Public Option

I was recently talking with a friend about Health Care reform, and he told me how disappointed he was that President Obama dropped his support for the public option so early. I've heard several versions of this charge, and figured it was time to put it to rest. I did about 30 minutes of research and found dozens of speeches where the President reiterated his support for and defended the public option. (I've listed just a sampling below). It is true that the President never said "I won't sign a bill unless it contains a public option." Whether this statement would have worked or not, nobody knows. It might have, or it might have put us in worse position (e.g., we have the same bill that we have, which the President would have have to sign, and thus make him look like a hypocrite or there would be no bill at all). Let's face it, looking back, the public option was effectively killed when the right wing showed up at town halls in early August and the left didn't. During the summer and fall, the President kept up his support for the public option, taking all the heat from left, right, and center. Before blaming the President, ask yourself "how many town halls did I attend." I'm ashamed to admit my answer is zero.


June 9 American Conference of Bishops. " I believe one of these options needs to be a public option "
June 16AMA Speech, Explains why his public option plan is not socialism.
June 24. ABC Prime Time. Explains how public option would benefit families.
July 7. Press Release "as I've said before, that one of the best ways to bring down costs, provide more choices, and assure quality is a public option that will force the insurance companies to compete and keep them honest. "
July 28, On-line town hall with AARP "And one of the options should be a public plan that would increase competition "
August 15, Town Hall Meeting in Denver. Mentions Public Option 25 in defending it against critics.
August 22. Weekly address. Defends public option against attacks
Sept 7, 2009. Labor Day Speech supporting public option.
Sept 9 Joint Session of Congress
Sept. 12 Rally at Target Center in MN. "I think one of the options should be a public insurance option"
Sept. 17. Town Hall Meeting in MD. ", I've also said that one of the options in the insurance exchange should be a public insurance option. (Applause.) "

The A List - Obama: The Accomplishment President

 

Recently, comedians have been having a nice laugh over President Obama's supposed lack of accomplishments. SNL, Conan, even Jon Stewart have taken their licks.  His supporters can't be too thinned skinned after dishing jokes out to George Bush for so many years.  While we can have a laugh over the jokes, we must also remember that the digs have no merit.

I'm not sure how the "lack of accomplishments" impression got formed. Maybe it is because the President is faced with problems that simply can't be solved quickly. The economy is not going to turnaround quickly from a two year recession no matter what steps are taken. Similarly, peace in the the middle east and a reduction global warming are goals that will not, and cannot, be completed in a few months or even a few years. The very nature of the challenges the President has taken on are ones that can only be partially met 9 months into office. Maybe it was that the President dared to enunciate lofty goals, even when he knew they could not be easily achieved. Maybe opponents decried "he's done nothing" so many times that people just started believing it. 

Whatever the reason, the President deserves credit for tackling the major problems of our day and making real progress on many fronts. Below is a short list of accomplishments. Suffice to say, I could have gone on much longer but there are enough bullet points to show clearly and concisely that the guys done a lot.

Economy

Here's a simple summation– “He saved the economy from economic collapse.” How about a slightly longer one - “After a nearly a two year recession, and two years of total inaction, Obama steered the economy back to growth in only 9 months.” Here are the particulars:

· Developed and passed the  American Recovery and Reinvestment Act..  Even the Wall-Street Journal admits that the Recovery Act worked and independent audits suggest there is little or no fraud. Most Americans got a tax break. If you or know someone who is getting extended unemployment insurance or COBRA, you can thank this Act. See all that construction on the streets? Thank the Recover Act for that as well. You can debate how well the Act worked, but you can't debate that it did. You can debate how many jobs the Act created, buy you can't debate that it created or saved many, many jobs. As important is the fact that the projects funded by the Recovery Act will have a multiplier effect. For example, the investment in computerizing medical records creates jobs now and reduced medical costs long term.

·  The "Making Home Affordable" home refinancing plan allows people in trouble with their mortgage to refinance at lower payments and rates. 500,000 people have refinanced.

