Maybe these losing arguments can be stricken from the President's next speeches: I inherited the problem, it's not just my opinion, we couldn't do nothing...all true but are not reasoned responses to the real indications that the President is making things worse.
The President also challenged, can you do better when he commented that he wasn't seeing alternative plans.
Today, Mr. President, you can announce that the Federal government benefits packages for civilian governmental workers is over at a savings of "potentially" X millions of dollars...instead, federal employees will have to live like the rest of us and worry that they will be unable to obtain health insurance because of their existent health or habits or will have to pay extortion prices or will have to settle for a plan that amounts to a crummy version of the old major medical. You can do that today. Today you can respond to the army of angry civil servants that this year's transition will be easier because they did manage to squeeze in a pay raise for themselves in the budget. Politically, point out that all those hostile fiscally responsible Republicans are just as guilty of a) passing a $5000 pay raise for themselves and b) taking part of this taxpayer subsidized health option that allows taxpayers to support federal government employee benefits as insurers raise rates for the go it alone citizens while "negotiating" sweet deals for civilian governmental employees.
Today, Mr. President, you can look at "all the sources" that indicate that wellness programs don't work UNLESS they are part of an insurance package (covering the risk of the cost of health care) that provides for sufficient coverage of needed medical care when individuals aren't WELL. Today, Mr. President, you can impose mandates on insurers that forces them to verify and stand behind the money they pay out from health savings accounts for "health care" for which are not validated today unless the IRS goes after a specific individual. This strengthens the misuse of health savings accounts as a small tax shelter for the rich. Instead, last night we were told to wait and see as we listened to the excuse choo choo.
And by worse it seems that by telling the American people to wait and see as WE carry the risk of expanding debt, the final nail in the coffin of health care reform which is focusing on PAPERWORK and WELLNESS programs, the two things insurance companies LOVE because a) citizens and providers will be handling administration activity of reporting while b) insurers provide the FINITE cost of "wellness", that non insurance baloney (no risk) insurers peddle to distract us from the fact that it is the cost of ILLNESS, not check ups that creates the health crisis, (based on the myth that we can screen away illness), and bank bailouts that are at best buying time for these organizations to absorb their free money and spend it on themselves while the amount of money trickling down to consumers is minimal, President Obama is setting us up for a reactionary election of a Republican Congress which will make him a lame duck by 2010. For heaven's sake, he even brought John McCain into his discussion as supporting his administration's consideration of procurement plans.
And finally, the excuse that he couldn't do NOTHING, we couldn't stand "pat" in the face of our issues does not mean that trillions of dollars worth of scattered money without sufficient oversight or planning while trying to do EVERYTHING is necessarily the only other alternative. The people who were afraid of change are more afraid and the people who supported change are disappointed with the excuses ....everyone's losing.
