Week Thirty-Two

National Scene 9/9 - 9/15/2009

By Linnie Frank Bailey

Our 'Jackie Robinson' in the White House

Facing the same kinds of taunts and vitriol that greeted the nation's first black major-league baseball player Jackie Robinson, America's President handles animosity and rudeness with a style and grace reminiscent of the Brooklyn Dodger great.

This week President Obama took ownership of health care reform legislation with a decisive tone in an address to Congress. He made clear he will not accept "the status quo" and is determined to pass reform legislation this year. The President concluded his remarks to Congress by reading a letter he received from Senator Ted Kennedy shortly before he lost his battle with brain cancer. In the letter, Senator Kennedy wrote: "What we face is above all a moral issue; at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country." Kennedy was writing about health care, but the passage could just as easily refer to the current state of public discourse in America.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

President Obama Addresses Congress and the Nation

In a rare appearance before both houses of Congress, the President outlined his plan for health care reform and his determination to see a bill passed this year. The President's bill is summarized as follows: (from WhiteHouse.gov)

Plan Benefits If You Currently Have Health Insurance

---Allows Americans who have health insurance and like it to keep it.

---Ends discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions.

---Limits premium discrimination based on gender and age.

---Prevents insurance companies from dropping coverage when people are sick and need it most.

---Caps out-of pocket expenses and prohibits insurance companies from imposing annual or lifetime caps on benefit payments.

---Eliminates extra charges for preventive care like mammograms, flu shots and diabetes tests to ensure that all Americans have access to free preventive services under their health insurance plans.

---Protects Medicare for seniors and extends new protections for Medicare beneficiaries that improve quality, coordinate care and reduce beneficiary and program costs.

---Closes the Medicare "donut hole" - a current gap in its drug benefit - by providing a 50 percent discount on brand-name prescription drugs for seniors who fall into it.

Plan Benefits If You Don't Have Insurance

---Creates a new insurance marketplace - the Exchange - that allows people without insurance and small businesses to compare plans and buy insurance at competitive prices.

---Provides new tax credits to help people buy insurance. The President's plan will provide new tax credits on a sliding scale to individuals and families that will limit how much of their income can be spent on premiums.

---Provides small businesses tax credits and affordable options for covering employees. Small businesses who for too long have faced higher prices than larger businesses, will now be eligible to enter the exchange so that they have lower costs and more choices for covering their workers.

---Offers a public health insurance option to provide the uninsured and those who cannot find affordable coverage with a real choice. The President believes this option will promote competition, hold insurance companies accountable and assure affordable choices. It is completely voluntary.

---Immediately offers new, low-cost coverage through a national "high risk" pool to protect people with preexisting conditions from financial ruin.

The President's plan also includes details on how health care reform will be paid for, and he has promised the plan, "will not add one dime to the deficit today or in the future and is paid for in a fiscally responsible way."

The President Attends Memorial Service for Walter Cronkite

President Obama joined dignitaries and journalists at a celebration of the life of veteran reporter Walter Cronkite. Cronkite- an American icon was remembered as a trusted voice that saw the country through difficult times. Obama recalled, "He was forever there, reporting through world war and cold war; marches and milestones; scandal and success; calmly and authoritatively telling us what we needed to know. He was a voice of certainty in a world that was growing more and more uncertain. And through it all, he never lost the integrity or the plainspoken speaking style that he gained growing up in the heartland. He was a familiar and welcome voice that spoke to each and every one of us personally."

Friday, September 11, 2009

The Nation and the Administration Remembers September 11, 2001

Members of the Obama Administration joined Americans across the country in remembering the victims of the 9-11 attack:

--The President placed a wreath and led a service at the Pentagon. He honored the victims by saying, "We remember with reverence the lives we lost. We read their names. We press their photos to our hearts. And on this day that marks their death, we recall the beauty and meaning of their lives; men and women and children of every color and every creed, from across our nation and from more than 100 others. They were innocent. Harming no one, they went about their daily lives. Gone in a horrible instant, they now "dwell in the House of the Lord forever."

--After declaring September 11^th a National Day of Service, the President and First Lady Michelle Obama painted walls at a Habitat for Humanity site in Washington, D.C.

--Attorney General Eric Holder delivered remarks at a ceremony at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. The ceremony honored the 72 law enforcement officers killed in the terrorist attacks.

--Vice President Biden joined officials and families at ground zero in New York - the site of the Trade Center. The Vice President joined New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg in placing flowers in the ground zero reflecting pool.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Obama Fires Up Crowd in Minnesota

The President gave a rousing speech on health care reform to an audience at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He asked for help in getting the word out on his plan and dispelling rumors and false truths. Obama stated that he was still, "Fired Up, and Ready To Go!"