Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Obama took wrong turn on health
Financial Times (U.K.) ^ | August 16, 2009 | by Clive Crook

Posted on 08/16/2009 2:52:59 PM PDT by library user

The Obama administration had hoped that this month’s town hall meetings would smooth the way for healthcare reform. Things do not seem to be working out that way. Across the country, loud and furious protesters have turned up. They accuse the White House of wishing, among other things, to bankrupt the nation, destroy the American way of life and bring in “death panels” to mitigate the excessive healthcare demands of the elderly.

Unruly protest makes good television and is especially welcome in a slow month for news. The protesters have been dominating US newspapers and news programmes in recent days.

It is all a little misleading. Many who are sceptical about the Democrats’ plans have asked intelligent questions. But this is too dull for prime-time, and before you know it, intelligent questions bog you down in complex details. Better to make the protests the story.

Rowdy demonstrations are not what the administration wanted, but in a way they have played into its hands. They have shifted the focus from the reform measures to the unreasoning anger of the least appealing opponents. In three town hall meetings the president conducted last week, he decided to attack his attackers. The idea that he ran for office “to go around pulling the plug on grandma”, as he put it, is “simply dishonest”.

“Dishonest” is putting it politely – but the point is that reasonable people will agree with him about that. And the views of reasonable people will matter much more to the fate of health reform than the protesters would lead you to think.

The gap between the right of the Republican party, which is providing the angriest critics of the reforms, and the left of the Democratic party, which thinks the proposals too timid, is unbridgeable. These groups do not merely disagree. They despise each other. Their differences are only secondarily about policy. They hold each other’s values in contempt.

These snarling extremes are nonetheless somewhat alike. They have an equal and opposite penchant for conspiracy theories. Almost a third of Republicans, according to a recent poll, believe the unsupported story that Mr Obama was not born in the US (in which case he would be disqualified from serving as president). But remember that more than a third of Democrats subscribe to the even more outlandish theory that the Bush administration knew about the attacks of September 2001 in advance.

These factions are incapable of intelligent conversation with each other, or indeed with anybody else. But the important thing to remember is that the political significance of the cultural jihadists is smaller than the noise they generate. They will not decide the issue.

Mr Obama’s health proposals are not in trouble because conservative Republicans oppose them. Conservative Republicans were always going to oppose them. They are in trouble because moderate Republicans oppose them, and even more because many moderate Democrats also have doubts.

Mr Obama has to persuade centrists – the voters who elected him president – to support health reform. It is as simple as that. If he brings moderates and independents on board, reform will succeed. If he fails, the effort will either be abandoned or, more likely, the plans will be watered down.

The town hall protesters, with their “death panel” hysterics and posters depicting Mr Obama with a Hitler moustache, may help push centrists back to the Obama camp. If not, they should. So far, though, Mr Obama’s lamentable salesmanship has pushed harder the other way. Hindered no doubt by the fact that there is still no finished plan to sell, he has failed to come up with a plausible line to put to the country.

He continues to insist, as he has from the beginning, that control of costs is the principal reason for embarking on reform – more important, even, than achieving universal coverage. Once, this seemed to make strategic sense, because the great majority of US citizens have health insurance and are happy with it. To appeal to this majority, Mr Obama argued that health insurance, both public and private, would soon become unaffordable unless healthcare inflation was brought under control.

Fine – until the independent Congressional Budget Office examined the Democrats’ plans and found that they all added substantially to long-term costs. The CBO’s estimates attacked the core of Mr Obama’s case and they especially rattled moderate Democrats. Yet the line from the White House never deviated. This entire exercise, the administration blithely repeated, is about controlling costs. Can anyone be surprised that moderates are having doubts?

It would have been better to accept from the start that the reform would cost a lot and that universal coverage, with particular emphasis on a guarantee of continued coverage for those currently insured, was worth paying for. But the promise not to raise taxes except on the rich foreclosed that approach. Instead, the plans all aim to cover costs with big savings on Medicare, the public programme for the elderly – and many Medicare recipients doubt the assurance that their services will not worsen as a result.

The battle is by no means lost, but Mr Obama needs to rethink his approach. His mistake all along was to promise nearly all Americans something for nothing. The sensible, pragmatic, Obama-supporting centre of the country looks askance at that, and it is right to.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: healthcare; obama; obamacare; wrongturn
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 next last
The author is dead wrong with about 90% of what he writes here, but I like this:

"Many who are sceptical about the Democrats’ plans have asked intelligent questions. But this is too dull for prime-time, and before you know it, intelligent questions bog you down in complex details. Better to make the protests the story."

1 posted on 08/16/2009 2:52:59 PM PDT by library user
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: library user

Wrong he was trying to ram it through befor people had a chance to read it.


2 posted on 08/16/2009 2:55:00 PM PDT by screaminsunshine (!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: library user

America took the wrong turn down a short pier, over a 5000 foot cliff, into a crater full of red hot lava with Obuma.


3 posted on 08/16/2009 2:59:01 PM PDT by Dallas59 (Hows My Posting? Please Contact flag@whitehouse.gov)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: library user

“But this is too dull for prime-time”

That’s just an excuse. Observation shows that they will push anything that makes the left look good and everyone else look bad, whether it is exciting or dull.

That’s the real reason they have suppressed all mention of intelligent objection to this coup d’etat.


4 posted on 08/16/2009 2:59:40 PM PDT by dsc (The "t" in the word "often" is silent.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: library user

Obama took wrong turn on health

Øbama never took a right turn in his life...

5 posted on 08/16/2009 3:05:00 PM PDT by TXnMA ("Allah": Satan's current alias...!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: library user

Idiot boy reporter, here, either has not yet figured out that every word out of Obama’s mouth is a lie, or is clinging to a delusional hope that the peasants won’t find out.

