Bill Clinton slams Obamacare
Damn those evil Republicans for trying to slander and undermine this good and righteous health care program!
Former President Bill Clinton steamrolled President Obama’s signature healthcare law at a rally, calling it “the craziest thing in the world.”Speaking Monday in Flint, Mich., Clinton blasted the core principles of ObamaCare as unworkable as he pitched a new system that would allow people to buy into Medicare or Medicaid.
“You’ve got this crazy system where all the sudden 25 million more people have healthcare and then the people are out there busting it, sometimes 60 hours a week, wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half,” Clinton said.
“It’s the craziest thing in the world,” he said.
Clinton’s blunt remarks while campaigning for his wife, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, run in direct contrast to her previous promises to build on ObamaCare.
Comments
I can agree with that. Question: Does he mean it when he says
his plan would allow people to buy into Medicare & Medicaid? Is this a policy statement for HRC that she will try and implement?
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Yeah, most rational thing he's said lately
But, as you say, "Does he mean what he says?"
Depends what you "mean" by "mean"
LOL - ouch!
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
I put as much stock in the old horn dog's supposed 'promises'
(for lack of a better word) as I do his wife's empty rhetoric.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
Clinton had his chance back in 1993
Back in 1993, Bill Clinton was elected with a Democratic Majority in both the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate. The majority of the American public supported "single-payer" healthcare. Clinton has his chance then.
But that's not what he did. Instead, he appointed Hillary Clinton to concock a very complex HMO-driven, expensive, profit-based scheme where (among other problems) people could no longer have any control over their choice in Doctor. This alienated Democrats as well as Republicans. Longtime fighters for Healthcare like Ted Kennedy couldn't even support the bill. The whole thing went down in flames because it was, typical of Hillary Clinton, a crony Corporatist bill ... and not something that ever fit the lofty rhetoric behind it. Neither party could support it, and the chance to do something real was missed.
Ironically, Obama repeated the same scam on the public in 2009. After campaigning on a "public option" and moving in the direction of single-payer, he immediately and pre-emptively took the public option totally off the table, sneered at and mocked single-payer advocates as "the little people", and even refused to fight for efforts in Congress to lower the age of Medicare (which had around 50 votes) -- despite having large Democratic Majorities in the Senate and Congress to work with. Once again we cannot blame this fiasco on Republicans. Obama, and his lackey Rahm Emanuel, were visibly and directly opposed to any real reform once the election was all over with. Insurance Companies were his "advisors" in writing the legislation. Obama's legacy: "No We Can't" (or No We Won't!!)
Now Clinton is letting the truth about Obama's fiasco slip out. But don't expect Hillary Clinton to change it (no matter what Bill says). The Clintons get paid by the people that their policies serve ... and that's not the 99%. It's very sad because they are smart enough to know the truth.
He is officially nobody. If something he promises or advises
never happens id it not a betrayed promise because he is nobody. However, folks can willingly attribute things they'd like to hear HRC say that he says to her, so it is win-win for team HRC.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
His plan? Is Bill running for president again?
Or is president Hillary going to put him in charge of figuring out healthcare? The 1990s again, but this time backwards and in a pantsuit?
I thought Hillary was going to protect and defend Obamacare. That's why we couldn't nominate Bernie, who wanted something better. Oy vey, the Clintons are ridiculous. Please can't they just go away.
Nice Ginger Rogers reference. /eom
"When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained." - Mark Twain
Wasn't Hillary going to put
Wasn't Hillary going to put Bill in charge of the economy, and I seem to recall especially in poor areas? Although at 4:30 AM, my recallery isn't calling me back.
But what a great end-run around the 2-term limit, allowing Hillary to collect money and tend to the ceremonial end of the Presidentin' while Bill and her staff/donors/paymasters tend to the rest! I wonder how much she'll charge the taxpayers for each public speech...
