Dianne Feinstein: Criticism From Left On Health Care “Doesn’t Move Me One Whit”
Senator Dianne Feinstein has already taken a hammering from Dems and health care reform advocates for casting doubts on the prospects of President Obama’s health care reform efforts. MoveOn, for instance, aired an ad against her in California, demanding she show some leadership and fight harder to get the president’s reform plan passed.
Now Feinstein has hit back at the criticism from the left in an article about lefty groups targeting Dems for waffling on key components of health care reform:
“I do not think this is helpful. It doesn’t move me one whit,” she said. “They are spending a lot of money on something that is not productive.”
That sharply dismissive tone won’t exactly smooth over tensions.
Feinstein’s claim that criticism from the left is “not productive” also raises an important question: What does the White House think of the lefty criticism? Do White House advisers agree with Feinstein, and want the liberal groups to muzzle themselves, or are they tacitly happy about it?
When liberal groups hit Dems during other policy fights earlier this year, the White House let it be known that it didn’t approve. In the case of health care, though, the White House hasn’t said word boo about the efforts by liberal groups to force Dems into line, suggesting the possibility that Obama advisers are perfectly content with it for the time being.
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In the Village, credibility flows from making fun of the “left” (which is often the majority position) while treating even the most extreme positions on the right with respect. Strange that certain Dem Senators see themselves more as Villagers than democrats.
The wishes of her constituents don’t move her one whit. Got it.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but Feinstein is weighing a potential run for Governor? If she decides to run. Progressives can things really, really bad for her.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but Feinstein is weighing a potential run for Governor? If she decides to run. Progressives can make things really, really bad for her.
How about foreign AID she has helped push through ,someone like move on should publish how much foreign aid she has helped along,while telling her constituates she dont give a whit about theyre NEEDS,dig,dig itll only take a few minutes to find the foreign aid she pushes through for foreigners but none for californians and americans.
Methinks the lady doth protest too much. Obvously she’s feeling the heat and doesn’t like it, or she wouldn’t be kvetching about it.
Feinstein has made a career of taking the LEFT for granite!
I’m not a Feinstein follower, but would criticism from the Right move her?
Village Conventional Wisdom is what “moves” Dianne. Three quarters of the population want a public option…..yet, Feinstein isn’t moved “one whit” over what Americans want.
The ‘whit” she cares about are the profits of big health insurers.
Hasn’t it been rather a long time now since Feinstein cared about criticism from the left?
Feinstein takes her marching orders from the same Wall Street and banking interest paymasters she gets her money from. Also true for all other officeholders. The solution to our oppression is not political.
May some prune juice will help your movement
Steve – You’re way off topic there. I think if you do the math you will find that “foreign aid” is a tiny pittance compared to the costs of health care reform.
I fully support health care reform, but let’s not get distracted with irrelevant arguments like that one.
I don’t think she would make the mistake of elevating the left’s criticism of her cowardice on healthcare. Thus the pressure must be getting to her.
National policy preferences tend to the left of those that will preserve the Village and their overlords. The Right is a convenient corrective to the keep things in the “center”.
I wish she were up for re-election next year but I don’t think she is until 2012. I would love to run a true progressive against her in her primary. She is snooty, old and out of touch with us plebes. Accumulating too much wealth by hooking up your husband’s business will do that to a senator…
Time to primary her and make her accountable to her constituents.
Criticism from the right, however, DOES move here.
Shorter Difi to liberals: Drop dead, suckers.
She’s not fooling me.
Considering that Organizing for America is actively pushing voters to lobby their representatives, I think it’s more than a suggestion. In fact, I think it points out a whole new angle to this Post article — it’s really an attempt to characterize the very real grassroots pressure in terms of action by liberal groups and unions, something that in Village thinking should be automatically dismissed.
Hmm. It seems like maybe her behavior will move me to NEVER vote for her again!
If it doesn’t bother her, why the snippy response?
It’s bothering her. Up the pressure.
Friday night I spent an hour at a free outdoor concert collecting signatures on a petition to Sen. Feinstein, asking her to support the public option. I got 52 signatures in that hour, with about 80% of those I asked signing it. Later that night I Faxed the petitions to her office. If 100 more of us were to do that we could jack up the pressure a bit. I mean we could give her more stuff to ignore, as she serves her constituents, the insurance company executives. I have never been one of her fans.
