… because he’d bring transparency to the political process in Washington?

Does Obama have a secret deal with insurance companies?

By Brent Budowsky - 09/30/09 09:54 AM ET,The Hill’s Pundits Blog

Progressives throughout the nation should rally in full force in favor of the public option, and progressives in Congress should say they will not support a bill without it. The public option still lives because it would save $50 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office, with a president and Congress that claim they want to save money. The public option still lives because it is the only check and balance against insurance-company abuses…

to this day the White House is keeping secret the logs of meetings from January through September when deals were made from the banking bailout to the healthcare bill. I strongly suspect the reason involves meetings about deals including pharma and insurers.

Was the fix in against the public option? I don’t know, but I do know this: If enough members of the House and Senate refuse to support a bill without a public option, the public option can still prevail.

I know this: A majority of the American people support the public option…

I know this: The insurance industry has been proven again and again to have engaged in abuses, and yet the insurance industry is granted an exemption from antitrust laws that should be repealed, and allows them to commit price-fixing, collusion, market allocation and other wrongs that would be illegal in virtually every industry under antitrust laws.

I know this: Private insurers don’t give a rat’s behind about the poor, the jobless, the hungry, the hurting and will charge them high premiums they cannot afford…

And I know this: The president, who read a book about Franklin Roosevelt’s first hundred days, has not even begun to wage a true fight for the most important provision of a healthcare bill, and has hinted, winked, nodded again and again that he would gladly surrender on this vital issue, which raises the legitimate question: Is there a secret deal with insurers for a formal surrender that leaves a bill with gigantic windfall profits for insurers subsidized with taxpayer money to be ratified by a Democratic president and Democratic Congress?

I don’t know whether there is such a deal, but I do know that this question should now be asked…