*****Official President Speech Thread, Part Two*****

[sixmile]

His vision.

Bring it home, Mr. President!

[sixmile]

1. Step One

$750 billion savings over 12 years
Keep spending low

[northoftheborder]

2. good speech so far, standing up, for once, plainly spoken

[gateley]

14. Incredibly plainly laid-out -- I'm impressed!! nt

[MadBadger]

3. Step 2: Cut Defense Spending

[onehandle]

4. I think this guy is running for President. nt

[dhill926]

12. you got it......n/t

[sixmile]

5. Step Two

Defense Budget

The greatest threat to our security is our debt (paraphrased)

[thereismore]

Oh, a good one. Teabaggers would agree (if Obama were white, that is). nt

[ecstatic]

25. Thanks for the summaries nt

[sixmile]

6. Step Three

Reduce healthcare spending.

Reduce the cost of healthcare itself (insurance companies? Big pharma?)

$500 billion by 2023, $1 trillion in the following ten years

[Skidmore]

8. Will protect Social Security.

[JDPriestly]

57. What did he say about vouchers for Medicare?

I hate the idea. I'm on Medicare and chose a really cheap plan -- Kaiser. But my family members who live in small towns don't have Kaiser or any similar organization and my mother pays a fortune for her health insurance already. They can't raise the cost for her. She will have nothing left.

[sixmile]

60. No Medicare vouchers

They were mentioned as part of the Ryan plan and swiftly dismissed.

[Skidmore]

7. Bet Big Pharma is not real happy with this part of the speech.

[northoftheborder]

13. If I heard correctly, he is advising negotiations with pharma on meds thru' medicare

[DFab420]

21. Yea, Generics not Brand name..

[Skidmore]

All private insurers should be required to negotiate with

big pharma using he same formulas used by medicare.

[Nevernose]

35. I didnt hear that

I was specifically listenting for that, but I didn't hear that. I did hear that they could use the FDAQ and power of medicare to push through generics fast -- potentially more frightening to big pharma.

[handmade34]

9. like it

we will not abandon basic promises... :applause:

work together to strengthen Social Security

[dflprincess]

28. Yet he's still including Social Security and Medicarte as part of the budget

ignoring that they are paid for by their own taxes, not as part of the general revenue. I'm guessing that doing this is the only way he can hide just how large a percentage of the general revenue is wasted on the defense department in general and the policy of never ending war in particular.

[JDPriestly]

58. That is Obama's big trick.

Remember how we have that year with lower FICA taxes. Obama is in cahoots with the Republicans on trying to merge FICA taxes and the general fund taxes. That is terribly, terribly regressive.

They want to reach into the past to turn past FICA taxes into a regressive tax on the poor. That is just so cruel, so criminal that I cannot believe that Obama endorses that.

[sixmile]

10. Step Four

Tax code expenditures.

End the tax cuts for the wealthy. God, thank you.

Limiting itemizations saves $320 billion over ten years.

Reforming the tax code (including corporate)

[Kalun D]

71. Four Years Later

""End the tax cuts for the wealthy.""

after making the promise in his first campaign to immediately rescind the bush tax cuts when he gained office, here it is 4 years later and all we have is

TALK TALK TALK

he doesn't give a damn about the working class. This campaign will be just like the last, a bunch of empty promises and then once he's in his second term it will be corporate business as usual. In fact it will probably be even worse than the first term because he doesn't have to get re-elected.

[Skidmore]

11. Refuses to renew tax cuts for wealthy again.

[northoftheborder]

16. cutting some tax deductions for top 2%

[Dawgs]

18. Like he refused to do last time?

Let me know when his actions match his talk.

[cyndensco]

22. He said if he had not extended the tax cut for the rich, the middle-class and poor

would have been forced to pay more. Sounds legit to me. I doubt repubs would give the poor a break without extending one to the rich.

[Dawgs]

37. So what happens next time they threaten not to do something? n/t

[cyndensco]

53. Good question.

:shrug:

Ideally he will stand firm against them but little has been ideal recently......

[Kalun D]

72. Four Years

Four years after promising the first time to end the rich tax cuts he's promising again to do it.

Do you believe him this time after he lied about it four years ago?

