Obama about to cull abortion from health care

Obama says not funding abortions is "tradition"
While Jos alerted us a couple of weeks ago to the anti-choice Democrats who are trying to keep abortion funding out of the health care reform plan, a recent interview with our president makes us wonder if he's caving into their efforts.

In an interview with Katie Couric this week, he finally addressed abortion funding in health care reform, but it wasn't too pleasing; he asserted he wasn't looking to "micro-manage" which benefits are covered and that not funding abortion has generally been "the tradition":

Katie Couric: Do you favor a government option that would cover abortions?
President Obama: What I think is important, at this stage, is not trying to micromanage what benefits are covered. Because I think we're still trying to get a framework. And my main focus is making sure that people have the options of high quality care at the lowest possible price.

As you know, I'm pro choice. But I think we also have a tradition of, in this town, historically, of not financing abortions as part of government funded health care. Rather than wade into that issue at this point, I think that it's appropriate for us to figure out how to just deliver on the cost savings, and not get distracted by the abortion debate at this station. (Emphasis mine)

Well, that doesn't sound very pro-choice. Dana at TAPPED makes the connection to the Hyde Amendment:

That is a reference to the Hyde Amendment, which currently prevents Medicaid coverage of abortions for poor women. And while none of the health reform bills in Congress threaten Hyde, reproductive health advocates have been trying for decades to repeal the ban. By deferring to this "tradition," Obama seems to be signaling that he could support a public plan that excludes abortion coverage.

This is despite the fact that during his campaign, he stated that he opposed the amendment. (...)

Comments

Submitted by NDPP on July 31, 2009 - 4:22am.

Top Ten Ways to Tell Your President and his Party Aren't Fighting for Health Care for Everybody

http://blackagendareport.com/?q=content/top-ten-ways-tell-your-president...

"With the corporate media relentlessly distorting the public discussion around healthcare reform, it's time for some clear bright lines to help tell us who is doing what to whom and whether any of it leads to healthcare for all of us. Here are ten of them..."

Submitted by josh on July 31, 2009 - 6:52am.

In my view, the important thing is to get a "public option." If keeping the status quo on federal funding of abortions is the price, it's worth it. The issue can always be addressed in the future. However, if there's no public option, there's little incentive to address the issue.

Submitted by M. Spector on July 31, 2009 - 10:46am.

Quote:

To win serous reforms, we need activist leaders who are tough-minded progressives making maximum demands for reforms that truly address our nation's problems. Leave the inside-the-Beltway deal-making to the politicians, properly frightened and moved by the roar of mass movements.

We need activist leaders who have a clearer idea of who Obama is. He's not one of us. He's one of them - a politician bent on placating corporate interests. We knew all we needed to know about his current worldview from all the corporatists he put in top jobs.

And from the fact that he felt the need - six weeks into his administration, after the middle-class bailed out Wall Street - to call up the New York Times and assure the world that his policies were NOT socialist but were "entirely consistent with free market principles." At a time the corporate greedsters and free-market ideologues had been exposed as having threatened the economic well-being of the world, they weren't the ones on the defensive. They weren't doing the apologizing. Obama was on the defensive; he was apologizing to them!

When Democratic leaders start borrowing rightwing rhetoric, we know our activism has not been strong or progressive enough. At the AARP townhall Tuesday, Obama described a public option as "controversial, I understand people are worried about that." He went on to assure his audience that "nobody is talking about . . . government-run healthcare" or "a Canadian-style plan." At one point, he further assured seniors that no "bureaucratic law in Washington" would interfere in their healthcare decisions - seeming to adopt the faux-populism of anti-government rightists. Yet he seems incapable of anti-corporate populism, even with despised industries like Wall Street and health insurance.

I have huge respect for the smart young activists who built up the Netroots, unleashing all sorts of progressive possibilities for our country. But I'm bothered by their often ineffectual, Beltway-originated, halfway demands.

I became active during the Vietnam War. We might still have troops in Vietnam if - instead of militantly demanding "All Troops Home Now" - we'd organized behind polite Beltway initiatives like: "Let's begin negotiations" or "Let's set a timeline for phased withdrawal."

I fear that Netroots leaders are doing the same dance with Obama today that they did with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid in 2007-08. Instead of demanding that Democrats in Congress bring our troops home from Iraq by using the power of the purse to defund the war, Netroots leaders rallied behind weak, non-binding timelines and other halfway measures cooked up with Congressional leaders.

