Obama Rallies His Health Care Troops, Likening the “Toughest Fight” Yet to the ’08 Campaign

The problem is, Obama regards governing as a campaign, not as a job. So far, it’s a job he’s failing dismally at.

Average of latest NBC, Pew and Gallup polls has Obama approval at 50.7%. Rasmussen poll of likely voters has him at 50% approve, 50% disapprove.
Innumerable current polls show substantial and growing pluralities opposing any of the health care reform bills currently under consideration.

OBAMA: “From the day we announced this race, we were fighting against that.”
THIS race?
Beth hit it on the nail. President Obama doesn’t know when to stop running for the office and actually DO THE JOB! Instead of LEADING, he is letting Congress do their thing while he is nothing more than a Spokesperson in Chief.

“You know, if you just flick channels, and then stop on certain ones of them then you’ll see you know, you’ll see who’s propagating this stuff.”
I’d like to switch to the cable company that provides service to the White House. All of the channels I flick have Obama on them…

Uh… is our president ever going to, I dunno, sit in his office and DO HIS FREAKING JOB instead of scampering about appearing in greenhouse events and propagating bald faced lies?
Wait, never mind- he’s not.

2Brixshy:” is our president ever going to, I dunno, sit in his office and DO HIS FREAKING JOB instead of scampering about appearing in greenhouse events and propagating bald faced lies?”
He is doing his job. Can you cite one of these “bald faced lies” you accuse him of propagating?
All of the blatant lies currently eminate from the Republican camp:
1. Death panels (there are no such things in any of the current bills)
2. “Stephen Hawking would have been left to die by the NHS”
3. Illegal immigrants will get free healthcare (“H.R. 3200: Sec 246 — NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS”)
4. Government will decide what care I get – they’re going to start rationing service! (“Nothing in this section shall be construed to permit the Commission or the Center to mandate coverage, reimbursement, or other policies for any public or private payer.”)
5. You will be forced into the government plan if you switch jobs! (Not true, and the CBO analysis estimates only 10% of workers will be on the government plan by 2019, everyone else will be under private insurance just like now).
6. Suicide counseling is required! (No, that amendment championed by a Republican was to allow for, at the patient’s option, counseling on setting up a living will and being appraised of options like living your last 5 days at home with loved ones rather than stretching them into 7 days on a machine in a hospital).
To be fair, I’ll toss you a couple exagerations that you could work up a good rant about being bald faced lies:
1. Healthcare will be deficit neutral. (very debatable – most likely the government will end up paying an extra $100 billion a year to save private businesses and Americans $200-400 billion a year; not a bad trade, but not deficit neutral).
2. We will get a bipartisan bill (Obama could find a pile of diamonds and offer to pay for it all personally and he’d be lucky to get a dozen Republicans to support anything he does).

All Obama knows is campaigning. It’s no real surprise that he is retreating into campaign mode, again.

“3. Illegal immigrants will get free healthcare (“H.R. 3200: Sec 246 — NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS”)”
——–
Yes, they will continue to get free care at hospitals and hospitals will continue to not be reimbursed for those billions of dollars, which is why premiums go up for everybody.

“Death panels (there are no such things in any of the current bills).”
True, but then we don’t have Obama’s bill yet, do we? And we know that Obama had this to say quite recently:
“There is going to have to be a conversation that is guided by doctors, scientists, ethicists. And then there is going to have to be a very difficult democratic conversation that takes place. It is very difficult to imagine the country making those decisions just through normal political channels. And that’s part of why you have to have some independent group that can give you guidance. It’s not determinative, but I think has to be able to give you some guidance.”
And let us imagine what happens to doctors who don’t follow the “guidance.” Obama doesn’t give a name to this group of “ethicists” and other worthies, but until he does, “death panel” seems to be a nice fit.

“Illegal immigrants will get free healthcare (“H.R. 3200: Sec 246 — NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS”).”
I see. And at what point is the doctor permitted to ask for proof of citizenship, and how is citizenship to be established?

“Government will decide what care I get – they’re going to start rationing service!”
(“Nothing in this section shall be construed to permit the Commission or the Center to mandate coverage, reimbursement, or other policies for any public or private payer.”)
The response does not address the concern: nothing quoted would prevent rationing, which is of course inevitable. And what prevents the Congress from mandating coverage, as it has already done repeatedly for Medicaid?

“You will be forced into the government plan if you switch jobs!”
“(Not true, and the CBO analysis estimates only 10% of workers will be on the government plan by 2019, everyone else will be under private insurance just like now).”
How many people are squeezed out of private plans and into the public one is dependent on the reimbursement rates; the Lewin group estimates under a reasonable scenario that 80 million would be shouldered into the public “option.” And of course if you do try to switch to another private plan you cannot do so unless it is approved by the government. So whether you want it or not, for example, you’ll have to pay for in vitro fertilization coverage.

