White House Talking Points: President Obama's Address to a Joint Session of Congress Tonight
When the President is finished speaking tonight, everyone who listens will understand that his plan has at its core two overriding goals: to bring stability and security to Americans who have insurance today, and affordable coverage to those who don't.
The President's plan will bring reforms that will reduce the unsustainable growth in the cost of health care, which has doubled in the last decade and will continue to rise at that untenable pace unless we act.
From the beginning of this process, the President has said that he believes reform should be bipartisan. And the plan he outlines tonight will be consistent with that goal it will contain Republican proposals and Democratic proposals.
So the Republicans will have to decide whether they are genuine in their wish to work in a bipartisan manner, or whether they will continue to vote against proposals they have said are key to reform.
He will clearly lay out what health reform means to Americans both those that have insurance now and those that don't. He will also be clear about health reform doesn't mean clearing up the confusion that has been fomented by the special interests and defenders of the status quo.
He will also answer the big questions about how to move the health reform process forward and make clear exactly what he considers real reform to be.
It is important to recognize how far we have come.
Four of the five House and Senate committees have marked up bills. Today Senator Baucus, who chairs the fifth committee, announced that his committee will move to markup shortly. Among those bills there is, essentially, 80 percent agreement, and each of them is in line with the principles the President has laid out.
We are entering a new phase in the debate.
Now is the time to begin pulling together the various strands of the bills that have been written and the solutions that have been proposed to create a final product that lowers costs, ensures that Americans cannot be denied coverage because they get sick, and provides
access to affordable health care for all.
As the President will say tonight, he is not the first president to take up the cause of health reform but he is determined to be the last.
Members heard a lot from their constituents over August including stories from people who are struggling with the rising cost of health care or who have been denied coverage because they or someone in their family got sick. One thing has became crystal clear to any member who really spent time talking to constituents last month: Doing nothing is not an option.
After this speech, opponents of health reform will need to either propose their own plan or explain why they think it is best to do nothing while health care costs continue to rise 3 times faster than wage, millions of Americans continue to be denied coverage because they got sick, and insecurity continues to grow. In just 2 years, 1 in 3 Americans experienced a gap in coverage. What the President will offer the country is stability and security in our health insurance system.
On Gov. Palin's Attacks
Every non partisan organization that has looked at her claims say they are false. And the ideas in her op-ed are both scary and risky. Eliminating Medicare and giving our seniors vouchers instead is a bad idea that we shouldn't adopt.
Obviously, the Obama Regime is deathly afraid of Sarah Palin...I wonder why? After all, she's a failed candidate for VP US, resigned from her Governorship of Alaska, and is at the heart of it...only a housewife. Could it be, that she is literally, the embodiment of what feminist strive for? Could it be, that she's probably the one person who is building an effective base (just as Ronald Reagan did in the late 60's to mid 70's)? Hmmmm...after all, she's the ONLY person NAMED in Obama's talking points.
Here by the way are the Republican alternative bills via jamiewearingfool.blogspot.com:
http://jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com/2009/09/weve-got-plan-and-were-ready-to-show-it.html
Rep. Tom Price, H.R. 3400, the Empowering Patients First Act
Rep. Paul Ryan's H.R. 2520, Patients' Choice Act,
Rep. John Shadegg H.R. 3218, Health Care for All Americans Act
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