If you listen to the (hilarious) old spoken word by Jello Biafra about when he ran against her for San Francisco mayor you’ll see she hasn’t cared about her constituents and had great contempt for liberals since the 1980’s.
The WH is pushing the buck onto the Senators. Obama has not and will not but out a specific health care plan. He only has his ‘blueprint’
Dianne Feinstein never responds to email from me expressing my concern of her lack of Democratic values in voting. She leans so far right due to her obvious conflicts of interests to her constituancy she has become a DINO. I read she is not going to run for re-election. But, disturbingly I heard she is seeking to run as Govenor of California.
This prospect is very very disturbing to me. I hope the blogs fight her bid as hard as it would fight any other Rebublican who sought the office in the next go-around. Unfortunatly, national Democratic power players will support her, which will make it very hard to defeat her. This would be a true test of the power of the left blogs. It would also be a great barometer as to how much the pendulum has swung from traditional media to the internet.
Feinstein’s attitude is precisely why she was never going to be elected mayor of San Francisco and why she was headed toward the Land of Political Obscurity until Dan White assassinated Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. She became mayor because she was president of the Board of Supervisors at the time but in her previous runs for the seat she had never finished higher than third. Dianne has long passed her level of competency.
It’s enough to make me want to move back to CA just to vote against her. As it is, I hope my former fellow Golden State residents will take note, and support a strong primary challenger to knock her off.
Not that I would wish such a thing on anyone, but I imagine she might have a different opinion if she weren’t rich and healthy.
Not one whit? Maybe one half-whit?
Feinstein not running for re-election and running for Governnor? That would be great news!! I don’t think she would win as governor, and it would be wonderful to replace her. People in California are finally waking up to the fact that she’s been out of touch for years.
On Feinstein’s website, look under “Priorities” and see if you can find what’s missing: that’s right! You guessed it! There’s no mention of health care whatsoever!
Senator Feinstein represents a certain kind of “new politics” “New Democrat” liberalism that came into existence after the 1968-1972 crack-up of the old New Deal. These people use to be “liberal Republicans,” civic do-gooders and reformers. But on economic matters they have always stressed “fiscal rectitude” and worry about spoiling the working class with benefits. They left the Republican party because of the Movement Conservative takeover drove them out on the issues of war, civil rights, the environment, abortion, and identity politics. On economic issues like health care, they revert to their Republican/Conservative Democratic roots.
As for why the public option is needed all the following points need to be made.
1. The current systems does not work and is anti-competitive otherwise health care costs would not be going up several times the rate of inflation (or what is going on now, deflation).
2. Private health insurance operates as a monopoly in many markets and companies are able to collude on price for insurance without having to push back at providers.
3. Insurance companies are structured to make money collecting preminiums and avoid paying money out as benefits. Disputing coverage and claiming pre-existing conditions reduces the payout for benefits. Many people with coverage are concerned that they will lose it when push comes to shove.
4. As Paul Krugman points out on his blog today, the economist Ken Arrow showed why a laissez-faire free market does not work well for health care in the age of so-called scientific medicine. Besides the issues of moral hazard and adverse selection, I would ask the basic asymmetry of information and bargaining power between between health care providers and consumers who are seeking medical assistance because of some usually desperate need.
It’s “for granted,” not “for granite.” If she took the left for GRANITE, she might actually listen to us!
Feinstein has been a disappointment on all matter of issues, particularly civil liberties. She’s the worst, and it’s embarrassing that she represents California. She absolutely does not care what anyone left of her (i.e, most of the state) thinks. I used to get apoplectic over her, but now I’ve simply given up on her and am just waiting for 2012. BTW, my understanding is that she does not plan to run for governor — could be wrong, though. The field seems pretty weak on both sides, so she might have a chance.
ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS FOLLOW THE MONEY TRAIL WITH FEINSTEIN…NO, I’M NO ANTI-SEMITIC…BUT MONEY WINS WITH MRS FEINSTEIN EVERYTIME….FROM GETTING GREAT DEALS FOR HER HUSBAND’S BUSINESS THRU THE BAILOUT TO ALL THE $$$$ SHE TAKES FROM AIPAC TO KEEP THE WARS MOVING AND THE BLOOD FLOWING, THE ONLY ONE SHE REPRESENTS IS HER OWN SELF INTERESTS.
