Health Care Summit televised right now!!!!!
 

Just watched politics at it's best....words....words....more words...nothing being accomplished.
A public display showing exactly how the system works....everybody agrees with everybody and doing nothing.
The opening statements for example stating that "...this is something the American people want..." does that not make one wonder what planet he is on??

The American people want the health care system repaired....not reformed.

The proceedings are a public charade, with the hope of one side swaying public opinion with those all remarkable words.

Another day wasted. Good luck if you can stand more than a few minutes of blah-blah-BLAH!!!!!!!!!!!

btk

Amen! Same old posturing, with no substance:agree:

Btk
 

Are you really surprised??

He'll see what we want in November. I guess he didn't hear the people from Massachusetts.

Personally, for once I'm proud of the Republicans. I think they are sticking it to Obama. I didn't think they had it in them.

Minutes:

Democrats 74 minutes

Republicans 37


Obama said his minutes don't count because he is President.

The arrogance is unbearable.

I know, Donna2, I thought the same thing when I heard what he said. This man is beyond arrogant. Can you imagine if Bush made that statement???

Th3e purpose of the session finally came out in Obama's closing remarks.
 

He said go ahead and take as long as 6 weeks to come together and if after that we will do what ever we have to do to pass the reform whether you (repubs) and we the people like it or not. He surfaced that balloon to see how much flack it draws.

His snap remark to McCain in response to a McCain statement commenting about what they both said they would not do when the were campaigning...Obama shut him out by saying...John we the campaigning is over, the election is over.....what a totally disrespectful pompous :censored:!!!!!

The professional every breath he takes campaigner barf.

btk

The partisanship was quite evident in the coverage. I briefly flipped by Fox and CNN and they were both opening the hour with stories on the 'summit'

Fox was showing the exchange that billethkid mentioned - showing Obama in a more arrogant light.

CNN showed Obama complementing McCain on a good idea.

That kind of says it all in a nutshell.

I think I could write a very long post on this....but will just say that the President was a huge disappointment and his career long reputation for arrogance and smugness came out in spades

AFTER DUE CONSIDERATION OF AN HOUR OR SO....

"After a brief period of consultation following the White House health reform summit, congressional Democrats plan to begin making the case next week for a massive, Democrats-only health care plan, party strategists told POLITICO.


A Democratic official said the six-hour summit was expected to “give a face to gridlock, in the form of House and Senate Republicans.”


Democrats plan to begin rhetorical, and perhaps legislative, steps toward the Democrats-only, or reconciliation, process early next week, the strategists said.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories...#ixzz0gbaAzUyL


Of course, as the President reminded us a few times today......he won therefore.....

"A Democratic official said the six-hour summit was expected to give a face to gridlock, in the form of House and Senate Republicans.”

Really! After watching four hours of that circus yesterday it is the opinion of this Independent that the gridlock is the work of the Dems! Harry Reid talks about a survey that says 52% of Americans want Congress to do something about health care but they will not back off rewriting this bill which another survey says 58% of Americans want Congress to start over again. Some people love to classify the Repubs as the party of NO. Truth is it is not just the Repubs saying NO.

How can Obama be so indifferent regarding his actions
 

to allow him to say in his closing we will proceed with or without you and let the elections decide who was right.
Given what the over whelming response of this country has been in recent months espousing the dis-like for the Obama/Reid/Pelosi forced march proposal....yet the three of them insist on going forward..."without you".

What message do his words and their actions telegraph?

btk

??
 

IF the campaigning is over, then why is he (Obama) still running all over the country doing just that?

That's exactly what McCain should have said to the First Community Organizer.

What is this, the battle of the links?

Yoda

When there is no verbiage I just do not waste my time to look.
 

Courtesy would suggest at least a comment about the point one is attempting to make!!!

btk

You are right. I'm sorry for just including the links. To be honest it's the first time I tried it to see if it worked. In my happiness over my success I forgot to write a little synopsis of each post.
The first is a post telling about the 39% increase for health care costs in California. I thought it was important for 2 reasons. One to show the status quo is not working and 2 we know that what starts in CAL.usually makes it way east. The second is a description of the summitt I found interesting and the 3rd is another opinion from the NY Times that most of you will disagree with but what the heck.

Back to the summitt....the editorial I am linking is a good one and one that I agree on....I even agree that the President showed a great grasp of the facts and as always is a great public speaker....HOWEVER, most of the citizens of this country have other concerns that he did not speak to and Paul Ryan hit them all.....and the President did not respond...

"• "This bill does not control costs (or) reduce deficits. Instead, (it) adds a new health care entitlement when we have no idea how to pay for the entitlements we already have."

• "The bill has 10 years of tax increases, about half a trillion dollars, with 10 years of Medicare cuts, about half a trillion dollars, to pay for six years of spending. The true 10-year cost (is) $2.3 trillion."

• "The bill takes $52 billion in higher Social Security tax revenues and counts them as offsets. But that's really reserved for Social Security. So either we're double-counting them or we don't intend on paying those Social Security benefits."

• "The bill takes $72 billion from the CLASS Act (long-term care insurance) benefit premiums and claims them as offsets."

• "The bill treats Medicare like a piggy bank, (raiding) half a trillion dollars not to shore up Medicare solvency, but to spend on this new government program."

• "The chief actuary of Medicare (says) as much as 20% of Medicare providers will either go out of business or have to stop seeing Medicare beneficiaries."

• "Millions of seniors who have chosen Medicare Advantage (Medicare through a private insurer) will lose the coverage that they now enjoy."

• "When you strip out the double-counting and ... gimmicks, the full 10-year cost of the bill has a $460 billion deficit. The second 10-year cost of this bill has a $1.4 trillion deficit."

• "The 'doc fix' (restoring cuts in Medicare reimbursements) costs $371 billion ... a price tag (that) made the score look bad. (So) that provision was taken out, and (put) in stand-alone legislation. But ignoring these costs does not remove them from the backs of taxpayers. Hiding spending does not reduce spending."

• "Are we bending the cost curve down or are we bending the cost curve up? If you look at your own chief actuary at Medicare, we're bending it up. He's claiming that we're going up $222 billion, adding more to the unsustainable fiscal situation we have."


These are economic factors that the President just chooses to ignore...

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnal...aspx?id=522446