Anthony Guerrero
The Paw Print
A historic moment occurred on Sunday, March 21, 2010. The House of Representatives voted 219-212, with all Republicans dissenting, to approve the current Health Care Reform legislation that has been at the center of political debate for more than a year. This is a major victory for President Obama and his administration, since many were beginning to question the ability of the President to lead and to get tough legislation passed through the Congress.
Sunday began with many historic and interesting moments, many of them originating in the week before this bill was to pass. On Sunday morning, speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi marched with other Democratic lawmakers, carrying the same gavel that was used to pass Medicare, to the steps of the capitol. They held hands and were silent, as angry protestors on the sidelines chanted, “Kill the bill, kill the bill!” Most notably, Pelosi held hands in the front of the line with representative John Lewis, a champion of the Civil Rights movement, who only days before had been called the “n” word and was the victim of other hateful behavior by a Tea Party protestor. Other similar incidents involving the Tea Party occurred throughout the week. Representative Barney Frank also was subjected to derogatory verbal abuses in regards to his sexual orientation. A man in Columbus, Ohio who has Parkinson ’s disease had dollars bills thrown in his face and was scorned by angry Tea Party members. Likely, the march by speaker Pelosi and the Democrats was inspired by these actions.
The debate for passage of the bill lasted most of Sunday afternoon, finally ending in a victory for the Democratic Party. In his closing argument, house minority leader John Boehner, delivered an angry and passionate speech. He accused the Democrats of passing a bill opposed by the American people, making backroom deals, lying, and being unable to actually prove any promises which they made were actually in the bill. In a particularly heated moment, Boehner shouted, “Can you say it was done openly, with transparency and accountability? Hell no, you can’t! Have you read the bill? Have you read the manager’s amendment? Hell no, you haven’t!” After the House first voted to approve the bill, the Republicans, in one last attempt to kill the bill, attempted to pass a motion to recommit based on the abortion language in the bill. One of the key ways the Democrats were able to secure the 216 votes needed for passage, was by convincing anti-abortion Democrat Bart Stupak, that President Obama would remove the federal funding for abortion by executive order. The Republicans charged that executive orders were not law and could easily be overturned by the President at any moment. Stupak rose on the House floor in defense of the Democratic Party and his new position on the proposed new law. During his speech, someone, presumably from the Republican side of the aisle, shouted, “Baby killer!” Despite this last attempt, the Democrats once again prevailed, this time by a vote of 220-211.
After all the drama from Congress wound down, President Obama delivered an address to the nation from the White House. He was accompanied by a smiling Vice-President Joe Biden. “Tonight, at a time when the pundits said it was no longer possible, we rose above the weight of our politics. We pushed back on the undue influence of special interests. We didn’t give in to mistrust or to cynicism or to fear. Instead, we proved that we are still a people capable of doing big things and tackling our biggest challenges. We proved that this government — a government of the people and by the people — still works for the people.” Some have charged that President Obama’s proposals were a radical form of policy, to which he responded, “this isn’t radical reform, but it is major reform. This legislation will not fix everything that ails our health care system. But it moves us decisively in the right direction. This is what change looks like.”
It is important to understand that this has been a major goal of the American presidency for more than a century. Republican Theodore Roosevelt was the first to call for a reform of our Health Care system. The Kennedy family, most notably Senator Edward Kennedy, made it a central tenet of their view on public policy. No one can forget the recent attempt by President Bill Clinton, who failed to deliver, and still suffered severe midterm election losses. Many analysts believe President Obama is at risk politically because of this legislation, regardless of whether or not it passed the Congress. Many insiders of the Democratic Party believe it was better for the President to finish the job, because Republicans would most likely not vote for any Democrat regardless of their vote. Organizing for America, a grassroots level fundraising and volunteer network for the Democratic Party, has over 9 million hours pledged by volunteers to fight for the members of Congress who voted yes on this legislation. This network is the same group of individuals who helped carry then-senator Obama to the White House.
“In the end, what this day represents is another stone firmly laid in the foundation of the American dream. Tonight, we answered the call of history as so many generations of Americans have before us. When faced with crisis, we did not shrink from our challenge — we overcame it. We did not avoid our responsibility — we embraced it. We did not fear our future — we shaped it,” said President Obama to end the night.
For anyone that’s been following this thread, and Mr. Carbutt’s clear defense of the Tea Party and everything it stands for, here is an excellent article done by Newsweek, with research from the University of Washington, exposing their real motivations for their resentment.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/236996
For those interested, the New York times has an article that expresses some doubt on a provision in the new law. You can read it by visiting this link http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/health/20landscape.html?8dpc
This article deals with the people who are buying into the system and the doubt that because of the current state of the economy many people will not be able to afford buying health insurance. This may increase insurance premiums even more and has already happened in the state of New York where a similar practice has been in effect.
