Obama, 2009: "I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care program"

[Recursion]

Can people please stop making up bullshit about Obama never promoting single payer?

Is it that hard to actually Google the things the President has actually said? You know that in Google you can search for pages containing both "Obama" and the phrase "Single Payer", right? You can look at the times from 2008 to 2010 that he talked about single payer, in each of which he said he thinks it's the best system and he wants America to have it, and that if he were starting from a blank slate it would be the only reasonable choice.

(Cue "but he didn't really 'fight' for it!" in 3... 2... 1...)

[oasis]

1. Single payer a non starter. Public option? Sen. Chuck Grassley (R)

Wouldn't get on board anything but the most watered down health plan. Then Grassley stabbed Obama in the back when he began singing with the "death panels" tea bagged choir.

Obama's big mistake was to attempt to give the appearance of bi-partisanship.

The whole thing is still a bad dream.

[artislife]

2. I think you are in the wrong forum, you might need GD. nt

[frylock]

3. Did he fight for it like he did TPP?

[Recursion]

4. Has he "fought" for TPP?

I'm sure that seems obvious to you, but not to me.

[frylock]

5. I guess you missed all the arm twisting and use of the bully pulpit..

leading up to that vote. We've seen Obama fight for things he really wants. Single payer or the public option wasn't one of them.

[Recursion]

6. Apparently so.

Can you give some examples?

[ibegurpard]

7. really?

Just take your own advice and use google. You'll find plenty of stories about him fighting his own party on it. Some people...

[Recursion]

8. Yes, really

If you have some examples of "arms being twisted" (I'm assuming that's figurative), I'd be very interested to see them.

[frylock]

9. Why not?

House Rejects Trade Measure, Rebuffing Obama’s Dramatic Appeal

After Trade Vote Fails, Obama Pleads With Lawmakers To Reconsider

[Recursion]

10. You must have linked the wrong articles?

Those are about Obama doing the exact same thing he did for ACA: asking lawmakers to vote differently than they did, fruitlessly.

[frylock]

12. Yep, the same thing he did for ACA..

not the same thing he did for the public option or single payer, which was absolutely nothing.

[Recursion]

13. Ah

Sorry, I thought we were being serious for a moment.

Again: whose "arms" did he "twist", and how?

[frylock]

16. I wasn't invited to those meetings..

but per your OP, that's what FIGHTING is. Saying "uhhhh... yeah, I support single payer" and then not even negotiating from that point is NOT fighting. Not even close.

[SouthernProgressive]

11. It doesn't matter to Sanders supporters.

Obama has to be bad in order for Sanders to catch on as "revolutionary." If Obama isn't portrayed as evil, the "revolution" isn't necessary. Pretty easy to spot all of the lies stated about Obama. Now Sanders is joining with a man who says things like this about Obama. "I think my dear brother Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men."

You are right. They will simply say he didn't fight for it. If their attitude prevailed in the '08 election, millions would be without health insurance, the industry would have added some of the strongest regulations seen to date, and more people would be dead because idealism is more important than life.

[Skwmom]

14. MANY Sander supporters voted for Obama TWICE. Plus, how do we know they aren't Hillary Supporters/

paid political operatives posing as Sander supporters to bash Obama for political motives?

Easy answer: We don't.

[kenfrequed]

15. I blamed the finance committee back then

They knocked if off the table and the Democratic chair Max Baccus refused to listen to doctors that spoke out to that committee in favor of universal single payer.

The president had too many advisors around him that were attacking single payer and the public option.

On this website those of us that pointed out Rahm and Baccus and their shenanigans were accused of "wanting a pony" or whatever other nonsense.