It looks like heaven but it feels like death;
It's something in between, I guess:
It's closing time.
-- Leonard Cohen

Official transcript of remarks by President Barack Obama after the March 21 vote in the House of Representatives on H.R.3590: Motion to Concur in Senate Amendments to Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act:

My fellow Americans. As many of our more serious commentators have noted, Democrats and progressives have sought genuine reform of our broken, bloated, unjust health care system for almost a hundred years. Today, I am proud to say that we have brought that century-long struggle to a close. Together with our visionary partners in the House and the Senate, we have finally killed genuine health care reform for many years to come -- perhaps even for another century!

The struggle is over, the deal is done, the fix is in, and corporate power -- unbridled, unchallenged, coddled, protected, and larded with the endless pork of government-guaranteed profit -- has triumphed at last. This is an historic achievement. This is a mighty legacy we will bequeath to future generations.

This, my friends, is what change looks like.

Now, you know and I know that such change never comes easily. It never comes without opposition. It never comes without controversy. Even in this hour of victory, we know that the doom-sayers will be out in force.

And I'm not speaking here of the Republicans, whose opposition has simply been a lurid, baseless "Red Dawn" fantasy about "communism" coming to America. "Communism" -- in a bill that has been written by our visionary partners in the corporate community, by our hyper-capitalist friends and patrons on Wall Street, by the lobbyists and bagmen of Big Money! It's true there is a tinge of socialism in the bill, but it is, of course, the only kind of socialism that is tolerated in America: socialism for the rich, where the masses shoulder the risks -- and the costs -- while the wealthy reap the profits for themselves. The health-care barons, the bailed-out banks, the farm-devouring agriconglomerates, the war profiteers ... we've got plenty of boardroom bolsheviki out there -- but it sure ain't "communism" like Castro used to make! So let them hoot and holler down this false trail all they like; for as I learned back in my Senate days, when I was considered part of the "anti-war" faction, opposition without substance only entrenches the status quo.

No, what we must look out for are all those -- or rather, those very few -- nattering nabobs of negativism who have opposed our historic corporate empowerment bill out of -- get this -- principle. Like barnacles hanging onto the butt of the Titanic, they have clung to the idea of truly universal, equal, single-payer health care, a system that is less expensive, more efficient, more secure, more democratic, more popular and more effective than the heroic measure we have passed here today.

These poor wretches -- who now must face the wrath of Kos and the wroth of Rahm for their tragic apostasy -- are simply not savvy enough to see that our 2,000-page boondogglepalooza, riddled with fine-print exceptions, toothless regulations (which we will 'enforce' every bit as rigorously as Wall Street has been regulated all these years), impenetrable phase-in and phase-out schedules, and mild benefits that won't even begin kicking in for years -- and that even after a decade will still leave millions of people uncovered -- is much better than a simple, streamlined system that could be implemented by the end of this year, bringing genuine relief from intolerable, life-degrading financial burdens and medical problems to millions and millions of people in dire need right away.

Or as that avatar of negativity, Ralph Nader put it:

The health insurance legislation is a major political symbol wrapped around a shredded substance. It does not provide coverage that is universal, comprehensive or affordable. It is a remnant even of its own initially compromised self — bereft of any public option, any safeguard for states desiring a single payer approach, any adequate antitrust protections, any shift of power toward consumers to defend themselves, any regulation of insurance prices, any authority for Uncle Sam to bargain with drug companies, and any reimportation of lower-priced drugs.

Hey, Ralph, thanks for reciting my credits! All those "berefts" you cited were the result of my own super- savvy negotiations! It's 11-dimensional chess, man, a really heavy-duty Matrix Zen Jedi Master use-the-Force kind of thing, where you win the game by giving away everything you have in the opening move! But you're too much a dinosaur to understand. 'Anti-trust protections!' Hey, Teddy Roosevelt -- your horse-and-buggy is waiting! Just listen to this guy:

Most of the health insurance coverage mandated by this legislation does not come into effect until 2014, by which time 180,000 Americans will die because they were unable to afford health insurance to cover treatment and diagnosis, according to Harvard Medical School researchers.

Well, what can I say? 180,000 is a lot of dead people. This is a very hard choice, but the price — we think the price is worth it.

Then there's this Chris Hedges guy. He used to be a "serious" journalist, reporting on the imperial wars for our corporate partners in the stovepiping community -- what old-timers and barnacles still like to call the "news media." But he went off the rails a long time ago and joined the carpers and cranks on the sidelines, those malcontents who, unlike so many of our progressive partners today, have never imbibed the timeless wisdom of Warren G. Harding: "Don't knock, boost!"

