Obamacare: The primetime pitch
Five minutes to speech time… my first mistake was turning on MSNBC to start off with. According to Keith Olbermann, who’s always grimacing as if he just got a colonoscopy with a rose bush, we have what amounts to a third world health care system that can only be saved by a government that has demonstrated nothing but third world aspirations.
Fox News: “Obama’s running late.” Cabinet introduced — if you want to make half of them scatter, yell “Freeze! IRS!”
What, no parade of czars?
Does it seem odd that the president is so late to something that he says time is of the essence? Guns n Roses was more punctual.
By the way, if you aren’t near a TV you can watch the carnage online here.
Here he is… TOTUS stands at the ready:
“I am not the first president to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last.” So at least we do agree on something.
“We are the only Democracy on earth that allows such hardship for its people.” Does Obama think he’s speaking in the Middle East again?
Michelle O. looks like she’s missing her favorite television show or something. Don’t worry, it’ll be over soon.
One reason people oppose Obamacare is not because the current system is grand, but because Obama’s “reformers” have done nothing but screwed up everything they’ve touched for the past several years, and the frequency and scope of the incompetence, idiocy, theft, Marxist leanings, lies and desperation is increasing exponentially. In other words, just because we don’t want a deaf, dumb and blind thief to take the wheel of the school bus doesn’t necessarily mean we’re thrilled with the current driver.
You can almost see the dollar signs in Pelosi’s freshly lifted eyes, can’t you?
Great, I’m reminded yet again why I didn’t want to vote for McCain.
“All Americans will be required to carry health insurance just like they’re required to carry auto insurance.” Sure, but I can choose not to have a car.
Pardon me for being cynical about not completely believing Obama’s “death panel” denial when the people writing the health care bill(s) will fight to the last for the glorious right to kill babies. Given that, why would offing a geezer here and there be considered so incredibly immoral?
Are politicians clapping at the prospect of keeping private industry honest? It’s the other way around or nothing at all.
Hey, where’s the UPS/FedEx vs. US Postal Service example?
“But wait, there’s more! If you’re one of the next one million callers….”
As it concerns the health care bill(s), we can believe Obama, or our lying eyes.
Throwing a bone on tort reform, then reeling it back in. The trial lawyers in Congress got shrinkage there for a second, but they’re okay now.
“More businesses will close” if government doesn’t spend another trillion dollars minimum?
If you had “46 minutes in” before Obama mentioned Ted Kennedy, you win the pool.
“Our self reliance. Our rugged individualism, our fierce defense of freedom and our healthy skepticism of government.” Did I walk in on the wrong speaker?
Speech ends. Feel better about America now? If all this was so true, you’d think that people would be fleeing the U.S. by the bushel instead of coming here by the ton. But then, people are stupid, and that’s the message.
Rep. Charles Boustany, a doctor, with the GOP response. Not bad, but still lacking enough punch — it needed something like “If you want the health care of your family in the hands of a bunch of people who couldn’t even properly budget a friggin’ car sale, be my guest.”
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Categories: Barack Obama, Health care
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The man lied for 45 minutes
“We did not come here to fear the future, we came here to shape it.”
That will be the tag line and most often quoted.
Of course it has. I haven’t sued a single doctor since they passed it.
And now the verdict. David Brooks has declared this to be Barry’s best speech ever by far. Case closed!
OVER!!! I am free at last, FREE AT LAST!
BO said that some of us don’t believe that government is looking out for us.
Yo, Dimbo! We don’t want government looking out for us – that’s our responsibility. America is based on self-reliance, not reliance on government.
This is such a fundamental difference that I don’t see any reconciliation between we who still believe in America and BO and crew who still believe in government.
I watched on FOX live stream and Michelle’s favorite Congresswoman/deadbeat can’t pay her mortgage was right by the door to make sure she could shake O’s hand.
REP Charles Boustany (LA) indicates it’s time to start over.
I still think the heckler should get an award.
Republican solutions:
healthcare.gop.gov
Liar in Chief. That man disgusts me.
If it’s so urgent to get it passed why wait until 2013? That’s right so he can re-elect himself and then the disaster that he is can be proven while he is still in the White House.
