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A Letter to the President
Published by Pamela Gentry on Thursday, September 3, 2009 at 11:23 pm.By Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Analyst
Sept. 4, 2009 – Black lawmakers want to get out in front of the president’s speech next week and have sent him a letter outlining what they don’t want to see “scaled back” in his plans to overhaul the health care system.
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., meets with members of the Congressional Black Caucus on Thursday, June 19, 2008 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Lauren Victoria Burke)
The letter sent Wednesday is signed by three members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) who also serve on the Health and Wellness Task Force: Representatives Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Danny Davis (D-Ill.) and Donna M. Christensen . They called on the president to “stress unwavering support ” during his address to Congress for the following:
1. Not reducing cost: “Reducing the overall cost of a budget-neutral bill is therefore unnecessary and not a strategy that we do or can support.”
2. Support for a public option: “A strong public health option that will allow the nation’s more than 46 million uninsured Americans – more than half of whom are people of color – to finally have access to affordable, meaningful health care coverage no later than 2013.”
3. Eliminating health care disparities: “A strong and demonstrative commitment from the White House to, in the days and weeks to come, use health care reform to achieve health equity.”
4. Equality for U.S. Territories: “The nearly 5 million Americans who live in the U.S. Territories should benefit from health care reform in a manner that is equitable to those Americans who live within the 50 states and in the District of Columbia.”
5. Rewarding preventive health care services: “This strategy will not only allow the realization of true cost savings of prevention, health disparity elimination and other provisions, but it also will provide an avenue through which the savings generated can replace current [payment system].”
Lee, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said the 43 members of the Caucus “are committed allies and partners in the fight to reform America’s broken health care system.”
It will be interesting to hear if any of these policy issues remain in the president’s new version he’ll unveil Sept. 9. Throughout this debate members of the CBC have been outspoken on these issues and some have made it clear they will not support any legislation without a public option.
This could be a line in the sand for Obama and his former congressional colleagues.
Full Transcript: See the CBC’s Letter to Pres. Obama
mr Obama is good at giving good oratory and that is all. And the black caucus they are a joke and you people know that ! Good health starts with the person eating right and keeping busy that is your responsible. All of us at one time or another need help in emergency’s . Emergency’s do not happen all the time if people keep having emergency’s it is do to tumultuous behavior in ones’s self. It is not the tax payers responsible to take care of people’s bills! You people are so welfare minded that is explicit . Ask Mr Obama a guestion and he well prevaricate all he does is make a lot of rhetoric he is no maverick . With him there is conundrum!
Why the hell should the U.S. Territories receive the benfit from this health care reform? Them places dont even have to pay taxes or help support this country. so that means it will cost more for us cus we’ll have to support them too. this and whole lot of others is why this booshy health care ish is another way for Gov. to take total control over are lives. Thats why they can now tax us on food that we buy everyday so it can help pay this b.s. Go to gooogle and search no food tax
Until this: Jobless rate at 9.7 pct.; 216K jobs lost in Aug…….
is fixed, nothing else matters. You’d think that the president and his team would understand that.
Their actions and lack of results indicate otherwise.
I THINK IT’S A RACE THANG!! NO MATTER IF IT’S THE HEALTH CARE , THE WAR, OR THE DEATH OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. IT ALL BOILS DOWN TO “CERTAIN PEOPLE WILL NOT PASS ANY THING IN CONGRESS” BECAUSE AMERICA NOW HAVE A BLACK PRESIDENT AND THEY WON’T SUPPORT HIM .
A Lawyer’s Either a Social Engineer Or He’s a Parasite On Society !
By: Charles Houston
Economic & Social Engineers
Jobs , Education , Housing , & Universal HealthCare !
Peace & Blessings !
Dear Plantation:
A lawyer’s what?
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Pam you did it again. This is fantastic. The Black Caucus hit the ball out of the park with this demonstration. These are exactly the actions that the Bill must take! Great job Pam for a Top Story!
so anytime a republican person disagrees with the president it has to because he’s racist and doesn’t want obama to succeed? F that thats real booshy and such a sterotypical mind. Since most of the people on here are black wouldnt it be best to step out side of the sterotypical mindset and stop thinkn that anyone who says something that critizes obama is racist. Its jst that this whole health care is just giving the government to much control over are everyday lives.
so anytime a republican person disagrees with the president it has to because he’s racist and doesn’t want obama to succeed? F that thats real booshy and such a sterotypical mind. Since most of the people on here are black wouldnt it be best to step out side of the sterotypical mindset and stop thinkn that anyone who says something that critizes obama is racist. Its jst that this whole health care is just giving the government to much control over are everyday lives.
@VCHOCOLATE..BLACK PEOPLE KNOW THAT THEIR ARE GOOD WHITE REPUBLICANS AND THE GOOD OLD BOY REPUBLICANS,THE PROBLEM COMES INTO PLAY WHEN THEY HAVE TO DISCERN WHO IS THE GOOD BLACK GUY AND THE BAD BLACK GUY ? THEY HAVE A PROBLEM TELLING WHO IS WHO.
Don’t know what happened there.
That would be s-c-r-e-w up after s-c-r-e-w up.
The UNITED STATES is in Debt $1,900,000,000,000.oo Trillion Dollars. We are not a Rich Nation at all, and we simply can not afford pay for peoples premiums. without the following:
1. RAISE TAXES ON EVERYONE
2. OR Institute the Fair Tax (Tax Consumption rather than income)
3. Going $9,000,000,000,000.oo Trillion after 8 years of OBAMA.*
OBAMA Says this, not me… Obama says that the US will be 9Trillion in debt after his presidency, so I’m not the hater.
If you guys haven’t read Baucus’s new Healthcare reform framework, you’re in for a real treat. I can’t believe people aren’t up in arms about this. This isn’t reform it’s a way to tax people who already can’t afford Health insurance for the purpose of once again lining the pockets of insurance lobbyists. What is wrong with everyone?!?! Health care is for us, the people, what in the world is going on? Personally I don’t care what it costs to keep everyone healthy which in turn affects everyone around them, but if you want to control costs well that’s fine but not at the expense of dropping a public option that allows everyday people to get the help they need. This is insane.
Oh and to the person talking about raising costs, I don’t care if it costs another 10 billlion to overhaul healthcare, human lives are worth it. I don’t know which of these people here are making millions of dollars a year that they can support current republican agendas but we live in the real world and are real people trying to survive. The US economy is the 2nd strongest in the world and that’s just recently that it fell to number 2, who gives a crap about number 2. We can most certainly afford to include a public option that supports American people and American lives. To do anything less is simply adding to the greed that has corrupted our government and our country.
Jobs , Fair Wages , Education , Decent Housing , and Universal Health Care ! Economic & Social Engineers , Power To The People ! Peace & Blessings !
Jobs , Fair Wages , Education , Decent Housing , and Universal Health Care ! Economic & Social Engineers , Power To The People ! Peace & Blessings !