Obama's Primetime Address - from thinkprogress.org

Last night, President Obama urged a joint session of Congress to pass comprehensive health care reform by the end of this year. "I'm not the first President to take up this cause," Obama said, "but I am determined to be the last." Obama invested his case "with both economic and emotional urgency -- particularly when he invoked the memory of Senator Edward M. Kennedy." Obama repackaged his campaign health care proposal into a plan that "will cost around $900 billion over ten years -- less than we have spent on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and less than the tax cuts for the wealthiest few Americans that Congress passed at the beginning of the previous administration." He reminded the country that "concern and regard for the plight of others...is part of the American character" and highlighted the progress that has been made thus far. An "unprecedented coalition of doctors and nurses; hospitals, seniors' groups and even drug companies -- many of who opposed reform in the past" now support it, and "of the five committees asked to develop bills, four have completed their work," Obama said. In his speech, the President sought common ground with Republicans, but also warned that he "will not waste time with those who have made the calculation that it's better politics to kill this plan than to improve it." After a month of raucous town halls in which far-right activists manipulated and distorted health reform by accusing Democrats of instituting "death panels"and denying care to seniors, Obama declared, "I will not stand by while the special interests use the same old tactics to keep things exactly the way they are. If  you misrepresent what's in the plan, we will call you out."

THE OBAMA HEALTH CARE PLAN: Obama announced a plan that would "provide more security and stability to those who have health insurance...[and] provide insurance to those who don't. And it will lower the cost of health care for our families, our businesses, and our government." It "incorporates ideas from Senators and Congressmen; from Democrats and Republicans -- and yes, from some of my opponents in both the primary and general election," Obama explained. Indeed, Obama embraced Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) idea of offering immediate low-cost catastrophic insurance to Americans with pre-existing conditions and proposed to move forward on malpractice reforms that "put patient safety first and let doctors focus on practicing medicine." Overall, Obama's new plan reflected his campaign proposal. Americans with health insurance could keep their existing health care plans, while those without coverage could buy affordable insurance through an Exchange -- "a marketplace where individuals and small businesses will be able to shop for health insurance at competitive prices." Private insurance companies participating in the Exchange will have tocompete on quality and efficiency with a new public plan and offer comprehensive benefits. "As soon as I sign this bill, it will be against the law for insurance companies to drop your coverage when you get sick or water it down when you need it most," Obama promised. "We will place a limit on how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses, because in the United States of America, no one should go broke because they get sick," Obama said. The President proposed to finance his $900 billion plan with savings from within the health care system and new taxes on insurers offering "their most expensive policies." Obama also "endorsed a budget mechanism to automatically reduce the growth of Medicare spending if health care overhaul does not produce the savings that the administration and many health care experts expect." That idea was first proposed in a paper by Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Judy Feder and Harvard economist David Cutler. 

SUPPORT FOR PUBLIC OPTION: Over the past year, Republicans have argued that the new public health insurance option would lead to a "government takeover" of health care and push private insurers out of business. Conversely, progressives have threatened to reject any proposal that does not offer Americans the choice of a new public plan that could help reduce costs and restore competition to consolidated insurance markets. During the speech, Obama stressed that "the public option is only a means to that end -- and we should remain open to other ideas that accomplish our ultimate goal." Heacknowledged alternative  proposals to establish "a co-op or another non-profit entity to administer the plan" or "trigger" a public option if private insurers were "not providing affordable policies." "These are all constructive ideas worth exploring," he said, "but I will not back down on the basic principle that if Americans can't find affordable coverage, we will provide you with a choice."

REPUBLICANS' TOWN HALL BEHAVIOR: During the speech, Obama alsoattempted to set the record straight on some of the "key controversies" surrounding the health care debate. While it's normal for members of the opposition party to occasionally show displeasure at statements with which they disagree, congressional Republicans went further last night, being outright rude at times. At one point, Obama addressed the myth that his health care proposals would insure undocumented immigrants: "This, too, is false -- the reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally." In response, Republicans not only began booing him, but Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) shouted out, "You lie!" Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) could also be seen wearing a homemade sign -- similar to the ones seen at town hall protests -- around his neck, which read, "What bill?" The Washington Post's Dana Milbank reported that "there was derisive laughter on that [Republican] side of the chamber when Obama noted that 'there remain some significant details to be ironed out.'" Some Republicans "applauded as he spoke of 'all the misinformation that's been spread over the past few months.'" Others laughed again when he said that 'many Americans have grown nervous about reform' and shouted 'shame!' when Obama addressed the charge that he plans "panels of bureaucrats with the power to kill off senior citizens." "Shortly before the speech ended, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) walked out to beat the rush," noted Milbank.

