after getting the desperate plea for help from that needy woman during his town hall meeting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4Xf1fdDRBM

(R) Sen Coburn: The "Community" Can Help People Without Health Insurance (3:17)

News1News
August 24, 2009

"Republican Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn: The "Community" Can Help People Without Health Insurance Not Federal Government - 08/24/09"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4Xf1fdDRBM

Health care is a moral issue in my opinion and I thought that Jim Wallis did an excellent job against Tony Perkins in the debate right below!

Jim Wallis in my opinion was completely focused on what the health care issue really is, the morality of the health care issue, and refuting the distortions that Perkins was promoting. Tony Perkins in my opinion was far more focused on the role of government, trivial statistics that really do not matter very much at the end of the day, and promoting common distortions about health care reform:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39TrS94fvWQ

Jim Wallis and Tony Perkins discuss heathcare reform on Lou Dobbs (7:08)

sojotube
June 17, 2009

http://www.sojo.net

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39TrS94fvWQ

Here is the CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight transcript of this video:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0906/16/ldt.01.html

LOU DOBBS TONIGHT

Political Turmoil in Iran; North Korean Threat; Senator Ensign Admits Affair; Your Bailout at Work; President Obama Fires Inspector General; Extended School Year

Aired June 16, 2009 - 19:00 ET

LOU DOBBS, HOST: "Congressional Republicans for their part today proposed a centrist approach to healthcare reform as they call it, a less expensive alternative to the Democratic plan which would cost somewhere around a trillion dollars over the next decade. The role of religion also rising to the surface of the health care debate and that is the topic of tonight's face-off.

Joining me now Tony Perkins, he's the president of the Family Research Council. Tony good to have you with us and the Reverend Jim Wallis, president and executive director of a Christian social justice organization. It's great to have you both with us. How in the world is god and politics moving to the center of a debate on national health care reform? If I may Reverend start with you?

REV. JIM WALLIS, FOUNDER & PRES., SOUIJOURNERS: The community of faith should never be involved in the weeds, policy weeds, but there's a fundamental moral issue here, 50 million Americans don't have health care coverage. And a lot of those are low income families, middle income families. On the way over here, Lou, I got a voicemail from a friend who said he's only 38. He said my wife this morning got diagnosed with lymphoma cancer. He's terrified yet he has health insurance. Imagine if he didn't have health insurance, he and his wife. So this is an injustice.

So we have to fight, we have to achieve coverage for all those folks who don't have it. That's a moral issue. We won't get involved in all of the details of policy. But the moral issue has to be front and center here.

DOBBS: Tony Perkins?

TONY PERKINS, FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL: Well, Lou, there's no question that we have a health care problem in America. In fact, for many families it's a crisis. But we need a common sense approach that will make sure that those truly in need will be covered and that our health care stays patient-centered and not government-centered. And that's what's at question here. And I think what we're seeing in this debate is -- and I appreciate what Jim says. I agree, now I take issue with the 40 million. It's really 43 million that do not have health insurance, not health coverage. Health insurance because we actually have 80 percent at a CDC report says 80 percent of poor children have public health care now. And my home state of Louisiana, we actually are one of the few states that have kind of a two-track system. We have a public health care system that runs parallel to the private system. And I'll tell you, it is fraught with problems. And I'm fearful of what will happen if we go to a one size government health care program.

WALLIS: But we're not.

DOBBS: I'm sorry?

PERKINS: That's what's being pushed. That's what's being pushed is a government-mandated. No, it is, that's what we're talking about.

WALLIS: We haven't had health care reform for years because before the debate there's a lot of scare tactics going on. This proposal is about people having choices. Keep your own doctor, keep your health care if you want it. If you don't have a health care plan, you can choose another plan. So there's choice here. This is not a government plan, government-control plan. There's a choice here.

DOBBS: May I ask, Reverend Wallis, where are you getting your details on the plan since the administration hasn't put it forward?

WALLIS: Well, that's right. All there are ideas and bills, but I've heard that's going to talk about a government-controlled plan. All the ideas I've heard from everywhere are how we can really get give people choices. A lot of Americans who have insurance, Lou, as you know, they're working families and they're underinsured.

PERKINS: That sounds very good, Jim. That sounds good, but we see through Medicare and Medicaid that once the government pays the bill, it calls the shots. And what we're looking at in the -- the president's very defensive, this isn't socialized medicine, but a single payer system. It calls the one shots, one-size fits all. I don't know if you've ever had one of those hospital gowns, they're one-sized fits all and important things left uncovered. And that's what will happen with a health care plan.

WALLIS: That's not true. It's talking about health insurance companies are not insuring people with preexisting conditions. So you want to give people a choice so they can get their health care needs met.