This guy is dividing this country more than than we were during the Civil War! Lie, lies, lies……. Blah Blah Blah!
Obama is a racist! There I said it since they call anyone who is against this POS a racist!
Mel is losing at US open tennis too.
Was he in black preacher mode or what?
Can I hear an AMEN?
Correct me if I am wrong:
But BHO’s answer to tort reform – “I will direct HHS to study the matter.”
Am I wrong?
“Amen”
no sale, same old shuck and jive.
The magic is all gone.
Not sure starting over is the answer. Pres Obama said his door was open. I say, see if it is true and carry tort reform and buying insurance across State lines when the visit is made.
This can be done if we start over, but adding it to the MANDATORY insurance requirement is unacceptable.
AMEN but throw a little Sal in to
Republican response: “Afford is an important word”. Well, yeah! Good focus, but ya gotta know that most of us don’t trust y’all much either. “Afford” hasn’t exactly been a Republican value recently either!
Maybe this is the moment when Republicans will return to conservatism.
Ya’ll have a good night. It is time to throw some rush on and listen to some 2112.
“Maybe this is the moment when Republicans will return to conservatism.”
Yeah, watch it happen to Juan McAmnesty.
Ok kiddies if we all clap real hard together, the health care bill can come back to life just like Tinkerbell!
Politico is reporting that it was Joe Wilson from South Carolina that yelled the “lie” line from the floor.
God bless you Joe.
I pay my own way. To impose fines on me for NOT buying insurance smells like communism.
Fix out of control health care inflation and insurance inflation. The cause of the inflation of health care is insurance. The health care costs are a result of the “acceptable” amount the insurance is willing to pay for a procedure.
Since the consumer is isolated from the actual cost of the health care, all pressures of capitalism are void.
If we had health care vouchers for the extremely poor and everyone else paid their own way, with the exception of catastrophic insurance coverage, everyone could afford the health care of their choice.
Capitalist pressures would resume and the costs would drop drastically.
When I pay cash, they automatically give me a 60% discount. Now who normally absorbs that extra 60%? Hint…insurance premiums.
‘nite all.
“Don’t listen to the scare tactics”
“If we don;t do anything people will DIE”
So whose using scare tactics???
You can’t buy comedy like this!
I am beyond inspired, so I promoted our leader from the First Gasbag in Chief to the First Blatherer in Chief.
http://www.tygrrrrexpress.com
eric aka the Tygrrrr Express
Juan McAmnesty was on Larry King just now demanding that Congressman Wilson apologize IMMEDIATELY! McCain is such a RINO.. I can’t stand the guy.
Saw no need to watch “dear leader” FOX News will be the only media to report half way harsh.
The state run media will not question anything this idiot in chief does or says.
Zzzzz…
With Obama it is now S.S.D.D.
I think left and right are untied in their belief that tonight he just feel flat on his face.
Obama says the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus are going to make it possible for us to trim most of the $900B cost of the health care reform. You believe in the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus, don’t you? And I’m sure the Tooth Fairy will chip in, too, ’cause its going to be mighty hard for His Holiness to pull that rabbit out of his….hat.
the perfect start to the speech would be a cut shot to the TOTUS from John Cleese behind a news desk saying, “And now for something completely different.”
“A man with three buttocks.”
I want to hear that 1/10th of 1 percent savings line again
Does anyone have that transcript yet
If I hear the pscho/business guru platitude “hold them accountable” again, I will scream.
If there is so much waste in Medicare why haven’t they already cut it? So Obama will protect Medicare by cutting it? HUH? Hold your own self accountable Mr. President and explain why you haven’t cut Medicare already.
From what I saw he seemed very preechy and in had core campaign mode.
