Okay...as a Nurse I was really hoping that Obama would choose Someone really strong and smart to deal with Our Health Care Mess....Someone that understands HOW bad it is, that this is a Dire Situation.....Now after watching some of the hearings and listening to some of the testimony and also reading that he had PAID speaking engagements with healthcare companies....I had some concerns.....My concerns a week ago were that he was too closely aligned and perhaps connected to healthcare companies. But I was going to hold judgement and finish reading his book,because I am just a nurse, and I am sure that Obama's folks vetted him.....right ? No, not right......
So Now here we are a week later...and it turns out that no, that was only half the story....Daschle had Tax issues, over $100,000 worth of tax issues. ( Which kind of confuses me- don't people like Dascle have like Fancy H&R Block people go through their taxes with a fine toothed comb ? and wouldn't they see a "Limo with Driver" as a bit of a problem "Gift" ??? and on another level, I am still really confused WHO "gave " him the car and the driver ? Was it a healthcare company ? ) So on another level, if Daschle knew that Obama would want him on board, wouldn't he spend extra time getting his "house" in order ? See poor person that I am, I would have been spending all last summer, tidying and dotting my "I"s and P's and Q's and being meticulous, so as not to cause the New President Problems.....
And then on another level I think I do Not understand DC, or the Politics there...at all.....it's kind of like when we found out that Edwards was Embedding the Videographer....I am confused, do they have a different set of rules and morals than the rest of us ? Do they have a different code ? And if there is such a code, could we see it ? Because I really want to believe again that People In Charge have Values and Ethics.....But I wish Obama luck finding enough people....good people.
(( Maybe he needs more poor people like me....because I may be poor, but I got my values...my code...and hell as one of the 49 million without insurance, I really do care about our Damned Broken Healthcare Mess.... ))
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(( Robert Reich has a great post about this linked to the title...))
14 comments:
So many questions, so few answers, eh?
I cautioned about the feet of clay - they are all DC critters at heart.
Election Finance Reform.
Truth in Media.
Public Diligence.
And Good Luck!
LOL...you would have the right answer on this...
I guess we should all be cynical at this point...I know that , but I also see that Obama is working hard..and I read the stimulus plan- it's obvious alot of people worked on it.....so it boggles me- that some people are working so hard...
and well, others....
what were they thinking ?????urgh...
Don't mind me - one hard-core cynic in the crowd is enough. I wouldn't wish it on an enemy.
No matter how you slice it, he's doing far better than Bush. I do wish he has chosen someone not bound at the hip (wallet) to the pharma-HMO biz, however.
I have always known Prez had feet of clay...never thought he had anything different. That's not the problem. He has his ethics and no one else has standards as high as his..that's the problem, and I think he is realizing that he is going to have to start not trusting his friends quite as much.
As you said there is a different mind set after you have been in DC for a while. It doesn't matter if you are an R or a D.. you lose your focus, I think they do lose their values and morals to a certain extent.
And like I said that is on both sides of the aisle.. the D's and the R's suffer from it... That's why I was hoping for more people who had been out of DC for a while or even never been there.. I know he needed some but it would have been better to get fresh faces..
i keep wondering why he touted change and keeps picking the same folk who have been there for a long time. but that wasn't the question :) yep- there is absolutely a different set of rules for the powerful and the haves versus the rest of us. hence- bush's bank bailout. this whole thing was one big looting. between the billion dollar bailout and the war profiteering from private contractors in iraq and afghanistan- well, let's just say that the tax payer money goes out faster than it comes in and we are left to clean up the mess with nothing.
and i agree- you would think that they would realize that they would be under scrutiny- and clean things up. but no. i think that they thought that the dem majority would insulate them. i just shake my head as the same scenarios play over and over and over....
The hard terrible truth is that we the people are totally irrelevant once elections are over except as manipulated assets. I truly think Obama is a great man, but he has surrounded him self with Clinton cooks of all stripes.
another crook (dems/GOP) styil the same to me
The Daschle debacle did both trouble & baffle me-- after announcing this heightened ethics standard, Obama was backing this guy who was both a lobbyist
AND had tax/ethics issues.
Come on! He was missing the mark on 2 major levels.
I am glad he's out.
Besides, he can make waaay more $$$ lobbying for big pharma.
But Obama has done more good than bad, but this kind of thing needs to stop.
Oh- and the reason so many clinton era people? The last dem before Clinton's 8 year term was Carter.
But is no excuse to not bring in new people.
In other topics, I posted an uplifting Obama vid on my blog... swing by,
I guess in the end, the bottom line is We the people do need to pay attention & keep watch... if something is not right, it's not right even if you like the president.
He did admit he was wrong on the Daschle issue, which is also a good thing.
Don't know why our folk can't pay their taxes, I mean the rest of us pay theirs...
It seems that many folk Dems or Repugs when they reach the place in their lives where somebody GIVES THEM CAR SERVICE 24/7 just kinda think they are entitled..
Hope we can cure that or at least give it a good spanking, and for those bankers, who DROVE THE SYSTEM into the ground, and who are now wining about their compensation packages, I hope we get to start JAILING them..
I mean NOBODY but NOBODY knew what a ponzy scheme the whole investment banking system was? NOBODY
IT does not ring true....
Rule Number One is that the rich get richer....
we need a little Thomas Jefferson type revenge, TJ said a little blood should be shed in defense of liberty, perhaps we could just JAIL some of those bankers??? and maybe they could sweat a little blood in the big house...
The higher up you go in politics, the more perks you receive.
It becomes easy to get arrogant, and feel invincible. See Hillary's presidential campaign.
I guess we'll never know if he would have been good in the post. People who should know seemed sure that he would. He didn't seem terribly effective in standing up to Bush when he was in the Senate, but maybe that's not what this position is about. Anyway, it's onto whoever comes next. That'll be interesting too, but I hope not in the same way.
Okay time to get caught up...
1PM Thursday....
Modem died for 36 hours ;-(
( I will be back to respond to comments...thanks..)
6PM::
okay the Cable folks showed up...oops turned out that the Internet was still Broke- BUT they fixed it....phew....
Zen Yenta::
we will never know.....but the thing is his book shows that he did put alot of thought into the processes attached to our healthcare mess, I am not sure he really understood how Most Americans are suffering though.....he understood the business end and the DC end...and that worries me...the fact that he saw Nothing wrong with the Gift of a driver and car from a Health care company as a problem ? that is concerning...
renegade::
I obviously don't understand the world of perks....
and I guess the Obama administration is also learning alot...
okay off to find 6-6 dinner...be back...in about one hour...
;-)
I have read all the comments...you all are thoughtful and so right....in the end..I think sadly Dashle was used to doing things a Certain way from being in DC tooooo long...and it caught up with him....
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