The Note: Buzz Factor: Does Obama Have Something New to Say?

The president needs his big slate of media appearances to fully explain to the public where reform stands now and what the conflicting responses to the Baucus plan they’ve been hearing really mean. This weekend will be invaluable to the president and the White House in soothing the public and solidifying the gains already made in the polls on health care.

Unfortunately Matt the President will only talk circle around the issues just like he always has and probably always will. As POTUS he should concentrate more on getting the job done and sticking to his campaign promises than giving meaningless interviews at an unprecedented rate. I predict he’ll hit the talk show circuit immediately after he looses in 2012. Soon after that he’ll appear on “Worlds Dumbest Criminals” with all the other D list celebs.

There is nothing new, really.
There is only 2 ways to go. Either national health care for everyone (except the 12 million illegal immigrants), or a private system of free choice.
Nothing else is truly workable.

He’d get a lot further if he defied senior Democrats in congress and called for provisions that would prevent those in the U.S. illegally from getting any kind of gov’t healthcare–instead of just lying that those provisions are already part of the plan.
This is no small matter, providing illegal immigrants with free health care is a guaranteed path to financial disaster.

obama can hold an audience – he speaks their language. people listen and understand what he is saying. This will only push health care reform ahead. When republicans speak – people turn of the tv or leave the room. No one in what is left of the republican party – can duplicate his efforts. all they can do is say no and not offer any alternatives. republicans really don’t care about anything except to defeat obama -

Republican Party – the party of nein, nein, nein!

Obama keeps repeating the same lines that when studies turn out to hurt his case, not bolster it.
the “fired up, ready to go” story and the councilwoman in Greenwood SC is old and tired. if anything it does more to make the opposition fired up and ready to go defeat Pelosicare.

haven’t people realized yet that obama’s #1 priority with the health
bill(s) is to have his name on SOMETHING…ANYTHING? nowadays, the game is, pass a bill, claim it’s the greatest thing ever for the middle class, pat yourself on the back, and then if it proves a disaster, simply blame the other side for it not working. politics is no longer about getting anything substantive done. rather, it’s about claiming victory, slamming and demonizing your opponents, and laying the groundwork for your historical legacy. he just wants something passed. he even said as much a few weeks ago…”we’re going to get something done this year.” that “something” can be anything. then the partisans on both sides will argue about how great or awful “it” is. it’s all a game and we’re all getting played by both sides.

The Republicans do have health care reform ideas. It is the fawning Obama media that refuses to cover them however.

A gadfly that, as Mark Twain might say, “is somewhat economical with the truth”!

What’s happening in Mass is democratcy(sic) at its sleazy best!

Looks like Obama is going to play all HIS media to the hilt this weekend!

Overexposure? You’re kidding. The extreme Right’s hate anybody/anything has been overexposed. This country needs Obama’s “overexposure” … now!

The Baucas plan, if it indeed is as stated, continues to allow insurers to free enterprise the ill.
President Obama, please help us understand this will not happen.

ConstantXI
“no special election will be held”
There will be a special election in five months. This law is just to enable the governor to fill the seat until the election. Otherwise, Massachutes would only be represented by one, instead of two senators for five months. According to the new law, the interm Senator will not be allowed to run for the seat, thus eliminating any advantage an appointed incumbent might have.

Empty rhetoric, misinformation, and intellectual dishonesty is how I would describe the current Presidential administration along with Pelosi and Reid. The conservative march on Washington was estimated by British media services at 2.2 MILLION. The Republican’s are offerring ideas, and have a healthcare plan. Everyday people are getting very sick and tired of the current Democratic Party. Many people that I work with and know are calling it ……………”The Communist Party”, and looking back at history I see too many parallels to ignore. I think people need to take a long hard look at what is going on with 8.5 billion dollars of stimulus money going to ACORN. Ummm….the community organization that is okey with underage prostitution of illegal immigrants, and more. ACORN is a federally funded partisan group attempting to create political direction with your tax dollars using whatever means necessary to buy support. COMMUNISM.

On a different note: Am I the only one on here that thinks Speaker Pelosi’s mental state is in question? I’m not saying this to be funny but I think she is unbalanced at best. Her quote to the Post- She said she is clueless about the ACORN amendment. “I don’t even know what they passed” “what did they do? “they defunded it?” Didnt the Obama admin fire IG Walpin because he was confused and disoriented? To think this woman is two heartbeats away is scary.

Ed Taylor, 912er, jon, Jeff, ConstantXI
We finally have a smart, gifted, calm President and a normal Vice President, who are overseeing an administration that is responsive to conservative concerns, seeks to work with Republicans in a bi-partisan fashion, puts country before Party, and all you can do is smear, lie, insult and attack these gentlemen? Where were you when Bush/Cheney were adding trillions of dollars to the deficit?

