Patterico's Pontifications

7/22/2009

Letters to Obama

Filed under: Obama — DRJ @ 6:42 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Tonight in a prime-time news conference, Barack Obama told Americans (however many of them were watching) that he is rushing health care legislation “because I get letters every day from families that are being clobbered by health care costs” and they ask for his help.

Congress and the apparently tone-deaf Obama are fortunate they don’t have to worry about health care the way we little people do:

“This isn’t about me. I have great health insurance and so does every member of Congress,” he said.”

Polls show more and more Americans little people are starting to question Obama’s stewardship of the economy and his health care proposals. I think we munchkins should send letters to the White House explaining that American taxpayers and businesses are getting clobbered by unemployment, high taxes, spiraling budget deficits, and expansive legislation that adds needless uncertainty to our lives.

Can you help us, too, Mr. President?

— DRJ

46 Responses to “Letters to Obama”

  1. I was against his healthcare “plan” until I found out he was getting letters. If he had told me about the letters earlier, I would have supported Teh One and his dirty little socialisms. I mean, seriously. Letters?!

    JD (f4f0f3)

  2. “This isn’t about me. I have great health insurance and so does every member of Congress,” he said.”When I saw the text of his address released earlier today, that was the one sentence I said that people will latch on to. It is staggering in its audacity, and tone-deafness.

    Gazzer (a0836f)

  3. If you want some fun, go over to Google, enter:

    worst failure ever

    and then click on “I’m feeling lucky.”

    Official Internet Data Office (0d33fb)

  4. Again, if it is not good enough for Teh One, and Congress, then it is not good enough for everyone else.

    Why is it that he can say with a straight face that Medicare and Medicaid are out of control, yet we are supposed to be comforted that if we just let the government take over everything else too, that it will all work out.

    And deficit neutral? Has there ever been a bigger lie told?

    JD (f4f0f3)

  5. Oooooooh. I love the hate. Ummmmm.
    Now, you folks just go ahead and pee on those railroad tracks. It’s OK.
    Actually, it’s just fine.
    ‘Cuz the train done left the station.
    Heck, go on pee on your shoes, too. Nobody’ll smell’em ‘cept the folks in this tiny room. And their olfactories are the only factories working in this woe-begotten country. Real hands-on work already been outsourced to countries with no health care, don’tcha know. Or to countries that have universal health care. We know which one you prefer.
    So go on. Pee.

    Larry Reilly (45e7a4)

  6. I cannot read Mawy’s comment. Is it safe to assume that it is the normal gibberish?

    JD (f4f0f3)

  7. “…I have great health insurance and so does every member of Congress,”

    Yes, you do. And so are you and the folks on Capitol Hill going to exchange that for the slop you’re chomping on the bit to turn into law?

    Your comment demands that any plan discussed, much less passed, by the Congress include a firm, non-wiggle-room provision that the rules for revamped national medical care apply to all members of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the federal government. No less will do.

    Mark (411533)

  8. American taxpayers and businesses are getting clobbered by unemployment, high taxes, spiraling budget deficits… You can thank 30 years of boom/bust conservative economics for the unemployment mess andtax/budget deficits to unfunded wars and useless weapons systems craved by right wing zealots who insist a super power can be run with top tiered tax rates of just 35%.

    …and expansive legislation that adds needless uncertainty to our lives. Or lack there of. A lot more regulation and targeted legislation would have prevented the onset of that uncertainty.

    DCSCA (9d1bb3)

  9. His conference was filled with more of the brazen lies Obama has been telling for months about healthcare reform.

    And I see that DCSCA tells ones that are just as brazen. Blaming the defense budget for our budget deficits is pretty hilarious given the actual reality of the immense pork spending Obama is proposing.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  10. DCSCA, we’ve already proven, from the past sevearl years when the markets were drastically overregulated, that regulation doesn’t help. In fact, Obama style regulation is extremely uncertain in and of itself.

    And also, DCSCA, the top tax rate is a fraction of the revenue. When Bush lowered taxes, we got MORE tax revenue because trickle down is actually sound.

    Regardless, it’s amusing you’re being up ‘useless’ weapons and wars that freed millions of people as your justification for health care.

    It’s Bush’s fault! Inherited!

    LOL

    Health care in the USA is awesome, and it won’t be for long if this crap passes. This line of argument will fail with people who look back and wish this crap never happened.

    Juan (d39d73)

  11. Super-cache is Teh SuxXor

    JD (f4f0f3)

  12. Obama lies straight to the camera almost as well as Granny McRictusbotoxface Pelosi.

    It’s clear he hates insurance companies and wants a single payer system. He thought it was a sign of strength that banks were showing profits again, although he didn’t like some of the risks they were taking or the unwarranted compensation they were still paying, however the hell he defines that ( I wonder if he is earning unwarranted compensation for his books). Yet he immediately turned around and pointed to some insurance companies earning profits and implied that was wrong – it must be coming out of the hide of consumers. That gives away his game right there.

