President Barack Obama « Healthcare Horserace

Obama to Pimp Public-Option on Letterman

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

Late-night talk show host, David Letterman, is the latest addition to the roster of television/mainstream media personalities who will be granted the privilege of tossing talking point related soft-ball questions to President Barack Obama beginning this Sunday. The president’s appearance on CBS’s The Late Show with David Letterman, his fifth overall and his first since September 2008 in the midst of the presidential campaign, is part of the White House’s all-out media blitz, the first since his speech before the joint-session of Congress last Wednesday, in an effort to bolster fledgling support for his public-option health care proposal.

Suggesting David Letterman is a staunch supporter of the president and all the socialist-related causes he stands for would be to put it politely. To date since The One ascended into office in late-January, the CBS late-night personality has made little, if any, effort to criticize the president or his progressive agenda. He has, however, found ample opportunity to harass former-Alaska governor Sarah Palin and her family, including a quip poking ‘fun’ at her daughter being raped by a member of the New York Yankees.

In addition, you may remember Letterman’s obsessive compulsion concerning Senator John McCain in the remaining month of the 2008 presidential contest in relation to his cancellation of an appearance on his show, only to quickly appear with Katie Couric in an interview shortly thereafter. The issue of whether it was right for Senator McCain to ‘lie’ to Letterman about heading straight back to Washington D.C. is irrelevant. It purposely distracted from the fact that McCain did return to Capitol Hill, in spite of being in the midst of a highly contested presidential campaign, to help resolve the nation’s economic crisis. Barack Obama, on the other hand, had to be dragged kicking and screaming by President George W. Bush, after informing him, ‘call me if you need me.’ Goodness knows that Letterman vehemently refused to bring that point up because it would have reminded viewers Obama’s lack of concern for both his constituents and the nation as a whole. It would make him appear to be more desiring of the political title of commander-in-chief rather then helping the American people.

Rest assured, however, this is not about him!

President Obama will speak with David Letterman Monday evening following his tour of the Sunday-morning political talk shows on ABC, CBS, CNN, and NBC.

Tags: abc, CBS, CNN, David Letterman, George W. Bush, Mainstream Media, NBC, President Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, Senator John McCain, The Late Show with David Letterman, white house
Posted in Eye on the Media | Start the Discussion

Required

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

The latest video from Republican Whip Eric Cantor, representative for the 7th Congressional District of Virginia, focuses on the claim made by both the president and Congressional Democrats that if you want to keep your insurance, you can.

In his speech to the joint-session of Congress focusing on his public-option health care proposal, President Barack Obama said, “Let me repeat this – nothing in our plan requires you to change what you have.” And yet on July 16^th, when a Democratic staff member explained the health care bill itself, one word stuck out prominently among all others – require. It is repeated eighty-four times throughout the hearing. Why is it that the Democrats who say you can keep your plan require so much of you in order to do so?

Tags: health care, President Barack Obama, public-option, Representative Eric Cantor, Virginia
Posted in Horserace | Start the Discussion

A Speech, Not a Plan

Friday, September 11th, 2009

Originated from Statehousecall.org

By Grace-Marie Turner

President Obama’s speech Wednesday night soared with oratory but fell flat in delivering on his promise to present details or any substantive new policy initiatives for his health reform plan.He may get a few days of lift from the passion and cheers in the House chambers, but the hard realities of policy will continue to chill prospects for getting sweeping reform legislation enacted. A few examples:

Paying for reform. The president said “the plan I’m proposing will cost around $900 billion over 10 years” and that “we’ve estimated that most of this plan can be paid for by finding savings within the existing health care system, a system that is currently full of waste and abuse.”
He dropped talk of higher taxes on the rich to pay for the reform plan, perhaps after realizing that much of the burden would fall on small businesses. So that means that, apart from some new taxes on health insurance (which will just be passed along to consumers), the massive coverage expansions will be paid for by curtailing Medicare and Medicaid waste and abuse and making them more efficient.