“I see. And at what point is the doctor permitted to ask for proof of citizenship, and how is citizenship to be established?”
Posted by: Fructuoso Solano-Revuelta
At any point – probably the same time as they ask for insurance now, since if they treat an illegal alien they will not get compensated by the government for the treatment rendered. (Just like they don’t get compensated by anyone if they treat a poor uninsured American citizen right now.)
This is not at all a difficult concept, which is why the persistence of the lie has to be deliberate.

“‘‘(h) CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this section shall
15 be construed to permit the Commission or the Center to
16 mandate coverage, reimbursement, or other policies for
17 any public or private payer.’’.”
—
Fine, but there are OTHER SECTIONS that make clear that plans all have to be GOVERNMENT-APPROVED.

This administration if gearing up for s “single payer health plan” and if anyone buys the “co-op crap”…that too, will lead to a single payer health plan….they can try to change the name but they cannot change the game! Redistribution of wealth is the REAL END GAME!!

It’s about time for Obama to start acting like a president and do the job he was elected to do.Bring about change and stop kissing up to the REPUBLICANS which is all he has been doing since he got into office. If with the powers of the presidency and the Democrats with Majorities in both houses can’t deliver a “very strong” Natinonal Health Service without regard for the profiteers who created this problem, then they are utterly useless to the American people. They are very weak,whishy washy,spineless and extremely indecisive.I’m sorry to say this little boy president fanatically seeking Republican approval and bending at every Republican breeze is simply ineffectual and the Republicans are “leading” the Democrats in a deadly dance and Obama is following with zeal. We need leadership.

jpt writes:
“Obama said the best offense against lies is the truth and prompted his volunteers – what he dubbed “the best ambassadors for true information” – to keep pushing just the facts.”
Er … maybe He meant “defense”? And “everybody in Washington gets all we-we-ed up”?!
Guess that makes Him the first White House resident publicly to use penis imagery in an attempt to uh peeve off people, especially the female ones and the old-fashioned, on ALL sides.
Der Won is done: this IS like His endless campaign, is PART of His endless campaign — a lot of sound and money, signifying nothing. In the case of His “health care” or “insurance reform”, or whatever it is today, LESS than nothing, a mishmash that makes nothing look GOOD.

tanarg:”They’re calling them “private plans,” and they all have to meet the standards the government sets in the Exchange.”
Yess… the insurance plans will need to adhere to the new regulations. Just like they need to adhere to regulations now. I guess I missed how vacuous your original comment really was:
“In five years, you have to be in a government-approved plan, regardless of what your employer does.”
YOUR IN A GOVERNMENT-APPROVED PLAN RIGHT NOW IF YOU HAVE EMPLOYER INSURANCE. Government requirements for the tax deductibility of employer provided insurance are extensive, and include the acceptance of pre-existing conditions already!

“Gee, I wonder if the paranoid imaginings of Republicans is going to be anything like the actual, decades long experience every other first world nation has had with national health care?”
An absurd non sequitur. And are you including Canada and the UK in your question? Are you sure you want to?
As you very well know, for a member of any profession to fail to follow federal guidelines poses some quite serious risks, and those risks can be realized in myriad ways. That is not paranoia, that is the real world.
I have no idea what the Investors Business Daily has had to say, nor do I care. Any number of stupid things have been said on this subject on both sides, not least by Obama himself. The stupid utterings of others do not affect one whit anything I have said, nor do they help your arguments at all.

More dishonesty–blaming the Republicans..Their problem is with fellow Democrats. The people they are targeting have read the bill and know what it says, so they are not lying!!!

“Suicide counseling is required!” First I’ve heard that claim.
Betsy McCaughey said, “The Congress would make it mandatory … that every five years, people in Medicare have a required counseling session that will tell them how to end their life sooner, how to decline nutrition, how to decline being hydrated, how to go into hospice care … all to do what’s in society’s best interest … and cut your life short.”
Check out Sarah Palin’s Facebook pages. She thinks McCaughey’s opinions are to die for!

“So you’re a mind reader?”
Who needs to read minds.
You tried to pull that same stunt by spreading the Ashley Todd hoax…even after it was debunked.

“Folks in the press are following every little twist and turn of the legislative process,” Oblabla whines.
That’s what He was AFRAID of, when He tried to shove this pig bill through Congress unexamined, like Cash 4 Clunkers.

