Hey There Everyone

I can't for the life of me understand why Pres. Obama is even doing this after being slapped down on every other attempt at bi-partisan cooperation in Congress but I have to admire the guy for all his attempts at doing the right, (and moral) thing - not to mention the Constitutional thing that originally established a system where all branches of government are supposed to work together for the common good of the people and the nation. After all, they did take an oath of office to do that and not to instead sit on their butts moping and complaining and collecting tax payer salaries while refusing to participate and do their jobs just because their party did not get elected.

I, along with most other people on the planet, can by now, predict the outcome of this Feb. 25th televised meeting. But the following is a nice thought anyway.

by Valerie Elverton Dixon 02-11-2010

President Obama has scheduled a bipartisan meeting on health-care reform that will be nationally televised live on Feb. 25. His plan is to provide an opportunity for Democrats and Republicans to sit together with a representative of the Congressional Budget Office and health-care economists and practitioners to put forward ideas about health-care reform. President Obama is walking the extra mile to garner Republican support for health-care reform legislation. Bipartisanship is what the American people want. “’Come now, and let us reason together’ says the LORD.” (Isaiah 1:18) At this point, it seems as if a bipartisan agreement will require divine intervention.

I confess: President Obama has more hope, faith, and patience with the Republicans than I and many of those on his political left. The good news is that we are not president of the United States of America. President Obama is taking seriously his responsibility to be president of all the people. The question is this: Are Republicans taking their responsibility to the nation seriously?

Republicans complain they have been left out of the process. However, Republicans sit on every committee in the Congress that has considered this. Jeff Zeleny, writing in The New York Times, reports: “Republicans were involved in the health care discussions for months last year in the Senate Finance Committee, but differences with Democrats were never resolved.” They complain that their ideas have not been included in the legislation. Rachel Maddow, on her program that aired on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2010, pointed out the places in the Senate health-care bill that address at least four of the major Republican demands for health-care: ability to purchase insurance across state lines, ability of small businesses and individuals to pool their buying power, ability for state innovation to lower costs, and tort reform. Even though these Republican ideas are in the Senate bill, it still received not a single Republican vote.

In my personal opinion, Congressional Republicans have not acted in good faith. They have put party and politics before policy and the common good. They have intentionally stalled health-care reforms that will bring health care to millions of Americans who do not have it. Obstructionism on this issue is unconscionable. Hardworking citizens of the United States, the richest nation on earth, die daily because they cannot afford the health care they need.

Some of us who are working and praying for health-care reform legislation are deeply disappointed and frustrated with our elected representatives, both Democrat and Republican. And the president keeps trying for bipartisanship. The definition of insanity is to do the same things over and over again and think there will be a different result. To keep trying for bipartisanship seems insane. However, I know that President Obama is not an insane man. He is no fool. Perhaps he is acting on faith, and very often faith looks foolish.

I suspect that by having this meeting televised, President Obama is putting his faith in us, the American people. He trusts us to watch and asses the facts and the policy proposals according to what is good for the nation and not according to ideological idolatry. It is our responsibility to hold our elected representatives accountable. I plan to watch. I hope that my fellow citizens will as well.

Dr. Valerie Elverton Dixon is an independent scholar who publishes lectures and essays at JustPeaceTheory.com. She received her Ph.D. in religion and society from Temple University and taught Christian ethics at United Theological Seminary and Andover Newton Theological School.

I go along with Mike Thompson's thinking on this:

For more than a year, President Obama has been trying to play ball with Republicans. Problem is, Republicans don’t want to play ball with the president, they want to knock him onto the ground and steal the ball. Slowly, Obama seems to be waking up to that fact that Republican foot dragging on everything from presidential nominations to health care reform isn’t motivated by ideological differences. Republicans want nothing to happen in Washington. They want bring government to a screeching halt and then run in November against Obama’s “record of non-accomplishment.”