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
HRC has floated a Medicare buy in proposal in this campaign
It would be for people 50 or 55 and above. I have not looked at the proposal in detail and she might have trouble getting it through congress, but I strongly support the proposal, in principle, as a genuine step toward Medicare for all. I also thought Bill's comments made a lot of sense. They are being presented in many circles as a massive Gaffe, but this probably says more about the sorry, childish state of public political discourse than anything else. There seems to be little room for nuance, thoughtfulness or intellectual creativity in todays politics. We seem to be reduced to binary options and a third grade level of discourse. To me it is accurate to say that Obamacare did good things for a lot of people but it is seriously flawed. It's not a campaign stance, just a fact.
...And the horse you rode in on, Billy Jeff!
If you thought Medicare buy-in was such a great thing, YOU could have implemented it during YOUR two terms as President. Instead you let your wife bungle up a misbegotten botch that nobody wanted and nobody voted for.
Shut up and go away - you had your chance and YOU BLEW IT.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Listen, Bill's going to be the shadow prez.
The Lincoln Bedroom will be busy again, with Viagra-laced shenanigans, the White House Basement will become a private server farm, and it'll be a never-ending frolic of state dinners for state actors. Good times.
seems to me if Bill is involved that violates the Constitution
any involvement of his in running anything ("economic czar" for example) would be his 3rd term. The only way, constitutionally...as far as I can see, for this to be legal would be if he has zero to do with Hillary's administration.
But then I'm not a lawyer.
I hope someone with standing
brings that very question before a judge. Because IMO, you're absolutely right. Nobody's voting for him.
Wait a minute. You're on to something.
Remember when Bill Clinton ran for president in 1992? Bill went on the stump saying that if we voted for Bill, we would be getting "two presidents for the price of one" (his exact words) because he was married to Hillary. If so, January, 2017 would be the start of her 3rd term. She's Constitutionally disqualified. Bill said so!
"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey
Why?
I don't see anything that prevents a former president from accepting any responsibility assigned by a current president.
That's true. In fact some think a former 2-term pres could be VP
The specific wording of the law is they can only "run for president" for two terms. Nothing that prevents them from running as the Vice President after two terms in office as president, or from *being* president again if they did become VP and then inherited the office again. Bad writing of the law, yes, but if read as written, it could be interpreted that way. Certainly nothing prevents a former president from being a busybody in his wife's administration. Maybe time for an update to that law!
The courts would likely
not take the case re: Bill's role in Hillary's administration, calling it a "political question." It would be up to the Republicans to impeach her, adding this as one of the charges of "high crimes and misdemeanors" since those are essentially whatever the House votes upon under a bill of impeachment (as we discovered when Bill was impeached).
For the record, I don't see Bill playing a role as Hillary's advisor or whatever in terms of violating the 22nd amendment. Whether one could argue that she was delegating executive authority equivalent to making Bill an unofficial co-President would be a case that the courts would avoid in my view as too political. You might have one go off the reservation and rule it is a violation of the 22nd. but not a majority of the SCOTUS justices. They would leave it up to Congress to provide a "remedy" for that rather than resolve it judicially, and they would be right to do so.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
He can't 'be elected' to the constitutional office of Presdient.
But there's nothing in the Constitution or the 22nd Amendment that says he can't assist the current elected office holder in her duties, either in an official or unofficial capacity.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
Under corporate law, once the
Under corporate law, once the illegal, unconstitutional TPP Trojan Horse gets shoved through, according to that, the corporations/billionaires can make their own law and regulate each people and country so betrayed as chattels. Cool, huh? It'll all be decided in offshored trade courts and sued into place as failing to maximize somebody's anticipated future profits.
On the other hand, at that point, politicians/traitors will no longer be required and will be disposable, just like the rest of us...
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
The 1990s called
They want the Clintons back before their cluelessness of the internet age creates havoc.
Beware the bullshit factories.
