President Obama's speech to Congress: A Sneak-Peak

[FSTargetDrone]

More about Wilson:

CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS – POLITICS
Updated Sept. 9, 2009 – 11:32 p.m.
Both Sides Condemn Outburst; Wilson Apologizes
By Jonathan Allen and Adjoa Adofo, CQ Staff

Republican Rep. Joe Wilson shouted “Lie! You lie,” at President Barack Obama during Wednesday’s address to a joint session of Congress, earning repudiations from his own party and from Democrats.

Wilson took exception to a passage in Obama’s speech on health care in which the president said illegal immigrants would not get health insurance coverage under the overhaul.

“There are also those who claim that our reform effort will insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false — the reforms I’m proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally,” Obama said.

Wilson answered the comment with his outburst, loud enough to be picked up on television and in such an unusually disruptive fashion as to merit reprimands from across the political spectrum.

House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn , a fellow South Carolinian, said Wilson’s heckling was more damaging to South Carolina’s reputation than the exploits of Republican Gov. Mark Sanford , who admitted to having an extramarital affair with an Argentinian woman.

“I thought he [the governor] had embarrassed us as much as we could be embarrassed. But to have a congressman use the floor of the House of Representatives in a joint session to insult the president the way Joe Wilson did is as embarrassing as anything anyone could think of,” Clyburn said. “Our state can do without this.”

Arizona Sen. John McCain , the 2008 Republican presidential nominee and a fellow veteran, denounced the comment as “totally disrespectful and called on Wilson to “apologize immediately” during a post-speech interview on CNN.

A few hours later, he issued a written statement, saying he had called White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and apologized.

“I let my emotions get the best of me,” Wilson said. “While I disagree with the president’s statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the president for this lack of civility.”

The timing could not have been worse: Wilson’s son, Alan Wilson, launched a bid Tuesday for state attorney general.

And Wilson himself is facing the possibility of a credible rematch of his narrow 2008 victory over Marine Corps veteran and Democrat Rob Miller, which Wilson won with 53.7 percent of the vote.

Miller received a flood of online donations in the hour after the speech, according to Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee officials, with one estimate pegging the number of contributions at more than 200.

A Democratic operative with experience in South Carolina said Wilson’s treatment of the commander in chief could cost him among the district’s sizable military population.

“You have a lot of military folks who, even when they don’t agree with the president politically, have a lot of respect for the institution itself,” the operative said. “Before the speech, I would have said Joe Wilson had that.”

Clyburn said South Carolina voters may have the opportunity to redress their grievances with Wilson at the polls and elsewhere.

“I would hope that the people of South Carolina will show him, in as many as ways as they possibly can, how insulting this is and how embarrassing this is,” Clyburn said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., declined to comment on the matter, according to a spokesman, but Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer , D-Md., said he could not remember a similar incident during his nearly three decades in Congress. “It is certainly something that should never happen,” Hoyer added.

Minority Leader John A. Boehner , R-Ohio, declined to comment through a spokesman.

Members of Congress typically observe a standard of decorum during State of the Union addresses and other presidential addresses to nationally televised audiences.

On occasion, quiet disapproval rises to vocal outburst. In 1999, for example, then-Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., admonished House members to observe standards of respect for the president some Republicans had treated President Bill Clinton in a manner viewed as disrespectful the previous year.

Kathleen Hunter, Jennifer Scholtes, Edward Epstein and Scott Ferrell contributed to this story.

First posted Sept. 9, 2009 10:48 p.m.

Very interesting. I was unable to see the speech last night, so I just learned of it here.

[irishmick79]

Honestly I think they will get more mileage out of the "You Lie" bit from Wilson. During a major speech to be that juvenile just destroys anything resembling credibility and if groups supporting the public option don't start using that immediately I'll be surprised.

The difference is that Joe Wilson's behavior was a breach of political etiquette that doesn't allow immediate reference to policy, and only really indicts Wilson. What he did was a wildly disrespectful breach of propriety but I doubt it'll go anywhere. Even in the 2008 election, which logically has to represent the nadir of GOP fortunes, he kept his seat by an 8 point margin. So odds are he'll keep his seat in 2010 in spite of being a retard, and in the national context other GOPers can just disavow him, because he's only one man after all. The collective refusal of Republicans to applaud at specific junctures, on the other hand, is something the party's delegation did as a whole and can be tied directly to policy goals. The biggest issue with that is figuring out how to work the presentation. Saying that some representative refused to clap for X during Obama speech doesn't mean very much to most people, but I think it might be something that's amenable to video editing by experts.

