Surrounded by doctors, Obama pitches overhaul

Source: AP


http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/President-Barack-Obama/photo//091005/480/16ef551ae108461eb2c83f26034fde65//s:/ap/20091005/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_doctors



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091005/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_doctors

Surrounded by doctors, Obama pitches overhaul
House in Washington, Monday, Oct. …

WASHINGTON – On the cusp of a key legislative push, President Barack Obama on Monday filled the Rose Garden with doctors supportive of his health care overhaul, saying "nobody has more credibility with the American people on this issue than you do."

Obama's White House event gave him another chance to frame the debate on his terms as his top domestic priority enters its most critical phase.

The Senate Finance Committee is expected to approve its long-debated, intensely scrutinized bill this week. Then, Senate Democratic leaders will meld it with a more liberal-leaning version passed by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. The House also must combine differing versions of its own bills.

For a visual plug from some medical pros, the White House arranged for Obama to have some 150 doctors representing all 50 states arrayed in the sunsplashed lawn area just outside the West Wing. To make sure no one watching at home or catching news footage later would miss the point, the physicians wore their white medical coats for the cameras..............


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091005/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_doctors

---

It was photo-op time.

Recall he would not meet with the MadasHell docs who requested a meeting last week.

He wouldn't meet with the madashell docs, but meets
with these publicly?

That worries me. It appears as though he wants
some sort of cover for a bad bill.

As Rachel would say... prove me wrong.

thread. If you missed it.


Forum Name Editorials & Other Articles
Topic subject White House spurns Mad As Hell Docs, invites friendly docs
Topic URL http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x486382#486382
486382, White House spurns Mad As Hell Docs, invites friendly docs
Posted by Joanne98 on Sun Oct-04-09 09:22 PM


Dear Friends,

I have a disappointing story to share with you. It is a call to action.


As you may know, the current health reform being written in Congress, particularly that being put together in the Senate Finance Committee (which is literally being written by the former Vice President of Wellpoint—a large insurer), will not be universal and will not control health costs. It will not stop medical bankruptcies and foreclosures due to medical debt. It will not end the suffering and preventable deaths. It will not produce a health care system that uses our health care dollars wisely.

We have a simple solution that will end the suffering and save lives: expanded and improved Medicare for all. But this solution is being excluded.

In a brash move, the White House is again demonstrating the exclusion of those who advocate for real health reform. I will tell you how.

At the end of August, in response to the heated Town Halls and the opposition to health reform, Physicians for a National Health Program and the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care sent letters to President Obama requesting a meeting with him. As the legislation that Congress was putting together was falling apart, we asked to work with the President for real health reform that is simple to understand: Medicare for All. It would be a win for the people in America and a win for the President. He refused to meet with us.



Mad as Hell Doctors image

In early September, a group of physicians known as the Mad As Hell Doctors also wrote to the President. (See also The Mad As Hell Doctors and Mad as Hell Doctors stop in Seattle.) On September 8th they left Oregon to drive across the country, stopping in towns along the way to speak out for Single Payer. Their message was simple: They were angry about the current health care situation in America and wanted to channel that energy for change. They asked for a meeting with the President upon their arrival in Washgington, DC. The President refused. Thousands of people sent letters to the White House asking the President to meet with the Mad As Hell Docs, but still he refused. The only response they received was a request to stop sending so many emails.

On September 30th, the Mad As Hell Docs arrived in Washington, D.C., and held a rally in Lafayette Park in front of the White House. Doctors from across the country attended. They told the crowd why they believed, based on their years of practicing medicine and the stories they heard during their tour about the unimaginable suffering and deaths, that single payer is the solution. Their voices were not heard in the White House, or were they?

This afternoon we received the following media alert:


THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 2, 2009

DOCTORS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY TO JOIN PRESIDENT OBAMA AT THE WHITE HOUSE
Doctors Offer Their Help and Support to the President in Push for Health Insurance Reform

WASHINGTON—On Monday, October 5, President Obama will welcome doctors from across the United States to the White House. The doctors from all over the country will join the President in pushing for health insurance reform this year and have offered their help and support. As the Senate Finance Committee wraps up their work on health reform legislation, these doctors will come to the White House to share their unique perspective on the struggles that American families face every day when it comes to health care. The President and the doctors agree that inaction is no longer an option as so many people from all across America face rising costs and growing insecurity with their health insurance.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5th, 11:10 AM EDT
Rose Garden
Open Press (Pre-set 10:10 AM – Final Gather 10:40 AM – North Doors of the Palm Room)


The sham debate is continuing. The White House is inviting doctors from all around the country (sound familiar?) to meet with the President. We can only surmise that these doctors were hand picked to be those who support the President's agenda and to make it appear as though the President has broad support for the legislation in Congress. This is very disappointing. But it is clearly a call to action.