Too late,
the havoc is here. Been here for a while in fact. Her WAS sos for four yrs.
Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .
Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .
If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march
And who's answering the phone? Is it 3 a.m. again already? n/t
'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member
Has he gone so senile ...
... that he's actually telling the truth?
There's a Top Comment Equivalent right there! n/t
'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member
No, he's not senile, and he's not telling the truth.
They see Hillary's numbers struggling, so he's pandering to the Bernie supporters, knowing that that demographic can tilt the scales. He did it back in '92 when he pandered to the LGBT community by promising to sign out the ban on gays in the military (and it was just a presidential ban, like when Truman signed out the ban on African Americans in the military). The LGBT was a small demographic, but one that they'd identified as one that could tip the scales. And we all voted for him. Once elected, instead of fulfilling a simple promise, he allowed the Republicans to make a huge and ugly drama of it, to the extent that Sam Nunn was going around and interviewing individual troops. Next thing you know, we've got the idiocy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. But that wasn't enough... because a handful of rightwingers were talking smack about a constitutional amendment, he signed the extremely odious Defense of Marriage Act, knowing that it was completely unconstitutional-- and knowing that it was completely unnecessary, since individual states could pass whatever they wanted to pass (and they were).
Why wasn't he saying this before? Because they are beginning to feel desperate, and they know what the American people want to hear--despite what they plan to do.
Campaign Rhetoric
Obamacare is not that popular for the people who do not get subsidies. Also, some big insurance companies are pulling out of the marketplace since they are losing $$. Since Hillary got the nomination, the Clinton's can distance themselves from Obama in regard to unpopular programs. In Hillary's own words defending Obamacare:
It's not that popular with people
who do get the subsidies either, unless they get their entire premium paid for. I don't think BFC is suggesting a Medicare buy-in here. Maybe he just wants the subsidies raised to we can shovel even more money to the insurance "industry".
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
Obamacare is an unsustainable system
built upon an already unsustainable system. I have been saying that since the whole ACA farce was being brewed in congress and I am just a carpenter. How anyone thought it was a workable idea is beyond me.
We spend more than anyone in the world on banking, insurance and the military....all unproductive to an economy, and we wonder why we are struggling.
Always has been, always will be.
What a legacy.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
Not to worry.
He can enhance his legacy if he passes the TPP.
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
Short-term profits are
Short-term profits are maximized by unlimited industrial pollution, unsafe work-places, food and other products in a regulation-free world for industry and the wealthiest, under the TPP. Nobody will have any health to insure.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Private health insurance in
Private health insurance in of itself is unsustainable, Obamacare is an attempted to negate the adverse risk problem that exists as a consequence of healthy people being more profitable then sick people, and cost feedback loop caused by people dropping their insurance coverage.
"You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing, After they have exhausted all other options" -- Winston Churchill.
In its "defense", which
isn't saying much (I promise) I honestly think Obamacare had a chance of working at least somewhat as formally expected--until the SCOTUS allowed states to opt out. Once half the population was taken out of the equation, the math no longer added up.
Now, it's just a giant clusterfuck. They have to know that. And yet....and yet, do you see any of them giving a shit? No? I didn't either...
I'm hardly an expert
But it seems to me that common sense indicates it never could've worked as anything other than a bridge to single payer. The issue, as I see it, is that the ACA mandated that every single person be covered under insurance or face a penalty. So at this point, demand was locked in. With no controls on costs, how could anything other than the predictable happen?
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
Oh, no doubt!
Even with full participation, there would have been companies jacking up their rates just because they could--and mind you, the idea that we're this captive audience and that's supposed to be a "benefit" makes this all wrong regardless--but IIRC, there were going to be provisions in The Act which might "punish" greedy companies who took advantage of their captive audience for this or that reason. And, supposedly, with everybody signed up, the insurance companies would be way more "solvent" and thus would not have to be as greedy. If the math had worked, would it have been that bridge to single payer? Could it have been?
