Obama moves to Speed up Medical Malpractice Tort Reform.

On Wednesday doctors around the country got a stinging surprise when a health care reform bill unveiled by Max Baucus revealed little in way of provision for medical malpractice tort reform or for increased Medicare reimbursements, two things that President Obama has been wooing their strong support with for months. In response the President has now moved to accelerate a proposed $25 million program designed to ease the pain of medical malpractice lawsuits.

From the beginning President Obama has been acutely aware of how much support from doctors would help him in his attempt to finally pass a healthcare reform bill. When President Bill Clinton tried in 1992 the AMA, the most powerful doctor’s association in the country launched a $4.5 advertising campaign against his proposals stating that “national health insurance would lead to a federal takeover of healthcare “Sound familiar?

Until the Baucus bill was revealed Obama had been doing a good job with the doctors’ associations. Indeed the AMA endorsed House legislation that included Obama’s plan to increase physician Medicare reimbursement by $230 billion in the next ten years. Their anger at the Baucus proposal now has the President and his administration rushing to try and woo back that hard won confidence.

The malpractice plan in question is a grant of up to $3 million to every state to test new approaches to medical liability. Officials are to conduct a “review of what works” to both improve patient safety and reduce the need for physicians to practice “defensive medicine” for fear of being hit by a crippling lawsuit.

Trial lawyers and doctors have been at odds for decades over the issue off medical malpractice. They vehemently disagree over both how genuinely affected patients should be compensated for their injuries and over how true it really is that a fear of lawsuits causes doctors to order additional testing that may not really be necessary. This practice of “defensive medicine” is estimated to be in the range of hundreds of billions of dollars. Doctor’s associations’ insist that if the medical malpractice tort system were reined in somehow, perhaps the doctors have always argued by capping the dollar amount that can be awarded in such cases, the practice would decrease significantly.

Obama has in the past sided with the trail lawyers who oppose such caps, and he first made public mention of the review project in his speech to a joint session of Congress last week. "I don't believe malpractice reform is a silver bullet," he said at the time, "but I've talked to enough doctors to know that defensive medicine may be contributing to unnecessary costs."

But will the grants, even if they are speedily administered as Obama suggested they would be on Thursday be seen as too little too late to maintain the doctor’s support? According to Peter Levine, who is the president of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia the President’s plan is “just smoke and mirrors” to deflect attention from the snubs of the Baucus plan.

Obama Appeals for Union Support – Especially for his Health Care Plans.

After a tough few weeks President Barack Obama took his healthcare message to a group of men and women who essentially became his employees a few months ago – workers at a General Motors plant in Lordstown , Ohio – and was buoyed by the fact that amongst the blue collar workers there he seemed to find praise and support, and not only just for his health care reforms.

The president’s visit to the Lordstown plant – which primarily manufactures small cars in the GM fleet – was his first to a General Motors facility since he and his government took defacto control of the company as a part of the auto industry bailout earlier this year.

This is a plant that has been doing very well of late. The Cash for Clunkers plan depleted the GM inventory of smaller vehicles and just a day before the President’s arrival 150 laid off workers had returned to work, with a 1,000 more due to clock back in over the next three weeks, to help meet the demand, including getting ready for the launch of the Chevy Cruze, a compact, high mileage vehicle due to be launched next year.

Amid thunderous applause, the President once again made it clear it had never been his intention to end up running a car company as part of his duties as Commander –in –chief "It wasn't on my to-do list. It wasn't even something on my want-to-do list.” he said. However he continued “for me to just let the auto industry collapse, to vanish, would have done unbelievable damage."

But during his speech at Lordstown and another later in the day at an AFL-CIO union convention in Pittsburgh, the President admitted he did need something from the auto workers now in return for his actions to help save their ailing industry and their jobs ; their support for his agenda, especially his health care reform plans.

Sounding far more like the confident man who rallied crowds behind him during the 2008 elections Barack Obama told the union workers assembled in Pittsburgh "As long as you've got an ounce of fight in you, I've got a ton of fight in me. I’ve said it before: I'm skinny, but I'm tough. So give it for me, guys."

And they do seem willing. According to John Sweeney, who is the outgoing president of the AFL-CIO "We in this room are the wind at his back."

Tea Party Protestors Hit the Capitol in Force.

The conservative advocacy group the Tea Party Express wrapped up their nationwide tour by staging a huge protest at the Capitol on Saturday.

Protestors who made the trip carried a number of signs and placards that made no bones about their opinions. Some of the slogans read “I didn’t vote for this Obamanation” and “Fire the Czars”. Others carried depicting the President as an African witch doctor and there was great deal of Nazi imagery on display.

Although the march stretched for blocks and was attended by thousands of people, no violence or civil disobedience was reported. The Tea Party Express tour began back in August in Sacramento, CA and has visited 30 cities.

According to the organizers of the Tea Party Express and other related events their movement is currently focusing on three main objectives Defeat President Barack Obama's health care reform efforts, win back the House and Senate in 2010 for the Republican Party and take the White House in 2012.

The movement has no acknowledged leader and organizers will admit that they are still searching for the right person. Some think that former Governor Sarah Palin would make a good choice but others feel that she carries too much negative baggage.

For now the regular speakers at most rallies, including the one in the Capitol on Saturday, are a charismatic activist called Debbie Johns, whose signature cry of “You can have our country when you pry it from our ... cold ... dead ... fingers!" is the common rallying cry for crowds, and a former radio personality, Mark Williams. They both work for Our Country Deserves Better, a political action committee that under wrote the Tea Party Express tour.

The people who gather at the Tea party rallies are often a colorful and eclectic bunch, whose messages and beliefs sometimes border on the extreme. Nazi imagery is abundant which can be off putting to some of the more conservative marchers and it is not unusual to see members carrying weapons in full view of the crowds in the states where open carry is permitted.

While the protestors were voicing their vehement opposition to health care reform in Washington President Obama was hundreds of miles away in Minneapolis, speaking once more at a town hall meeting on the issue.

He raised a laugh when he made a wry mention of his speech on Wednesday before a joint session of Congress, during which Rep Joe Wilson now infamously proclaimed “You Lie”. "I can already see that this crowd is a lot more fun," he told the audience.