The Speech?
September 9th, 2009
This evening President Obama will address a joint session of Congress with the goal of pushing forward comprehensive health care reform. Some commentators have argued that no speech can resolve the conflicting positions behind the opposition to the existing plans; others have been more optimistic and have suggested points and approaches that would need to be included in order for the speech to be effective.
What are your expectations of President Obama’s speech: do you think it will be something special or more of the same? What issues would you like addressed and explained? And, for those joining the discussion after the speech, what were your impressions?
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the speech was boring and misleading, as usual. here is a good summary:
“And above all else, Obama chose to shadowbox against the more extreme claims of the Sarah Palins of the world, rather than engage the most serious of the skeptics’ arguments. No, the administration doesn’t “plan to set up panels of bureaucrats with the power to kill off senior citizens,” but what about the possibility of government cost-cutters frowning upon expensive hip replacement surgeries for the chronically old? No, the proposal doesn’t amount to a complete “government takeover” of health care, but it does continue to expand the government’s role (and, promises aside, expenses) in ways that make a deficit-whiplashed nation nervous. No, “no one would be forced to choose” a public option, but what about the argument that incentives would eventually push Americans from private insurance to the public plan?”
http://reason.com/news/show/135976.html