Craig Crawford's Trail Mix

Your humble host would most appreciate keeping this thread mostly focused on Obama's 8pm EST press conference. (Yeah right, like that'll happen!)

Thats a deal Craig....but what happened to the Woo-Woo....in you new accent!

http://www.longtermthinking.net/

Thanks for that link, KGC! Very interesting -- it's now in the "Usual Suspects" section of my "Favorites."

Posted by: Patsi

I'm glad you like it. It's a great subject and I think he is doing an excellent job of exploring it.

from the Obama opening remarks

"And it's about the fact that the biggest driving force behind our federal deficit is the skyrocketing cost of Medicare and Medicaid."

that statement is a pile of poop

What about defense spending? The war in Iraq and now Afghanistan

As for medicare and the prescription drug benefit --we don't need no stinkin' overall reform to fix that ..just let the feds negotiate with the drug companies

KGC -- just a quick link...some great stuff lately:

http://www.dailyhowler.com/

Patsi

Thanks..someone should tell Rachael not to wrestle with pigs
(we love Horsedooty)

So far he seems a little boring. Sorry.

Who gives a flying fig what AARP says..they are an insurance company

It's not just the uninsured...what about all the people who have insurance but end up in bankruptcy because of uncovered medical bills.

The for profit insurance system is bankrupting the US

He's doing good.....it's nice to see.........

Waste and unconscionable profits by the insurance companies

It's not just the uninsured...what about all the people who have insurance but end up in bankruptcy because of uncovered medical bills.

The for profit insurance system is bankrupting the US

Posted by: Katherine Graham Cracker Author Profile Page | July 22, 2009 8:23 PM

well, yes......of course there's that..............

Hi Senor Fish -want a drink?

The maroon from ABC got his question from Prick Morris
no one is talking about sacrificing quality care or killing old people to save money

I think the President is trying hard.I remember Hillary trying hard and getting smacked around...There are people who profit from the current system and they don't want things to change..I do...

so, only 4 reporters have been able to ask questions for nearly 35 minutes. and all dutifully stayed on the health care message. pitiful.

If Obama can take on defense spending...why not the insurance companies?

ms katrin............yes, thank you.........I'll have just a wee one, if you please............

Sturg...

a very dry and tiny martini coming your way!

a question on open and transparent discussions -- does that count Craig?

Looks like the non health care questions are back loaded

Go KGC

LOL

Need an extra pitch fork, a few buckets of tar?

Jack

"no one is talking about sacrificing quality care or killing old people to save money"

And that's exactly the kind of lunacy the right is trying to sell people via emails....

Sorry -- I just don't think he's selling any ideas tonight. Not to people who aren't already on board.

Need an extra pitch fork, a few buckets of tar?

Jack

I'm farrred up...I just had my frickin premium raised

Ha! Good line just now.

Where is the usual commentary here?

the R;s talking points for tomorrow.. Obama wants to hinder the jobs of the police..he doesn't want to have the blks..or hispanics questioned.

Why does Howard Fineman think it's a big deal that Obama backed Gates in the Cambridge debacle? Duh -- any thinking person backs Gates in that deal.

I wish I knew something.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/07/press-conferencing.html#comment-245832

Patsi
Agreed nothing new.I just hope the Democrats can stick together and get something done..

KGC
Good point why doesn't Obama really take Insurance companies on??I think we all know the answer...Sadly..

I like Obama. But, I always felt he was an assassination target..the Kennedy parallel, etc. Either an insurance industry hit man will take him out or the cigs...one or the other.

two follow questions, i think, in a one hour "press conference." let's just call this the Press Corps Town Hall

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/07/press-conferencing.html#comment-245837

Solar
I'm sure your correct.Its amazing to me that Republicans stick there heads up there ass and act as though they don't know the truth.Ah yes and then there's good ole Pat B.and his opinion on how white men are the one's being discriminated against...

Craig,

I think that he did what he wanted to do......keep the R's at bay..and expose them for not wanting to help with H. C. He did mention the ones that did..O. Snow, a cpl more. He did sound bi-partisan when he said that even though the R's were not on boar....he was still looking at there suggestions.....and my favorite shot at them...was the blue and red choice. If the blue costs half and much of the red...well we save half of the $ by choosing the blue.

"let's just call this the Press Corps Town Hall"

Precisely.

CC.....just for thought......what should they have asked about?

kennedy is wearing the shortest tie i've ever seen on a grown up

Craig....
Press Corps Town Hall..... yup... I guess true press conferences have now gone the way of newspapers..... practically obsolete....

and yes.... Obama said what he wanted to say..... I watched the whole thing...
but then... I'm a news and political junkie. I'd love to know what the average American actually thought about it.... and/or if they bothered to watch and how long they stuck with it....

in that clip, i mean

and that truman clip is from the year i was bornded...........

crazy world, this..............

An amazing waste of time.

