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Subscribe to RSS“The Obama administration today will defend a requirement that Americans obtain insurance or pay a penalty -- the core of the president’s health care overhaul --in a Supreme Court case central to the Republican campaign to take over the White House,” Bloomberg writes. “A group of 26 states will say that Congress exceeded its authority in approving the mandate, as the justices hear their second of three days of arguments. The government, defending the president’s signature legislative victory, will contend that Congress can require people to buy insurance under its constitutional power to regulate the interstate health-care market.”
The New York Times says how the Supreme Court answers the constitutionality of the health law “depends in large part on how the justices decide to frame the core issue. The law’s challengers … present the central question as one of individual liberty. May the federal government, they ask, compel individuals not engaged in commerce to buy a product, here health insurance, from private companies?”
“The Obama administration, by contrast, urges the court to answer a different question. May Congress decide, in fashioning a comprehensive response to a national crisis in the health care market, to regulate how people pay for the health care they will almost inevitably need?”
The New Yorker’s Lizza looks at how Obama came to reverse his position on the mandate: “The President was pushed into adopting the individual mandate by two forces: Democrats in Congress and the C.B.O. When it became clear that it was untenable for Obama to keep his anti-mandate campaign position, his aides looked to Massachusetts….”
“President Barack Obama said he wasn’t “hiding the ball” from U.S. voters after microphones recorded him asking Russia for patience on missile defense negotiations until after the November election,” Bloomberg writes. “‘I don’t think it’s any surprise that you can’t start that a few months before a presidential and congressional election in the United States,’ Obama told reporters at a nuclear security summit in Seoul today, adding that a planned U.S. missile-defense system in Europe was one of the ‘primary points of friction’ between the two nations.”
The Boston Globe’s Johnson calls the open-mic moment Obama’s “own ‘Etch A Sketch’ moment.’” (The Globe also puts together a series of famous open-mic gaffes.)
Both the New York Daily News and New York Post saw it as Obama confident in having a “second term.”
Suffolk has Obama up over Romney 47%-37%. A McClatchy-Marist poll, however, shows Obama up only by two points (46%-44%) over Romney.
“Several key White House offices were involved with the Obama administration’s messaging plans and other preparations as the collapse of the taxpayer-backed solar company Solyndra was imminent, newly released documents show,” The Hill writes. “The latest White House documents delivered to House Republicans on Friday again highlight the extent to which senior administration officials braced for the fallout as Solyndra – a company President Obama had personally visited – was about to go under.”
For the second time in a month, Vice President Biden will be in Iowa tomorrow. “Biden will speak at PCT Engineered Systems in Davenport about the administration’s efforts to improve the economy and the importance of manufacturing. It’s the third in a series of speeches Biden is delivering on the economy, which kicked off two weeks ago in Toledo, Ohio,” Roll Call notes.
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Until we get health care costs under control, we are never going to get a handle on the deficit. While not on the table (big pharma and health insurance companies do not want anything to happen to their big profits), a single payer plan is really the only way to go.
The Federal mandate was the GOP's idea, so what's the argument about? We the people need to pay attention and remember FACTS!
Facts and "opinions" are hard to separate. Stating there is a "crisis" in our country (opinion) as a ruse for federal takeover of the health care industry is a Democratic ploy. Democrats own this crappy legislation and weak attempts to put it back on the GOP are a sad joke.
The "facts" are that this massive legislation is over 2,700 pages long, regulations are still being churned out by "those put in charge" and the CBO cost estimates are now about DOUBLE what was originally projected. The facts are that this legislation was birthed behind closed doors, and even then, the bribes, kickbacks, special deals and exclusions were entirely "negotiated" amongst Democrats.
The facts are this bill does nothing to lower the costs of health care here in the U.S. which would make it more accessible. The facts are that "those who cannot afford" Obamacare will be subsidized by Uncle Sam on the backs of those who are already paying for the insurance needs of their family.
Bad legislation is simply BAD LEGISLATION ...... and this is the worst !
