A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford 
If you believe the hype, the president and Big Insurance are going at at each other's throats over health care. But it's a sham battle, “like TV wrestling.” The insurance companies have already won the biggest prize they could ever wish for: 50 million new customers dragooned by the federal government. All the too-late huffing and puffing from the White House is “a hollow threat, for public consumption only.”
The Phony Fight: Obama and the Insurance Barons
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
“The health care battle has devolved into a charade.”
The Obama White House and the insurance industry are putting on a big show for the public, with both sides pretending to be engaged in a battle royal over the shape of health care legislation. In reality, the insurance corporations have already won the war. But for political reasons, it's necessary that the insurance companies and the White House act like professional wrestlers. And like TV wrestling, it's all fake.
The insurance profiteers put out a paper last week, claiming the Senate Finance Committee bill shepherded by Obama’s buddy, Max Baucus, would cause premiums to go up 18 percent or more. President Obama then put on his angry face, and threatened to withdraw the insurance industry’s exemption from anti-trust laws. It sounded like a throw-down of epic proportions, but it’s just sound and fury, signifying nothing, as Shakespeare would say. The health care battle has devolved into a charade; the game has been fixed since early on in the Obama presidency.
Obama made his deals with the hospital corporations, the drug cartels and the insurance companies back in the spring. He promised the insurance racketeers they could have what every gangster craves: a captive market of consumers who would be forced to buy their shoddy products. The so-called “individual mandate” is the biggest prize any monopoly-seeking industry could ever hope for. It's was a centerpiece of Hillary Clinton's health care platform during the presidential campaign. Back then, candidate Obama opposed forcing everyone to buy into private insurance schemes. But President Obama was soon singing Hillary's tune, and it was sweet music to the insurance profiteers.
“The so-called “individual mandate” is the biggest prize any monopoly-seeking industry could ever hope for.”
Obama seemed to be holding out for some kind of weak public insurance “option” that would cover the neediest Americans, while forcing all the rest into the private sector's money-sucking machine. But the president has essentially dropped that public option fig leaf.
The Baucus plan is a naked transfer of hundreds of billions of dollars from the people's pockets to the insurance firms, a transfer enforced by the raw power of the state. It is the diametric opposite of single payer health care, which would draw the largest number of Americans into a single pool dedicated to the health and wellness of all. Instead, privatized national health care converts every citizen into a customer of giant corporations, whose goal is maximum profits.
The Baucus plan, which was nurtured at every stage of development by the Obama White House, is the greatest victory in history for the insurance companies – greater even than Congress's 1945 decision to exempt insurance companies from federal anti-trust laws. That's the law Obama is making all those loud noises about changing – but it's a hollow threat, for public consumption only. Anti-trust laws are designed to prevent monopolies. But President Obama is hell-bent on awarding private insurers an unprecedented monopoly over coverage of every American, and the privateer's profits will be fully subsidized by the people.
Obama's brand of insurance reform will have the same effect as his finance reform: massive transfers of wealth to corporations until the people's ability to pay is broken beyond repair.
For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford. On the web, go towww.BlackAgendaReport.com.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
Comments
Thanks! I was beginning to feel like a very old Alice-in-Kafkala
nd. And, I was starting to wonder if there was a grain of truth in their hype, which proves how effective constant bombardment of lies can start to make a fairly well-informed person start to question reality.
Obama vs the Insurance INdustryu: Can you say pillow fight?
As i see it, mr obama and health establishment are simply pillow fighting. Ready to concede, the Democrats are already saying the ya-hoo attended townhalls have stopped them from passing through legislation, what about the townhalls against the war(s)? This fight is stopping because it never really was meant to win. Just another pillow fight with a huge lobby... Mainstream press wants us to think that there is some sort of movement out there that is opposed to any health care that is not run by the private sector.
Get Insanity to stay sane in this nonsense...
Pillow fight or circle jerk?
Consider the truth of what America wants, more than 57% (up from 52%) want a public option. Now, compare this fact with the polling statistic that shows Rethugs more despised and distrusted than ever.
The Rethugs are polling at HISTORIC LOWS, but thanks to the "liberal media" and the Dems spinelessness, you'd never know it. You'd think the Dems are battling Prometheus. Check out the latest polling date from ABC News:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/george/2009/10/new-poll-public-option-up-gop-do...
"...But the president's problems pale in comparison to those of his political opponents. Only 20% of Americans call themselves Republicans -- the lowest in 26 years. Only 19% trust Republicans in Congress to make the right decisions for the country's future -- compared to 49% trust in Obama. In addition, President Obama outpaces his fellow Democrats on the Hill -- by 15 points -- in this measure, providing some ammunition to the perpetual White House argument to Democratic members that their political success is inextricably linked to the president’s. And unlike other recent polls, ABC-Post give Democrats a 51-39 edge in the generic Congressional ballot."
When you try to explain to people the fiction of the "liberal media" they just don't get it. Only 19% of Americas TRUST THE REPUBLICANS TO MAKE THE RIGHT DECISIONS!!! Only one GOP Sen. has demonstrated "bipartisanship" albeit for a most watered down, people unfriendly bill. And even she is wavering on final support. "Bipartisanship" is an excuse for the Dem's Republican-Liteness.
The Dems are weak and feckless because they want to be. A supermajority in Cong., a President more popular than any other politican on the Hill, an "opposition" party that is dead in the water, at historic lows in favorability, and yet the will of the people is thwarted. Pillow fight? More like a circle jerk or 3 card molly.
Tweedledum and Tweedledee
"Tweedledum and Tweedledee
Agreed to have a battle;
For Tweedledum said Tweedledee
Had spoiled his new rattle."
(Lewis Carroll)
Our present black president, like our first black president--Bill Clinton, continues to expose the fraudulence of our two party system. He is enacting programs that all presidents enact: foreign wars, privatization, lower taxes for the rich, get out of jail free for corporate criminality.
Democrat or Republican, Heads or Tails, Tweedledee or Tweedledum, the rentier class wins, the working class loses.
Or, as Leonard Cohen writes:
"Everybody knows that the dice are loaded. Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed. Everybody knows that the war is over. Everybody knows that the good guys lost. Everybody knows that the fight was fixed: the poor stay poor, the rich get rich. That's how it goes. Everybody knows."
In short, la misma vaina de siempre. If anyone hears of a North American Fidel Castro with an armed group of guerillas somewhere in the Berkshires, please send me their address. Or send them mine.
The Phony Fight
The Phony Fight can only be achieved with the complicity of the phony media. BAR's work is invaluable in helping readers wade through the sludge of disinformation spewed out by politicians and their corporate funded stenographers. I did a little post that showed my frustration with trying to decipher what is going on with healthcare reform if one relies on the media and official statements. Pelosi is particularly galling: she perverts and misuses one set of phrases-public option, government-run health plan-to camouflage the fact she is talking about mandatory health insurance.
I rely on BAR to set the story set. Good work as always.
http://www.circusgiganticus.com/healthcare-reform-hell/
10.28.09 Single-Payer Healthcare sit-ins and rallies
Next day of Single-Payer Healthcare sit-ins and rallies is October 28! Visit www.mobilizeforhealthcare.org to sign up!
phony fight?
as always, it's really money v. money and in that fight money wins and the populace lose. that will be the end result, just a question who makes out the best when the bell tolls.
scott