Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ya-ta Boy]

Do it for them. Do it for people who are really scared right now through no fault of their own, who've played by the rules, who've done all the right things, and have suddenly found out that because of an accident, because of an ailment, they're about to lose their house; or they can't provide the help to their kids that they need; or they're a small business who up until now has always taken pride in providing care for their workers and it turns out that they just can't afford to do it anymore and they've having to make a decision about do I keep providing health insurance for my workers or do I just drop their coverage or do I not hire some people because I simply can't afford it -- it's all being gobbled up by the insurance companies.

Don't do it for me. Don't do it for the Democratic Party. Do it for the American people. They're the ones who are looking for action right now...


Sometimes I think about how I got involved in politics. I didn't think of myself as a potential politician when I get out of college. I went to work in neighborhoods, working with Catholic churches in poor neighborhoods in Chicago, trying to figure out how people could get a little bit of help. And I was skeptical about politics and politicians, just like a lot of Americans are skeptical about politics and politicians are right now. Because my working assumption was when push comes to shove, all too often folks in elected office, they're looking for themselves and not looking out for the folks who put them there; that there are too many compromises; that the special interests have too much power; they just got too much clout; there's too much big money washing around.

And I decided finally to get involved because I realized if I wasn't willing to step up and be true to the things I believe in, then the system wouldn't change. Every single one of you had that same kind of moment at the beginning of your careers. Maybe it was just listening to stories in your neighborhood about what was happening to people who'd been laid off of work. Maybe it was your own family experience, somebody got sick and didn't have health care and you said something should change.

Something inspired you to get involved, and something inspired you to be a Democrat instead of running as a Republican. Because somewhere deep in your heart you said to yourself, I believe in an America in which we don't just look out for ourselves, that we don't just tell people you're on your own, that we are proud of our individualism, we are proud of our liberty, but we also have a sense of neighborliness and a sense of community -- (applause) -- and we are willing to look out for one another and help people who are vulnerable and help people who are down on their luck and give them a pathway to success and give them a ladder into the middle class. That's why you decided to run...

But you know what? Every once in a while, every once in a while a moment comes where you have a chance to vindicate all those best hopes that you had about yourself, about this country, where you have a chance to make good on those promises that you made in all those town meetings and all those constituency breakfasts and all that traveling through the district, all those people who you looked in the eye and you said, you know what, you're right, the system is not working for you and I'm going to make it a little bit better.


And this is one of those moments. This is one of those times where you can honestly say to yourself, doggone it, this is exactly why I came here. This is why I got into politics. This is why I got into public service. This is why I've made those sacrifices. Because I believe so deeply in this country and I believe so deeply in this democracy and I'm willing to stand up even when it's hard, even when it's tough.

Every single one of you have made that promise not just to your constituents but to yourself. And this is the time to make true on that promise. We are not bound to win, but we are bound to be true. We are not bound to succeed, but we are bound to let whatever light we have shine. We have been debating health care for decades. It has now been debated for a year. It is in your hands. It is time to pass health care reform for America, and I am confident that you are going to do it tomorrow.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/20/obama-quotes-lincoln-to-h_n_507124.html

[mises]

[visitorq]

People who listen to and actually believe these kind of rehearsed speeches and rhetoric given by politicians are morons. Obama just reads all that crap from a teleprompter and it is almost certainly not even written by him.

WORDS MEAN NOTHING, ACTIONS ARE ALL THAT COUNT. Obama has done nothing good whatsoever. All he has done is smooth talk the idiotic bleeding heart public (liberals) while selling the country out to the Wall Street elite. Anyone who believes anything he says (after he's lied about everything) is a complete and utter fool. Period.

[Fox]

[bucheon bum]

[Ya-ta Boy]

My, my, there are a lot of skeptics in the crowd today. Oh well.

I won't argue against actions speaking louder than words, but words do matter. I just re-read David McCullough's '1776' and he of course mentioned Thomas Paine's 'Common Sense' and 'The Crisis'. Words matter a great deal.

It looks to me like Obama is just hours away from scoring a victory that no president has ever achieved--and many of them since Teddy Roosevelt a hundred years ago have tried. In that sense, Obama's actions have matched his rhetoric. David Frum agrees with me:

Waterloo

Conservatives and Republicans today suffered their most crushing legislative defeat since the 1960s.

It�s hard to exaggerate the magnitude of the disaster. Conservatives may cheer themselves that they�ll compensate for today�s expected vote with a big win in the November 2010 elections. But:

(1) It�s a good bet that conservatives are over-optimistic about November � by then the economy will have improved and the immediate goodies in the healthcare bill will be reaching key voting blocs.

(2) So what? Legislative majorities come and go. This healthcare bill is forever. A win in November is very poor compensation for this debacle now...

This time, when we went for all the marbles, we ended with none.

Could a deal have been reached? Who knows? But we do know that the gap between this plan and traditional Republican ideas is not very big. The Obama plan has a broad family resemblance to Mitt Romney�s Massachusetts plan. It builds on ideas developed at the Heritage Foundation in the early 1990s that formed the basis for Republican counter-proposals to Clintoncare in 1993-1994.

Barack Obama badly wanted Republican votes for his plan. Could we have leveraged his desire to align the plan more closely with conservative views? To finance it without redistributive taxes on productive enterprise � without weighing so heavily on small business � without expanding Medicaid? Too late now. They are all the law.

No illusions please: This bill will not be repealed.

http://www.frumforum.com/waterloo

The details of the bill are far less important than the fact that the direction for the future is set. And it is based on Obama's victory.


(PS: I amended the title because I wanted to.)

[RufusW]

[Moldy Rutabaga]

Whether his actions or intentions match his words (and I believe they do), it is in itself a beautiful speech and a soaring piece of rhetoric. We've kind of lost this in public discourse until recently. Whether you support the bill or not, surely it has the potential to move people to positive action more than "I hope he fails."

I would say getting this done is itself a giant accomplishment. And if it passes, well done USA, in finally having a form of universal health coverage. Welcome to the 20th century.

[Ya-ta Boy]

By the way, Nancy Pelosi just earned her place in the history books. She was going to be there as first female speaker, but now she'll be there as one of the greatest Speakers of the House. Well done, Madame Speaker!

[Fox]

[Street Magic]

[mises]

[mises]

http://www.parapundit.com/archives/007040.html

[RufusW]

[Senior]