President Of THE WORLD ?
President Obama Addresses
World Leaders At U.N. Assembly
President Obama Addresses the UN General Assembly from White House on Vimeo.
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B4B
President Obama Addresses the UN General Assembly from White House on Vimeo.
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Bush Regime, U.S. Gov't
Drafted Iraq's Constitution
Granting 'Right' to Health Care To ALL IRAQIS !
" Our troops fighting to give the Iraqi people
rights that the troops themselves don't have. " ( Jubal Harshaw)
You'd better sit down, folks.
Article 31 of the Iraqi Constitution, drafted by your right-wing Bushies in 2005 and ratified by the Iraqi people, includes state-guaranteed (single payer) healthcare for life for every Iraqi citizen.
Article 31 reads:
"First: Every citizen has the right to health care. The State shall maintain public health and provide the means of prevention and treatment by building different types of hospitals and health institutions.
Second: Individuals and entities have the right to build hospitals, clinics,or private health care centers under the supervision of the State, and this shall be regulated by law."
There are other health care guarantees, including special provisions for children, the elderly, and the handicapped elsewhere in the 43-page document.
Under force of arms, President Bush imposed his particular idea of democracy on a people not asking for it - perhaps a noble undertaking in one context and a criminal violation of international law in another. Bush's followers are proud of the Iraqi Constitution, a model for the world, they told us.
So, according to the American political right-wing, government-guaranteed health care is good for Iraqis, but not good for us. Not good for you. They decry even a limited public option for you, but gleefully imposed upon the Iraqis what they label here as "socialism," with much Democratic Party member support.
Indeed, reading the Iraqi Constitution so near to the 8th anniversary of September 11, 2001 is instructive. It is the very definition of American right-wing hypocrisy.
We have (thus far) sacrificed more blood to wrest Iraq from tyranny than we lost on 9/11. In addition, according to the Congressional Research Service, as of May 15, 2009 (Report 7-5700/RL33110) we have spent and/or authorized $864 Billion in military operations on Operation Enduring Freedom, which includes Iraq and Afghanistan. The overwhelming majority of those funds have been for the war in Iraq. Additional secret funding has been authorized for intelligence and special operations.
The total is more than (or, in the worst case, equal to) the funding required to guarantee minimally decent health care here.
In other words, the most senior members of the Republican establishment - and some Democrats like Max Baucus (D-MT) - have gladly spent more taxpayer funds to ensure health care as a Constitutional right in Iraq than they are willing to spend to give you any level of guaranteed coverage.
The source document I used is from the official United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq. If you'd like to download and review the full Iraqi Constitution, click HERE
This news is an example of the benefit of our online viral information age. The situation was first called to my attention late yesterday (September 8) by a long-term blogger, Korkie Moore-Bruno, on a think tank list of Obama supporters. Korkie posted an alert from her Facebook friend Jubal Harshaw. Give them credit for the heads-up; all I've done was verify the rumor with the United Nations.
It would seem that U. S. citizens might find out if their Representative and/or Senators have supported or voted to fund the war in Iraq. If so, do they support health care as a civil right for you?
If the answers to those questions are "yes" and "no," respectively, you might consider less hypocritical representation. (Thank You HuffPo)
"It will provide more security and stability to those who have health insurance. It will provide insurance to those who don’t. And it will lower the cost of health care for our families, our businesses, and our government."
– President Barack Obama
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P.S. Our 1st Lady Looked Wonderful !
B4B
First 'Gang of Six' Member Backs Reconciliation
For Health Reform
A Democratic member of the "Gang of Six" senators charged with finding a bipartisan solution to health care reform said at a town hall Monday that he would support using the budget reconciliation process to push a bill through the Senate if necessary.
Reconciliation is a parliamentary procedure that would allow Democrats to pass health care reform with 51 votes, meaning the party could do it without any Republican support.
Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico has been one of three Democrats participating in the widely-watched Finance Committee negotiations. His willingness to consider reconciliation is another sign that a a genuine bipartisan deal may be impossible.
"We made a provision in the budget resolution [earlier this year] that it could be used to try to enact health care provisions related to health care reform," Bingaman said. "There are restrictions to what you can include in that...but I would support it if that's the only way."
Non-budget-related items typically can't be passed using reconciliation, but Democrats are eying ways that would allow them to include those provisions, as well. Reconciliation would be a difficult legislative path to walk, but it raises pressure on Republicans who are considering supporting the Democratic effort. If Democrats go it alone, those Republicans, such as Maine's Olympia Snowe or Susan Collins, would be left out of the process.
Bingaman's support of reconciliation was first reported by the New Mexico Independent and can be seen at the one hour mark here. (HuffPo)
Just Say NO to Bi-Partisanship
THEY Say NO All The Time...and Always Will !
President Obama Guarantees Health Reform Bill
" A Public Option is the best... "
President Barack Obama guaranteed on Thursday that health care reform will be achieved, and he stuck by the public option as his preferred choice for revamping the insurance market.