PERKINS: And that's true. We need accessibility, affordability, portability, and transparency. And there's ideas like allowing people to go across state lines and create pools for insurances that can bring down the cost, we don't need the government to run it.

DOBBS: The government shouldn't run it, no one's suggesting that.

PERKINS: Go ahead, you can talk, it's your show.

DOBBS: Thank you, gentlemen. What do you think of the congressional proposal put forward by some that would create a health care cooperative, much like rural utilities? Is this an acceptable public option coverage that within the --

PERKINS: It's an intriguing idea.

DOBBS: Right.

PERKINS: It's an intriguing idea. It depends on how it's going to be managed. Is it going to be managed from a national level, from a state level, or a community level? And also, Lou, it comes back to the question of if the government's going to pay. If they're going to pay the bills or even put in the seed money to get these going, they're going to define what the benefits are, and that's of great concern.

DOBBS: All right.

Proponents of -- let me ask this quickly if I may, Reverend. The president made it pretty clear that he doesn't believe he's talking about socialized medicine. But have you heard any proposals from the Obama administration or from Capitol Hill that will, in fact, reduce significantly health care costs, reduce the cost of healthcare insurance, indeed deal with the issue of separately health care insurance rather than control of, as some critics suggest the health care system per se.

WALLIS: There's two big issues here. One is coverage. We have to make sure, and Lou, as you know, the families who aren't covered are mostly working families. You know, Medicare covers those, the poorest. You know, Medicaid, but the working families are not covered. So we have to make sure those 47 million, 48 million, 50 million, whatever the number that they're covered. Second, we have to contain --

PERKINS: The majority --

WALLIS: The skyrocketing health care. The costs have to be contained. That's a moral issue too. Too many people are making too much money in the system, and we have to slow that down. So coverage and then cover the costs. We all need it. Those are both moral issues.

DOBBS: All right, Tony Perkins and Jim Wallis, we thank you both for being here. As we have moral issues to contemplate in what is already a fairly sufficiently complex issue to begin with. Thank you both so much. Thank you..."

I missed the forest for all the trees. So what are Sanchez's two important questions?

Stan Davis
Lakewood, CO
Wes Clark: "We're no better than our own sense of humility."

in my opinion (Bill Kristol is a hard core Neocon ideologue who is the head of "The Weekly Standard" magazine which is a premier if not the top premier Neocon magazine today):

Here is the July 28, 2009 Countdown Video which I think shows this:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/vp/32194797#32194797  (02:46)

Kristol on health care is Daily Show punch line
July 28: Conservative pundit William Kristol visited The Daily Show Monday to explain to host Jon Stewart the truth about what Kristol calls the "absolute best health care."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/vp/32194797#32194797  (02:46)

Here is the YouTube link of this MSNBC video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlKXj7_q5wk

(msnbc) Daily Show: Jon Stewart Destroys Bill Kristol on Health Care - The Ultimate Smackdown!  (2:47)

MrObama
July 28, 2009

"Howard Dean Hosts MSNBC Countdown.

Bill Kristol admits the government can provide first-class health care."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlKXj7_q5wk

key question that opponents of health care reform should be publicly asked in my opinion!

Guest host Lisa Sylvester who was filling in for Lou Dobbs on his CNN show asked this key question to Michael Tuffin in a debate on the public option which Tuffin is against:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0908/27/ldt.01.html

LOU DOBBS TONIGHT

Remembering Senator Kennedy; County in Crisis

Aired August 27, 2009 - 19:00 ET

LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: "Mike, do you see health coverage as a right in this country, and do you think it's the government's responsibility to provide it?

MICHAEL TUFFIN, AMERICA'S HEALTH INSURANCE PLANS: Well, health care coverage is something all Americans need to have, and there's a strong role, a critical role for the government in making that happen.

We need to bring Medicaid up to 100 percent of the federal poverty level. We need to build on the children's health insurance program. Those are the two things that we've supported.

We need to strengthen Medicare. Medicare is on a path to bankruptcy. It's a critical program for seniors, and it is headed towards bankruptcy unless we get health care costs under control.

So the idea that while Medicare is under strain, headed toward bankruptcy, that we're going to move tens of millions of more people on to government care, it just doesn't added a up.

And we don't have to go that way. The government-run plan is a road block to reform. You mentioned some of the comments from Congressional leaders. It's a divisive plan that doesn't bring people together. You can solve this by fixing the insurance market.

BRUCE RAYNOR, SERVICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION: You're talking politics. I'm talking health care for average Americans.

The fact of the matter is Medicare costs have gone up slower than private insurance costs. The government-run option is simply a way to provide an alternative to the insured..."

