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Obama is planning on making a " major speech" on health care on Wednesday. We are being told that after 8 months of doing nothing, he has finally decided it might be a good idea if the White House drafted their own plan to present to congress. The word is Obama's plan may drop the public option as a way of caving in to a few Republicans for the sole purpose of getting a "bi-partisan" deal.
As I wrote less than a month ago , the only reason bi-partisanship is important is if you don't believe in what you're doing. Then it helps to be able to spread the blame to both parties. But if Obama doesn't believe in what he's doing the best thing for him is to be quiet sit on the sidelines and stop messing everything up which is all he's been doing since the health care debate started.
The public option is the centerpiece of health care reform. Without it reform is a joke. And its the reason it;'s been the primary target of Republicans since the debate began.
So is Obama is now starting to look for the easy way out?That Obama is so quick to throw in the towel to Republicans should be a signal the Democrats to ignore him if he presents a health care plan without the public option. And they should let him know in advance that any plan without it is DOA. And some have started to do just that.
The "trigger" mechanism being floated is an absurd concept. It's as dumb an idea politically as you could have. It's based on the idea that the insurance companies will have a certain period of time to bring costs down and meet certain bench marks and if they don't, the public option will kick in. But those bench marks will make any bill even more contentious since there will be exactly the same wrangling and rancor with Republicans over what those bench marks would be. Does anyone really believe the Republicans will agree to benchmarks that would matter and trigger a public option? It means the same fight that is being fought now, the one Obama is trying to so hard to avoid and all he is doing with this ridiculous idea of a "trigger:" is put it off.
There have been some Democrats in congress who have told Obama the public option is essential and there will be no bill coming out of the House without it. Dick Durbin in the Senate has said they will pass a bill without Republican support if they have to. Obama's attempts at mollifying Republicans whose votes are not needed, does nothing but undermine Democratic efforts to pass a meaningful bill without Republican support and make it more difficult for Democratic senators on the fence to vote for it. It is an incredibly stupid plan both pragmatically and politically and Obama should be told its DOA and not to bother.
Obama in the past has enjoyeding remind the Republicans that he won. IBut if he cant act like it, then the Democratic congress will.
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Right on! We need the reform we all got behind. A small (unpatriotic) slice of thugs in America will not beat up down c-mon Obama I believe in you -do the right thing!
Obama's been secretly working as a republican during all this time. I think he has been delaying this public option so Fox News and other news outlets can have time to convince the American people not to vote for a public option. The only problem is that all of this relentless news attack on the public option didn't work. Now Obama is in a pickle. He will have to decide who his friends are: the American people or the insurers.
The "public option" is the only real reform in the bill. It's the only part insurance companies can't circumvent. They can't circumvent the price competition from an enrollee-funded public option. The remainder of the bill consists of new rules that can be circumvented, and taxpayer-funded handouts to insurance companies. And if Obama really was "for" a public option, he'd be making the point that the public option, as written in HR 3200, is 100% free to taxpayers. It costs taxpayers $0.00. It's funded entirely by enrollees. This is actually written into the bill itself in just so many words. (See: www.examiner.com/x-17571-LA-Populist-Examiner~y2009m8d25-Health-Care-Reform-Part-6-Public-Optionfacts--fiction)
Democrats need to just ignore Obama on this issue. Obama should just go ahead and switch parties, and officially become a Republican, since he's so concerned about what Republicans want.
Blue Dog Democrats are undercover Republicans.
Obama has always wanted the republican and democratic parties working together. What he doesn't seem to understand is that the republicans don't care about that. They are business men. That's why they don't want the health care bill to pass. More Americans will use the public option instead of the insurance companies, who would lose money and they in turn will lose money also because they invest so much in insurance companies
Really - unpatriotic?! As a brain cancer patient my husband and I have many concerns about Obama's health care plan - and we have done much research into this issue. What we have found has given us cause for more concern. This does not make us unpatriotic - simply concerned citizens. The thought that my husband - who served in the USMC infantry and is an OIF veteran - there during the 2004 battle of Fallujah - can be called unpatriotic because he questions certain parts of the plan makes me sick to my stomach. The last time I checked we live in a democracy and have rights and freedoms - including the right not to support this plan if we so choose.
The time is now!
Let's just do it Mr. President!!!
The key may be Obamacare-lite followed by incremental reforms.
www.examiner.com/x-19977-Allentown-Fiscal-Responsibility-Examiner~y2009m9d3-A-blueprint-to-pass-Obamacare
Obama has not proved yet that he is a Natural born citizen, he is spending thousands to his all his Id. He is a userper and should e feeling the pressure now. The people don't trust him and are showing it. Obama was inducted into being a muslum by his parents. We don't want him talking to our children and he has not right to without consent of parents.
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