Now this Jimmy carter clones administration is going after Americas back yard. They want to tax Garage sales and Yard sales. Thanks all you yes we can idiots. You have broke the backbone if this nation and it will take years after he is voted out to fix it.

Bring him on! The more exposure, the
better. The more he pushes this hokey
health care plan, the more his numbers
will drop. Give him his own prime-
time reality show while you’re at it.

“It’s only overexposure if something’s exposed that the White House would rather wasn’t.”
Not quite. Overexposure is when something’s exposed that the VIEWER would rather wasn’t. The VIEWER! The CONSUMER determines if something is overexposed. Rick, this is Marketing 101.

Ed Taylor | Sep 18, 2009 10:26:14 AM….”Looks like Obama is going to play all HIS media to the hilt this weekend!”…..I heard that Obama has shunned FOX News Sunday (Mike Wallace).

The headline on the front site was “Obama is Everywhere — Yet Nowhere in Health Care Debate.”
Early on, it contains the critical one-liner: “A president who’s everywhere hasn’t been much of anywhere when it comes to the biggest/only item on his domestic agenda.”
Later on, it says: “Mr. Obama has been on an especially prodigious media binge lately, pitching his health care plan seemingly everywhere but the Food Channel and Fox News….”
So what we have is some vague, fuzzy self-contradictory criticism of the President for being everywhere and for being nowhere.
Let the President do his job. If you have a legitimate criticism, articulate it in specific, concrete, non-mystical, coherent words and sentences.

Obama again use this false story yesterday at the University of Maryland where he was heckled by a brave student for lying. Maybe George will ask him about thes falsehood on Sunday?
From Mr. Obama’s address to the joint session of Congress :
“One man from Illinois lost his coverage in the middle of chemotherapy because his insurer found that he hadn’t reported gallstones that he didn’t even know about. They delayed his treatment, and he died because of it.”
This is the sad story of Mr. Otto Raddatz, a case that Mr. Obama has cited several times before, including in his August 16th editorial in the New York Times.
For the record, however, the case is not exactly the way Mr. Obama has characterized it, at least according to the sworn testimony of Mr. Raddatz’s sister.
From Ms. Raddatz’s opening statement, from pages 58-59 of the transcript (a pdf file) of the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation Committee hearings on ‘The Termination Of Individual Health Policies By Insurance Companies,’ Tuesday, June 16, 2009:
Otto began more chemotherapy for purposes of preparing him for a stem cell transplant. In the midst of his chemo treatments, Otto received a phone call and letter from Fortis Insurance Company stating his insurance was canceled. It was rescinded all the way back to the effective date of August 7, 2004.
This meant none of his cancer treatments would be covered. Most importantly, he would not be able to receive the stem cell transplant need [sic] to save his life. My brother only had a very small window of time in which to have the stem cell transplant. He needed to be scheduled within the next 3 to 4 weeks.
My brother was told he was canceled during what they called a “routine review” during which they claimed to discover a “material failure to disclose”. Apparently in 2000 his doctor had done a CT scan which showed an aneurysm and gall stones. My brother was never told of either one of these conditions nor was he ever treated for them and he never reported any symptoms for them either.
After months of preparation, the stem cell transplant could not be scheduled. My brother’s hope for being a cancer survivor were dashed. His prognosis was only a matter of months without the procedure.
Mr. Radditz was faced with having to pay for the stem cell transplant himself in order to save his life.
However, Mr. Raddatz’s lawyer sister contacted the Illinois Attorney General’s Office. They investigated and found that the doctor who did the CT scans could not remember whether he had ever told Mr. Raddatz about his findings.
Consequently, the insurance company overturned their original decision to rescind her brother’s coverage, and he was reinstated in the words of his sister, “without [any] lapse.”
Again, from Ms. Raddatz’s sworn testimony:
After two appeals by the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, Fortis Insurance Company finally overturned their original decision to rescind my brother’s coverage and he was reinstated without lapse. This is after weeks of constant phone calls between myself and the Attorney General’s Office and we were literally scrambling hour by hour to get this accomplished so that my brother wouldn’t lose his 3- to 4-week window of opportunity that he had prepared for and lose his opportunity to have the procedure.
In other words, Mr. Raddatz’s did receive the stem cell transplant without delay.
Indeed, Ms. Raddatz does not seem to claim anywhere in her testimony that the insurance company’s actions shortened her brother’s life. (Though she does accuse them of having been cruel and unethical.)
From page 75 of the hearings transcript:
Mr. Barton. My next question is to the gentle lady there in the middle. Your brother, has he had his stem cell transplant?
Ms. Raddatz. He did indeed receive the stem cell transplant. It was extremely successful. It extended his life approximately 3-1/2 years. He did pass away January 6, 2009, and he was about to have a second stem cell transplant. Unfortunately, due to certain situations, his donor became ill at the last minute and so he did pass away on January 6. But again, it extended his life nearly 3-1/2 years and at his age, each day meant everything to him…
This is not quite the impression Mr. Obama gives with his rendition of Mr. Raddatz’s story.
Despite Mr. Obama’s claims, Mr. Raddatz’s treatment was never delayed. And he did not die because of it.
Meanwhile, in this very same speech Mr. Obama accused others of misrepresenting the facts.