“”Asked whether they approve or disapprove of the president’s job performance, just 45.3 percent of likely voters say they approve. That compares with 50.5 percent who disapprove of the job Obama is doing.” Zogby today.”
Zogby Interactive?
ROFLMAO!
Its the worst performing poll over the last 3 elections!

Zogby’s poll is excellent news. The downward trend continues, as reflected by Pew, NBC and Gallup in the past two days, all showing 50% approval. Rasmussen has it at 50 approve, 50 disapprove. The trend is clear, as is the reason: people now realize that this man doesn’t know what he’s doing, except that he wants to take them places they don’t want to go.

“Zogby’s poll is excellent news”
ROFLMAO!
Zogby Interactive is so bad that RCP won’t even include them in their poll aggregate.

The RCP does, of course, include Rasmussen, adjudged the nation’s most accurate in 2008. Their average is now around 51%.
Does anyone know if any new president has ever reached this low a level this early in his term? I believe Obama has set the new world outdoor record.

NBC tells us that a plurality believes Obama’s plan will worsen health care, and that only four in ten approve of his handling of this issue.
We have a failed presidency developing rapidly before our very eyes.

Facist Hyena:”
The RCP does, of course, include Rasmussen, adjudged the nation’s most accurate in 2008. Their average is now around 51%.”
Rasmussen most accurate? For a single election result, and the single professor who threw that paper together made an error and has since retracted it. Rasmussen is known to have a Republican house effect (their results versus actual outcomes over many races tend to lean republican by a handful of points). Rasmussen adjusts all numbers through their black-box likely voter model, which appears to assume Republicans more likely to vote so it increases their ‘vote’ in polls.
“Does anyone know if any new president has ever reached this low a level this early in his term? I believe Obama has set the new world outdoor record.”
You would believe that. As for reality, Reagan had similar numbers and Clinton was far lower.

ross:”does this health care plan cover dental ”
Probably not. I’ve never had dental from my employer provided insurance either.

ross:”In HR3200 it states that the government wants to have ACCESS to our bank accounts……anyone here have a problem with THAT? ”
Yes, because it is another absurd lie contradicted by the bill. I’m guessing you’ve popped open a fact check list and are just going down the line throwing out the most frequently debunked lies to have a little evening fun annoying people. Kinda humorous in its own pathetic way.

“On Sept 13th the real grass-roots of this country must carpet this nation’s capital so thickly that no amount of money or power can mow us down.”
Hahaha. Been there, done that. Better to rally for Single Payer, and bring pikes and cudgels.

El Know-it-all better go for straight insurance reform FIRST, for those who HAVE insurance, and see if He can manage THAT without hornswoggling anybody. And leave everybody else the heck ALONE, until Dr. Dean wins the 2012 election and can enact Single Payer like a serious grown-up, and without invoking “wee-wees”.
Otherwise, the whole COUNTRY is gonna be wee-wee’d off, marching on the White House with … great big shillelaghs (cudgels with a strap, commonly pronounced “shi-LAY-lee”, typically made from a stout knotty stick with a large knob at the top), which somewhat resemble great. big. wee-wees.
The corporados, who got THEIR trillions without a lot of unseemly hemming and hawing, may not be there — THEY’ll all be on Martha’s Vineyard. And points north.

Clinton and Reagan were both indoors…
I had dental coverage in my employer-provided plan in the from 1976 through the 1980′s. The firm negotiated the plan with the carrier. There was a pretty low annual cap, on the order of $1,000.

“A bill saying the public plans are limited to citizens and legal residents is not.”
Is it racist to ask how the citizenship requirement will be enforced? Does the bill say anything about it? How many readers here carry proof of their citizenship with them?

