Obama's Top Six Health Care Players

LA Times:

Months ago, when President Obama made healthcare his top domestic priority and picked the White House team to make it happen, he selected individuals for just this moment -- not for the beginning or the middle of the campaign, but for the end of the fight.

That time has arrived for Obama and for the six people he chose. With deep ties to Capitol Hill, the team is designed for the inside game unfolding now in House and Senate offices. Their job includes gathering intelligence, assessing what lawmakers want and devising compromises to win over balky members without alienating others.

Read the whole story: LA Times

Comments

[rflctammt]

The president himself goes silent?

Whose side are you on?

The president himself is a deeply commited, insightful, careful leader who cares as much about this issue as anyone out there.

One day he's bashed for talking too much, the next for not talking enough. Goes silent indeed. Sometimes even journalists and media need to remember this:

LEAD, FOLLOW or GET OUT OF THE WAY.

[KLordsha]

Curious that HP would add "The President himself goes silent.." Haven't they seen the townhalls and multiple interviews regarding healthcare? You can't win with some people it seems....

[windup]

He neglected to include Howard Dean.

[TheBaffler]

Since when does he appoint people who are actually for reform?

[joeinvt]

Well said.

[Dupree]

The headliner is once again...misleading. If Obama send some of his administration to oversee the Healthcare Reform details...allow me to take a wild stretch of my imagination...they are implementing HIS plan. He does not have to get out front on the issue for a photo-opt. He is working diligently behind the scene...through his mouth pieces...his handpicked selection of his administra­tion...and they are handpicked for a reason...to execute his agenda. Not their own. I do not know why it is necessary for the creator of the headlines...to create a "shiny object" to entice the masses to bemoan a non-issue. It is as if when Hillary, the Secretary of State goes to other countries representing the U.S......she is NOT implementing her own brand of ideas...for if she did ...she would no longer be fulfilling her role as an ambassador of this country. An ambassador or operating Secretary of States....is to be in step with the President and there is to be not even a slight space between them for her job performance to be successful. The same is also true of the President administration. This conclude our lesson for today.

[Okieborn]

The American citizenry did not vote these dudes in to handle our healthcare problems !!
That is why President Obama was elected and promised he would be on the front lines for a good strong healthcare for the poor and middle class !!
Where is the CHANGE and HOPE !!!

[thepoliticalcat]

While I deplore the spin of this article (Baucus is NOT a centrist, he's a bribee), I'm pleased to find that our President is a strategy-minded player. He doesn't do cheap shots and sound bites. He makes plans for the entire Grand Game, and works quietly but effectively, no matter how people attack and excoriate him. Public health is almost within our grasp. And if it isn't perfect, well, we've got SEVEN years to make it better. Which will be greatly enhanced when the ReUglyCan'ts and Blue Running Dogs are replaced by people worth their salt, like Bernie Sanders and Al Franken, and Jim Webb, and their ilk.

[rflctammt]

Co-signed and fanned.

[TJCole]

Only Trust Peter Orszag...!

He's trying his hardest for the People, he always has..!

[wijg]

"Jim Messina eats the same steak-and-fries plate at the same table in the same restaurant with his old boss, Sen. Max Baucus -- the man responsible for the centrist bill that will shape the final healthcare plan."

There is NOTHING "centrist" about the Baucus bill.

[grandma58]

Jim Messina is max's right hand man and his left as well and maybe even in his hip pocket. I trust Max more then messina and I do not trust max one iota.

[thepoliticalcat]

How can you trust Max when it's well known that his aide, Liz Fowler, who authored this bill, is a former VP of WellPoint, one of the biggest medical insurance companies?

[wijg]

"Their job includes gathering intelligence, assessing what lawmakers want and devising compromises to win over balky members without alienating others."

Funny how you left out the most important part of their job, which is assessing what the majority of Americans want. The American people have already compromised and we've settled for a public option. Now do it.

