Health Care Guru: 'Front-Runner' Obama Won't Match Clinton on Specifics
Barack Obama should be more explicit about how he wants people to pay for health insurance under his plan—but don't hold your breath for more details.
That's the opinion of Jonathan Gruber, an MIT economist who helped to develop the health care plans of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Gruber said that after Clinton's proposal to cap health insurance premiums at 5 percent to 10 percent of income, the onus has moved to Obama to detail how much he thinks Americans should pay for health insurance.
"I think it helps if they both have real numbers," said Gruber. "I think having one person having a number doesn't help that much, because then you can't really compare."
When asked if the onus was now on Obama to detail how Americans would pay for insurance, Gruber said "Yeah I think so." But when asked if he thought the Obama campaign would actually provide that number, he was doubtful. "No," he said. "They're the front-runners. Front-runners don't produce numbers."
The Clinton campaign has used the offering of a hard number to reinforce its favorite argument that it is serious and Obama is just a bunch of empty talk. One number that the Obama campaign has offered in response to Clinton's proposal is the $2,500 the typical American family is expected to save under his plan.
Gruber seemed to agree with the Clinton campaign that this was an arbitrary figure that did not reflect any sort of consensus among activists and experts in the health care field.
"It's an internally cooked-up number," he said, adding that it is "a number that is highly uncertain. Is it possible? Yes. But I think it is really just speculative."
He said the amount a family was expected to save and how much it was expected to spend on health care were really two different issues.
"The $2,500 is how much Obama said he will lower health spending. He hasn't said what he will make people pay for health insurance," said Gruber. "That's a different issue. Because if someone is low income, $2,500 is more than just 5 or 10 percent of their income. He hasn't really waded into this."
Speaking of Clinton's naming of a number, he said, "This is the first time a candidate has ever really given a serious number on that. She has said income caps before, but this is the first time she has given a sense of the numbers she is talking about."
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REMEMBER "HILLARYCARE"
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Hillary's HealthCare Plan is DOOMED to Fail.
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Her healthcare domestic policy fiasco in 1993 known as “Hillarycare” was ‘shot down’ by a Democratic Congress because of her strident and uncompromising attitude --- History will repeat itself if she is elected.
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TRUST IN HILLARY’S GOVERNMENTAL EXPERIENCE ADVANTAGE
Whitewater, Cattle Futuregate, Travelgate, Gennifer Flowersgate, Filegate, Vince Fostergate, Whitewater Billing Recordsgate, Paula Jonesgate, Federal Building Campaign Phone Callgate, Lincoln Bedroomgate, Donations from Convicted Drug and Weapons Dealersgate, Buddhist Templegate, Lippogate, Chinagate, Lewinsky Affair, Perjury and Jobs for Lewinskygate, Willeygate, Web Hubbel Prison Phone Callgate, Selling Military Technology to the Chinesegate, Wag the Doggate, Juanita Broaddrickgate, Vandalgate, Lootergate, Pardongate; and the many deaths, including suicide, murder, and mysterious gun shots to the head, all allegedly linked to Clinton.
Israel for protection, China for technological secrets and outsourced jobs, and Mexico for amnesty desperately need Neo-Lib Princess Hillary for president. Kennedy Liberals need her burnt at the stake for treason against Christianity and the Constitution.
Google: “boycott liberalism Clinton Legacy”; “Danneymeyer deaths linked to President Clinton”; “Hsu Hillary”; “Mearsheimer Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy”; Stricherz “Why the Democrats are Blue”; “Who Would the World Elect”.
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Sheila Jackson Lee booed at Democratic convention
March 29th, 2008
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Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee's speech at a local Democratic senatorial district convention in Houston Saturday in which she was booed by the crowd, many of whom are in her district. Her speech was interrupted a couple of times as the crowd voiced its displeasure with her backing Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama.
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HILLARY'S POOR JUDGMENT leaves AMERICANS FOOTING THE BILL:
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THE WAR IN IRAQ IS HAVING SERIOUS NEGATIVE EFFECTS ON OUR ECONOMY and those who voted for the war (i.e. hillary) should be to blame, in part, for the state of the US economy.
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Look how the WAR IN IRAQ is affecting the US economy...
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$3,000,000,000… 3 billion dollars PER WEEK!
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That is the amount America is paying for the Iraq War PER WEEK, money that should have been used here, at home.
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Add to this:
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Interest. We are financing the war with borrowed money (e.g. treasuries) that carries interest; so in actuality, the war is costing the United States MORE THAN 3 billion dollars PER WEEK.
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Higher oil and energy prices. Instability in Iraq is adding roughly 30 dollars per barrel as a premium.
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High oil prices mean high utility bills. Due to high oil prices, demand shifts to other sources of energy - gas, coal, etc. - and greater demand will raise the equilibrium price of all sources of energy -- Can you say high energy bills?
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Higher oil prices (a raw material used in the production of many goods, fertilizers, gasoline, diesel, plastics, etc.) mean higher prices of goods and services -- Can you say INFLATION?
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Higher oil prices mean a higher trade deficit because most of our oil comes from foreign sources. A higher trade deficit means more money is leaving the country than is coming into the country -- Can you say Goodbye to your hard-earned money!
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Our dollar is weak and getting weaker. Since we have a trade deficit and is growing in large part to the rising cost of imported oil, the value of goods and services we import exceeds the value of goods we export. You know that foreign car you're thinking of buying or the computer you're using, or that trip abroad you've been thinking of taking....well, guess what? It is going to cost more, Ceteris Peribus, because the dollar is weak and getting weaker.
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Lastly, how do you think the world views our country since the argument was made for war? The evidence was weak and circumstantial, yet we rushed into war with Iraq thanks to hillary’s authorization.
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