Obama: "Medicare and Medicaid are huge problems"

[cali]

Is this any way to frame the debate?

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20032007-503544.html

[TheCowsCameHome]

1. Man, I don't like what I'm hearin'............

I think we're in trouble - from our own side.

[FourScore]

51. Oh geez...He used the words: "this is going to be a negotiation process."

We're screwed.

[truebrit71]

56. No shit...we are total screwn....

..

[sasha031]

2. there are times when he speaks

I shudder:scared:

[MadHound]

3. No, but it allows the debate to be shifted away from the elephant in the room,

Our ever expanding defense budget.

[leftstreet]

5. He should propose that all seniors join the military

:grr:

[AngryAmish]

57. Obama has been clear - there can be no defense cuts

Why?

[Mimosa]

4. Sounds like a Rethuglican.

What IF, what IF...what if we had national health care? Maybe a plan like Australia...or Japan?

[Newest Reality]

6. That would require and overthrow

of the insurance industry, I think.

[Mimosa]

7. No. A Public Option plan would have provided pressure on rates. n/t

[ProSense]

8. He's right,

because he was talking about health care cost:

<...>

Some of this spending we’ve begun to tackle in this budget -– like the $78 billion that Secretary Gates identified in defense cuts. But to get where we need to go we’re going to have to do more. We’ll have to bring down health care costs further, including in programs like Medicare and Medicaid, which are the single biggest contributor to our long-term deficits. I believe we should strengthen Social Security for future generations, and I think we can do that without slashing benefits or putting current retirees at risk. And I’m willing to work with everybody on Capitol Hill to simplify the individual tax code for all Americans.

<...>

Here's a graphic:




So this is how progress is going to happen, huh? Gotcha with every word the President utters?

[sinkingfeeling]

10. +1

[rhett o rick]

11. Who's fooling who? The lower class is going down farther every day with no end in sight.

This is the end game for capitalism in America, the beginning for China.

[Mimosa]

40. Rhett o Rick the word 'indefensible' comes to mind..

More and more, like a refrain... 'Indefensible, that's what he is..'

[leftstreet]

12. "bring down health care costs" Hey! Where's the CBO scoring on single payer?

:shrug:

[ProSense]

28. Ask Kucinich, Weiner and Sanders.

As Senator Sanders said, he couldn't get 10 votes.

[leftstreet]

38. I'd ask Congress personally, but they'd have me arrested

As probation ends for 'Baucus 8,' group vows to press for single-payer health reform

Jan. 8, 2010


WASHINGTON – Members of the “Baucus 8,” a group of doctors and health advocates who were arrested at a Senate Finance Committee meeting last May for standing up and asking why single-payer proponents were not being allowed to testify, appeared at the H. Carl Moultrie Courthouse today for their final hearing following six months of probation and, for three of them, 40 hours of community service.

Dr. Pat Salomon, a retired pediatrician, commented on the circumstances that prompted their original action. “When we looked at the list of 41 people testifying in the three days of the Finance Committee’s roundtable on health care, we saw that not a single witness was an advocate of the principle that health care should be a fundamental human right for all in America, nor was there anyone to speak for the majority of the American people who support single-payer Medicare for All,” she said.

Kevin Zeese of ProsperityAgenda.US called the committee “pay to play” because, as he said, “Every seat at the roundtable was bought by the lobbyists. Sen. Baucus received nearly $2 million in campaign contributions from the health industry in 2008 and the entire Senate Finance Committee received over $13 million in 2008.”

http://www.pnhp.org/news/2010/january/as-probation-ends-for-baucus-8-group-vows-to-press-for-single-payer-health-reform

:-(

[mmonk]

43. You won't see it.

Politicians like screwing over the citizens and pocketing the money.

[zipplewrath]

15. The complaint is he had his chance, and took a pass

He had his chance to pass real health CARE reform so that we could get control of health CARE costs, and he took a pass, instead pursing lower rates of inflation for medicare and medicaid. Mind you the programs are still rising at unsustainable rates, just lower than before.

We're not going to get control of health care costs by passing mandates and cadillac taxes. We're definitely not going to get control by locking single payer out of the room, and negotiating deals with Big Pharma and the health insurance companies with no one else in the room.

It's a bit late for him to get on this soap box now. Especially as he continues to fight two wars, with no end in sight with one of them. The budgets he proposed had funds for Afghanistan in them for the next 10 years.