After a year of trying to forge compromises, you can't say that Obama hasn’t tried the bipartisanship route. But it’s impossible to negotiate a compromise with members of a political a party who want only sit on their hands and run out the clock. And by now its painfully obvious that is the Republican plan.

It makes no sense for Obama to continue citing the rules of chivalry in combat during a barroom brawl.




Have a great day!!!

Love, Connie

Just in case you can't watch the televised meeting between Pres. Obama and the Republicans I am posting the following info just to let you all know that in spite of what the Republicans may say after the televised meeting, Pres. Obama is trying to bridge the gap and create a health care plan that is acceptable. He released his health care plan today - the one he intends to present to the Congressional Republicans in hopes of coming to a bipartisan agreement on the health care package. Remember, Pres. Obama and Dems do not need the approval of the Republicans as the health care bill has already passed both the House and Senate. All that remains to do is for Pres. Obama to sign the Health Care Bill into law. He could just go ahead and do that but he is trying to reach a bipartisan bill IF HE POSSIBLY CAN. I have my doubts about the Republicans doing anything at all except collecting tax payer paid salaries and sitting on their butts saying no to everything but I do hope they will prove me wrong.

Here is Pres. Obama's plan that he intends to submit to the Republicans on Thurs. Feb. 25:

President Obama has released a new health reform proposal -- that I wanted to share with you. And whether the Republicans agree to it or not it will be signed into law. Going the extra mile for the Republicans IS NOT something that Obama has to do. But he is determined to have an inclusive, bipartisan administration in spite of what the Republicans do or say.

Here's the bottom line: It's a plan that puts Americans in charge of their own health care, bridges the gap between the Senate and House bills, and adds additional ideas from both parties to fight waste and abuse.

The plan will serve as a starting point for discussion at a major bipartisan meeting this Thursday between the President and congressional leaders to discuss Republican and Democratic ideas for improving our health care system. And if there are more areas of agreement, they'll be added to the plan.

President Obama offered a health reform plan today that attempts to bridge the differences between bills already passed by the House and Senate.

This is the most specific proposal yet from the president, who has previously outlined general goals but left the legislative details to Congress.

Like both the House and Senate bills, the Obama plan would prohibit insurance companies from denying or cancelling coverage based on health problems, would expand Medicaid to cover more low-income workers and families, would offer premium subsidies to make insurance affordable for moderate-income families, would require individuals to maintain insurance coverage, and would take some steps to rein in health inflation.

– among missing are a public health insurance option, a national health insurance exchange rather than state-level ones, and a "millionaire's tax." However, it does make several improvements on the flawed Senate bill:

Although the Obama plan retains a tax on high-premium health plans, it has adopted the improvements negotiated with labor leaders and goes even further. The threshold for the tax would now be a premium of $27,500 for families and $10,200 for individuals, compared to $23,000/$8,500 in the Senate bill and $24,000/$8,900 in the agreement with labor leaders. That means the tax would hit far fewer working families. The agreement with labor delayed the tax until 2018 for collectively-bargained plans; the latest Obama proposal delays the tax until 2018 for everyone.

The Obama plan junks the heavily-criticized special treatment for Nebraska's Medicaid costs, but adds more federal help to states to pay for Medicaid expansion (similar to the House bill).

Following the House bill, the Obama plan closes the coverage gap – the so-called "donut hole" – for seniors on Medicare, meaning thousands of dollars a year in prescription savings to millions of seniors.

While it doesn't require employers to offer coverage, as the House bill does, the Obama plan increases the penalties on companies whose workers end up on publicly-subsidized plans, to $2,000 per worker, up from $750 in the Senate bill.

It adds new federal oversight on insurance companies that seek excessive premium hikes, a provision not in either the House or Senate bills. The proposal is in response to recent huge [increases sought by insurers such as Anthem Blue Cross], which is trying to raise individual premiums in California by as much as 39%.

It adds new provisions to curb abuse and fraud, including some taken from three different Republican bills.

For more information, you can read the 11-page full text of the presidents' plan here:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/summary-presidents-proposal.pdf

Love, Connie