The
title of a recently released MSNBC article is "Health bill may advance
without GOP deal". This would put yet another dent in President Obama's
bipartisanship credentials.

According to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, speaking on ABC's
"This Week", "Ideally, you want to do this WITH AS BROAD A BASE OF
CONSENSUS AS POSSIBLE". The increasing number of people disagreing with
Mr. Obama has brought the president back to reality after Mr. Obama
came into office giddy with approval ratings around 80%. Now he
realizes, along with everyone else, that high approval ratings can only
be achieved with hard work. "But people on the Hill are going to have
to make that choice, do they want to help shape this and be a part of
it, OR DO THEY WANT THIS COUNTRY, THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, TO GO
ANOTHER SEVERAL DECADES WITHOUT DOING WHAT EVERY OTHER SERIOUS COUNTRY
HAS DONE?" which is to provide free health care for everyone. If it
sounds like Secretary is trying to actively sell the president's plan,
well, that's because this is exactly what he is doing even promoting
health care should normally be done by Health & Human Services
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

"As House members began a five-week summer recess, they left behind
outlines of a nearly $1 trillion health care overhaul that is sure to
draw fire from a variety of (special) interests, BUT WHICH SHOWS THE
BEGINNINGS OF A CONCENSUS that would provide insurance for more
Americans and give them new rights in dealing with insurers". Surely,
the AIG fiasco contributed to the speed at which this legislation.was
adopted. Previously if someone filed a claim against an insurer, the
insurer would come out on top 95% of the time. The most significant
phrase in this sentence is "the beginnings of a concensus" because this
implies that, although not everybody ages with Obama some are STARTING
TO DO SO.

Speaking to Time Magazine, the president openly admitted that health
care was "the most dificult test for me so far in public life" so this
implies that Obama has limits and therefore, we should not expect him
to be perfect.

According to Arizona Sen. John McCain, speaking on CNN, "At this
point, I think (that) the president has to be more specific". There's
one skeptical opinion for Obama fom a Republican.

One of the president's sharpest critics, South Carolina Republican
Sen. Jim DeMint, speaking on "Fox News Sunday, said most Americans know
that "this legislation is "going to cut Medicare; they know (that) IT'S
GOING TO RAISE TAXES ON THE SMALL BUSINESSES THAT CREATE JOBS; AND THEY
KNOW IT'S GOING TO ELIMINAE JOBS". Besides raising taxes, which has
been a GOP agument for many years now, DeMint is arguing that Mr.
Obama's plan will AFFECT MEDICARE (which, for many elderly Americans,
is the only way they can have access to affordable health care). "Half
of the so-called rich are small businesses THAT CREATE 70 OR 80 PERCENT
OF THE JOBS IN THIS COUNTRY AND IT'S A REAL JOBS KILLER". If this is
true, then this health care overhaul would be doing the opposite of
what Mr. Obama is intending to do.

However, New York Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel, chairman of the
House Ways and Means Committee, quickly hit back: "..UNDER OUR
STATISTICS, 96 percent of small businesses WOULD NOT BE HURT by this
tax". To sum up we need to focus on two phrases. The phrase "under our
statistics" implies that these statistics were compiled by Democrats
and have not been independently verified and "wopuld not be hurt" does
not necessarily mean that this proposed health care plan will help
small and medium-sized enterprises/businesses either. So, the debate
will rage on.