Posted on 09/07/2009 7:40:43 PM PDT by socialismisinsidious
Obama Prepares For Crucial Health Care Speech
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112607353 ^
Posted on Sunday, September 06, 2009 11:04:10 PM by kcvl
September 7, 2009 President Obama got in a little relaxation Sunday afternoon with a game of golf ahead of a pivotal week for one of his administration's key policy objectives: health care. On Monday, Obama plans to attend an AFL-CIO picnic in Cincinnati, Ohio, to rally support for his health care plan.
He won't focus solely on that topic. He will also address the state of the nation's economy when he speaks at the organized labor event. Last week, mixed reports revealed that there were fewer than expected jobs lost in August, but the unemployment rate inched closer to 10 percent — the highest jobless rate in more than 25 years.
In his weekly address Saturday, Obama acknowledged the country is still suffering through tough economic times. But he expressed the hope that by next Labor Day, the economic storms will have given way to what he called a brighter and more prosperous future.
On Wednesday, Obama will address a rare, joint session of Congress in what the White House is calling the "kickoff" to a final round of health care negotiations.
The Big Push For Health Care
In that speech, Obama will aim to remind the public what it likes about health care reform, especially because public support for the overhaul has declined in recent weeks. People have been bombarded with warnings — many of them unfounded.
The REAL Reason Why Health Care Reform Is Getting Stonewalled
NJ.Com (Star Ledger) ^ | Sunday September 06, 2009, | Kris Seals
Posted on Sunday, September 06, 2009 11:58:07 PM by Brugmansian
By now, you have heard the rhetoric: "The reform plan is socialism!", "I don't want the government to dictate my care!", and "The plan will lead to death panels!" Well, I hate to bring you to the precipice of how this country really operates. Wait a minute, I have a blog, so it makes no difference to me how you feel about the truth.
All of those protestors you have seen fall under one of two categories: either they are middle class, or politicians, who have a strong voter base of the middle class. The REAL reason they are so up in arms is that the Obama plan would give their worst enemy in life - poor people - the same quality health care. In fact, depending on circumstances, some in the lower class may even get - brace yourselves - BETTER health care than the middle class.
Basically, you guys are once again scared to death of the proletariats getting in on your action
Obama asks church help to debunk health-care 'lies' (WTH??)
This Christian Century ^ | 9/6/09 | staff
Posted on Monday, September 07, 2009 1:17:26 AM by pissant
Facing incendiary charges that health-care reform would result in government financing of abortion and euthanasia, President Obama has made an unusual appeal to religious groups to help sell the plan and debunk critics' "false witness."
"I'm going to need the help of all of you," Obama told an August 19 conference call and live webcast that attracted an estimated 140,000 people. "I need you to knock on doors, talk to your neighbors. I need you to spread the facts and speak the truth."
The "40 Minutes for Health Reform" call, organized by the Washington-based group Faith in Public Life and supported by 32 religious organizations, was part of a campaign to get clergy and congregants actively involved in promoting health-care reform.
Bipartisanship on Trigger Healthcare Option->BOTH SIDES HATE IT
Fox News / The Lid ^ | 9/7/09 | The Lid
Posted on Monday, September 07, 2009 2:12:38 AM by Shellybenoit
Who said there is no bipartisanship in this heath care debate. There is now some discussion that the president might go for the "the trigger" option in his Obamacare plan. The trigger option keeps a government-run insurance plan on reserve, as long as the insurance companies continue to stay within cetain guidelines.
Senior White House officials, in conversations with reporters today, are floating the idea that President Obama is secretly negotiating with Sen. Olympia Snowe over a health care compromise that would phase in a government-funded health care alternative if private insurance companies fail to meet quality and cost benchmarks over a certain period of the time. The public discussion of the Snowe "compromise" is meant to test the reaction of House Democrats, who will pass a bill that includes an immediate public option added to a new health insurance exchange. ... In some ways, this strategy is old, and in some ways it's new. For months, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has been pushing the idea of a "trigger" internally, and he and Snowe regularly trade legislative and political intelligence.
Labor Unions on Health Care: Their True Motives
Humanevents.com ^ | 09/07/2009 | by James Sherk
Posted on Monday, September 07, 2009 6:08:33 AM by JohnHuang2
Unions across the country are campaigning hard for Obamacare over Labor Day weekend. The AFL-CIO has made creating a government run “public plan” their top priority. Yet polls show that most Americans strongly oppose this. So why have the self-proclaimed advocates for America’s workers made government-run health care their top priority?
Union leaders say they are fighting to win “win secure, high-quality health care for all” against greedy and self-interested corporate defenders of the status quo. Many union activists sincerely believe this. But altruism does not explain why the labor movement is spending tens of millions of dollars on this campaign.
Why Should We Want Politicians To Redesign Our Healthcare?
The American Thinker ^ | September 07, 2009 | David Gibberman
Posted on Monday, September 07, 2009 6:28:56 AM by Scanian
The first question we should be asking in the healthcare debate is: Why should anyone think that politicians would do a better job redesigning our healthcare than the free market?
