Obama v America on health care reform

Obama is becoming frustrated, starting to sound whiny and angry. Asked about the polls that show Americans do not want him to mess with their health care, he replied, "It means what we're doing is hard."

And he assures us that "it's not about me."

He's hiding economic numbers that might hamper the bill's chances.

"He insists his health-care plan won't add to our nation's deficit, despite the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office saying exactly the opposite," DeMint added. "And today we learn that the president is refusing to release a critical report on the state of our economy, which contains facts essential to this debate. What is he hiding?"

He's made the equivalent of a 911 call to lib bloggers to go on the attack. Don Surber points out:

This is the first time in his political life that he has faced serious pushback. His poll numbers have normalized for a president. U.S. government approved health care is about as popular today as it was 15 years ago when a Democratic Congress said no.

He's planning a prime-time press conference for Wednesday night. It's hard to imagine that he'll allow any pointed questions about factual material in the bill. Denying its probable effects is one thing, but lying about its actual content is another. But he continues to do so. Real reporters, all two or three of them, would like to call him on that. So it will likely be another staged affair with planted friendly questioners.

The process has been exposed as a corrupt one:

"Most people there had an agenda; they wanted the ear of a senator, and they got it," said Aaron Roland, a San Francisco health-care activist who paid half price to attend the gathering. "Money gets you in the door. The only thing the other side can do is march around and protest outside."

As his committee has taken center stage in the battle over health-care reform, Chairman Baucus (D-Mont.) has emerged as a leading recipient of Senate campaign contributions from the hospitals, insurers and other medical interest groups hoping to shape the legislation to their advantage. Health-related companies and their employees gave Baucus's political committees nearly $1.5 million in 2007 and 2008, when he began holding hearings and making preparations for this year's reform debate.

Top health executives and lobbyists have continued to flock to the senator's often extravagant fundraising events in recent months. During a Senate break in late June, for example, Baucus held his 10th annual fly-fishing and golfing weekend in Big Sky, Mont., for a minimum donation of $2,500. Later this month comes "Camp Baucus," a "trip for the whole family" that adds horseback riding and hiking to the list of activities.

To avoid any appearance of favoritism, his aides say, Baucus quietly began refusing contributions from health-care political action committees after June 1. But the policy does not apply to lobbyists or corporate executives, who continued to make donations, disclosure records show.

Obama is going to apply some pressure to the Blue Dogs today. Will a combination of threats and bribes have its usual effect?

Thank goodness Nancy Pelosi has figured out how to pay for it all:

Pelosi also told POLITICO she will push to “drain” more savings from the medical industry — hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and health insurers — than they have given up under current health-reform agreements with the Senate and White House.

Asked whether she believes the industry players will wind up contributing more to the package, Pelosi replied: “I don’t know. I know they can, to the extent that the special interests are willing to cooperate. ... They could do much better. ... Frankly, I think all the money [to pay for health reform] could be drained from the system, if they were willing to do that.”

h/t: Pundit

Meanwhile, US governors are less than thrilled with what ObamaCare will mean to their budgets:

Democratic and Republican governors meeting this weekend in Biloxi, Miss., said they fear the reform legislation would dump huge costs on the states at a time their coffers are running dry under the pressures of the recessionary economy.

And the Mayo Clinic gives ObamaCare an unequivocal thumbs down:

The Mayo Clinic said there are some positive elements of the bill, but overall "the proposed legislation misses the opportunity to help create higher quality, more affordable health care for patients."

"In fact, it will do the opposite," clinic officials said, because the proposals aren't patient-focused or results-oriented. "The real losers will be the citizens of the United States."

From a town meeting in Maryland, an unemployed man asks Sen. Ben Cardin, a proponent of ObamaCare, this question:

Perhaps the most controversial, came from Robert Broadus of Clinton, Maryland, an audience member who had lost his job and replaced it with one that paid him far less money.

"I decided not to get the health insurance. That's working out for me because I'm able to save that extra money and give it to my family members and use it on myself. Senator Cardin, I want to know are you going to tell me an individual...that I have to buy health care or else you're going to fine me 25 hundred dollars every year I don't get it? Our founding fathers assured us we have a Bill of Rights and I want to see you uphold that," Broadus said in an increasingly emotional voice and to scattered applause.

Cardin's response came in the form of an attack:

"You don't pay. You are part of the population that shifts its costs over to a person who does pay, and they're paying for you," Cardin said.

Or maybe the man does pay. People often make arrangements with hospitals to set up payment schedules. And - go figure - hospitals have a different set of fees for the uninsured.

But Cardin and company don't think individuals should be able to make their own decisions based on what's best for them and their families.

Gateway Pundit reports on another health care forum. This one, in Missouri, didn't go so well for the socialized medicine proponents. Watch this must-see video from the meeting. Attendees laughed out loud and asked the best question of all: "If it's so good why doesn't Congress have to be on it?"

Bingo. But Obama doesn't want to hear this or any other questions because the time for talk is through.

Comments welcome.
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