It's okay to think of that as a rhetorical question--none of it matters now, anyway. Everybody got screwed, big time, for that and other reasons, so....no point in dwelling, right? It just bugs me from time to time that we'll never know if it could have worked.
It was never a bridge to single payer
It goes in the wrong direction by consolidating more power in the hands of the insurance industry. If anything it makes it harder to get to single payer. It's a bridge to nowhere and a temporary rescue for the insurance industry and the health care industry whose business models were collapsing. Medicare buy in is a step in the right direction. The ACA helped a lot of people but was seriously flawed and not a step toward single payer.
I think it did help create a political road to single payer
It made a lot of people aware of how they were being extorted by the medical insurance companies. A lot of people were in a kind of Stockholm syndrome denial about that before the ACA was brought up in Congress. I still believe that there was some good intentions behind some of Obama's incrementalism.
Beware the bullshit factories.
No - it was toast as soon as Public Option was removed
Without that, no incentive for the industry to price fairly. And since then, they've been consolidating themselves.
'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member
I keep forgetting about that...
bastards...
The Public option was a scam
It was just a shiny object designed to lure fans of single payer and other REAL health care plans into thinking this was something they could politically and morally support. The reality is that PO was a scam from the start, even before it was "removed". Much like the rest of the ACA.
It still wouldn't have worked, because
the insurance industry is a monopoly, so there's no real competition in rates and services. We're all just corralled into 3-4 national company's plans, like it or not, affordable or not, beneficial or not.
Just a reminder: The insurance industry is the only industry in America that is EXEMPT from our anti-trust laws.
Thud! Another brick falls from the Obama legacy
Knocked off by Bill Clinton, no less.
I can just imagine PO frowning while watching that clip.
" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "
Bill Clinton must be a racist then
because this is President Obama's big achievement and any criticism of it means criticism of Obama which is, by definition, racism.
^^^THIS! ^^^
There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know.
That was made pretty clear back in the early 90s.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
and another thing...just got an email from Peter DeFazio
with this title:
My first thought was "you tell them. You're the one who's there! You ARE Congress! what are you talking about?"
and I got more irate with each second...and then deleted the thing.
What about all the money Hillary's campaign has recieved
From the medical
insuranceextortion and pharmaceutical industries. They'll feel cheated.Beware the bullshit factories.
Maybe Bill just doesn't like to be rushed.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
Why can't we have nice things like the rest of the world?
Because this is America! You're totally free to get your own nice things out of your own pocket.
Can I have some more?
Sure, have another kick i' the butt, moocher.
What will make America GRRRREEAT again (memories of Tony the Tiger) ...
There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know.
Nice things make us less scared
and less likely to vote for people who claim to be our protectors and dilute the power and profit of oligarchs.
Beware the bullshit factories.
It occurs to me, I remember Bill was dubbed
the Explainer in Chief when Obama was running for Pres back in '08. Was this speech part of those duties?
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Bill has a Steve Blass moment
link
He missed his calling. He should have been one of those
tent show revival preachers. Or...
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
He is one of those. Both of those. Revival preacher for the
religion of Clintons and the the Third Way. And con man supreme. Also a caricature of a modern corrupt politician.
Flim-flam man
Dammit
..
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
Well, once your soul is
Well, once your soul is corrupted, it spreads to the brain...
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Hillary no longer needs Obama
to pull the strings so she was not prosecuted by the DOJ. Now Bill can go off script and say whatever he wants without offending Obama's "greatest achievement." Personally, I think Bill is getting senile. I just wish he and Hillary would ride off into the sunset and retire out of public life. The thought of either one of them in the White House makes me nauseaous.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
"Hillary no longer needs Obama"
That says it all, right there.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
Maybe the Clintons are just getting ahead of the game
Maybe the Clintons are just getting ahead of the game with this "attack" on Obamacare. Open enrollment on the exchanges begins Nov. 1, and humongous premium increases are soon to be announced in many states. I've been wondering how the rate increases will affect the election; people are not going to be happy. Perhaps this is the Clinton campaign's attempt to distance itself from Obama's ACA, so that those angry folks don't turn their anger toward the person who's said she wants to continue Obama's legacy. (Neat trick if they can do it.)