You know, Dianne’s getting pretty old. 75 is no Spring chickie. Maybe she’ll kick the bucket before the next cycle and we can have special election and CA might have a real liberal for a senator again.
I’m trying to figure out how less crass and immoral this comment of mine is than Dianne’s objection to health care for all Americans. Somehow, when I consider how many people will die due to no health care it doesn’t seem so bad.
As a San Francisco California resident and voter, I am happy to learn that what I want doesn’t move my Senator one whit.
Missymarple above should find hope in the fact that the “national Democratic power players” she worries about in a potential CA gubernatorial race featuring DiFi all stood shoulder to shoulder (and wallet to wallet) with Terry McAuliffe in his 25 point primary loss here in Virginia last month.
Maybe Dianne Feinstein will care a little more at the next Democratic primary. I know I will. Whoever her opponent is will be getting a check from me. And I don’t even live in her state!
Campaign contributions from HMOS and Insurance Companies do move her many whits away from affordable healthcare.
Gee, that’s funny; I thought elected representatives were supposed to stand for the interests of the constituents who elected her. Guess she doesn’t want to be elected to anything anymore.
she is arrogant and super-rich, a toxic combo. I hope she gets canned either in a jar or at the polls!
Can you imagine a Republican saying that comments from the Religious Right “Don’t move me a whit?” Why is it the Republicans will bend over backwards for their core constituency, but Dems could give two beans? Personally I think it’s because the Democrats that are in power are basically Republicans in disguise. Time to get them out and some people in who will represent the people’s interest, no?
Feinstein can be moved….out of public employment. I will contribute to her ouster.
Well, if she doesn’t care one whit about what the people of California and the rest of the nation overwhelmingly then i guess the best thing to do to her is recall her. because as I was taught in school we have a government that is by the people and fore the people so Diane either start serving the people what they want or you will be recalled. It is legal in California and you know we have one it here before.
http://www.propeller.com/story/2008/10/02/how-to-recall-a-us-senator/
Feinstein just lost my vote and my entire family. If she is planning to run again, I suggest to save herself a headache because whatever she says “does not move us one whit”….
Feinstein has gotten so big over these years that I’m afraid nothing can move her any more.
As a Democrat from CA I say to Feinstein, I will vote for a republican before I will vote for you. She is a tratior to her party.
Looks like we already have a winner for Least Surprising Headline of 2009.
Somebody primary her already, Jesus.
Senator Feinstein represents a certain kind of “new politics” “New Democrat” liberalism that came into existence after the 1968-1972 crack-up of the old New Deal. These people use to be “liberal Republicans,” civic do-gooders and reformers.
I follow your drift but I think you are mistaken here. Feinstein’s career has to be analyzed in terms of the modern history of San Francisco politics alone. Her appearance on the political scene there, along with a guy named Robert Mendelsohn, represented the emergence, for the first time in the city’s history, of a political class that can only be correctly described as “professional politicians.” That is, people who sole career aim and entry into public affairs was for the purpose of seeing themselves elected to public office.
Despite San Francisco’s reputation as a liberal bastion, no Democrat had been elected as the city’s mayor for more than 50 years until 1964 when Jack Shelley, a Democratic congressman and former labor official defeated Harold Dobbs, a Republican and a member of the city’s Board of Supervisors. Dobbs’ defeat signaled a major shift in the city’s demographics, largely fueled by the exponential growth of its black population from from 1940 to 1960.
Feinstein and Mendelsohn were never part of this new political coalition that was led, by and large, by organized labor, in particular the ILWU and Phil Burton, his brother John and their friend, Willie L . Brown, Jr. Feinstein was a registered Democrat but I would argue that it was only because she could never be elected as a Republican. Most of her electoral support was largely based in the city’s northern, northwest and western districts where conservative and moderate Republican voters were concentrated.
Don’t just sit back and withhold your vote. Follow her everywhere and picket her. Then, everyone, instead of just getting mad, get out a $20 and give it to her primary opponent. There are thousands and thousands and thousands of us. Even people out of state will give. Come on, 20 bucks to wipe that condescending smirk off of her face. A bargain!
