Thread: Obama outlines health care plan for all

I agree!! was it not Hitler that had information squads and wanted neighbors to inform on neighbors! That is not the way to run a free country!

Originally Posted by Jolie Rouge

hmmm let's see... who is asking people to inform on their neighbors :

This week, President Obama’s health care overlord launched a taxpayer-funded initiative to recruit an Internet Snitch Brigade that will combat “disinformation about health insurance reform.” As the White House explained in a special online bulletin:



Concerned citizens, alas, will have a hard time tracking down the “Office of Health Care Reform” created by executive order in April. There is no central website for the office, no direct channel for transparency, and no congressional accountability.

At least one member of Congress has started asking questions. Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn sent a letter to President Obama demanding that he disband the Internet Snitch Brigade immediately: “By requesting citizens send ‘fishy’ emails to the White House, it is inevitable that the names, email, addresses, IP addresses and private speech of U.S. citizens will be reported to the White House,” Sen. Cornyn wrote. “You should not be surprised that these actions taken by your White House staff raise the specter of a data collection program.”

Taxpayers have the right to know what government agencies and third parties the health care czar may share that data with – and why.

Take note: The White House Office of Health Care Reform is working in close quarters with an entirely separate Office of Health Reform created under the Department of Health and Human Services. That office is staffed with several Obama campaign operatives and former employees of the Center for American Progress, including special HHS assistant Michael Halle and HHS director Jeanne Lambrew, a former senior fellow at the Center for American Progress who worked on health policy in the Clinton Administration.

CAP is a lead organization in the Health Care Action Now coalition, the Astroturfed “grass-roots” lobbying group for Obama’s health care takeover legislation run out of 1825 K Street in Washington, D.C. with a $40 million budget. CAP is also the parent group of Think Progress, the far Left website leading the smear campaign against fiscal conservative activists protesting at congressional town halls.

Lawmakers must also dig far beyond the health care czar’s flagging operation. Last month, a Washington, D.C. citizen watchdog group filed suit to force the White House to disclose which health care lobbyists and executives it had met with this year to discuss the government health care takeover legislation. White House counsel Greg Craig refused to disclose which administration officials attended the meetings. But at least two of the industry visitors have ties to health care czar DeParle. William C. Weldon is chairman of Johnson & Johnson, which paid DeParle $7,500 for a recent speech. Wayne Smith is chief executive of Community Health Systems, which merged with Triad Hospitals – where DeParle served on the board of directors. DeParle’s options were converted to cash payments worth $1.05 million.

Despite Obama’s lip service to transparency, the public is in the dark about which assets DeParle has divested; how many times, if any, DeParle has recused herself from policy matters and meetings; and the exact nature of her conversations with health care executives. While White House press secretary Robert Gibbs lambastes the corporate health care ties of Republican opponents, he has shrugged off the corporate ties of the woman leading the Obamacare charge.

Alert the Internet Snitch Brigade: The fishiest odor is emanating from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/08/07...nitch-brigade/

Rep. Tsongas tries to explain why Congress is exempt from Obamacare.
Fails.
By Michelle Malkin • August 10, 2009

Herein lies the ultimate Achilles’ Heel of Obamacare. Watch as Democrat Rep. Niki Tsongas of Massachussetts attempts to explain why Congress is exempt from the government health care takeover mandates.

Transcript:

Video available : hhttp://michellemalkin.com/2009/08/10/rep-tsongas-tries-to-explain-why-congress-is-exempt-from-obamacare-fails/


Epic fail. The imperious “Do as I say, not as I do” ways of Washington cannot be packaged as choice-enhancing, no matter how hard Rep. Tsongas tries. Refresher from 5 key freedoms you’ll lose under Obamacare:
http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/24/news...obama.fortune/




More than 150,000 have signed GOP Rep. John Fleming’s petition telling Congress to live under the health care mandates it forces on the rest of the country. http://www.fleming.house.gov/index.html

If the politicians can’t come up with a better answer than Tsongas (and they can’t), Obamacare is toast.

Imagine this :


Got an email this morning :


Who’s astro-turfing ? Who's spreading "fear" and misinformation ?

Obama Kabuki theater in Portsmouth; [i]
crowd chants “YES, WE CAN!;” little girl laments “mean things” on protest signs; O lies about single-payer support
By Michelle Malkin • August 11, 2009 [/b]

The Obama town hall in Portsmouth is underway. The president wrapped up his remarks to the cheers of “YES WE CAN!” from the fair and balanced audience.

The crowd cheered Obama’s claims that the porkulus is working.

