Bizzaro-land: Obama "welcomes showdown with Liberals" over excluding public option

[Taco John]

From Ezra Klein's blog:

Paragraphs That Should Worry Liberals
From Politico's interview with presidential adviser David Axelrod:

On health care, Obama’s willingness to forgo the public option is sure to anger his party’s liberal base. But some administration officials welcome a showdown with liberal lawmakers if they argue they would rather have no health care law than an incremental one. The confrontation would allow Obama to show he is willing to stare down his own party to get things done.

“We have been saying all along that the most important part of this debate is not the public option, but rather ensuring choice and competition,” an aide said. “There are lots of different ways to get there.”




By Ezra Klein | September 2, 2009; 11:45 AM ET


http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/09/paragraphs_that_should_worry_l.html

[Donger]

I'm absolutely thrilled that Obama is taking the offensive. He'll actually have to provide some substantive answers now.

[petegz28]

repost

[SHTSPRAYER]

he's already lost a swathe of independents, now he's about to lose a swathe of liberals. What a poorly calculated political maneuver pushing so hard for "healthcare reform" .

[jidar]

he's already lost a swathe of independents, now he's about to lose a swathe of liberals. What a poorly calculated political maneuver pushing so hard for "healthcare reform" .

So let me get this straight.. you're now criticizing Obama because he isn't politically pandering?

[memyselfI]

So let me get this straight.. you're now criticizing Obama because he isn't politically pandering?

No, he's criticizing Lite because he's been such an embarrassing NOOB.

[wild1]

Well, it's nice that he has switched sides and is now working against the public option like most of America is.

[memyselfI]

It will be interesting to see if progressives and liberals like Penchief continue with their dysfunctional battered wife like love of Lite. BTW, where hell is Penchief?

[fan4ever]

I'm going to enjoy watching this; "When Egomaniacs Collide".

[mlyonsd]

This really is his best move politcally that I can see.

The majority of the public hates congress so going against them doesn't hurt him.

His far left moonbat base will still support him in the end.

[BucEyedPea]

I'm absolutely thrilled that Obama is taking the offensive. He'll actually have to provide some substantive answers now.

I'm not. I'd rather he crawl back into a hole. Any bill will be incremental and lead in the wrong direction with today's mentality and that on Capital Hill.

[Mr. Kotter]

This really is his best move politcally that I can see.

The majority of the public hates congress so going against them doesn't hurt him.

His far left moonbat base will still support him in the end.


Yup. Politically a pretty solid move, as long as he reels back in some moderates with a bone here and there.

[HonestChieffan]

The far left already said with no pub option they would NOT support any bill.....hello rock, meet hard place.

[BucEyedPea]

The far left already said with no pub option they would NOT support any bill.....hello rock, meet hard place.

I LOVE gridlock!

[J Diddy]

I'm not. I'd rather he crawl back into a hole. Any bill will be incremental and lead in the wrong direction with today's mentality and that on Capital Hill.


so you'd rather nothing be done? Hi minority of the U.S., glad to meet you.

[SHTSPRAYER]

So let me get this straight.. you're now criticizing Obama because he isn't politically pandering?

You wouldn't know straight if it drove a cock right up your brown eye.

[BucEyedPea]

so you'd rather nothing be done? Hi minority of the U.S., glad to meet you.

On this YES!

[RINGLEADER]

What's funny is talking to all the people at the office that were strutting around vocally supporting Obama in the days before the election. Now people just go up to them when they try to support Obamacare and ask basic logical questions and they fold.

[JohnnyV13]

I'm not. I'd rather he crawl back into a hole. Any bill will be incremental and lead in the wrong direction with today's mentality and that on Capital Hill.

I agree. As much as you and I disagree on many things, I think the correct incremental approach would be to change the rules to help make insurance a better free market product.

First would be to end the "pre existing condition" exclusions. I agree wtih this obama modification, because it prevents ins. companies from "cherry picking" healthy patients to insure. Only allow rates to be set on things like age, region, and behavioral stuff that insureds can control: smoking, lipid profile, exercise and weight.

Eliminating pre existing condition exclusions will solve the problem of people being "locked" into an insurance, only to see the company change the exclusions during the course of the policy. Thus, if a company significantly changes benefits or exclusions, they could face significant subscriber loss if someone else offers a better deal (people won't be trapped by pre existing conditions).

Rewarding people for healthy habits is a cost control measure designed to encourage better lifestyle choices. One of the silent factors behind the rising medical expenditures is our increasingly bad health choices as a society.

Another change would be to break the connection between employers and health insurance. We should no longer penalize people who buy individual policies, they should receive the same income tax exclusion that people who get health care as an employee benefit get.

Ideally, insurance companies will start offering incentives to people to minimize how many health care dollars they spend. To encourage development of such systems, we need to support it by requiring hospitals and physicians to publish prices on a searchable public data base so that patients can cost compare.

These changes are relatively simple, yet would have significant impact on our system. Once we have had time to measure their affect, we could then move to another round of reform.