QUOTE OF THE MONTH:
“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly…”
I Corinthians
Chapter 13:11-12
SENSE AND NONSENSE—PUT AWAY CHILDISH THINGS
From the editor: There he was, sitting on a stool, smiling empathetically and answering with specifics. The session was billed as an “economic town hall meeting” and was moderated by CNBC’s John Harwood. Harwood is CNBC’s Washington correspondent. The man sitting on the stool was the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama.
If Saint Paul, author of the first letter to the Corinthians, had time-traveled to the Washington D.C. Newseum building where the “town hall” ambush took place Monday, Sept. 20, he probably would have been disgusted with the child-like audience who had questions and comments aimed at President Obama.
A cast of characters lined up like verbal assassins to express their disappointment that Obama has not reversed the damage created by three decades of Republican chicanery. Were it not for their well coifed appearances, they could have been mistaken for the abused inhabitants of an 18th Century English debtors’ prison. They professed the gospel of personal responsibility while sounding very much like victims. They blamed government in general and Obama specifically for their situations.
It was clear what they were not victims. They were not jobless. They were not hungry. They were not hospitalized. They were not homeless. And most of them seemed downright anxious to regurgitate the apocalyptic script being spun daily by a 24-hour news cycle broadcast in HD.
One participant prefaced her comments with an unassailable resume: “I am a chief financial officer for a veterans’ service organization, AmVets, here in Washington. I’m also a mother. I’m a wife. I’m an American veteran, and I’m one of your middle-class Americans.”
She followed that comment with a personal attack, stating, “…and quite frankly, I’m exhausted. I’m exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for, and deeply disappointed with where we are right now.”
After answering the woman with patience and understanding of her frustration, President Obama said, “And so my goal here is not to try to convince you that everything is where it needs to be. It’s not. That’s why I ran for President. But what I am saying is, is that we’re moving in the right direction.”
In his answer, Obama also detailed specific ways her children can now benefit from the new federal student-loan program and new laws preventing credit card companies from raising interest rates on previous balances and laws preventing mortgage brokers from steering potential buyers into bad loans.
Next, a 30-year-old recent law school graduate who said he cannot make the interest payments on his school loans asked the President, “And I really want to know, is the American Dream dead for me?”
President Obama calmly responded by gently reminding the recent graduate about the change his administration has made to the student loan program: “We took this out of financial service industries (private sector banks) that were getting essentially unjustified subsidies -- they (the subsidies) are now going to students so that your debt would be lower. And by the way, part of that law also capped your debt at 10 percent of your income so that you knew that you could actually afford to take out this debt and pay for it even if you had a modest salary.”
The only exchange between an audience member and the President that is not being featured on Fox News and other 24/7 cable news channels is the one between a third-generation small-business owner and President Obama.
The business owner said, “You, when you first came into office, your stimulus package actually funded a very ailing financial system, which was essential for small-business people. You turned around and invested in the auto industry, and I believe saved millions of jobs, and I think you’re actually going to make a profit on them.
“…And yet your critics continue to paint you as a dramatically anti-business President. I believe you are investing in this country, as small businesses invest. And yet for some reason the public just doesn’t get it. I need you to help us understand how you can regain the political center, because you’re losing the war of sound bites, you’re losing the media cycles.”
President Obama thanked him and said, “I think that American businesses like yours are what make this country go. We have passed eight tax cuts for small businesses so far. We have made it easier for you to invest in plants and equipment. We have already taken down your capital gains and we want to reduce capital gains for small businesses down to zero. All of these things are what historically have been considered pro-business agendas.”
In summary, President Obama did everything humanly possible to be understanding, connect with the audience in front of him, and provide a litany of specific ways he is fighting for the middle class in this country.
The media’s response is that he is too “professorial.” The business community’s response is that he is anti-growth. And the audience response’s is, “Where are the miracles you promised me?”
My response is similar to Saint Paul’s. We need to put away childish emotions of fear and loathing, be mature adults, and go vote for Democrats on November 2. Poverty now engulfs 44 million Americans. More than 50 million are without health care, and 14.9 million are without jobs.
During the course of his economic town hall meeting, President Obama was able to remind us the country lost 750,000 jobs the month he was sworn in and 600,000 jobs each month for two months after he took office. There have now been eight consecutive months of private-sector job growth. Democrats plus two Republican Senators who are not running for re-election (Voinovich of Ohio and LeMieux of Florida) just passed the “Small Business Lending Fund Act of 2010” which creates a $30 billion lending program for small businesses, eliminates capital gains taxes for them, and will create more jobs.
President Obama does not claim to be the second coming of Jesus Christ. But he does legitimately claim to be leading the country out of chaos toward civility and a restoration of the American Dream. All of that does not happen overnight or even in 20 months.
Maynard Chapman, Editor
The Compass
THE TRUTH ABOUT HEALTH CARE REFORM
From Consumers Union: Consumers Union, publishers of Consumer Reports magazine, has published a litany of “The New Health-Insurance Basics” on their website at www.consumerreports.org/health. All of the Blue Dog Democrats now claiming credit for voting against health care reform should absorb it. They might learn something and stop feeding fears with misinformation. The basics of the new law follow.
“Changes that happen now”
- Preserves job-based coverage.
- New protections for consumers. Insurers can no longer:
- Cancel coverage if you get sick;
- Set lifetime limits on coverage;
- Put annual dollar limits on coverage;
- Deny coverage to children under age 19 with pre-existing conditions;
- Refuse to pay for emergency care outside of the insurer’s network.
- Young adults can stay on parents’ plans until age 26.
- Tax credits for small businesses with up to 25 workers.
- Better information at website www.HealthCare.gov.
- Insurers have to spend 80 to 85 cents of every premium dollar on medical care.
“Changes that start in 2014”
- Creates a new health-insurance marketplace called “exchanges.”
- Financial help for individuals and families to buy health insurance. For example, a family of four with an income of $44,100 would pay a maximum of $2,778 for their health insurance premium and have an out-of-pocket limit of $3,967. Health insurance for such a family today could range from $10,000 to $13,000.
- Incentives to buy insurance. You might be subject to a fine if you don’t buy insurance, but you will not go to jail. Insurers insisted on this provision.
- Medicaid for more needy Americans.
- Improved Medicare benefits including closing the “doughnut hole” for prescriptions.
- Stabilizes Medicare funding.
(Editor’s Note: The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) affirmed last month that Obama’s health care program would “produce $143 billion in net budgetary savings” over 10 years.)
BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD BLOWS SMOKE WHILE BANKING SURPLUS
From the editor: The next time you hear Republican political pundits blame “Obamacare” for increases in health care premiums, you can refer them to lengthy research done by Consumers Union. The title of CU’s report is “How Much is Too Much: Have Nonprofit Blue Cross Blue Shield Plans Amassed Excessive Amounts of Surplus?” Following are brief excerpts from the Executive Summary of that report.
“In the last decade, (emphasis added) nonprofit Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS) plans have set aside billions of dollars in surplus, even as they raised rates for many customers.
“…Those surplus funds are built primarily with consumers’ premium dollars, and insurers typically include a targeted contribution to surplus in rate increases. Surplus can be used to moderate premium increases, yet we found that some financially strong BCBS plans with large surpluses have continued to seek double-digit rate increases.
“In our sampling of ten diverse nonprofit BCBS plans, we found that 7 out of 10 of the plans held more than three times the amount of surplus that regulators consider to be the minimum amount needed for solvency protection.” (Examples: Arizona BCBS held seven times the regulatory minimum. Texas, Illinois, New Mexico & Oklahoma held five times the minimum.)
Copyright © 2010, The Compass Society
