President Obama made me proud today when he called out Dr. John Barrasso

[bertman]

the Republican Senator from Wyoming by telling him that the working Americans who need healthcare reform WILL NOT benefit from a health savings account. Paraphrasing: The people who need this healthcare reform do not fly in to Mayo Clinic to spend millions on the best healthcare money can buy. Some of them work two jobs and cannot afford health insurance. Some of them are self-employed and cannot get health insurance.

But the killer was when he said, (paraphrasing again) John, Congressmen and Senators make $176,000 a year. We are in the highest income bracket in the country. All of the statistics show that people who benefit from health savings accounts are people with lots of disposable income. The Americans who need our help do NOT have disposable income.

Makes me wish he had been this eloquent and forceful for a strong public option or for Medicare for All as an option for every American.

P.S. Nancy Pelosi won my respect for her words and the leadership she showed when she was cracking on the Republicans. First time I've ever seen that. Reid was fumbling and doing his usual wimpy-assed shit.

edit to spell Senator Barrasshole's name correctly.

[TomCADem]

1. President Obama Was Passionate On That Point...

I was like damn. Lets see President Obama mixing it up head to head more often. The passion and belief was nice to see.

[Atticus]

2. Totally agree. I think this exchange encapsulates, in just a couple of minutes

of video, the difference between the parties. Democratic empathy and compassion versus Republican arrogance and insensitivity.

Great stuff.

[Bitwit1234]

3. Health savings plans are crap to a certain extent

So I put 200 dollars a month in the plan. That's $2400 a year. That wouldn't pay for an operation, or a hospital visit.

[golfguru]

7. HSA's are not for paying hospital bills, they are for

paying health insurance and routine expenses such as medications co-pay,
prescription glasses etc.

[csziggy]

8. HSA's are to cover the high deductible, I always figured.

Our deductible is $2000 a year, so if I put $200 a month in an HSA it would cover my deductible and a little bit of the co-pays.

But my hubby's job only offers a FSA - if we don't use it all in a year, we don't get it back and it doesn't roll over to the next year. So I just sock away the money and pull it out when we need it, which has been far too often in the last couple of years.

[golfguru]

10. Yes, it is a pain in the rear end and I cancelled mine ...nt

[medeak]

4. Reid was great n/t

[O is 44]

5. The President was great today...

my productivity at work suffered, but I really enjoyed watching him. WH.gov had the best coverage, no interruptions by the talking heads. How this man is able to sit there and continue to stay calm, cool and collected while the Republicans lie to his face is beyond me. But seeing McCain being slapped down by President Obama had to be tops for me, but this one is right up there.

[MiniMe]

6. Barasso left his Bear Ass out for O to smack

[ashling]

9. Is there a clip of this on YouTube?

I missed it.