Michael Tuffin's answer in my opinion was NOT a definite "Yes" or "No" answer to the direct question which he was asked "Mike, do you see health coverage as a right in this country, and do you think it's the government's responsibility to provide it?" which is why I wish that Lisa Sylvester would have pressed him further for either a definite "Yes" or "No" answer despite his answer of what he thought should happen!

I would really like to see every elected Republican who has to vote on health care reform and Republican strategists be put on the spot and be publicly asked if they agree with Rush Limbaugh's view about the "entitlement mentality" where he does NOT think that all people are entitled to receiving health care:

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_082409/content/01125112.guest.html

Callers Report from Town Halls

August 24, 2009

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: "Butler, Pennsylvania. Hello, Todd. I'm glad you waited. Welcome to the EIB Network, sir.

CALLER: Hey mega dittos Rush from Butler, PA...

CALLER: Hey, you know what? I went to a Specter town meeting about a week ago here and I had the opportunity to ask Specter a question. But while I was waiting in line here came two buses, school buses from around Pittsburgh and they brought up SEIU and ACORN people. As soon as they got off the bus the first thing they were chanting was, "What do we want? Health care! When do we want it? Now!" over and over and over. Rush, this just shows the entitlist mentality of these people and, you know, I've got a buddy who works in the Navy. He has terminal cancer. He's my age, 29 years old. He has two daughters, and he worked 60 to 70 hours a week on average and puts it out on the line for our country and provides for his family. That's a selfless mentality, and these people that think they're entitled to this health care and everything, they're off in their sleep. We're not entitled to it.

RUSH: Wait a minute, now. One thing.

CALLER: Yeah?

RUSH: You're right that there are people in this country and way too many of them with an entitlement mentality, but the people that showed up on those buses were not people with an entitlement mentality. Those were part of Obama's army. These are people recruited from a White House website by the unions to go out and provide opposition to the people with genuine passion. These buses were hired. These people were organized. This was community agitation at its best. This was not a bunch of entitlement people showing up demanding health care. This was a bunch of thugs that have been hired to show up to obstruct you and other people from getting your message out. Big difference. Not to say there aren't people with the entitlement mentality but you gotta understand who these people are showing up in opposition to you. They're only there because the Obama White House website's ginning up this support, the unions ginning up the support. This is intimidation. This is community agitation, pure and simple..."

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

Any Republican who went on the record as publicly agreeing with Limbaugh and his caller that all people are not entitled to health care would be put in a very embarrassing position with most of middle America in my opinion!

kind of question that Rick Sanchez asked when he directly asked Coburn about the crying woman who begged him for help "Can you do that with millions of uninsured people in this country?," "Who are in the same boat?," and "when you hear those personal stories, does it at all change your position on this issue?"

Tom Coburn in my opinion was completely out of touch by denying the premise of what Jim Acosta asked him when he said about the millions of other needy and uninsured people beside the crying woman who begged him for help "No, they're not in the same boat, don't exaggerate:"

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/health/2009/08/27/acosta.coburn.town.hall.cnn

Coburn against public option 2:09
One senator says the biggest problem is looking to Uncle Sam for health care answers. CNN's Jim Acosta reports.

Source: CNN
Added On August 27, 2009

And also we want to let you know if you have questions about health care reform, we're helping you sort fact from fiction and putting a lot of the answers together on a great web page. Go to CNN.com/health care..."

I wish that MANY more people could made be aware of this very important fact check:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0908/27/cnr.04.html

CNN NEWSROOM

Kennedy Family Attends Private Mass; FDIC's Cash Crunch; Debating the True Number of Uninsured Americans; One Woman's Mission to Chronicle Others' Health Care Stories

Aired August 27, 2009 - 12:00 ET

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: "An emotional moment at a health care town hall meeting leads to a pointed exchange between a lawmaker and a CNN reporter. A woman at the meeting hosted by Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn asked for help for her husband who suffered a traumatic brain injury. She says the insurance company won't cover and give her assistance.

Our Jim Acosta asked the Senator, who is also a doctor, about plans to help the woman. That led to an exchange over the number of uninsured in the country.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Senator, I think I heard the local reporter there asking you about this, but what's being done to help the woman at the town hall meeting?

SEN. TOM COBURN (R), OKLAHOMA: Well, everything we can, but, you know, she has a case file with us, and that's all confidential, so we can't speak to details of it. But we've had several people call us and say they're willing to help her. Citizens. And so, you know, the question is...

ACOSTA: Can you do that with millions of uninsured people in this country who are in the same boat?

COBURN: Well, yes. No, they're not in the same boat. Don't exaggerate. Most people...

ACOSTA: There aren't millions of people uninsured in this country?

COBURN: Are you going to ask me a question and let me answer it or argue with me?

ACOSTA: I'm just asking.