Just get a load of Hedges here, making the big-whoop observation that our historic bill is just a bloated version of the already-failed, Republican-created Massachusetts plan:

Take a look at the health care debacle in Massachusetts, a model for what we will get nationwide. One in six people there who have the mandated insurance say they cannot afford care, and tens of thousands of people have been evicted from the state program because of budget cuts. The 45,000 Americans who die each year because they cannot afford coverage will not be saved under the federal legislation. Half of all personal bankruptcies will still be caused by an inability to pay astronomical medical bills. The only good news is that health care stocks and bonuses for the heads of these corporations are shooting upward. ...

The bill is another example of why change will never come from within the Democratic Party. The party is owned and managed by corporations. The five largest private health insurers and their trade group, America’s Health Insurance Plans, spent more than $6 million on lobbying in the first quarter of 2009. Pfizer, the world’s biggest drug maker, spent more than $9 million during the last quarter of 2008 and the first three months of 2009. The Washington Post reported that up to 30 members of Congress from both parties who hold key committee memberships have major investments in health care companies totaling between $11 million and $27 million. President Barack Obama’s director of health care policy, who will not discuss single payer as an option, has served on the boards of several health care corporations. And as salaries for most Americans have stagnated or declined during the past decade, health insurance profits have risen by 480 percent.

...Obama and the congressional leadership have consciously shut out advocates of single payer from the debate. The press, including papers such as The New York Times, treats single payer as a fringe movement. The television networks rarely mention it. And yet between 45 and 60 percent of doctors favor single payer. Between 40 and 62 percent of the American people, including 80 percent of registered Democrats, want universal, single-payer not-for-profit health care for all Americans. The ability of the corporations to discredit and silence voices that represent at least half of the population is another sad testament to the power of our corporate state to frame all discussions. ...

Again with the credits! Stocks going up, corporate heads filling their pockets, pols gorging on backroom baksheesh, the stovepipers in the tank, Big Money controlling the debate ... Earth to Hedges: That's what we're here for! That's the whole point! You're an old Seventies guy, aren't you, Chris? You remember ZZ Top? "Jesus Just Left Chicago"? (If you'll pardon the immodesty.) What do they say? "Taking care of business is his name." They got that right.

So who cares if the plan "fails"?  Who cares, if, as you say,

[the plan] will not expand coverage to 30 million uninsured, especially since government subsidies will not take effect until 2014. Families who cannot pay the high premiums, deductibles and co-payments, estimated to be between 15 and 18 percent of most family incomes, will have to default, increasing the number of uninsured. Insurance companies can unilaterally raise prices without ceilings or caps and monopolize local markets to shut out competitors.

Listen, Hedgie: If the plan was to reform the health care system for the benefit of the people, then we would have, like, reformed the health care system for the benefit of the people. You follow? The plan was, is, and will always be to appear to be reforming the system -- to make the rubes believe that something is being done to alleviate their pain -- precisely to avoid really reforming the system, which is just too good and greasy for too many of us at the top of the imperial pyramid.

And when this plan fails -- as it will, as it will -- then you rig up another boondoggle, another "great debate" full of sound and fury, signifying zilch, to keep the rubes at bay. Meanwhile, we can get on to the real job our corporate colleagues and patrons want us to do -- bringing that other old dream of social amelioration for the common folk to an end at last: Social Security. Scalpel, Nurse! The doctor is in!

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jo6pac said:

	Yep here's one more for your collection. http://www.truthout.org/robert...882?print Thanks Chris and this is truely a great event, now corp health care has been added to the trough the feeds the war machine and wall street and leaves us little people high and dry.
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March 23, 2010
Votes: +3

Mike Smith said:

	Over 2,000 Pages It's a destructive, legislative hairball. "...in anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is nothing left to add, but rather, when there is nothing left to take away." Antoine de Saint-Exupery Slowly, very slowly, the American public will come to understand what a piece of shit this "reform" truly is.
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March 23, 2010
Votes: +5

Sean O'Neil said:

