| Sure, some may wish to reassure the public in the same way they would if a lad or lass learned that Mommy and Daddy not Saint Nicolas, bought the presents, and they will return what the tot thought a disappointment. The conference committee has yet to meet. Congress seems posed to impose initiatives, that establish every individual must be insured. Allowances will be made for those who cannot reasonably afford medical coverage. Only Americans who experience an extreme hardship will qualify for government assistance. For the masses, a substantial financial penalty (2 to 2.5 percent of a persons income) will be charged to citizens who violate the mandate.
People who now think themselves comfortably ensconced in an employer paid policy may be fine with the bequest, for now. However, once they learn, what they thought beautiful ribbons and bows are strings attached to the package, sorrow might set in. If a forty percent [40%] proposed excise tax is adopted almost two-thirds of the employers recently surveyed by Mercer, a benefits consulting firm, said they expect to reduce employee benefits rather than pay the levy.
Nevertheless, an ebullient Barack Obama asserted Americans need only Trust us." The White House is as Santa's Workshop. Good gifts are made here.
The American people are skeptical. Today, throughout the land many wonder whether they can trust that life is lovely in this holiday season or that the President can produce as he promised. The country's Chief Executive appears certain he can; indeed, he has. The Obama family delayed their traditional Christmas departure to Hawaii until the President was sure his health care reform plan was safely secured in the Senate. Sadly, for common citizens, this legislation was as a Christmas stocking full of coal. It was not wondrous or reason for a celebration. For the American people rest and relaxation was not possible. The sense of good cheer was lost. It went the way of Single Payer and the public option. Average Americans had awaited the treats President Obama pledged to provide.
Few recognized that in 2003, the precedent was established. Then, in an Illinois campaign speech, in front of an AFL-CIO chapter, the candidate declared his dedication, "I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care program." (applause) "I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its Gross National Product on health care cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. And that's what Jim is talking about when he says everybody in, nobody out. A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that's what I'd like to see."
All those years ago, just as Mister Obama had done more recently in his presidential bid, after he offered reason to believe in the best of possibilities, did he dash all hope. He articulated his angst and said, "But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House." Before Americans knew him well Barack Obama "presented" reasons that passed for resolve. As his momentum increased so too did the mission. Give the gift of hope and then withdraw it.
It was September 7, 2009. As President Obama stood with union members, who gave him an enthusiastic reception at Cincinnati's Coney Island Park, he stated his commitment "I continue to believe that a public option within the basket of insurance choices would help improve quality and bring down costs." This pronouncement was not an exact proposal offered for execution.
Later, Senator Obama espoused the need to insure everyone affordably in Iowa, at the The Heartland Presidential Forum. A Plan for a Healthy America appeared prominently at his website during his Presidential bid. Even after he took residency in the White House, Mister Obama sang the praises of the "public option." He did so in a speech given in front of a confrontational crowd, the American Medical Association.
These stalwart supporters remembered what the President has now presumed was but history buried long ago. In a Cable News Network interview, aired on Super Tuesday Primary Election Day 2008, Senator Barack Obama stated, "If a mandate was the solution, we could try that to solve homelessness by mandating everybody buy a house."
The Presidential aspirant articulated what millions of Americans avow; "The reason they don't have a house is they don't have the money. So, our focus has been on reducing costs, making it available. I am confident that if people have a chance to buy high quality health care that is affordable, they will do so. And that's what our plan does, and nobody disputes that."
No one, except perchance, President Barack Obama. After less than six months in the White House, the once seeker, and speaker of a much-admired truth, disputed his own plan. Nonetheless, just as little ones do during the holidays, those devoted to the dream retained hope.
Whilst Mister Obama called the public option his preferred choice and stressed his want to ensure broad coverage, he has never demanded that it be part of a final bill. The need for competition, or a choice other than private insurers policies would be nice, however, Mister Obama did not require these.
Earlier and now again, Barack Obama waved the possibility that pleased the American people, and then did not fully work to make the dream come true.
As summer began, and the spring was no longer evident in Barack Obama's steps. It was then that Obama first explained he was Open to a Mandate on Health Insurance. Independents and the more Progressive began to understand; the Emperor wore no clothes. Perchance, it was thought by the more enchanted, Santa's bright red suit was only a bit soiled, stained, and worn
One need only ponder the duality of words dispensed. President Obama acknowledged that his acquiescent approach to health care legislation had likely been a mistake and that he had "probably left too much ambiguity out there'' by allowing the House and the Senate to draft bills. Yet, just as the mythical reindeers and the Claus', Mister Obama has chosen to do nothing other than let the narrative lie.