He also should have avoided the last question. Calling the Cambridge cops stupid (regardless of the actual events) was, well, stupid.

Your humble host would most appreciate keeping this thread mostly focused on Obama's 8pm EST press conference. (Yeah right, like that'll happen!)

Posted by: craigcrawford.myopenid.com

Couldn't come up with a classic country song to fit the precise situation, so I stayed away. (^_~)

Ok folks, that's enough. From here on we won't even bother building threads around these so-called press conferences. If news ever breaks out in one of these things, we'll try again.

Feel free to change the subject. Please.

No questions about the wise Latina Lady or the Crazy Birther Lady? Did they simply run out of time before those came up?

oops. Seem to have stepped into a large cowpie there. My sincerest apologies. Time to say "goodnight, Gracie"--

(incidentally, Grace is my middle name)

Making myself scarce for a few days--

The 'Public Option' _is_ taking the insurance companies on. If the option is really a single-payer equivalent, then it will probably become the plan of choice.

The hole in the whole thing is not requiring people to have a plan--that's the thing that can bring the system down because it destroys the moral equity of the public option.

Hospitals and other providers should be required to show the uninsured (under the new plan) the door--or be prepared to pay for their care out of their own pockets.

well.......everyone knows what follows sweet thursday............

"Calling the Cambridge cops stupid (regardless of the actual events) was, well, stupid."

Bowmanc, he probably figured they were the same bunch who kept giving his car, the one parked in front of the fire hydrant, parking tickets.

Do cambridge cops get to take classes at hahvahd?

Update (TL): You can watch live at CBS here. The feed is already live. (BTD) - Here are some of the prepared remarks.

(BTD) 50 minutes in - President Obama, politically speaking, has knocked it out of the park. Bully pulpit indeed. A bravura performance by a tremendous politician. For a contrary view, Kevin Drum thought Obama stank.
http://www.talkleft.com/story/2009/7/22/19453/1511

Ms Cracker, you are correct yet again. Pile of poop. The biggest health care budget-buster is and will be the thousands of Army and Marine Vets who came home (& are still coming) from babybush's ala Carte Iraq Fiasco with head injuries. VERY conservatively, $1.1 B!LL!ON/yr for the next 30 years. That doesn't count surgeries, lost limbs, prosthetic intestines, etc. Throw in the excess head injuries in Afghanistan (we have to conquer the country twicebecause the ibrain injured bushies let taliban/alqaeda regroup in Afghanistan), and the head injury bill nearly doubles.

Tax the crap out of the bush/cheney/rumdum/tenet crime family to pay for it all. Break them 'til they have to beg an street corners.

Ron Paul: End wars to fund health care

Published: July 22, 2009
Updated 5 hours ago

House Rep. Ron Paul may be America’s most famous libertarian these days, but he’s making a surprising concession to progressives when it comes to the debate about public health care.

Though the house representative from the 14th District of Texas still insists that government should get out of the health care trade altogether, he told CNN’s Kiran Chetry on Wednesday that “you don’t want to cut under these [economic] conditions medical care from poor people who have been dependent, or the elderly.

“Even though I have my ideal system I would like to see, with the government out completely — because that would be a much better system — that’s not going to happen. I’m realistic.”

But, the House rep said, “one thing we shouldn’t do is pay for it with money out of thin air,” referring to the federal government’s ballooning deficit.

“So what i would do in a transition … is cut spending somewhere and take care of the people we’re talking about.”

And to finance health reform, Paul would like to see the US end its overseas military engagements. “I would cut from overseas spending, I would cut from these trillions and trillions of dollars that we have spent over the years and bring our troops home so that we can finance it [health care].”

Paul said that President Obama’s decision to cancel the F-22 fighter jet program was “a first very very minor step … and I applaud Obama for that. But we don’t need one [defense project] removed, we need to change our foreign policy, then we could afford the health care that is necessary to tide us over until we come to our senses and believe that freedom can deliver medical care much better than a bureaucracy.”

‘MAKE LOVE NOT WAR’

forgot link again.

http://rawstory.com/08/news/author/raw227/

Hot Date ! Wish me luck.

XR, I really think those catastrophic injuries are fewer than in other major wars. I suppose the sad reality is that most of the patients will be warehoused in VA facilities after their families are completely worn out by the realities of providing for their round-the-clock care.

In any case,Katherine, I suspect the figures for military spending and healthcare are reversed from what they were thirty years ago--now we're spending better than 15-pct of our GDP on healthcare whereas we were spending close to that amount on defense in the past.

We're probably spending somewhat less than 7-pct of our GDP on defense these days--these days being over the past 15-years.

XR, you and Max?? :))

Surely, I really do jest.

