Moore Warns Dems On Healthcare
By Don | September 29, 2009
Liberal filmmaker Michael Moore warned Democrats that have backed away from Obama's health care reform plan to get on board or risk losing their seat next year.
From the Politico
Controversial liberal filmmaker Michael Moore on Tuesday issued a warning to Democrats who have been cool to President Barack Obama’s call for meaningful health care reform: Get on board or prepare to lose your seat.
“To the Democrats in Congress who don’t quite get it: I want to offer a personal pledge. I – and a lot of other people – have every intention of removing you from Congress in the next election if you stand in the way of health care legislation that the people want,” Moore told supporters of women’s groups and unions gathered at the headquarters of the government watchdog group Public Citizen. “That is not a hollow or idle threat. We will come to your district and we will work against you, first in the primary and, if we have to, in the general election.”
Democrats have started to take for granted the support of women, unions and low-income workers, according to Moore, who is promoting “Capitalism: A Love Story,” a documentary about the financial collapse due for wide release Friday.
“You think that we’re just going to go along with you because you’re Democrats? You should think again,” he told the Tuesday crowd in a speech that was carried to members of the media dialed into a conference call. “Because we’ll find Republicans who are smart enough to realize that the majority of Americans want universal healthcare. That’s right. That’s absolutely right. Don’t take this for granted.”
Moore issued a not-so-veiled warning to Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and an opponent of the so-called public option, though not by name, asserting that his movie could be a rallying point for people across the country – including in Montana – to work to defeat Democrats who opposed the public option.
“You’ve made a serious mistake,” he warned Baucus.
Moore also called out Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), who supports the public option, but whose role in financial regulation as chairman of the Senate banking committee comes in for criticism in “Capitalism.” Speaking to Public Citizen, Moore said, “we’re going to lose this seat unless we run another Democrat” and said he’d “already received a phone call from a well known Democrat to tell me to back off Sen. Dodd.”
Liberal groups have already targeted conservative Democrats who oppose the public option and other Obama initiatives and it’s unclear if Moore plans to join forces with them or launch his own effort.He said he hoped, though, that “Capitalism” will prompt “even more political participation from people who realize that they can’t just sit it out. They can’t sit on the bench for this one.”
Moore is part of a left wing effort to cow Democrats who are reacting to voters backlash against public option by threatening to work to defeat them in next year's electionand possibly cost them control of Congress. The Democrats have learned this year that being in complete control of the government isn't the cakewalk they expected it to be. This is especially true for Obama who has struggled to articulate his agenda and has even resorted to Bush era policies to deal with serious issues.
Post #2363
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Michael Moore is such a hypocrite. He’s against free market and companies making money, yet he has millions invested in the same companies he makes films about and he makes millions off of the idiot liberals who go see his lies in his movies. There will be lots of Dems replaced next year and not with other Dems. People are tired of big government and Obama and his cohorts running this country into the ground.
And MM’s opinion is important—-because??????
“The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.” Ronald Reagan
Maybe I’m missing something. I see access to good healthcare as I see access to clean water, Police and fire protection and consumer protection. That being, everybody pays according to the various tax codes and everybody benefits. So why do people see healthcare any differently?
I think Moore overestimates his influence on people. He says he is speaking on behalf of the majority but fails to show that majority.
http://www.newsy.com/videos/michael_moore_s_health_care_threat
To mike C. I turn on my water tap I get clean water and a bill each month that I pay. I get police and fire protection and I pay for those services throuh my local property taxes. I couldn’t care less about the government’s comsumer protection and would prefer that they didn’t even try. I pay for my families health plan. Why would we need the government to be involved with health care? Each family or individual should pay for their own health care. Don’t you agree? Alot of people who do not have health insurance drive cars, smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, buy lottery tickets, cool and heat their homes and some where lower on their priority list is health care. Their priorities should not be my problem. If you con’t want to take care of yourself, the hell with you.I don’t want to pay for your health care.
Well Carl, the problem is that if we dont’ look out for each other when it comes to healthcare, epidemics can spread far more quickly and with devestating consequences for your family. In addition, the dummies who don’t take care of themselves and end up being rushed to the emergency room usually end up on your dime as well. The hospitals just cost shift to those with deeper pockets. Just as you mentioned, you have to pay as you go for water, police, fire, and food safety etc. Making healthcare compulsory is just fine with me. BUT, you can’t just let the for profit insurers ‘have their way’ with us all. Just like the SEC as sorry as it is (improving I hope) and so many other regulatory agencies, this life of ours is forever linked to ‘big Government’ and its bureaucrats. Sorry to say Carl we’ll never reach a Ron Paul paradise any time soon. The best we can hope for is for folks like yourself keeping their feet to the fire. Good luck.
mike C.—what kind of epidemics are you talking about—-I’d rather take care of the dummies the way we currently are—than have the government take care of all of us—if anyone thinks that government health care is the fixer-upper to our current health care system—they are delusional—the UK and Canada are perfect examples!!