... On the role of the Republicans in this "momentous reform" -- Think about this one for a minute: if the GOP supported the bill, Democrat-identifying Americans would question its provisions, because most Americans are binary thinkers when it comes to federal politics. Democrats identify more as NOT BEING REPUBLICANS than they do as standing FOR something. Thus, if the bill were endorsed by the GOP as well, Democrats would be wondering what is going on, whether the bill goes FAR ENOUGH, because what partisan piss-pot Donklebots love more than anything is "winning one" against the Evil Rethuglicans. By pretending to be opposed to this bill as "socialism" (which they CLEARLY know it is NOT), the Republicans ensured its passage and therefore its guarantees of massive profits for the big corporate interests they serve. What those in power fear now is the populace seeing through the charade of Obama's supposed nobility and pragmatism, into the festering sewage that is our soft fascism. The Republican "opposition" to this "reform" was calculated to make Donkeybot Americans NOT QUESTION the bill's actual provisions. By NOT QUESTIONING those provisions, the Donkeybot Americans will accept what Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Kucinich tell them about the bill -- i.e., "the best we can do now." The supposed "opposition" by the GOP was designed to ensure the bill's passage without public outcry or question. The GOP don't actually believe this is Marxist legislation. They know it is pure Mussolini, not essential Marx.

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March 23, 2010
Votes: +12

Mike Smith said:

Emotive Can you imagine a scenario that carries more negative emotion for the average American citizen than being forced to buy products from vilified corporations under pain of enforcement, collection and fines by the Internal Revenue Service? What were these people thinking? It reminds me of the old SNL skit where a radio talk show host is faced with a bank of phones that aren't ringing. So he proposes the following topic: "The use of tax free municipal bonds to pay for the forced busing of Chinese Communists into your neighborhoods for the purpose of killing your children's puppies."

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March 23, 2010
Votes: +1

Sean O'Neil said:

	... PS to Mr Floyd: To use a capitalist metaphor, the tag on Tres Hombres era ZZ Top is priceless. The song chosen is pitch-perfect. Jesus just left Chicago and he's bound for [the White House] heeey - hey
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March 23, 2010
Votes: +1

Bill Jones said:

This Bill is possibly the worst of all possible worlds. The health care system in the US has, for decades been carefully tailored to funnel ever increasing resources to the politically connected. Movement in either direction: Toward Single payer or a libertarian opening up of what's a stunningly controlled industry with more barriers to entry than you can imagine, would have been preferable to the expanding and cementing of the oligarchical/corporate system that this bill achieves. Now that health care reform has been "done" nothing will change in the basic system and the looting will continue with Vigor and Abandon. As Avedon Carol pointed out back in December "In 2007, public expenditure (i.e., tax money) on health care per person, was around $3,300. That's before you paid your "insurer", before you paid your doctor, before you paid for any form of treatment, you paid $3,300 whether you needed it or not. (As an American, you also had the privilege of paying even more than that for commercial costs, bringing your total to an average of $7290.) In that same year in England, the total expenditure of taxation and private expenditure was$2,992 per person. * Let me put that another way: US paid by your taxes: $3,300 (or thereabouts) UK taxes plus private: $2,992 And the kicker is, even relatively low-income minorities in the UK get better health care than the well-off in America." http://sideshow.me.uk/sdec09.htm#12231553

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March 23, 2010
Votes: +6

john kelley said:

... Here in Italy they have quite a gem as far as universal health care systems go. I've seen it at work on a number of occasions and have always been impressed. I will quote from Wikipedia: "According to WHO in 2000, Italy had the world's "second overall best" healthcare system in the world, coming after France, and surpassing Spain, Oman and Japan. In 1978 Italy adopted a tax-funded universal health care system called "National Health Service" (in Italian: Servizio Sanitario Nazionale), which was closely modeled on the British system. The SSN covers general practice (distinct between adult and pediatric practice), outpatient and inpatient treatments, and the cost of most (but not all) drugs and sanitary ware. The government sets LEA (fundamental levels of care, Livelli essenziali di assistenza in Italian) which cover all necessary treatments, which the state must guarantee to all for free or for a "ticket", a share of the costs (but various categories are exempted). The public system has also the duty of prevention at place of work and in the general environment. A private sector also exists, with a minority role in medicine but a principal role in dental health, as most people prefer private dental services. In Italy the public system has the unique feature of paying general practitioners a fee per capita per year, a salary system, that does not reward repeat visits, testing, and referrals. While there is a paucity of nurses, Italy has one of the highest doctor per capita ratios at 3.9 doctors per 1,000 patients. In 2005, Italy spent 8.9% of GDP on health care, or US$2,714 per capita. Of that, approximately 76% was government expenditure." US$2,714 per capita! I think it's up to around US$3,000 now, but still less than half the cost of the American variety. With twice as much care. But there's that stench of "socialism", isn't there? Oh freedumb ringers...there's no medicine for stupidity. Americans have long confused liberty and democracy. As they lose more and more of their liberties they may start to rethink the whole kit and kaboodle.

