Poll: Despite Obama's Decline, Public Option Support Still Strong

If healthcare reform is in big trouble, why is the public option still popular?
Check out this latest Research 2000 poll (for Daily Kos).
Here's part of what the poll is reporting:

Do you favor or oppose creating a government-administered health insurance option that anyone can purchase to compete with private insurance plans?
Favor Oppose Not Sure
All 58 34 8

Dem 81 12 7
Rep 26 69 5
Ind 57 33 10

Northeast 69 22 9
South 47 46 7
Midwest 61 31 8
West 59 33 8
The public option remains popular, by a nearly 3-2 margin., Seems like people like the idea of competition in the insurance market, that would help lower premiums and keep currently unaccountable insurance companies honest.
What's more, the public option is favored by over a quarter of self-identified Republicans, which is more "bipartisanship" than you'll ever see in DC. And if you look at the regional crosstabs, support for the public option would be even higher if it wasn't for the South, were birtherism and Obama derangement syndrome is at its highest.

And this is the same poll that saw our president's poll take a bit of a tumble. So much for the myth that Democrats are tanking because of "liberalism."
The real reason is the lack of progress on healthcare reform and the reports about the possibility of some watered down version of the same getting passed without any real public option.
And Markos has this warning if real healthcare reform doesn't get done while Democrats pass a watered-down version:

Opposing the public option is electoral poison in every region of the country except the South, while both Democrats and Independents are willing to punish opponents of the public option at the ballot box.
Democrats have a national electoral mandate, they have public opinion on their side, they have dominant majorities in both chambers of Congress, and they have the White House.
No wonder Independents and Democrats are abandoning the Democratic Party.

We hired Barack Obama and a Democratic Congress to get things done, especially on healthcare. We didn't hire them to kowtow with Republicans and other monied interests to jam down our throats a semblance of reform but not the real thing.
We expect results, and anything else will result in severe electoral consquences in both 2010 and 2012.

Gallup: Obama UP 1 to 55 percent!

So much for President Obama's poll numbers slipping into the sunset. Gallup has Obama up one to 55 percent.

What, If Any, Kind Of Public Option Will Obama Propose?

Will President Obama finally say not only that he supports a public option, but then specify what kind of a public option he'll support?
That's one of the things I'm wondering about in the days leading to the president's speech to Congress on the need to pass meaningful healthcare reform on Sept. 9.
O.K., the legislation that passes Congress will be less than perfect and it's not going to include lots of things I would like to see in any bill, but what I would like to see is real action not only to address the 47 million who don't have health insurance, but millions more who are underinsured and many others who have been denied coverage because of either pre-existing conditions or because they became ill.
The New York Times detailed what one might conclude a series of "trial balloons" designed to test reaction to some possibilities.
Here's part of the Times report:

Administration officials said Wednesday that Mr. Obama would be more specific than he has been to date about what he wants included in the plan. Doing so amounts to an acknowledgment that the president’s prior tactic of laying out broad principles and leaving Congress to fill in the details was no longer working and that Mr. Obama needed to become more personally involved in shaping the outcome.
But the officials said Mr. Obama was unlikely to unveil a detailed legislative plan of his own. And they insisted that Mr. Obama had not given up on the provision that has attracted the most fire from the right, a proposal for a government-run competitor to private insurers, although many Democrats say the proposal may eventually be jettisoned.

So what is it about the public option that Republicans and insurance companies are afraid of. I'm fed up to here about the crying that Republican politicians like my area's shameful Taliban congressman, Pete Sessions (TX-32), about how private insurers won't be able to compete against a public option and that a public option will lead to a government takeover of healthcare.
Having a government-run public option sure hasn't led to a government monopoly in the package delivery business. If you don't believe me, just ask FedEx and UPS, two private companies who continually get handsome chunks of the package delivery business even with a public option-- the U.S. Postal Service-- available.
Why isn't the media pointing this out continually in their assessments of the arguments for and against the public option? And why is the media so obsessed with citing polls pointing to erosions in President Obama's popularity that they are completely leaving out polls pointing toward overwhelming support of the public option?
It seems that the media is asleep at the wheel when it comes to providing accurate coverage of the public option and the American people's overwhelming support for it. And with President Obama's talk on Sept. 9 drawing closer, it is very appropriate for the American people to hold the president's feet (as well as the feet of those in Congress) on the fire and force them to pass real healthcare reform with a real public option.

