Obama did offer an amendment to make health care a right. He then revised it under lobbyist pressure

[jackson_dem]

Some Obamites, especially one, continuously post that Obama offered an amendment in Illinois to make health care a right. Sounds impressive doesn't it? That part is true. But it is very misleading. What they airbrush from Obama's record is that he revised that amendment. More importantly they don't say why he watered it down. He did it on behalf of lobbyists for drug and insurance companies. The record needs to be corrected on this. We have let Obamite memes spread for far too long.


-snip-

The bill originally called for a "Bipartisan Health Care Reform Commission" to implement a program reaching all 12.4 million Illinois residents. The legislation would have made it official state policy to ensure that all residents could access "quality healthcare at costs that are reasonable." Insurers feared that language would result in a government takeover of healthcare, even though the bill did not explicitly say that.

By the time the legislation passed the Senate, in May 2004, Obama had written three successful amendments, at least one of which made key changes favorable to insurers.

Most significant, universal healthcare became merely a policy goal instead of state policy - the proposed commission, renamed the Adequate Health Care Task Force, was charged only with studying how to expand healthcare access. In the same amendment, Obama also sought to give insurers a voice in how the task force developed its plan.

Lobbyists praised Obama for taking the insurance industry's concerns into consideration.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/09/23/in_illinois_obama_dealt_with_lobbyists/?page=2

[rodeodance]

1. Lobbyists praised Obama for taking the insurance industry's concerns into consideration.

[rodeodance]

2. its that Unity thingy again

[Maven]

3. What the hell is a policy goal?

[jackson_dem]

5. "Change" you can tout to voters but changes nothing and satisfies the status quo

[rodeodance]

8. its what you say when you have no specifics.

[itsrobert]

4. oops

Go LOBAMBA!

[Yanez Houston Jordan]

6. Headline: "Obama Folds Like a Card Table (Again)"

[Canuckistanian]

7. So, do lobbyists have the final say?

Seems to me that the great Bushmeister himself made several campaign promises that evaporated once in office.

Anyone remember "The US is not a nation-builder"??

Who's zooming who?

[sam sarrha]

9. the money has the last say.. some obama >>>Links>>>

http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Feb2007/street0207.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/taylor-marsh/obamas-faustian-bargain-_b_82863.html

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/124171,CST-NWS-obama05.article

[Canuckistanian]

11. Thanks for the links

Although to be fair, I don't see much of Obama promising anything to anybody.

And I now consider Taylor Marsh to be anti-Obama/pro-Hillary. I had no idea she was so anti-Obama.
Hardly fair at all.

[sam sarrha]

18. he promices/preaches pie-in-the-sky hope like a TV preacher. and is she against him for good reason?

[Canuckistanian]

19. I think she goes too far making her points

And crosses the line from unbiased observer to blatant opposition.

Just an opinion from an outsider (Canadian).

[rodeodance]

10. REC

[Beaverhausen]

12. Aren't any Obama supporters going to come in and explain this?

[Karmadillo]

13. Oh, they're coming. Just you wait. Hear the thunder in the distance? That's them. Riding closer and

closer. Almost here. Any minute. Here. Debunking and debunking and debunking. Any minute. Just you wait.

[Proud2BAmurkin]

14. 'hope and change' nt

[nancyharris]

15. Unlike the Federal government

the State of Illinois cannot print its own money and it can't operate at a deficit. To get any Health Care legislation passed in the States requires a lot of compromise.

[jackson_dem]

16. That is the excuse for Obama caving into the drug and insurance industry?

Massachusetts has universal health care. It can be done.

[Bread and Circus]

17. Spin it all you want... he got something that was very tough to

pass, passed.

Obama is ahead of Clinton and Edwards on ethics and transparency in government reform if you read their records and the legislation they have accomplished. Light years from what I can glean from the internet. Just look at what they've sponsored, cosponsored, got passed and proposed.

But I know you don't want to bother yourself in the facts as you wrap yourself in your tinfoil blanket made out of Edwards Rhetoric and Clinton's sleight of hand.

[jackson_dem]

20. He got something passed but he didn't get what is advertised passed