Is this the same Diane Feinstein who vetoed equal pay for equal work when she was Mayor of San Francisco? Aside from her opposition to the gun lobby on assault weapons, she’s been a conservative trying to buck her San Francisco
‘base” ever since leaving the city behind.
Years ago I was told Diane Feinstein was an old republican man in drag. I’ve always thought there was some truth to that … both the republican part and perhaps the drag … but I imagine the GLBT doesn’t want her either.
I would suggest the Senator start adding up the comments, multiply by 4 and these are the number of votes she won’t be able to count in her state come the next election. I hope everyone emails her and expresses just that. We are watching with our votes.
She voted to apporve Bush’s Attorney General nominee Mukasey and Director of the CIA Hayden, and Director of National Intelligence and probable 80s war ciminal John Negroponte. The difference between Feinstein and Bayh is just 20 IQ points.
she’s a war profiteer (through her husband) and only feigns to be a leftist. actually she exemplifies the worst of how UNprogressive the overall democratic party is. democrats are center-right, and republicans are looney right. we need a real progressive party in this state, and the country. any chance you have, vote for any party or candidate left of the worthless democrats.
just like in ‘93 when dems has the presidency and congress, dems are dithering now, afraid of real change. vote green
re: “The difference between Feinstein and Bayh is just 20 IQ points”
In which direction ?
This won’t come as the slightest surprise to those versed in health care policies issues. But I fear it’s only barely permeated the health care reform debate in the country, certainly in Washington. And that’s this: the opposition to a so-called ‘public option’ comes almost entirely from insurance who have developed monopolies or near monopolies in particular geographic areas. And they don’t want competition.
Note, I’m not saying more competition. I’m saying any competition at all. As Zack Roth explains in this new piece 94% of the health care insurance market is now under monopoly or near-monopoly conditions — the official term of art is ‘highly concentrated’. In other words, there’s no mystery why insurance costs keep going up even as the suck quotient rises precipitously. Because in most areas there’s little or no actual competition….
Rihard Blum, the Senator’s husband, has been well-positioned to make big $$$ when DiFi decides [from Wikipedia]:
The Center for Public Integrity has reported that US Senator Dianne Feinstein and her husband, Richard Blum, are making millions of dollars from Iraq and Afghanistan contracts through his company, Perini [3]. Feinstein voted for the resolution. Blum did hold over 111,000 shares of stock in URS Corporation, which is now one of the top defense contractors in the United States. URS bought EG&G, a leading provider of technical services and management to the U.S. military, from The Carlyle Group in 2002. Carlyle’s trusty advisers, past and present, include former President George H.W. Bush, James Baker, and ex-SEC Commissioner Arthur Levitt, among other prominent neoconservatives and Washington power brokers.
URS and Blum have since banked on the Iraq war, scoring a $600 million contract through EG&G. As a result, URS has seen its stock price more than triple since the war began in March 2003. Blum has cashed in over $2 million on this venture alone and another $100 million for his investment firm.
“As part of EG&G’s sale price,” reports the San Francisco Chronicle, “Carlyle acquired a 21.74 percent stake in URS – second only to the 23.7 percent of shares controlled by Blum Capital.”
As an emergency physician in an affluent area of Maryland, I see rich and poor alike suffering from the daily struggle with the costs of health care. If senators can’t see that the costs of health care are turning our best and brightest into permanent second class citizens, with even one medical scare, then we will continue the race to becoming the largest 3rd world country on the planet. With no public option, insurers have nothing to worry, until the fact that those bright minds no longer make enough money to pay for the ridiculous part of their income that goes to insurance. Corporate greed is the monkey on each of our backs, but, sadly, some still equate it to the American way… To have a functioning competitive country, we need certain guarantees so the best and brightest can create, build and further develop this still young country. Senators who don’t get that caving on a public option is tantamount to treason to our future should face huge losses. The ‘grassroots’ Democrats are not the only people who need to be terrified.
Yes we get your message loud and clear Ms F. You don’t want to do what the people voted for you to do, well it can be rectified and we will see who has the last word. POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!!
One of the other commentsers said
“Feinstein has made a career of taking the LEFT for granite!”
OK now there is a way that you all can deal with that. When she comes up for re-election, go after her. Regardless of who her opponent is. Follow through is what is needed.