Without a loud, clear demand for "troops home" from the large online antiwar forces, Democratic leaders started retreating and succumbing to Republican rhetoric. Reid proclaimed: "We will never abandon our troops in a time of war." Pelosi declared: "We will have legislation to fund the troops!"

And the corpses kept piling up.

Great social reforms have occurred in our country not when social movements took their lead from what the White House deemed possible, but when the White House was pushed by powerful movements demanding reforms bolder than what the president was comfortable with. Leading abolitionists pushed Lincoln toward ending slavery by demanding immediate abolition. Socialist and workers movements in the '30s sufficiently scared elites so that FDR could pass New Deal reforms far short of socialism. Martin Luther King and civil rights activists continuously pushed and prodded JFK and later LBJ.

And these movements didn't have the Internet....

For Obama to feel secure about reform and standing up to the right, he needs to feel that he's in the center pushed by noisy forces to his left. He's admitted as much. The way to help him succeed is to mobilize seriously to his left.

The way to help Obama fail is for Netroots and liberal groups to collapse toward him from the get-go.

And if Obama does fail, we can quit laughing at a Republican Party in disarray due to Bush, religious extremism, hypocrisy and anti-intellectualism.

Because in this period of crisis and fear, unless a progressively-prodded White House delivers reforms that actually improve lives soon, rightwing reaction could rebound more dangerous than ever in 2010 and/or 2012.

Jeff Cohen

Submitted by NorthReport on August 2, 2009 - 4:05am.

Obama's personal physician asks why Obama is being so chickenshit about bringing in a Canada-style single-payer health-care sstem. Well he didn't exactly say that, but it seems like that is what he meant.

Obama's Doctor: President's Vision For Health Care Bound To Fail

Submitted by NorthReport on August 2, 2009 - 4:22am.

Gotta hand it to these whingers, they are very creative with their ads.

'Kill Granny' media campaign alarms seniors

Conservatives lead many to fear bill will lead to 'euthanasia' counseling

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32247482/ns/politics/

Submitted by josh on August 2, 2009 - 7:33am.

NorthReport wrote:

Gotta hand it to these whingers, they are very creative with their ads.

More to the point, is that they are very creative with their lies.

Submitted by M. Spector on August 3, 2009 - 7:44pm.

From Michael Moore:

Quote:

Keith Olbermann to Expose Congressional Opponents of Universal Health Care Tonight!

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

We've just received an advance transcript of tonight's Special Comment by Keith Olbermann on his MSNBC show. It is nothing short of brilliant -- and if all of America were to hear what he is going to reveal tonight, we are certain the vast majority of Americans would be on the phone to their elected representative immediately, calling for an end to the private, for-profit, rip-off health insurance companies who have wrecked our country.

Here's a brief section of Keith's editorial tonight:

"Congressman Mike Ross of Arkansas. Leader of the Blue Dogs in the House. You're the guy demanding a guarantee that Reform won't add to the deficit. I'm guessing you forgot to demand that about, say, Iraq. You're a Democrat, you say, Congressman?

"You saw what Sandy Barham said? Sandy Barham is 62 years old, she's got a bad heart, and she's hoping her valves will hold together for three more years until Medicaid kicks in, because she can't afford insurance. Not just for herself, mind you. For her employees. She needs the public option. So do those six people who work at that restaurant of hers, Congressman Ross.

"And why should you give a crap? Because Sandy Barham's restaurant is the Broadway Railroad Café, and it is at 123 West First Street North in Prescott, Arkansas. Prescott, Arkansas, Congressman Ross. Your home town. You are Sandy Barham's congressman. Hers, Sir. Not Blue Cross's and Blue Shield's, even if they do insure 75 percent of the state and they own you."

And here's what Keith has to say about Senator Thune:

"Senator John Thune of South Dakota? You gave the Republican rebuttal to the President's weekly address day before yesterday. You said the Democrats' plan was for '... government run health care that would disrupt our current system, and force millions of Americans who currently enjoy their employer-based coverage into a new health care plan run by government bureaucrats.'

"That's a bald-faced lie, Senator. And you're a bald-faced liar, whose bald face is covered by... your own health care plan run by government bureaucrats."

Don't miss his show, live at 8pm ET. Rebroadcast at 10pm and 1am.

Submitted by kropotkin1951 on August 4, 2009 - 12:12am.

I can hardly wait till Obama gets his health care option put in place because then Canada will have to harmonize with this new and "better" policy from the progressive Emperor. Gee even the NDP will be hard pressed to oppose it since they are in the process of trying to align themselves with the new emperor.