RADICAL RIGHT -- BECK'S CHARACTER ASSASSINATION CAMPAIGN AGAINST VAN JONES FUELED BY AFP'S EFFORTS TO KILL GREEN JOBS: Last month, Fox News' Glenn Beck engaged in a character assassination campaign to demonize White House environmental adviserVan Jones as "a committed revolutionary," which eventually contributed toJones' resignation over the weekend. The conventional wisdom was that Beck took aim at Jones because a group he co-founded, Color of Change, was successfully convincing advertisers to drop Beck's show after he claimed President Obama had "a deep-seated hatred for white people." Though Beck's attacks became "especially pronounced" after the boycott started, he actually began his attacks against Jones before he even uttered the words that sparked the activist campaign against him. On Sunday, Phil Kerpen, the policy director for the industry front group American for Prosperity, took credit for starting the assault on Jones. According to Kerpen, on July 10, he e-mailed an old profile of Jones to a producer for Beck's show, saying, "Please share with Glenn this article about green jobs czar Van Jones, a self-described communist who was radicalized in jail. Confirms 'watermelon' hypothesis." After that, Beck attacked Jones in 16 episodes of his Fox News show between July 23 and Sept. 4, including four where he hosted Kerpen to help him. In his recent Fox Forum op-ed, Kerpen explained that his real mission is to put the "'green jobs' concept outside the bounds of the political mainstream." In his Sept. 7 podcast, Kerpen declared, "Van Jones is gone, but the 'green jobs' threat remains," adding that the right-wing should "channel all of the energy" of Jones' resignation towards "defeating the policy program that he stands for."

Last night during his speech before Congress, President Obama referenced a letter he received from the late senator Ted Kennedy, which was delivered posthumously. In the letter, Kennedy tells Obama, "You will be the President who at long last signs into law the health care reformthat is the great unfinished business of our society." Sixty seven percent of Americans who watched President Obama's joint address to Congress last night support his health care plans, "a 14-point gain among speech-watchers" according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll. Three out of four Americans also "said it's very or somewhat likely that the president will pass most of his proposals on health care reform through Congress." Last night on MSNBC, White House adviser David Axelrod told Rachel Maddow, "I believe that there'll be some sort of public option in the final legislation. Whether it comes with a trigger or not, I don't know." Sixty-one of the 72 House Republicans in South Carolina have signed a letter sent to Governor Mark Sanford (R-SC) yesterday, asking him to resign due to inappropriate conduct revolving around his extramarital affair. The letter concludes, "We have collectively come to the conclusion that South Carolina will not be able to move forward under your leadership." House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) responded to Rep. Joe Wilson's (R-SC) heckling of the President last night by saying that Wilson "took our state's reputation to a new low." "I thought Mark Sanford had taken it as low as it could go, but this is beyond the pale," said Clyburn. The Labor Department reported yesterday that U.S. job openings fell to a record low in July. The Department noted that there were only 2.4 million job openings during the month, the fewest since it started tracking them in 2000. Iran "'is now either very near or in possession' of enough low-enriched uranium to produce one nuclear weapon," according to Glyn Davies, the chief U.S. envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, who offered "some of the toughest remarks by an Obama administration official on Iran's nuclear ambitions" yesterday. This week's New York Times Magazine profiles J Street, the year-old lobbying group with progressive views on Israel. "We're trying to redefine what it means to be pro-Israel. You don't have to be noncritical. You don't have to adopt the party line. It's not, 'Israel, right or wrong,'" J Street founder and executive director Jeremy Ben-Ami told the magazine. Former Bush chief of staff Andrew Card is considering a run for the Massachusetts U.S. Senate seat vacated by Kennedy. "I would like very much to run for the U.S. Senate," Card said, adding that he will announce his final decision in the next three to four days. And finally: Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) slipped up yesterday when he tried to crack a pop culture joke. "I know a lot of you have come in to see Bennifer," Nelson said at a press conference with actress Jennifer Garner yesterday, referring to her husband, Ben Affleck. "I'm not the Ben associated with that." The tabloids used the shorthand Bennifer, however, to refer to Affleck's former relationship with singer Jennifer Lopez.