·  The President signed the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act, expanding on the Making Home Affordable Program to help millions of Americans avoid preventable foreclosures, providing $2.2 billion to help combat homelessness , and helping to stabilize the housing market for everybody. 

·  The President launched a $15 billion plan to boost lending to small businesses.

 The President sighed the first time homeowner tax credit and cash for clunkers. 

·  The President signed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act to protect Americans from unfair and deceptive credit card practices.

 

Civil Rights

• The President signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, restoring basic protections against pay discrimination for women and other workers.

Health Care

• Reform bills have passed every committee in both houses of Congress. No other President has pushed reform this far.
• The President signed the Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act, which provides quality health care to 11 million kids – 4 million who were previously uninsured.
• The Recover Act:
• Protects health coverage for 7 million Americans who lose their jobs through a 65 percent COBRA subsidy to make coverage affordable.
• Invests $19 billion in computerized medical records that will help to reduce costs and improve quality while ensuring patients’ privacy.
• Provides $1 billion for prevention and wellness to improve America’s health and help to reduce health care costs;
• Provides $1.1 billion for research to give doctors tools to make the best treatment decisions for their patients by providing objective information on the relative benefits of treatments; and
• Provides $500 million for health workforce to help train the next generation of doctors and nurses.

 

Foreign Policy:

• Won the Nobel Peace Prize for putting diplomacy back on the table.
• First U.S. President to address the Muslim/Arab world directly
  
• Appointed Special Envoys for Climate Change, Southwest Asia, the Middle East, Sudan, and a Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
• Improved relationships with China and Russia
• Won commitments from Russia on tougher sanctions with Iran.
• Ended the expensive, ineffective and diplomatically disastrous missile program in Europe.
• Re-started nuclear non-proliferation talks
• Re-started talks between Israel and Palestine
• Had the U.S. join the U.N. Human Rights Commission
• Helped save the Turkey/Armenia peace agreement.
  

 

Hiring the Most Qualified Senior Staff that is Also the Most Diverse Group

Obama’s senior staff is generally acknowledged to be one of the most impressive, smartest, and qualified groups in presidential history. Here’s a fact – they are also the most diverse. He’s picked more women and minorities than any other president.    

Getting beyond old paradigms.

“[I]n the fight against terrorism, there is no middle ground.” With these words former VP Dick Cheney laid out an uncompromising justification for using any means to stop potential acts against the U.S. While the left ridiculed his statement, progressives have shown their own brand of rigidity when responding to President Obama’s recent national security decisions. (See e.g., “The president wrapped himself in the Constitution and then proceeded to violate it.” (CCR President Michael Ratner; “The Obama administration [is] adopt[ing] … the stonewalling tactics and opaque policies of the Bush administration (ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romono)). Both Cheney and these progressive groups use a similar strategy – portray those who disagree with you in the most extreme terms and react to any variance in ideology as if it were a major betrayal.

Putting aside the merits on the arguments, both sides are showing that they are mired in the tradition left/right debate that has paralyzed American policies for decades. The major intellectual thrust of Obama’s presidency has been to transcend this standard divide. It is the idea behind his inauguration speech and The Audacity of Hope.

Obama himself seems to recognize that the real problem in the debate over national security is not finding the right policies but overcoming the rigid ideology that prevents us from agreeing upon pragmatic solutions, as the following quotes indicates:

“Now, over the last several weeks, we've seen a return of the politicization of these issues that have characterized the last several years. …

Both sides may be sincere in their views, but neither side is right. The American people are not absolutist, and they don't elect us to impose a rigid ideology on our problems. They know that we need not sacrifice our security for our values, nor sacrifice our values for our security, so long as we approach difficult questions with honesty and care and a dose of common sense. …. That's the challenge laid down by our Constitution. That has been the source of our strength through the ages.”

