Posted on 09/09/2009 11:38:45 AM PDT by socialismisinsidious
Poll: Public Disapproval of 'Obamacare' Jumps to 52 Percent
Foxnews ^ | 9/9/2009 | Staff
Posted on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 1:28:43 PM by Red in Blue PA
Public disapproval of President Obama's handling of health care has jumped to 52 percent, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll released hours before he makes his case for overhaul in a prime-time address to Congress.
With his health revamp moving slowly and unemployment edging ever higher, Obama's overall approval rating has also suffered a blow. The survey showed that 49 percent now disapprove of how he is handling his job as president, up from 42 percent who disapproved in July.
The grade people give Obama on health care also has worsened since July, when just 43 percent disapproved of his work on the issue.
Text of Baucus' Senate Finance Committee Health Care Reform Bill
Senate Finance Committee Website ^ | September 9, 2009 | Sen. Max Baucus and Staff
Posted on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 12:47:35 PM by La Lydia
The U.S. health care system is in crisis. This crisis is not limited to the 46 million who lack health insurance – it extends to those who have health coverage but are worried about increasing costs. Rising health care costs affect families and American businesses, as health insurance premiums continue to outpace wages and inflation. Between 1999 and 2008, premiums for employer-sponsored health benefits increased 117 percent for families and individuals and 119 percent for employers. And annual health spending growth is expected to outpace average annual growth in the overall economy by 2.1 percentage points in each of the next ten years. In 2009 alone, health spending will increase 5.5 percent while gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to decrease 0.2 percent....
Legislative Shortcut Offers Possible Path To Health Overhaul
IBD Editorials ^ | September 8, 2009 | DAVID HOGBERG AND SEAN HIGGINS
Posted on Tuesday, September 08, 2009 8:46:17 PM by Kaslin
A major question facing Senate Democrats as they return to Washington this week is whether they are willing to use the budget process to pass health care reform.
Normally, Senate rules require 60 votes to end a filibuster necessary to pass legislation. But tumultuous town hall meetings during the August recess, combined with Sen. Ted Kennedy's death, have weakened the chances that 60 can be reached.
Under a budget process known as "reconciliation," Democrats would need just a simple majority to pass legislation. But there are key procedural hurdles to this strategy, which would also inflame political opposition.
An IBD analysis suggests it's a toss-up whether or not Senate Democrats have the votes to ram through health care via reconciliation.
Five By Five
Currently there are 57 Democrats in the Senate. Two independents, Vermont's Bernie Sanders and Connecticut's Joe Lieberman, caucus with the Democrats.
Harkin to Succeed Kennedy as Health Panel Chair ["A Fierce Proponent of The Public Option"]
FoxNews ^ | September 08, 2009
Posted on Tuesday, September 08, 2009 11:55:50 PM by Steelfish
WASHINGTON -- A fierce proponent of the public option and proud, self-identified firebrand liberal will chair the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, formerly held by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, FOX News confirmed late Tuesday.
Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, the next most senior Democrat on the Senate panel focused on overhauling the nation's health care system, will fill the seat that was held on an interim basis by Sen. Chris Dodd.
Report: House health care bill would balloon deficit
Washington Times ^ | Jon Ward
Posted on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 1:06:44 AM by Nachum
A new report that for the first time gauges the impact of health care reform two decades out shows the nation's budget imbalance would skyrocket after 2020.
The House bill would increase the budget deficit by $1 trillion between 2020 to 2029, up from $39 billion from 2010 through 2019, says the Peterson Foundation study, conducted by the nonpartisan Lewin Group.
How To Answer Obama's Plea on Health Care
Townhall.com ^ | September9, 2009 | Michael Medved
Posted on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 4:00:59 AM by Kaslin
What is the President likely to say in his big speech to Congress on health care and how should Republicans respond to him?
First, its easy to anticipate the theme and tone of President Obamas remarks. He will call for a new spirit of unity and bipartisanship (just as he did in the campaign) and lament the bitterness and divisions roiling the nation when all agree on general goals for health care reform: insuring the uninsured, while making insurance more secure and affordable for those who already have it. He will stigmatize the enemies of reform as political hacks or special interests, and call upon the people to rise above the fear-mongers and demagogues and to embrace reform with hope and confidence. Hell certainly invoke the memory of his fallen friend, the Lion of the Senate, Ted Kennedy, and call for all Americans to go forward in his spirit. Senator Kennedy combined visionary idealism with practical ability to work across the aisle and to make deals in the public interest. The President might even paraphrase the late Senators brother, President Kennedy, suggesting that we should never compromise out of fear, but we should never fear to compromise. In any event, for those with the stomach to watch it, the speech will surely spend lots of time talking about bridging gaps and joining hands and singing kum-ba-ya, even while the President knows theres no chance Republicans will feel swayed by his words. Thats not the point of his address, of course. The point is to make those Republicans look bad when they refuse to bridge gaps and join hands and sing kum-ba-ya.
