Hope and change, my ass

So look who gains under whatever health care "reform" package is going to come out of Congress:

Lashed by liberals and threatened with more government regulation, the insurance industry nevertheless rallied its lobbying and grass-roots resources so successfully in the early stages of the healthcare overhaul deliberations that it is poised to reap a financial windfall.

The half-dozen leading overhaul proposals circulating in Congress would require all citizens to have health insurance, which would guarantee insurers tens of millions of new customers -- many of whom would get government subsidies to help pay the companies' premiums.

"It's a bonanza," said Robert Laszewski, a health insurance executive for 20 years who now tracks reform legislation as president of the consulting firm Health Policy and Strategy Associates Inc.

Some insurance company leaders continue to profess concern about the unpredictable course of President Obama's massive healthcare initiative, and they vigorously oppose elements of his agenda. But Laszewski said the industry's reaction to early negotiations boiled down to a single word: "Hallelujah!"

The insurers' success so far can be explained in part by their lobbying efforts in the nation's capital and the districts of key lawmakers.

The bills vary in the degree to which they would empower government to be a competitor and a regulator of private insurance. But analysts said that based on the way things stand now, insurers would come out ahead.

Yes, the companies that right now reap huge profits collecting premiums and then dropping you when you get sick are the winners of the health care reform battle.

Does Barack Obama think that the people who donated $25, $50, and $100 at a time last year are going to do it again in 2012 for a president/candidate who not only snubbed them the minute he got into office but who was so intent on getting a bill -- any bill -- that he not only threw the Democratic base, but also the independents who helped push him over the top, under the bus? Does Rahm Emanuel think the Democrats are going to be able to retain both houses of Congress after selling out the entire country to the very same insurance company thieves that caused this mess? Congresscritters don't have to worry; Americans are so fucking stupid that they elect these clowns every time they come up for election. They and their Senate counterparts pocket so much money from businesses like insurers that they can saturate the airwaves enough that lazy Americans will vote for the name that's at least marginally familiar through the haze of American Idol and Glenn Beck and endless E! specials on Michael Jackson's plastic surgeries.

And then after the Republicans take over, the insurance companies can finish the job they started.

Enjoy your vacation, Mr. President. Perhaps you might spend some time thinking about what it's going to feel like on January 20, 2013 as you hand over power to the likes of Sarah Palin or Newt Gingrich or whatever other Republican lunatic defeats you because you were too busy being "bipartisan" to recognize what you were dealing with at the same time as you sold your soul to Rahm Emanuel and your corporate masters.

Oh, and here's something else that happens when you are too timid to stand up to Republican bullies.