Reforming health care may be the key to economic recovery but not because of federal spending on medicare and medicaid but because true reform would take the burden off employers and give employees more independence

* Defense and international security: In 2008, some 21 percent of the budget, or $625 billion, went to pay for defense and security-related international activities. The bulk of the spending in this category reflects the underlying costs of the Department of Defense and other security-related activities. The total also includes the cost of supporting operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, for which Congress appropriated approximately $188 billion in 2008 (note that this amount represents funding, not actual spending).
* Social Security: Another 21 percent of the budget, or $617 billion, went to Social Security, which provided retirement benefits averaging $1,041 per month to 35 million retired workers (and dependents of retirees) in September 2008. Social Security also provided survivors’ benefits to 6.4 million surviving children and spouses of deceased workers and disability benefits to 9.1 million disabled workers in September 2008.
* Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP: Three health insurance programs — Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) — together accounted for 20 percent of the budget in 2008, or $599 billion. Nearly two-thirds of this amount, or $391 billion, went to Medicare, which provides health coverage to around 45 million people who are over the age of 65 or have disabilities. The remainder of this category funds Medicaid and CHIP, which in a typical month provide health care or long-term care to more than 45 million low-income children, parents, elderly people, and people with disabilities. Both Medicaid and CHIP require matching payments from the states.
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=1258

I thought he avoided actually answering the few questions he was asked. He rephrased them to his advantage, then answered the new question.

And personally, I don't care that he told us he has a doctor following him around... no surprise there. He also has many heavily armed protectors surrounding him, will the rest of us citizens get the same personal protection?

This was just showtime and did nothing other than promote himself with only one question from the Cleveland Plain Dealer that challenged him. Which he did not answer.

About The Cost of War:

To date, $915.1 billion dollars have been allocated to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The national, state, and local numbers we provide are based on the total approved amounts through the end of Fiscal Year 2009.

In addition to this approved amount, the FY2010 budget shows a $130 billion request for more war spending. This would bring total war spending in Iraq and Afghanistan to more than $1 trillion. When all FY2010 war-related amounts are approved, we will adjust the counter so that it reaches the new total at the end of FY2010.

If you should compare the amount displayed on the numbers in our information sheets with the Cost of War counter, please note that the information sheets include all war spending approved to date, the same number that the counter will reach at the end of the 2009 fiscal year.

http://www.costofwar.com/

in real time cost---counter

http://www.costofwar.com/

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/07/press-conferencing.html#comment-245876

Katherine, percent of GDP probably is a more consistently 'good' measurement tool because it eliminates the chicanery that vested interests perform on the reported budget.

And, dollar figures are numbing and only reflect expenditures of money from the public purse when other funding, including self-funding, is involved--except for national defense.

" Feel free to change the subject. Please. "

There's always sexy new pictures of blue corn -

http://cbhopibluecornexperiment.blogspot.com/

He said that he identified 2/3 rds of the savings that will pay for it.....so why doesn't he go all of the way...and give us all U H....the R's would never hesitate to give themselves a tax cut!

One hell of a small greenhouse, but it has all the bells and whistles -

Build a Geodesic Dome Solar Greenhouse to Grow Your Own Food

http://www.treehugger.com/galleries/2009/07/build-a-geodesic-dome-solar-greenhouse-grow-your-own-food.php?dcitc=th_promo_inside

Just looked at the last couple of updates on your solar cooker page, Bob. It looks as if you have that monster going gangbusters!

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/07/press-conferencing.html#comment-245876

Don't forget all of the "Off Budget" funds for the Iraq war that were just added directly to the deficit with no attempt to cover the costs.

Flatus -

I'm sure I can get 50 degrees more out of her. My glazing is still leaking lots of BTU's. That'll put us at over 450 degrees.

High-Tech Spin-Offs From The Moon Landings

http://www.crn.com/it-channel/218501669;jsessionid=LMAZ4B1UBJ4T0QSNDLOSKH0CJUNN2JVN?pgno=1

I mentioned to my friend Larry the other day that we're about to have another downturn .
He said , " Why do you think we elected a black president ? "

I feel a little like Craig. If news breaks out, let me know. Skipped the President in favor of the thrd episode of Torchwood. Violent aliens are so much more entertaining than Republicans. Plus I'm mildly PO'd at the Prez for not absolutely confronting the Insurance companies and the gouging greed that preys on families in a country they supposedly care about.

O'Reilly is hysterical!

His big critique of Obama is that Bill doesn't get it.

He's got a point. However, Obama is being intentionally vague. He doesn't want to take any options off the table - especially when you have a table as big as healthcare to feed.

I think he is trying to take lessons from what happened last time. He gave the Republicans some shout outs tonight - and I think if he can pass a good bill - after an honest debate - at least as close to one that we can get in DC - with a bit of bipartisan support - that would be his best move.

(Shouldn't be too hard to top the votes for the stimulus package . . . those Republicans are tight with money when it comes to spending it domestically...)

I thought he could of done better tonight. But I am willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt without knowing all the behind the scenes moves taking place...

(Oh - and O'Reilly - you don't get it because Barack is smarter than you - and that is a tough thing to wrap your big head around.)

NEW POST~~