I live in Southern California. The more I hear form Feinstein, the less I’m willing to assume she actually has people’s interests at heart. She is pretty darn clueless on most topics such as fairness and justice. She’s more interested in protecting plutocrats and celebrities.
She’s been a big disappointment. But then what does one expect from California, which has a liberal reputation, but a conservative heart outside the Bay Area.
Feinstein didn’t care about the 80,000-90,000 calls she got from constituents who wanted her to vote against the big bank bailout last year and arrogantly said so on the senate floor as an example to encourage other senators not to listen to their constituents either. She’s been bought and paid for by the health industry PACs, $1.7 million.
That’s funny. I wasn’t under the impression that we were the ones who had to seek approval from THEM. Dianne better be a little more realistic about her political situation.
Criticism from the Left didn’t move DiFi from supporting the Iraq War
Criticism from the Left didn’t move DiFi from supporting the Patriot Act or Kyl-Lieberman (AKA: Bomb, Bomb Iran) or Tax Cuts for the Rich or NAFTA or WTO……
The woman is a Republican who was ‘going steady’ woth George Bush for the past 8 years
I DON’T UNDERSTAND HER ‘Popularity’ in California
Dianne Feinstein has always been the best Senator money could buy, in my opinion, and this does nothing to change it. She’s always been one of the most reliable Republican votes on everything form taking away our liberties, to making sure the influential are first in line for her support. The upcoming ARRA decisions will be another area to watch her in action, when she tries to prop up the TransBay Terminal project with high speed rail money? This is why George Moscone (a real Democrat) is still spiinning in his grave.
Diane Feinstein and any other Dem. Senator that doesn’t back public option 100% should find another job. They should NEVER expect any support from the liberal movement again. In fact, I think it’s time to ramp things up. Let’s start a movement to run a primary challenge against any Dem who doesn’t support the public option.
Guess that’s the answer to my letters and e-mails to her. Good luck in the future Senator, you won’t be getting a whit of support from me.
The Rethug Horror Show…. A must see!!!
http://www.americansunitedforchange.org/page/s/horror
What a pile of execrement this corporate ***** really is. She would look great mounted, (squished), in the grill of a Greyhound Bus leaving California. WHOOPS!! No really, she should be abused severely, just as all of those who continually circumvent the will of the people and continually lead this nation away from doing what is right. To borrow from another shill for corporate interests, (yes, Mr. Santelli should ALSO be strung up), “Are you listening Mr. Not-so-transparent Obama???” IS ANYONE LISTENING TO WHAT THE PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY ARE SAYING??? I mean of course EXCEPT for the NSA???? I am sorry but I won’t be moved one whit by those expressing outrage over my calls for harm for these *****!!
Well, then, Senator, good luck winning reelection with all of us “lefty” Californians voting against you in the primaries.
I guess that the thought of not be elected again, doesn’t mover her either!
You’re not moved because you a friggin piece of s*&t. You don’t care about anyone but yourself and helping your husband make money on favorite deals with the government. You should be drawn and quartered for all you’ve ruined. You should join Billy Mays and Fred Travelena at the next Michael Jackson concert. D.
Fellow Comrads,
I have the solution to your problems. Since Obama’s healthcare plan costs so much and since you all seem to be demanding it I feel that the best possible solution is for the government to sieze all private wealth in the nation.
Everything will be free, healthcare, food, transportaion, household goods, entertainment, etc the only catch is that no one can have any personal wealth. Private ownership of vehicles will be banned and everyone will have to take public transportation. If certain individuals need a vehicle for the profession that the government has choosen for them, a special permit will be granted for those individuals at the governments discretion. They will only be allowed to use that vehicle during work hours. It must be returned to the government garage immediately after use.
Look. If everyone doesnt get their heads out of their butts then this is where we are headed. Like all of the homeowners who purchased their houses from 2001-2007 and are now losing their homes, the government is to far over-extended. We cannot afford to provide healthcare for everyone, we cannot afford even the basic social security and medicare plans that are already on the books. Our country is bankrupt, they are creating money out of thin air, and our economy is a house of cards!!
We cannot continue to push programs like Cap and Trade, Free Healthcare, and massive bailouts! The nation and our government will collapse in on itself if these rediculous and unnecessary programs become law.