UAW LIES!!! RAYAN C STOP TRYING TO PLAY THE RACE CARD FRANKLY IT IS GETTING REALLY OLD. IT APPEARS THAT IF YOU READ THE BILL AND TRY TO STATE THE FACTS THAT ARE THERE YOU ARE RACIST. IF YOU DISAGREE WITH ANYTHING THE PRESIDENT SAYS YOU ARE A RACIST. LOOK EVERYONE IS NOT AN O’BOT LIKE YOU. WE INVESTIGATE AND READ RATHER THAN FOLLOW THE LIES OF THIS ADMINISTRATION! IF YOU WOULD TAKE THE TIME TO READ THE BILL YOU WOULD SEE THE POISON THAT IS THROUGHT OUT THE BILL. LET ME HELP YOU OUT ON THIS ONE. I READ THE THE BILL AND HERE SOME OF THE POISION THAT I FOUND IN THE FIRST 500 PAGES.
• Page 22: Mandates audits of all employers that self-insure!
• Page 29: Admission: your health care will be rationed!
• Page 30: A government committee will decide what treatments and benefits you get (and, unlike an insurer, there will be no appeals process)
• Page 42: The “Health Choices Commissioner” will decide health benefits for you. You will have no choice. None.
• Page 50: All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free healthcare services.
• Page 58: Every person will be issued a National ID Health card.
• Page 59: The federal government will have direct, real-time access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transfer.
• Page 65: Taxpayers will subsidize all union retiree and community organizer health plans (read: SEIU, UAW and ACORN)
• Page 72: All private healthcare plans must conform to government rules to participate in a Healthcare Exchange.
• Page 84: All private healthcare plans must participate in the Healthcare Exchange (i.e., total government control of private plans)
• Page 91: Government mandates linguistic infrastructure for services; translation: illegal aliens
• Page 95: The Government will pay ACORN and AmeriCorps to sign up individuals for Government-run Health Care plan.
• Page 102: Those eligible for Medicaid will be automatically enrolled: you have no choice in the matter.
• Page 124: No company can sue the government for price-fixing. No “judicial review” is permitted against the government monopoly. Put simply, private insurers will be crushed.
• Page 127: The AMA sold doctors out: the government will set wages.
• Page 145: An employer MUST auto-enroll employees into the government-run public plan. No alternatives.
• Page 126: Employers MUST pay healthcare bills for part-time employees AND their families.
• Page 149: Any employer with a payroll of $400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays an 8% tax on payroll
• Page 150: Any employer with a payroll of $250K-400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays a 2 to 6% tax on payroll
• Page 167: Any individual who doesn’t’ have acceptable healthcare (according to the government) will be taxed 2.5% of income.
• Page 170: Any NON-RESIDENT alien is exempt from individual taxes (Americans will pay for them).
• Page 195: Officers and employees of Government Healthcare Bureaucracy will have access to ALL American financial and personal records.
• Page 203: “The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax.” Yes, it really says that.
• Page 239: Bill will reduce physician services for Medicaid. Seniors and the poor most affected.”
• Page 241: Doctors: no matter what specialty you have, you’ll all be paid the same (thanks, AMA!)
• Page 253: Government sets value of doctors’ time, their professional judgment, etc.
• Page 265: Government mandates and controls productivity for private healthcare industries.
• Page 268: Government regulates rental and purchase of power-driven wheelchairs.
• Page 272: Cancer patients: welcome to the wonderful world of rationing!
• Page 280: Hospitals will be penalized for what the government deems preventable re-admissions.
• Page 298: Doctors: if you treat a patient during an initial admission that results in a readmission, you will be penalized by the government.
• Page 317: Doctors: you are now prohibited for owning and investing in healthcare companies!
• Page 318: Prohibition on hospital expansion. Hospitals cannot expand without government approval.
• Page 321: Hospital expansion hinges on “community” input: in other words, yet another payoff for ACORN.
• Page 335: Government mandates establishment of outcome-based measures: i.e., rationing.
• Page 341: Government has authority to disqualify Medicare Advantage Plans, HMOs, etc.
• Page 354: Government will restrict enrollment of SPECIAL NEEDS individuals.
• Page 379: More bureaucracy: Telehealth Advisory Committee (healthcare by phone).
• Page 425: More bureaucracy: Advance Care Planning Consult: Senior Citizens, assisted suicide, euthanasia?
• Page 425: Government will instruct and consult regarding living wills, durable powers of attorney, etc. Mandatory. Appears to lock in estate taxes ahead of time.
• Page 425: Government provides approved list of end-of-life resources, guiding you in death.
• Page 427: Government mandates program that orders end-of-life treatment; government dictates how your life ends.
• Page 429: Advance Care Planning Consult will be used to dictate treatment as patient’s health deteriorates. This can include an ORDER for end-of-life plans. An ORDER from the GOVERNMENT.
• Page 430: Government will decide what level of treatments you may have at end-of-life.
• Page 469: Community-based Home Medical Services: more payoffs for ACORN.
• Page 472: Payments to Community-based organizations: more payoffs for ACORN.
• Page 489: Government will cover marriage and family therapy. Government intervenes in your marriage.
• Page 494: Government will cover mental health services: defining, creating and rationing those services.
WAKE UP YOU O’BOT IDIOTS.

“READ THE THE BILL AND HERE SOME OF THE POISION THAT I FOUND IN THE FIRST 500 PAGES.”
Yeah right, Eva Brown. All you did was copy from the bogus email that that certain Palinistas and Limbaughers have been circulating. Go to Politifact and read what they have to say about that email.