    The savings he is projecting are dependent on several questionable measures:

    a) Care Rationing – He cited American healthcare costing $6,000 more than other countries but not being more effective. I’d like to see his sources. Americans demand the latest tests and treatments. If he’s truthful about what he is asking Americans to give up, I don’t if he could sell it. So far he has not been truthful. His euthanasia conferences for the aging are a great idea that need more publicity.

    b) Price Controls – Specifically with respect to Medicare and Medicaid and also with respect to the government plan option, which realistically will become the vast chunk of the market. Historically price controls do not turn out well for the market or consumers.

    c) Vaporware Efficiencies – Better electonic records, etc. will lead to some form odf savings some time down the road. Bush started this program but it’s completely unclear when and how much is available here, but hell, it sure sounds good.

    d) Shifting Unfunded Mandates To States – By forcing states to pick up more of the tab Obama can claim it’s more deficit neutral at the federal level.

    It’s too bad nobody asked him about the results of the Massachusetts experiment and how he was going to avoid its pitfalls, or maybe they did and I was out of the room.

    daleyrocks (718861)

  13. International Man of Parody is off the Lithium and Seroquel again.

    JD (b7c790)

  14. “A lot more regulation and targeted legislation would have prevented the onset of that uncertainty.”

    Democrat legislation and regulation would have added monster deficits and class warfare. Google it!

    daleyrocks (718861)

  15. 35% top tier records produced the highest tax revenues in the history of our country.

    International Man of Parody is of the school of thought that you spend your way out of bankruptcy.

    JD (593b0c)

  16. Deficit neutral. How many times can we repeat that? It was the most brazen lie of the night.

    JD (72046a)

  17. The lowest top federal income tax rate since Coolidge’s 25% was the 28% top rate enacted in 1986, via a bill authored by Senator Bill Bradley and Representative Richard Gephardt, both Democrats.

    Official Internet Data Office (0d33fb)

  18. Deficit neutral. How many times can we repeat that? It was the most brazen lie of the night.

    It’s from the same person who brought you “no mandates”. Of course, now we find out that if we don’t buy the Obama Health Care Plan, we will be fined $2500/year.

    John Henry Eden (d3a8ee)

  19. JD, Obama just called the CBO liars. That’s the kind of brazenness that practiced liars like Obama engage in.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  20. OBAMA: “I don’t know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that. But I think it’s fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home

    Chrysler bondholders. Joe the Plumber. Officer Crowley. I’ve never seen a President attack private citizens like Obama has.

    John Henry Eden (d3a8ee)

  21. SPQR – Shocka. The media did not call him on it.

    But he has letters !!!!!!!!!

    JD (7cad2c)

  22. If I had known he was getting letters, I might have volunteered to do a little community organizing about it.

    JD (d55760)

  23. You know, Teh One™ has to go up against Putin, Kim Jong Il, Zelaya/Micheletti, and Netanyahu — but the absolute worst is the LETTERS!

    I don’t know how he finds the strength to keep doing his endless work.

    steve miller (c5e78c)

  24. Why is it every time I pull up this thread, the super-cache goes all Puchalsky on me?

    I condemn Fary Garber.

    JD (593b0c)

  25. I loved Obama battle strawmen. Sure doctors rip the tonseils out of kiddies to make a profit. Sure you get letters, just like the Congress, who shut down their switchboards to avoid hearing what the citizens have to say.

    I keep expecting Obama to start rolling ball bearings in his hand and start muttering…”they’re disloyal, all of them, the doctos, the nurses, the insurance companies, the HMOs, those who cling to their religion, the JOOOOS, the republicans………..

    Thomas Jackson (8ffd46)

  26. Letters?!?!? That’s his explanation for trying to ram through an economy-changing plan that even he doesn’t understand? He really thinks we are stupid.

    LASue (5ea0a5)

  27. But then some blood won’t mean that much to me when I’ve been smothered in the sympathy you bleed I think.

    happyfeet (c75712)

  28. Who gave ordinary people permission to write to Obama?

    daleyrocks (718861)

  29. Yes, LASue, he really thinks we are stupid.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  30. who writes letters anymore?

    I think he’s lying.

    happyfeet (c75712)

  31. LASue, not only does he think that, he is counting on it. The Puchalsky’s and Fary Garber’s of the world give him hope.

    JD (93cafe)

  32. I have some letters for Teh One™

    E P I C F A I L

    steve miller (c5e78c)

  33. Just once, I would like one of the President’s defenders to post a comment that says why the Democrat’s plan will be better, instead of saying why we’re all ignorant because we don’t acquiesce to the greater power of Hope and Change.

    Why, exactly, will this bill — which no one has read including the President — deliver us from the evil of expensive health care?

    I’ll tell you why. Because they don’t know.

    Government intervention in health care has put us in this situation in the first place.

    All of the well-meaning programs and laws and regulations and policies have resulted in a an unwieldy system depending on the benefactors of politicians wishing to be re-elected.