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March 23, 2010
Votes: +1

derekmann said:

after a lifetime of being a working person, i really thought i had resigned myself to being ruled by the aristocracy, just as long as they did a good job, and provided a stable sort of oppression. now i don't think i can maintain this equanimity, and i think i know why, it is the cheer-leading, the self-congratulation of the democratic party; over a very minor sort of sell out. and then it came to me, it may not exactly fit, but it just seems so right. "Slaves are generally expected to sing as well as to work" from Mr. Frederick Douglass, the truth about what we are seeing; we are expected to be grateful to be paying more of our hard earned cash to the very people who are exploiting us in the first place. i think it is this attitude that galls me to such an extreme, i really didn't think i would feel this way, but i do. if the president had said, "well, we made a few minor changes, it is the best we can get, if nancy pelosi had left her damn gavel at home, maybe i would feel differently; as it stands, another Douglass quote might be apropo, "America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future"

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March 23, 2010 | url
Votes: +10

RH said:

	... Spot on as always Mr. Floyd. At least you can still see and articulate the truth and haven't sold out like so many others. Greenwald is full of shit on this issue.
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March 23, 2010
Votes: +0

philip said:

... Great comment derekmann When will this country ever learn that capitalism and democracy are and always have been the bitterest of enemies. The constitution would never have been written if the ruling elite had not been scared shitless by the Shay's rebellion, and other rumblings in their kingdom. It was never about freedom and democracy. It was always about maintaining their status. The elite realized that they needed to band together for safety from the riffraff. So the constitution was born. You could not even vote without being landed. Peasants were not to be trusted with their future. All one has to do is look at the working conditions around 1900 to see the stark reality of what the rulers have always been about. You lived in company housing got paid in company script that could only be spent in the company store to give but one example. But the ruling class always overstep their limits. The people rose up when there was no where lower to go, and fought for everything we have enjoyed the last century. At times they paid dearly as at the Ludlow massacre. Today i wonder how low it will be before we rise up again.

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March 23, 2010
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John Zientowski said:

	Bend over America... Biden turned to Obama and said with a big smile, "This is a big f-- deal!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Cz4vcQKWfA
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March 23, 2010
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Phylter said:

I Was Born in Britain, my parents emigrated to Australia (with my siblings and I back in 1965) and I now live in the USA with my Merkin wife. This health bill is the most vile piece of legislation ever inflicted upon the citizens of America. Forcing Americans to buy something they can ill afford is unspeakable. If Congress were honest (should I even continue?), they would have done what the rest of the world has done, and have the government cover everyone's health. What they've done is legalize racketeering by the health insurance companies, with comfortable graft for themselves. Even Communist countries can manage it, but, apparently, The "stupid Merkins" AKA non-liberals would rather die than have that ebil debbil "socialist medicine" thrust upon them, (despite other countries using taxpayer dollars for health care, rather than wars) not that they know what "socialism" is, they've been brainwashed that it's "un-American". "Teh stoopit" is deeply ingrained in those cretins that tune to Faux Snooze or worship at the altar of Blessed Virgin Sarah, or believe that this is the land of the free, or the home of the brave, it is neither. It is now the land o' the fee, and the home of the craven.

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March 24, 2010
Votes: +7

Grandma Jefferson said:

The Rage of the Sheep is Terrible, or, What if Bush Did It? As Chris points out, the really predictable part of this sickening farce is the way the zombie "progressives" fell over themselves endorsing a bill that, months ago, they denounced, while turning yet again on their base of long suffering battered liberals, because it's now framed, not as viable health care for all citizens, but instead as a necessary mop up operation to salvage the worthless caretaker presidency of the Butler-In-Chief, and the "credibility" of the Dimbulb party, an even less viable commodity. First under the hc "reform" bus was, as always, women, and their chance of getting legal abortions covered by federal insurance. But we're going to have to start digging to make more room down here, because it's sardine packed with the anti-war crowd, the anti-torture/anti-patriot act groups, the slash-the-MIC funding folks, anti-domestic spying groups, all minorities & civil rights supporters, State/Church separationists, war-crimes tribunal backers, people who want banks regulated & bank criminals prosecuted, and so on. We're running out of air, even faster than everyone else above ground. The alternative is of course handing over the nation to the open control of the NeoNaziCon Party, run by JabbaRush, Beck, Coulter, and the rest of the ghoul-pack whackjobs who openly call for violence and lynch-mob murder of people who disagree with the batshit-insane inchoate mass of psychobabble they are pleased to characterize as their "love of the Constitution", which they show by demanding secession. Nobody suggests a third party, which is too bad, because 80% of the destitute nation is sick of uni-party rule, and most of them are far more liberal than the beltway sycophants of the MSM who currently shape "political thought" in these parts, such as it is, would like anybody to believe. Of course, the Ministry of Propaganda prefers to spend its time projecting the RWNJ's as the "silent (sic) Majority" of sincere patriots, who can't be called "terrorists" just because they wave loaded guns in public, attack abortion clinics & staff, spit on congresspeople, or choose to fly their own planes into office buildings in protest at being forced to pay back taxes. The countdown begins for employers to drop group coverage for their employees, forcing them into private coverage at triple the cost...now. And wait until we get those notices in the company e-mail of the day.