News Flash! The peasants have figured it out despite the frantic efforts of the press to prevent it.


6 posted on 08/16/2009 3:05:13 PM PDT by centurion316
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: library user
A good example hiow misinformed this guy is about Americans is this gem: "The town hall protesters, with their “death panel” hysterics and posters depicting Mr Obama with a Hitler moustache, may help push centrists back to the Obama camp. If not, they should."

First off, there's no "center" here as Europeans imagine it, and secondly the Democrats spent 9 years depicting George W. Bush as Hitler, and when not Hitler, as a chimpanzee or monkey.

That served to totally desensitize the public about such things ~ now depicting Obama as Hitler is considered little more than comedic relief, even cute, and sometimes "truth to power"!

Poor Democrats ~ so stupid; poor Ukian writer ~ so uncomprehending!

7 posted on 08/16/2009 3:07:15 PM PDT by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: library user
The moronic trashy British paper strikes again.
Hey, wasn't the Financial Times being run for some time by a Bush-hating, iditic Clintonite vermin?

This has got to be the mist stupid line of all in an article that is full of stupid lines.

The town hall protesters, with their “death panel” hysterics and posters depicting Mr Obama with a Hitler mustache, may help push centrists back to the Obama camp. If not, they should.”

Huh?

8 posted on 08/16/2009 3:08:20 PM PDT by SmokingJoe
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: library user

I pity, not despise, the lefties. I was a lefty long ago, when my political reasoning could fit on the head of a pin.


9 posted on 08/16/2009 3:09:21 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (When did it become the Democrat You-Shut-Up-And-Listen-To-Me Tour?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: library user
Almost a third of Republicans, according to a recent poll, believe the unsupported story that Mr Obama was not born in the US.

Obama unsupports the claim of US Citizenship by not releasing his Birth Certificate. Either he chooses to let this contoversy fester or he really cannot prove he is a US citizen via his Birth Certificate.

10 posted on 08/16/2009 3:09:59 PM PDT by tflabo (Truth or Tyranny)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: library user

The writer thnks the far left has values. Heh, they do all they can to rid the US of values.


11 posted on 08/16/2009 3:10:20 PM PDT by dforest (Who is the real Jim Thompson? I am.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SmokingJoe; muawiyah

mind meld, how cool can that get?


12 posted on 08/16/2009 3:11:02 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (When did it become the Democrat You-Shut-Up-And-Listen-To-Me Tour?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: library user
Mr Obama has to persuade centrists – the voters who elected him president – to support health reform. It is as simple as that. If he brings moderates and independents on board, reform will succeed. If he fails, the effort will either be abandoned or, more likely, the plans will be watered down.

People voted for him because he was not Bush and Palin gave off(read the media decided she was) a very I am similar to Bush, damn the abortionists to hell, not because he was anything anybody actually wanted.

One of my friends said that everyone voted for Obama not because they wanted him as pres, but because they wanted to make history.
13 posted on 08/16/2009 3:12:17 PM PDT by ronnietherocket2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: library user

Clive Crook deserves the Snob of the Year award.


14 posted on 08/16/2009 3:14:26 PM PDT by 668 - Neighbor of the Beast (Rebellion is not brewing. Frog is brewing.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: screaminsunshine

” Wrong he was trying to ram it through befor people had a chance to read it.”

So True. Someone should ask him, if you haven’t read it how come you were in such a rush to sign it.


15 posted on 08/16/2009 3:20:05 PM PDT by patriotspride
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: library user

It was DOA from the get-go.

The only problem was the GOP didn’t hammer these bastards on it during the campaigns.


16 posted on 08/16/2009 3:21:16 PM PDT by A_Former_Democrat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: library user
Huh?

IF there was ever ANY doubt (which for those of us in the know, was not) that the AARP was a far-left, DEAR LEADER/Demo-Crap, mouthpiece and a supporter of Death Care, what I just heard from this AARP, “Spinmeister” extraordinaire, should dispel this myth.

While just watching a re-run of Fox News Sunday, and having Chris Wallace ask about the ability for everyone to purchase health insurance from any company anywhere, this a*shole, shill, made this un frikin believable statement:

John Rother, Ex. Vp of Policy for AARP (and former SPECIAL COUNSEL TO DEMO-RAT CONGRESS-CRITTER, JAVITS):

(Paraphrasing) "While this option might sound attractive it would actually INCREASE COSTS in those areas where the insurance is being purchased."

RIGHT!

By INCREASING competition and encouraging anyone to be able to purchase from the company that provides the best coverage at the lowest premiums, will "INCREASE THE COST!"

Makes sense to me!

Now if that is not Orwellian double speak, I don’t know what is.

A call to arms: Make it a personal goal to inform as many Seniors as you can to inform them as to what AARP really is and encourage them to cancel their membership.

17 posted on 08/16/2009 3:24:05 PM PDT by Conservative Vermont Vet ((One of ONLY 37 Conservatives in the People's Republic of Vermont. Socialists and Progressives All))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: library user
The author is dead wrong with about 90% of what he writes here, but I like this:

I even disagree with the 10% you point out as correct. IMHO, the reason the protesters dominated the coverage was to try to discredit them. Most of the coverage tried to spin the protests as astroturf, bigots, Nazi's, thugs, etc. The networks care more about advancing their agenda than they do about what makes good television.

18 posted on 08/16/2009 3:24:48 PM PDT by Always Right
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ronnietherocket2
because they wanted to make history

Be careful what you wish for: You may get it.

19 posted on 08/16/2009 3:24:50 PM PDT by sourcery (Obama Lied. The Economy Died!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: library user

Obama has used up his politcal capital. Bush’s Fault


20 posted on 08/16/2009 3:25:56 PM PDT by eyedigress
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson