DeMoro: Shame on Obama for not pushing Single Payer

[HopeOverFear]

http://www.singlepayeraction.org/blog/?p=899

Shame on President Obama for not pushing for single payer.

The Republicans have the courage of their convictions.

The Democrats don’t.

The AFL-CIO acts like Democrats in the Senate — their constuencies support single payer, but they don’t push for it.

And the SEIU is still an obstacle to single payer.

That’s the take of Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association.

In an interview with Single Payer Action on June 2, DeMoro (as usual) pulled no punches.

(See video of complete Interview with Rose Ann DeMoro here.)

“The Republicans actually have the courage of their convictions and the Democrats don’t,” DeMoro told Single Payer Action. “So (the Democrats) support single payer but they don’t act on it. In effect they act against it by virtue of the fact that won’t even demand a policy debate on it. There is a conspiracy of silence — no question about it. This isn’t by accident that single payer — that everyone supports it but it’s not on the agenda. They think they can ignore it.”

DeMoro and her California Nurses Association just buried the hatchet after a bitter feud with Andy Stern and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

Any agreement on single payer between the nurses and SEIU?

“Yes, they’ll support the fight for the state option on single payer,” DeMoro said. “They’ll acknowledge that single payer is the best option. In terms of day-to-day work, they don’t work with us on single payer and in fact we found the organization (SEIU) to be an obstacle in the fight for single payer.”

DeMoro said she’s disappointed in Obama, who once supported single payer, but now as President has backed away.

“The difference between Obama and a lot of these folks is that he actually deeply knows the difference,” DeMoro said. “He’s experienced the difference. A lot of these people here in this building (Congress) come from the upper middle class and have always had medical care. Obama had a different history. He’s felt the difference. And for him not to act on this and for him not to take leadership — this is just a lack of leadership. The Republicans are going to fight a public option as hard as single payer. . .The truth of the matter is, Obama should have led - we should have been following Obama on this issue instead of pushing him. So we’re horribly disappointed in the fact that he hasn’t done this. And we’re going to turn up the heat. Everywhere he goes there are single payer activists. There is no political action for keeping the insurance industry at the apex of power with an underfunded public option. I mean that’s ridiculous, it’s just ridiculous. So, you know — shame on him.”

[redqueen]

1. "The Republicans actually have the courage of their convictions and the Democrats don’t,"

No matter what the issue, that is one of our party's biggest problems.

They just flat-out refuse to even attempt to lead. (With very few exceptions.)

[monmouth]

2. Where's that picture of Harry????...n/t

[babylonsister]

5. 'Cept the rethugs have no convictions other than obstruction and

running the US further into the ground if they had their way.

[redqueen]

7. Yes, their convictions suck...

maybe that makes it easier for them to go in all guns-blazing, demanding everything they want and more.

Seeing Newt so much lately reminds me of how the republicans bullied Clinton so much while he was in office... how they pushed so hard against his agenda, every step of the way. Such a stark contrast to the Dem congress under bush.

Now we've even got the WH again and we're still being as polite as you please.

[grantcart]

3. Duplicate already posted here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8459989

[HopeOverFear]

6. not a duplicate, sweetie...that's me :)

hehe :)

[grantcart]

9. Here it is -- for a while you were running next to each other

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8459825


BTW the interview is from June 2.


Events have already overtaken that interview

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8455445

[HopeOverFear]

13. oooh ok my bad thanks!

[grantcart]

8. .

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8459825


BTW the interview is from June 2.


Events have already overtaken that interview

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8455445

[sandnsea]

4. If DeMore says Obama backed away from single payer as President

and supported it in the campaign - she's a liar. So shame on her.

And that's the real obstacle in health care. Single Payer people outright lie just as much as the insurance industry.

[babylonsister]

10. And why don't people here acknowledge that? They'd rather be

pissed off, and Obama gets the brunt of it. I thought they were in the sifting stages, trying to come up with the best plan possible (given the voices out there who get to vote and won't vote for anything the Dems want)? You'd think it was already a done deal. This knee jerk crap is for the birds.

[HopeOverFear]

14. People believe what they want to believe, I guess.

[Jennicut]

15. Sigh. I have no idea. Did anyone ever really listen to him or look at his website?

Its like talking to a wall sometimes. Some people simply refuse to believe what was always right in front of them the whole time.
Getting a public option may barely be feasible. Does anyone here get that the Senate is ultra conservative even with Dems in it?