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March 24, 2010
Votes: +11

Jimmy Montague said:

There was a long article in WaPo -- The WaPo published a long article that supposedly explained the new legislation: who's covered, who isn't, who has to pay whom, for what, how much, when, etc. I have a master's degree in journalism. I'm an expert writer and critical reader. After reading the third paragraph of WaPo's "explanation," I got a headache and started to cry. Based upon that experience, my conclusion is that this health-care thing, whatever it is, can never stand. Long before it all goes into effect, people are going to start shooting up hospitals. Physicians and nurses won't be able to go about in public. Police will not protect them. Congress will repeal this thing or there WILL be revolution.

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March 24, 2010
Votes: +1

vastleft said:

	Obama also took the time to write a nice letter to the ladies http://vastleft.blogspot.com/2...ights.html
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March 24, 2010 | url
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derekmann said:

standing on the shoulders of giants thanks, philip, i am going to read up on ludlow. the history of a hundred years ago always comes to my mind; big bill haywood, eugene debs, the great labor leaders, would probably be puzzled by what we call progressive today. haymarket square happened in the 19th century, fer chrissakes, which is where a lot of our problems started. santa clara county vs. union pacific railroad, which established personhood for corporations was bad law, plain and simple, this is the root. with the citizens united ruling, we have moved into very dangerous territory, we are now just cogs in the machine; like charlie chaplin in modern times. this insurance mandate is bad law, as the people are now totally subservient to capital, with the fed as the enforcer. this is upside down.

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March 24, 2010 | url
Votes: +2

Sean O'Neil said:

to Derek Derek, you may find this of interest where your take on Citizens United v FEC is concerned: http://progrepnow.blogspot.com/2010/01/amber-talks-to-mr-lysander-about-recent.html I'd suggest that Citizens United is not an evil portent of the future, but instead a mere formalization of what already is. Formalizing what already is, that's just a formality. Which is why the word "formalizing" was chosen. If I kill someone in cold blood, I have murdered that someone. The judicial finding of murder isn't what made it murder. It was the act itself. Let's not inflate the meaning of a SCOTUS ruling. What matters is what is extant in America. Even without Citizens United, corporations were running the show in American politics. Citizens United didn't change that.

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March 24, 2010
Votes: +1

Jimmy Montague said:

Ludlow -- While you're reading about Ludlow, don't forget to read The Autobiography of Mary Harris "Mother" Jones. Mother Jones was the Joan of Arc of American Labor. A UMW organizer, one of the leaders at Ludlow. Little old Irish granny lady, wore her gray hair in a bun. Stood in front of the pickets in her little black granny dress and slugged it out with the biggest, meanest goons that money could buy. She did that for fifty years. Last arrested at the age of 85, fifty thousand people came to her funeral when she finally died. Management always said she was the most dangerous person in the whole country.

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March 24, 2010
Votes: +6

Michael B said:

	Just wanting to say To everyone in this thread the comments were very excellent. Derekman your first comment upthread is very powerful.
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March 26, 2010
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NomNomNom said:

Mother Jones was also present for Blair Mountain during the WV coal wars. In addition to the deaths inflicted by both federal and private troops (including army bombers) 985 men were tried afterward for treason and murder for the crime of attempting to unionize. (In the Ludlow Massacre, over 300 strikers were tried afterward for murder but not treason). Today they are blowing up Blair Mountain via mtr: they removed Blair Mountain Battlefield from the National Registry this past December in order to do so.

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March 26, 2010
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