TX-32: "Taliban Pete's" Non-Response To Woman's Healthcare Concerns

What a liar this Pete Sessions is. He claims the president is "getting his clock cleaned" on healthcare reform, but how can he say that when 77 percent of the American people support the public option?
And when a woman came forward during his townhall last week to express her healthcare concerns, "Taliban Pete" (R-TX-32) didn't respond directly. All he did was change the subject and once again misappropriating blame for the current economic crisis we're in.
Someone forgot to tell Pete that the mess was created largely during the six years that Sessions and his Republican friends controlled the Congress and George W. Bush was president.
Anyway, here's the tape of Pete's exchange with the woman:

Our district deserves better from their congressman than one who doesn't answer a constituent's concerns and instead changes the subject while making things up in the process (Sessions' claim about Obama "getting his clock cleaned.") As a resident of Sessions' district, I deserve FAR better, and I hope some solid Democrat will challenge this fool next year and ask the questions that Sessions wants to duck like that posed by the woman in this video.

Presidential Event Gun Toter Gets Confronted by MSNBC's Matthews

I don't mind freedom of speech, but I do mind very much when a crazy (for lack of a better term) decides to carry a gun to a presidential event.
That's exactly what was reported earlier today, and MSNBC's Chris Matthews was right to confront this nut.
Just how cold-blooded was this guy? Here's a small snippet of the interview as the Huffington Post reported:

The segment grew more and more heated as Matthews repeatedly asked Kostric why he came to the meeting wearing a gun. "Well, why did you bring a gun to a Presidential event today?"
"That's not even a relevant question," Kostric said, shrugging. "The question is, why don't people bear arms these days."
"Okay, you bought a sign that said 'The tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants' and you're carrying a god damn gun at a Presidential event. I think those things make people wonder what you're about."
Kostric for his part, was unrepentant, and maintained that he was there in a totally non-violent capacity. "No one from New Hampshire was alarmed. Maybe some of the people they bussed in from Massachusets were alarmed. But we're not really concerned about them."

I find Kostric's answers to Matthews troubling. How was one NOT to think that he had something other peaceful intents in mind by virtue of his carrying a gun to a presidential event.
How are we NOT to assume that given the opportunity, he wouldn't pull his gun and fire shots at the president?
In the paranoid times we live in, we cannot afford to be lax when it comes to one who carries a gun to a presidential event.

Our President Addresses Healthcare Reform Lies In Weekly Talk

Our president debunks right-wing attacks on his health care proposal in a simple and to-the-point manner.
Here's the video:

Check out the end of his talk in which he focuses on healthcare reform and the lies propagated by the legislation's insurance company critics, right-wing talk show hosts, and the fraud of a "news" channel that's called Fox:

As we draw close to finalizing – and passing – real health insurance reform, the defenders of the status quo and political point-scorers in Washington are growing fiercer in their opposition. In recent days and weeks, some have been using misleading information to defeat what they know is the best chance of reform we have ever had. That is why it is important, especially now, as Senators and Representatives head home and meet with their constituents, for you, the American people, to have all the facts.
So, let me explain what reform will mean for you. And let me start by dispelling the outlandish rumors that reform will promote euthanasia, cut Medicaid, or bring about a government takeover of health care. That’s simply not true. This isn’t about putting government in charge of your health insurance; it’s about putting you in charge of your health insurance. Under the reforms we seek, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.
And while reform is obviously essential for the 46 million Americans who don’t have health insurance, it will also provide more stability and security to the hundreds of millions who do. Right now, we have a system that works well for the insurance industry, but that doesn’t always work well for you. What we need, and what we will have when we pass health insurance reform, are consumer protections to make sure that those who have insurance are treated fairly and that insurance companies are held accountable.
We will require insurance companies to cover routine checkups and preventive care, like mammograms, colonoscopies, or eye and foot exams for diabetics, so we can avoid chronic illnesses that cost too many lives and too much money.
We will stop insurance companies from denying coverage because of a person’s medical history. I will never forget watching my own mother, as she fought cancer in her final days, worrying about whether her insurer would claim her illness was a preexisting condition. I have met so many Americans who worry about the same thing. That’s why, under these reforms, insurance companies will no longer be able to deny coverage because of a previous illness or injury. And insurance companies will no longer be allowed to drop or water down coverage for someone who has become seriously ill. Your health insurance ought to be there for you when it counts – and reform will make sure it is.
With reform, insurance companies will also have to limit how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses. And we will stop insurance companies from placing arbitrary caps on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or a lifetime because no one in America should go broke because of illness.
In the end, the debate about health insurance reform boils down to a choice between two approaches. The first is almost guaranteed to double health costs over the next decade, make millions more Americans uninsured, leave those with insurance vulnerable to arbitrary denials of coverage, and bankrupt state and federal governments. That’s the status quo. That’s the health care system we have right now.
So, we can either continue this approach, or we can choose another one – one that will protect people against unfair insurance practices; provide quality, affordable insurance to every American; and bring down rising costs that are swamping families, businesses, and our budgets. That’s the health care system we can bring about with reform.
There are those who are focused on the so-called politics of health care; who are trying to exploit differences or concerns for political gain. That’s to be expected. That’s Washington. But let’s never forget that this isn’t about politics. This is about people’s lives. This is about people’s businesses. This is about America’s future. That’s what is at stake. That’s why health insurance reform is so important. And that’s why we must get this done – and why we will get this done – by the end of this year.