These people in government just don’t get it. Either that, or they care only for themselves and the power/money that comes with it. 13 colonies…yes, people…colonies…came together, formed a government that grew into a world superpower. They didn’t sit around and whine about once being under an imperalist government. The country grew, based on self-responsibility, capitalism, like what Michael Moore uses to bank his money, and liberty. Now, they want to undo all that, and become what the superpowers of the past have become…laughable, in the world’s eye. People will become slaves, again, slaved to the government for the means to survive. No ambition, no desire to succeed; just exist from one day to the next, having to be threatened in order for anything to be accomplished. Britain, and their “wonderful” healthcare system has reasoned that a person’s life is worth $46K per year now. Forget it if you need a heart bypass operation, and over 50, or you need an expensive medication. “Take a pain pill”. I just turned 60. Under the democrats, I don’t expect to make 70…or be quite surprised if I do, while I’m being counseled by the committee about how useless my life is now. And, I’m in the medical field myself. What of my young patients…with md, mito disease, or cp? Will they be shoved into some sort of “home” to die, with no hope of help from new drugs or treatments? Just like other systems of national healthcare, they will be quietly put away, unless they can contribute to the “general welfare”.
Joe the Congressman rocks. Way to go Joe.
We need to act more like the British Houses or the Taiwan legislature. They know how to heckle.
I heard nothing new. Forever more, when I hear his standard tag lines. “That’s what this is about…”, and “So, let be be clear…” I will think of Obama and puke.
You’d think he find other phrases to use in order to get a little more credibility.
I am tired of listening to him lie, over and over, and over again…and apparently, so was someone on the right side of the aisle, and said so. Did you catch the reactive looks of surprise, distain and hatred from Na Na, and big bad Joe?
By the way, I also wish Nancy would stop fiddling with her dentures during these speeches…it’s really distracting.
On September 9th, 2009 at 9:22 pm, TypicalWhite said:
Don’t hold your breath. The Republican response was weak and lame.
Only good part of the evening were the gales of laughter interrupting Obama when he said “Now we still have some details to work out in this plan…” line.
The Random-American Healthcare Plan:
1.) TORT reform. Yes, I agree that quack doctors need to be punished. However, average doctors having to spend $1-200,000 per year for malpractice insurance is simply ridiculous. Profit drives the market. If doctors make less (courtesy of malpractice insurance and shady lawyers), we will have fewer doctors. It’s a simple fact of economics. We need more doctors and more choices, not less.
2.) Get employers out of the health insurance business altogether. Insurance should be left to individual responsibility, just as it is with auto and home owners insurance.
3.) Allow individuals to purchase health insurance policies across state lines. There are 1300 health insurance providers throughout the U.S. We don’t need a government plan to implement competition. We need the barriers removed that prevent competition.
4.) Allow individuals to purchase plans that are tailored to their needs. Emergency/catastrophic only, a la auto liability? Or full-coverage? For example, a single guy with no kids doesn’t need the same policy as a married woman with three kids and is still in child-bearing age.
5.) Make all healthcare costs tax deductible, whether you itemize your deductions or not, but no greater than your total earnings for the year.
6.) Allow doctors, nurses, etc, to donate their services to charity in return for tax deductions at the fair market value, but no greater than their total earnings for the year. If they perform a tonsillectomy on an indigent person, the doctor should be allowed to deduct that cost from their taxes.
7.) Doctors should charge the same amount for a procedure whether the individual has insurance or is paying with cash. It shouldn’t cost more simply because a person is using their own money, nor should it ever cost more simply because it is covered by insurance.
8.) Only life-saving emergency healthcare for illegal aliens, then send the bill to the country they came from.
How hard is that? And it involves ZERO loss of liberty. But it makes sense and doesn’t allow government to seize more power, so naturally politicians (particularly those on the left) will hate it.
I must say that I like it! And you didn’t need 1000 pages of lawyerese to explain it, or an hour snake oil salesmanship, for that matter.
Fingerpointing and ranting is NOT leadership.
This loser needs to be flushed NOW.
Get a clue Obie, Chavez is NOT a role model to aspire to.
To quote the former green czar, Obama “is an a**hole”
MM, are you in NY? Just heard the tag line from Hannity! Waiting to see your smiling face!
So that’s where she is off to.
Boot the Czars!
Why in heaven’s name does Congress put up with the czars? Don’t they undermine the power of Congress?
Drudge is reporting it was Joe Wilson from SC who stood up and yelled YOU LIE regarding ODumbo’s statement that illegal immigrants won’t be covered. (I noticed the number of uninsured mysteriously dropped to 30 million) Mc Cain asked for an immediate apology to which I say argo f### yourself McCain. You make me want to puke.