I don't know. He comes from a district that has a lot of military voters, and that show of disrespect might not play very well. A lot of military folks might heartily disagree with Obama on various issues, but a lot of them also have a respect for the office at least.

[Haruko]

Only the first sentence into this when it was revealed that opponents plan a "mass march," the following phrase immediately came to mind, albeit half jokingly: "astro turf." But lo and behold, a few sentences later I read the part highlighted in Bold below:

Obama's health reform speech galvanizes opponents

By Matthew Bigg

ATLANTA (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's speech to Congress on healthcare reform has galvanized activists opposed to his proposals who plan a mass march on Washington on Saturday as the next step in their campaign.

Groups that reject Obama's reform and seek limited government and lower taxes said that nothing they heard in Wednesday night's speech to a joint Congress session would deter them.

Instead, it provided fresh fuel for their opposition to the government plans for the $2.5 trillion sector, in part on the grounds that it would raise the country's budget deficit -- a charge Obama denies.

That opposition took the form of often rowdy town hall meetings over the summer and Saturday's march provides a new opportunity for the campaign to seize the agenda, they said.

"Every group (going to the march) has its own agenda but we have a common agenda to get the country back," said Jack Staver, who leads a Tea Party Patriots group in northern Georgia and plans to attend the march.

At least 20,000 people are expected for the march, said Pete Sepp of the National Taxpayers Union, a conservative group.

The event will gather groups including FreedomWorks, the National Taxpayers Union, the Tea Party Patriots and Smart Girl Politics, all of which rely on the Internet and social networking sites to communicate with members.

The groups said they have seen a spike in membership and activism since a political fight over a big economic stimulus package passed by Congress in February, and again more recently over healthcare.

"We are educating and motivating citizens to get involved in this debate through petitions, faxes, phone calls, personal visits," said Ron De Jong of the conservative Grassfire.org group. "Obama's speech has only galvanized our opposition."

MARCH DAY AFTER 9/11 ANNIVERSARY

But supporters of Obama said he succeeded during the speech in clarifying a series of gross distortions of his reform plans perpetuated by conservative opponents for political reasons.

Marches on Washington are a potent symbol because of a 1963 civil rights march at which Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech. Saturday also falls one day after the eighth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Groups participating in the march said Obama's speech made little difference to their opposition plans.

"There wasn't anything new in the speech except that it gave us new talking points," said Rebecca Wales of Smart Girl Politics, a conservative women's organization founded last year.

For many conservatives, the stimulus package, Obama's energy reform bill and now healthcare reform evoke raw anger because they view them as fundamental violations of the way the United States should be governed.

"He (Obama) is an out-and-out Communist," said Lynn Kartchner, who runs a gun shop in Douglas, Arizona. "He's a Socialist to the core and he doesn't really care who he has to steal from to get what he wants. What he wants is power.

"He wants as many people as possible totally dependent on the government, just like the Soviet Union," Kartchner said.

These activist groups share a common position with many Republican politicians as well as with lobby and industry groups opposed to Obama's healthcare plans. Many draw inspiration from conservative talk radio.

Opposition to healthcare provides a focus for conservative energy but, in the longer term, several activists said they were focused on congressional elections in November 2010.

Republicans lost ground in congressional elections in 2006 and 2008 but many conservatives believe public anger over healthcare reform proposals provides an opportunity to change that trend.

(Additional reporting by Tim Gaynor in Arizona; Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Bill Trott)

You can almost see the strings. I do not go so far as to claim there is no grassroots, but the notable corporate and right-wing elitist manipulation seems apparent.

[General Zod]

"He (Obama) is an out-and-out Communist," said Lynn Kartchner, who runs a gun shop in Douglas, Arizona. "He's a Socialist to the core and he doesn't really care who he has to steal from to get what he wants. What he wants is power.

The irony of this outrage coming from a right-winger is so thick you could cut it with a butterknife. I'll bet she supported every single measure Bush put in place.

[CmdrWilkens]

Honestly I think they will get more mileage out of the "You Lie" bit from Wilson. During a major speech to be that juvenile just destroys anything resembling credibility and if groups supporting the public option don't start using that immediately I'll be surprised.