[Ian David]

15. Capitation (healthcare)

Capitation (healthcare)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Capitation, in the context of health care systems, is a method of paying health care service providers (e.g., physicians or nurse practitioners). Generally these providers are contracted with a type of health maintenance organization (HMO) known as an independent practice association (IPA). The HMO contracts with the providers to have the latter take care of patients enrolled in the HMO. Most often, payment for such a service is under the capitation system.

Under a capitation system, healthcare service providers are paid a set amount for each enrolled person assigned to that physician or group of physicians, whether or not that person seeks care, per period of time.

The amount of remuneration is based on the average expected health care utilization of that patient (more remuneration for patients with significant medical history). Other factors considered include age, race, sex, type of employment, and geographical location, as these factors typically influence the cost of providing care (1).

Quality of care

Since capitation does not reimburse physicians any more for taking care of their patients, and visits and procedures cost money, the contracting physicians essentially lose money for each visit or procedure. This situation incentivizes the physicians to reduce the effort spent on each patient, which may result in an overall reduction of time spent on each patient, which is just the case in most private practice. The corollary practices are to under-prescribe, under-diagnose, and under-treat patients to reduce costs, and therefore maximize net profit. (Of course, physicians cannot ethically refuse to see a patient on the basis of the capitation payment schedule.) As such, this is an effort of insurance companies and large corporations to reduce health care costs.

Compare this to the traditional fee-for-service reimbursement, where there is a tendency to over-prescribe, over-diagnose, and over-treat to secure more revenue since physicians earn a net profit on each visit, and procedure.

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitation_%28healthcare%29


I do not think I like this.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1501453/

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199610173351611

[Skidmore]

19. Medical care needs to be nonprofit. Period.

[Ian David]

20. Agreed! n/t

[highplainsdem]

30. +1

[joeunderdog]

69. Yeah, before "choice" came in, 3% administrative costs...

now, 50%. But who's counting?

[KamaAina]

52. Did he mention capitation?

I sincerely hope not, because for people with significant health care needs, it might as well be decapitation.

[Ian David]

54. He didn't say the word, but it sounded EXACTLY like what he was talking about. n/t

[madmax]

17. This is the man I voted for. :) nt

[craigmatic]

23. Ddefinately a liberal speech. I like Obama when he's like this. If he keeps this up I might just

enthusiastically vote for him instead of just vote for him because he's the lesser of 2 evils.

[ecstatic]

29. he's always like this. Nothing has changed except

the medium from which you're getting your info (his mouth vs. the blogosphere).

[craigmatic]

44. Yeah well he's still a politician so you have to take some of this with a grain of salt.

Sometimes the blogoshere is informative because you get details instead of just spin depending on where you look. Personally I like the young turks.

[janet118]

38. Now all he has to do is put some muscle where his mouth is . . .

figure out some way to frame debate so Repugs are revealed for the corporate whores they are and push it . . . hard. Herd Democrats on the corporate payroll to protect the middle class instead of worrying about their campaign fundraising.

[craigmatic]

45. Yeah this is going to be a slog.

[markpkessinger]

49. Yes, but now comes the negotiating part...

...where Obama can be counted on to give away the store. Sorry, I'm not longer impressed by his speeches -- I judge him now by his deeds, not his words.

[craigmatic]

56. Yeah that's the smart way to go about it.

[joeunderdog]

70. Watch his feet, not his mouth.

He's not walking the walk.

[sixmile]

24. Now he's talking the left off the ledge

If we believe in government we have to prove it can be lean and effective.

I'm waiting for his challenge to the right.

[uppityperson]

26. some who say "there is no coming together", parties too far apart, but we have come together before

[upi402]

27. It seems people are still buying the *words*

suckers

He said he GAURANTEES that we wont be able to meet our obligations if we don't open it up

[Thunderstruck]

32. Yep, I had a little hope until he started talking about working together again.

[uppityperson]

31. Don't expect details to be as I laid out here today, will have FIERCE criticism, my critique of repu

repubs has been "strong". (heh)

[DJ13]

42. His inability to state he's firm on a subject is my biggest problem with him

He says what he wants, then states its not a firm plan.

Thats a bad way (typical for him) of opening negotiations.