There is also an interactive tool from the Washington Post that lets you know how the new law affects you. It can be found by visiting this link http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/what-health-bill-means-for-you/
It mostly concerns taxes directly from the government.
The world will end on December 12, 2012? Where in the world did this come from? I have never stated or even implied this at all. This is a nice paraphrase from an Obama speech but it does not reflect my views at all. A couple of days ago I was listening to NPR’s Morning Edition and I heard a report on a provision in the new law about Medicaid payments. According to the report many doctors won’t take Medicaid patients and they listed some reasons. The patients tend not to keep appointments, tend not to follow doctor’s instructions, and the bureaucracy doctors must go through to get payments from Medicaid is very long and tedious. The reporter doing the story was unsure if this provision in the bill would do any good for many Americans. Medicaid patients also have a harder time seeing specialists. Again according to the reporter the bill does nothing to address this.
My point in disagreeing with you is that the bill has good intentions but it seems it does more harm than good. The “greedy” companies as you call them will have to raise prices and cut jobs in order to survive. This affects regular people. If the price of medical devices goes up regular people will be paying the price. Businesses had received a tax credit for providing prescription benefits for retirees. The new law gets rid of this tax credit. Businesses will no longer find it cost effective to do this and their retirees(regular people) will have to get coverage from somewhere else. Here is an article from CNN I think you may find interesting about the Tea Party. http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/04/07/tea.party.rallies/index.html It was posted yesterday.
Mr. Guerrero,
Thank you for your civil response.(Said dripping with sarcasm) I went on the internet and checked the Congress approval rating yesterday and found it to be at 18%. I used a Google search and looked at polling report.com. I know you don’t like the Tea Party(which is made of Republicans, Independents, and Democrats- how extreme can you get?) and you don’t seem to like that companies are reporting that they will lose money and subsequently jobs because of this new law. Under a recent law passed by Congress after the Enron Scandal they must immediately tell their shareholders and the government how new laws will impact them even before they are enacted. All the data I have presented you is all biased? USA Today is conservative? The AP? Even the CBO said that insurance premiums would increase under this bill. They must be biased as well. I am sorry that I have upset you Mr. Guerrero, I apologize that I do not agree with you that this bill is a good thing. You seem to be unable to handle it when someone with an opposing views expresses their opinion. From now on I will leave you alone.
I don’t care who agrees with me and who doesn’t Mr. Carbutt, you won’t find one person in this entire campus, or who has ever commented on my articles that will tell you I feel any different about them because of a disagreement based on political ideologies. I wouldn’t write these articles if I couldn’t handle the criticism or differences of opinions, something perhaps you should keep in mind. The only who has called for censorship because of not being able to handle differences of opinions is you.
I do however, take issue most definitely with your claim that the Tea Party is a bi-partisan effort. You are absolutely right, I do not like or appreciate the Tea Party. Members of this group have held up racist signs, threatened and intimidated members of Congress, mocked individuals with Parkinson’s disease, and spat in the face of Civil Rights leaders. I have every right to disprove of them and any of their supporters. Here’s an article researching the demographics of this movement http://coloradoindependent.com/50619/gallup-tea-partiers-more-white-than-america-and-viewed-more-negatively-than-positively. It does not support your assertion of this movement being a good aspect of our politics.
I can’t argue with you anymore, I regret even having to answer the dining room table now. You are right Mr. Carbutt, as a result of this Legislation, the world will end on December, 12, 2012. There’s plenty of Google articles to support you and your righteous opinion in support of what must absolutely be a fact.
Also, no, not all the data you have presented to me is biased. The party of fear has done an excellent job perpetuating a level of fear that is not warranted, and the polls do not surprise me. What is biased in the majority is when you quote from companies and a clearly conservative group of physicians, surely you are intelligent enough to know when you are doing this. You are correcting in presuming also, that I do not care what a multi-million dollar corporation has to say about how this legislation will harm their greedy profits. I am more interested in what ordinary Americans have to say, and how they will view the benefits once they are properly enacted. Did you know that 1.1 million Americans elected to co-sign this legislation with the President?
The Gallup Poll does not surprise me. Health reform is something that a majority wants. That same majority also says that they do not want the Health reform that is now law. Another Gallup Poll suggests that people are still skeptical about the costs of the reform. A majority think it will increase the deficit and not reduce it.