That doesn’t pass the laugh test. I testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in 2008 about seven rules that the Bush administration had written to curtail documented fraud and abuse in the Medicaid program. The fraud was documented by the Government Accountability Office and the Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services — things such as using Medicaid money to take people shopping for party dresses and to Bingo games.

But Congress has done everything it can to stop implementation of the Bush rules to stop documented fraud. What do you think the chances are that they will be able to pay for their $900 billion reform plan mostly with savings from Medicare and Medicaid?

Rising health costs. Gone is the campaign promise that every family will save $2,500 a year on health costs when the Obama plan is implemented. It has been replaced with new language that says reform “will slow the growth of health care costs for our families, our businesses, and our government.”
Slowing the growth of health costs is a much different agenda. But even with that, he offered little or nothing of substance to explain how he would achieve that goal.

Keeping the coverage you have now. The president has changed his rhetoric about no one losing the coverage or doctors they have now. Now he says “nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change the coverage or the doctor you have.” The operable word is “require.”
But the employer mandate is still in place, and the president still wants the new public plan. So there would be every incentive for employers to drop coverage, pay the new tax, and send their employees packing to the public plan, many involuntarily. The Lewin Group says between 88 million and 120 million Americans would find themselves in the new government-run health program. But they wouldn’t be required to join.

Do you find that reassuring?

So what we heard last was a campaign speech which was, by the way, alarming in his threats to those who oppose him.

Promises made are not promises kept. Michael Tanner of Cato has a good new paper out that details the very difficult challenges of getting from promise to policy.

Tags: CATO Institute, Congress, Department of Health and Human Services, House Energy and Commerce Committee, Lewin Group, Medicaid, Medicare, Michael Tanner, President Barack Obama
Posted in Policy Alternative | Start the Discussion

Obama Punts the Ball on Tort Reform, Not Offering a Clear Stance

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

While many Republicans say that tort reform is a key for reducing health care costs, Obama mentions it then sidesteps the subject during his address to Congress.

On Wednesday, President Barack Obama gave an address on health care reform to a joint session of Congress that was televised nationwide. However, the President did not talk about tort reform until the near end of his speech. President Obama acknowledged that there is an increasing issue with defensive medicine and said he wants “doctors to just be doctors” when responding to the GOP’s concern on tort reform. The President based his response during the speech over the concern of defensive medicine is a factor in rising health care costs. Many members of Congress on the Republican side have linked the lack of tort reform at the federal level to the rising health care costs.

The response by President Obama has left those who have been following the health care debate with more unanswered questions at the end of his speech. Minutes after his speech, noted health care expert Greg Scandlen from Consumers for Health Care Choices in a written statement said that there was a lack of clarity in the President’s overall health care proposal. Scandlen called the speech “another laundry list of platitudes and generalities” and said “this is exactly what the public did not need and was not looking for.”

Additionally, Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin-5th), one of the well known tort reform advocates in Congress, criticized the President for not talking directly about his stance on tort reform. The veteran Congressman from Wisconsin called the President’s remarks on defensive medicine “more rhetoric from President Obama.” Sensenbrenner who was the former Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee successfully passed bills calling for tort reform in the House when the GOP had the majority from 1995 to 2007. However on separate occasions in that twelve year period, Democrats in the Senate have blocked tort reform legislation. The veteran Congressman will introduce tort reform legislation again this year, and will be calling on the President to incorporate this idea into any health care reform bill.

When looking at the numbers, the absence of federal tort reform legislation is putting a strain on the American economy. The American Tort Reform Association on its website said that the lack of tort reform legislation, in 2003 alone, costed America $246 billion. With inflation adjusted to the beginning of 2009, the 2003 tort reform cost figures result to over $286 billion dollars at the end of 2008. Many experts predict that if no tort reform is passed that the 2003 figures from ATRA will skyrocket to well over $320 billion dollars in the next five years. The $40 billion dollar increase from 2003 to 2008 is equivalent to over a 16 percent increase in inflation in a five year period using the Consumer Price Index.