Focusing on solutions rather than ideology does not mean that we simply have to accept Obama at his word. (I disagree with several of the President’s positions.) But when disagreeing, we must do so without resorting to absolutes, without exaggeration, and without the labels that stigmatize the other side. Instead, we must use the same careful analysis that the President uses when he lays out his arguments. In short, we have to treat each other like adults.

As President Obama said “Now let me be blunt. There are no neat or easy answers here.” Both sides of the debate would do well to remember this.

First 100 Days

I hate to indulge the "first 100 days" silliness. FDR was sworn in on March 9, 1937 giving him 3 more months to prepare. Thus, any comparisons to FDR's first 100 are not apropos.

Yet, let's indulge ourselves just for fun. Obama has been remarkable. Let's say there's a legitimate argument about Obama's policy achievements (which have been many), it is unquestionable that he has shown all the traits of great leadership. Look at the 7 Hs of Highly Effective People (be proactive; know where you want to go; put first things first; think win-win; Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood; Synergize;Being Balanced). Obama is the poster child for these traits. In the most challenging times since the depression. Obama has dealt with ever issue with confidence. He has taken a commending presense on the U.S. and World stage while still listening and learning. He's allowed dissent and debate but then has showed resolve when making decisions.

All of this is made even more impressive when one remembers the primary knock on Obama during the election. Remember that Obama was supposed to be "too inexperienced" and not tough enough for the job. Can anyone - even those who disagree with his policies- say that now even after just 100 days? OK. Let's give him an A.

Christmas, Hanukkah, and the Audacity of Hope

Why Christmas Matters This Year

Christmas matters this year. This is an odd statement coming from a practicing Jew, so I’ll say Hanukkah matters as well.

Most years I don’t think about Christmas but for the nicety of holiday revelers and the extra time off. But the joy is missing. I work downtown, and normally holiday crowds are cheerful. This year, there are no crowds and people don’t look happy. Even loaded with gifts, bought at ridiculously low prices, shoppers seem more worried and less joyful as if they know that this buying spree may be the last form of lightness before even darker times. The time off is not comforting either. The days off and easy work schedule seem less like a relief than a harbinger of slow business to come. The world actually seems darker – not just spiritually, but physically as well. The night looks blank.


And so this is Christmas in 2008? With the normal joy gone, why does the holiday seem more poignant? Because the essential message about an improbable rebirth in a time of darkness is a message needed more than ever. At the darkest time of the year, the most lifeless, the salvation of humanity appears. It appears in the form of someone helpless (a baby) born to people not only of humble means but homeless who are on the run for evading taxes. The rebirth comes not through the power of armies or the uprising of the proletariat but through a message of peace – a command not only to love thy neighbor but thy enemy. Clearly this is not a salvation of armies but of the mind and spirit.

Hanukkah is a rebirth story of different kind, although the message is not so obvious. I was studying Hanukkah with Rabbi Jonathan Jaffe last week in the Mission over tocas. We were discussing why Hanukkah mattered at all. It is the only major historical holiday for which there is no biblical book or reference (the book of Maccabees upon which the story is based does not appear in the Hebrew scriptures). The story itself is not simple tale of joy with its bloody description of civil war between Jews and guerilla warfare against the Greeks. The time of year is not considered sacred and there is no prohibition against work. (Greenberg “The Jewish Way”). Yet, the holiday’s customs are much discussed in the Talmud, which also includes many stories not found in the book of Macabees. The Talmudic telling of Hanukkah focuses less on the celebration of a military victory but on rebirth of a nation and a people in a time of darkness. The rebirth, unlike Christmas, is practical, social, and political. It is complicated and wrought by men not God. (There are no miracles or even a mention of God’s activities in the book of Macabbees and the 8 days of oil was first discussed 500 years later).

