Remember, Obama cut lucrative deals with BigPharma and the med.ins complex this summer, and stiffing the people who elected him is at the heart of the cynical plan.

While I am no fan of Rham, I think we need to keep in mind that he didn’t appoint himself chief of staff. The people Obama chooses to keep close to him and the decisions he makes reveal who he is and what he cares about.

As I watch him, I am experiencing considerable cognitive dissonance. The values he champions in his eloquent speeches are not realized in his actions.

Perhaps he should be challenged in a primary.

– Find Blue Dog Democrats who aren’t voting like Democrats who represent States and Districts with relatively inexpensive media markets.

– Determine whether they’re taking money from corporate interests.
– Determine whether, according to surveys, they are voting against the views of their constituents.

– Assess the likelihood that they can be beaten in a Democratic primary.

– Begin to run ads against them way before election time putting them on notice that if they don’t start representing their constituents they’re going to be primaried by a progessive Democrat in the next election.

I really like it!

I think the insurance companies will fight legislation imposing heavy regulation every bit as hard as they will fight Medicare for All. So, from the point of view of someone who wants to bring overhead and profit costs in insurance down from roughly 30% to 2.5% over provider costs, there is no advantage of getting any less political resistance from them because we are proposing heavy regulation, rather than proposing Medicare for All, or a strong public option that will get us to that. Further, regulatory legislation is much more difficult for people to understand and get excited about than a bill like HR 676 which provides for enhanced Medicare for All.

Also, even if heavy regulation is passed, the industry will still have residual power that it will use to undermine regulation, and when the Republicans get in again, they will see to it that the grip of regulation on the industry is loosened. On the other hand, if we put the insurers out of the business, at least with respect to essential health care, their political influence will be largely gone and a great conservative influence in American Politics will be overcome. So, in my view, there is no advantage in trying to compromise with them even with heavy regulation as in the Swiss or Dutch models. For America, having them gone is the best solution to the problem.