In an interview with Philadelphia-based radio talk show host and MSNBC analyst Michael Smerconish, Obama continued to talk about his desire to bring Republican lawmakers on board. He also chastised, ever so slightly, the press and progressives for getting "a little excited" in their suspicions that he was abandoning the public plan. "Our position hasn't changed," he said.
Obama's most powerful moment, however, may have come when he addressed a caller who had supported his 2008 campaign but was concerned that the president's knees were "buckling" when it came to getting health care reform passed.
"I guarantee you," he told the caller, "we are going to get health care reform done. And I know that there are a lot of people out there who have been hand wringing and folks in the press are following every little twist and turn of the legislative process. You know, passing a big bill like this is always messy. FDR was called a socialist when he passed Social Security. JFK and Lyndon Johnson, they were both accused of a government takeover of health care, when they passed Medicare. This is the process we go through because understandably, the American people have a long tradition of being suspicious of government, until the government actually does something that helps them, and then they don't want anybody messing with whatever gets set up. And I'm confident we're going to get it done."
Obama and his Democratic allies are making a renewed push to bolster public opinion behind his health care agenda. On Wednesday, Obama hosted a call with religious leaders who backed his proposal. Later on Thursday, he is hosting an open strategy session with his campaign arm - Organizing for America - to discuss the political landscape surrounding the health care debate.Through it all, he has stuck to a familiar script: health care reform needs to expand coverage, lower costs, and increase competition. A public option, Obama said on Thursday, is the best vehicle for achieving these goals. But no one should be "obligated to go into a public plan."
On Thursday, Obama showed a certain amount of frustration with the GOP, but he did little to indicate he was willing to give up on recruiting bipartisan support.
"As far as negotiations with Republicans, my attitude has always been, let's see if we can get this done with some consensus," he said. "I would love to have more Republicans engaged and involved in this process. I think, early on, a decision was made, by the Republican leadership that said, look, 'let's not give them a victory. Maybe we can have a replay of 1993, '94 when Clinton came in, he failed on health care and then we won in the midterm elections and we got the majority. And I think there are some folks who are taking a page out of that playbook."
"But this shouldn't be a political issue," he added. "This is an issue for the American people. There are a bunch of Republicans out there who have been working very constructively. One of them, [Sen.] Olympia Snowe in Maine, she's been dedicated on this. [Sens.] Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) are others. They've been meeting in the Senate Finance Committee. I want to give them a chance to work through these processes and we're happy to make sensible compromises. What we're not willing to do is give up on the core principle."(HuffPo)
President Obama is holding a live strategy meeting on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time for all Organizing for America supporters. I hope you can join us, online or by phone.
The President will update us on the fight to pass real health insurance reform -- what's happening in D.C. and what's happening around the country. He'll lay out our strategy and message going forward and answer questions from supporters like you. And we'll unveil the next actions we'll organize together.
This is a critical time in this President's administration, and in the history of our country. I hope you can join us.
Here are the details:
What: Organizing for America National Health Care Forum
When: Thursday, August 20th, 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time
RSVP and submit a question for the President.
NPR's Howard Berkes reported last month on the group's tenth annual clinic in Wise, Va., where 2,700 people were treated over three days. Keep in mind, this is an organization (RAM) which got it's start helping villagers in the Amazon...and now they're here, right here in America giving much needed health care to neglected Americans as if THIS were a third world country !
And no. These people are not whom society would label the derelicts of society. These are not the so-called 'bums' or drunks or druggies. These are everyday, average, decent Americans, mothers and fathers, most of whom do in fact have jobs and work hard for a living everyday. These are people that work at your neighborhood cleaners, your pizza shops, your handyman, your cleaning women, window washers, the car wash, grocery store, cashiers at America's largest box store and the list goes on. These are good, average, hard working tax-paying Americans. And it is absolutely pathetic that our great country would be so selfish-minded and lackadaisical that we would except as normalcy the fact that 1 out of every 6 Americans are being treated like this is a third world country. It is hard to fathom the reality that Mexico, Cuba and even North Korea treat their citizens far more caringly than America when it comes to health care coverage for all.
WATCH VIDEO: This Is Great !
Lil' Damon Weaver Gets His Interview with
President Obama
Democratic efforts to reform health care have two goals: Expand coverage and reduce costs. An estimated 46 million people in the United States don't have insurance. Meanwhile, health spending has grown much faster than inflation. If something isn't done, the health care programs we now have for the elderly and the poor — Medicare and Medicaid, respectively — could end up bankrupting the country in another 50 years or so.
The broad outlines for health care reform are similar in the Democratic legislation considered thus far:
• Leave employer-provided insurance in place. Close to three-quarters of the country gets health care through work, and studies show many people like their coverage. A House version of the bill seeks to broaden that coverage by imposing new taxes on large employers who don't offer health insurance.
• Health insurance exchange. To help people who have to go out and buy insurance on their own, the plan creates an exchange, a virtual marketplace where individuals and small businesses can comparison-shop. The government would regulate the exchange so that insurance companies can't discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions, or charge wildly different amounts for similar coverage. (They will be able to set rates based on age, however.)
