From what I call the land of the weird, ironic and crazy political figures like Senator Al Franken, and Representative Michele Bachmann, President Obama gave a speech to an audience of 15000 people. The crowd was very thoroughly checked and 100% partisan.

The speech in this was way better than the union speech and similar to the one he gave at the join session of Congress. It had a mix and match of both parts. A firing up of his base and a fight back to the Republicans. There was no drama.

If you had gone or listened to both speeches though, chances are that you would get bored with this one. The story of the fire-me-up old lady was told again, the same speech to the senior citizens and the promise to go after Republicans should they misrepresent the picture. In fact, it would have been a repeat if they had let hecklers come through!

The biggest headline grabbing news was that there was a big boo which people thought were coming from the crowd degrading President FDR. I can tell you that this was not true because of the controlled crowd. You could not hear a word of dissent against the President in this crowd, the same way you cannot hear dissent on Glenn Beck at Tea Party rallies!

The point the President was trying to make was that when President FDR introduced Social Security, it was called socialism then, just like his programs are now. The crowd was booing the Republicans calling the President’s policy socialism. That was what happened.

However, there is an effect that needs to be noted. The real people that are going to decide what is going to happen in this bill is not going to come from the Left or the Right, the power is with the Independents. And believe it or not, they are having a very strong opinion. More than 60% do not approve how the President is handling the issue of health-care in America, but about the same want the public option in the bill.

I think that we are going into this way too early. I think that there should be other things that we should be thinking of, which the Democrats and Republicans are not coming up with. I would like to go along the ideas of a trade war or some way to open up en-masse competition. I think we should only have universal health-care as the very last option but I am open to it an know that it can work.

That being said however, should the President not have public option in the bill, the bill would need to be killed. It is that simple. I have no assurance yet that the President would want the public option in the bill. The reason is this; without the public option, our premiums are going to sky-rocket. There is no good alternative coming out at all to keep cost down.

If we have HR3200 without the public option, it would force everyone to have insurance, force people to be covered regardless and tax people that are not having any, we would have enormous demand vs the same supply. That would bring costs up. The only thing that is keeping cost down, is the cap on profits which can change at the call of the Secretary of Health and Human services, which is just too much power in one person that is not elected.

Lastly, the President just gave another speech when this articled was finished (1p.m., EST). It is about regulating financial services. This has sparked a war of words amongst think-tanks. We have not seen any legislation yet on this and we would get to this topic as soon as possible.

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We waited till all the commentary and the polling came about to do this article, hence the wait. Over all, the speech was great for the Democrats, Independents and moderates think it is okay and the Republicans thought it was terrible.

The moment the First Lady walked in, you could see nerves written all over her face. You knew how importance of this speech for them. It was crunch time. From the first 5 minutes, you knew his targeted audience were the viewers watching at home. He was not talking or trying to make a deal with the Republicans in the room. He wanted the opinion swing from the public. Expect a President that is going to campaign trail again in the next few days.

When he started his speech on health-care, he began with a very powerful rhetoric : That he may not be the first President to try to get health-care reform; but he wants to be then last. From here, you get that he is not going to break up the bill. One disappointing observation we made were that only 2 people in the Republican area of Congress stood up to this; That showed how much of a partisan thing that this has been.

A lot of the speech, he was saying things that we had said in the articles way back. (see article Health-care 101). For example, why weren’t the Democrats selling this idea of indexing? That would have been a good selling point of the plan. He explained about why everyone who have the money to do so should buy insurance and the reasons businesses need to provide for employees too.

His hit back on the nonsense was impressive; But why now? Why did the President hit Sarah Palin back today about death panels and not when she first spoke about it? Is it President Obama vs the Republicans or Democrats vs the Republicans? Is the President super-slow to react or are the Democrats really that incapable of doing politics that they cannot hold the argument on their own? Why didn’t they get subject matter experts like Howard Dean out more often? That is why they lose elections.

I think that he also tried to pacify the liberals when he said that he did not want insurance companies to go down, but he wanted them to be held accountable. But on the one major bone for them, he sent a very vague message. On one hand, he said that he would not back down on his belief on the public option, but on the other he did said that it is just a small part of health-care reform.