I voted for McCain as a common sense vote against Obama. However, McCain is nothing more than a turncoat. Every move he makes is against conservatism.
But if I can’t afford tuition at a private college, I still have the chance to attend one via scholarships, work-study programs or student loans. What would be the equivalent to help me obtain private insurance?
What did I miss? Anybody watching the complete disappointment that was Melanie Oudin at the US Open? It’s nice to know that Roger Federer is always consistent in the big moments.
BTW, love Melanie Oudin. Just needs to fix her serve. A good example of the true spirit of America.
Nice to see, yet again, what a disappointment Obummer is in the big moments. To say that the US is the only “democracy” on Earth who allows hardship for its citizens is beyond aggregious. Ahem (clearing throat), what about the UK, Canada, and France?
You guys are gluttons for punishment. I wouldn’t watch this bozo if he were the star attraction at Ice Capades.
The notion of the government creating a “public option” in order to foster competition is pure bovine excrement too.
When it comes to business, the government should only act in one capacity… that of a referee, ensuring the rules of the free market are played by fairly. But when the government gets involved and acts as both the referee and the opposing team in the business market and economy, exactly how in the world does that foster good competition? Quite simply, it doesn’t. As a matter of fact, it’s the antithesis of good competition. Would it be good competition if in a football game the coaches of the opposing team were also the referees? Uhh, no. But somehow, in the world of hopeychangey rainbows and unicorns, that constitutes as ‘fairness.’
How anyone with more than two functioning brain cells can possibly want the government to be responsible for their healthcare is mindbogglong. The same people responsible for the banking mess, bailouts, the IRS, Amtrak, the VA, Dept of Education, the Post Office, etc. ad infinitum. I challenge someone to tell me one single thing the government does effectively and efficiently, besides create more beaurocracy.
They can’t even run a freakin cash for clunkers program and yet people want them involved in our healthcare? That’s simply baffling to me. When the government becomes responsible for our own personal health, we no longer own ourselves. And that is the greatest loss of liberty imaginable.
Thank you, Michelle, for suffering through that speech to play-by-play for us. I had to work, so I was grateful for an excuse not to have to endure it.
How do you say that Rep. Charles Boustany, a doctor, with the GOP response was “not bad”. It was awful, like Dustin Hoffman in Papillion.
Here’s a great opportunity to have a good speech after a crazy one by a crazy one, and they bring out a drone who lacks BO teleprompter skill.
An earlier response by Jindal was horrible, but this guy make Jindal seem like B. Hussein Obama.
Let’s get someone who generates interest out there!
Planet Earth to Libtards! People have been dying for thousands of years! More people will die sooner if you implement government run health care!
Go away. Your patently empty promises are seriously annoying those of us with NRA memberships…
I was [blessedly] out all evening, so missed all the fun.
Deciding to play catch up here, right off the bat I noted this (actually the first thing was his lack of punctuality -very bad manners, that):
I Won flunks Civics 101 once again – a fact that I’ve no doubt more than a few of you have already noted.
Once more, Mr. me, myself and I [won], get it through your thick skull; the United States of America is a constitutional republic, NOT a democracy.
Where’d this guy go to school? Oh – never mind…
I dont know about you, but looking at Biden and Pelosi behind the president is flat out surreal. I just cannot believe how low the standards are for being VP or Speaker of the House. You want to think of those seats being filled by the best, the brightest; people of substance and intellect. Not two complete a*ss clowns, one a serial plagiarist, the other a filthy immoral socialist. God.
About Obama being heckled by a Repub senator as a liar, it was deplorable, as deplorable as Obama’s constant insults to those on the right, in which Obama also twice accused Republican pols, and other conservatives of lying. Of course that will be ignored by the puppets in Obama’s State-run media.
Ok…. speech was supposed to start at a certain time…
TV is stadning by…. pundits watching…
Congress, called together….
America is watching…
And this guy is 15 minutes late?
Hubris?
And yet, aren’t politicians constantly whining about skyrocketing tuition costs at those public universities?