With there different emphases, Christmas (spiritual) and Hanukkah (practical) provide a complete model for rebirth in times of darkness. Both have another aspect in common; the rebirth that these holidays seek is not the restoration of the natural order but radical change in the natural order. We know that the Christmas holiday was based on a various pagan, winter solstice holidays. The pagan sun god Mithra’s birthday was 12/25 as and the Roman holiday Saturnalia began a week before 12/25 and featured gift giving and wreaths to name but two examples. The purpose of these holidays was to reassure people that the natural order would continue – light and plants would return in the spring. This purpose is similar to the other winter holiday on the Jewish calendar, Tu BiSh'vat. Celebrated in January when the first signs of almond sprouts appear in Jerusalem, the holiday puts Jews on notice that nature will once again bring fourth the bounty to which we are accustomed.

Christmas and Hanukah implore us to reach not for a rebirth that that is expected but onis e that impossible. A poor man from a homeless family on the run from the taxman is not a paradigm hero (let alone savior). And a small band of guerrilla warriors simply do not successfully rebel against the world’s premier power of the time (the Greeks). There is no empirical reason to believe such things are possible. But these holidays provide us stories that remind us that we can transcend the ordinary and expected; that the way things are now or the way things are naturally is not the way they have they have to be or should be.

The stories are finally about the audacity of hope. Which brings me back, as so many things do for me this year, to Barrack Obama. His improbably victory (did anyone ever think a mixed race black man would be president in our lifetime) reminds us that the impossible can happen. As importantly we don’t have to settle for what were told “has to be.”

My wife Angela recently told me that this Christmas seems very small. She’s right. In good times, the “rebirth in darkness stories” are easy to ignore. Not now. As odd as it is for this Jew to admit it, we need Christmas this year.

Ron Howard’s Happy Lie: Nixon/Frost Movie Review

Ron Howard’s Nixon/Frost has much to recommend it. Creating a compelling drama that propels the watcher forward without the resorting to standards tricks such as action or romance certainly speaks well for the director. Howard also draws nuanced depictions of his two protagonists, refusing to make them into stock characters. The movie also does a nice job with its theme about how the power of television to crystallize a moment both illustrates and simplifies history.

Yet when dealing with real life events, especially those so relevant to the present, I think Howard owes audiences something more – he’s owes them honestly. I’m not talking about the slavish re-creation of facts, but the depiction of events and characters rings true in the overall sense if not in the details. Howard fails.

Howard portrays Nixon as a modern tragic figure – more sinned against than sin-ed. Nixon is brilliant, shrewd, and driven in Howard’s world. Yes, he’s a little crazy and yes he goes over the line – but who wouldn’t after spending your life being told by Ivory Tower elitists that you’re not good enough. Nixon’s “regret” that he let the American people down comes off as sincere.

This portraying is misleading and dangerous. Nixon was paranoid and ruthlessly persecuted enemies real and perceived. He would say and do anything to keep in power. Nixon’s cynical “southern strategy,” using racism to get democratic votes, set up the wedge politics that have lead to years of political stagnation. He spied on Americans, invaded countries in the express contradiction to federal law. This total abrogation of the public trust began a deep cynicism by the American people that continues to this day and has allowed Republics to rule so badly but stay in power. These are among the many malfeasances ignored by the movie.

The movie is dishonest but also dangerous. Nixon’s abuses of power should remind us that the current President has recreated the imperial presidency. Bush, while not paranoid, punished his enemies. Bush showed similar disdain for the law believing, like Nixon, that what the president does is the law. Howard’s psychological excuses of Nixon tend to provide an excuse the current president’s wrongdoing.

What is more disconcerting is that Howard’s deception is unnecessary. Nixon is a complicated enough tat he can be portrayed without being a stock villain. An honest portrayal would have in no way diminished Howard’s mediation on the TV’s ability to exemplify and simplify. It seems that Howard needed to graft a more positive spin on the story. Why? Could it just be for ratings? Or does Howard need to impose his optimism on the story? If so, he should pick other subjects that lend themselves to his theme without distorting the facts.

I don’t believe artists owe the public a particular story or a particular point of view. But when they do tell a story, they should do so honestly. And when they use recent facts they have a responsibility not to mislead the public.