There is no money in the treasury to pay for these programs and increasing taxes will only further delay our economic recovery and will further harm our long term economic prospects! Either we reverse the march towards socialism and balance our books or we move forward quickly towards a communist state where the government controls everything and everything is “free”.
I choose the former and I hope you all choose that option as well. In the words of Sir Winston Churchhill “Capitalism is the unequal distribution of wealth, but socialism is the equal distribution of misery”.
Take a look at all the “socialist republics” of the past (USSR). What did they do for thier people? Where did they end up. This is not the American way and it’s not the type of nation we should strive to be.
Diana is Joe Lieberman in a skirt.
I am a conservative Democrat who has voted many times for Feinstein. Some of my Republican and Libertarian friends cannot stand the woman and have said as much, mainly because of her views on gun control. I find it interesting that some Democrats don’t like her either. But then, that’s the Democratic party these days. If it’s not far left then they consider it to be right. Personally, I agree with Comrade Mike. Nationalized healthcare will bankrupt the US and I am glad Feinstein realizes this.
Dianne Feinstein only votes to keep her husband’s lucrative Pentagon contract safe. The voters of California would gladly vote for ANYONE (even a Republican) who would be better for the state than she is, but the ineptitude of both major parties is the only reason she got re-elected last time.
Time to stop sending trillions of money overseas in foreign aid packages for a couple of years and use that to fund health care. The country needs it and the citizens by a majority want it. The money will magically appear because it’s already here folks. You don’t think so? Don’t be naive. Trillions overseas? No more. Not until we fix our health. When the left finally gets the will to do the right thing and ignore the yaksasks obstructing the path we can move on to other problems and start arguing again.
But the jangle of big money contributions does move her (as well as her own political ambitions).
Unfortunately, Feinstein has been a Senate dud on many issues for quite some time..
The time for political bickering over health care reform needs to stop. I wonder how fast we would get a bill in place if all politicians were stripped of their party label and lobbying was made illegal. And one more thing…. take healthcare coverage away for all elected officials and their family and force them to find coverage of their own in the private market. I bet then they would get something done real quick! To learn more about what I think is the most successful part of health care reform in American read my blog article below. And it actually has a lot less to do with any politician and a lot more to do with YOU!
http://rxvette.blogspot.com/2009/06/biggest-key-to-health-care-reform-in-us.html
Obviously, she doesn’t care about the uninsured and underinsured in California or the rest of the country. I will be moved to contribute if she has a primary opponent.
Well, Diane, as a lifelong Democrat, guess what? I stopped contributing to your campaign a few years ago. Now I’ll walk the blocks campaigning against you. You are an embarrassment to this 72 year old Democrat. Do you have a real idea about why you’re in the Senate? Bye, bye
How many times do we let these congress people slap us in the face, before we start slapping back? I mean, think about it…there’s around 535 of them and almost 300 million of us..I think we literally have to stand up and make them get out and start from scratch…I hope it happens in my lifetime.
Well Dianne, what ever happened to working on behalf of the American people? Or you think you know best? claudiatucsonaz
She needs to listen to the people who voted for her! Vote her out if she won’t respond to the will of the people. I, for one, donated time AND money to get Obama elected to provide urgently-needed Health Care Reform.
I hate how Democrats keep shooting themselves (and us!) in the foot. WE HAVE MAJORITIES. WE ARE THE MAJORITY. START ACTING LIKE IT!!!! QUIT ROLLING OVER FOR THE SPECIAL INTERESTS FOR A CHANGE!!!!
Let’s get someone credible to run against her when she runs for re-election. Trust me, the way this state is going, there’s no way she or anyone else will want to run for Governor. Her re-election for senate is a long way off, so let’s not forget her arrogance. If any state will support a progressive candidate, it’s this one.
DiFi’s no doubt figured out how her hubby can profit from this healthcare reform bill and that has to include her voting against it. I can’t wait for somebody to primary this Neocon DINO and sit and look at her shocked face when she loses. She’ll probably pull a Lieberman and run as an indy.
Easy solution to the health care problem.
1. Give $150 billion of the supposed savings of the public option to health care insurers right off the top, no strings, no taxes. They won’t have to pay off the whores in Congress, and they can get rid of all the administrators who spend their time denying health care to those who need it. The profit can go right to the top, and the American people will get the health care they need and deserve.
