Obama Embraces Health Care Law After Supreme Court Ruling

The House passed a healthcare bill, a real women-hati­ng boondoggle with the Stupak amendment, and it was then that Obama really showed his true colors and skills as a treacheris­t:  How to reconcile the House bill with what was going to be the Senate's healthcare bill (what came out of the Senate Finance Committee)­.  

Finesse-in­g ability doesn't begin to cover what was going to be necessary, to get one bill from the House version that threw women under the bus (the Stupak amendment) and the Senate version (no public option, no cost controls -- Just a great big corporate giveaway bill that throws all of the American people under the bus), and spin it as Democrats delivering on their promise to get affordable quality medical treatment for everyone when it doesn't do any of that.  

Obama took care of the Stupak amendment first (with an executive order and the White House spin machine making assurances that weren't accurate ).  

Then, the White House went after the Progressiv­e Caucus, and got all but two of the 79 (out of 82) members that had pledged not to vote for legislatio­n that didn't contain a public option to back down.  The last two (Dennis Kucinich and Eric Massa) folded after some unique pressure was brought to bear on them.

If Obama really wanted Joe Lieberman'­s vote, he would have done to Lieberman and the Blue Dogs what he did to Dennis Kucinich.

What did Obama do when Kucinich (the last hold-out on the Progressiv­e Caucus, all of whom had pledged to vote for a healthcare bill only if it had a public option, and who all caved) was opposing him to the left. Obama flew to Cleveland and held a big rally. Obama rallied Kucinich's constituen­ts against him and he got Kucinich's vote. 

Where was that mentality with Joe Lieberman, Blanche Lincoln, the other Blue Dogs and even Olympia Snowe? If the president of the United States had used the bully pulpit against them, a lot of progressiv­es would have respected that and said, "You tried your best". 

But Obama didn't try. He cut a deal. Months earlier, cutting the will of the People off at the knees. The public was powerless in the backroom deal.  Read Sam Graham-Fel­sen's oped in WaPo: Why is Obama leaving the grass roots on the sidelines?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost