The Speech 3

16 responses so far

• 1 Kevin B // Sep 10, 2009 at 10:50 am

  Stay tuned. To get the whole thing to pass, parts of it may have triggers, and other parts may have sunsets.

• 2 MFarmer // Sep 10, 2009 at 10:53 am

  Just say no.

• 3 balconesfault // Sep 10, 2009 at 10:59 am

  When will the Obama health plan expire?

  That’s a good point – plus a valuable acknowledgement of the truth that allowing Bush’s tax cuts to expire on schedule is NOT a tax increase, but simply a following of the bill passed by a Republican Congress and signed by a Republican President.

  Perhaps the better analogy would be the military spending increases we’ve seen in order to fight the GWOT. Because I suspect that there will no longer be any terrorists on the globe who present a risk to the US around the same time that human mortality is defeated.

• 4 Chekote // Sep 10, 2009 at 12:09 pm

  Why do we have to wait until a bill is passed before we fight Medicare fraud? Shouldn’t we be doing this now?

• 5 balconesfault // Sep 10, 2009 at 12:15 pm

  Why do we have to wait until a bill is passed before we fight Medicare fraud? Shouldn’t we be doing this now?

  Been wondering the same thing all along. I’ve always felt that “savings” based on “fighting fraud” seems a little pretentious.

• 6 Argusr // Sep 10, 2009 at 12:26 pm

  It expires when we expire , unlike any major proposal it is defecit neutral.
  he didn’t made the speech to gain republican vote he made the speech shore up independents and seniors who were confused by peopel like Sarah palin and Glen Beck .

• 7 Chekote // Sep 10, 2009 at 12:35 pm

  independents and seniors who were confused by peopel like Sarah palin and Glen Beck.

  This is why Obama is losing the debate. He is operating under the assumption that people are opposed to his plans because of Palin’s and Beck’s exaggerated claims. That’s not the reason. People are opposed because his plan makes no sense.

• 8 Travis // Sep 10, 2009 at 1:02 pm

  People are confused about health care b/c they don’t care to inform themselves about health care. Instead, they rely on the likes of Palin, Beck, Maddow, Olbermann , et al to guide their thinking…and those folks have an inherent incentive, not to inform you, but rather to keep you listening to them.

• 9 Chekote // Sep 10, 2009 at 1:35 pm

  travis

  So you are saying that the 52% of Americans who oppose Obamacare are all misinformed fools listening to Beck? Partisans make a mistake everytime they think that people are stupid and being misled. The same thing happened with Bush when many on the Left were aghast that people could re-elect an idiot like Bush. Well, as my indie cousin said at the time “Bush may be an idiot. But that idiot is going to keep this country safe.”

• 10 Chekote // Sep 10, 2009 at 1:38 pm

  BTW, Obama said last night that the number of uninsured is 30 million. Down from the 47 million he claimed earlier this year. If we can make so much progress without passing any bill, why not wait a little longer and maybe we won’t have any uninsured?

• 11 Travis // Sep 10, 2009 at 1:58 pm

  No. I’d venture to say that it’s more like 80% of Americans (not “fools”, just Americans) don’t take the time to inform themselves on this issue (b/c they don’t have the time or don’t care to make the time). Many of them flip on the tube or radio and catch small only pieces of information (not misinformation as you say…you think Beck is providing misinformation?) followed up by large pieces of opinion (by the likes of Beck, Palin, Olbermann, Maddow). Add that exposure of basically sound bites to whatever information they had to begin with, and an opinion based on limited (not “mis”) information is formed. Thus, Americans (again, not “fools” as you say) are left confused on the issue b/c their sound bites hardly cover the core components of the issue.

• 12 Chekote // Sep 10, 2009 at 2:04 pm

  And how are Americans “confused” about Obamacare? Please elaborate.

• 13 Niscala // Sep 10, 2009 at 2:05 pm

  Or maybe they have died waiting for insurance to cover their illness. Honestly, why should the obama plan time expire. Health insurance for all is a right not a privilege.

• 14 Travis // Sep 10, 2009 at 2:39 pm

  I said they’re confused about the issue of Health Care. I said nothing about “Obamacare”? What is that anyway? Is that the name of a bill going through Congress right now? The only ‘bills’ being debated in Congress right now were not written by Obama, yet you call it “Obamacare”…now who is being partisan here?
  I happen to agree with your general premise that the pro-reform movement had been losing the debate (Incidentally, I also happen to agree with an earlier point of yours: “Why do we have to wait until a bill is passed before we fight Medicare fraud?”).
  My general point is that people are confused about health care b/c they don’t understand the issue (it’s a complicated issue to be fair) and many rely on television/radio pundits (whose goal is to grow their audience) as their primary information source. I believe people should be researching issues themselves but don’t b/c it’s just so easy to let Olbermann tell you what to think.

• 15 balconesfault // Sep 10, 2009 at 5:17 pm

  And how are Americans “confused” about Obamacare? Please elaborate.

  Well one way is that while a slight majority of Americans respond to polls that they aren’t in favor of Obama’s healthcare plan … a solid majority (55-41) say they’re in favor of a federally run public option that individuals can buy into.

  Sound to me like confusion.

• 16 anniemargret // Sep 10, 2009 at 8:36 pm

  There’s a lot of flip remarks on this blog about people going to the ER for their care, or waiting till the rolls drop of the uninsured.

  These are living, breathing human beings, your fellow Americans. Have you gone to the ER for your healthcare lately? Try it. Their job in the ER is to triage, and to stem the blood. They don’t do post ER visits for gallbladder stones, diabetes, cardiac catheritizations, or venereal diseases. Do you think other than stemming the flow of blood that there is any followup care offered by the ET dept? They do their job and then refer you to a doctor. If you don’t have a doctor, you are out of luck. They are hemorraging. They can hardly keep up with routine real ER cases than care for people’s health.

  So this is the GOP’s answer for healthcare reform? Send them to the ER?

  Have you been uninsured for any length of time? No? Are you one of the millions worrying themselves to sleep because they cannot afford to help their children due to costs and/or lack of insurance? No?

  Somehow listening to bloggers here waxing philosophic about other people’s lives, when it means at times, literally life or death is staggering in its arrogance.

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