Tags: American Tort Reform Association, Congress, Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner, Consumer Price Index, GOP, Greg Sargent, President Barack Obama, Wisconsin
Posted in Horserace | Start the Discussion

Rasmussen: Obamacare in Critical Condition

Monday, August 31st, 2009

Based on the responses of one thousand five hundred likely voters to a survey conducted over the telephone, thirty percent of respondents said they strongly approved of the way President Barack Obama was handling his job while forty-one percent expressed strong disapproval of his performance. Overall, the numbers are only slightly better for the president. The Rasmussen polling data indicates that a scant forty-six percent approve somewhat of the president’s performance, down nineteen points since he took office this past January and the lowest rating yet for the publishing firm.

Breaking the polling data down based on political party affiliation, the numbers are not too unexpected, but at the same time not all that encouraging for the White House. Eight-one percent of Democrats polled expressed approval of Obama’s handling of the presidential office while eight-three percent of Republican respondents disapproved. What’s truly troubling for the White House, however, is the data showing that sixty-six percent of independents, the precise sector of the American political spectrum that helped give the president’s campaign that extra push to win the 2008 election, said they disapproved of his performance thus far.

These numbers are tremendously significant in terms of where the president’s health care reform legislation stands in that whatever direction the president’s approval rating goes, so goes success or failure of any bill he is trying to pass. And, judging by these numbers, Obamacare may be on its last leg.

Matters aren’t any better for the Democratic leadership in both houses of Congress. Asked to respond to whether they would, given the chance to vote today, keep or replace any number of legislators in Congress, fifty-seven percent said they would removed all of them and start over again. Only twenty-five percent expressed enough confidence in Congress to keep things the way they are.

So what happened to all the heaps of public good will the Obama administration rode in on? As Charlie Cook of Cook’s Political Report put it – it’s the economy, stupid. Only twenty-nine percent of respondents in the Rasmussen poll expressed confidence that Congress knows what it is doing in terms of handling the nation’s economy. This figure includes the measly seven percent who are very confident in Congress’s approach and the thirty-eight percent who are not at all convinced.

Barring an event that would suddenly and dramatically raise Obama’s floundering approval rating – a ‘rally ‘round the flag’ type event such as the Bay of Pigs or September 11^th – there is nothing to suggest that either the president’s poll numbers or support for his health care bill will change course any time soon.

Tags: Charlie Cook, Congress, Obamacare, President Barack Obama, President Obama, Rasmussen, Rasmussen poll, The Cook Political Report, white house
Posted in Horserace, feature | Start the Discussion

Air America Calls Obama ‘Fascist Liar’

Friday, August 21st, 2009

Does President Barack Obama have any friends left at all? It seems everyone is taking political pot shots at the guy. And it is not just conservatives and libertarians either. You have comedian Jon Stewart, a member of the mainstream media and an unapologetically staunch liberal, chastising the Obama administration for not pounding home the message of public-option while at the same praising the Bush presidency. Did we slip into some weird parallel dimension or something? Then there’s the far-left blogosphere that went totally unhinged when Kathleen Sebelius said the public option proposal was not ‘essential’ for the president’s health care reform bill, with some, especially at America Blog, calling for Howard Dean to replace Obama as the Democratic presidential candidate in 2012.

But now Air America Media, formerly Air America Radio, is attacking the president for his backroom deal with Billy Tauzin, President and CEO of PhRMA, an industry trade group representing the pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies in the United States. The deal entails the drug industry agreeing to give Americans a future savings of $80 billion on the condition that President Obama agrees not to negotiate for lower drug prices. The kicker in this (outside the fact that he broke a prominent campaign promise to include the American people in any negotiates made with lobbyists and that there would no longer be any backroom deals in Washington under his reign) is that Obama’s own administration announced that over the next ten years Americans will spend roughly $3.6 trillion for prescription drugs. That $80 billion in future savings covers roughly two percent of that.