So what should the GOP say to counteract this line of attack?
Impending Washington Deal on Health Care
Townhall.com ^ | Septeber 9, 2009 | Tony Blankley
Posted on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 4:14:15 AM by Kaslin
As the politicians who support the president's health care plans escape back into Washington from America -- and as the politicians who oppose the president's health care plans leave their safe redoubt in the heartland and go once more behind the lines into the hostile territory of the Federal Triangle -- only one thing is certain: We don't know the end of this story.
If we had a plebiscite on it today, polls show the president's plan would lose. But we are governed by representative government, not plebiscite. And our representatives represent many things. They represent their own convictions, their contributors' interests, their political parties' interests, their own career interests, their voters' interests and opinions, and -- on occasion -- what they see as the national interest.
The K Street Tax Cheat Who's Lobbying to Save Obamacare
Townhall.com ^ | September 9, 2008 | Michelle Malkin
Posted on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 5:09:12 AM by Kaslin
Tom Daschle is the human toe fungus of Washington -- a persistent infection that may disappear from time to time, but always comes back with a vengeance.
Despite abandoning his secretary of health and human services nomination in disgrace in February 2009, the K Street tax cheat who evaded IRS rules for years remains a top White House confidante and policy strategist. In fact, he's leading the drive to save Obamacare. He climbed up from under the bus back into the Oval Office and onto the sets of "Meet the Press" and "This Week With George Stephanopoulos" to offer his rescue plan.
It's Daschle's idea to morph the unpopular "public option" into nonprofit "health care co-ops" that will almost certainly receive government funding, support and tax advantages over private insurers. Old colleagues on both sides of the Senate aisle are now promoting his alternative. Last week, he penned a Do It for Teddy Kennedy pep rally op-ed in The Wall Street Journal urging Democrats to go it alone and depend on the backroom Senate reconciliation process if necessary to get a deal done.
At the Danger Point in the Obamacare Debate
Townhall.com ^ | September 9, 2009 | Stuart Butler
Posted on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 5:39:42 AM by Kaslin
Now that many Americans realize the Obamacare bills in Congress herald a government takeover of U.S. health care, they can’t afford to relax.
Yes, their voices -- raised in town halls and other forums -- sent surprised liberals and “progressives” scurrying to regroup. A few even repudiated the idea that a “public option” (that is, a government health plan) is necessary to fix the system.
But now is the most dangerous phase, not the time to celebrate, for those of us who believe real reform doesn’t involve more government control.
Watch out. President Obama and the liberals on Capitol Hill will come back, one way or another, with alternative paths toward their ultimate goals.
Look for those routes to include:
Obama's Dog of a Health Care Message
The American Thinker ^ | September 09, 2009 | Sammy Benoit
Posted on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 6:21:04 AM by Scanian
Having spent much of the past thirty years of my life in the advertising industry, the flaws of President Obama's health care message are apparent and massive. Most people outside the ad business will tell you that commercials try to beat you over the head to make you buy what you don't need or want. In truth advertising that doesn't address the public's needs or wants does not work. On top of that, if a consumer keeps being exposed to a message that does not meet a need, they begin to tune it out quickly; it's called wear-out. Finally if the message keeps changing, consumers get suspicious.
Sound Familiar? That's because almost since his inauguration the POTUS has been beating us over the head with a heath care message that does not address the needs or wants of the majority of American voters. His heath care effort is designed to make sure everyone has heath care, pre-existing conditions are covered and there is a public option to ensure greater competition to keep prices low.
ObamaCare: More Point and Counterpoint
The American Thinker ^ | September 09, 2009 | Frank S. Rosenbloom, M.D.
Posted on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 6:30:14 AM by Scanian
This article is the second of a point / counterpoint series on Mr. Obama's health care plan.
ObamaCare will not promote abortions. It is true that there are no provisions in the current plan specifically providing for abortions. However, there are provisions in the plan for "family planning." Given his record, many conservatives rightly suspect that to Mr. Obama family-planning means a lot of planning, and fewer people in order to reduce the amount of carbon producing biological units. This health care plan gives the Commissioner of Health Choices the power to determine future benefits within the plan. The promotion of abortion can be easily added once the bill is passed. This is another example of liberal incrementalism at its finest.
Obama to make case for big healthcare changes
Reuters India ^ | September 9, 2009 | Patricia Zengerle
Posted on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 6:48:57 AM by myknowledge
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama takes on the bitter healthcare reform debate on Wednesday with a high-stakes speech to the U.S. Congress on his top domestic policy priority.