Submitted by NorthReport on August 8, 2009 - 1:42pm.

The right play for keeps. 22 million Americans listen to Limbaugh, so no wonder the USA appears to be brain-dead a lot of the time. Too bad for the rest of us.
Gov't Health Care Kills Granny Dead!
Perhaps the most absurd thing about this attack is that the US already rations health care: by denying insurance coverage to the poor and lower-middle class, by limiting treatment for anyone who doesn't have the kind of Cadillac insurance that usually only comes with high-paying jobs, and by allowing pharmaceutical companies to charge such exorbitant prices for drugs that some people just stop taking them. In the current proposals under debate, some politicians also want to cut back Medicare-the closest thing to a fair, classless, single-payer system that the United States has ever had. That's the kind of rationing that voters should actually be scared about.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/08/government-health-care-kills-grannies-dead

Submitted by George Victor on August 8, 2009 - 1:09pm.

Paul Krugman describes the political atmosphere as the product of a "strategy that has played a central role in American politics ever since Richard Nixon realized that he could advance Republican fortunes by appealing to the racial fears of working-class whites.

"Many people hoped that last year's election would mark the end of the 'angry white voter' era in America. Indeed, voters who can be swayed by appeals tocultural and racial fear are a declining share of the electorate.

"But right now Mr. Obama's backers seem tolack all conviction,perhaps because the prosaic reality of the administration isn't living up to their dreams of transformation. Meanwhile, the angry right is filled with a passionate intensity.

"And if Mr. Obama can't recapture some of the passion of 2008, can't inspire his supporters to stand up and be heard, health care reform may well fail."

If the political acumen of his progressive supporters looks anything like those hereabouts, health care reform is doomed

Submitted by gunder on August 8, 2009 - 6:16pm.

martin dufresne wrote:

Obama says not funding abortions is "tradition"

Says the guy whose first executive order was to restore humanitarian aid to pro-choice countries?

Oy gevalt.

Submitted by NorthReport on August 8, 2009 - 6:30pm.

Thanks gunder for that reminder

Submitted by NorthReport on August 8, 2009 - 8:06pm.

When people are demonstrating against a better health care system you have to know it is staged. They must take American society for fools 'Brooks Brothers riot alumni' connected to anti-health rallies

On November 19, 2000, a funny thing happened in Florida. You may remember this.

An angry mob of conservatives staged a riot inside a Miami-Dade County polling office and managed to shut down the most crucial Bush v. Gore recount in the country.

It was later discovered that some of these individuals were on the Bush recount committee's payroll. They were just a few of "at least 750" Republican operatives flown in from around the country on the GOP's dollar.

http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/08/brooks-brothers-riot-alumni-spotted-at-... [15]

Submitted by NorthReport on August 8, 2009 - 9:01pm.

Where the fuck is the FBI

Health care opponent calls for town hall violence via Twitter

http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/08/07/health-care-opponent-calls-for-to... [17]

Submitted by George Victor on August 8, 2009 - 9:03pm.

Don't forget, freedom of assembly.

Submitted by NorthReport on August 8, 2009 - 9:08pm.

Maybe the FBI only protect white presidents. I konw, I know, its the Secret Service, but these yahoos need to be rounded up. This is what happens when people like Rush are allowed to spew out their sick hatred

Submitted by NorthReport on August 8, 2009 - 11:06pm.

Come on Yankees, you can do better than this.

Obama fights back as bid to reform US healthcare stalls

President's approval ratings plummet as Republican campaign threatens to inflict devastating political defeat

Debate fuelled by Sarah Palin's remarks that new legislation would force her child to go before a 'death panel'

President Barack Obama has become mired in a frenzied fight over US healthcare reform as Republicans [21] scent a devastating political victory that could hobble his presidency.

Obama yesterday lashed out at critics of his ailing push to provide coverage for America's 46 million uninsured people by saying that his critics were resorting to "outlandish rumours" and "misleading information" to scupper his plans.

But Sarah Palin [22], the Republican's former vice-presidential candidate, raised the temperature in the debate by declaring Obama's plans "downright evil" and accusing him of introducing a care rationing system that could threaten her own mentally handicapped child.

"The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down's syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide... whether they are worthy of healthcare," she wrote on her Facebook page.

