The Obama-Biden 2008 campaign website advised that a strong public option was the only way to control the cost of health insurance. (Untrue: single payer, a national health service, certain legislation are other ways.) While campaigning, Obama even said that a strong public option would reduce costs.
When some of us protested that Obama had rejected single payer, Democrats assured us that a strong public option would inevitably lead to single payer--and, most likely, sooner rather than later.
We all know what happened--lame public option; no single payer in sight to this day; medical bankruptcies continued, still do; etc. (Republicans did away with the individual mandate, though.)
I just stumbled upon a 2009 email sponsored by Progressive Change Campaign Committee (which calls itself the Elizabeth Warren of organizations!) and Democracy for America. Among other things, the email listed the names of eight Democrat Senators (not only one) who were "standing in the way of one of President Obama's top priorities {LMAO} -- a public option." (Were there even more than eight? IMO, probably) The email showed the number of dollars donated to each of the eight by the health insurance industry.
Yes, Lieberman was among them -- and his wife was then a lobbyist for the industry. As some may recall, Lieberman had lost the Dem nomination for US Senator when he ran for re-election in 2006. With Lieberman's loyal voters and neither the Republican nor the Democrat parties really backing its nominee, Lieberman ran as an independent and won. However, he wasn't going to run again. So, minion media implied he was the sole holdout against a strong public option, but no vote ever showed that. The email that I saw contradicts that implication.
The first name on the (alphabetical) list was Max Baucus, then head of the Senate Finance Committee, who let the insurance industry draft the ACA. (Later, Obama made Baucus an ambassador. Coincidence or reward?)
The recipient of the most money? John Kerry, then, as now, married to his second wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry. Between his family money and influence and marrying two rich women, Kerry, was the richest person in Congress at this time.
Kerry didn't need the money--probably why he got the most by far from the industry-- and Massachusetts was never going to vote him out. Yet, the email listed him as opposing the public option
Like Baucus, though, Kerry went on to bigger and better things, becoming Secretary of State (and covering for Hillary). Also, like Baucus, Kerry never shared the blame with Lieberman. For that matter, neither did Obama or Emanuel.
I bet at least some of you were sad in 2004 that he lost the Presidential election. I sure was, but seeing this email made me feel much better about that.
I thought y'all might want to see the list. Remember, these are 2009 figures.
Max Baucus $3,973,485
Evan Bayh $1,565,088
Kent Conrad $2,154,200
Dianne Feinstein $1,749,887
John Kerry $8,994,077
Mary Landrieu $1,653,943
Joe Lieberman $3,308,621
Ben Nelson $2,214,715
In case you have not yet gathered, a strong public option never even came up for a vote because (a) the White House didn't want it, after all; and (b) a vote would have been too embarrassing to the Democrat Party.
In his post-diagnosis memoir, Ted Kennedy said that he had killed Carter's single payer plan because he (Kennedy) knew it could not pass (a Democrat majority House and a Democrat majority Senate). I suspect he knew that Republicans would not be the only Senators voting against it. But Democrats in 2009 were in an even more embarrassing position, with a filibuster-proof Senate majority, an overwhelming majority in the House and a President in the Oval Office.
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