When the going gets tough, the tough … go campaigning? Oh, now I remember. Obama is pulling from his vast reservoir of leadership experience, that is, running a campaign. The American people know the difference between campaigning and governing. Let’s hope Obama figures it out pretty soon.

Jhw539 wrote: “…and the CBO analysis estimates only 10% of workers will be on the government plan by 2019, everyone else will be under private insurance just like now.”
Have you read HR 3200, Sec. 313 (“Employer Contributions In Lieu Of Coverage”)?
A company with an annual payroll of $1 million will only have to pay $80,000 if it forgoes employee healthcare coverage. $80,000 versus the hundreds of thousands of dollars it now costs to provide healthcare for its employees!
OH! And companies that have a payroll of under $250,000 can forgo healthcare coverage for its employees for FREE! There is no fee assessed! So tens of thousands of dollars in expenses (providing healthcare for employees) versus tens of thousands of dollars more profits!
HR 3200 provides a huge incentive for employers to drop healthcare coverage for their employees.

“Eva Brown is right on target with those bullit points and it is very scary to say the least.”
Bullets really grab your attention, huh?
Eva Brown is circulating a list of:
• Lies
• Lies
• More Lies
Go to Politifact and read the truth about the litany of lies. There is nothing to be scared of.

“Rasmussen most accurate “for a single election?” Yeah, the most recent presidential election…
By a single professor? Yeah–did he get it wrong? Where should Rasmussen have been ranked?”
Tied for 3rd with Pew, 1 pt off the final total.
4 other polls were tied right behind.

Professor Panagopoulos analyzed the final pre-election polls of 23 polling organizations. Four of them overestimated McCain’s vote; seventeen overestimated that of Obama (anyone surprised?) Two–Rasmussen and Pew–were spot on, although Rasmussen was a hair closer.
I believe that the point has now been well made. And Obama is in serious trouble.

Rasmussen and the Democrat Zogby, almost uniquely, poll “likely voters” instead of “registered voters” or “adults.” ”
The poll you cited as from Zogby interactive which is a self selected sample internet survey.
Its almost as worthless as a straight internet poll.

“The analysis published by Fordham University ranked Rasmussen’s final pre-election poll most accurate.”
ROFLMAO!
It was an assoc prof whop cooked the numbers.
He had to round up McCain;s percentage from 45.6% to 46% and round down Obama’s percentage from 52.9% to 52% in order to get his results.
Of course Rasmussen linked to this “endorsement” because he enjoys cooking the numbers too.

Soooo ryan c are you expressing doubt in the points Eva Brown presented or is your response merely a distraction to the facts?”
Let’s see she lied stating they were her points not a copy paste(with bullet points) from a list being passed around right wing blogs.
As for the list itself, politifact has done a rundown showing how false they are.

“Boy, all that stuff about who rounded up or down is really persuasive!”
Obviously you are not concerned with bogus numbers.
After all you’ve been told about how worng the paper was doznes of times and yet you repeat it.
The lesson as always? Right wingers lie.

Rasmussen’s final poll for the 2008 presidential election was 52-46 Obama. The final result posted by CNN was 53-46.
Fools take comfort where they might. I suppose.
Perhaps the results above show that Obama is doing just fine, and Rasmussen for some reason is lying. (But why is NBC lying? The Washington Post? Pew? Quinnipiac?) One waits in vain for sensible commentary…

“Rasmussen’s final poll for the 2008 presidential election was 52-46 Obama. The final result posted by CNN was 53-46.”
And the final tally with out rounding Obama total down and rounding McCain’s up was 53 to 46.
Again, you know this yet continually cite a paper you KNOW is inaccurate.
Why?

Politifact Ryan, that’s like directing a liberal to read the National Review for the true meaning of life….Not gonna happen…Are the stated points as referenced by Eva B stated in the bill word for word or not?

Are the stated points as referenced by Eva B stated in the bill word for word or not?
Posted by: Parallex View | Aug 21, 2009 7:06:18 PM
In the bill word for word? No. Have you not looked at the bill? Or Eva’s post? The bullet points are summaries that purposely misinterpet, and they are a direct copy of the ploy used by the debunked Betsy McCaughey back in the 90s and again recently. But they are in the mass email that was sent out, word for word, and much of that has been debunked. I think the caps in Eva’s email are supposed to make it seem like, wow, she really read the first 500 pages. LOL. Why not pick 496 or something so as not to tip every one off that it was copied from an email? Too funny. Even funnier? People are cheering her on and writing things like this:
“prove it by presenting the “Bill” pages numbered in evidence to disprove…”
It’s not worth the time invested at this point. Would it change your mind? No. You’re mocking Politifact. But good on Ryan for calling liars liars.