[MAH999]

You called out the exact quote that jumped out at me. Who on this committee represents us? I didn't know this was a government by and for the members of the house and senate. Rahm has been very tepid on the public option. I don't like seeing him anywhere near this. Baucus' bill isn't even in the ballpark of acceptable. If it wins, it will be a loss for the Dems and for this country.

We've waited long enough and compromised way too much already. This country needs a full universal system, everyone in, no one excluded. If the morality of it isn't pursuasive, the impact on our economy ought to be. We cannot compete in a global marketplace against companies that are not burdened with providing medical care to their employees. A strong, robust public option available to all who want it is the minimum requirement.

[Imago]

"Funny how you left out the most important part of their job, which is assessing what the majority of Americans want."

No, that isn't their job. They're negotiators, not public opinion pollers.

Do you really think anyone in the White House doesn't know where the country's opinions are on this?

Have you ever been involved in difficult negotiations? Once you're at that point, you're long past taking the general pulse about what's happening -- you're now in there intimately with the decision makers that you're trying to sway, working the conversation.

It's no accident that Obama has had these folks quietly involved and has chosen to release them now. People truly don't understand how strategic he is.

[thepoliticalcat]

Spot on! He mapped this out a long time ago. He's not one to go for the easy sound-bite, the hammering on tables, the yelling and fighting in front of the cameras. He's had a strategy in place to take on this thing and win, and it included working quietly behind the scenes and letting everyone else scream and yell and posture. Now they've made themselves look like a bunch of raving fools, and the President is close to the goal.

People don't understand how hard this was. Twice before there has been a push towards health care for the people, and twice it's gone down in defeat. Even if we don't get universal care this month, we'll get closer to it before this year is over. We can fine-tune it as we go along, but we have to get it first.

The fact that President Obama has managed this in a time when his opponents are scaring the elderly, calling him every kind of name they can think of, funding astroturfed marches, and playing on the deeply divided electorate's basest passions -- that's noteworthy. Thank goodness we elected him. He doesn't grandstand, just keeps his head down and works. Despite 400 threats a day.

[Coinyer101]

Orzag is the only one I like. The rest are centrist tools....,

[frappe]

If the final health care reform bill doesn't feature a strong public option as part of its fundamental core, are the American people just supposed to accept the fact that our political system has become too corrupt to do the right thing...that "special interests" pull the strings?

No, we ought to DEMAND real and constructive change! We should not just accept that our system of government has been so thoroughly corrupted by corporate interests and that there is nothing that we can do...that our situation is essentially hopeless. Nonsense!

Clearly, it is illegal when the people's interests are being blatantly subjugated and pushed aside by their supposed representatives who prefer, instead, to take large bribes which are euphemistically being called "political contributions". This is so fundamentally wrong and our system of justice should be working to expose and correct this clear breach of the public trust.

We shouldn't take this cr@p lying down! Let's put an end to this injustice! Our Constitution demands it!

[fishingriver]

I'm with that. Where do we start?

[frappe]

I would ally with one of the public interest groups. I, for one, support MoveOn, but there are a number of good non-profit organizations out there working on the public's behalf. We need them all to work together, in one unified effort, to expose this corruption to such a degree that Congress is essentially forced, out of sheer embarrassment, to reform itself.

[srose74]

I voted for Obama because I am confident in my lifetime that this one man, with all of his bravery, greatness, maturity, and compassion, will change the course of this country. We will once again become a prosperous nation, with happy citizens who will all have enough to eat, a place to sleep at night, a health care plan they can afford, and hope for their own futuries. I know that President Obama is the one, the only one, who is capable of chaging the Washington game that the Republicants have made it. I know that after 30 years of the destruction of our great country, we will once again be a proud nation and a country that all countries across this planet would be proud to call a friend. This is what Obama means to us. Under Obama, we will all be granted affordable access to health, because he, unlike the 30 years of Rethug rule before him, cares about this country's citizens. Thank you, President Obama.

[rollingdivision]

Such faith in any politician is naive and foolish.

[teron678]

spoken from experience ........ LOL

Know you had the same feeling towards Dubya .. LOL

[fishingriver]

No offense intended, but if he only delivers to the insurance industry in the end, will you apologize for your blind support?

