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Olympia Snowe is boss, Joe Lieberman plunges the dagger,

Olympia Snowe is boss, Joe Lieberman plunges the dagger, Obama claims
victory through retreat, the great liberal revolt begins

Barack Obama | Healthcare Policy
by Brent Budowsky | October 14, 2009 - 10:31am

Who is the boss of the Democratic White House? Republican Sen. Olympia
Snowe (Maine). Who is the boss of the Democratic Senate? Republican
Sen. Olympia Snowe. Meanwhile, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), who one
year ago was slandering the Democratic nominee for president while
supporting the Republican nominee, chooses this key moment to tell us
he opposes even the weak Finance Committee healthcare bill.

The star of this Fellini-esque film we call government controlled by
Democrats is the president, who has betrayed his own rhetoric for the
public option to try to kill it, surrender it, trade it away, leave it
behind, talk it down and throw it out 10 different ways.

Make no mistake, the president has privately surrendered the public
option to get a single Republican senator who will allow him to
pretend this bill has bipartisan support. The weaker Democratic
senators are using Snowe as their figurehead excuse to kill the public
option, while they remain terrified to vote for it, because it offends
their insurance company donors, and equally terrified to vote against
it, because it offends the majority of their constituents, who support
it.

Make no mistake, the president wanted to kill the public option from
the beginning, to give it away, notwithstanding his rhetoric for it,
to get Republicans to support the bill. I don’t know what is worse:
that unlike LBJ fighting for Medicare the president would give away
the most important provision for a fig leaf of Republican support, or
the fact that the president is so focused on image and public
relations that he will try to sell himself as getting a bipartisan
bill, with only one Republican, a truth in advertising farce.

Make no mistake, healthcare reform has been gutted and stripped by
lobbyists from every interest group making a fortune from the current
system. Universal coverage is dead. A mandate for coverage is dead.
The major reforms to lower healthcare costs are dead. Backroom deals
rule the day. Healthcare consumers will pay the price. Premiums will
skyrocket and industry profits will shoot to the moon under this so-
called reform.

Get ready for a huge battle over the public option. If the majority of
Congress that supports it will fight for it, and refuse to vote for a
bill without it, the battle can still be won, though in spite of the
president, not because of him, though he will try to claim credit for
whatever happens.

As the gathering storm of Afghanistan comes closer, there is a
gathering storm of Democrats who thought they had elected a Democratic
president who would fight for transforming change, and a Democratic
Senate with 60 votes who we learn are overruled by the real boss, one
Republican senator, and a lot of special interest money.

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/24365

[Please crosspost your comments to The Hill, where this blog entry
also appears.]
_______

About author
Brent Budowsky served as Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Lloyd
Bentsen, responsible for commerce and intelligence matters, including
one of the core drafters of the CIA Identities Law. Served as
Legislative Director to Congressman Bill Alexander, then Chief Deputy
Whip, House of Representatives. Currently a member of the
International Advisory Council of the Intelligence Summit. Left
goverment in 1990 for marketing and public affairs business including
major corporate entertainment and talent management. He can be reached
at brentbbi@webtv.net.

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