2. Give another $50 billion directly to Congress. It is already obvious who the whores are that already who already get money from the insures, so they won’t care, they’re getting their corruption regardless. Those in Congress who are honest will probably live with being linked to the whores because the people will finally get the health care they need and deserve.
3. A lesson will be learned by the American people of how Congress really works, and they can find similar solutions to other situations where corporate whores are destroying this country.
4. Everybody wins.
I don’t give a whit if I vote for her either.
I think she gives a whit about some of her Oakland based corporate constituents, Kaiser Permanente
Feinstein must have been who Bill Maher was thinking of when he said “Democrats are the new Republicans (and Republicans are the new crazy).”
Any time there’s a conflict between the interests of average Californians and big business making out like bandits, she sides with business every time.
Is Feinstein planning on retiring in 2012? She is acting like she is. Because if she keeps going like this, she is going to be toast in the Democratic primary come 2012.
Way to go Senator, I remember Dick Cheney’s TV interview where he was reminded that the public that means “People of America” do not agree with him and his response was not too different from yours Senator, he said some thing to the effect, “I don’t care a whit”using fewer words however.
We will remember your words come next election no matter what office you decide to run for because senator your words do move us a whit, a whole lot of whit!
Once again Senator Feinstein has shown her disdain and disregard for the opinions of the voters who put her into office. I no longer consider her a Democrat. She votes Republican and acts like the wealthy matron she is.
It would be better for the people of California if she leaves the Senate after her term ends. She won’t willingly give up her position, but she has lost her credibility and has become a liability for our State.
I think she will be surprised at how much support she has permanently lost among the voters.
A single payer health-care plan does not have to an an issue identified exclusively with the left. If universal coverage means fewer unnecessary visits to emergency rooms, greater access to preventive treatment and strategies that encourage healthier diets and exercise, it can significantly reduce health costs for everyone, as it has in Germany, where I lived for many years. Doctors there are still among the economic elite but the number of people employed to administer the health is plan is significantly less, per patient, than it is in this country today.
I’ll bet Feinstein is really losing sleep that a bunch of sheep who don’t say jack unless Barry commands it aren’t going to vote for her. That’s humorous. Oh and to the person who said that 75% of the country wants public option, prove it with something besides a fixed NYT poll.
Single Payer will SAVE money not cost money. we already pay twice as much as single payer would cost. It is simple,universal,and 1/2 price. stop the conveluted public/private bulls#%t and demand single payer!!!
If Feinstein runs for re-election or for Governor, her right-wing stances (from FISA to Mukasey to her whoring with health insurance lobbyists) will not help.
Oh, and to our wingnut troll John Boy: try looking at the Wall Street Journal / NBC poll, which says that 76% support a public option, d-bag.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/17/obama-boost-new-poll-show_n_217175.html
There might be a plus side to this. She denies the wishes of her constituents and sells her vote to Big Pharma and the insurance companies, scoring huge bucks for her campaign war chest. So much, in fact, it convinces her to give up her senate seat and run for Governor. This way we don’t have to wait until 2012 to dump her, and she’ll get the pummeling she richly deserves by the Californians she’s been ******** for all these years.
It seems as if people are twisting what DiFi said…she NEVER said she does not care about what the people think or that their concerns do not move her one whit. What does NOT move her are those who are criticizing her for holding a credible opinion on health care. They seem to want her to change her position on a stance that she strongly believes in and that should not move her. She should not have to change position when she has thought it through and decided that her stance will benefit the people (and I feel the health care reform bill Obama has promised is problematic). She added more to her remarks and stated that it is not the people she does not feel moved by but rather criticism on a position that holds some validity to it.
I invite you all to read this article from http://www.usliberals.about.com:
Obama Drops the Ball on Healthcare Leadership
Thursday June 18, 2009
President Obama has dropped the ball on leading the healthcare debate, his supposed top issue.
And it’s causing a lot of Democrats to echo Bill Maher’s sharp sentiments last week: “This is not getting the job done, and this isn’t what I voted for.”
Obama has badly blown it, thus far, on providing healthcare reform leadership for three main reasons:
* The Obama White House has not provided a coherent, detailed plan or legislative package for the healthcare reform that the President seeks and campaigned on.
