Is this really what the debate over U.S. President Barack Obama’s socialized medicine proposal has come down to?
Playing the “grandma card” not once … but twice?
After attempting to reassure Americans earlier in the week that he didn’t want to pull the plug on their grandmothers (no really), on Saturday Obama busted out his own grandmother … or at least her tender, loving memory (she’s dead) … in an effort to shake up a debate that has been decidedly going against him in recent weeks.
Seriously, people … in that moment of “the One’s” almost-tear, the cold hard fist of unchecked government expansion has never seemed so sweet and eager to bake you cookies.
From CNN:
In an unexpectedly personal moment during a town hall meeting Saturday, President Obama invoked the death of his grandmother as he took to task critics of overhauling health care.
“I know what it’s like to watch somebody you love, who’s aging, deteriorate, and have to struggle with that,” Obama said, pausing at times to finish his sentence.
Oh good Lord …
Somewhere in hell, Josef Stalin is calling you a “pussy,” Mr. President.
By NoToObama August 16, 2009 at 7:37 am
I think it is time to look past the “innocent” facade of this manupulative individual. Many of these characteristics are probably from his upbringing. He comes from an interracial, broken home and had no support. Negro father ran back to Africa and supposidly fathered children like they were going out of style. Now, he merely acts a puppet for the left. He keeps referring to his healthcare plan. Where is it? I am only aware of a single plan in the house. He states that we will not pull the plug on granny. Yet, in a prior town hall, he said that sometimes a pain pill was the best thing (an this was in response to a pacemaker for a 100 year old). What a damn doofus! Why would a pain pill be needed for someone who needs a pacemaker? Its not painful! Unless you want to speed the inevitable.
By lou lou August 16, 2009 at 7:39 am
wait wait…
He truly is telling you the truth in this particular statement.
Remember, either you have FMR deciding everything about your care privately since they own every single health insurance company…. which is WORSE than a government take over….
IF the Government still belongs to We the People.
We have a say in our Government.
FMR ain’t gonna let you say nothing… not one single word. Nor will anyone be allowed to intervene… look around ya.
I promise with my hand over my heart, that I am telling you the truth….
But about that Healthcare bill…. nope, no way.
No chips.
No panels. No government control.
WE the People don’t give a hoot about having insurance.
It’s CARE PEOPLE
HEALTHCARE
that We the people want.
think about your arguments. all words are important. watch that the meaning doesn’t get twisted.
By Cooter Brown August 17, 2009 at 6:10 am
Mista Obama can go t’ hell, Hell HELL!!! I wood not trust ‘im wit da health ov dem possums dat rummages ’round in my compost bin!
By Plain Speaking August 17, 2009 at 8:15 am
Getting the private insurance companies out of the game would decrease costs significantly.
Forcing drug companies to reduce their prices to be comparable to other countries would dramatically reduce costs.
Give incentives for people to stay healthy. An overweight cigarette smoker should pay more into the system . It only makes sense.
Judge success by the general health of the population. Have a goal to reduce the number of hospital visits per year.
Notice the strategies for reducing sickness by focusing on good health and prevention aren’t addressed, because there is no money in it for hospitals, insurance companies, and drug companies.
By CL August 17, 2009 at 9:00 am
Plain Speaking,
Seriously? Getting the private sector out of the health care business will lower costs? When has the government taking over an industry ever resulted in efficiency and cost savings?
And of course price controls lower prices. The problem is that they are economically disasterous, and we have centuries of data to show that this is the case. By the way, the reason our costs are so much higher for drugs is that we subsidize the price controls other countries have implemented. So in what sense are more price controls the answer? What will the drug companies do when the costs to develop and market a drug exceed the prices they are allowed to charge?
Finally, whether it would reduce costs or not, the government has no business regulating private behavior. It is none of your business if someone wants to smoke or eat a cheeseburger. It’s totalitarian. I know that liberals have good intentions here, but it blinds them to the Orwellian aspects of all this. Ask yourself, would you trust Bush to implement such a system? Nixon? Sarah Palin? If you concede that the power to regulate behavior could be dangerous if it fell into the wrong hands, then the whole enterprise needs to be scrapped.
This is not to say that there should not be reform. If you would make insurance portable across state lines, let small businesses pool together to negotiate better rates and get rid of the onerous state mandates on insurance, prices would drop appreciably. Then the government could step in to subsidize the ability of the chronically uninsured to obtain coverage and/or health care, who make up no more than 5% of the population (that 46 million number is a joke).