Any so-called health care plan, like the Baucus proposal, that seeks to make health insurance MANDATORY, while failing to provide the “MEANS” for obtaining it, and while failing to provide the least expensive, most reasonable “COSTS” for obtaining it, can only be described as a maliciously fraudulent red-herring, price-gouging surrogate that has, in effect, thrown out the baby with the bath water. Any Dem in Congress who supports such a cruel, dishonest phantasm, masquerading as reform, needs to be defeated in their re-election bids in 2010. They are gutless pretenders who simply want to ‘hide’ their votes behind a ruse decoy, so it will ‘appear’ that they vociferously supported ‘reform,’ when in fact, they voted for “politics as usual” and for more of the same corporate price-gouging practices that have decimated the health care system as we know it.

This is what happens when you elect a paranoid, egotistic, narcissistic manic for president. The man believes he is God.
Obama is more in line with Jim Jones than with the rest of the country.

The Raddatz story was an ordeal though Obama reported it “with some economy of the truth”. However, I wonder how it might have played with the Comparative-Effectiveness-Research (CER).
CER is not only in HR 3200 but was neatly tucked into the unread stimulus bill as well? I wonder why it was slipped into the stimulus and what other sinister stuff may be hidden there? CER in medical circles naturally leads to QALY (Quality-Adjusted-Life-Year).

But Amy, you must have missed my earlier comment:
We may never be able to recover from this reckless spending. Have you noticed that there is no plan from either party to mitigate the national debt?
All Obama has ever mentioned is reducing the deficit in the out years (second term?). Let me explain, reducing the deficit and paying down a national debt (that is expected to top 24 trillion within 10 years) is a whole ‘nother story.

I don’t get Fox News, but was able to find audio only on a free-to-air satellite channel. I listened to Glenn Beck yesterday and found that even though his presentation is a bit kooky, this man speaks the truth.

Amy in Maine | Sep 18, 2009 12:38:53 PM….Both have more than enough money to ensure their elderly get any care required or deisired.

912er
I was leery of the President’s healthcare reform efforts, until I learned the opposition was relying on lies, smears and misinformation to attack the President’s efforts. I saw the hysterical, dumb as dirt, town hall-ers spewing irrational vitriol and I started to thimnk “hmmmmmmm, if these jerks are against it, then maybe its actually a good plan” THEN I got the facts, and I started to see the Republicans have been lying to the American people.
Watch the video with Olympia Snowe on the New York Times website. Here is a Republican, who has conservative principles, and is working with the President in a rational manner. No More Lies!

Amy, Do you think for one minute that Obama or Biden will be subject to HR 3200? They are not going to let their elders be subject to any panels.
Also, it doesn’t matter who added those ten pages they are there. I am an independent so I can berate a misguided republican as easily as I can a misguided democrat.
Both parties, on occasion, sound as if they want to reduce the deficit. However, the only thing a reduced deficit can offer as a slower fall into an ever increasing national debt.

Most of the town hallers are quite articulate. The media seeks out the oddballs with the shrillest voice and most controversial signs for its focus.
Our efforts are effective because they are beginning to cause the Obamcare supporters to falter and babble rather than offering rational argument.
When they fall back on statements like “relying on lies, smears and misinformation to attack the President’s efforts. I saw the hysterical, dumb as dirt, town hall-ers spewing irrational vitriol and I started to thimnk “hmmmmmmm, if these jerks are against it, then maybe its actually a good plan” THEN I got the facts, and I started to see the Republicans have been lying to the American people.” You know you have their attention.

You can give a speech every day, it will not make a bill any better!! — COMMON SENSE tells you that you cannot give BETTER coverage to those who have insurance, put MILLIONS more people into the system, pay for it by ending WASTE and ABUSE, claim you will LOWER health care costs, CREATE a government-run exchange, INCLUDE government health care coverage and NOT SPEND a dime — all at the SAME TIME! — It’s fantasy!!

Amy in Maine | Sep 18, 2009 12:52:40 PM….You accuse Obama’s opposition of lies. Can we hear a few of those lies?