And the last time I look—we are living in a capatalistic nation—if I was providing a service—I would damn well want to make a profit—
I never had a problem with my insurance companies paying my medical bills—-
Former_Democrate is right—
“Michael Moore is such a hypocrite. He’s against free market and companies making money, yet he has millions invested in the same companies he makes films about and he makes millions off of the idiot liberals who go see his lies in his movies.”
Maybe he should be the one to help all the dummies if he cares so much!!!!
Mary, the kind of epidemics are everything from small pox to swine flu. If the population isn’t vaccinated and otherwise protected, we slip back into the era of the middle ages with thier periodic Black Plagues and other lovely things.
As far as ‘For Profit’ insurers, they are two headed horses with one going in opposite directions. The more healthcare and procedures they provide, the less profit they make for shareholders. Although they’ve been with us many years, we see the results in that we spend around twice per capita that Europe and Japan and Canada spend. ARe their systems perfect? absolutly not. But why would someone calling themselves ‘conservative’ perfer to pay double? Funny type of conservatism if you ask me.
When was the last chicken pox plague? The H1N1 medication will be taken care of just as we have taken care of the flu vaccines for all of these past years—-
“we see the results in that we spend around twice per capita that Europe and Japan and Canada spend”
Check this out—-
1. The Japanese are the world’s most prodigious consumers of health care. The average Japanese visits a doctor about 14.5 times per year—three times as often as the U.S. average, and twice as often as any nation in Europe…The Japanese love medical technology; they get twice as many CAT scans per capita as Americans do and three times as many MRI scans. Japan has twice as many hospital beds per capita as the United States, and people use them. The average hospital stay in Japan is thirty-six nights, compared to six nights in the United States…Japan lags, though, in terms of invasive surgery; Japanese patients are much less apt than Americans to have operations such as arthroplasty, transplant, or heart bypass. This is partly economics—since the fees for surgery are low, doctors don’t recommend it as often—and partly cultural. As a rule, Japanese doctors and patients prefer drugs to cutting the body. On a per-capita basis, the Japanese take about twice as many prescription drugs as Americans do.
Check out these links:
1. http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_3_canadian_healthcare.html
2. Europe’s free health care has a hefty price tag - USATODAY.com*
I realize that we need to fix some things—maybe we need to start with the trial lawyers who are in the back pockets of the dems!!!
Look to Texas—they put a cap on this and it has been very successful!!!
And you seriously think—that if this goes through—you and I would be paying less than double to provide health care to those who don’t have it now?
If this is supposed to be such a great thing why can’t the libs pass it with their majority?
That ought to tell us something!!!!
Even with Japan’s overuse of their medical plans according to your sources, they are living far longer and paying far less per capita. Again nothing is perfect. Although the French system is generally considered the finest in the world. At again half what we are presently paying. Should not conservatives want to conserve their dollars and get the entire nation covered while spending less?
As far as why things are hard to pass congress, unfortinately we have to juat look at the untrammeled deluge of campaign contributions that just flood out the interests of normal Americans. That’s aside from the usual forms of corruption such as the Abromoff scandal that has tainted so many. Whether you feel it’s trial lawyers or big pharma, or the insurance industry, it has distorted to an obscene degree the idea of ‘one man one vote’ in our system. That’s why average non-lobbying ‘humans’ get short shrift when if comes to legislation. In the early twentieth century Texas of all places was leading the way when it banned cororations from involving themselves in Federal elections. That’s one of the ways Tom DeLay got nailed.
You can pick and choose any fact or non-fact you want to——and go back many years—-you cite Abromoff and Delay—-and I can list many on the other side—who are more apt to be overlooked by the state-run media.
The tax man takes enough from me and I don’t care to have anymore taken——I work hard for my money and I don’t appreciate having to pay for the laziness of other people!!!
Maybe no truer words were ever spoken—-
“Beware the greedy hand of government, thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry.”—Thomas Paine
I prefer the Chistian teachings of caring for the ‘other’ as oneself. It all works out eventually without having to shout down a President because you’re afraid someone may get something free that you feel you won’t. I thought most of that would be left behind with grammer school. Recon not.
September 30 at 12:13 am | #1 | Link
Keep in mind that only half of the citizens in the U.S. actually pay any federal tax. The public option means that not only will the tax payers have to pay for their own health care, but the will also have to pay for the health care of someone who pays no federal tax. We should make sure that any of the commies that vote for the public option are voted out of office at their next election.