Aides have promised Obama's nationally televised address will provide specifics about his vision for overhauling the $2.5 trillion U.S. healthcare system -- although they said he will not offer his own legislation.
"The president will outline his plan moving forward," both on healthcare and how to get a bill passed by Congress, said spokesman Robert Gibbs. "I don't think you'll walk away confused about where he is."
Obama Pitched Universal Health Care to Students in Meeting Prior to His Speech on Education
CNSNews.com ^ | September 09, 2009 | Penny Starr
Posted on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 7:09:45 AM by Man50D
Prior to his nationally broadcast speech to students on Tuesday, President Barack Obama made a pitch for health care reform in a discussion with 40 freshmen at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va.
Although the president avoided controversial topics in his speech, he did promote health care reform in a face-to-face discussion at Wakefield High School. Asked by a student how he stays motivated to do his job, Obama replied that his staff gives him 10 letters every day from “ordinary folks.”
“Some of the stories are really depressing,” Obama told the 40 freshman, who were chosen to meet with the president during freshman orientation, according to school officials.
Obama Seeks Game-Changer With Health Speech
Fox News ^ | 09/09/2009 | AP
Posted on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 8:37:03 AM by fiscon1
Reaching for a game-changer, President Barack Obama is beset by conflicting goals in a prime-time address Wednesday expected to detail just how he wants to expand health care coverage and lower medical costs while signaling to a deeply divided Congress that he's ready to deal.
Newt Gingrich: Grading The Big Health Care Speech
84rules News and Commentary Blog ^ | September 9, 2009 | 84rules
Posted on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 9:30:09 AM by 84rules
Speaker Gingrich provides us with an excellent litmus test to see how well Obama has been listening to the American people.
Check it out:
Grading The Big Health Care Speech
Fox: Senate Dems to use "nuclear option" to pass ObamaCare with "public option" if necessary
Fox News Channel | 9/9/09
Posted on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 9:34:25 AM by pabianice
Per Fox News Channel, Senate Dems ready to use "budget reconciliation" -- 51 votes -- to pass ObamaCare with "public option." Dems now say they will seek no Republican support, but Sen Olymbia Snowe is siding with the Dems anyway. Repubs hiding in closets. Developing. Looking like a done deal.
Pelosi and Reid Tell President: We Have the Votes (for ObamaCare)
ABC Propoganda ^ | 9/9/09 | Tapper Posted on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 10:53:34 AM by pabianice
President Wants Bill Passed Soon
While White House spokesman Robert Gibbs today refrained from telling reporters whether President Obama in his speech Wednesday night will set a deadline for passing health care reform, sources tell ABC News that in his private meeting with Democratic congressional leaders this afternoon the key word was urgency.
The president told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., that it is important for them to pass health care reform bills soon, the sources said.
Both leaders told the president that despite the difficult rough and tumble of the legislative process in the last few weeks, they are optimistic that both the House and Senate can pass health care reform legislation.
What will be in the bill remains an open question, though after the meeting, Reid told reporters that “we're going to do our very best to have a public option or something like a public option before we finish this work.”
Obama: I was too ambiguous on healthcare reform
The Hill ^
Posted on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 11:11:34 AM by Sub-Driver
Obama: I was too ambiguous on healthcare reform By Sam Youngman - 09/09/09 09:34 AM ET
President Barack Obama said Wednesday he has left “too much ambiguity” in what he wants for healthcare reform, allowing his opponents to control the message.
The morning before his address on healthcare to a joint session of Congress, Obama said he took a relatively hands-off approach “out of an effort to give Congress the ability to do their thing and not step on their toes.”
That allowed “opponents of reform to come in and to fill up the airwaves with a lot of nonsense — everything from the this ridiculous idea that we were setting up death panels to false notions that this was designed to provide health insurance to illegal immigrants,” Obama said in an interview on ABC’s "Good Morning America."
Boehner: GOP leaders haven't met Obama for health talks since April
The Hill ^ | 9/9/09 | Molly K. Hooper Posted on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 11:59:28 AM by Nachum
The ball is in President Obama's court to reach out to Republicans if he wants a bipartisan bill on healthcare reform, House GOP Leader John Boehner (Ohio) said Monday morning.
Boehner told reporters that the president has not invited House GOP leaders to the White House for meetings on healthcare reform since the end of April.
Barack Obama's battle to save US health care reform
Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | September 9, 2009 | Toby Harnden
Posted on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 12:38:03 PM by Schnucki
Democrats are mounting a last-ditch attempt to broker a bipartisan deal to reform America's health care system as Barack Obama prepares to address Congress.
The speech to Congress is seen as so important that it could make or break his presidency.
With Mr Obama's poll numbers slipping and public support for his health care overhaul eroding almost by the day, Senator Max Baucus, a fellow Democrat, drew up a compromise plan designed to appeal to centrists across the political divide.