    Is there a place for government in regulating health care? Certainly. Is there a place for the government to run health care? Certainly not.

    This whole shebang is about punishing capitalism and establishing government control with the intention of expanding that control to every aspect of our lives so that every one suffers the same.

    I have to ask my left friends: Did you never read “Harrison Bergeron” by your compatriot Vonnegut? What changed?

    Ag80 (a71b80)

  34. “This isn’t about me. I have great health insurance and so does every member of Congress,” he said.”

    Yeah, too bad the one he and Congress won’t hitch on to the piece of crap he’s actually trying to saddle us with.

    Honestly, would you trust a dinner made by a cook who wouldn’t eat it himself?

    Another Chris (a3bb8f)

  35. So Teh One™ & his ilk have health care plans they won’t give up but they’ll force us to take a lesser plan.

    Thank you for being in charge of my life. I was so lost before President Nanny was elected.

    steve miller (c5e78c)

  36. I’ve never seen a President attack private citizens like Obama has.

    Even Andrew Jackson’s ghost thinks Obama needs to settle down.

    Another Chris (a3bb8f)

  37. Well, remember when Nixon got into so much trouble when he declared someone “guilty” before a trial?

    Good think Teh One™ has a compliant media. That way he can focus on the terrible burden of all those LETTERS that leave him sleepless.

    steve miller (c5e78c)

  38. The Party of No Fight Song

    “I don’t know what they have to say,
    It makes no difference anyway —
    Whatever it is, I’m against it!
    No matter what it is or who commenced it,
    I’m against it.

    Your proposition may be good
    But let’s have one thing understood —
    Whatever it is, I’m against it!
    And even when you’ve changed it or condensed it,
    I’m against it…”

    Groucho Marx, Horse Feathers, 1932

    DCSCA (9d1bb3)

  39. Those letters to Obama, if they were honest, would go like this:

    “My daughter doesn’t have health insurance because she didn’t want to spend the money. Now she has cancer and she needs $50K in medicine to survive. AND NO ONE WILL SELL HER INSURANCE AT A PRICE SHE CAN AFFORD!1!!!!1111!1! Greedy bastards! Please won’t you force those people to give my daughter the drugs for free?

    Kevin Murphy (0b2493)

  40. I’d rather have 30 years of Republican boom/bust economics than either 3 years of Carter’s stagflation or a lifetime of Soviet-style shortages.

    Sure, stability is stable, but it is also stagnant.

    Dr. K (f86018)

  41. Groucho Marx is appropriate.

    “These are my principles. If you don’t like them, I have others.”

    Techie (482700)

  42. Groucho also said that he wouldn’t join any club that would have him as a member. Which means that our little CBS Page – Boy would be all alone in his own private Idaho.

    Dmac (e6d1c2)

  43. But, Barcky gets letters.

    Imternational Man of Parody finally quit claiming 75% of America wants a pubic plan. I guess that was even too big of a lie for him to continue to carry around.

    IMP – I will make you a deal. When you and yours quit advancing ideas that take away choice, individual freedom, and personal decisions, and stop advancing things based on BS (cap & destroy), and essentially quit trying to destroy what is left of our economy with your dirty little socialisms, at that point, I will quit opposing you. Deal?

    JD (57d75b)

  44. Obama mentioned how his push for this overhaul has already caused Pharmaceutical companies to pony up Billions of dollars toward reform. What he failed to mention is how these companies plan to cover those costs. The company I work for laid off 5% across the board and will give no raises for the next 12 to 14 months.

    I’m not complaining – I was not laid off. And I’m not complaining about a raise, my family will continue with no expected income increase.

    But many people in this company (and across other Pharmaceuticals and related health-care providing companies) have lost their jobs. And they were lost BECAUSE of what the President has done.

    Stick that feather in your cap Federal Government.

    Corwin (ea9428)

  45. Barack Obama will never -I repeat NEVER- say to your face what he actually plans to do or achieve with these huge new government programs…. like bankrupt the private health insurance industry. Everything’s rolled-out in a trojan horse, and you’re not allowed to look inside or ask any questions. Suffice to say, good-faith disclosure is simply not how this crew operates.

    Rather, you get some calculating and specious oratory with styrofoam props to wow the plebes, like the tacky Greek columns in Denver. To him, the revolutionary ends justify the Alinskyite means- so the Dear Leader just tells you whatever he needs to, he knows what’s best for you anyway.

    And the truth is that Obama is out to nationalize health care.. they’ll be no private insurance industry left after five years of Obamacare… but of course he’s lying about it.

    As for the American public, the reality that Obama is dishonest and out-of-control seems to finally be setting-in; the poll numbers are now headed steadily south- is he already facing his Waterloo on this legislation?

    Looks like it from where I’m standing…

    http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com

    Reaganite Republican (6836b1)

  46. I bet the senate and the Congress gets lots of letters too. All of them ignored. This isn’t about what the people want, its about the Marxists lust for power.

    Thomas Jackson (8ffd46)


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