The audio showcased in the video below features guest radio host Christiane Brown talking with investigative reporter Greg Palast:

Want to know what the real scary part about this conversation is? Greg Palast poses the question of whether “the people out there screaming and breaking up the discussion at town meetings are correct.” Has the world gone mad? Next thing you know dogs and cats will be living together. Mass Hysteria!

Tags: Air America, Air America Media, America Blog, Billy Tauzin, Howard Dean, Jon Stewart, Kathleen Sebelius, Mainstream Media, Naked Emperor News, PhRMA, President Barack Obama, public-option
Posted in Eye on the Media | 1 Comment »

Did Obama Seriously Say ‘All Wee-Weed Up’?

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

You would likely be hard-pressed to find a historian of the executive office who would claim that a single president in this nation’s history ever used the phrase ‘wee-weed up’ before. Well, add that to the list of firsts for President Barack Obama. In fact, judging by the amused and hamstrung looks around the web, he may have been the first person EVER to use the phrase. As far as conservatives are concerned, Ronald Reagan’s title as the ‘Great Communicator’ appears to be safe.

On Thursday afternoon, the president held a live online conference call with his personal civilian army, Organizing for America (OFA), and union hit-men, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), in which he laid out the liberal strategy and message within the health care reform debate going forward into September. He was joined by Virginia Governor and Chairman of the DNC Tim Kaine, Representative for the 20^th Congressional District of Florida Debbie Wasserman Schultz, OFA Political Director Addisu Demissie, OFA Deputy Director Jeremy Bird, and OFA Director Mitch Stewart.

In spite of falling poll numbers, including the latest from left-leaning Zogby who places the presidential approval rating at a dismal forty-five percent, the lowest found by any pollster, the president assured his followers that the media was ‘once again’ writing him off too early. “All Washington said ‘Oh, it’s over,’ hand-wringing angst,” he said referring to the first state to hold a 2008 Democratic nominating contest, which saw him capture a come-from-behind win. He later took a swipe at former-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, paralleling the media frenzy over her nomination as Republican opponent John McCain’s running mate in the 2008 presidential election to what is going on now. “The media was obsessed with it, cable was 24 hours a day,” said Obama, “’Obama’s lost his mojo,’ you remember all that?” The president said, “There’s something about August going into September where everyone in Washington gets all ‘wee-weed’ up.”

Sorry … umm, what? ‘All wee-weed up,’ you said? What does that even mean? Wow, Obama seriously needs to stick to his security blanket – his script or his beloved teleprompter – because as soon as he is off it, he comes off as a complete rube. Scratch that. There are rubes that make more sense then he did right there. And how naïve or perhaps just plain inane of Obama to compare August last year when he was a relative unknown to August now where everybody in the world knows who he is? McQ at Right Wing News correctly points out that for the first time since … well, ever President Obama can truthfully say that ‘this isn’t about me.’ Yes, Mr. President, you are right. It is far more then just you and the American people know it.

Tags: Debbie Wasserman Schultz, DNC, Florida, OFA, Organizing for America, President Barack Obama, Right Wing News, Ronald Reagan, Sarah Palin, SEIU, Service Employees International Union, Tim Kaine, Virginia, Zogby
Posted in Horserace | Start the Discussion

Attack Dog: Rahm Emanuel Brings Chicago-Style Techniques to National Stage

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

In a letter submitted today, Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA), who serves as ranking member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, boldly demanded that Rahm Emanuel, Chief of Staff for President Obama’s administration, cease his behind-the-scenes manipulation to ram legislation through Congress quickly to promote the President’s agenda.

