Posted on 09/09/2009 12:14:42 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
Viewers who tune into President Barack Obama’s health-care address tonight will see all the usual trappings of a big-time speech – members of Congress applauding or sitting quietly, depending on their partisan viewpoint, and guests in the gallery carefully selected to match key message points.
But the things to watch for at 8 p.m. tonight are far more subtle, though in many ways, more important to whether Obama succeeds in wrestling the health-care debate back onto his own terms.
“It’s a pivotal moment for health care,” said former Clinton White House Chief of staff Mack McLarty. “It’s a dramatic moment, almost like a heavyweight fight.”
Obama has a lot to do in one speech – convince Americans with insurance it’s a good deal for them, and convince Americans without it that he’s got a plan to cover them — all without busting the budget. The danger for the White House will be muddling its own message.
“He has to talk not to the left or the right - but to Middle America,” said former Clinton White House aide Chris Lehane. “To do this, he may think of a good story or a powerful metaphor that breaks through.”
So the first thing to watch for tonight is:
Can he keep it simple?
Health care reform is insanely complicated, as opponents love to point out in lavishly detailed flow charts and spaghetti-shaped graphics detailing the various proposals.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Has he bribed the CBO?
If not, forget about it.
I misread the headline. I thought it was “Seven OTHER Things to Watch Tonight”. My bad.
But if you can get Universal Sports, from 7 to 9, ET, it’s the coverage of Stage 11 of La Vuelta a Espana, the Spanish version of the Tour. Very good coverage. Beach volleyball at 9:00, where the TV coverage is very good, other coverage a bit skimpy.
Discovery Channel
History Channel
TV Land Channel
Weather Channel
Lifetime Channel
Knife Shopping Channel.
So, are the Castro Bros going to be in the peanut gallery?
It’d be a good time to perform an ammo inventory, web search of ammo sales and an ammo shopping action “to do list”.
Viewers who tune into President Barack Obama’s health-care address tonight will see all the usual trappings of a big-time speech –
VIEWERS?
You mean there is more then one lonely, have no life person out there?
Watching Obama talk to a room full of political hacks?
WOW if that was all I had to do tonight I would seriously consider putting my head in the oven....
I won’t watch or listen to Hussein. I want to keep my dinner down.
I just downloaded some old episodes of Space 1999.
I’ll watch a few tonight i guess.
Are people who write these essays from politico.com or any other sheet really that obtuse?
It is Henry Waxman's and Barack Obama's and Nancy Pelosi's "health care reform" which is insanely complicated. They are the ones pushing one thousand pages which nobody has read, which does not address the existing outrageous litigious absurdity (tort reform), which does not address illegal immigrants, and is still one thousand pages long with such stuff as czars for this, councils for that, and funding from nowhere.
The Bill is dirt, but nobody will say it. Journalists, politicians, activists, all talk around the bill like its content is not important, but rather stupidly is about some big emotionally imminent issue.
Health care reform my friends in the USA is NOT insanely complicated:
eliminate lawsuits,
exclude, very specifically, illegal immigrants to the point they are actually filtered (albeit initially treated) for deportation,
insure every legitimate person has private insurance (like auto insurance),
give tax breaks for such,
and within those parameters let the States administer according to their own approaches.
We are dealing here with a really really incompetent, and hence authoritarian, administration (incompetence is always covered by authoritarian reaction).
But of course we all know what the Media will say - they make their own self prophesy, it's called the Matrix.
“Can he keep it simple?”
Fellow Americans, the U.S. has the most insanely complicated health financing system on the planet. My plan would make it even more complicated.
A mountain of studies show that government regulation adds hundreds of billions of dollars each year to the cost of health care. My plan would increase such regulation.
Reliance on employer-provided health insurance is lunacy in an era in which the average worker changes jobs 10 times just in their first 20 years of work, as this simply guarantees constant disruption in one’s health insurance coverage. My plan solidifies this approach for 90% of American workers by forcing their employers to provide coverage.
The way in which we subsidize employer health coverage is grossly inequitable: taxpayers effectively subsidize about 50% of the cost of health insurance for Bill Gates and about 15% for the janitor who cleans his office. My plan retains the $250 billion a year in taxpayer subsidies that are distributed in this upside down fashion.
Competition among private health plans has been proven to work very effectively in both the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and Medicare Part D prescription drug program without needing a public plan to make this happen. Moreover, Americans have made crystal clear their strong opposition to a public plan option. A public plan option is a non-negotiable component of my plan.
Just count the number of lies. Words, lies, words etc.
Why watch the speech!!!! He says anything and doesn’t tell the truth.
ESPN, History Channel, Discovery Channel, Royals game on FSN, and any three other channels that Obama's speech isn't on.
Somebody has to watch the enemy,,besides the thread should be hysterical.
I hope the fashionistas come along with all the usual suspects so we can have fun.
I am debating,,popcorn for sure but should I go with white whine or a nice cab? I don’t much like beer altho hubby brewed some homemade which is good. And hard liquor makes me drunk. I am not an amusing drunk so I have to stay sober. But the wine question is bothering me.
I can’t stand to listen or watch this MARXIST MUSLIM AMERICA-HATING ILLEGAL ALIEN. I’m hoping the American people are getting tired of this POS also.
I turn the channel or switch radio stations whenever this SCUMBAG is speaking. Rush should go back to speeding up his sound bites of Ogabe then I wouldn’t have to mute the sound.
Reruns of NCIS,Bones,House
At this point in the season, that baseball game is properly referred to as “Tigers game on FSN”.
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