The difference is that Joe Wilson's behavior was a breach of political etiquette that doesn't allow immediate reference to policy, and only really indicts Wilson. What he did was a wildly disrespectful breach of propriety but I doubt it'll go anywhere. Even in the 2008 election, which logically has to represent the nadir of GOP fortunes, he kept his seat by an 8 point margin. So odds are he'll keep his seat in 2010 in spite of being a retard, and in the national context other GOPers can just disavow him, because he's only one man after all. The collective refusal of Republicans to applaud at specific junctures, on the other hand, is something the party's delegation did as a whole and can be tied directly to policy goals. The biggest issue with that is figuring out how to work the presentation. Saying that some representative refused to clap for X during Obama speech doesn't mean very much to most people, but I think it might be something that's amenable to video editing by experts.

The thing with Wilson was, much as I expected, Limbaugh and others are already rallying around him saying he shouldn't have apologized and so forth. Wilson defied the President therefore the fringe loves him and the more the fringe loves him the more Democrats can use that to appeal to Independents who worry about the loony fringe but have been indoctrinated to fear the "evil Commie-Socialist-Liberal Democrats." For Wilson himself he won by 8 points when the consensus was that he should have won by double digits in a reliably Republican South Carolina district against an underfunded challenger. Cook Political report has already downgraded his seat from "Safe" to "Likely" Republican and as Wilson's challenger from '08 has been getting donations at the clip of about $1k/hour since the speech the race could tilt even more (particularly as the opponent is a centrist Democrat veteran).

[The Spartan]

I don't suppose if anyone knows whether or not Wilson ever went on record (press conference, what have you) where he said something like, "We should all support the president in times of trouble", etc? From when Bush was in office that is.

[Sriad]

Cook Political report has already downgraded his seat from "Safe" to "Likely" Republican and as Wilson's challenger from '08 has been getting donations at the clip of about $1k/hour since the speech the race could tilt even more (particularly as the opponent is a centrist Democrat veteran).

It's given Rob Miller a healthy little boost, but you're off by a factor of ten on the hourly rate.

[PainRack]

http://www.pnhp.org/publications/nejmadmin.pdf

Insurance overhead
In 1999 U.S. private insurers retained $46.9 billion
of the $401.2 billion they collected in premiums.
Their average overhead (11.7 percent) exceeded that
of Medicare (3.6 percent) and Medicaid (6.8 percent).
Overall, public and private insurance overhead
totaled $72.0 billion — 5.9 percent of the total
health care expenditures in the United States, or
$259 per capita (Table 1).

The overhead costs of Canada’s provincial insurance
plans totaled $311 million (1.3 percent) of the
$23.5 billion they spent for physicians and hospital
services. An additional $17 million was spent to administer
federal government health plans. The overhead
of Canadian private insurers averaged 13.2 percent
of the $8.4 billion spent for private coverage.
Overall, insurance overhead accounted for 1.9 percent
of Canadian health care spending, or $47 per
capita (Table 1).

Emphasis mine. The simple nature of having to deal with multiple different sets of arcane rules and requirements on the part of providers increases costs. Add in the cost of not only profit taking, but managing their portfolio to continue generating a profit, and regardless of the availability of a government option, everything will be more expensive with private insurance around.

It is worth noting that the private insurance the study refers to in Canada is not the same type of private insurance available in a hybrid plan. It is supplementary insurance that covers things the government plan doesn't. I believe, in fact, that bonafide private health insurance (as in not in the single-payer system) was illegal in Canada at the time this article was written, though I'm not sure if it still is.

And that's a in practice situation. In theory, if insurance companies were all forced to cover the same conditions and simply pay the hospital charges, adminstrative costs on the part of the medical bill itself is the same as if a single payer insurance system. The issues is profit taking and the limitation of the means of generating profits.

[Patrick Degan]

ATLANTA (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's speech to Congress on healthcare reform has galvanized activists opposed to his proposals who plan a mass march on Washington on Saturday as the next step in their campaign.

Groups that reject Obama's reform and seek limited government and lower taxes said that nothing they heard in Wednesday night's speech to a joint Congress session would deter them.

Instead, it provided fresh fuel for their opposition to the government plans for the $2.5 trillion sector, in part on the grounds that it would raise the country's budget deficit -- a charge Obama denies.

Obama's speech galvanises anti-reform activists? This was already in the pipeline long before this speech was scheduled.