Congressman Issa references Emanuel’s Chicago-style tactics that attempt to punish anyone who stands in his or President Obama’s way:

As you know, Senator John Kyl (R-AZ) recently raised questions about the failure of the stimulus and suggested on a national television show that stimulus money scheduled to be spent in future years ought to be returned to the American taxpayers. Following Senator Kyl’s remarks, according to Politico, you coordinated an “assault” on Senator Kyl and other critics of your policies by directing four cabinet secretaries to write to Jan Brewer, governor of Arizona, asking pointedly if, in light of Senator Kyle’s remarks, Governor Brewer wished to forfeit taxpayer money directed to Arizona by the stimulus. These tactics have been characterized as a “fist to the nose” and a message to “Back off.” While this type of scare tactic may work in Chicago, it will not work to intimidate me or other Members of the United States Congress.

Congressman Issa even includes a glossary of definitions he uses in the memo, so as not to allow for misinterpretation. He even issues this harsh accusation:

At what point do you believe your practice of Chicago-style politics violates a public official’s right to speak out in favor of alternative policies?

Indeed, this is the sentiment expressed by many who have endured run-ins with President Obama’s Chief-of-Staff. Emanuel, known especially for sending a dead fish as a threat to a pollster who angered him some 20 years ago, does not seem to shy away from such a “tough guy” characterization, but rather, relishes in it as a means of maintaining influence inside the Beltway. According to Time Magazine, many have described Emanuel as a “profane, hyperactive attack dog.” Chuck Fant, press secretary for Congressman John M. Spratt (D-SC), once said about Emanuel’s reactions to an unpopular proposal by then-President George W. Bush, “Rahm smelled blood. He latched on like a pit bull and never let go.”

And what exactly is this profane, hyperactive pit bull doing about health care reform?

Well, first, he’s elevated those are closest to him, including his own brother, Ezekiel. Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel became the chief health care adviser early in the Obama administration. One can’t help but assume that like anything else done in Chicago’s inner political circles, the person who was to fill this position wasn’t assigned through a blind interviewing process.

Dr. Emanuel, or “Zeke” as he is called by some, is a bioethicist who wrote the book, ”Health Care Guaranteed” (angle not unclear). He is now tapped to parade around media circuits as their doctor witness on behalf of the cause and most recently, was sent over to the non-partisan Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to oversee health care reform legislation scoring. Zeke must be rather busy these days after the OMB offered less-than-favorable estimates, though probably still low-balled at that, of the cost of Obama’s health care reform proposals. We wonder if the folks at OMB should worry about receiving a dead fish in their cubicles.

Next, Rahm Emanuel has been awfully busy setting, resetting and ultimately, postponing deadlines for passage of health care reform legislation. What was supposed to be finished by mid-July then late July has been pushed off to after Congress’s August recess. In fact, Emanuel promised on July 24, 2009, just one week before the House adjourned for recess, that the bill would receive an up-or-down vote before the Congressional holiday. Unsurprisingly, he was wrong. And one thing we all know about mobster-wannabes, they hate being embarrassed.

A stalled vote poses a problem for Emanuel Bros. and Co., formerly known as the Obama Administration, as they are quite aware that the response in Congressional districts around the U.S. will be strongly in opposition to President Obama’s proposals to create a government overhaul of health care, resulting in the rationing of care, decrease in quality, stagnation of innovation in technology and treatments, hiking of taxes and ultimately, a decrease in an overall quality of life.

Still, Emanuel will not be discouraged. Emanuel called a goal of universal health care “non-negotiable,” in a recent Wall Street Journal piece. Also in the Wall Street Journal, Emanuel admitted just days after President Obama’s election in 2008, that he would not accept minor reforms to the health care systems, but instead, require “big, serious” changes. Emanuel believes that now is the time to institute these sweeping reforms that result in a complete government takeover of health care. With a crippled economy, it would make sense for the President’s top strategist to shift gears and attempt to convince Americans that the key to alleviating America’s financial headaches is to pass health care reform. After all, as Mr. Emanuel said himself, “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.”

Tags: bailout, Baracak Obama, Darrell Issa, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, health care reform, healthcare reform, Obama, Obamacare, President Barack Obama, President Obama, Rahm Emanuel, Wall Street Journal, Zeke Emanuel
Posted in The Players | 2 Comments »

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