Definitive details, or even a refined design, were not outlined. Not in the Presidential campaign; nor from the halls of the White House. He did venture out on occasion and give voice to his signature issues: hope and change.
However, only days before the President bequeathed his gift on the American people, in the White House, President Obama defended himself against abundant criticism. In an Oval Office interview with The Washington Post, Mister Obama rejected the notion that he has compromised too much to secure health-care reform. He said that it was not true that he anointed Congress the sole authority to pursue what was thought to be his broad legislative agenda.
In the dialogue, Obama vigorously sanctioned the soon to be health care reform law. He said it was just as he pledged to deliver. Like Santa Claus, President Obama had looked at his list. He had checked it twice. The President postured that he was not naughty. Indeed, he had been very, very nice. Mister Obama had no misgivings, and offered I am "not just grudgingly supporting the bill. I am very enthusiastic about what we have achieved."
"Nowhere has there been a bigger gap between the perceptions of compromise and the realities of compromise than in the health-care bill," Mister Obama said. "Every single criteria for reform I put forward is in this bill." Challenged by the claims that he had not done as he vowed to do, the President stated, "I didn't campaign on the public option."
With an abundance of contradictions many muse, that, just as children, the American people have been carefully led through the Santa lore, Americans slowly and surely came to believe in "change." Barack Obama, as a Senator swayed the malleable minds of those desperate to believe in a dream. He offered opportunities. He showed us why it was vital that we serve someone or a cause greater than ourselves.
As a candidate, Mister Obama presented the American people with possibilities. As he spoke, unimaginable sugarplums that would satisfy a nation hungry for health care improvements danced in the heads of voters. On Christmas Eve morning, as Mister Obama celebrates his transformative triumph, citizen cry out. "Is this the health reform Obama promised?" The answer is indubitably "No!" What has been passed in the Halls of Congress is not even close to the change Americans were led to believe in.
In an Albuquerque town hall, August 2008, heard the poised United States Senator speak. Then, and there, he was eager to please, He offered "If I were designing a system from scratch, I would probably go ahead with a single-payer system," However, he added, there is a distinction between his desire and what he would do.
Little more than a year earlier, Candidate Obama concluded what he now says he never did. With circumstances as they are, there would be widespread opposition. In his days as a candidate, Barack Obama deduced; we must tread lightly and carry the big stick called change. Such was the pattern on the path to the Presidency.
The "fierce urgency of now" was prominent in the Obama rhetoric Mister Obama proclaimed. "People don't have time to wait," Obama said, "They need relief now." Then, in the same breath, careful not to claim that he could convert the current health care behemoth, the Presidential challenger relented. , "So my attitude is let's build up the system we got, let's make it more efficient, we may be over time-as we make the system more efficient and everybody's covered-decide that there are other ways for us to provide care more effectively."
Back then that was the rationalization, believers bellowed with Barack Obama. There is a Santa Claus. Fairy tales can come true. It can happen to you if you are young at heart and elect Mister Obama to serve as President. The public trusted the person who now occupies the Oval Office, when he said we will not fail. There will be change "Not this time."
With words warped in time and space, the thought is President Barack Obama has become practical, or perchance he is as he always was, anything but Santa.
Yes, there is a Santa Claus? Reality, Reform, References and a Skewed Reality . . .
- Senate Passes Health Care Overhaul on Party-Line Vote, By Robert Pear. The New York Times. December 25, 2009
- Barack Obama on Health-Care Reform: Trust Us., By Ezra Klein. Washington Post July 20, 2009
- As Health Bill Advances, Few Changes Seen for Millions, By Reed Abelson. The New York Times. December 25, 2009
- Plan for a Healthy America Obama08
- Senate approves health care reform bill, By Alan Silverleib. Cable News Network. December 24, 2009
- The Heartland Presidential Forum.
- Remarks of the President. Annual Conference of American Medical Association. The White House Office of the Press Secretary. June 15, 2009
- Obama lists financial rescue as 'most important thing' of his first year, By Scott Wilson. Washington Post. December 23, 2009
- The President Spells Out His Vision on Health Care Reform. The White House Blog. June 3, 2009
- Transcripts. Cable News Network. February 9, 2008 - 08:30 ET
- Obama; "Not This Time." By John Nichols. The Nation. March 18, 2008
- Obama Touts Single-Payer System for Health Care, By Amy Chozick. Wall Street Journal. August 19, 2008
- Barack Obama on single payer in 2003. Physicians for a National Health Program.
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