• The public option. One of the options on the exchange will be a public option, run by the government, that offers basic coverage. President Barack Obama has said the public option will keep private insurers honest by competing with them so they can't charge unfair rates for the basics. Many experts believe that the public option will be the least expensive option on the exchange.
• More for the poor. The plan expands eligibility for programs like Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Some people of modest means will receive "affordability credits" to buy plans on the health insurance exchange.
• An individual mandate . This requires people to buy insurance, unless they qualify for a hardship exemption. The expectation is that everyone will be covered, either through their employer or through the exchange. People who don't buy insurance will have to pay a penalty on their taxes.
• Electronic records. To reduce inefficiency and duplication of services, the government will invest in electronic health records, so doctors can see which tests and procedures patients have already had.
• Research on better treatments. A comparative effectiveness research center will conduct and publish scientific research to find which treatments are the most effective. The government hopes easy-to-access information for doctors, patients and insurance companies will reduce procedures and treatments that don't really work, wringing waste from the system.
• Medicare. The bill makes many changes to how Medicare pays doctors and other health-care providers. Taken as a whole, the new rules aim to pay doctors for good patient outcomes instead of paying them per procedure, also called "fee-for-service."
What's controversial
Critics have centered on a number of key issues.
• The public option: Conservatives dislike it for a couple of reasons. They argue that employers, motivated by cost, will drop their coverage and send their employees to the public option. Some believe it's a stalking horse for an eventual single-payer system; others believe it's simply unfair competition for private providers. Congress is negotiating now to put safeguards in place so the public option competes on even footing with private insurers. Those include requiring the public option to finance itself through customer premiums (i.e., no taxpayer subsidies) and to make it negotiate like any other insurance company on what it pays doctors and health-care providers. Meanwhile, proponents of the public option say it is crucial for reining in profiteering from the insurance companies.
• Cost: The plan doesn't come cheap. Covering millions of people who are now uninsured will cost billions more per year. As a way to raise revenues, President Barack Obama has proposed reducing the deductions that the wealthy are allowed to take on their taxes. The House of Representatives rejected that, deciding instead on a new tax surcharge for the wealthiest households. We're still waiting to see what kind of tax measure the Senate will consider.
• "Rationing." Critics say the program will lead to health-care rationing. They attribute that to various elements of the plans, such as the government's new role running a public option and an approach known as comparative effectiveness research that seeks to find the most efficient treatments. The bills being considered now don't allow for the comparative research to be binding on health-care plans or dictate treatment. Still, it seems reasonable to assume that health insurers will begin to act on the government information, refusing to fund treatments considered experimental or ineffective. Supporters say health care is rationed already, by insurance companies. Your comfort level on this probably depends on whom you trust most: the government or insurance companies.
What we still don't know
Obama hoped to have bills passed by the House and Senate before the August recess. That didn't happen, but the House did produce a complete draft bill, and one Senate committee — the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, or HELP — also produced a bill. But a key committee, the Senate Finance panel, left for the recess without concluding its negotiations. This committee is widely considered to be pivotal, and we don't yet know where it will weigh in on a number of issues. Among the questions yet to be answered:
• Will a public option make it into the final bill, and how will it be structured? The Finance committee is also considering, in place of the public option, a co-operative model. A co-op would not be government-run, but it's not clear if it would have enough bargaining power to offer genuine competition to private insurers, which is important to lowering costs.
• What kind of new taxes will be used to pay for health care? The Senate seems unlikely to go along with the House idea to put a surcharge on the wealthy. The Finance Committee has considered all sorts of ideas, including taxes on soda pop or capping the tax-exempt status of employer-provided insurance. What they will finally decide on is one of the great unknowns.
• Will the promised cost savings actually materialize? The independent Congressional Budget Office has examined the health care plan and concluded that it will cost about $1 trillion over 10 years and, as currently envisioned, cause a shortfall of $239 billion. But the Obama administration believes that CBO may be undervaluing cost-saving measures in the plan. The CBO says it likes to err on the side of caution. The truth is that it's very difficult to put dollar figures on many of these things, because of the size of the health care industry and the inherent unpredictability of major policy changes over many years. It's good to keep in mind that when it comes to health care reform, no one has a crystal ball.
B4B Note: It will soon be time to disregard bi-partisanship on health insurance reform. President Obama feels bi-partisanship will make Republicans more receptive to future proposals/bills. But it's time to face the fact that the Republicans are going to say NO to everything President Obama wants as they have been the 'Party of NO' since day one and will continue to be. Let's get a strong Public Option passed for...
Thank You to our friends at Politifact
(In Hiatus) Welcome to the OFFICIAL SITE for Blacks4Barack !...a multi-racial, net/grassroots organization est. in Feb. 2007 to increase support for Barack Obama for President. Recognized nationwide Greg Jones (Cleveland, Ohio) is National Director. ALSO ! You can listen to archives of the Obama TALK RADIO show NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH with Greg Jones. Scroll down to visit our one-of-a-kind 'Memory Lane' below 4 the World's Most COMPLETE review of Historic Campaign '08 and More!
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