I liked the way he used universities to show that you can have public and private universities side by side to highlight how you can have public insurance and private insurance side by side. It something that some of us (all Independents) gave him the benefit of the doubt for.

And you could see that he understood that we Independents are the game-changers here. We are the ones that would make or break this bill or any politician in America during elections. I love that feeling. Usually we are forgotten and dismissed after elections. He was taking ideas for ex-Senator John Edwards, Secretary Clinton and Senator McCain and he talked about malpractice reforms and so on and so forth and I loved it that he was taking ideas from his past rivals.

Judging by this, I wonder if the President is going to have the public option. As I said, it is still up in the air. The thing is, if he takes it out and has no suitable substitute for it, I would vehemently oppose the bill. I do not support the public option as it is way too close to universal health-care but lets face, it there are no alternatives to it out.

My reason is that the bill has mandates in it. Like you must have a health insurance if you can afford it. You must give health care to your employees. They cannot be rejected because preexisting conditions. When this happens, your health insurance premiums would sky rocket.

I hope that they can find a way to tear open the private insurance industry. Encourage “trade wars” like, Google vs. Microsoft, Reebok vs. Nike, Coke vs. Pepsi, and so on. If nobody got anything which could dramatically increase competition, then public option is a necessity.

Though the President was forceful and tough with his words, I think the behavior of the Republicans were pathetic. They were waving what I think was the bill with their jeering and one lawmaker, Representative Joe Wilson even shouted at the President. That is a very sad thing to see in politics. I wonder what is going to be the reaction should the President carry out his threat to call them out on their “lies”.

Overall, President Obama may have just gotten the wheel turning. And we could see a fight happening out there. But should he do nothing, I think that the Republicans would be able to shoot it down.

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My goodness! How stupid can the debate be? And the media that should be telling the truth and giving good journalism have done such a shame of a job on this issue. Typically FOX and MSNBC does the worst jobs and this time Sean Hannity took it to a new low!

Sean Hannity was talking about this VA “death book”. No, this is not related to the Japanese hit movie Deathnote, but that was what Sean Hannity tried to put it. He basically nonsensed that the government would sit down and try to get you to kill yourself for them to save money. For people that have seen Deathnote ( highly recommended if you haven’t), Sean Hannity is making the government out to be the apple eating devil that want human to die, Ryuk.

Here are some quotes from his show :

“ They (countries with “socialized medicine”) put the number of years of productivity and the number of years of productivity and how much to spend on health care in Europe.”

“ You know its going to be some government bureaucrat that is basically telling you to save money.

“Argh, you lived a good life. Argh you do not want to be a burden to your children, I mean it is right there in the bill…”

What a bunch of bull! If what Sean Hannity is saying is true, then the American insurance companies must be killing us with their own ingenious gas! May be that is why the life expectancy in “universal health-care countries” like France, Canada, Japan, Australia, Singapore are much higher than they are over here! Japan has a huge aging population for crying out loud! No one wants to tell you to die for their money.

The lies has to stop! There is no such thing any government wanting their own people to die. Absolutely rubbish! Think about this, don’t you think that the British would hate a system that want them to die? They prefer their system more than we Americans prefer ours. They are more satisfied with their system, and so are the French, Italian, Swedish…. Health care is not an issue in those countries.

The really frustrating thing about this debate is that I do not support this plan too. But my reasons are sane! I feel that the new plan gives too much power to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. With this bill, the Secretary has the power to determine the maximum profits insurance companies would make. I understand the intention but what if and idiot like Sarah Palin or a douche bag like John Kerry runs the thing? Health care is too important an issue for it to be a monumental failure.

Secondly, I feel that the American government should only take steps to universal health care or having a partial run of it should only be done as a last resort. Unlike all the other countries that have universal health care, we have the biggest plate of responsibility on Earth, biggest than the rest of the world combined.

So many standards are set by America. Without America, millions would die just because they do not get the aid. Israel would have the money to exist. America is not just funding the fight against AIDS, but is leading it. It may not be for long, America makes the world go round. That is a fact!

Having people like Sean Hannity and the crazy right saying nonsense as “rationing health-care”, “death panels” and “pulling the plug on grandma”. Let cooler heads prevail. Let there be some sense in the debate!