Our president isn't backing down, and neither should we. We should fight back against the thuggery of the right-wing mobs and the talkshow hosts and opposition groups that egg them on with their disinformation and lies and counter them with the real facts about this legislation.

Pro-Healthcare Reform Advocates Fight Back With Ad

This is not 1993. This time, we're not lying down and playing dead while Republicans and their health insurance industry allies kill real health care reform.
Check out this ad:

GOP Senator Lies About Obama Health Plan

It's one of the oldest strategies in politics-- if you can't beat them with facts, make things up and hopes it scares the geewullipers out of the public.
That's what Republicans and their insurance company allies have been forced to do since they've been losing the public relations war when it has come to President Obama's quest to deliver health care reform to all Americans.
The latest Republican to resort to telling lies designed to scare people against the Obama proposal is Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.).
Here's part of what the Huffington Post reported:

In the GOP's weekly radio and Internet address, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota contended that the Democrats' current proposals do not improve health care because it would force millions of Americans in employer-based coverage into a government-run system.

The claim is a lie. Not only doesn't the plan do what Thune claims, President Obama time and again stated that if one likes the insurance they got, they can keep it.
If they don't, the plan offers what amounts to be a one-shop shopping center in which they can choose from a list of different plans, including a public option.
In additon, according to the Associated Press report the Huffington Post carried:

Under the bill, insurance companies would be required to sell coverage to all seeking it, without exclusions for pre-existing medical conditions. The federal government would provide subsidies for lower-income families to help them afford policies that would otherwise be out of their reach.

Forcing folks to take a government plan. not, contrary to what Thune claims.
If the Associated Press author wanted to really be truthful about what Thune was claiming, he would have described it this way-- a lie. It sure isn't valid opinion, by any stretch.

President's Popularity Still Strong Despite GOP, Media Spin

Let's see the Republicans spin their way through this survey. Contrary to the drivel peddled by Republicans and their news media agents, President Obama is doing quite well in maintaining a high popularity rating.
Now that the GOP has a healthcare solution that sounds more like a pitch for snake oil than real reform, I wonder when the American people will see through the smoke generated by Republicans and their insurance company donors and press Congress to pass strong legislation with a robust public option.

More On The Fight for Real Health Insurance Reform

Slinkerwink at Daily Kos wrote an excellent diary today about how we must not give up in the face of hard odds when it comes to the battle for meaningful health care reform.
What slinkerwink had to say at the top of her diary summed up a lot of what I have been thinking about the attitude of some that the battle has been lost.

I was absolutely disgusted to read the defeatism going on through the diaries over this weekend. Because that kind of defeatism is what the murder-by-spreadsheet industry wants the most right now. They want us to give up in the middle of the fight. They're happy right now when they see that kind of defeatism on the left.
I know we've had setbacks in this congressional fight for health care reform--but listen to me, if we don't fight the Blue Dogs, and get people to call their progressive members and the Tri-Caucus members to fight back against the Blue Dogs, we WILL never get a public option, and we won't certainly be on the road to single-payer.
Let me tell you this--it was never going to be this easy to pass health care reform with a strong public option. It's going to be an incredibly hard fight every single step of the way for it.

It's a great exhortation, but let me add a few things.
It wasn't easy for Martin Luther King Jr. and his followers to win the fight for civil rights and against segregation in the 1950's and 196o's. It wasn't easy for Mohandas K. Gandhi in his many-year fight for India's independence from the British empire.
It's not going to be easy to force passage of real health insurance reform in this country either. Presidents Harry S Truman and Bill Clinton both tried and failed in the face of intense campaigns of misinformation and fear from health insurance concerns and right-wing personalities both in politics and in the media.
Unlike in previous years, where there was never an effective response to these right-wing attacks, we now have very effective media means to counter the right-wing assaults.
First, there are widely-read blogs like Daily Kos and Firedoglake that have presented very well-written posts on healthcare issues and the current battle in Congress. Second, there is YouTube, where all it takes is a computer and a digital video camera to present a viewpoint that be seen and heard by many.
And third, there are those new social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook where you can have an even bigger impact.
I'm not saying the fight is going to be easy. President Obama has said many times that if this were an easy task, it would have been done years ago.
I'm not saying that the bill that reaches the president's desk will be a perfect one.
But this is a battle we can't afford to lose, both for us and for those struggling without health insurance (as well as those whose inferior plans don't allow them to get the care they need).
It's time to win the fight, and the pressure must continue on those who obstruct our way and who spread lies in the media.

