Tonight, President Obama will address a full session of Congress in prime time on the topic of the healthcare legislation currently being debated on Capitol Hill. Rarely do presidents address the fully assembled Congress outside of the annual State of the Union Address. So this unusual step is designed to underscore the importance of this topic. What will the President say?
Since the Presidential campaign, Obama has been pretty consistent in stating that he believes health care reform has to do two main things: lower costs of care and provide coverage to all Americans. He has also long contended that the provision of a public option, to offer an alternative to the private health insurance companies, would be the best way to drive the competition that will lower costs across the board.
Through the August recess, the powerful health insurance lobby spent millions of dollars to send “astroturfers” (phony protestors so named because they are meant to appear as “grass roots” protestors) to town hall meetings held by Congress members in every state. The insurance industry lobby was also supported by the President’s ideological opponents on the far right who wish to see his agenda derailed. Not because they have any legitimate problem with lowering the cost of healthcare, but instead because they wish to see the President, and the Democratic Party fail. Rabid rightwing radio personalities like Rush Limbaugh (who has made clear that he wants to see the President fail), Glenn Beck and other hyper-partisans, have muddied the waters on the debate by using blatant scare tactics to whip up fear and frenzy among their lower-information listeners. Broadcasting demonstrably false assertions like, “the bill contains provisions to euthanize the elderly” and “the public option will set up death panels to decide who is worthy of life saving medical treatments”, these corrupt “partisans in journalists’ clothing” have been successful in mobilizing the uninformed. They have succeeded in changing the debate from “which strategies are best to lower healthcare costs and improve access to care” to “the public option is tantamount to Communism, Socialism, Nazism, etc.” The President’s ideological foes have been so successful in whipping up the fear that the central truth of the message has been lost.
A clear-eyed assessment of what is being proposed shows that injecting competition into the insurance market will force private companies to bring their administrative costs down to remain competitive. The Republican Party, typically the party of free marketeerism, shouldn’t have a problem with competition. Yet, the insurance industry is dead set against any idea that would result in lowering their record-breaking profit margins down from the currently overinflated 20% to 25% figure. Simply put, it is the greed of these companies that is providing the financial support for the campaign of lies and disinformation to protect their outsized profits. If the President’s plan was really a step towards socialism, wouldn’t part of it include returning the health insurance industry to the non-profit status it enjoyed up until the 1980’s when the law was changed to allow them to be for profit? The President is not taking that bold action. His plan is merely to provide competition to the nearly monopolistic health insurance industry by offering an alternative option. Because the public option would be government sponsored, it would not be for profit. Therefore, it would be able to offer coverage at a significantly lower costs than private plans. This is the core of the message that the Obama administration wants to refocus upon in the speech tonight.
The forces of the status quo have spent enormous sums of money to distract and sow seeds of fear and doubt. Many on the Left have fretted that the President has waited too long to push back against some of the worst lies and campaigns of misinformation coming from the insurance lobby and the President’s most radical ideological foes (who would rather see Americans continue to suffer than to see the President succeed at anything since it would invalidate their closest held beliefs).
Tonight, we will see if the President can wrestle control of the debate away from the partisans, lobbyists, hate merchants and fear mongers. We’ll see if he can reframe the debate as the moral and financial imperative that it truly is.
In closing read the following quotes from the President about how we have arrived at the current state of the debate:
“For twelve year this Nation was afflicted with hear-nothing, see-nothing, do-nothing Government. The Nation looked to Government but the Government looked away . . . Powerful influences strive today to restore that kind of government with its doctrine that that Government is best which is most indifferent . . .
We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace — business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.
They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.”
Now read this quote from the President about why the anti-reform forces have put so much money into derailing this reform”“Those who used to have [access to the White House] are not happy. Some of them are desperate. Only desperate men with their backs to the wall would descend so far below the level of decent citizenship as to foster the current . . . campaign against America’s working people”
Don’t recognize these Presidential quotes? That’s because they are not from President Obama, but from President Franklin Roosevelt in a speech delivered in 1936. The general election was less than a week away. Roosevelt was wrapping up his re-election campaign at the end of his first term, a term in which he had enraged certain moneyed interests – enraged them to the point that they actually plotted a coup against him. But Roosevelt knew that the people of the United States were behind him. And the speech he gave that night in New York reflected his certainty. Polls indicate that 70% of Americans support the public option. Tonight, Obama gets a last chance to make clear why Congress should support it. You can help by contacting your Congressmen and Senators by phone or email to urge them to support a public option. Below are links to the House of Representatives and Senate websites. At the tope of each site is a search function where you enter your zipcode to get the contact info for your Congressman or Senators. Call, email, fax. Let them know its time to fix this broken system. http://www.house.gov/ http://www.senate.gov/
I feel that the President is doing a great job. I hope that the health care plan passes and the people of the United States will finally have a choice of health care, affordable health care. The insurance companies have run the health care down in the ground and it is time to step on a few of there toes. Health care cost needs to come down. I pay 400.00 a month for BCBS. I am allowed to go to the doctor once during the year, for what ever reason. Over that I have to pay full price. Why do I pay that much for nothing in return? Why is it that the insurance company tells the physicians who they can treat, how they can treat and how long a person should be in the hospital, if at all. My 15 month old granddaughter just had a very serious surgery and should have been in the hospital for 3 days. The insurance company said no and sent her home after one day. This is not right. The surgeon wanted her there, thought she wasn’t ready to go home yet. She had barely woke up and they sent her home. This is not right, and something needs to be done. We have a President that is willing to stand with and among the American people, we should stand along side of him. I hope and pray the health care plan goes through.
Roslyn, Thanks so much for your comment and for commenting here on what is becoming a regular basis. Your voice and perspectives are valued and will help this blog attract more regular readers/commenters.
I agree that Obama is doing a real good job, especially in light of the irrational and frankly, ugly resistance he has had to endure from “birthers” and people who call him Nazi and Communist. I was also pleased to see him continue to advocate for the public option last night. But he cannot get it included all on his own. We must support the Congressional Progressive Caucus in the House who’s 60 members signed a pledge to vote AGAINST any bill that does not contain the Public Option. Not used to standing up as a voting block, the CPC wields less power than the corporatist wing of the Dem party (the so-called Blue Dogs). Call or email members of the CPC to let them know you’re grateful to them for taking this stand. They are the bulwark against millions of lobbyist $$ marshalled to water down the bill in the Senate. Let’s hold their feet to the fire. The President is on board but he cannot do it without our support!
I also agree that with all the obstacles that keep coming at the President I do believe that he has all of Americas in mind. He is determined to do what he was voted in the Presidency for. I believe HealthCare reform is essential to all of us especially our kids in the future. I work at a hospital as a Finance Assoicate and it breaks my heart to see how patients are treated by there insurance company all the denials they receive its not fun watching the reactions to why a patient can not be seen because the insurance company gets to decide where and who they can see. I am hoping that Health Care reform gets passed so no one should be left without insurance coverage regardless of their conditions.
Wow!! Well done, and I now have a clearer picture of what the president wants to do. I, like Rosyln, am upset with the way patients are being treated due to the healthcare system. We need more supporters to get this DONE!!! I think Obama is a good fresh change for America!!
Thanks for your comments Mitchell. Hope to see you around this board again!
OMG!
Today I got a phone message from 9722840600 / (972) 2840600 and was convinced the caller was a scammer.
I decided to file a complaint with the police and yell.
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Any idea how to uncomplain and fix this????