Allen L Roland

Americans should be rightfully angry. We were run over by the Bush administration and we're being run over by the Obama administration who refuse to deliver the change we demanded and no where is this more apparent than with healthcare reform:

Americans are rightfully angry because we were ripped off by the Cheney/Bush administration for eight scandal ridden years ( both of whom are now writing their multi million dollar advanced memoirs ). We were promised the change of an open and transparent government by Obama ( which millions of Americans, including myself, enthusiastically voted for ) and we are apparently being ripped off again ~ which doubles our anger because our trust has been seemingly betrayed.

Here's a list of Obama's broken promises ( courtesy of Infowars )

1. Make Government Open and Transparent .
2. Make it “Impossible” for Congressmen to slip in Pork Barrel Projects .
3. Meetings where laws are written will be more open to the public .
4. No more secrecy .
5. Public will have 5 days to look at a Bill .
7. We will put every pork barrel project online .

And here is a two minute youtube video of Obama making those promises ~ all of which have been broken. Click on link ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5t8GdxFYBU&

But there are many other broken promises ~ The stonewalling of the Investigation into illegal torture and wire tapping of the Bush administration; the continued military presence in illegally occupied Iraq; the significant build up of our military presence in occupied Afghanistan and the blatant bailout of Wall Street at the expense of Main Street are all promises broken ~ but the apparent Obama sell out on true healthcare reform and Single Pay is the last straw. This week, Investigative Reporter Greg Palast fully exposed Obama's $80 billion dollar sell out to the Health Insurance Industry.

In an article for the Huffington Post entitled Eighty billion dollars of WHAT? ~ Palast exposed Obama's recent $80 Billion deal with the drug companies to cut the cost of medicine as a rip off where Obama's big deal with Big Pharma possibly saves $80 billion out of a total $3.6 trillion. That's a 2% savings !

And what was, in actuality, the promise of Big Pharma to reduce their costs by 2% ~ " Their promise with Obama is something a little oilier: they apparently promised that, over ten years, they will reduce the amount at which they would otherwise raise drug prices. Got that? In other words, the Obama deal locks in a doubling of drug costs, projected to rise over the period of "savings" from a quarter trillion dollars a year to half a trillion dollars a year. Minus that 2%."

And what did Obama give up for this super deal with the Health Insurance Industry ? " Chief drug lobbyist Billy Tauzin crowed that Obama agreed to dump his campaign pledge to bargain down prices for Medicare purchases. Furthermore, Obama's promise that we could buy cheap drugs from Canada simply went pffft! "

And What did that cost us? " The New England Journal of Medicine notes that 13 European nations successfully regulate the price of drugs, reducing the average cost of name-brand prescription medicines by 35% to 55%. Obama gave that up for his 2%. "

As Palast points out ~ " Cheney's secret meetings with Big Oil lobbyists and industry big shots were creepy and nasty and evil. But the Obama crew's secret meetings with Big Pharma lobbyists and industry big shots were, the President assures us, in the public interest. " Under the present circumstances, I don't buy that and neither should any American. .

Here's the link to the full article on Huffington Post ~ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-palast/obama-on-drugs-98-cheney_b_258209.htmlI

"I happen to be a proponent of single-payer universal health care coverage" ~ Barack Obama, 2003

"I have not said that I was a single-payer supporter " ~ Barack Obama, 2009

Americans have every right to be angry ~ we're being run over again by Big Pharma and politics ! I urge all Americans who support real health reform to contact Congress members in support of single-payer (HR 676)

Allen L Roland http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2009/08/14.html

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

Cartoon courtesy of Tom Toles / Washington

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Allen Roland’s weblog: http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/
Website: www.allenroland.com
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