Obama breaks campaign promise to bring transparency to Congress
President Obama campaigned on a promise to bring transparency to the legislative process. This week three members of Congress and Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel will meet privately to reconcile the differences between the five competing health care bills.
Obama repeatedly said on the campaign trail that health care reform negotiations would be “televised on C-SPAN, so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies.”
Obama made this particular promise at a town hall meeting on Aug. 21, 2008 in Chester, VA.
In the room is Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), Senator Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) , Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Emanuel.
Why has Obama abandoned his transparency pledge? Probably because he doesn’t have as much control over Congress as he thought he would, or the compromises to drug and insurance companies are such bad politics that he doesn’t want anyone to see what’s going on.
For more reporting on this issue read the Washington Post story and Politico has the full text of Obama’s campaign promise in Virginia.
President Obama’s October 10, 2009 Weekly Address about health care reform
Here’s the transcript and video of President Obama’s Weekly Address yesterday about health care reform. Obama praised the Senate Finance bill. He said the bill would make coverage affordable to millions of Americans. Health care for all is now health insurance for all. This year’s health care reform has been brought to you by Cigna.
Source: White House
The historic movement to bring real, meaningful health insurance reform to the American people gathered momentum this week as we approach the final days of this debate. Having worked on this issue for the better part of a year, the Senate Finance Committee is finishing deliberations on their version of a health insurance reform bill that will soon be merged with other reform bills produced by other Congressional committees.
After evaluating the Finance Committee’s bill, the Congressional Budget Office – an office that provides independent, nonpartisan analysis – concluded that the legislation would make coverage affordable for millions of Americans who don’t have it today. It will bring greater security to Americans who have coverage, with new insurance protections. And, by attacking waste and fraud within the system, it will slow the growth in health care costs, without adding a dime to our deficits.
This is another milestone on what has been a long, hard road toward health insurance reform. In recent months, we’ve heard every side of every argument from both sides of the aisle. And rightly so – health insurance reform is a complex and critical issue that deserves a vigorous national debate, and we’ve had one. The approach that is emerging includes the best ideas from Republicans and Democrats, and people across the political spectrum.
In fact, what’s remarkable is not that we’ve had a spirited debate about health insurance reform, but the unprecedented consensus that has come together behind it. This consensus encompasses everyone from doctors and nurses to hospitals and drug manufacturers.
And earlier this week, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg came out in support of reform, joining two former Republican Senate Majority Leaders: Bob Dole and Dr. Bill Frist, himself a cardiac surgeon. Dr. Louis Sullivan, Secretary of Health and Human Services under President George H.W. Bush, supports reform. As does Republican Tommy Thompson, a former Wisconsin governor and Secretary of Health and Human Services under President George W. Bush. These distinguished leaders understand that health insurance reform isn’t a Democratic issue or a Republican issue, but an American issue that demands a solution.
Still, there are some in Washington today who seem determined to play the same old partisan politics, working to score political points, even if it means burdening this country with an unsustainable status quo. A status quo of rising health care costs that are crushing our families, our businesses, and our government. A status quo of diminishing coverage that is denying millions of hardworking Americans the insurance they need. A status quo that gives big insurance companies the power to make arbitrary decisions about your health care. That is a status quo I reject. And that is a status quo the American people reject.
The distinguished former Congressional leaders who urged us to act on health insurance reform spoke of the historic moment at hand and reminded us that this moment will not soon come again. They called on members of both parties seize this opportunity to finally confront a problem that has plagued us for far too long.
That is what we are called to do at this moment. That is the spirit of national purpose that we must summon right now. Now is the time to rise above the politics of the moment. Now is the time to come together as Americans. Now is the time to meet our responsibilities to ourselves and to our children, and secure a better, healthier future for generations to come. That future is within our grasp. So, let’s go finish the job.
Senate Finance Committee health care bill Oct. 2, 2009
On Friday, the Senate Finance Committee approved its amended health care reform bill. It’s called “America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009.” You can read it yourself here.
It doesn’t include a public health care plan and apparently does little more than make health insurance companies richer. Great job Senators.
Baucus bill still looks like a pile of crap
Last night the Senate Finance Committee worked until 2 a.m. this morning to vote on all of the remaining amendments to the Baucus bill. Unfortunately, aside from some minor tweaking, the bill still looks like a huge pile of steaming horse manure.
Almost everyone will be forced to purchase health insurance – a boon for the insurance companies. Some poor people will be exempt from the individual mandate, but that just means they’ll still not have health care. The public option is nowhere in sight.
It’s too bad the Senate is such a worthless governing body – apparently filled with lapdogs for insurance companies, Big Pharma and hospitals. I’m not surprised. It’s obvious that the politicians have successfully rigged our political system so that they can remain in power while doing nothing for us and everything for their real constituents – corporations and the Elite. Oh well, did we really think anything good would come from Congress? Nope.
I keep saying it, but now is the time for a real revolution. We need a real government run by the people. Let’s organize.
Read the New York Times story on the latest Baucus bill developments
Baucus Bill Sticks To Pharma Deal That Supposedly Wasn’t Struck
The bill unveiled by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus has been blasted as a major giveaway to insurance companies. But the even bigger winners are the drug makers.
That’s because the Baucus bill matches up, nearly to the letter, with the secret deal that he, the White House and Big Pharma struck over the summer — a deal the various parties roundly denied had been struck when it went public.
First reading of the latest Senate Finance Committee health care bill
Senate Finance Committee health care bill Sept. 16, 2009
Before I listen to the experts misrepresent the details of the latest health care plan from Congress, I read through the Senate Finance Committee health care bill released today.
There’s no public health care plan to compete with private for-profit insurance companies. There is a provision for setting up health care cooperatives. The bill prohibits denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions or dropping people when they need expensive care. The bill puts caps on the amount of money people will have to pay for health care each year. Everyone will be required to have health insurance. There’s a laundry list of tax credits to help people purchase health insurance on the open market. The bulk of the bill deals with modifications of Medicare, none of which I understand.
The biggest issue for me is the lack of a public insurance option. In principle, the co-op idea sounds good, but I can’t see how these small co-ops will be able to provide any real competition to drive down the cost of health care – supposedly the goal of health care reform. If everyone is required to have health insurance, the private health insurance industry will only get larger, and with the only competition these tiny co-ops, the cost of health care will not go down.
While there are a slew of tax credits to supposedly reduce the cost of health insurance, there appear to be some tax increases as well. Health savings accounts will now by taxed. “The additional tax on distribution from an HSA that are not used for qualified medical expenses is increased to 20 percent of the disbursed amount.”
Flexible spending arrangements under cafeteria plans will be capped. “[S]alary reductions by an employee for a taxable year for purposes of coverage under a Health FSA under a cafeteria plan are limited to $2,000.”
So it’s a mixed bag of tax credits, tax increases, changes to Medicare, the creation of health care co-ops and a requirement that everyone have health insurance. Now I’m going to see what the experts have to say about all this.
Read the entire bill.
Wall Street Journal coverage.
New York Times’ Prescription blog post about the Baucus bill.
Huffington Post’s Ryan Grim’s story about the Senate Finance bill.
Christian Science Monitor story about the bill.
The Guardian story.
Senate Finance Committee health care bill Sept. 16, 2009
It’s called “America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009.” I’ve not read the entire bill yet, but I’m posting it here immediately for everyone to look through. It’s 223 pages, so I’ll need a minute to make sense of it. Read this bill, it’s going to be the topic of discussion for the coming weeks. We should all know what it says so we can call bull when we hear it.