Naw, He was just setting his DVR to catch “So You Think You Can Dance” and was checking out the start to make sure he did not miss anything!
I’m glad Joe Wilson yelled.
I read a list of what he had promised in some comment, and wondered “did he really promise all that?” So I looked up the transcript. Sure enough. Merle Haggard sang my first reaction about 40 years ago..
“Rainbow Stew“
Finally got the stomach to watch the rerun of the speech.
How many times did Obama accuse others of lying? Plenty.
Maybe Joe Wilson and others got sick of being told they are the liars, not Obama.
And more on lying, just saw David Axelrod saying that the doctors and nurses of this country support this reform.
HUGE LIE! Maybe some do, but plenty do not!
I’m interested to see the rating numbers?
Bet he pulled less than last time. If he did and the next time the great black hope, wants to do a prime time and the networks refuse. WE should then start a E-mail campaign demanding that they put him on the air, tell them we’ll boycott their advertisers if they don’t. There’s more than one way to break adog from sucking eggs.
I’m glad to see that ol’ Obama is going to stick to his guns, continue to lie, and give the middle finger to the greater majority of Americans who do not want this bill. There should be no gray areas on this issue. It’s a clear and present danger.
Funny, that’s the same terminology I used as I was yelling at the TV.
I attended a private university.
1. The public university didn’t make me transfer to them when the term ended and my classes changed.
2. The public university didn’t have unfettered access to my tax records.
3. The public university didn’t get access to my bank account.
4. There was no end of term counseling.
5. I wasn’t forced to attend college or pay a penalty.
Well, you also don’t have to write term papers for health care, but so what?
Those contrasts are silly, John Deaux. The entire point, which is entirely valid is that the university system here shows that having an affordable public option, that provides a good quality of product does not drive out private businesses that offer a different or better product to those willing to pay a premium for it. Hell, sometimes the public product (California and Virginia) are far superior to private options.
chap,
1. Insurance will be mandatory or a penalty will be assessed.
2. If you change your policy, you have to switch to one that’s part of their exchange.
3. There are serious privacy issues here with regards to tax, bank, and health information.
None of these conditions are present with the educational system, so the analogy is not relevant.
Why not solve the problems instead of trying to invoke a whole new bureacracy on the public?
How does whether or not something is mandatory to purchase affect whether or not private can successfully compete with a public option?
Wherein many, in fact every, private plans will be available for you to choose from. The exchange is nothing more than a way to be able to comparison shop and to impose some minimum requirements on the providers. Its like saying that if you leave your current college, the government will force you to choose one from an exchange that has every single college in the country and that the government is forcing that college to teach math and literature.
You don’t think there are privacy issues in education?
But regardless just because there are obvious superficial differences between the provision of health care and education, does not mean that the basic point does not hold. Or to put it another way…how does each of your differences disprove the notion that, like in education, public and private can both compete and succeed?
The point is that if it is mandatory, many people will choose the cheapest option, which will be the public option because it is subsidized by the taxpayers. This will effectively drive the private insurers out of business. I’m sure more than a few will stick around offering policies that the majority of people can’t afford. After all, you can’t alienate the wealthy. Who will donate to the campaigns?
That would depend entirely on how the exchange is structured, now wouldn’t it? What if those minimum requirements are too expensive for an insurer to meet? I work for a third party administrator and healthcare provider. I see that many don’t want to take Medicaid customers because of the low payout.
Not to the extent that an entire bureacracy has access to my tax records and my bank account. Right now, I can go to a doctor with the reasonable expectation that the details of my illness will remain between the two of us with the insurance company seeing nothing more than a procedure code. How many people will have access to my medical records under the new plan?
Doesn’t it amaze you that the concept of RealID was blasted as an unprecedented invasion of privacy when it was proposed by the Bush administration, but those same people think thousands of people having access to every American’s tax, bank, and health records is just peachy?
Public and private can compete and succeed. The only variable is the playing field and the public controls that, don’t they?
When something is not mandatory, people often choose the cheapest option. But often they don’t. Hence private colleges and people who buy potatoes for $1.69/lb at Whole Foods as opposed to %.99/lb at Giant in order to avoid potatoes with brown spots.
