(Community Matters) In his column today, David Brooks suggests Barack Obama is leading the Democratic Party to disaster by tacking too far to the left.
Wow, wouldn’t the President’s life (and probably even more so, the White House staffs’ lives) be more manageable if only this were true. As it is, they are assailed at every turn by the left and the right. I suppose Mr. Brooks hasn’t been surfing the blogosphere where the president is accused by the left of selling out the treasury to Wall Street, healthcare to business, the war to the defense industry. . .
Poll numbers in the middle of making sausage (aka bill writing, law making) – about as transparently as this country has ever seen by the way – aren’t expected to hold up. And, doesn’t the GOP usually cite failure to abide by polls as the courageous path?
Listen . . . I get insecure too about the numbers tossed out by Republicans, Democrats, the CBO, healthcare reform opponents, proponents . . . basically everybody. Change is scary. And so are numbers we are hearing being thrown at Republicans and Democrats alike by those whose bread is buttered (wallets fattened) by the gross inefficiencies, private only pay plans and near monolpolies enjoyed by the healthcare insurance companies. They are spending tens of millions every month persuading lawmakers to protect their interests
Yeah, I’ve dealt with these guys. I still remember 1996 while CFO of a semiconductor start up. I was sick and we couldn’t figure it out (turned out to be mono). The insurance company didn’t want to pay for certain lab tests. When I finally got through to a group manager and noted my purchasing power on behalf of 200+ employees, he apologized, approved everything and told me he’d flagged my account so I wouldn’t be troubled again. He choked when I explained he better flag everyone of my employees, that I wasn’t so much calling just to complain about my labs (I could have afforded to pay for them out of pocket) as about my concern over the ridiculous formularies & protocols they were following.
And, I remember when Michael & I were at MD Anderson. He was in a room receiving chemotherapy. His doctors wanted us to obtain an antineusea drug but his insurance carrier wouldn’t aprove it. I spent 3 hours on the telephone before finally reaching a general manager for Michael’s UT student healthcare plan. After promising to blog about the problem, write a letter to the editor of the AAS and send letters to every single regent, president and CFO of the UT system, did he find the code which allowed MD Anderson’s pharmacy to qualify as provider for pharmacy (MD Anderson is a UT school/hospital – and the code was there the entire time, mind you).
So, any surprise the insurance companies have zero credibility with me? Any surprise in this sea of lies, distortions and hidden agendas that the person I choose to most believe is President Barack Obama?
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