[slipslidingaway]

17. Many people do acknowledge the fact the Obama changed his

position after he went to the Senate, but he also said at the beginning that all voices would be heard.

That is not what was done from the beginning, SP advocates were not originally invited to the WH summit.

He set the policy for them to be excluded from the start, why don't people acknowledge that?

:(

And when Dr. Fein received a last minute invitation to the WH summit, there was no time for him speak.

[redqueen]

20. Yeah... I know the facts behind this rant...

It hardly fazes me anymore. If people don't know the facts by now, they don't want to.

I was more caught by that comment about Dems in congress not having the courage of their convictions.

[leftstreet]

11. Obama wore out the word 'universal' on the campaign trail

People assumed that meant something other than a massive transfer of wealth to the insurance companies.

[slipslidingaway]

16. You should watch the interview if you really want to know what was

said before saying she might be lying.

The video link is in the OP link to the story.

[sandnsea]

21. It's completely concocted bullshit, pure insanity

If we were creating a health care plan from scratch is what he said. Or we might get that kind of plan if we took over the entire House and Senate - which we haven't.

I really question some people's ability to think and reason. It's like the woman north of me who decided to feed bears, because after all, we feed cats and dogs. That's how faulty this "reasoning" on Obama and single payer is.

[slipslidingaway]

23. You are confusing two different statements by Obama....

both videos are contained within this video from the Bill Moyers segment. He never said if we took over the entire House and Senate, what he said in 2003 when running for the US Senate was that we could have SPHC, if we took back the WH, Senate and House.

I never heard the word Entire in his speech, no reason to make things up, watch was was said.


Bill Moyers' panel on Single Payer Health Insurance

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=321726&mesg_id=321726

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wi1acHg3mhw


Transcript link, although it does not have transcripts from the videos played during the show.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/05222009/transcript4.html


I agree with you on this point...

"I really question some people's ability to think and reason."

[sandnsea]

26. I am not confusing two different statements

I am saying we do not have the votes and there is no reason to pretend we do. We would need to take back the entire House and Senate because of the large number of Democrats who don't support single payer. His comments are very clear to anybody who has the ability to compare what he said against the true political reality of what's in Congress. We may have a lot of D's, but we don't have anywhere near the numbers needed to pass single payer.

I think they should just put both bills on the floor tomorrow and let them go down 80-20 and then maybe single payer people will get a fucking clue - but I doubt it.

[slipslidingaway]

28. You cannot even stay on topic, now you bring in the vote issue

and ignore your mistatements about what was actually said in 2003 and then in 2009.

Statement One

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpAyan1fXCE


Statement Two

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6d45duX_WU

[sandnsea]

31. What's the point of winning the House and Senate?

Oh yeah - votes.

You're misrepresenting what the man said in order to generate hatred against him. Just like Fox News. Exactly like it.

With the exact same result. No progress.

Nader strikes again.

[Freddie Stubbs]

12. He campaigned on allowing people to keep their employer-paid coverage

Shame on Demoro for wanting the President to break his promise.

[harun]

25. He didn't promise it explicitly.

[Freddie Stubbs]

27. Perhaps you forgot this campaign ad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnk8minM3Qg&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.cleveland.com%2Fopeners%2F2008%2F10%2Fad_health.html&feature=player_embedded

[harun]

32. That was for the "Obama" plan. He isn't pursuing that anymore.

[zbdent]

18. It's easy to have "the courage of your convictions" when the media is your cheerleader ...

kinda like the big dumb bully can get away with murder on the ugly smart kid, as long as the bully is the popular one (and can convince the rest of the kids that the smart kid is killing them with high grades) ...

[GreenArrow]

19. "The Democrats don't have the courage of their convictions"?

who says they don't? What we are seeing from them is just as likely a reflection their convictions as a lack of them.

[scheming daemons]

22. Shame on DeMoro for not paying attention to Obama's words during the campaign

..

[slipslidingaway]

24. Another person who did not listen to what was said in the video. nt

[Phx_Dem]

29. Translation: Shame on President Obama for not doing what I want. n/t

[slipslidingaway]

30. Obama set the tone from the beginning by excluding SP advocates

from the WH summit, it was only after people objected to their exclusion that a couple of invitations were extended at the last minute.

And Dr. Fein was not even given time to speak.


Candidate Obama

"...My committment is to listen to everybody and to not have pride of authorship, but to move a process forward..."


Trying to close down discussion from one group is not listening to everybody.

:(

[mkultra]

33. or. We lost and we still think we should dictate policy

queue yakity sax

[Vidar]

34. K&R.