President Obama's Sept. 9th speech on health care reform to Congress was like a kindly doctor's first consultation with an overweight, one-pack-a-day patient who is still ambulatory and functional. The president was reasonable and restrained, pointing out that Congress needs to make a better choice, one that reflects the centrist view.
But it did not work because the president, a rare politician who seems essentially immune to political greed, misjudged how much insurance and pharmaceutical funding has corrupted both parties. The center, as it turned out, has moved so far right that it sits smack in the middle of a self-destructive kleptocracy. Congress has, via the Baucus bill, essentially told the president that "this pathetic performance is the best we can muster."
So far, watching the Senate Finance Committee mark up sessions, we see that PhARMA is being protected and will not have to lose more than the $80 million they already agreed to (and when I say "lose" I mean from their billions in profit) and the Insurance companies appear to be making big plans for the huge profits they'll make when the Public Option is diminished or dumped.
The idea of Obama getting angry about all this and pushing for what we really need... ie: a Public Option or, better still, a government mandated single-payer system (yeah, like that's going to happen)... could make the majority of Americans see the President we thought we had voted for.
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