executive branch and both chambers of Congress. So what's happened to single payer?

A woman at his town hall meeting in New Mexico last week asked him exactly that. "If I were starting a system from scratch, then I think that the idea of moving towards a single-payer system could very well make sense," the president replied. "That's the kind of system that you have in most industrialized countries around the world.

"The only problem is that we're not starting from scratch. We have historically a tradition of employer-based healthcare. And although there are a lot of people who are not satisfied with their healthcare, the truth is, is that the vast majority of people currently get healthcare from their employers and you've got this system that's already in place. We don't want a huge disruption as we go into healthcare reform where suddenly we're trying to completely reinvent one-sixth of the economy."

So the banks were too big to fail and now, apparently, healthcare is too big to fix, at least the way a majority of people indicate they would like it to be fixed, with a single-payer option. President Obama favors a public health plan competing with the medical cartel that he hopes will create a real market that would bring down costs. But single payer has vanished from his radar.

CHANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGE

[Kuya]

I've almost completely lost count on everything he has flip flopped over.

[Kuya]

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature...ota/index.html

Of course, even as a senator aiming for the "possible" in a Republican Congress, Obama promised to never "shy away from a debate about single payer." And after the 2008 election fulfilled his precondition of Democratic dominance, it was only logical to expect him to initiate that debate.

That's why the White House's current posture is so puzzling. As the Associated Press reports, Obama aides are trying to squelch any single-payer discussion, deploying their healthcare point-person, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., to announce that "everything is on the table with the single exception of single-payer."

So it's back to why -- why Obama's insurance-industry-coddling inconsistency? Is it a pol's payback for campaign cash? Is it an overly cautious lawmaker's paralysis? Is it a conciliator's desire to appease powerful interests? Or is it something else?

For a president who spends so much time on camera answering questions, those have become the biggest unanswered questions of all.

Maybe Beckwin can answer us why.

[Shiroikage]

CHANNNNNNNNGGGGGE

[Sera]

I'm really angry about some of that stuff Kuya, especially the backpedaling on healthcare. So pissed.

[Bagel]

Politicians exaggerating during campaigning? I WA SHOCK

[Kuya]

Politicians exaggerating during campaigning? I WA SHOCK

But he's not a politician... he's Obama!!

[Kuya]

Looks like he has no intention of allowing the Justice Department investigate the crimes, which is completely contradictory to what Obama said publically.

[Akanei]

itt: Kuya taking out his loss of moderator status on becky.

edit: and, as usual, gay comments.

[Kuya]

Don't defend him. It's his fault if he is too much of a bitch to not get owned.

[Kuya]

He should learn to take it... like a good bitch.

[Beckwin]

amid all the recent spending and the pro-insurance dems in congress, there would seem to be a slim chance at a universal, all government paid program being created, especially since it would dismantle the insurance industry resulting in job losses. I'd still love to see the insurance industry simply just go away, and I'd like to see a universal gov't paid system, but I can see why Obama is going in the direction he is. shit sux but we're in a shitty situation.

oh, and posting 6 year old quotes and complaining that a position has changed after 6 years is kinda eh, kuya. in his campaign he talked about introducing gov't insurance for those who can't afford it, which would put somewhat of a price control on the private industry. he also talked about streamlining the medical file system and imposing certain rules/regulations on the insurance industry (no denial of service for pre-existing conditions). in that regard he still seems pretty consistent from campaign-> presidency; a NHS-style system wasn't on the table on the campaign trail.

[Beckwin]

and yes, the torture expose and prisoner detention are both loads of shit; Obama needs to own up on both accounts and drop the scared neocon stance.

[Kuya]

That last one is much better. Doctor, i think we're getting some progress!