“When we pass this health care reform, people will no longer be discriminated against for the simple crime of getting sick.”
“When we pass reform, the insurance company can’t cancel your insurance because you get sick.”
“Your health care premiums have gone up three times as much as your wages.”
“I’d rather have that $188 billion go to making sure that people like Laurie have health care coverage than give it to insurance companies. It’s a give-away.”
“Right now, health care companies are rationing care.”
Barack Obama is back. The guy who was on the campaign trail is back. The guy who won our hearts and our heads and the White House is back. In a town hall meeting today in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, which I saw on C-CSPAN, he was out there talking plain and straight about health care reform.
At his news conference a couple of weeks ago, Obama was clunky and stilted and — well, dull. His sentences were too long, his answers were too long, his language was too Washington. Now he’s nailing it again. People are worried about government rationing care, he says? “Right now, the insurance companies are rationing care. They’re deciding what drugs you can take, they’re deciding what tests you can have.” Would you rather have an insurance company that’s out to make a profit make those decisions, or doctors? he asked.
The public is scared of change. Any kind of change. And most people have health care coverage, so they don’t see a burning problem, and they’re scared of changes in coverage. And reprehensible liars have been scaring people senseless about what change would bring. (I’m not totally in favor of Obama’s reform, or the way reform is being battered in Congress right now, but good god we’ve got to have change.) Obama has not been able to make the case well enough yet that we have to change something that’s in bad shape now and will get worse year after year.
So he has to be more clear in his language, punch harder, be more passionate, come out swinging. Channel FDR, Mr. Pres. He’s starting to, and I’m glad to see it.
Obama pointed out that many of the legislators who are saying health care reform will cost too much and that the Democrats are saddling future generations with debt are the same people who voted for the Bush prescription drug program that wasn’t funded and helped contribute to the deficit and the economic mess. “You’ll forgive me if I chuckle a little at the Republicans who say ‘oh big spending Obama’ when I’m proposing something that will be paid for, while they signed into law something that wasn’t, they voted for it, no problem. Same people.”
And the prez got big applause for saying he wants vigorous debate on health care, “but let’s talk with each other, not over each other.” At least in this New Hampshire meeting, it seems people thought yelling to shut other people up at public meetings isn’t a great thing.
Trouble is, the yelling and screaming at the town hall meetings gets covered. C-SPAN’s audience is small, and already well-informed. So the president has to get out there, everywhere, with this straight talk. Get on Oprah, wear a sandwich board, show up at John Boehner’s town hall meeting. Go get ’em.
Keep it up, Mr. President. Get out there and speak truth to power.
– Bruce Benidt
The Same Rowdy Crowd 
I gotta watch something other than C-CPAN. But an Arlen Specter town hall meeting followed the Obama meeting. And several regular human beings got up mad as hell and yelled at Specter. Middle-aged, dowdily dressed, overweight, regular Americans in Lebanon, Pennsylvania.
And as one guy, in his 50s, got up and yelled at Specter, I cringed and thought of him as a whacko. He was saying You’ll do whatever you want up in Washington, you lie to us, and we don’t have the money to stuff in your pocket that the lobbyists do, the ones who buy your favors with campaign money.
And then I realized — the guy might be a whacko, but he’s also speaking the truth. Too many in congress are bought and paid for — always have been.
Maybe this town hall meeting maelstrom is a good thing, people actually getting exercised about something and speaking up.
BTW, Sen. Specter is soooo high on the boredom scale, and watching him deal with anger and hecklers is amazing. Bless him, though, he stands and listens.
Why might he be a whacko? Because he’s hollering?
It seems like people are understanding what they want from the proposed health plan then getting upset over nothing.
Agree the President was much better than he has been. He’s got a lot of work to do, but he remains a very talented communicator.
On other channels the screamers got more air time than he did, though. It seems that when the coverage shows Obama and the screamers in the same room, Obama usually wins the moment. But when coverage shows Obama in one room, and screamers unrebutted outside or at another meeting, the President looks like he’s flailing away and the masses aint buying it. It helps when he engages them face-to-face.
Keep it up, Mr President. Collect the names and email and IP addresses of those who oppose you reforms. Instruct Congress to lash out at the public, and humiliate them. Arrest senior citizens and veterans at Town Hall meetings. Enlist more union goons to rough up dissenters.
One can only imagine if Bush had employed this tactics.
Washington’s arrogance and condescension is beyond belief (but not really). There are no signs of abatement, which will result in a clean sweep of Congress a la 1994.
Don’t hold your breath for that, JK
Speaking of fighting back, the British – including Prime Minister Gordon Brown — are getting just a bit fed up with all the bashing going on in the US over our national healthcare system!! (the NHS or National Health Service). Follow the link for the war of words flowing back to your shores:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8199615.stm