[srose74]

Perhaps for you it is silly, but a strong leader creates a strong nation. We can't do worse than Bush.

[9liberal]

rollingdivision: I don't know srose, but if I can add my 2 cents, it is the fact that he has the ability to inspire the people to move. It is not so much about him, as it is about us. Some people say, yeah, so what he can deliver a speech, well sometimes all he has to do is deliver that speech and then he's got people making calls, and going door to door...it really is how it works. It is inspirational to see young kids, college kids, getting involved in gov't and civics, caring about their neighbor, caring about science and the environment. It helps to have a leader who cares about these things too...and Obama does.

[SMP]

I totally agree and will add this.......

President Obama will NOT do any harm to this country. His goal is to change our direction, we have become stagnent and insignificant. I say this with confidence because he has two precious girls and slowly but surely will bring this country in a new and prosporous direction so his girls as will all children and the children after that, have opportunities to thrive in a very competetive world....They will once again become the best of the best, if their hearts so aspire.

[Unsui]

I am glad that there are people like you, srose74, who are not afraid to stand up and support a man and a team that represent America's last best hope. Kudos to you. Fanned and Faved.

[holeybuybull]

Wipe your chin.

[Grannysue]

Emanual doesn't seem to be on the same page as the public, he's said in the past we didn't need a public option, throw his ass off this committee I want people on there focused on what the people want not what's in their political interest.

[fishingriver]

We aren't going to get a public option. They are going to whitle it down to be accessible to only a select group of people who are uninsurable. Or they will put it on "a trigger" that will never be pulled. The insurance industry will get the mandate they want and we will be told, "this is a start, elect more democrats and next time...." . We'd have to have 90 seats in the senate to get legislation past ourselves. The dems have it all and act like they can't so a thing without the republicans. The truth is that they are both controlled by Big Money. This a great charade that will result in a mandate with no real public choice except that we will all be forced to buy from the insurance industry. Congresses contributors and real bosses.

[dwright]

it must hurt to be you

[Imago]

You know, I've been reading people saying "Emanuel doesn't want a public option" for weeks if not months now and I've spent some time searching to see if I could find any instance of a direct quote when he said he didn't want it.

I haven't been able to find one. I haven't even been able to see any direct quotes from him stating that he didn't think the public option would get through the Senate, even those there is lots of noise about that as well.

I have seen him directly quoted as saying that the president wants the public option. And I've seen him directly quoted when he's said the the president isn't going to draw a line in the sand over it before he sees what comes out of Congress.

If someone has a direct quote from him from a real news source about Rahm Emanuel wanting to torpedo the public option, I will willingly stand corrected.

But I think people have misinterpreted the White House's negotiating strategy as well as Emanuel's role in the conversation. It isn't his job to make policy decisions, it's his job to get people to agree to the president's policy decisions.

[Imago]

That would, of course, be "even though here is lots of noise about that as well." rather than
"even those there is lots of noise about that as well."

Proofreading is a wonderful thing!

[Imago]

I'm cracking myself up! I can't even get the correction typed right...

Guess that's a sign that I should actually go do something productive...

[dwright]

Exactly!! He is the back seat LBJ in all of this

[Ventoi]

I wasn't aware of the groupings of people who would be denied health care...
or the bizarre...­anti-healt­h-care reasons for denying that care...
the more you need it?
the less control you have over the 'condition'?
the age at which you are needing to be cared for by your country MORE, in any case?

I don't see a MOMMY-TYPE person in those six...
I don't see a senior citizen...
I don't see racial or religious representation...

[dwright]

your point?

[rollingdivision]

Statist liberals all and a couple truly believe in socialism.

[christopherflynn]

i'd lay money you couldn't even define socialism withot "googling" it, and tell the huffpo audience what's wrong with it?

[hypnotoad72]

Not true, but given how some 'capitalists' have been acting, I can't blame some of the more fringe lefties either... not when these capitalists, which our society made, are now spitting when not s*itting on said society. How can anyone support them?

[TheBaffler]

We should only be so lucky.