And he did it without the public option. Three years ago, former Republican Massachusetts governor and likely 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney pushed health care reform through his state. It requires people to have health care, but gives help to the poor. And it’s popular – 7 in 10 really like it. It’s food for thought for sure, and a perfect arguing point for Romney. Watch him go: “You don’t have to have a public option. You don’t have to have the government getting into the insurance business to make it work.” source
I don’t think the messaging has been very clear … the campaign to disseminate the messaging has not been as relentless and organized as it needs to be.
Democratic pollster Celinda Lake • Discussing Obama’s health care rhetoric. In general, many political types say that Obama’s message on health care is lacking – there’s no “change” or “hope” to drive the campaign like there was in January. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs admits there have been stumbles: “I don’t think anybody here believes we’ve pitched a no-hit game or a perfect game. I don’t think that’s the case.” • source
Why is the public option so vitally important to health reform? At the broadest possible level, the public option is necessary simply because it’s impossible to identify a successful health system anywhere in the world based on a for-profit insurance model.
Slate columnist Timothy Noah • Discussing the weaknesses in health care reform that will show up if the public option is off the table. While Obama prefers having it, he’s shown wavering over the last week that makes it seem less-necessary than it once did. Noah puts it this way: “You can also think of the public option as a pressure valve. Without it, the government’s attempt to remake the health sector risks blowing itself to smithereens.” • source
Not so public Kathleen Sebelius, the Health and Human Services Secretary, spent her morning trying to explain to John King how the single-payer public option wasn’t needed to reform health care.
Not so public Kathleen Sebelius, the Health and Human Services Secretary, spent her morning trying to explain to John King how the single-payer public option wasn’t needed to reform health care.
AARPing biased Fox News stacked the deck against Obama in this interview with an AARP leader on whether they support his health care plan, prefacing it with a slanted two-minute introduction.
Not so public Kathleen Sebelius, the Health and Human Services Secretary, spent her morning trying to explain to John King how the single-payer public option wasn’t needed to reform health care.
AARPing biased Fox News stacked the deck against Obama in this interview with an AARP leader on whether they support his health care plan, prefacing it with a slanted two-minute introduction.
Captain obvious Usually-bright journalist David Gregory was on “Meet the Press” this morning analyzing the health care debate, saying it’s gotten away from Obama. No, really bro? Duh. Way to call it, man.
Beyond apparently being racist and losing advertisers, Glenn Beck seems to have flip-flopped entirely on his opinion of health care in the process of switching networks, as Jon Stewart casually notices in this Daily Show segment. Examiner blogger Ryan Witt does Beck a favor and shows he’s slightly more consistent than Stewart claims. However, it’s still a flip. (Unrelated side note: Comedy Central needs to fix their embed codes. They use tables and are necessarily messy.)source
I know what it’s like to watch somebody you love, who is aging, deteriorate and have to struggle with that. We’ve got enough stuff to deal with without having these kinds of arguments.
President Barack Obama • Discussing the health care plan in Colorado, specifically in regards to some of the attacks he’s seen regarding the elderly and so-called “death panels.” With these words Obama reminded those at yesterday’s town hall that his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, died just last year on the eve of the election. Obama’s tried over the last few days to change the tone of the debate. We’ll see if it works. • source
I guess what surprised me is the ferocity, it’s much stronger than I expected. It’s people who are ideologically opposed to Mr. Obama, and this is the opportunity to weaken the president.
AARP executive vice president John Rother • Which supports changing the health care plan, on attacks the plan has received, including suggestions of a “death panel” by Sarah Palin, a claim which is completely false but has much more traction than it should. The claims have much in common with the claims used to kill the health care movement in 1994. One conservative commentator from that era who flipped sides, David Brock, put it best: “In the 90s, every misrepresentation under the sun was made about the Clinton plan and there was no real capacity to push back. Now, there is that capacity.” • source