Recently in President Category

Peter Orszag, director of the federal Office of Management and Budget, blogged Thursday about the cost of Pres. Barack Obama's health care reform proposal.

Feel free to read the full blog post, but here is an excerpt:

... the President has put forward a health plan that would reduce deficits by roughly $100 billion over the next ten years and by roughly $1 trillion in the decade after that.

Recently, a lot of attention has been paid to a claim that this deficit reduction is achieved only through a business-as-usual Washington budget gimmick: paying for just a few years of costs with many more years of savings.

This charge is simply false ...

If you are confused regarding what's in the different plans, have a look at the excellent side-by-side comparison developed by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Note, however, that this comparison only includes the plan presented by Pres. Barack Obama on Feb. 22. There were additional GOP proposals identified during and following the Feb. 25 health care summit that Obama believes should be a part of the final bill. Those are not included in the side-by-side comparison, but can be found on the White House Web site.

To celebrate Presidents Day I selected several old Reader's Digests to browse for articles on Presidents.  With President Obama just completing his first year as Commander in Chief I found an article I thought appropriate. The following is not the complete article.

Reader's Digest, 1962.
pp 53-54

Condensed from
Time (January 5, '62)

The Testing of a President

Fourteen tough months in office have proved a sobering and maturing experience for the youngest elected chief executive in America's history

The taste of victory was fresh and sweet to John Fitzgerald Kennedy.  He sat in the drawing room of his Georgetown home and spoke breezily about the office he would assume.  "Sure, it's a big job," he said.  "But, I don't know anybody who can do it any better than I can.  It isn't going to be so bad.  You've got time to think - and besides, the pay is pretty good."

One year later, on a cool, gray day, the 35th President of the United States sat at his desk in the oval office of the White House and discussed the same subject.  "This job is interesting," he said in the combination of Irish slur and broad Bostonese that has become immediately identifiable on all the world's radios, "but the possibilities for trouble are unlimited.  It takes a lot of thought and effort.  It's been a tough first year, but then they're all going to be tough."

Kennedy has come to realize that national and international issues look much different from the President's chair than from a candidate's rostrum.  There are fewer certainties, and far more complexities.  "We must face problems which do not lend themselves to easy, quick or permanent solutions," he said recently. "And we must face the fact that the United States is neither omnipotent not omniscient, and that we cannot right every wrong or reverse each adversity, and that therefore there cannot be an American solution for every world problem."

That sober view of the limitations of power and authority is far removed from Kennedy's campaign oratory.  He promised a "New Frontier" to "get America moving again." He soon found that it was tough enough just to keep the old problems from getting out of hand.

In the 1960 campaign he effectively used the charge that U.S. prestige had plummeted during Dwight Eisenhower's administration.  In fact, the United States had under Ike, and retains under Kennedy, a high reservoir of good will in the free world - as Kennedy saw for himself in his triumphal trips to London, Paris and, more recently, Latin America. 

When Kennedy first came to the White House, he resented his inheritance, constantly referred to problems "not of his own making."  But now those old problems tend to become "our problems" and the fact that the world is in trouble seems to Kennedy less Dwight Eisenhower's fault than he once suspected.

Behind such changes of attitude lies the central story of a U.S. President's coming of age.  Personality is a key to the use of Presidential power, and John Kennedy in 1961 passed through three distinct phases of Presidential personality.  First there was the cocksure new man in office.  Then, after the disastrous, U.S. invasion of Cuba, which might have ruined some Presidents, came disillusionment.  Finally, in the year's last months, came a return of confidence, but of a wiser, more mature kind that had been tempered by the bitter lessons of experience.

It never pays to insult others.  Sarah Palin was speaking at the Tea Party Convention and made several negative remarks about President Obama using a teleprompter.  It wasn't too long afterward she was seen with writing on her hand.  So, we're going to make fun of the President for using the latest technology and we are going to do what we did in elementary school?  Give me a break! 

Did you see Chairman Steele of the RNC explaining that the leadership of the RNC was in Hawaii for business and not a vacation while wearing a floral shirt with a lei around his neck.  Nice move there Mr. Chairman.  The comedians appreciate material being handed to them.  It makes their job like Fox News, they just report it.  We look stupid all by ourselves.  It must be nice to be a rich Republican and not live in the real world with all of the rest of us dealing with a poor economy, high gas prices, a lack of job growth, etc.

Are there any Log Cabin Republicans in Iowa?  If you are here would you please speak up LOUDLY!!!  I am tired of hearing about the marriage issue.  I know that not all Republicans want a vote on marriage.  I am not interested in forcing my religious beliefs on anyone.  I don't want my government enforcing religious beliefs period.  Freedom of Religion matters. 

Kathy Potts

Ron Corbett is bringing his own, "the one Kay has is too small".  Yep, he has his own gavel and it's bigger!  Rick Smith with the Gazette has more of the conversation with the new Mayor here.

I am happy that Ron is willing to respond to citizens speaking in public, on the record, to the Council.  Hopefully, the rest of the Council will follow his lead.  When he first mentioned a bigger gavel was needed, I thought it had something to do with the rest of the Council. The blog doesn't mention needing to pound sense to any members only that the Mayor will have the gavel handy to use should a Citizen start to get out of hand.  So Citizens, be warned! Mayor has Big Gavel and IS NOT AFRAID TO USE IT!

I hope that those of you who read my blogs on Essential Estrogen realize that a lot of the time I am trying to make a point but at the same time be a little lighthearted. For instance, with Pat Shey.  I do like Pat.  I do think he needs an auto-reply put on his email that says something like, thank you for contacting me, yada yada yada.  In politics, at times we take ourselves too serious.  However, there are times it is appropriate to be serious.