After all, politicians have helped create the problems (healthcare costs increasing at an unsustainable rate and a growing number of uninsured) that politicians now are in a hurry to try to fix. For example:
New Fee on Health Insurance Companies Is Proposed to Help Expand Coverage
New York Times ^ | September 6, 2009 | Robert Pear
Posted on Monday, September 07, 2009 7:03:08 AM by reaganaut1
In a last effort to give the Senate a bipartisan health care bill, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee circulated a comprehensive proposal on Sunday to overhaul the health care system and proposed a new fee on insurance companies to help pay for coverage of the uninsured.
... The proposal by Mr. Baucus does not include a public option, or a government-run insurance plan, to compete with private insurers, as many Democrats want.
... It remains to be seen how Mr. Baucus’s plan might mesh with any proposals Mr. Obama lays out as he tries to pump up support for health care legislation, his top domestic priority.
Obama Readies Reform Specifics
The Washington Post ^ | September 7, 2009 | Ceci Connolly
Posted on Monday, September 07, 2009 6:03:20 PM by myknowledge
Looking to rescue his signature domestic policy initiative with a prime-time address to Congress on Wednesday, President Obama for the first time is poised to "draw some lines in the sand" over the size and shape of legislation to remake the nation's health-care system, top advisers said Sunday.
Until now, Obama has resisted taking firm positions on specific elements of a broad health-care bill, instead expressing openness to many ideas. But the approach has left lawmakers divided over contentious elements, such as how to rein in costs. And with a growing chorus in favor of a slower, less ambitious approach, Obama is inching toward a proposal that would bear his name and carry the political risks of sponsorship.
The president returned from Camp David on Sunday and spent part of the day working on his address, some of which may be tested Monday in a Labor Day appearance in Cincinnati, aides said.
"People will leave [Wednesday's] speech knowing where he stands," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Sunday on ABC's "This Week." "And if it takes doing whatever to get health care done, the president is ready, willing and able to go do that."
Obama gets conflicting tips on health care speech
Townhall.com ^ | September 7, 2009 | RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR
Posted on Monday, September 07, 2009 10:27:19 AM by Kaslin
President Barack Obama is getting no shortage of advice on what to say in his health care speech to Congress, and much of it conflicts.
Liberals want him to issue a call to action in his Wednesday address, clear and bold. Conservatives hope he'll back away from his push for sweeping changes this year and break health care legislation into smaller pieces.
Everyone is hungry for specifics about Obama's stand on major elements of the package.
The biggest challenge he faces is taking ownership of legislation that until now has been shaped by political conflicts in Congress. Lawmakers return this week from a summer break that saw contentious forums on the issue in their districts and eroding public support for an overhaul.
Obama was previewing his new health care theme during a Labor Day speech Monday in Cincinnati at an AFL-CIO picnic.
The president, admired the world over for his oratory, has struggled to find the right message on health care. Polls show Americans are losing confidence in his vision of a revamped system with guaranteed coverage and lower costs.
Schieffer: Do-or-Die Week on Health Reform
CBS News ^ | 9/7/09 | David S Morgan
Posted on Monday, September 07, 2009 12:52:23 PM by nickcarraway
The coming week may represent a tipping point for the Obama administration's moving forward its health care agenda on its own terms.
As the president prepares for a major address to Congress Wednesday in support of his reform plans, President Obama has faced stiff challenges, from the raucous public debates at town hall meetings to Republican (and some Democratic) legislators critical of government control over health care coverage.
When asked on CBS' "The Early Show" about the president's prospects, CBS News Chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer said that the administration has to reclaim the issue of health care from its opponents.
Baucus Submits Compromise Health Plan
Wall Street Journal ^ | 9/7/09
Posted on Monday, September 07, 2009 1:01:34 PM by nickcarraway
After months of deliberations, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus has distributed a plan to overhaul the health system that would cost less than $900 billion over a decade and expand insurance coverage to tens of millions of Americans.
Mr. Baucus's plan requires most Americans to carry health insurance and gives tax credits to low- and middle-income people to help them buy it. But as expected, the proposal wouldn't create the type of government-run health-insurance plan that President Barack Obama has pushed for. Instead, it would create new nonprofit health-insurance cooperatives to compete with private insurers, a compromise aimed at helping draw support from some Republicans and moderate Democrats.
Teamsters Chief Says ‘Public Option’ Not Vital to Healthcare Reform
Publius Forum ^ | 09/07/09 | Warner Todd Huston
Posted on Monday, September 07, 2009 2:12:00 PM by Mobile Vulgus
James P. Hoffa is now saying that if Obama pulls the "public option" out of his healthcare bill, it is not a deal killer as far as union support is concerned.
Hoffa said that he was only interested in what was "doable" and that they need to "get something done… and declare a victory."
Now let's take a look at these quotes from Mr. Hoffa, shall we? What does it mean if we aren't seeing obliged union support without integrity for Obama's healthcare coming from Hoffa's Teamsters? Hoffa is saying that he doesn't care at all what healthcare "reform" will look like as long as they can get it done with and "declare a victory."