1 | 2
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Whtie-House-spurns-Mad-As-by-Don-Smith-091004-296.html

GRRRRRRRRRRR!

long, depressing time before we "begin" to see any light at the end of the tunnel!

Just my cynical opinion because I'm seeing very little that looks good! And believe me I NEVER thought IT WOULD get this bad, and I'm much more than sad about it!! Right now, me and mine are holding on, but so, so, so many can even "think" HOPE, let alone CHANGE!!

Can't help saying what I feel, but do wish I felt a lot different!!!

he will be removed from office, just like Grey Davis was in California. I think this is the reason for all the triangulating on his part. The RW Siths have been gunning for him since he took the oath of office. I just had this little epiphany when I have been trying to understand his actions. I know he's not evil like Bush/Cheney so it didn't make sense to me as to why he was ignoring the will of the majority of the people of the United States. We knew they would go after him like they did Clinton, but this time I fear they will try to kill him and it probably has crossed his mind as well. Although, I have been critical of the Baucus plan and the fact that Obama seems to be going along with it, I think he can't do anything to upset those corporations right now. I believe now that this is the reason he won't meet with the backers of single payer health care or does it reluctantly even though they are medical professionals. Maybe it's time to sit back and watch how this plays out. I wonder whom the military is loyal to, him or what they believe is our country. For a socialistic institution, it amazes me that they have been so brainwashed by the Republican rah, rah faux patriotism that most of them are also Republicans.

don't really have it. I really do believe now that he is playing chess. He didn't start the game but took one over where Bush/Cheney had all the men and he has to get his Queen and other players back. Then he can start eliminating their men and replacing them with his. In the mean time he has to play a game of trying to cross the board without losing any more men to get his more powerful players back. I think this is why he isn't more forceful at this time. Just because we have both houses of Congress isn't good enough because many of those Democrats on our supposed side are just as corrupt as the corporate right wingers.

Good grief.

that makes sense to me. He fears a coupe. I lived in South America in my youth and had seen enough coupes to know what one looks like. You don't have to have guerillas shooting in the streets and politicians hanging from lamp posts. What happened in California with Grey Davis was very much a coupe, a gentler one, but a coupe non the less of outsiders funding a politician, Darryl Issa, to pull it off, promising him he could be governor and then reneging on the promise and installing their preferred and incompetent puppet all with the appearance of legality.

The simplest explanation is that he is a politician and will do what politicians do. Reward their big backers and try to get re-elected.

edited for spelling.

He's trying to survive. I believe if he gets to run for a second term, he will get the Siths out of power sufficiently enough to do some real reform then. If I'm wrong, go ahead and gloat. I deserve it, but so far I have been right about several things, one of them being that Max Baucus's health reform would be a fornication with the health care industry. I also bitched about Obama's inexperience during the primaries. I said that great speech maker wasn't necessarily a great leader. Remember Reagan made great speeches too. However, I think Obama will grow with the job if he can hang in there. He probably didn't know stuff while campaigning that he knows now.

"Bush is going to declare martial law before he leaves office."

Obama is a politician. He's good at saying the right things, but his actions speak otherwise. It is not an uncommon thing.

I'm ABSOLUTELY Fed Up!

of hospitals, hiring and firing of the personnel, purchasing of the supplies, etc.

BTW, Lyndon Johnson instituted Medicaid and Medicare and no one removed him from office. It depends on how you go about somethign and how good you are at what you do.

and that's why I believe he's so desperately trying to distance himself from anything that appears to be govt. sponsored. I would like to see him channeling some inner LBJ and FDR as well.

thanks for posting it. what a powerful and sad metaphor

made a snapshot and started thinkin' about single-payer. i still haven't fully absorbed its meaning.

It's a long list of characters without spaces, stretching the DU front page and this thread page extra wide. Please edit.

This is just getting fucking stupid. Every day more people die. Everyday we get further and further from this actually happening. Everyday our opponents get more and more together. Everyday we get closer to failure. So get off your ass and DO IT!

seem to be the "line up" for all things these days!!

I just can't understand what they think they're getting done by going against what MOST PEOPLE want!! Will "they" get ANY kind of come-up-pence?? I REALLY, REALLY wonder!

because it is the safe thing to do. But when 300 million people or 200 million or even 50 million people tell someone to do something. It gets done. This will get done. But we have to start lighting fires, either under their asses or in a bottle of 151.