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  1. #1
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    Obama's Secret Moves on Health Care

    Obama's Secret Moves On Health Care

    Marc Ambinder Provides A Behind-The-Scenes Look Into White House Maneuvering In The Health Care Debate

    June 12, 2009 | by Marc Ambinder

    President Obama delivers remarks on health care in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on June 11, 2009. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

    Video at source:
    "CBS News RAW:" Speaking at town-hall meeting in Green Bay, Wis. Pres. Obama voiced his support for government-sponsored health care plan. | Share/Embed


    President Obama's kid glove theory of legislating on Health Care reform was too soft a touch for senior members of Congress who were tasked with writing health care legislation.

    But last month, conflicts between Senate committees and between the Senate and the House reached a point where the lack of guidance from the White House about details was producing significant confusion about what Mr. Obama really wanted -- aside from the vague generalities about access to quality, affordable health care that he has stuck do since becoming president.

    The White House was urged to be more specific on the following questions:

    1. What role should states play in the health insurance exchanges? How much authority would individual states possess to regulate plans that were offered within their states?

    2. Should there be a "public plan," and should it be "robust" -- the adjective used to describe a plan that could supplant private health insurance plans, or merely "competitive" -- revenue neutral and not receive any special attention or funding from the government?

    3. Would Mr. Obama be willing to accept new taxes on health benefits?

    4. Would he support proposals to give non-partisan, non-profit expert committees actual authority to streamline Medicare and Medicaid (absent a Congress veto)?

    5. How much out of pocket money should individuals be expected to pay?

    6. Did the White House want an expedited timetable? Was it content with the speed of legislative efforts?

    Deciding whether to answer these questions put the White House in a little bit of a bind. Legislative director Phil Schilliro has made it his mission not to give Congress any rational reason to fight the administration on anything related to health care.

    The more specifics Mr. Obama provided, the more fights there would be. From the start of the health care debate, Mr. Obama did not want the White House to be an obstacle.

    Even his endorsement of the particulars was vague. The White House has not, in private, even, argued for a "robust" public insurance option. That's partly because there is no consensus among Obama advisers about the wisdom of a plan that would significantly increase government health care expenditures above and beyond the $1.2 trillion or so Mr. Obama expects to spend over the next ten years.

    White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has floated the idea of a public plan that would be weak for a while -- perhaps five years -- and give the insurance industry the chance to cut costs, improve the quality of care and increase access (there would be metrics). And then, if the private sector failed, the public plan would suddenly be placed before the American people as an alternative to their current plan -- and it would be heavily subsidized, would cost less, and would cover more things.

    Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), who often speaks with Emanuel, has proposed a hover-craft like plan in Congress.

    The Cost?

    The White House proposed to pay for universal health insurance by limiting charitable deductions for those in the top two tax brackets.

    That proposal was DOA.

    Senate Democrats, backed by the health care policy community, believe that the easiest and less intrusive way to pay for approximately half of the cost of reform over ten years would be to end the tax exemption for employer-provided health care benefits. Mr. Obama campaigned against this idea when Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) proposed it during the campaign, but he is not prepared to stand in the way of Congress.

    How much would be taxed? Who would be taxed? This is a debate the White House will leave to Congress, too, although White House health care advisers clearly have some ideas and are sharing them privately.

    For now, it's sufficient for members of Congress to know that Mr. Obama won't veto a bill that includes new taxes.

    The Public And Doctors

    The White House plans to stick to what it does best: using the bully pulpit of the presidency to convey urgency and to engage the stakeholders. That's been the strategy from day one, and we saw it amped up yesterday with the president's trip to Wisconsin, and will see it next Monday, with his speech to the skeptical docs at the American Medical Association conference.

    The AMA's opposition to a public plan notwithstanding, the Obama administration believes that it's important, politically, to appear to be engaging the doctors in a way that the Clinton administration failed to do. The AMA's political and cultural biases aside, they worry that if the public perceives that doctors, as a community, oppose whatever plan emerges from the various Congressional actors, final status negotiations, to borrow a phrase from Middle East diplomacy, will be hard to achieve.

    On the other hand, getting docs to buy into the idea of reform -- and making sure that the public is made aware of this buy-in -- gives the Democrats some maneuvering room.

    On Monday, a White House official said, Mr. Obama will "offer the doctors a seat at the table. Whether they sit there is up to them. But everyone will know that they've gotten the offer."

    By Marc Ambinder

    (CBS) The "On The Marc" column is written by The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder, CBS News' chief political consultant.

    http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/06/ ... 3352.shtml
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    Senior Member vmonkey56's Avatar
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    Illegal immigrants are not entitled to this medical care. But their undocumented immigrants children are included. WHAT!

    Who is going to pay for these undocumented children? Their illegal immigrant parents working in the jobs that AMERICANS WOULD DO?

    So why not require all employers to pay a fee or tax on their GROSS INCOME of 10% for national health to reduce cost of health care on the general American Citizens. If the undocumented immigrants' children are going to be covered make the employers pay for their indirect result to the loss of jobs to American Citizens. Watch the illegal deport themselves!

    If caught with illegal immigrants working for oneself the rate would raise higher and above 10% of gross income.

    Don't feel to sorry for the employer they will take another deduction from earnings to reduce taxes owed to government.
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  3. #3
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    Everything about Obama and gang is back door, behind the scenes and underhanded!!! It is just the way they do business!

  4. #4
    Senior Member azwreath's Avatar
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    On Monday, a White House official said, Mr. Obama will "offer the doctors a seat at the table. Whether they sit there is up to them. But everyone will know that they've gotten the offer."



    Oh sure....obama will "offer".

    Watch and see what happens to doctors who refuse to go along with obama's idea.

    This will be another case of his way or the highway.....go along with his plans or else you're out of a job and profession.
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  5. #5
    Senior Member butterbean's Avatar
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    I agree with you azwreath. Obama is worse than Bush when it comes to threatening Americans into doing something that is bad for them. Obama is arguing that if nothing is done immedicately, health care will become unreachable for everyone - that all Americans will be without the basic health care needs FOREVER. He is such a liar and a manipulater. It is the same method he used to ROB ALL AMERICANS OUT OF MONEY TO BAIL OUT BANKS. And we dont have any idea where the money went and probaby never will. Obama is planning on giving illegal aliens health care that WE WILL PAY FOR out of our own pockets. The resentment is building and Americans are getting pissed. Some of our reps are too chicken to go against Obama, and the rest want to help Obama in his destruction of the middle class. I PRAY THAT SOMEONE FINDS OUT THE TRUTH ABOUT OBAMA AND I PAY THAT IT IS SOON BEFORE THAT IDIOTIC IMPOSTER DESTROYS EVERYTHING AMERICANS HAVE BUILT FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS. End of rant- to be continued later.....
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