Did Obama Inc. Threaten Dennis Kucinich & Make Him Fold on Healthcare?

Kucinich had been given an offer that he felt he could not refuse.The Obama administration has finished the job it started in January, 2009: crush the progressive wing of the Democratic Party to clear the way for corporate governance. Rep. Dennis Kucinich‘s was the last Left opposition to Obama’s toxic health care legislation. “Once Obama’s private insurers’ bailout bill is in place, it will be almost impossible to dismantle in the foreseeable future.

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

Click link below to hear Commentary

http://www.swift.fm/mrdaveyd/song/29339/

“There is nothing for a true progressive to do in Obama’s Democratic Party.”

The last Left Democrat in the U.S. Congress has folded his hand, crushed by Wall Street’s servant in the White House, Barack Obama.

Until Wednesday morning, Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich was the only opposition from the Left still holding out against Obama’s private insurance subsidy bill – a massive redistribution of wealth to Wall Street masquerading as health care reform. The bill was long ago stripped of any fig leaf of a “public option,” and now awaits passage in its pure form – the formal establishment of a private health care system in which the people are forced to finance the profits of some of the biggest players in the Wall Street casino, the insurance corporations. Far from a step forward towards a society in which health care is every person’s right, the Obama bill is a huge step backward in the opposite the direction from which the entire industrialized world has been traveling. Obama’s so-called reform is in fact, a defeat of the dream of universal health care.

Obama used every trick at his disposal to place that dream out of reach. He pulled a shameless bait and switch on health care, talking the language of universality while conniving to transfer trillions of public dollars to the private insurance industry. Once Obama’s private insurers’ bailout bill is in place, it will be almost impossible to dismantle in the foreseeable future.A trillion dollars buys lots of loyalty. And to make certain that nobody ever gets to cancel the corporate bailout, the Obama regime would prevent states from setting up their own universal health care programs.

“Kucinich was adamant that he had not changed his assessment of the president’s health care proposals.”

Obama knew that, if he were to have any chance to pass a private health insurance subsidy bill, he would first have to bludgeon the Left into submission. In the course of a little over a year, he has accomplished that mission.

To drive Kucinich back to the corporate Democratic reservation, the White House let loose the yapping dogs of the Daily Kos and MoveOn, who threatened to back an opposition candidate to Kucinich in his home district. President Obama personally browbeat Kucinich four times in the last several weeks, the last time on Monday night. According to the London Daily Telegraph, Obama threatened to refuse to campaign for any Democratic congressperson that doesn’t back his health bill – an invitation to the fat cats to fund challengers to Kucinich in November.

In a Wednesday morning press conference announcing his surrender to the White House, Kucinich was adamant that he had not changed his assessment of the president’s health care proposals. “I do not think it is a first step toward anything I have supported in the past,” he said. “This is not the bill I wanted to support.” But Kucinich had been given an offer that he felt he could not refuse.It was, said the congressman, “a defining moment.”

And it was a defining moment for those who believe there is anything politically worthwhile that can be accomplished within the structures of the Democratic Party, now firmly controlled by its corporate wing. There is nothing for a true progressive to do in Obama’s Democratic Party, but shut up, and roll over. For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to www.BlackAgendaReport.com.

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Comments

  1. swedish reader says

    The vilification of Obama from the left is strange business indeed, considering the number of villains available in US politics, particularly on the right.

  2. What ever is set in motion stays in motion. I know people are impatient and want change now and I feel them. The thing is that change starts with changing direction. Also before changing direction one has to slow down the direction that was carrying the former momentum. It’s like using a stick to turn a bucket of water and all of the sudden turning the direction of the stick in the opposite direction. The aforementioned will only lead to water splashing all over the place and creating a big mess. However once the former momentum is slowed down only then one can go about turning the stick in the desired direction and building momentum in the other direction.

    In the beginning there is always a great deal of compromise to get things going in the desired direction but these things have to happen in order to prevent excess spillage. It is a universal law or eternal verity. Subsequently when these compromises take place one has to keep the pressure on to continue the desired momentum and not settle.

    But to cry about the compromise instead of acknowledging the vulnerability the opposition unwilling embraced which compromises their former stronghold is just immature and dumb. One has to acknowledge the crack in the concrete that will present itself and keep chipping away and the wall that once stood in the way will be penetrated with mathematical sertitude. But to think the crack in the wall isn’t an invitation to initiate leverage is analogous to having eyes that can’t see. Stop crying and do the Knowledge!

    Peace!

  3. We are changing. To a fascist totalitarian socialist state where the only business will be govt soon.

    Obama and his chicago bribe style politics is the status quo. This is business as usual. Clinton started the end of amerikkka. Obama will end Amerikkka as a 1st world country.

    Obama will be a despotic 3rd world leader of what will be a nation crippled by the zionist fed bankers of london.

    The puppet boy is doing as his masters have told him. All this is going as planned.

  4. There was no compromise.

    Booker T. Obama’s robot supporters are hypocrites. If this version of Romneycare had been pushed by president Romney, they would oppose it on it’s merits.

  5. @Allah

    Good points!

  6. this will kill america – dennis is a sell out they didn’t have to twist his arm too much.