By Craig August 17, 2009 at 9:57 am
Plain Speaking, name one time getting the government involved in anything, lowered costs in a real way.
By scooter August 17, 2009 at 10:28 am
Will, what a heartless and stupid thing to write. I would say shame on you, but you get off on that kind of response. So, just know that people know your double standard of behavior, and I want you to know that your piece above is disgusting. I will be asking you in a little while if you can help out those who needed help with health care reform, if you and the rest of the whack jobs stop the reform. This is on your head as well now. What goes around, comes around.
By rick August 17, 2009 at 10:29 am
CL/Craig….keep speaking out. 2 questions for your representatives. 1. If medicare/medicade is your example of government at its best, my question is where are the savings? Why are they running a deficit? 2. Will you and your family be restricted to that which you bring forth to the American people?
By Charles August 17, 2009 at 12:23 pm
I wish you people would just stop the hate speech, BS, and fear mongering and just address the real issues. Start by admitting that within the next 15 years 35 to 40% of the people living in the US right now will be on Government Health Care, i.e. Medicare. And in fact if you are posting to this site the odds are extremely high, (probably 90%+) that either you, your parents, or some other member of your immediate family is already on government health care right now and would find it very difficult to survive without it. So unless you are currently advocating an immediate end to Medicare, VA Benefits, and Health Insurance for US Government employees, and no Republican Congressman is, just stop the socialists, Stalin crap because you are either stupid or a hypocrite.
And if you are one of the rare people who is advocating an immediate end to all those programs, I hope you will follow through on your convictions and refuse government health care when you need it, and encourage your parents to do the same. But be prepared to live without insurance because insurance companies are not going to voluntarily insure you when you are old or disabled. They didn’t before Medicare and they won’t now; for the simple reason you can’t make any money insuring old/sick people at a price they can afford.
There is a serious health care problem in this country and it has very little to do with whatever number of uninsured there are. The Republicans do have an answer on that, if we just stop treating people who cannot afford health care and have no insurance they will either die or come up with a way to pay and that will solve that problem. The bigger problems are the cost of health care is killing small business, and insured people live in constant fear of losing their insurance. The employer based health care system we currently have is going to end because employers can no longer afford to purchase insurance for their employees. Its just a matter of time.
From my own personal experience, which is running a small business that is trying to keep its 5 employees insured, I do not think simply eliminating government regulation is going to solve the problem. Because without some form of regulations, insurance companies will increase their efforts to get people who are sick off their rolls, deny more claims on shaky grounds, revamp their policies to exclude certain illnesses or require genetic testing, come up with ways to charge small businesses with unhealthy employees more or drop their plans, or simply not pay and rely on the inability of people to fight them before they die or go bankrupt. Those type of tactics resulted in the regulation of insurance in the first place, and if you eliminate those regulations the insurance companies will return to those same policies, because it is profitable to do so. We have about 150 years of history to back that up.
So stop the hate speech, quit complaining, and offer real solutions that aren’t just based on pie in the sky hopes that if we will just leave the insurance companies alone, they will do the right thing for everyone.
By CL August 18, 2009 at 8:02 am
Craig,
Obama’s reasoning is even more asinine than you suggest. He has repeatedly stated that we must “do something” because Medicare and Medicaid are bankrupting the government, and then proposes even greater governmental intrusion into healthcare as the answer. Huh? Shouldn’t the lesson from the failure of Medicare and Medicaid be that the government is really bad at this sort of thing and should focus on market based solutions to reforming health care?
By rick August 18, 2009 at 8:41 am
Charles, Charles, Charles, this isn’t about fixing health care or helping small business provide for their employees, this about controlling who gets what. If this administration was interested in helping, then regulatory/tort reform would be the pie of the day. Instead its perpetuating the same failed systems that have been in place since FDR and WW. Make no mistake, you have no voice unless you’re a multibillion dollar corp with lobbyists. This is all about how this pie is to be sliced, who gets what part. Under the House proposal, you’ll get the chance to not only pay for your employees but also for the guy/gal thats never had a job and doesn’t want one. Ya gotta love the utopian dreams of never being hungry, cold, or sick….why the producers of the society don’t mind being abused, they’ll never give up, they’ll just keep chugging along mindlessly producing for the drones….not.