President Obama went off script while speaking at
the Congressional Black Caucus Awards Dinner Saturday evening and
deployed a truth bomb on selfish repugicans.
While paying homage to the 50th anniversary of the
Civil Rights Act, he said he was puzzled when certain governors decided
to take a stand to make sure poor folks in their state can’t get health
insurance even though it doesn’t cost that person a dime, adding one of
the most salient political observations in the entire healthcare reform
debate, “It’s easy to take a stand when you’ve got health insurance.”
Speaking about the need to get more folks covered in
the march forward toward the Great Society, the President said, “But we
know our work is not yet done until we get into more communities, help
more uninsured folks get covered, especially in those states where the
governors aren’t being quite as cooperative as we’d like them to be. You
know who you are. It always puzzles me when you decide to take a stand
to make sure poor folks in your state can’t get health insurance even
though it doesn’t cost you a dime. That doesn’t make much sense to me,
but I won’t go on on that topic. We’ve got more work to do.”
“It’s easy to take a stand when you’ve got health
insurance,” Obama said, earning appreciative laughter and applause. “I’m
going off script now, but – — that’s what happens at the CBC.”
During his speech, the President detailed areas of
progress in the push forward toward a Great Society. Obama deadpanned,
“We’ve done some work on health care, too. I don’t know if you’ve
noticed.”
Detailing some of the unsung success of his
signature legislation, the President continued, “Thanks to the
Affordable Care Act, we’ve seen a 26 percent decline in the uninsured
rate in America. African Americans have seen a 30 percent decline. And,
by the way, the cost of health care isn’t going up as fast anymore
either. Everybody was predicting this was all going to be so expensive.
We’ve saved $800 billion — in Medicare because of the work that we’ve
done — slowing the cost, improving quality, and improving access.
Despite unyielding opposition, this change has happened just in the last
couple years.”
When Obamacare is a beloved part of our social
safety net like Social Security and Medicare, repugicans will pretend
that they built that. But their years of hysterical obstruction to a
policy built in part on their own idea will say otherwise.
To recap, “It’s easy to take a stand (against affordable health insurance) when you’ve got health insurance.”
Boom. This is what the pundits should have been
pointing out from the beginning of this debate, and it’s something we’ve
been going on about here for years. It’s all about the
hierarchy of needs. It’s easy to get lost in the weeds when you are
healthy and have insurance. And since most of the people in high
profile media positions and elected officials have what is relatively
excellent insurance, the point of view of the struggling American is
hardly ever given a seat at the table.
The ACA looks quite different from the perspective
of folks who had no insurance or were being screwed over by their
insurance company prior to the changes imposed by the ACA. While repugicans fear-monger over the mere suggestion that they might have to
change doctors and the press picks this up like it’s the End of the
World, average Americans are dealing with things like how to pay for
their loved one’s pain pills from their cancer.
The midterms are giving us a peek at campaigning
Obama — the guy who could deliver a punch when he needed to, but only
after being trolled publicly for so long that middle America knew the
other person had it coming.
The lesson here? The repugicans had this one coming. Why so selfish, repugican governors?
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