It is in the bill, along with the minimum requirements.
Where are you getting the idea that your health information will be exposed any more or less than it would be with a private insurer? Seriously. If you have a private insurer, the government would not have access to it, at least not on a personal level (I can see requirements for insurers to provide statistics about their coverage, but nothing that could be identified on a personal level). And if you have public insurance, what makes the apparent thousands of people that would presumably administer the plan any different from the 75,000 employees of United HealthCare? And its not like we don’t have some models to go by. Have there been a rash of Medicare, Medicaid or TriCare recipients having their medical information used improperly?
Oh and by the way, the only reason you have ANY privacy over your medical records is because Congress imposed minimum requirements on health care providers and insurers in the form of HIPAA.
The point is that the options will be more limited to the middle class. I’ll pay $1.39 at Publix for potatoes that I feel are as good as the ones at Whole Foods. The problem is the $1.39 option will be forced out of business because of cost constraints.
A new government agency deciding whether a plan is “qualified” doesn’t sound like a simple clearinghouse of choices, does it?
It’s summed up in this article.
HIPAA definitely quantified privacy, particularly with regards to identity theft. Most insurers and providers took reasonable precautions before, but HIPAA established standards and penalties for violations.
Not sure, but didn’t Medicare-/aid “misplace” some discs with client data and SS numbers on them?
That’s one of the things HIPAA put in place, the use of member IDs in place of SSN. The problem is that the insurance company can still use the SSN internally. All of that is considered PHI, protected health information, but leaks happen.
People are always constrained by cost, whether it is with a “mandatory” purchase or a non-mandatory one. Having shelter is essentially mandatory, if not in the strictest legal sense. This fact does not mean there is not a wide range of housing options available at all different costs. But, unlike health care now, I can choose between literally thousands of housing providers in the DC area alone rather than 2 or 3. And I have some assurances that there will be minimum mandatory standards, like hot water and a functioning lock on the door.
I never said it was. There are new requirements about coverage, to be sure. Whether or not these would run a private insurance company out of business I think is highly speculative, at best. I am sure they have every interest in the world in saying it would.
How many dozens and dozens of times have we heard of a the same thing happening with a private entity? Why would you think a government entity is any more vulnerable?
The simple point is that there are ways of fixing the system that don’t involve surrendering our privacy and our paychecks to yet another government agency.
Someone said that was the first time someone in Congress yelled at a president during a speech. Probably true.
But I’m wondering, has a president ever, giving such a speech so repeatedly accused voters, members of the opposing party and segments of the media of lying, misrepresenting and attempting to undermine reform (of any kind?) at any cost?
And saying he will call them out but demanding apologies when someone calls him out for telling lies.
The fabulous fibber strikes again.
Obama Lied!
America Died!
Okay. Got that out of my system.
Jerk Repub that gave the dems a rallying cry, as reported in the newsmedia.
Fine. He was right about the lie, but there is a time and palce for everything, and the prime-time speech wasn’t the right time.
I see commentary above, and I can’t believe my eyes.
How many private insurance providers are there for basic medical coverage for persons old enough for MEDICARE?
Zero, right?
Because the private sector can not compete with a subsidized monopoly.
You BO supporters are thick.
Any time the private sector competes with the federal gov’t, it is not a level playing field.
Miltary/industrial complex work (private sector vs say, Navy repair facilities), environmental/industrial complex work, etc…it’s never a level playing field because gov’t accounting never includes all of it’s own costs.
I can’t wait to join this thread when I get home from work.
A thousand page boondoggle bill – anyone in support of such a bill is clearly not looking for anything other than gov’t control of 1/6 of the economy, and we’ll get the diminished health care service (on average) that we ask for if we go that route.
I’m no fan of insurance companies, but “the public option” is the greater evil.
Okay, I can’t stop.
I listened to one part of BOs speech, talking about the failures to control costs, then talking how we’ll make things more cost efficient at the same time as expanding coverage.
Why not SHOW us by controlling costs first within Medicare, for once, and then expanding the system.
Err, because maybe it’s impossible to control medicare costs? If not, why hasn’t the gov’t done it?
Because gov’t can’t.