Every year in Washington DC the Press Corps has a Dinner and the President usually makes fun of himself and those around him.  Others make light of his administration and his mannerisms and loved ones.  It's part of the nights events and has sort of become a tradition.  

The point that I want to make is I believe there are times it is appropriate to make jokes about our President, caricatures of him, skits belittling him, and so on.  This night is one of them.  He is a part of it.  I know people do a lot of this.  I admit, I've laughed at some of it. 

I believe it is important to respect the office of the President of the United States of America.  I don't like it when people are not respectful of President Obama.  I didn't like when people were not respectful of President Bush.  These men walk a journey that few men will walk.  I pray that God protects them and guides them.  It doesn't matter if they are Republican, Democrat, Independent, Christian, Jewish or Muslim and all the other choices.  They are the President of the United States of America.

There is a video making the rounds on You Tube of women in Coralville, yes they are Republican, making fun of the President.  Several things bother me.  I don't like them making fun of my President. President Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize, he didn't sign up for it, he was awarded it.  Let's be proud Americans and be proud that a President of the United States of America is receiving this award!

The thing that bothers me the most about this video is that it is a mockery of a video the school children did to honor President Obama for Black History month.  I am dismayed that in their fun they totally forgot they were not only making fun of the President, they were making fun of the children.  Shame on you.

I wonder, will the Johnson County Republican Women's group make a statement regarding this poorly thought out idea?  Will we see a statement from the Iowa Federation of Republican Women?  Prior to this year I've always held a position on a board, I no longer do.  If I did and no statement comes out, I would resign.

Kathy Potts





 

Pres. Barack Obama carried on the White House tradition of pardoning a Thanksgiving turkey today, sending the bird, "Courage," off to be grand marshal of a holiday parade. In doing so, he said this:

"... You know, there are certain days that remind me of why I ran for this office. And then there are moments like this where I pardon a turkey and send it to Disneyland..."

For Obama's full remarks from the pardoning ceremony, take the jump.

One of the most difficult things about writing this blog is the fact that I'm not just providing news, but co-opting news with opinion. As a long-term reporter who has had "just the facts" forever pushed into my brain function, it's difficult to come to the keyboard with the dual purpose of providing factual information and to issue a call to action based on that information.

But, as I told the women gathered in Sioux City this weekend, there are times we have to step outside of our comfort zones in order to stand up for things that we believe in or to right a wrong.

While I drove across Iowa on Saturday, members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted on an unprecedented health care reform bill. The good and bad news is all rolled up in one sentence: It passed. This is good news because it is a first step on a path the country should have taken years and years ago. It is bad news because once again special interest groups have had their way and a segment of the population was marginalized.

A group of 64 Democrats joined with every single Republican member of the House to vote in favor of an amendment offered by Bart Stupak, a Democratic representative of Michigan. The amendment, which wasn't completely unexpected, blocks anyone using government subsidies to buy insurance from purchasing a plan that covers abortion, even if the abortion coverage is paid for completely with private premiums.

Back up and read that again. Even if a woman has her own money and is willing to use that money to purchase abortion coverage, she cannot do so.

This is an extreme and unprecedented departure from how the bill previously curtailed the use of government/taxpayer funds for abortion. Prior to the Stupak-Pitts amendment, or language, being added into the House bill, government-provided "affordability credits" were required to be segregated from individually paid premiums so that they it could be ensured that federal funds were not used to provide abortion coverage. In essence, only women or families that were spending enough of their own funds to pay for the increased premiums associated with abortion coverage could purchase that type of insurance.

So, prior to the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, the status quo regarding abortion was maintained. With this new language, accessibility to reproductive health care has been further negated and regulated beyond the scope of what was previously believed to be a "workable compromise."

Because the language only currently appears in the House version of the bill, it is important to keep similar language out of the U.S. Senate version. To that end, phone your senator and let him/her know that you don't approve of any language that disrupts the status quo in relation to insurance coverage for abortion services.

If the Senate bill maintains its current language, which is based on the existing status quo which is built on the Hyde Amendment, then the conference committee that merges the two bills will have the option to either include the Stupak-Pitts language or remove it.

If it is removed, then let all of your representatives know that you support the bill and want them to vote in favor.

If it is NOT removed, you are going to have a decision to make on whether or not you believe health care reform is worth the further erosion of access to abortion.

After debating this back and forth in my head for more than 48 hours, my decision is that a bill that does not include all necessary access for women and families isn't really reform. To that end, I have contact my U.S. House Representative's office to encourage him to join the growing list of members who have signed on to a letter that is being sent to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. It reads, at least in part, as follows:

As Members of Congress we believe that women should have access to a full range of reproductive health care. Health Care reform must not be misused as an opportunity to restrict women's access to reproductive health services.

The Stupak-Pitts amendment to H.R. 3932, The Affordable Healthcare for America Act, represents an unprecedented and unacceptable restriction on women's ability to access the full range of reproductive health services to which they are entitled. We will not vote for a conference report that contains language that restricts women's right to choose any further than the current law.

If, when all of this is said and done, there is no health care reform bill, don't blame women. Don't credit those who disrupted numerous town hall meetings throughout the month of August. Don't allow Republicans to gloat on how they killed reform. The credit and/or blame lies solely with the 64 Democrats in the U.S. House, and whatever members of the U.S. Senate, that view reform as an opportunity to restrict access.

(Hat Tip: The Plum Line)