Moyers on Maher show
Or, in a separate window: Part One Part Two Part Three
Hat Tip to TYWKIWDBI blog, mentioning Glenn Greenwald's Salon blog on Bill Maher's interview of Bill Moyers on his HBO show:
On what's really happening in the health care fight:
MOYERS: I don't think the problem is the Republicans . . . .The problem is the Democratic Party. This is a party that has told its progressives -- who are the most outspoken champions of health care reform -- to sit down and shut up. That's what Rahm Emanuel, the Chief of Staff at the White House, in effect told progressives who stood up as a unit in Congress and said: "no public insurance option, no health care reform."
And I think the reason for that is -- in the time since I was there, 40 years ago, the Democratic Part has become like the Republican Party, deeply influenced by corporate money. I think Rahm Emanuel, who is a clever politician, understands that the money for Obama's re-election will come from the health care industry, from the drug industry, from Wall Street. And so he's a corporate Democrat who is determined that there won't be something in this legislation that will turn off these interests. . . .
Money in politics -- you've had in the last 30 years, money has flooded politics . .. the Supreme Court saying "money is free speech." It goes back to the efforts in the 19th Century to give corporations the right of personhood -- so if you as a citizen have the right to donate to campaigns, then so do corporations. Money has flowed in such a flood into both parties that the Democratic Party gets a lot of its support from the very interests that -- when the Republicans are in power -- financially support the Republicans.
You really have essentially -- except for the progressives on the left of the Democratic Party - you really have two corporate parties who in their own way and their own time are serving the interests of basically a narrow set of economic interests in the country -- who, as Glenn Greenwald, who is a great analyst and journalist, wrote just this week: these narrow interests seem to win, determine the outcomes, no matter how many Democrats are elected, no matter who has their hands on the levers of powers, these narrow interests determine the outcomes in Washington, even when they have to run roughshod over the interests of ordinary Americans. I'm sad to say that has happened to the Democratic Party.
I'd rather see Barack Obama go down fighting for vigorous strong principled public insurance, than to lose with a [corporate-dominated] bill . . . . the insurers are winning. Everyone already knows the White House has made a deal with the drug industry -- promising not to import cheaper drugs from Canada and Europe - promising not to use the government to negotiate for better prices -- that deal has been cut . . .
There's this fear that Barack Obama will become the Grover Cleveland of this era - Grover Cleveland was a good man, but he became a conservative Democratic President because he didn't fight the powerful interests - people say Obama should be FDR - I'd much rather see him be Theodore Roosevelt --- Teddy Roosevelt loved to fight - ... I think if Obama fought instead of really finessed it so much . . . I think it would change the atmosphere.
Another Hat Tip to TYWKIWDBI for this chart from Open Secrets and the LA Times article connecting the path of health care reform to lobbying efforts:
The half-dozen leading overhaul proposals circulating in Congress would require all citizens to have health insurance, which would guarantee insurers tens of millions of new customers -- many of whom would get government subsidies to help pay the companies' premiums.
"It's a bonanza," said Robert Laszewski, a health insurance executive for 20 years who now tracks reform legislation as president of the consulting firm Health Policy and Strategy Associates Inc.
Some insurance company leaders continue to profess concern about the unpredictable course of President Obama's massive healthcare initiative, and they vigorously oppose elements of his agenda. But Laszewski said the industry's reaction to early negotiations boiled down to a single word: "Hallelujah!"
...
"The insurers are going to do quite well," said Linda Blumberg, a health policy analyst at the nonpartisan Urban Institute, a Washington think tank. "They are going to have this very stable pool, they're going to have people getting subsidies to help them buy coverage and . . . they will be paid the full costs of the benefits that they provide -- plus their administrative costs."
...
"They have beaten us six ways to Sunday," said Gerald Shea of the AFL-CIO. "Any time we want to make a small change to provide cost relief, they find a way to make it more profitable."
Wow thanks Donal!
August 30, 2009 9:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Bravo Donal. You know I tried to find some site...some place on the web..that lists how much a common procedure...a typical hospital stay..would cost. I could not.
How can someone even shop for health care with out this basic information.
This and the Moyers show needs to be watched by everyone to let people know what a closed door sham health car has become.
C
August 30, 2009 12:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
And here is an article that needs to be read as well.
It goes on to tell of how one person had to divorce here husband to keep from being wiped out financially by our health care system.
You can most likely multiply this by 10,000 or more.
C
August 30, 2009 12:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
It all makes me so angry. The Republicans are so effective at framing issues in ways that scare people. They thrive on ignorance. Many of the people they influence would be the same people who would benefit from the change. It is fascinating and horrific to watch...all at the same time.
As far as President Obama I am trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. I read "Team of Rivals" and have been really intrigued by the picture that book draws of Lincoln. One of the aspects of his leadership was pushing the country as far as they were ready to be pushed. If he had forced somethings sooner, it would have destroyed the union. I am not saying this is right, but it does seem to be the method Lincoln embraced. It certainly seems as if the President has embraced this strategy.
Emotionally, I want him to go in with guns blazing and slug it out. I am not sure what is the best way to get the most done.....
Great post...highly rec'd.
August 30, 2009 12:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sick, but true...
My friend from Italy said to me a couple of years ago that america is a corporate state. I didn't quite get the complete meaning of that at the time.
The structure feels much like Iran. Instead of Clerics we have corporations that decide who can rule and what can be done and the 'acting out of 'being a democracy' is somewhat ceremonial.
I know we are a young country and we must be in some stage of adolescence but it really hurts and it totally sucks. This give 'growing pains' a whole new image.
Now what?
August 30, 2009 2:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Really good stuff, Donal. Thanks a lot!
August 30, 2009 3:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is MAGNIFICENT. What a fun show that I never get although Bwak has figured it out. Its good for a couple days and then vanishes into copyright...
The follow up is superb.
I hereby render unto you the Sunday Dayly Blog of the Day given to all of you from all of me at this here TPMCafe site.
REally enjoyable.
August 30, 2009 4:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Now all I need are thirty untraceable recs ... :-)
August 30, 2009 5:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
You can download free podcasts thru Itunes (download it free too). They are 5/6 days old and only audio, but still entertaining.
August 30, 2009 6:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you so much for this post Donal! I tried since Friday night to find that video and it kept disappearing. And that chart is awesome. Who is on the corporate take? So totally disappointing...
Progressives and Liberals are not giving up the struggle for Universal Healthcare. But the struggle itself has become like a new social disease, with debilitating symptoms of crony capitalism, insane rhetoric spewing from the haters of everything equal, and a pitiful lack of healthy integrity on the part of our supposedly Democratic politicians - and all this when we see the cure so close.
Bill Moyers is right on about the moral stakes. We must keep trying. We must keep helping. I believe wholeheartedly in Moyers “all in the same boat” metaphor. Thank you for bringing this to us directly.
IMAGINE WE PREVAIL!
::
August 30, 2009 6:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for posting this. I saw the live broadcast. Moyers is one of the few untainted moral voices out there who speaks truth to power. This interview needs to see seen far and wide.
August 31, 2009 8:55 AM | Reply | Permalink