President Obama Ties Reform To Rebuilding Middle Class

POLITICO:

PITTSBURGH -- President Barack Obama delivered his most strongly worded speech in defense of organized labor since taking office - tying health care reform into his broader promise to rebuild the middle class and blue-collar America.

Read the whole story: POLITICO

Comments

[Philclock]

"Middle class" is an unstable platform, no lifetime company positions anymore. I've had 3 jobs with banks and mortgage companies where the company downsized my position.

The lesson? You want Middle Class, you gotta fight for it; just like fighting to move up.

Unless, of course, you're in government, then you're guaranteed your job by...TAXES ON THE MIDDLE CLASS!!! Actually, most taxes are paid by the wealthy, so you got money they get you, whatever you are.

[StuManChu]

Let's see, we'll tax the middle class to pay for health care they don't want, even though we were promised no tax hikes on the middle class. To save the planet, it will cost families $1761 with the brilliant cap and tax plan. Obama is set to destroy the middle class. Thanks.

[HeartT]

Healtcare reform is the middle class bail out, plain and simple. I've said it thousand times on this very blog. The middle class has lost jobs, homes, all basic security and healthcare keeps going up and up. The president talks about prevention. Prevention is costly, healthcare reform that the president speaks of addresses this cost. Healthcare costs rise often. In my case, yearly. I've gone from a $220@ month to $700/mo in three years. Lose a job, change a job, healthcare disappears. Rationing? God forbid, you should get sick or have a bad accident. Insurance companies will ration you from the sick bed to the grave and I can attest to that. If the middle class is ever going to begin to come back from this economic turndown, it needs healthcare reform. Every middle-class and poor family in America is one illness or one accident away from losing everything. It's about time the President tied healthcare reform to the rise of middle class. Healthcare Reform is the middle class bail out. Fight for it. Don't let the Republicans take away your chance to recover.

[PaxEterna]

Rebuilding the middle class sounds good, but mandating insurance won't do it.

I urge all to read the lead story in The Boston Globe on-line today about health care premiums rising in MA, the prototype for mandated insurance for all.

Yep, they are going up again, 9-10% and guess what, employers are dropping coverage or shifting a greater percentage of the burden to workers, in the midst of no pay raises. I guess that amounts to a pay cut..

The costs have sky-rocketed since the mandate went into effect, the delivery system is overutilized and underfunded, and the people who actually pay into the system are going broke - to the tune of paying 20% or more of their income for health INSURANCE.

As goes MA, so goes the nation ...God forbid.

[johnnycmlately]

Say what you want to about the man, and i've been critical of him at time, but the man is WORKIN'.

[Dustee]

Damn You Barack Obama, Again

I swear man. Every time. Like, every single time. They pile on they write him off and then he does his thing and gives a great speech that hits the points just about right. They said he was throwing the public option overboard, then he put 7 paragraphs of it in the speech. They said he was going to give his liberal base the cold shoulder, then he smacked the GOP around. They said he wasn’t emotional enough, then talked about Ted Kennedy, average Americans and the moral urgency of health care reform.

Damn you Barack Obama for bringing honor back to the presidency.

http://www.oliverwillis.com/2009/09/09/damn-you-barack-obama-again/

[mergina]

Will you PLEASE STOP GIVING SPEECHES AND DO SOMETHING, ANYTHING, BUT GIVE SPEECHES?

[justobserve]

Exactly! I can't listen to his speeches anymore. Despite hard work from labor movement, it takes a President to sign a bill to make reform a reality but it's obvious Obama is not on the same page with people he praised for their hard work: a public option is a must in any reform. Without a public option, a mandatory insurance is a soldout to the insurance industry. That is NOT the reform we all hope for. Why is it Obama can't make himself the pusher for a public option? Health care reform is not a liberal or progressive's agenda alone. It's a priority when we saw all the worst that has happened in our insurance industry. NO PUBLIC OPTION = MONOPOLY WINS!

[DonRoberto]

Unfortunately, in the United States, the President doesn't make the laws.