Obama asserted that “nearly 56 million” Americans are uninsured — ratcheting up the fuzzy math.

He praised “vigorous debate” and criticizes “wild misrepresentations,” which the stacked crowd applauded wildly.

He derided “special interests” — except for the drug companies funding ads for Obamacare, of course. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/he...obby.html?_r=1

The drug industry has authorized its lobbyists to spend as much as $150 million on television commercials supporting President Obama’s health care overhaul, beginning over the August Congressional recess, people briefed on the plans said Saturday.

The unusually large scale of the industry’s commitment to the cause helps explain some of a contentious back-and-forth playing out in recent days between the odd-couple allies over a deal that the White House struck with the industry in June to secure its support. The terms of the deal were not fully disclosed. Both sides had announced that the drug industry would contribute $80 billion over 10 years to the cost of the health care overhaul without spelling out the details.

With House Democrats moving to extract more than that just as the drug makers finalized their advertising plans, the industry lobbyists pressed the Obama administration for public reassurances that it had agreed to cap the industry’s additional costs at $80 billion. The White House, meanwhile, has struggled to mollify its most pivotal health industry ally without alienating Congressional Democrats who want to demand far more of the drug makers. White House officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

He attacked fear-mongerers, then warned of premiums rising, Medicare going bankrupt & people getting sick without his “reform.”

1:30pm Eastern.

Oh, crikey. Obama calls on a 13-year-old girl to lament the “mean signs” about health care reform. “How do kids know what’s true.”

Obama ridicules concern about death panels and rationing for the elderly.

Tried and true: When you can’t stand the heat, hide behind the kiddie human shields.

***

1:47pm Eastern. A Republican questioner asks if O still supports universal coverage push. O claims he does not support “single-payer.”

Er, read his lips: “I happen to be a proponent of single-payer…”
http://www.breitbart.tv/obama-in-03-...lth-care-plan/


***

2:00pm Eastern. Obama just made a show of trying to find a questioner to challenge him. “I don’t want people saying I just have a bunch of plants in here.”

Questioner: “He winked at me.”

***

2:10pm Eastern. One real skeptic finally gets to ask question. Jokes that he turned himself into the White House snitch brigade. Asks why O won’t criticize Congress for mandating a health plan it won’t accept for itself.
O spins about increased choice.

2:15pm Eastern. Curtain closes on this edition of Obama Kabuki Theater.

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/08/11...-in-portsmouth


At the end of the day will Obama sell this plan to the American people?
I doubt it. Obama wil likely pack this speech with “facts” that will be repeated by his supporters. If Obama says you wont have to wait in line for heathcare, this becomes a “fact.” If Obama says you can keep your current healthcare, this is repeated as a “fact.” If Obama promises better care at a lower cost, this becomes a “fact” b/c after all Obama himself says so. For the first time since he burst on the scene, Obama is losing the PR/message war and its killing him and his supporters. I love it.



This is what happens when the teleprompter of the United States goes on vacation, via Philip Klein: http://spectator.org/blog/2009/08/11...ngle-payer-dis

[A]t another point of today’s town hall meeting, Obama was pushing back against the idea that the creation of a new government-run plan would drive private insurers out of business, and he said that UPS and FedEx were doing fine, but “it’s the post office that’s always having problems.” Oops!

The gaffe arose from the inherent contradiction of those arguing for the introduction of a government government-run plan. On the one hand, Obama and other supporters of the idea argue that we need to have a strong government plan to create more efficiency, drive down prices, and “keep private insurers honest.” Yet at the same time, they have to make it appear weaker to push back against those of us who argue that it will threaten private insurance and move us toward a single-payer system. So then you get statements in which Obama, in the course of arguing for a government-run system, takes a shot at the government-run post office.

Allah’s got the gaffetastic video. http://hotair.com/archives/2009/08/1...e-post-office/

Oh, crikey. Obama calls on a 13-year-old girl to lament the “mean signs” about health care reform. “How do kids know what’s true.”

Little girl at Obama town hall has not-so-random political connections
By Michelle Malkin • August 11, 2009 10:17 PM
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/08/11...l-connections/

As we always like to point out: There are no coincidences in Obama world.

Via the Boston Globe: Surprise! http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/...stPop_Emailed2

A girl from Malden asked President Obama a question at Tuesday’s town hall meeting in New Hampshire about the signs outside “saying mean things” about his health care proposal.

Eleven-year-old Julia Hall asked: “How do kids know what is true, and why do people want a new system that can — that help more of us?”

