In a few minutes Barack Obama will sign the health care reforms into law. Once he does that, we will have two jobs. The first is to help educate people about the positive elements of these reforms so that they become an asset to Democrats running for office this fall. The second is to agitate for improvements in the reforms, because they fall short of what we need, and because there are political vulnerabilities (the mandate) that can only be fixed by providing a public option.
I hope we can put unproductive bitching behind us.
Fox News reports that not a single Republican is in the East Room for the signing. Shocking!!
.
I can imagine they didn’t react to the invite on time … no matter, it would have spoiled this happy, historic moment.
“Ignorance breeds monsters to fill up the vacancies of the soul that are unoccupied by the verities of knowledge”
Horace Mann, 19th-century educator"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."first time I’ve seen both Barack and Joe Biden wearing blue ties – in honor of the occasion I guess. if any repugs had voted for it I’ll be one of them would have worn a red tie as usual
John Dingell first introduced a universal health care plan in 1955. He is there on his crutches, pumped up as hell.
Joey gets a share of the stage. Nice move.
fired up and ready to go chant in the East Room.
Biden: “Mr. President, I think we have a happy room.”
I admit to breathing a huge sigh of relief when Joe Biden stopped talking.
the mikes picked up Biden saying, “Mr. President, this is a big f*cking deal!”
You’re kidding, right? I heard something like “you deserve it”.
OMG, you’re not kidding.
uh-oh, spending too much time around Rahm
As Gibbs tweeted a short time later, “And yes, Mr. Vice President, you’re right.”
I love it. And Fox is going nuts, as expected.
I watched it on C-SPAN and was deeply moved. I have to admit, even if it’s not the pure bill we might have hoped for, I’m glad it passed. Seeing those who helped make it happen in Washington, like Nancy Pelosi, stand there with representatives of those families who will see the benefits really made me tear up. It really was a glorious moment.
While we might have reservations about the particulars contained in the healthcare bill, I think it’s going to give Obama and the Democrats a big political boost. They come out looking like winners who achieved something big. It’s great to watch the Republicans swimming in their own bile. Anger and a sour disposition aren’t a winning formula.
Verklempt moment: 11 year old boy, dressed exactly like the president, and with a story similar to Obama’s own, stands next to the president during the signing. That will stick with me for a long time.
Hasn’t the fine for the mandate been lowered to ummm $0?
Sigh. I’ll have to look for a replay later on when I’m out of the clutches of my evil overlords.
http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Graphics/2010/022310-Bill-comparison.aspx
Found a little chart that states what the liberal blogs have been stressed since this debacle started.
Time now to watch the Courts—10-13 state AG’s say they’ll file suit re: the HCR law, and we have an activist Conservative SCOTUS willing to please its Corporate sponsors…
The fight goes on….
Is it feasible that Grayson’s HR 4789 could provide a useful public option?
I don’t think so. It kind of defeats the whole purpose of setting up the exchanges to just let everyone into Medicare.
Explain, please. Why can’t Medicare buy-in be a public option? People can still choose between it and a private plan.
because if you are going to go to all the trouble to open up Medicare to everyone there is no point in setting up private exchanges. No one would want them.
I’m assuming that pre-retirement enrolees would pay higher premiums or other buy-in costs to make up for their lower lifetime contributions to Medicare. So it seems reasonable to expect the costs and coverage to be about the same as a public option, or maybe a little better because retirees give you a bigger base. I still don’t see why people would choose a Medicare buy-in but not a public option. Unless you’re just talking about perceptions.
I’m not sure what you mean. You are advocating no public option on the exchanges, but an opportunity to buy-in to Medicare early.
Given that choice, it would always be cheaper to use Medicare because of their bargaining power and the non-profit element.
Only an idiot would buy Wellpoint insurance if Medicare was available.
I’m all for Medicare-for-all, but that’s a single-payer system whether you make it so explicitly or not. In other words, it won’t pass.