Clinton made the case 16 years ago that the number one thing we could do to get control of the federal budget was to pass health CARE reform. Obama instead chose to pass the basic framework of the GOP plan that was proposed to undercut Clinton's health care reform.

[Mimosa]

20. 'budgets he proposed had funds for Afghanistan...for the next 10 years.'

YIKES. I didn't know that. This is what our working people are being made tp pay for. :(

[JuniperLea]

22. Right... because he's magic...

And he can do all this without the benefit of Congress...

[zipplewrath]

32. Well, he did it with out the benefit of the advocates

He cut out single payer advocates right up front. Then he negotiated, in secret, with Big Pharma. He negotiated with the GOP. He negotiated with the insurance companies. But anyone advocating any real long term solutions to the problem were kept "out of the room". Now he wants to lecture people on the importance of cutting health care costs, after calling the people advocating exactly that "sanctimonious".

[jtown1123]

60. This!

I'm sick of closed door negotiations.

[Autumn]

65. No one pays attention to the fact that

he negotiated, in secret, with Big Pharma to get rid of the Public Option, all the while spouting non sense about him "supporting" a Public Option. That part about insurance finance is IGNORED . If that soaked in , the betrayal might just make their heads hurt. "sanctimonious", I would use that word for him.

[sabrina 1]

23. Well said! n/t

[Ignis]

25. That's more answer than was deserved, but nicely stated.

:thumbsup:

[ProSense]

26. What does that have to do with the point?

He's right about the cost of health care and the impact on Medicare and Medicaid.

[zipplewrath]

31. And wrong on the solution

He wants to talk about the problem, and demonize the people that are advocating the solutions. Calling them "sanctimonious" and declaring, out of hand, that their solutions are "nonstarters". Not even allowing them "in the room". Kinda cuts the legs right out from under his point.

[ProSense]

33. That's still irrelevant to the point. n/t

[zipplewrath]

36. Hardly, goes straight to the hypocrisy

He wants to eat his cake and have it too.

[slipslidingaway]

37. Medicare and Medicaid costs are not irrelevant to the point, these costs should...

have been discussed when Obama was handing out subsidies to the private for profit health care companies.

He silenced those voices from any discussion.

But the WH has a nice graph about the budget, according to their graph 40% of the budget will be spent on Medicare, Medicaid and SS.

Where is the pretty graph on the WH site that outlines the revenue, just looking at the WH site one might conclude that "entitlement" cuts need to happen.

[ProSense]

41. Yes

they are relevant to the point I was making in response to the OP.

[slipslidingaway]

44. ALL HC costs should have been part of the HC discussion. n/t

[City Lights]

52. Well said!

:applause:

[myrna minx]

58. Excellent reply. Thank you.

[Autumn]

63. Afghanistan, funding it for the next 10 fucking years???

10 fucking years? No way in hell. :nuke:

[kenny blankenship]

34. far right.

[slipslidingaway]

35. Medicare and Medicaid costs should have been part of the discussion on HC reform...

instead the Obama administration excluded anyone who would have talked about the big picture.

That deal with Billy looks good for the Pharma companies, not so for rising Medicare costs.



http://journals.democraticunderground.com/slipslidingaway/250

President Obama disagrees with Candidate Obama ...

the people liked "enough is enough" and negotiating for bulk drug prices. People criticizing him on this are not asking that he abandon his agenda, they are asking him to follow through on this part of his plan. He called out others during the campaign and said "that is not who we are ... it is time for us to change."

Candidate Obama ...

"And we are tired of watching as year after year, candidates offer up detailed health care plans with great fanfare and promise only to see them crushed under the weight of Washington politics and drug and insurance lobbying once the campaign is over.

That is not who we are, that is not who we have to be, enough is enough, it time for us to change."


Links and video ...

This part is from the 4:55 mark so the detailed plan by the candidate that could save up to 300 billion was replaced by a deal with the lobbyist Tauzin for 80 billion. The study referenced in the Obama plan may or may not account for the increased enrollment by the baby boomers, 46 million to 79 million over the next twenty years.

Tauzin got a good deal IMO, Medicare and seniors not so much.


From the Obama/Biden HC plan ----

"...Barack Obama and Joe Biden will repeal the ban on direct negotiation with drug companies and use the resulting savings, which could be as high as $30 billion (per year),33 to further invest in improving health care coverage and quality."