The question opened the door for the president to respond to what he called an “underlying fear” among the public “that people somehow won’t get the care they need.”

The girl later told the Globe that picking the president’s brain was “incredible.”

“It was like a once in a lifetime experience,” she said.

Julia’s mother was an early Obama supporter in Massachusetts during the presidential election, so she had previously met First Lady Michelle Obama, the Obama daughters Sasha and Malia, and Vice President Joe Biden.

“This was my first time meeting Barack Obama, and he’s a very nice man,” Julia said. “I’m glad I voted for him.”

She said Obama won a mock presidential election at the Cheverus School in 2008. And on Tuesday, he approached her after the town meeting.

“He said ‘great question,’” Julia said. “I shook his hand and got his picture.”

Kathleen Manning Hall, Julia’s mother, was shocked when her daughter said she wanted to ask a question. They wrote it down beforehand, and Julia didn’t miss a beat when Obama called on her. “It was surreal,” said Manning Hall, a coordinator of Massachusetts Women for Obama during the election.

Tons of readers point to this AR15.com post tracking Hall’s political footprint http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=911911 including this Facebook page and photo: http://www.facebook.com/people/Kathl...all/1545820503



Manning Hall has donated thousands of dollars to Obama, as has her law firm.


But, you know, um, like Obama said: “I don’t want people saying I just have a bunch of plants in here.”

Oh, goodness. Of course not.

KABUKI!

***

Now, look for Dems to play the kiddie human shield card to the hilt. Anyone who mentions Hall’s political pedigree will be attacked as a vicious meanie stalker. Graeme Frost redux!

***

More from Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit. http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/20...ked-obama.html


----


Too, too cynical.... Massachusetts and New Hampshire are small, small states, next to each other.

It is just a coincidence that the mother of the 11 year girl randomly chosen from the audience was a coordinator of Massachusetts Women for Obama during the 2008 election.

But wait…there’s more!

Per Hot Air commenter faraway: Her Mom’s Facebook friend is Addisu Demissie, National Political Director of Organizing for America and former Ohio Get out The Vote director of Obama for America.

Massachusetts and New Hampshire are small, small states, next to each other.

Small in size large, in population. 15th most populous state. Even more the your home state. LOL. The Boston metro area alone is 4.5 million.

Originally Posted by speedygirl

Small in size large, in population. 15th most populous state. Even more the your home state. LOL. The Boston metro area alone is 4.5 million.

Well, 15 out of 57 is not in the top ten :....

Originally Posted by pepperpot

Well, 15 out of 57 is not in the top ten :....

LMAO,

President Obama assailed “wild misrepresentations” by his opponents at the Portsmouth town hall today.

But he wildly misrepresented his position on single payer.

And he wildly misrepresented the AARP’s position on Obamacare:

…the President may have overstated support for his plan in one instance. When asked about the potential impact of the reform plan on Medicare, the President said, “The AARP would not be endorsing a bill if it was undermining Medicare.” Problem is - the AARP has not yet endorsed the plan. The New Hampshire head of the AARP chapter here told ABC’s Lisa Chinn today that the AARP hasn’t yet made up its mind as an organization whether to endorse the bill.

Obama has a history of wild misrepresentation of companies’ positions on his bills. Remember Caterpillar? http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpu...terpillar.html


The health care companies have publicly refuted Obama: http://www.nytimes.com/glogin?URI=ht...55fQ2F4dqj4nBV

Hospitals and insurance companies said Thursday that President Obama had substantially overstated their promise earlier this week to reduce the growth of health spending.

Mr. Obama invited health industry leaders to the White House on Monday to trumpet their cost-control commitments. But three days later, confusion swirled in Washington as the companies’ trade associations raced to tamp down angst among members around the country.

After meeting with six major health care organizations, Mr. Obama hailed their cost-cutting promise as historic.

“These groups are voluntarily coming together to make an unprecedented commitment,” Mr. Obama said. “Over the next 10 years, from 2010 to 2019, they are pledging to cut the rate of growth of national health care spending by 1.5 percentage points each year — an amount that’s equal to over $2 trillion.”

Health care leaders who attended the meeting have a different interpretation. They say they agreed to slow health spending in a more gradual way and did not pledge specific year-by-year cuts.

“There’s been a lot of misunderstanding that has caused a lot of consternation among our members,” said Richard J. Umbdenstock, the president of the American Hospital Association. “I’ve spent the better part of the last three days trying to deal with it.”

Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform, said “the president misspoke” on Monday and again on Wednesday when he described the industry’s commitment in similar terms. After providing that account, Ms. DeParle called back about an hour later on Thursday and said: “I don’t think the president misspoke. His remarks correctly and accurately described the industry’s commitment.”

... and ....

The provision cited by opponents would authorize Medicare to pay doctors for counseling patients about end-of-life care, living wills, hospice care and other issues, if the patient wants it, Obama said. He said the idea originally came from Republican former congressman, now Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia.

It would not “basically pull the plug on grandma because we decided that it’s too expensive to let her live anymore.”

After the event, Isakson issued a statement denouncing Obama’s attempt to connect him to language in the bill. He said that he successfully offered an amendment in a Senate version of the bill that allows individuals to “make their own choices on these critical issues rather than the government incentivizing doctors to conduct counseling on government-mandated topics.”

Isakson ultimately voted against the Senate Health and Education Committee’s version of the bill.

“This is what happens when the president and members of Congress don’t read the bills,” Isakson, R-Ga., said. “The White House and others are merely attempting to deflect attention from the intense negativity caused by their unpopular policies. I never consulted with the White House in this process and had no role whatsoever in the House Democrats’ bill. I categorically oppose the House bill and find it incredulous that the White House and others would use my amendment as a scapegoat for their misguided policies.”

https://www.fredthompsonshow.com/ima...calcartoon.jpg

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/08/11...l-connections/

AboutContactArchivesRSSColumnsPhotos Michelle Malkin Little girl at Obama town hall has not-so-random political connections
By Michelle Malkin • August 11, 2009 10:17 PM Scroll down for updates…



As we always like to point out: There are no coincidences in Obama world.

Via the Boston Globe: Surprise!

A girl from Malden asked President Obama a question at Tuesday’s town hall meeting in New Hampshire about the signs outside “saying mean things” about his health care proposal.

Eleven-year-old Julia Hall asked: “How do kids know what is true, and why do people want a new system that can — that help more of us?”

The question opened the door for the president to respond to what he called an “underlying fear” among the public “that people somehow won’t get the care they need.”

The girl later told the Globe that picking the president’s brain was “incredible.”

“It was like a once in a lifetime experience,” she said.

Julia’s mother was an early Obama supporter in Massachusetts during the presidential election, so she had previously met First Lady Michelle Obama, the Obama daughters Sasha and Malia, and Vice President Joe Biden.

“This was my first time meeting Barack Obama, and he’s a very nice man,” Julia said. “I’m glad I voted for him.”

She said Obama won a mock presidential election at the Cheverus School in 2008. And on Tuesday, he approached her after the town meeting.

“He said ‘great question,’” Julia said. “I shook his hand and got his picture.”

Kathleen Manning Hall, Julia’s mother, was shocked when her daughter said she wanted to ask a question. They wrote it down beforehand, and Julia didn’t miss a beat when Obama called on her.

“It was surreal,” said Manning Hall, a coordinator of Massachusetts Women for Obama during the election.

Manning Hall has donated thousands of dollars to Obama, as has her law firm.

But, you know, um, like Obama said: “I don’t want people saying I just have a bunch of plants in here.”

Oh, goodness. Of course not.

SG - I scooped ya' on that one !

But wait .. there is more... Julie Hall is just the latest in the pattern of "anomous, randomly selected people" ....

The illustrated guide to Obamacare human props
By Michelle Malkin • August 12, 2009 12:48 AM
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/08/12...e-human-props/

Little Julia Hall is just the latest in-the-tank questioner with Obama campaign/Democrat ties to turn up “randomly” at presidential health care forums.

Here’s your illustrated guide to Obamacare human props.

In July, Obama hosted a White House citizen town hall that featured three face-to-face questions. The lucky three?



*Debby Smith. You remember her. She choked back tears as she talked of her battle with kidney cancer, her joblessness, and her lack of insurance. Obama hugged the trembling woman and dubbed her “Exhibit A” for his massive entitlement program.

Debby Smith, however, is no ordinary patient. While she may be “unemployed,” she has been rather busy working for the Obama campaign – as a volunteer for the DNC’s Organizing for America. Smith also identified herself as a worker for the Virginia Organizing Project, which has been coordinating lobbying trips and health care forums with HCAN. Yes, that same HCAN. In December, Smith moderated a “a community discussion on health care issues” in Appalachia, Virginia and told her local paper that the meeting “would be reported back to former Sen. Tom Daschle, who has been directed by President Elect Barack Obama to form a committee to report on health care issues.”