President Obama has three choices: He can go down in flames promoting an ideal bill that can't get a majority of votes in either House; he can defer real reform until the future, as has been done for a century; or he can continue to work for the best possible *successful* reform bill he can.

Does no one understand that it doesn't matter right now that 75% of the public want a public option? It takes actual *votes* in Congress to enact legislation; holding the President responsible for the public's failure to elect pro-reform Senators and Representatives is both useless and counterproductive.

If you want to make a difference, quit blaming a President who wants 99% of what you want, and start working on the elected officials who are standing in the way of real reform.

[Dustee]

Trying to get his base and the public on his side is a big part of this. Have you been calling your congress critters and attending town halls, are you still doing your part? Are you encouraging your friend and neighbors to do the same. This is not a one man show...everybody needs to help out.

[GeriNV]

A lot of money going down the drain. Money pouring in to health related agencies, to fund positions and jobs that were already secure. Money for those already making money, while the unemployed and poor sit waiting for crumbs. by the time you get enough education to qualify to even apply for these grants, our country has gone to China. More money for PhD's and healthcare. More money to those with jobs and money. Grants to create jobs that require years of training ... sure that's a quick recovery, good luck trying to get some.
http://grants.nih.gov/recovery/
http://www.hhs.gov/recovery/grantscontracts/index.html#grants
http://www.recovery.gov/?q=content/agency-summary&agency_code=97
The list goes on and on....

[cassandra63200]

I love my President .

[LemonMeringue]

It is a nice idea, isn't it - rebuilding the middle class.

There were a whole bunch of lovely ideas. I am still waiting.

[deneufeldt]

At least Obama is trying. What did George do for the middle class? Send us to Iraq to look for WMD?

[GeriNV]

He is a good looking man! I love his photos from Hawaii. Nice body too.

[rain33]

me too!

[climatebabes]

Obama lives in a bubble, his words are the complete opposite of his actions.

[deneufeldt]

Examples please.........

[GeriNV]

look at where the funding is going right now ... just look at the recovery act.

[LemonMeringue]

Rebuilding the middle class is going to take more than 4 years.

I don't think Obama will get another term.

Failing on health care on top of all the other failures to deliver real change is just too much.

[GeriNV]

Take on 10 projects at once and see how successful you can be.

[LemonMeringue]

Of course he was handed a mess. I've always said it would take decades to fix it all.

I never expected him to be obsessed with pleasing the Republicans over getting accomplished a progressive agenda. Republicans did not elect him. So far they are relieved and we are heartbroken.

Of course I blame Congress even more.

[Tuckerndfw]

What's really funny in a dark sort of way is the gov't is probably the biggest user of "contractors" who provide no benefits and substandard wages.

[jinxed]

Another one of Ronnie's brilliant ideas!

[LemonMeringue]

We're waiting for a crumb...

[GeriNV]

keep waiting cause he gave more billions to healthcare funding. Who is in healthcare? Those with solid secure jobs, areas that take years to train for, doctors with money... yep. Housing, foreclosures, unemployment - don't hold your breath. NIH funding, DoD, VA, HRSA, they are posting more and more grants for those in health to apply. Makes no sense, giving money to those with money and you won't qualify to apply... takes a PhD or other level training to get one. Haven't seen many poor PhD around.

Give money to those with money. Yep, that's the funding.

[LemonMeringue]

Bankers rule the world.

I don't think the American government has any power at all over the supranational ring of filthy rich people who get together at the Bilderberg Group meetings every year. Not even the President.

Obama knows it. He promised things and we hoped for things that are impossible because of this.

One thing is for sure: Campaign finance reform should have preceded health care reform, if only there had been time to wait. Legal bribery has taken away all our representation. Nobody represents us anymore.

[Tuckerndfw]

Going to be hard to rebuild anything when other nations stop loaning us money to finance our ever increasing debt.

Since the US no longer has an industrial base, who is going to unionize & to what end?

Gov't workers are about the only people who are unionizing but that seems a little counterproductive without a manufacturing base to support them.

[sense oar sheep]

what middle-class?

the working middle-class no longer exists in the united states