I’m not advocating anything. I’m trying to understand why you think people would pay to opt into Medicare but not for a public option. Both should be cheaper than private insurance because they’re not paying the ripoff tax. So why would one destroy private insurance and the other wouldn’t?
they both would destroy private insurance. One would just be more through and quick about it.
So what you meant to say was, “because if you are going to go to all the trouble to open up Medicare to everyone or have a public option there is no point in setting up private exchanges. No one would want them.”
Have to disagree! There’s a huge political point to make. I think they should put Medicare on the Exchanges and let the dominoes fall. Demonstrate the free choice of consumers beyond a shadow of a doubt.
That was my question: why was Boo seeming to make a big distinction between a PO and Medicare buy-in? Medicare makes more sense but I’d be OK with a real PO, too. I just don’t understand why he said Medicare would kill the exchanges but a PO wouldn’t.
No.
Because the public option would work much slower.
The way the House laid out a public option, it wasn’t tied to medicare reimbursement rates and it had all kinds of stuff in there to make it so the private insurers could be at least in the ballpark competitively.
Medicare would crush any private plan, or any public plan designed to be competitive with private plans.
OK, so if that’s true, and there would be no clear advantage for consumers to going for the PO, why all the “kill the bill” screaming for it? If you’re right, it would have close to zero advantage, except maybe for the satisfaction of depriving the insurancecos of their pound of flesh.
I said the public option would do the job, but do it slower. The main benefit of the PO would be to put downward price competition, with the insurecos fighting for their life to keep within sight competitively.
Medicare buy-in is just single-payer in sheep’s clothing.
I’m very encouraged that they’re sticking to the “this is a beginning, not the end, of healthcare reform”. It’s a small phrase but a very big deal because it lets the rest of us work to make HCR better without trying to tear down what’s been done — we’re part of the ongoing process, not its enemy. The more skeptical among us don’t have to sound like teabaggers anymore.
I hope our side takes the time to get over the easy labels like “public option” and even single-payer and really think through what the ideal system would look like. With single-payer off the table, we were limited to the rather vague public option as an ideological point more than as an idea. People on the left accuse Obama of leaving everything to Congress, but we did the same thing. Now’s our time to come up with some coherent policy of our own.
Yep. Speaking in English instead of healthcare wonkspeak would certain help sell changes.
My favorite moment – “you’ve taken a lot of lumps…” “Yes we did.” Laughs all around. I loved the genuine smile on the President’s face at that!
Victory
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/23/a-big-fucking-deal-bidens_n_509927.html
http://img148.yfrog.com/img148/7941/9b8.jpg
Defeat
http://www.daylife.com/photo/08Kc3Rz46b9bk?q=pence
I am truly proud to be an American today.
Just got back from changing tires out, and we’ve got a long way to go. 74 year old woman had us all trapped in the waiting room as she ranted verbatim a Fox/Limbaugh screed. “No real scientists believe in Global Warming; Obama is a traitor; they’re going to take away my Medicare Card; if I try and get medical attention they’ll make me go up before a board that will decide if they should just kill me, the Haiti earthquake was bigger than Chile and the Alaskan earthquake was an 11.9, I know I was there.
The whole room was filled with people whose jaws were dropped; and of course she was deaf so wouldn’t shut up. I was there for 4 hours listening to her and I need a drink, NOW!
It’s official. Sarah Palin is expected to ink deal on travelogue reality show. One million per episode. Now we can learn how to hunt wolves from a helicopter.
I’m strangely disappointed in the Discovery channel, but I guess it’s all about the bottom line. I’ll take a stab and venture that she won’t be visiting the beaches where there is still oil residue, or the melting permafrost, or the retreating glaciers.
she’s supposed to be here in Tucson on Friday to campaign with McGrumpy. We’re the “blue” part of the state, should be interesting. Oh, and notJoe the notPlumber is still shilling for spotlight.
They’re like the hydra…