Kicking Ass: The Democratic Party's Blog

Not This Time. Not Now.

Posted by cloe on July 20, 2009 at 04:27 PM

During his remarks health care reform this afternoon at Children’s Hospital in Washington, DC President Obama singled out defenders of the status quo. He reiterated, once again, his commitment to passing health care reform this year.

“Now, there are some in this town who are content to perpetuate the status quo, are in fact fighting reform on behalf of powerful special interests. There are others who recognize the problem, but believe -- or perhaps, hope -- that we can put off the hard work of insurance reform for another day, another year, another decade.

“Just the other day, one Republican senator said -- and I'm quoting him now – ‘If we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.’ Think about that. This isn't about me. This isn't about politics. This is about a health care system that is breaking America's families, breaking America's businesses, and breaking America's economy.

“And we can't afford the politics of delay and defeat when it comes to health care. Not this time. Not now. There are too many lives and livelihoods at stake. There are too many families who will be crushed if insurance premiums continue to rise three times as fast as wages. There are too many businesses that will be forced to shed workers, scale back benefits, or drop coverage unless we get spiraling health care costs under control.”

Click here to read the President's full remarks.

Comments (2) «

The President has that right. It's about the middle class. The Republicans have been working since Reagan to "break" the American Dream.

Everything they have done from outsourcing jobs to neglecting our infrastructure to giving the wealthy tax loopholes has been designed to "break" the middle class.

The Republicans approach every issue with this one goal in mind. Let's break them.

The masters of the conservative ideology still think they have the right to subject the rest of us to their yoke.

Let's break their yoke and master our own future beginning with fixing the health care crisis.

1
SandyH on July 20, 2009 at 07:50 PM

WHY ARE WE WORRYING ABOUT $ 1 TRILLION FOR A GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE PLAN OVER 10 YEARS WHEN AMERICA’S GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT (the cost of goods and services sold) IN 2008 WAS $ 14 TRILLION and the cost of medical goods and services in 2008 was about 15% of that, about $ 2 Trillion in 2008? The government plan will not be paying ‘everything’, the whole $ 2 Trillion each year for all heath care, employers and the public will still be paying in some for the total cost of health care too.

THE AMERICAN PUBLIC PAID IN $ 2.7 TRILLION IN FEDERAL TAXES DURING 2008 ALONE (WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN MORE IF BUSH’S TAX CUTS FOR THE WEALTHIEST WAS BETTER BALANCED WITH THE REST OF THE TAX CUTS). On that average, even without a Bush tax cut roll back, America will pay in, at least, $ 14.7 Trillion in Federal Taxes over the next 10 years. So, with that in mind, what is One Trillion in ten years towards health care, especially since we are already going to pay about $ 600 billion over the next ten years for the current Federal Medicare and State Medicaid systems we have anyway? (Now see, that is why your House came up with one of the proposal’s to tax the wealthiest 1 % to 1.5 % on their adjusted gross income to create about $ 500 billion over 10 years, because an additional $ 500 billion is all the ‘additional’ funding the government needs for the trillion dollar program.) Your Senate people however, also watching out for you, are saying that the House plan taxes those making $ 280 million which includes the bulk of your small business people, so your Senate is a little wary of that plan. However, the House’s idea to somehow tax America’s wealthiest is not by any means being totally thrown out by your Senate or your Administration.)

Don’t be afraid of your trillions, it‘s your country’s yearly bread. I mean, we learned how to lose millions in the Reagan years, we learned how to lose billions in the Bush years, but now, we are going to learn how to ‘count’ trillions on a positive note in the Obama years, aren’t we?

Thank you all

2
Hope4U on July 20, 2009 at 08:04 PM


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