Obama's $80 Billion Deal with Pharma Is a Very Bad Deal for Us
By William Greider

[Mojorabbit]

49. It is always "current retirees"

when he speaks re benefits. I wish it was retirees period.

[Rex]

54. No you are one of the few that finds Obama haters under every bed.

Sad.

[jtown1123]

59. He has to explain that our broken healthcare system is the reason for high costs

But, his wonderful health care reform bill didn't address these costs therefore these programs are still expensive.

[Bryn]

9. More hurts for less fortunate people

When will he stop? :(

[Tatiana]

13. Have we heard him call defense spending a huge problem, yet? n/t

[SoCalDem]

14. TWO "unwinnable & unnecessary " WARS are the problem.. n/t

[cutlassmama]

17. +1

[damntexdem]

16. It's not just framing the debate -- it's "framing" the poor and the aged.

Medicare and Medicaid are not the problems -- healthcare cost increases are.

[dixiegrrrrl]

19. Verily. Well put.

[cbdo2007]

18. Was our President taken out of context again?

[Mimosa]

42. NO! He was defending the hardworking struggling middle class..

and you just don't get it. You must want something unrealistic.

[QC]

21. It's an excellent way to frame the debate, if

one's ultimate goal is to attack those two programs.

[sad sally]

24. only in America...the land where corporations run the whole show.

[lumberjack_jeff]

27. The core problem in this country is apparently the flesh and blood people living in it.

If it weren't for us, the country's problems are easily soluble.

[somone]

29. The non-negotiable prices for Medicare drugs are a huge problem

Senator Obama said he'd do something about it if elected President.

[peace13]

30. If you are on Medicare and did not support single payer then...

you know how it feels now. Sucks to realize that you may not be able to get good health care coverage. For many without Medicare it is impossible to buy coverage even if money were no object. For others the object is a large monthly fee that is not always affordable. Like it or not ALL Americans are in this. We all need health care and we need to determine how everyone can get it. No ifs ands or buts!

[suffragette]

39. A better approach would be: Lack of adequate and

affordable health care is a serious problem in the United States. We've reached a point where people face bankruptcy and losing their homes because of the structure and cost of private health care. No one in our society should have to choose between basic needs such as housing and the health of their family. It's time to expand Medicare to Part E - Medicare for Everyone.

But that's clearly not the direction he's taking, to his loss and ours.

[slipslidingaway]

47. That would have been a better and more honest approach, I wish Obama would have made...

that point. If there ever was a time then this was it, with all the boomers moving to Medicare, but that is not what he did.

Instead I can look at the WH chart and see that 40% of the proposed budget will be spent on Medicare, Medicaid and SS, there is no pretty chart to show the revenue side.

:(

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget

[suffragette]

48. One of the key differences in the plan Schakowsky

proposed while on the deficit commission was that she addressed revenue and did so from a progressive stance as a Democrat.
Yet her plan was completely ignored by the Administration as far as I can tell.
http://schakowsky.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2777:

[slipslidingaway]

66. Just a quick glance, but it appears that many of her proposals were...

ignored.

:(

[lovuian]

45. No the Iraq Afghanistan War is the problem

and we will eventually go to socialized medicine
or be e last in the industrialized countries in healthcare
and no one will be able to afford it

Reality will set in

[Odin2005]

46. Medicaid is how I afford my psychiatric meds!

:grr:

[GeorgeGist]

50. Cowardice.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

53. $117.8 billion for the costs of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

http://www.slate.com/id/2285080

All told, it amounts to $702.8 billion, broken down as follows: $553 billion for the baseline discretionary Defense Department budget, $5 billion for a handful of mandatory programs, $117.8 billion for the costs of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and—a category usually omitted in these sorts of analyses but clearly laid out in the tables of the White House budget office—$27 billion for "defense-related" programs in other federal departments, nearly half of it for nuclear-weapons labs, reactors, and warhead maintenance in the Department of Energy.

[Kaleva]

55. The medicare payroll tax ought to be tripled,...

and the cap removed from the social security payroll tax. One may consider combining the social security, medicare and the FUTA tax into one payroll tax.

[Better Believe It]

61. Time to cut those programs in the name of more health care "reform"!

[blindpig]

62. Yep, if yer looking to 'solve' them.

There can be no doubt that he knows exactly what he's doing, setting the stage for a hatchet job. Virtually the entire political class is on board, the only questions are how much and who.

[earth mom]

64. If this isn't rethuglican to the core, I don't know what is. nt