[tabatha]

33. Thank you, Obama, for telling it like it is.

:fistbump: :fistbump: :fistbump: :fistbump: :fistbump:

[Dawgs]

34. Rambling now. I wish he wouldn't make excuses for going after the Republican plan. n/t.

[Bluerthanblue]

41. he's talking to EVERYONE. Not just us- he isn't making excuses, he's

telling it like it is.

[sixmile]

36. Tying it all up in a big American flag

Responsibility to each other and country.

America. Fuck yeah!

[white_wolf]

39. I agree with a lot of what Obama is saying, and that is the problem

he said a lot I agreed with on the campaign, I'm simply not sure I can trust him to carry out what he says. That is really my biggest complaint with the speech right now.

[ewagner]

43. If he doesn't follow-through

he will be primaried...

he's made the promises..now he needs to keep them

[sixmile]

55. That's the political beauty of it

None of the promises can even be implemented in his first term!

[vanbean]

40. But Bawlbaby Boener says we don't have a revenue problem.

Some business man. I still can't get over the fact that he actually said that.

[sixmile]

46. I don't think he mentioned ending the wars?

crickets

[tabatha]

47. He said cuts to military.

Wars are funded by the military.

[former9thward]

59. Wars are funded by the taxpayer and foreign loans.

He did not mention anything about ending any of the wars.

[uppityperson]

48. GREAT speech, will be very interested in seeing the details of what they do

[JohnnyRingo]

50. The president always has one advantage over lowly politicians

He has a large microphone to make his point.
While the Gingriches and Palins may have a limited voice to air their views on Fox News, the president's speech is heard by all. Anytime he wants.

[csziggy]

61. If he wants his speeches to be heard by all, he should make them in prime time

When he speaks in the daytime, most people will only hear edited sound bites and whatever spin the pundits want to apply.

[JohnnyRingo]

67. Good point

Maybe he didn't want to anger the rabble by pre-empting "Idol".
Hahahaha

[sixmile]

73. They all suck tonight

It wouldn't have mattered. :)

[mvd]

51. There were many good parts to the speech. But, we'll see if his actions match

I liked the idea of no more tax cuts for the wealthy and making them pay their fair share. I liked him taking to task Ryan's senior-hurting plan for Medicare. I liked him mentioning defense cuts, though they need to go beyond Gates's cosmetic changes. I was unsure about the part saying Social Security and Medicare need changes - only if the Social Security cap is increased will I support that. He'll have to go beyond the speech and finally show he means business.

[janet118]

62. But we shouldn't just wait around . . .

we should start writing/calling our representatives and tell them this is what we want and we are watching them. Writing letters to the editor and calling radio talk shows to frame the debate away from budget cuts and onto everyone paying their fair share to get us out of this hole that has been getting bigger for decades. Obama only has the power to use the bully pulpit to frame the issue. If Congress chooses to ignore him because their constituents don't seem to care, then it will be another slug fest that ends up with the Republicans standing together and the Dems talking tough and giving in and then using Obama as their scapegoat. We have to be the echo chamber for what he said. Of course, there is the danger that they will ignore us too.

Obama would have been able to pass a good healthcare bill if the Democratic MAJORITY in Senate hadn't said they needed 60 votes to use the bathroom and/or a few more Republicans had left the Borg. We have to convince them that we, the people, are stronger than their corporate benefactors and that we are mad as hell and aren't going to take it anymore.

[mvd]

63. I agree about doing what we can do. It helps, but we can't do it alone

We need some more leadership from the President, too.

[upi402]

64. Harry Reid came out swinging!!

Shocked the hell out of me. A day late and a dollar short? Hope not. But we need leadership, not more of that throwing their heels in the air stuff.

[janet118]

65. Well, the speech was a good start . . .

Maybe if we get active early and make enough noise, we will get some hard ball follow-up this time. The President needs Congress to have his back and we have to push our representatives into backing what we want and telling them we expect them to take a stand in this fight. Then Obama can lead his party instead of a herd of cats.

[mvd]

66. Hopefully he will push Congress some more, too

I felt that has been lacking.

[janet118]

68. Me, too. n/t

[Tx4obama]

74. Fact Sheet from the White House

FACT SHEET: The President's Framework for Shared Prosperity and Shared Fiscal Responsibility
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/04/13/fact-sheet-presidents-framework-shared-prosperity-and-shared-fiscal-resp

[dana_b]

75. thanks for posting that n/t