*Jason Rosenbaum. Rosenbaum works for the Washington, D.C.-based Health Care for America Now (HCAN). That’s the K Street Astroturf outfit with a $40 million budget to lobby for government-run health care linked to left-wing billionaire George Soros. And yes, the same HCAN directing its mob to “drown out” opponents at town hall meetings.



*SEIU member. Yes, wonder of wonders, this randomly chosen questioner just happened to be a member of the Purple Shirt Army that poured $80 million in independent expenditures into Democrat coffers, made 4.4 million phone calls for Obama, sent out more than 2.5 million Obama mailings during the 2008 campaign, and dispatched thugs to drown out town hall protesters.

Here’s how the tough exchange went down:

Q Hi, Mr. President. I’m a member of SEIU and I’m down here in Fairfax County working on Change That Works. What can I do, as a member of the union, to help you with your reform bill?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I appreciate the question..

Of course he did.

In March, the White House conducted a similar health reform town hall with more human Obamacare props (full transcript here). Five lucky questioners were chosen “randomly” to talk directly with the president in the East Room about their concerns, including:

*Linda Bock. She’s a registered nurse — and a card-carrying member of the SEIU in Prince George’s County, Maryland.


*Carlos Del Toro. Via WaPo: “In 2007, Del Toro stood as a Democratic candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates, but did not win. A supporter of Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic presidential primaries, he backed Obama against McCain in the general, endorsing him in an Oct. 24, 2008 op-ed in the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star.”


*Tom Sawner. I’ll let him speak for himself:

Sir, I’m Tom Sawner. I’m a service-disabled veteran, small-business owner in Arlington, Virginia. My company, Educational Options, works with public schools. We serve more than 200,000 at-risk kids within public schools, providing online content, partnering with teachers, and I was honored to serve on your education platform committee.

THE PRESIDENT: Wonderful.

*Bonnee Breese. Public school teacher, prominent AFT union member, and member of the 11,626-person Pennsylvania for Obama page on Facebook.


*Sergio Salmeron. Democrat National Committee member and community blogger at Organizing for America.

Obama World: Land of Amazing Coincidences!

***

Remember, people. It’s the Chicago way:

David Axelrod has long been known for his political magic. Through his AKP&D Message & Media consultancy, the campaign veteran has advised a succession of Democratic candidates since 1985, and he’s now chief strategist for Senator Barack Obama’s bid for President. But on the down low, Axelrod moonlights in the private sector.

From the same address in Chicago’s River North neighborhood, Axelrod operates a second business, ASK Public Strategies, that discreetly plots strategy and advertising campaigns for corporate clients to tilt public opinion their way. He and his partners consider virtually everything about ASK to be top secret, from its client roster and revenue to even the number of its employees. But customers and public records confirm that it has quarterbacked campaigns for the Chicago Children’s Museum, ComEd, Cablevision, and AT&T.

ASK’s predilection for operating in the shadows shows up in its work. On behalf of ComEd and Comcast, the firm helped set up front organizations that were listed as sponsors of public-issue ads. Industry insiders call such practices “Astroturfing,” a reference to manufacturing grassroots support. Alderman Brendan Reilly of the 42nd Ward, who has been battling the Children’s Museum’s relocation plans, describes ASK as “the gold standard in Astroturf organizing. This is an emerging industry, and ASK has made a name for itself in shaping public opinion and manufacturing public support.”

Truthfully, no matter who is in the White House; their audiences are always stacked with supporters. The difference is that the MSMs like to mention the audience is stacked when it’s a republican. This is kind of taking the concept of surrounding yourself with “yes men” to a new level.

What they don’t realize is that people aren’t just angry about the health care bill. They aren’t just angry about the ridiculous spending. They’re angry about not being truly listened to. We’re tired of sending these guys to DC and then getting form letters in response to our letters and calls. Then they pull this Kabuki theater crap to make it look like they’re listening. We’re not buying it anymore. We’re fed up. This Congress and Administration has done one good thing - their haste and over-reaching has made taxpayers realize that both parties have been doing this BS for years and enough is enough!

I guess the standing ovation Obama got was “spontaneous” too. And the “Yes We Can” chanting. How stupid does he think we are? This entire campaign to shove socialized health”care” down our throats has been carefully (but not very effectively) staged. And the left are criticizing US for our “sponsored” rallies? Sigh. Oh, well, at least he is fulfilling one of his promises…transparency. We can see right through this idiot. And no matter how planned out these things are, he still manages to say something stupid. Using the Post Office as an example? Oh really, Mr. President? Did you really mean to use that as a prop to sell your government-run health plan? Oooops!!! ops:

It's all choreographed.....