Hey finefancy my wife and I both have company paid healthcare and retirement not including my 401k, we have both had it for the 26 years we have been employed with the company. Company paid healthcare and retirement were two benefits besides salary we shopped for while job hunting. My healthcare costs are under control, no outstanding bills. The same is true for my wife. If your personal healthcare costs are out of control why don't you do something really unique pay them, Why didn't you plan for your healthcare costs, I did. Your healthcare is not my business and mine is not your business lets keep it that way. Next you will be after my company paid retirement so I think as a country we need to nip this bammycare in the bud before it spreads to full blown socialism and you go after my retirement and my savings.
Hey Bob - good for you and your wife. But there are millions of people who don't have it as good as you do. And, you/we ARE paying for the uninsured who get sick. That makes this a problem for everyone - including you.
Bob
The old "I'm better, (more responsible, practical), than you are" argument, the rightwing likes to promote, simply falls apart when you consider that Republican dominated states, and Republican individuals, use the bulk of the government services. The only people I personally know who are on foodstamps, vote Republican.
For some reason, when a Republican loses his job and health insurance, it's all Obama's fault, or his ex-wife's, but if a Democrat is uninsured, she failed to plan.
The fact is, we need to tackle the challenge of providing healthcare in a practical and workable manner, a la Massachusetts. You know, the state where Ted Kennedy and Mitt Romney worked together, and got everybody covered.
Bob,
My hubby and I also have employer health care and 401k. We pay our medical bills. I have also seen the cost of our health insurance rise every year. (FYI, my hubby works in a hospital and sees daily the people who do NOT have health insurance. Those costs, sir, are past on to you, me, the hospitals and doctors through the rising cost of health care) You, sir, are part of the problem. The selfish, hey, I am okay, to heck with the rest of you. You can't and won't see beyond your own nose!
Every time the tea people Koch republican voters look in the mirror their reflection tells them you vote for the clowns i"m voting Democratic.
I wonder how many GOP voters secretly vote Democratic in the privacy of the voting booth.
Teabagger Bob, great comeback. Just like all teabagger-Idiots following Idiots.
So, nothing of value from you frank ..... except to attack another's comment and resort to name-calling ?
Let me guess, you'll get a pass from Tyler and Sally because you're a liberal.
No matter what they say before they are elected they are going to do whatever they want to do after they get in office. Obama has pretty well done exactly what he said he would do except for running up the debt, as he has. I didn't vote for him last time and won't again, but I am interested at the vitrol with which the right attacks him personally. They spend so much time in personal attacks that they never get around to explaining their solutions. I don't think the right has a clue how to help the middle class. They never were about helping middle America and now thy don't know how to reach us.
Don't worry. The President promised that the 2012 federal deficit will not exceed 229.27 billion dollars and he always keeps his promises. Gitmo is closed is it not and we are all paying much less for health insurance.
The President promised that he would go over the health care bill, "line by line", with my congressman and every other Washington law maker who requested it and that all proceedings would be televised on CSPAN. I am sure that many of us will understand the law much better once the broadcasts have concluded. Does anyone know when the broadcasts are scheduled to begin?
Most GOP/TPers couldn't understand Constitution if you presented on fraggle-rock, so what good would it do. If you try to explain that ALL Americans participate in healthcare system, so mandate is easily Constitutional....they don't understand. If you try to explain that health insurance is valid from state to state so interstate commerce clause applies....they don't understand....WHY BOTHER? Do it the same way FDR did SS, push it through and in ten years Republicans will claim it was their idea all along!!!!
When someone needs medical attention and does not have health insurance, those that do have health insurance eventually end up paying for it, and health insurance rises, that is the problem today with rising health care costs. And I ask this, why should someone pay for another's health insurance so that person who has not been paying for it can get care. The only way I would not care if Obama's health care is not put into law is if someone has no health care and are sick, sorry get health insurance and they are turned away, may sound cruel but wanting others to pay for it is wrong wrong wrong and cruel also, everyone works hard for their money.