Palin's astonishing comments were an incendiary contribution to a national debate that is threatening to spill over into civil disorder. Scores of "town hall" public meetings held by Democratic politicians in recent days have been disrupted by Republican supporters or protesters linked to groups funded by the healthcare industry. Some meetings have been cancelled out of a fear of violence. In Missouri six people were arrested at one event. A group of supporters even hung an effigy of a Democratic congressman outside his office; another Democrat has received death threats.

The efforts have prompted Obama's own campaigning body, Organising for America, which grew out of his presidential campaign, to promise to turn up to public meetings to provide a voice in favour of reform. Several union groups have also vowed to follow suit. In a memo sent to union activists by John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO union group, he called on members to go to the meetings to oppose the Republicans.

The tactics of Republicans, conservative protest groups and healthcare lobbyist-linked organisations have been decried by many commentators. Though Republican leaders and other conservatives have claimed the protests are a genuine outburst of anti-healthcare reform feeling, there have been instances of activists being caught red-handed.

One woman who protested at a public meeting held by Wisconsin congressman Steve Kagen, a Democrat, had said she was "just a mom" but turned out to be a former senior Republican party official. "They've become political terrorists, willing to say or do anything to prevent the country from reaching a consensus on one of its most serious domestic problems," said Washington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein.

But the tactics have been a political success. Obama's hitherto matchless sense of political timing appears to have run into a wall when it comes to healthcare. He vowed to get new legislation passed by August. That failed, despite Congress being controlled by Democrats [23].

Obama also vowed to make a "public option" (a government-run public health insurance programme) part of any reform package. But that also looks increasingly unlikely. It has raised the prospect that Obama may eventually be defeated on healthcare in the same way Bill Clinton was in the early 1990s.

"If they defeat him, it's going to be bad. He is being outfoxed by a Republican party that should be outnumbered," said Shaun Bowler, professor of political science at the University of California.

Obama is suffering from the political impact. His popularity ratings have been on a steady downwards track ever since he began his massive push on healthcare. A recent Quinnipiac University poll showed his approval rating had fallen to just 50%, shaving seven points from his figures in June. A CNN poll also showed a steady decline, pegging his approval at 56%, which was seven points off his standing in April.

It is a far cry from his first 100 days in office when he soaked up press plaudits for broad-ranging reform of government and foreign policy. His second 100 days have seen harsh political realities intrude as he has become tied to the economic crisis and the fierce Republican-led backlash over healthcare.

"It is the first time he has seemed to be weak," said Bowler. "He has started to seem like any other president. The shine has come off."

Ironically, Obama's main problems lie with his own party and with his desire to reach consensus on the healthcare issue rather than to dictate a reform programme. He has insisted on Republican involvement in the drafting of new legislation. He has also paid heed to the "Blue Dog" group of Democratic politicians who represent conservative-leaning electorates and who have pushed aggressively for him to water down his healthcare proposals by, among other things, taking out the public option.

At the same time, as anti-lobbying watchdog groups have pointed out, money has been flowing to the group's members from the healthcare industry in the form of campaign contributions. Blue Dog Democrats have collected more money than any other congressional grouping this year, with more than half the cash coming from healthcare businesses or the insurance and financial services sector.

But perhaps the most surprising thing about the whole debate is that the appetite for health reform remains extremely popular with most Americans, even as Obama's poll numbers sink and the fight with Republicans and the healthcare industry grows uglier and uglier. One recent poll showed that 62% of Americans favoured a public option and 61% supported higher taxes on the wealthy in order to pay for it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/09/obama-healthcare-reform-defe... [24]

Submitted by gunder on August 8, 2009 - 11:01pm.

NorthReport wrote:

• Debate fuelled by Sarah Palin's remarks that new legislation would force her child to go before a 'death panel'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/09/obama-healthcare-reform-defe...

Good Lord.

Submitted by NorthReport on August 11, 2009 - 3:00am.

It is an interesting question what Obama needs to do - whether to stoop to the gutter like Palin, or to take the high road here.

My hunch is that he should take the high road.

What Obama Needs to Learn from Sarah Palin

Submitted by remind on August 9, 2009 - 10:45am.

I thought he was already in the gutter?

Submitted by George Victor on August 9, 2009 - 10:50am.

In the eyes of the otherwordly.

Submitted by NorthReport on August 11, 2009 - 3:05am.

Obamas report card so far is quite good.

Barack Obama So Far Three leading political observers grade the President's first six months

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/29551986/barack_obama_so_far

Submitted by NDPP on August 15, 2009 - 10:14pm.

Why Aren't Progressives Disrupting ObamaCare Town Halls?

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14768