Remember when Portland’s mayor led that disastrous town hall about the destruction of Memorial Coliseum? It convinced me that if you’re a politician considering forcing through a bad idea, it’s usually an even worse idea to go out and ask the people to weigh in on it. By contrast the president has a GREAT idea for reforming the nation’s health care system. And I’ve been struck this afternoon by his deft handling of the signs depicting him as Adolf Hitler, and of course the “death panel” rumors started on Facebook (!?) by Sarah Palin.
“I’ve seen some of those signs,” he told a town hall meeting in New Hampshire this morning. Speaking of signs, whoever created this image, I think, has done the President the biggest public relations favor in this battle. It screams irrationality and fear:
“The rumor that’s been circulating lately is that somehow the House of Representatives voted for death panels that will basically pull the plug on grandma, because we’ve decided, that it’s too expensive to let her live any more,” Obama continued. “And there are some variations on this theme.”
Variations like the President is actually a socialist reincarnation of Hitler, and a Batman villain combined? Well, no…The underlying concern expressed by all this, says Obama, is that by reforming the health care system, we will somehow ration the level of care available.
“Right now, insurance companies are rationing care,” said Obama. “They’re telling you you can have this procedure, or you can’t have this procedure. So why is it that people would prefer having insurance companies make those decisions, rather than medical experts or doctors?”
“I recognize there is an underlying fear here,” said the President. “You will have not only the health care you need, but right now the care that is being denied to you, only if we get health care reform.”
Watch the video at Yahoo news.
What I really want to see is one of these ideologues who have been disrupting the town halls around the country confront Obama at a town hall. Obama was even encouraging people this morning to stand up and ask skeptical questions, but got none. It’s sad that people are ready to humiliate congressmen and senators but that they don’t have the guts to go after the guy leading the charge. They may have been accused of “un-American” behavior by Nancy Pelosi, but it seems they’re really just cowards, after all.
You can check out the White House’s reality check website if you need some Denny’s ammunition for that conversation this weekend with your right wing family members. And here’s to the high ground. And socialism, of course.
Why is socialism such a deal-breaker, anyway?
People are opposed to state socialism because they went to public schools.
I think the Doonesbury poll sums it up best:
http://www.doonesbury.com/media/strawpoll/…
The socialists think (93%) he is a moderate, the moderates think (96%) he is a moderate. The only group that is at all confused about it are the people that are Nazis themselves.
> It’s sad that people are ready to humiliate congressmen and senators but that they don’t have the guts to go after the guy leading the charge.
Yeah, I’m sure that Obama didn’t pre-screen the people he let into that town hall.. just like he didn’t pre-screen the people at his earlier, fake, town hall on health care. I guess they’re the ones that didn’t have the guts to face criticism.
Speaking of gutless wonders, you do realize that the Hitler signs are from LaRouche people, don’t you? They’re not Republicans and they’re certainly not representative of the people protesting Obamacare. I wish someone on this blog would have the guts to actually address the issues surrounding health care instead of pointing fingers, whining, and sliming the other side. I guess that’s what Democrats are reduced to these days.
lulz, Mrs. V.
“I wish someone on this blog would have the guts to actually address the issues surrounding health care instead of pointing fingers, whining, and sliming the other side. I guess that’s what Democrats are reduced to these days.”
You go ahead and do that instead of calling on others to do it for you.
troll: 2/10
Actually, “Graham,” I’m just responding to the arrogance and condescension on display on this blog, but if you want to talk, let’s do it. Here are five things you won’t be able to do any more under Obamacare: Choose what benefits are in your health plan; be rewarded for healthy living by paying less; choose cheap high-deductible coverage; keep your existing plan; and choose your doctors.
Your move, tiger.
@Mr.V. I’ll step in with some responses to your misinformation here if I may, before you two kill each other…although Graham is of course free to respond independently!
You’ve said Obama’s idea won’t allow the following:
1.Choose what benefits are in your plan.
Wrong. If you like your current plan, you can keep it. End of story. How many times does Obama need to repeat this?
2.Be rewarded for healthy living by paying less.
Wrong. Right now, health care costs are scheduled to double in the next ten years if we do nothing. The aim of the public option is to stop insurers from artificially inflating health care costs—to keep them honest.
3.Choose cheap high-deductible coverage.
See one. If you like your plan, you can keep it. Although compared to the public option, I doubt you’d want to choose that. Still, your choice. If you like shit in your sandwich, you can eat shit in your sandwich. I like honey, myself. Or ham. Ham sandwiches are nicer than shit sandwiches. But you may feel differently.
4.Keep your existing plan.
GAH! You’re just being deliberately obtuse, right? I mean, seriously? How MANY TIMES?
5.Choose your doctors.
If you like your doctor, you can keep him or her. And yes, preserving choice is a fundamental tenet of the reform plans. So under the reform, you’ll be able to choose your doctor.
Have a great afternoon.