Doctors have also sued the government. The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons has also said that the law is unconstitutional. Here’s the link of their complaint http://www.aapsonline.org/hhslawsuit They must be part of the Tea Party right? They must also be ignorant as you have stated that those who want to repeal this law are. How dare they fight this new law that most Americans don’t want. CBS(hope they’re not too conservative) reports that a USA Today Gallup Poll says that more Americans view the bill as a “bad thing” rather than a “good thing”. Yes, I have heard of the previous lawsuits against the government when social security and medicare became law. The businesses who make medical devices are also worried how the new law which taxes medical devices will affect them. “We believe that the tax will cost us somewhere between $5 million and $10 million a year,” says Richard Packer, Zoll’s chairman and CEO. “Our profit in 2009 was $9.5 million.” Zoll is a company based out of Massachusetts that makes heart defibrillators. But why keep boring you with this extremist rhetoric.
It’s funny how the only defenses you have are entirely based on Tea Party and Conservative rhetoric and biased statistics. Really, once again Mr. Carbutt, I’m shocked, The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons is filing a suit? The association of “private doctors” who have a video of Glenn Beck the minute you go to their page? Wow, I can’t argue with that. They’re truly independent like you. I wonder what the credible American Medical Association has to say about all this? Or are they just liberal elites?
Really you have heard of the previous lawsuits when Social Security and Medicare became law? But, not only that, let’s not forget Civil Rights and Medicaid. They were all viewed as unconstitutional by those of your ilk.
But I’m done, this truly is like trying to talk to a dining room table.
It is interesting to note that a week after this bill has passed that polls still show that a majority of Americans oppose it. Polls also state that most Americans would like the bill repealed. The whole process of getting this bill passed was ugly. Neither side was civil to the other. Congressman Stupak seems to be in an awful situation. Prior to Sunday he was receiving hateful messages and threats telling him to vote yes on the bill after passage of the bill he receives hateful messages and threats because he voted yes.
During the final weeks of this theater Nancy Pelosi was heard saying that we need to pass this bill to find out what is in it. Not exactly inspiring. The CBO score of the bill has been cheered and jeered depending on which side you are on. Recently the CBO had to adjust its debt projection for the current presidency from about 8 trillion over ten years to 10 trillion over ten years. If they were off by that much on the debt could they also be off on the cost of health care? Again not terribly inspiring. Then there is the so called “doc fix” which was not included in the recently signed bill. If passed it would cost 247 billion dollars. Many are saying it must pass to make sure the doctors are getting reimbursed the proper amount for their services. Similar legislation has been passed for many years. It seems that this provision wipes out any of the 130 billion dollars in savings over the first ten years.
News from the AP says that young people in there 20s and early 30s will see a 17 percent increase in their premiums. The CEO of Aetna (an insurance provider) warns that others premiums will also go up. Many states including this one are suing the federal government over the legality of this legislation. States are concerned that the current deficits they are already facing will increase under this legislation. Companies are looking at taking losses as well which would mean higher prices for their goods or fewer jobs offered.
I think I can understand why most people still oppose this legislation.
Oh I see Mr. Carbutt, so did Fox News also tell you of the recent AP Gallup Poll that states 49% of Americans support Health Reform and 40% of you oppose it? Or is that just liberal media bias? Did you happen to catch today’s CNN polls that aren’t exactly great news, but seem to be making you sound flawed? 40% some percent of people approve of the job Congress is doing, what was it during the Bush years? 18%? More than half of Americans approve of President Obama’s job performance. Or is CNN too liberal for your truly independent spirit?
Also, you people that are toting a repeal of the bill, does your ignorance begin to help you understand who can repeal a bill and how a bill is repealed? The first option would be for the President of the United States to repeal an act of congress, because, he is pretty much the only person that can repeal an act of congress. Let’s face it, President Obama isn’t going to repeal this act of congress. The next option would be for it to go the Supreme Court who basically is the final interpreter of the law of the land. Back in the 1960’s people sued the government for trying to force them to rent to people of different skin colors because that was “unconstitutional.” Do you know how that turned out? Similar incidents have occurred regarding Social Security that terrible socialist conspiracy, and Medicare and Medicaid which made us a communist nation. Do you know how that turned out? Probably not, because you are conserving arguments that have already been defeated.
Really Mr. Carbutt, 13 Republican Attorney Generals and 1 Democrat are challenging the Federal Government. My goodness, I am so very terribly shocked, what news you have brought me, I wish I would have seen that coming. 13 Republicans and 1 Democrat. What brave heroes. What about the other um…36 states?
Also concerning the supposed “doc fix” I don’t think you have been completely honest with your audience. This comes from a supposedly leaked DNC document, which there is not substantial evidence to prove it is a real Democratic document or strategy. Perhaps you should have mentioned and quoted that, because you are independent and not a fan of either political party. Isn’t that right?
Your response is a weak argument perpetuating the rhetoric of the truly extremist “patriotic” Tea Party.