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
Yep, now they have this 'issue' to campaign on.
And when the whole shebang crashes and burns,we're back to square one, nothing at all.
***
Just how far did the Obama administration go to keep its failing signature program afloat? According to a new report from the Government Accountability Office, its Health and Human Services Department broke the law to bail out insurers participating in the health-insurance exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act. In doing so, it took funds meant to protect taxpayers and instead used them to pay off larger-than-expected losses under Obamacare.
At issue is the Transitional Reinsurance Program, designed to allow insurers a space of three years to find effective calculations for risk and to stabilize premium prices. The ACA statute authorized HHS to collect $10 billion from insurers in 2014 to fund the reinsurance program using a method of its own devising to calculate “proportionate” contributions from each insurer, plus another $2 billion to pass to the Treasury.
*
st how far did the Obama administration go to keep its failing signature program afloat? According to a new report from the Government Accountability Office, its Health and Human Services Department broke the law to bail out insurers participating in the health-insurance exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act. In doing so, it took funds meant to protect taxpayers and instead used them to pay off larger-than-expected losses under Obamacare.
At issue is the Transitional Reinsurance Program, designed to allow insurers a space of three years to find effective calculations for risk and to stabilize premium prices. The ACA statute authorized HHS to collect $10 billion from insurers in 2014 to fund the reinsurance program using a method of its own devising to calculate “proportionate” contributions from each insurer, plus another $2 billion to pass to the Treasury.
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2016/09/30/How-Obamacare-Execs-Bro...
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
That's it Centaurea
The Clintons are jumping ship before it goes down.( USS ACA)
"This whole thing is a fairy tale"
Bill Clinton has no idea what he's saying, or which one of the imaginary "two parties" he's supposed to belong to anymore. Is he for or against Obamacare? Opposing or supporting Barack Obama? What year is this? Who is he running against?
He has no idea! He's just a babbling, egotistical windbag. Why in the world Obama shoved Hillary on us as his chosen successor is something I will never understand. But he deserves this embarrassment for doing so. Good grief, the democrats are so pathetic, it's just sad.
And since it's Bill who's babbling
And since it's Bill who's babbling, and not Hillary (at least in this instance), it doesn't really constitute a promise by her that she'd have to deliver on later.
Not that she would deliver on anything she herself says, anyway. There's a crazy fairy tale going on, for sure, and both Clintons are an integral part of it.
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
Clinton needs to go long
If Clinton were to announce that she had looked at the dark clouds on the horizon for Obamacare and that based on her experience the only way to go was Medicare for all, the bipartisan groundswell would propel her into office on a landslide despite the other reservations most might have. She would have to go all in but could use that to rally voters to only support down ticket candidates who would go on the records as being all in for Medicare for all. She could be credible about the equivalent of the GOP meme of repeal and replace where the replace part is just not gonna happen. I would even bigger for her if I believed she meant it (I.e., not going to fall for that hope-and-change shuck and nice this time around).
I am the population Bill refers to
and I am somewhat relieved that SOMEONE in the Dem Party is recognizing the HUGE pain and Obamination that is Obamacare. Other Dems are skipping and dancing how great it is, oblivious to the pain it is inflicting on millions. It SUCKS for small biz owners and independents.
But since Bernie left the race, there is NO substance of interest to average Amercians being discussed any more. Just "He's a lying doodoo head", and "No, she's a lying doodoo head".
My BCBS premium is now more than my mortgage. I know I am not alone. What idiot thinks that can be good for the economy? (aside than our crooked pols owned by Insurance and Big Pharma).