TX-32: My Area's Congressman Makes Things Up About Healthcare Plan

My area's congressman, Pete Sessions (TX-32) lives in an alternative universe from residents like myself who live in his district and struggle to make a living.
Instead of facing reality and supporting President Obama's realistic health care proposal, Sessions has chosen to support the current bankrupt system that keeps folks uninsured by announcing his opposition to the plans.
In doing so, he stuck to a script of well-rehearsed lies inventing things about the president's proposal that really aren't.
Here's what :Sessions is claiming on his taxpayer-supported web site:

"Yet the Majority has produced a job-killing, government-mandated health care plan financed on the backs of every American family, senior citizen, small business and employer. With a price tag of over $1 Trillion dollars, the Democrats’ plan would cut Medicare options for seniors and raise taxes on any employer or individual who does not embrace a government-run health care program. The result: an additional 4.7 million Americans could lose their jobs.
“More than 100 million Americans will lose their current private health insurance under a government-run health care system. Unsurprisingly, when the government competes with the private sector, patients lose and the government wins. By diminishing patient-choice, government-run health care empowers Washington to decide the access and care patients receive from their doctors.
“This is not change that Americans families and small businesses can afford.

It's clear with no real arguments to present against the president's proposal, Sessions is forced to resort to making things up to justify his morally and financially irresponsible position.
So much for Sessions being a conservative. When it comes to protecting insurance company's rights to deny coverage of pre-existing conditions and ending the practice of insurance companies denying care using the power of "recission," Sessions is as ultra-liberal as they get.
What is the reality about the legislation that Sessions is against? Here's some facts
one House committee came up with:

America’s Affordable Health Choices Act would provide significant benefits in the 32nd Congressional District of Texas: up to 15,500 small businesses could receive tax credits to provide coverage to their employees; 7,300 seniors would avoid the donut hole in Medicare Part D; 700 families could escape bankruptcy each year due to unaffordable health care costs; health care providers would receive payment for $159 million in uncompensated care each year; and 140,000 uninsured individuals would gain access to high-quality, affordable health insurance.
• Help for small businesses. Under the legislation, small businesses with 25 employees or less and average wages of less than $40,000 qualify for tax credits of up to 50% of the costs of providing health insurance. There are up to 15,500 small businesses in the district that could qualify for these credits.
• Help for seniors with drug costs in the Part D donut hole. Each year, 7,300 seniors in the district hit the donut hole and are forced to pay their full drug costs, despite having Part D drug coverage. The legislation would provide them with immediate relief, cutting brand name drug costs in the donut hole by 50%, and ultimately eliminate the donut hole.
• Health care and financial security. There were 700 health care-related bankruptcies in the district in 2008, caused primarily by the health care costs not covered by insurance. The bill provides health insurance for almost every American and caps annual out-of-pocket costs at $10,000 per year, ensuring that no citizen will have to face financial ruin because of high health care costs.
• Relieving the burden of uncompensated care for hospitals and health care providers. In 2008, health care providers in the district provided $159 million worth of uncompensated care, care that was provided to individuals who lacked insurance coverage and were unable to pay their bills. Under the legislation, these costs of uncompensated care would be virtually eliminated.
• Coverage of the uninsured. There are 160,000 uninsured individuals in the district, 24% of the district. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that nationwide, 97% of all Americans will have insurance coverage when the bill takes effect. If this benchmark is reached in the district, 140,000 people who currently do not have health insurance will receive coverage.
• No deficit spending. The cost of health care reform under the legislation is fully paid for: half through making the Medicare and Medicaid program more efficient and half through a surtax on the income of the wealthiest individuals. This surtax would affect only 10,320 households in the district. The surtax would not affect 96.3% of taxpayers in the district.

At least where I live, the proposal isn't even close to what Sessions described with the effects that Sessions claimed. In fact, this report raises serious questions (as if they didn't exist already) about whether Sessions is in turn with not only the needs of his district but the facts.
Instead of making things up and inventing facts to suit his reality, Sessions should apologize to folks like me in his district who he has dishonestly represented ever since Tom DeLay gerrymandered my area into his district.
Pete Sessions is a disgrace to this area and state and I pray a strong reality-based opponent can be found who can send this scumbag down to a well-deserved defeat next year.