Health care is one of the most important issues facing America today. If it is not settled, America would certainly face problems that would be magnified many times over than the ones she faces today. However, I feel that this debate has been spoiled by the politics in the country.

Let me state where I stand first. I am an independent. I do not follow ideas belonging to one political ideology. I support what I feel is best for the country. I would rather look at facts rather than listening to hype.

And this is what the entire debate has been about. Hype and bull-manure (pardon my pun). It is not as simple as people make it out to be. It is not “big pharma good and government bad” or vice versa. We cannot go around saying that this would bankrupt America when the full details of the plan is not out yet.

Is universal health-care good for America? It could be if it is applied well. If applied wrongly, it could wreck America. That is the same thing if we keep on having the system we have and overhaul it. It can work either way if the government does her job of regulating.

But please stop this fracas that has just happened. A lot of the hype is all wrong. For example, there is the notion that with the public option, people are going to lose their doctors. That is utter garbage and is ridiculous. Sarah Palin did the worst hit-man job on this by using her kids and saying that the government wants her baby. This is another reason why that lady should never come near public office again. I barely know Representative Scott, but why support racism being put on his office sign and e-mails sent to him?

To all those people that think that this is going to destroy America, let me put it this way. Canada, France, UK, Sweden and many other countries have this form of health care. Are they doomed and destroyed? Did the sky fall on their heads? No! What makes America so pathetic that this system would wreck us but not them? It is the same with Japan and Singapore with private health-care but is still running well.

Lets get back to the debate. There are three bills being passed around in Congress, all of which are not written fully and therefore are online yet. Lets debate the tab. Lets compare and contrast with projected and current scenarios. Lets be intelligent about this.

I am very disappointed with the political parties . The Democrats prove to be spineless yet again. They had groups that went after people within their party for not agreeing with their ideals of health-care but would do nothing to spread their message to the rest of the American people. They show why they are regular losers in election.

The Republicans are gaining from this by just doing nothing. The reason that I am angry with them is this: They are doing absolutely nothing! Where is their solution. Do nothing? Come up with a solution and lets choose amongst a variety of bills.

Get back to your senses America. Lets see the facts and not the hype. The world cannot afford it.

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First, it was Vice President Biden whose statements the President had to clarify. Now he has to do a 180 degrees from his Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel who thinks that a public health option is not the best way to go about solving the health-care crisis in America.

We would like to declare that we at ST are open to any form of health-care that works. Health care can work using the right wing method or the left wing universal health-care. If either plan is executed well, America would have her health-care problems solved.

However, I think that a trigger health-care which Rahm Emanuel supports is really nonsense. The trigger system works in this way, should the health-care system be at a point of no return and is in that way for 5 years, then the government would make the public option available. That is laughable!

Would be say that if it were for our troops. Lets see if more and more people die and then determine if their vehicles/weapons/etc are safe? No! In the same way, we cannot allow a problem to deteriorate further till we hit rock bottom. We need to solve the problem. The solution should be debated but shelving problems for 5 years is not the way to go.

Is the President’s way the right way to go? I do not know, I need to see the details. The same bar would apply to the Republicans as well. Whichever side comes up with a better plan, that is the side that I would accept.

Going back to these reversals, I think that the President must get his house back in order. Already, there are talks of Secretary Clinton refusing to travel with the President, VP Biden making an honest mistake that could have been costly, and now this. He has to have a meeting and get everything made clear to his staff.

While it is okay for people in the President’s cabinet to have a difference of opinion, it should be embarrassing when they cannot the agenda right. That is sad. Also, it is okay that it be of a domestic issue like health-care, it is rather embarrassing when you make this mistake abroad in front of journalists all over the world. It would seem that all is not well in the White House.

This is also another reason why the Democrats are so weak. They are not even able to have a single solid issue that binds them together. Health-care is one of the cornerstone of the Democrat’s agenda. And even on that point, they cannot get a united position. You would never see a Republican that is against the NRA. Mark my words, the Democrats would lose ground in the 2010 elections due to the lack of a spine.

That being said, a country that has a majority that is not united is not so bad for it at all. I would rather see a debate rather than a rubber-stamp on a party’s agenda. The only important thing is the country be united and the agenda be set.

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