Republicans have vigirously opposed a mooted extra tax burden on highers earners to pay for medical insurance for the poor. Under the new plan, non-profit co-operatives would be set up to compete with private health insurance companies.
This would replace the idea of introducing a so-called "public option" of government-run insurance, which is favoured by liberals.
The Baucus plan would cost about $900 billion (£550 billion) over 10 years - $100 billion less that the $1 trillion price tag on a previous House of Representatives proposal.
Snyderman: ObamaCare 'Going So Well' Till Hijacked By 'Lies'
NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein
Posted on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 1:12:31 PM by governsleastgovernsbest
Of all the Obama cheerleaders in the MSM, could there possibly be one more devoted than Dr. Nancy? On her MSNBC show today, Snyderman bemoaned to a White House aide that the push for ObamaCare had been "going so well" till it was hijacked by rumors, innuendoes and "lies."
Snyderman was chatting with White House advisor Melody Barnes, who didn't seem to take the possible defeat as hard as did her host . . .
Obama regrets delaying details for health plan
Associated Press ^ | Sept. 9, 2009 | CHARLES BABINGTON
Posted on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 1:16:43 PM by Free ThinkerNY
WASHINGTON (AP) - In retrospect, President Barack Obama now says, he should have offered more details about health care proposals a few months ago, rather than give critics all summer to criticize them, often with baseless claims.
Such missed opportunities are one reason for Obama's prime-time speech to Congress Wednesday night in which he hopes to salvage his top domestic priority. The summer was marked by several risks and dubious decisions that have forced the high-stakes speech.
McCain addresses civic leaders [calls for "bipartisan" overhaul of Medicare] [attacks TARP]
The Explorer, Tucson Ariz. ^ | 2009-09-09 | Patrick McNamara
Posted on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 3:46:14 AM by rabscuttle385
(snip)
McCain also spoke about the raft of national spending bills over the past year, including the $787 billion financial bailout of 2008, $700 billion for the stimulus plan and the $83 billion rescue of the auto industry.
Taken with other measures, the spending would saddle the country with as much as $9 trillion of debt future generations would have to pay, the senator said.
Excellent Sarah Palin Op-Ed on Health Care
Posted on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 2:16:05 PM by Starman417
It's a shame she is not giving the rebuttal to Obama's speech tonight!
Sarah Palin is proving that she doesn't have to be a sitting governor to be relevant in the current policy debate over health care. By bringing high level attention to the matter of death panels and health care rationing she forced the "news" media to cover a story they might otherwise ignore.
She's done it again with this reply to Obama's op-ed in health care.
I know you will want to read the whole thing, but here's a teaser:
Common sense tells us that the government's attempts to solve large problems more often create new ones. Common sense also tells us that a top-down, one-size-fits-all plan will not improve the workings of a nationwide health-care system that accounts for one-sixth of our economy. And common sense tells us to be skeptical when President Obama promises that the Democrats' proposals "will provide more stability and security to every American."
With all due respect, Americans are used to this kind of sweeping promise from Washington. And we know from long experience that it's a promise Washington can't keep. Let's talk about specifics. In his Times op-ed, the president argues that the Democrats' proposals "will finally bring skyrocketing health-care costs under control" by "cutting . . . waste and inefficiency in federal health programs like Medicare and Medicaid and in unwarranted subsidies to insurance companies . . . ."
We Don't Need Another Post Office [Health Care Reform]
FOX News ^ | 09/09/09 | Grover Norquist
Posted on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 2:21:08 PM by freespirited
...For the past eight years Democrats have been voting against and filibustering two important reforms that would help all Americans. First, allowing you to buy your health insurance from any of the 50 states. Right now you are stuck buying insurance from businesses in your state, often with expensive mandates pushed on you by the state legislators and lobbyists for special interests This reform alone, known as the Shadegg bill, would drop the cost of health care an average of 15%. Not bad. Democrats have spent years opposing this fix.
Socialize Health Care first and then the country. If people don’t see this, then they don’t pay any attention to history.
“A fierce proponent of the public option and proud, self-identified firebrand liberal will chair the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, formerly held by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, FOX News confirmed late Tuesday.”
FANTASTIC! This ups the odds that Obama will pursue the self-defeating reconciliation strategy, thereby confirming public perception that he is not listening to their wants, but instead is being led around by highly partisan, left-wing ideologues whose opinions on health care and most other matters are far outside those of the general public.
Harkin is a cocky, take-no-prisoners type of guy. Whereas Kennedy may have been equally left-leaning, there was also always a much greater chance, had he been active, that he would have reached across the aisle to include Republicans. Harkin will make it that much easier to “just say no” on health reform.
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