Our socialist public schools would be fantastic if their budgets weren’t raw-dogged by politicians.
Mrs. V,
Lulz again at putting my name in quotation marks. Any number of people from /b/town that have met me will attest that my name is Graham. As will my Kenyan birth certificate and Passport. I have stayed out of health care debates as I don’t feel qualified enough to have opinions on the matter.
However, I do feel qualified to have opinions on douche-itude and shit-ass-poor arguments. And I do have to say that you are top-notch at both. Good job on being an asshole!
Matt if they change one aspect of your coverage – you have to dump it and take the govt plan. As anyone with insurance knows, they change yearly, thus everyone will be able to keep it — until they soon lose it.
Then the insurance companies go out of business and the gov takeover is complete.
A: Socialists don’t find Obama to even come close to resembling a socialist.
1: By definition, he’s way more of a fascist than a socialist. That whole government and private business marriage stuff.
Steak Sauce: Regardless of who is in office your government could care less about you. Pretending that this dude, or that dude, or that woman, or her sister give a shit about you is naive.
D: Not true. If you like your plan, you can keep it. The reform is about encouraging choice, not the government providing health care. Health care will continue to be provided by private doctors and hospitals. And you can continue with private health insurance coverage if you choose.
For clarification, I’d encourage you to read last night’s Q&A with Oregon congressman Earl Blumenauer for the facts:
http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/Blogto…
One thing Blumenauer did point out: That if you have a health insurance plan now, and the insurer goes out of business, or for some reason can’t continue to offer your current plan, tough shit. There’s this illusion of continuing coverage but it’s not really there, currently.
“There are no guarantees with the current system,” he said.
“if you have a health insurance plan now, and the insurer goes out of business, or for some reason can’t continue to offer your current plan, tough shit. There’s this illusion of continuing coverage but it’s not really there, currently.’
That’s exactly what I said – changes to your “current plan” invalidate you.
I have just a couple points that I feel should be digested.
1: The source and reason for this manufactured picture of President Barack Obama represents something far more profound than your shallow assumptions. In no way am I endorsing it; I am saying that you’re only turning a blind eye to a very serious argument. Please serve your readers by doing your homework.
2. All this arguing over the facts surrounding President Barack Obama’s Health Care Reform are a direct reflection of the actuality of it. The truth of any matter is undeniable; any truth that is deniable is no truth at all. We have no business debating/arguing/denying each other unless we have a copy of President Barack Obama’s Health Care Reform in our hands for analysis.
OK, Matt, so let’s just go ahead and assume you’re right, that there’s no policy in the bill for euthanizing the elderly or leaving them to die without care. What do you think a $500 billion cut in Medicare is going to result in? Isn’t that something you would normally be against?
BTW, the people who put up the signs are probably not “tea partiers” but 16-year-olds. Check YouTube and you’ll see who’s involved in this campaign. The old people are stirring up shit at the town halls because they know they’re about to be weeded out of the population. It’s self-preservation. They’re fighting for their lives. Young people are putting up Obama joker posters because they know grandma’s about to get the Terry Schaivo treatment. It won’t be “death with dignity” via lethal injection. It will be death by food and water deprivation. Read the words of Ezekial Emmanual and John Holdren! They come right out and say it in their own writings!
Hi Tracy,
Yes, I’m in favor of saving money on health care. That’s what the reforms are driven by. And I thought you right wingers were against big government?!
Again, I’d encourage you to read the transcript of last night’s town hall.
http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/Blogto…
Us “right-wingers”? C’mon, you’re better than that.
I will read the town hall transcript. And I hope that in the end we can all agree that grandma shouldn’t be euthanized. We’ll see what they finally vote on. But regardless of what happens with that, it won’t take away from the legitimacy of the social commentary being made by the joker posters. The original poster just said “Socialism” underneath. It wasn’t merely calling Obama a socialist. Rather it was making fun of socialists who voted for Obama thinking they were getting an advocate the underclass. Instead they got a spokesman for Goldman-Sachs.
Also, a $500 billion cut in Medicare is HUGE and people should really think about the implications of it.
Where the fuck is anyone getting the information that any health-care bill is going to euthanize anyone? That’s just fucking retarded to think.
People need to look up the word “palliative”, that would be a good place to start understanding how health-care actually works.
God, the people coming out of the woodwork on this one are even dumber than the ones that showed up for the Sam Adams debacle.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-sto…
“The Republicans carping about limitations on end-of-life care have a point. Lee Siegel on why the plans Obama is endorsing are dangerously sympathetic to “cost effective” end-of-life treatments. …
…This is the Big Brother nightmare of oppressive government that the shrewd propagandists on the right are always blathering on about. Except that this time, they could not be more right.”
RE: White House “Reality Check”– Aren’t those the same headshots they always use for the opinion polls that the Onion runs? American Voices: http://www.theonion.com/content/amvo/gm_se…