New Healthcare Infrastructure Would Subjugate Americans
The New Media Journal ^ | Sept 7, 2009 | Diane M. Grassi
Posted on Monday, September 07, 2009 2:51:36 PM by NewMediaJournal
“This is just one sliver of it, one aspect of it,” President Barack Obama quipped, upon word on August 16, 2009, that his administration is supposedly revisiting the Public Option of its proposed healthcare legislation. Indeed. For virtually missing from the nationwide dialogue on President Barack Obama’s call to reform healthcare as we know it, is any detailed discussion as to how it would essentially operate and be structured; slivers and all.
Perhaps such details have wisely remained absent, as the proposed infrastructure, as laid out primarily in the House of Representatives’ H.R. 3200, known as America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, would not only change healthcare for every American, but would reconstitute its delivery system both for the private sector as well as federal agencies, some of which have yet to be formed.
Inducing Americans into believing that of which fairy tales are made is at worse deceitful and at best disingenuous...
Obama, in Campaign Mode, Vows Action on Health. No,you can't tell us to shut up.
The Wall Street Journal ^ | 9/7/09 | JONATHAN WEISMAN
Posted on Monday, September 07, 2009 4:53:20 PM by American Dream 246
CINCINNATI -- President Barack Obama shifted into campaign mode Monday, declaring that the time for debate on health care is over and vowing to move fast to enact a sweeping overhaul of the system this year. Speaking at a boisterous Labor Day rally of AFL-CIO members, Mr. Obama led the first "fired up, ready to go" chant of his presidency, reaching back to a hallmark of his presidential campaign. He recounted a low moment from his quest for the White House to try to seize control of a health-care debate that strayed from his grasp this summer. "Every debate at some point comes to an end," he told a loudly supportive crowd. "At some point it's time to decide. At some point it's time to act. Ohio, it's time to act and get this thing done."
Arrogant President Obama Declares Time for Health Care Debate is "Over" in Speech to AFL-CIO - Video
Freedom's Lighthouse ^ | September 7, 2009 | BrianinMO
Posted on Monday, September 07, 2009 5:15:57 PM by Federalist Patriot
Here is video of a combative and arrogant President Obama today speaking to the AFL-CIO where he declared the time for debating Health Care is "over." "It's time to act."
Obama said in a rather condescending voice, "The debate has been good." But he went on to make his statement that Americans have debated this enough.
Obama then called "lies" concerns by anti-ObamaCare opponents about the impact of Government-run Care on the seriously ill and other matters. He then said opponents have no plan of their own, which is absolutely not true, and he knows it.
I don't think President Obama gets to decide when something has been debated enough. Remember, Obama never wanted this debate. He intended to ram Health Care through in less than two weeks' time prior to the end of July. But the outcry - including from "Blue Dog" Democrats - kept him from doing so. Obama's speech today makes it clear he is wounded and angry, and he is going to try and ram something through Congress. His combative tone appears to signal how the Democrats will return from their month of listening to Americans. I don't think the Democrats and the President intend to heed what they have heard. . . . (VIDEO)
Pro-Reform Doctor Wants Critics to Forgo Medicare
Washington Post ^ | Monday, September 7, 2009 | Stephen Dinan
Posted on Monday, September 07, 2009 12:38:34 PM by nickcarraway
Mississippian's challenge to opponents to burn their cards called 'very cynical'
Oppose a government health care plan? A Jackson, Miss., doctor wants you to put your convictions on the line by burning your mother's Medicare card.
It's the reverse of the challenge many citizens have been issuing to their own members of Congress to forgo the health care plans they get by dint of working for the government and buy into the "public option" plan instead.
"I want to have a demonstration - Boston Tea Party-like - and burn those cards," said Dr. Aaron Shirley, who has done extensive work in trying to extend health care to the uninsured.
Restrictions on prescription of osteoporosis drugs 'defy belief', says leading doctor (UK)
dailymail. ^ | 9 7 09 | Fiona Macrae
Posted on Monday, September 07, 2009 4:54:31 PM by dennisw
Restrictions on the prescription of osteoporosis drugs defy belief, says a leading doctor.
Professor David Reid, a world expert in brittle bones, said that Government guidelines are so stringent that GPs are often prevented from giving alternative treatments to those who have suffered side-effects on the first pill they've been prescribed.
What is more, a once-a-year jab that could protect thousands from the misery of broken bones is not going to be assessed for use on the NHS in England and Wales for at least three years, despite being free to those who need it in Scotland.
About the Health Care "Trigger" (Transcript: Health Care Roundtable on 'FNS')
Fox News Sunday ^ | September 6th, 2009 | Chris Wallace
Posted on Monday, September 07, 2009 8:13:57 PM by rvoitier
Just a little talking point when the moral relativists come at you with, "Well, Bush did it too!"
The liberals are lying and bluffing about not supporting legislation without the public option and everyone knows it. They don’t have the stones to vote no when Obama needs another symbolic win from them. It is fun to watch them twist on it. :)
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