Now 32 Senators for Reconciliation & Public Option

[j_b]

NY Times Reporter Confirms Obama Made Deal to Kill Public Option

 

by Miles Mogulescu

 

For months I've been reporting in The Huffington Post that President Obama made a backroom deal last summer with the for-profit hospital lobby that he would make sure there would be no national public option in the final health reform legislation. (See here, here and here). I've been increasingly frustrated that except for an initial story last August in the New York Times, no major media outlet has picked up this important story and investigated further.

 

Hopefully, that's changing. On Monday, Ed Shultz interviewed New York Times Washington reporter David Kirkpatrick on his MSNBC TV show, and Kirkpatrick confirmed the existence of the deal. Shultz quoted Chip Kahn, chief lobbyist for the for-profit hospital industry on Kahn's confidence that the White House would honor the no public option deal, and Kirkpatrick responded:

 

"That's a lobbyist for the hospital industry and he's talking about the hospital industry's specific deal with the White House and the Senate Finance Committee and, yeah, I think the hospital industry's got a deal here. There really were only two deals, meaning quid pro quo handshake deals on both sides, one with the hospitals and the other with the drug industry. And I think what you're interested in is that in the background of these deals was the presumption, shared on behalf of the lobbyists on the one side and the White House on the other, that the public option was not going to be in the final product."

 

Kirkpatrick also acknowledged that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina had confirmed the existence of the deal.

 

This should be big news. Even while President Obama was saying that he thought a public option was a good idea and encouraging supporters to believe his healthcare plan would include one, he had promised for-profit hospital lobbyists that there would be no public option in the final bill.

 

more here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/miles-mogulescu/ny-times-reporter-confirm_b_500999.html

 

[tvashtarkatena]

Playground innuendo reporting from someone who has no real interview access. Fortunately, there's the web for these people of little talent.

[j_b]

The NYT Washington reporter and the White house deputy chief of staff have no access? Citing them amounts to "innuendos"?

[tvashtarkatena]

This is a pretty clear case of a journalist bucking for a hit story. He made the story up, now he's filling in the blanks by mischaracterizing, which is apparently not even a word, the situation and other people's statements. Happens all the time...particularly on the web.

 

Read Billcoe's 'surveillance cameras on every one of thousands and thousands of forest service roads' post in the climbers section for a more local example.

Edited March 19, 2010 by tvashtarkatena

[tvashtarkatena]

Any time I read phrases like 'back room deal'...yeah, the real pros have no need to pander. The story, when credible, should speak for itself without the Chez Lives! bullshit.

[j_b]

You are starting to sound like the neocons who insist that Bush didn't lie because there is no paper trail to "prove" Bush lied.

[tvashtarkatena]

Yes, that logically follows.

 

My formula for happiness, which is apparently shared by others here, is to accept a low standard of journalism, you know, lines about 'give aways to the drug companies' and such, that's not editorializing, that's fact, myan, when it supports my emotional needs, and demand a higher standard than possible when it doesn't. Why would I want to know who specifically met with whom and what was exchanged? Cook it down for me!

[j_b]

It seems that if lobbyists and the white house chief of staff tell us that informal deals were made between the health care and drug lobbies and Democrats, it's reasonably safe to assume that deals were made. As to who said exactly what to whom, it's for the press to find out but I am not holding my breath in view of the fact they have so far mostly ignored this story and in view of their general unwillingness to publicize anything that pertains to the way the corporatocracy operates.

[ivan]

"its a fool who looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart"

[mkporwit]

"its a fool who looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart Congress"

There, FTFW