Rupublican Party new slogan: “Thou shoult not have any other God before me, except the almighty dollar. To hell with the sick and less fortunate, we’re the every man for himself party.” – Glen Beck

I think that you should all just sit down because Obama is OUR PRESIDENT now and you should give him the respect that he deserves

Rick McDaniel wrote: “There is only 2 ways to go. Either national health care for everyone (except the 12 million illegal immigrants), or a private system of free choice. Nothing else is truly workable.”
I hope you don’t mean public vs private, because Japan’s system is very much like ours: 240 private health insurers, most insurance through your employer, private medicine – there are even a greater percent of private hospitals than in the USA.
But they allow non-profit health insurance, which is basically what we had just a generation ago. For-profit health care is not natural. In order to grow your business you must have greater health problems or higher charges – two things that work against the citizens.
And they have ONE network: a government-private board sets it up and it knocks paperwork from the 25% in the USA to 3% in Japan.

Now the Obama administration is trotting out Michelle to state her case for health care reform. There she is, sob stories and all. Yes indeed, we do need health care reform but not the Obama brand. There are so many more sane ways to overhaul health care without going to these extremes that the Obamas are proposing. I am so tired of seeing Obama’s mug every time I turn on the TV. Enough already! Go away!

Amy, you provided a list of nouns. A lie implies a noun and a verb at a minimum. None the less – to one of your accusations…. If I am old with a potentially deadly condition and the panel that determines who is eligible for treatment denies my treatment and I die, what would you call that panel?

deanbob |
I would call it “a panel of health insurance executives…and their accoutants.”

Does a speed limit sign stop speeding? Does Obama’s saying illegal aliens won’t get healthcare prevent it? Obviously, the answer to both question is the same – NO.

Ed Taylor
Death Panels: My health insurance company requires my provider to provide me with a Living Will to sign, i.e., in the event I am a vegetable, they want permission to pull the plug.
“End of Life counseling” has been shown to ease the anxiety of terminal patients and their families, it is NOT some left wing conspiracy to move the elderly off this mortal coil. To suggest Democrats advocate setting up panels to recommend who should die, is ludicris.

“Will this turn down the heat? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who knew Harvey Milk and George Moscone, choked up thinking about the prospects of speech turning into political violence…”
Oh, please. They were shot by a fellow Democrat disgruntled at being fired from City Hall. There was nothing political about it. If she’s equating that with SEIU thugs beating up black men outside of town hall meetings then the Botox really has gone to her brain.

Has anyone googled Tim Carter TJCTV yet?

According to CBO’s and JCT’s assessment, enacting H.R. 3200 would result in a
net increase in the federal budget deficit of $239 billion over the 2010-2019 period.
That estimate reflects a projected From the CBO report:
“10-year cost of the bill’s insurance coverage
provisions of $1,042 billion, partly offset by net spending changes that CBO
estimates would save $219 billion over the same period, and by revenue provisions
that JCT estimates would increase federal revenues by about $583 billion over those
10 years.”
Also, remember your math Amy, deficit reduction is doublespeak to take eyes like yours off the increasing debt.

The insurance industry, of course, loves the Baucus plan. Need we say more?”
Yes, we DO need to say more. This plan, as it stands now, will do to the health insurance industry what Congress did to student loans some time in the murky past – guarantee a profit to private industry at the expense of taxpayers.
It’s bunk, and it is redistribution of wealth from taxpayers to for-profit insurers.
You can see, now days, that Republicans really are not for reduced spending. They oppose student loan reform because it will end the $87 billion dollar pipeline of profit that we will shell out over the next ten years to banks.
If we give private insurers the right to collect on an individual insurance mandate, and don’t protect taxpayers by offering a robust public option (not just an option for the 5% who can’t qualify, as Obama alluded to in his speech), we’ll be setting up a permanent tax funnel direcly into the voracious hole of the for-profit insurance industry.
No deal, Max.

Insurance companies in the Swiss system, while private, still operate as non-profit. However, the higher the customer satisfaction and the more people they sign up, the higher the salary their executives are allowed to earn. So, market forces drive customer satisfaction. It works because Swiss politicians want their citizens to be healthy, while our politicians want our health care industry to be healthy.

I think the Baucus plan is a travesty, a steaming pile of corporate welfare that will make many people’s situations worse. People are required to buy private health insurance, but there’s no requirement for the insurance companies to provide policies that are both affordable and useful. In fact, I believe that the Baucus proposal is a passive-aggressive way of pretending to implement health care “reform” so that the public will come to hate the very idea.

Here’s the truth hidden in the doublespeak regarding illegals, Obama is going for immigration reform (amnesty?)which he says will resolve the question once and for all.
So, we will pay for them in the healthcare plan after all. Isn’t doublespeak wonderful!