Instead, a massive, 650-page document, authored by Ted Kennedy and quietly quasi-blessed by Obama, was presented to key Congressional committees this week with three major sections still entirely blank.
* President Obama has neither explained his plan to the American people, nor addressed the myriad of legitimate worries Americans have about massive healthcare insurance changes.
Instead, he orates in vague bromides and cheery, campaign-style generalities at town halls and interest groups conventions. Then sends his surrogates out to bob-and-weave with the press.
* The Obama White House hasn’t told Americans either what his plan will cost, or how he plans for us to pay for it.
And most frighteningly, the Obama White House seems to have no real idea what their healthcare reform ideas will cost, judging by Democrat’s shocked embarrassment this week at the Congressional Budget Office’s objective cost analysis of Sen. Ted Kennedy’s plan.
It’s easy, and great fun, to shop for the shiny luxury car of my dreams. It’s dumb, though, to waste my time if I don’t have the money to pay for it. It’s even dumber if, knowing that my finances are limited, I don’t ask the car’s price.
President Obama’s abdication of leadership, thus far, on his signature issue makes me painfully wonder: Has he done his homework, and the hard policy work, on healthcare? Does Obama do his homework, or is all about posing and posturing, then pushing the hard work down on others?
Or, as Bill Maher smartly said:
“…we’re kind of wondering when you’re going to actually do something. Sorry folks, but this President is not fighting for real healthcare reform.”
Look here for much more on the healthcare reform debate. Next up: quick-reading pros & cons of each type of healthcare plan under consideration. To start, see Healthcare Plan Definitions, which translates all the mumbo-jumbo terms into everyday language.
***I am a Democrat and agree with Dianne on this. Her position has a lot of truth to it since the bill is not holding up to its promise. Why should she be moved by criticism that is, in her view and mine, unfounded? Those who are criticizing her should realize there is a difference in criticizing one for being against universal health care and criticizing one for being against a bad proposal for universal health care..DiFi is the latter. And she made it clear she is NOT MOVED by the BILL…it has NOTHING to do with not caring for the PEOPLE! She is unmoved by those criticizing a legitimate position of hers and their criticism having no merit (which it does not. Clearly this bill needs to be finetuned). These groups criticizing her should step back and realize she is for universal health care but feels Obama’s proposal lacks responsibility…and her saying she is unmoved by their criticism is her saying that their criticisms are poorly constructed.
Learn to read between the lines, people! DiFi is the most popular politician in California for a reason-she gets the job done. I would know since I just finished an internship with her and I can tell you that all these “She does not care about her constituents” remarks are baloney. She DOES listen to constituents, even if she disagrees. I would know since I worked for her.***
The big picture is that Feinstein must go. With exception to her environmental stands, she is a Republican. Iraq, Torture and Secret Prisons, FISA, The Fatherland oops, Homeland Security, Wireless wiretapping and Immunity to the Companies that spied… and now, real reform in Health Care.
She’s big on saying “government”, “options”, and “in health care reform” in the same breath, but never consecutively! She panders, then votes as her contributors demand.
She’s evil and has to go. Please badger your voting friends.
I have never forgiven her for supporting George Bush’s tax cuts to the wealthy which was the beginning of going in debt. There is something wrong when they can vote for something that they will benefit to the detriment of the rest of the country. She also voted to support the war. Where was that cost concern then?
I am glad that the Senator can see this for what it is and I hope she doesn’t back down and vote to ruin our lives with this giant government takeover of our entire healthcare system. Especially with the unemployment rate so high.
Here’s some interesting background on Feinstein’s ethics:
Feinstein Resigns
Senator exits MILCON following Metro exposé, vet-care scandal
http://www.metroactive.com/metro/03.21.07/dianne-feinstein-resigns-0712.html#
I’d be curious to see who’s paying her to support H1-B and L-1 visas to import foreign workers to take American jobs, even while the country struggles under the worst crisis since the Great Depression. Local companies such as Cisco Systems, Oracle, and Sun Microsystems are among the largest users of the slave labor visa programs. I’ve written to Dianne, and she doesn’t care one bit that 50% of California’s high tech workers are forced out of the industry during each recession as jobs are shipped overseas and workers are imported to replace the last few highly educated Americans left employed.