Our President Speaks Again On Health Care

I admire this guy. He's not afraid to fight for us. Those who want no reform must be sent into electoral defeat.

Reports about President's slumping poll numbers greatly exaggerated

So much for the media mime about the President's free-falling poll numbers. Check this out.

Sheer Disgusting

These are the things opponents of President Obama's health insurance are willing to resort to. Instead of dealing with the merits of the proposal, these opponents, including the one cited in this piece, are willing to resort to racism to defeat the measure.
It's time the news media lapdogs who are so anxious to push the healthcare opponent's falsehoods and present them as facts get forced to renounce the blatent racism these opponents are now resorting to.

I Couldn't Have Said It Better Than Obama Did: His Press Conference

I couldn't have said things better than President Obama did in discussing health care during today's press conference.
A lot of things the president said have been said before, but they are well worth repeating. I liked how the president spoke about the concerns some have about how to finance what he is proposing, and I really liked how he framed the do-nothing Republican approach.
I would have liked to have seen some more individual examples of how the current system has screwed ordinary folks like me, but overall, he was excellent.
In case you missed it, here is the Obama press conference on tape:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Will Getting Rid Of Private Insurers Solve Health Care Mess?

I just ran into this interesting post on Daily Kos. Here's part of it:

One of the biggest, most profitable and unnecessary component in the current system is a highly profitable middle man, the health insurance industry. This industry IS NOT needed and is the single biggest cause of skyrocketing costs and immoral denials of coverage. The billions save annually, along with other proposals, would likely be enough to provide basic coverage for all Americans.

I don't know if anyone wants to complete the private insurers, but this statement brings out one BIG point-- there are ALREADY bureaucrats making decisions about what healthcare we get, and these bureaucrats aren't government ones.
They are from insurance companies, and these are the folks empowered to deny coverage because of pre-existing conditions or some other undefined as emphasized in a company's power to deny coverage under the classy name of "recissions."
I sure hope the rest of the media is more thorough in discrediting the lies and other manipulations of Republicans and their big business allies as this health care debate moves forward.

Stop The Game Playing, Pass Real Health Insurance Reform WITH A Public Option!

It's a crime that 47 million folks in the United States have no health insurance.
Republicans in Congress and their Democratic allies can throw canard and canard at how expensive a national health insurance endeavor can be, but if these folks could spend even a little time at the emergency room of the taxpayer-supported Parkland Hospital in Dallas, they may think twice about the current system they seem to want to preserve.
If they were to go to that hospital, they may see folks who are forced to wait as long as five hours (if not more) for treatment. And if the emergency room closes down for even a few hours with folks still waiting for care, those folks are forced to find a nearby non-taxpayer-supported hospital to wait even more hours just to see if they're going to get the care they need.
Many of those folks don't have any kind of health insurance, and when they can't pay the bill for their treatment at Parkland, taxpayers like myself have to share the load.
So much for taxpayers not having to support the current health care system. No wonder Republicans and their "Blue Dog" Democratic allies fail to mention this when they try to con the American people into thinking that the current system is fine while that proposed by President Obama will cost tons while bringing untold hardships to patients.
I heard one Republican congressman throw a chart during one speech in which he decried the Obama proposal, saying that it would "bureaucrats" in the middle between patients and their doctors. What the congressman didn't mention is that there are already bureaucrats making decisions between patients and their doctors-- namely representatives of for-profit insurance companies with the power to deny coverage of patients either because of pre-existing conditions or simply because the insurance company doesn't want to cover it even in the face of medical necessity (that's the power of "recission" that we've been hearing about a lot).
Contrary to the misinformation Republicans, their Democratic allies, and their mouthpieces in the mainstream media, the Obama proposal DOESN'T impose an overbearing public plan down our throats, nor does it put bureaucrats between patients and their doctors.
Instead, the Obama plan emphasizes some simple principles-- if you like your current health insurance plan and your current doctor, you can keep it. The only difference is with the Obama plan, you will wind up paying less in premiums in part because of competition from a public plan that will keep private insurers honest.
And if you don't like your plan, you will be given a choice of other plans, including a public one. This is not socialized medicine, and this is not a plan that puts bureaucrats in betwen patients and their doctors.
It's time the false and misleading campaign being waged by Republcans and their allies in the media and elsewhere come to an end. It's time they stopped throwing up smokescreens about how much the Obama plan could cost and face the reality of how much we, as taxpayers, are already paying because of the millions of Americans still uninsured.
Congressional footdragging must end and real healthcare reform with a robust public option must pass. It's that simple.