President Barack Obama is embroiled in the first real test of his mettle, the war that is building both on Capitol Hill and off over health care reform plans. Obama launches a new website 'Reality Check" to encourage his supporters to take his message viral, one of his own administration still stands as a major source of the controversy.
Dr Ezekiel Emmanuel, brother of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel currently holds two different positions within the Obama team: health-policy adviser at the Office of Management and Budget and a member of Federal Council on Comparative Effectiveness Research. This effectively makes him one of the top advisors on the subject and someone who could exert major influence on future health care policy.
His remarks over the last weeks and months though may have given rise to much of the opposition to the President's proposed reforms. As long ago as February of 2008, long before Obama's election he was making some rather strong statements. He wrote in Health Affairs "Vague promises of savings from cutting waste, enhancing prevention and wellness, installing electronic medical records and improving quality are merely 'lipstick' cost control, more for show and public relations than for true change,"
As the piece continued he opined that for real savings to occur doctors needed to change the way they thought and felt about the patients they treated. They take the Hippocratic Oath too seriously he complained as" an imperative to do everything for the patient regardless of the cost or effects on others"
Inflammatory opinions like that make some of the fears of the general public seem a little more understandable. Patients want, and indeed expect their physicians to put their health and well being above economic concerns and many doctors feel the same way.
From his writings it appears though that Emanuel does not feel that way. He prefers the notion of communitarianism, he believes that health care should be given to the non disabled, not to those "who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens . . . An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia".
From this some see denial of care for a relative with dementia, or as Sarah Palin alluded to, the care of a child with Down's syndrome.
These and other controversial opinions that Emanuel holds have provided ammunition for the opponents of health care reform. A brief Internet search brings up many more articles in which Emmanuel seems to show little compassion for entire sections of the population. Though these may not be the opinions of Obama himself having such a man at the very top of his list of advisors may be doing him very few favors.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Obama urged to back $500 Billion Plan to create Energy efficient Buildings. Is This Essential?
One of the biggest issues that President Barack Obama campaigned on back in 2008 to gain access to the White House was the environment and the need to limit climate change. With the health care reform debate raging it may seem those concerns have been put onto the back burner over the last few months but several groups are urging the President not to forget his campaign promises and back a bill that it is said will aid the economic recovery in general as well as help alleviate the effects of global warming.
The $500 billion bill calls for an overhaul of US buildings to make them more energy efficient. According to the Center for American Progress the proposal would increase the efficiency of 40 percent of the nation's residential and commercial buildings by 2020. Aside from the obvious advantages for the environment in general the project is designed to create 625,000 new jobs and save families between $300 and $1,200 a year in energy costs.
The plan to revamp and refit the buildings, which consume a full 70% of the nation's electricity as well as emitting 40% of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, will be discussed at an energy conference in Las Vegas on Monday.
Returning into the spotlight again will be former President Bill Clinton and his former vice president Al Gore. Fresh off being the center of the release of the imprisoned American journalists Lisa Ling and Euna Lee last week they are both scheduled to speak, along with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and investor T. Boone Pickens.
The event is a joint venture between the Center for American progress and senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, who is a native and representative of Nevada. The Senate democrats and the Obama administration are still trying to elicit support for their environmental reforms and the conference is designed to showcase reasonable plans and ideas.
The proposed legislation is designed to help spur the retrofitting of buildings by ensuring easier financing for such projects and help companies needed to make the renovations meet the potential demand for them.
But just like his health care reforms President Obama and his administration still have a fight ahead of them on these kinds of environmental issues. The last time legislation to limit greenhouse gases and control climate change went to the House it fell short, being defeated by a margin of 219-212 in June.
The $500 billion bill calls for an overhaul of US buildings to make them more energy efficient. According to the Center for American Progress the proposal would increase the efficiency of 40 percent of the nation's residential and commercial buildings by 2020. Aside from the obvious advantages for the environment in general the project is designed to create 625,000 new jobs and save families between $300 and $1,200 a year in energy costs.
The plan to revamp and refit the buildings, which consume a full 70% of the nation's electricity as well as emitting 40% of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, will be discussed at an energy conference in Las Vegas on Monday.
Returning into the spotlight again will be former President Bill Clinton and his former vice president Al Gore. Fresh off being the center of the release of the imprisoned American journalists Lisa Ling and Euna Lee last week they are both scheduled to speak, along with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and investor T. Boone Pickens.
The event is a joint venture between the Center for American progress and senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, who is a native and representative of Nevada. The Senate democrats and the Obama administration are still trying to elicit support for their environmental reforms and the conference is designed to showcase reasonable plans and ideas.
The proposed legislation is designed to help spur the retrofitting of buildings by ensuring easier financing for such projects and help companies needed to make the renovations meet the potential demand for them.
But just like his health care reforms President Obama and his administration still have a fight ahead of them on these kinds of environmental issues. The last time legislation to limit greenhouse gases and control climate change went to the House it fell short, being defeated by a margin of 219-212 in June.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Health Reform Critical to US Long-term Economic Growth Says Obama.
When President Barack Obama decided to put health care reform to the very top of his list of priorities he knew he was in for a struggle, and it does not seem to be getting any easier as the debate goes along. He is still insistent however that health care reform is a vital part of his administrations plan for long term US economic growth.
Obama still feels that his proposed reforms of the health care system will provide quality, affordable health insurance for all Americans and help ease the financial burdens on both families and businesses as health care costs continue to rise.
"Health insurance reform shouldn't be about Washington politics. It's about American lives, businesses and our future,"he said in his weekly radio address. "Right now, we have a system that works well for the insurance industry, but that doesn't always work well for you. What we need, and what we will have when we pass health insurance reform, are consumer protections to make sure that those who have insurance are treated fairly and those insurance companies are held accountable."
However upbeat he may sound in his speeches though, he must be aware of the battle he still faces going ahead, both from political opponents and representatives of the health insurance industry.
A surprise attack on the President's plans came today from former Alaska Governor and failed vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The now private citizen sounded like she was back in full campaign mode in remarks she posted on her Facebook profile.
In her scathing post she wrote "The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."
Palin seems to be referring to a rumor that has been around for weeks, based on a possible provision of the bill that would require Medicare to pay for "end of life" counseling . Obama took on that rumor about a month ago at a town hall meeting. He said at the time "Nobody is going to be forcing you to make a set of decisions on end-of-life care based on some bureaucratic law in Washington,"
Obama still feels that his proposed reforms of the health care system will provide quality, affordable health insurance for all Americans and help ease the financial burdens on both families and businesses as health care costs continue to rise.
"Health insurance reform shouldn't be about Washington politics. It's about American lives, businesses and our future,"he said in his weekly radio address. "Right now, we have a system that works well for the insurance industry, but that doesn't always work well for you. What we need, and what we will have when we pass health insurance reform, are consumer protections to make sure that those who have insurance are treated fairly and those insurance companies are held accountable."
However upbeat he may sound in his speeches though, he must be aware of the battle he still faces going ahead, both from political opponents and representatives of the health insurance industry.
A surprise attack on the President's plans came today from former Alaska Governor and failed vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The now private citizen sounded like she was back in full campaign mode in remarks she posted on her Facebook profile.
In her scathing post she wrote "The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."
Palin seems to be referring to a rumor that has been around for weeks, based on a possible provision of the bill that would require Medicare to pay for "end of life" counseling . Obama took on that rumor about a month ago at a town hall meeting. He said at the time "Nobody is going to be forcing you to make a set of decisions on end-of-life care based on some bureaucratic law in Washington,"
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