What used to the key element of Obama health care reform is ready to be chloroformed by the President with Sen. Olympia Snowe standing by to assist him in the procedure.
The anesthetic is Snowe's "trigger mechanism" that would give insurance companies a defined period to make changes to cover more people and drive down costs. But if changes failed to occur, the "trigger" would be pulled, creating a public option to force change on the insurers.
In the Senate Finance Committee, Snowe is the last Republican straw the White House can grasp for the appearance of bipartisanship as Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel promises the President will be “more prescriptive than he has been to date” in his address to Congress next week.
But with opposition rising and approval ratings falling, the new politics of Barack Obama is looking more and more like the usual Washington game of settling for half a loaf or less with both sides declaring victory.
Meanwhile, the beat of the public debate goes as a 65-year-old backer of Obama health care is disqualified from expressing an opinion on the trigger mechanism by having his finger bitten off by an opponent during a rally in California. No word on whether Medicare or private insurance will pay the medical bills.
Showing posts with label Obama health care reform. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obama health care reform. Show all posts
Thursday, September 03, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
Health Care Food Fight
From the steady diet of invective comes a bite of nostalgia, a reminder of the 1960s when right-minded (that is, left-leaning) people supported California migrant workers by not buying grapes.
Boycotted this time around are the Whole Foods markets whose CEO wrote a Wall Street Journal piece opining, "Health care is a service that we all need, but just like food and shelter it is best provided through voluntary and mutually beneficial market exchanges. A careful reading of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution will not reveal any intrinsic right to health care, food or shelter. That's because there isn't any."
Lovers of organic food and the public option rallied online asking supporters to stop "voluntary and mutually beneficial exchanges" with the health-food chain, claiming that “Whole Foods has built its brand with the dollars of deceived progressives.”
This may not be exactly what the President has in mind when urging diet discrimination and exercise to keep down health care costs, but for one shopper, the boycott will pose no hardship. Visits to Whole Foods have always reminded me of what Jimmy Durante said when asked if wheat germ and yogurt made you live longer: "Naw, but it sure seems longer."
Whatever their political opinions, I'll stick with Trader Joe's.
Boycotted this time around are the Whole Foods markets whose CEO wrote a Wall Street Journal piece opining, "Health care is a service that we all need, but just like food and shelter it is best provided through voluntary and mutually beneficial market exchanges. A careful reading of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution will not reveal any intrinsic right to health care, food or shelter. That's because there isn't any."
Lovers of organic food and the public option rallied online asking supporters to stop "voluntary and mutually beneficial exchanges" with the health-food chain, claiming that “Whole Foods has built its brand with the dollars of deceived progressives.”
This may not be exactly what the President has in mind when urging diet discrimination and exercise to keep down health care costs, but for one shopper, the boycott will pose no hardship. Visits to Whole Foods have always reminded me of what Jimmy Durante said when asked if wheat germ and yogurt made you live longer: "Naw, but it sure seems longer."
Whatever their political opinions, I'll stick with Trader Joe's.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)