COBURN: What I'm saying is there are millions of people that are uninsured, but there are not millions of people who have lost their husband's ability to be a breadwinner and then not have a safety net that is taken care of. There's not millions. And the question is, is are we efficient at how we help people who really depend on us?

ACOSTA: So, for the 47-some-odd million people who don't have health care insurance in this country, her case is an exception

COBURN: Absolutely. Absolutely. Let's talk about the 47 million you all continue to refer to. Eleven of them are illegal immigrants, 16 million are eligible for SCHIP or Medicaid today. They go anywhere, they're going to get covered because they are eligible.

We have 11 million people making over $75,000 a year who choose not to buy insurance. So, we actually have about nine million Americans who really need our help.

ACOSTA: The problem is exaggerated in your mind?

COBURN: Absolutely, it's exaggerated. But it doesn't mean the problem with the cost of health care, because the thing that keeps them from getting health care is cost.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: All right.

Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here to help us sort through these numbers, the numbers of the uninsured. And let me preface this by saying we pay very close attention to everything Senator Coburn says on the subject of health care. He's really smart in this area. I believe he's a doctor.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right.

HARRIS: And so -- and he is absolutely key, and he has actually come up with a Republican approach to health care reform. So, we are really interested in everything he has to say on this topic, and he's been a guest on this program a couple of times. But we want to go through some of the numbers that he cited.

OK?

COHEN: Right, just a little fact-checking. OK.

HARRIS: Let's do this. The number that we've heard most often is the number of 46 million, 47 million uninsured Americans.

COHEN: Right. And let me tell you where that comes from.

That comes from the Census Department. The Census Department says 46 million Americans don't have insurance. What he was arguing with is, who are these people?

HARRIS: Yes.

COHEN: Are they illegal immigrants perhaps? Are they perhaps people who would be eligible for Medicaid and have opted not to get it? Are they people who just don't want to pay for health care? Right?

I mean, you could be a multi-zillionaire (ph) and be uninsured just because you don't want to dish out the money, right?

HARRIS: So, should we look through some of these numbers?

COHEN: Now let's look through them.

HARRIS: OK. So, Senator Coburn says you're really talking about 11 million people who are illegal immigrants as being factored into this 47 million uninsured number.

COHEN: Right. He says, OK, 46 million uninsured Americans...

HARRIS: Yes. I'm sorry, 46 million or 47 million? We should get our numbers straight.

COHEN: Forty-six million. Forty-six million uninsured Americans.

He says 11 million out of the 46 million are illegal immigrants. Well, he is going to have to argue with members of his own party about that, because according to a Republican (AUDIO GAP) brief, only eight million of the 46 million are uninsured. So, people of his own party are saying that his number is wrong, and that it's eight million are uninsured immigrants, not 11 million.

HARRIS: So, an argument with his own party on that number.

COHEN: Right.

HARRIS: Sixteen million are SCHIP or Medicaid eligible. And what is SCHIP, first of all?

COHEN: SCHIP is a program to insure kids who don't have insurance on their own.

HARRIS: OK. So, what do we make of this number?

COHEN: Well, you know, it's interesting. This is one -- this has to be sort of, you have to go to various groups and see what they say. Everyone can do their own estimates, so maybe he gives that 16 million. However, the Urban Institute has done very recent work and they say it's more like 11 million.

So, in other words, what they're both saying is that there are millions of people, adults and children, who are eligible for public programs like Medicaid or SCHIP, but aren't taking advantage of it.

HARRIS: Yes.

COHEN: Now, then, the question is, well, golly, if they could get on those programs, why the heck aren't they?

HARRIS: Right.

COHEN: That's a complicated answer. It could be because it's too difficult to enroll. It could be because they don't even know that they are eligible for it, a whole lot of different answers. Maybe they just don't feel like it.

HARRIS: And this last answer from the Senator, 11 million of the 46 million who are uninsured make over $75,000 a year and opt not to purchase insurance. So, this is the argument, that there are people who can afford it and just for whatever reason, decide they're not going to purchase it.

COHEN: Well, because it costs money. Right? And, surely, there are people out there who say, well, I could either buy health insurance or I could go on a nice Caribbean vacation. You know, there are people who would choose the vacation. There are probably some people like that.

However, the Census Bureau itself, which keeps these records, says that the senator is wrong on this count. They say that there are nine million people making $75,000 a year or more who do not have health insurance, and I think many people would argue with him saying that they've opted no to buy it.

Let's say you make $75,000 a year because you run your own little mom-and-pop store. You don't have insurance through your employer because you're self-employed. And let's say you have cancer and you can't get insurance. Or let's say you even have a bad back and you can't get insurance.

So, some of these people making 75,000 a year, they don't have insurance because they can't get it. They can't get Medicaid. They're too rich.

They can't get insurance through the private sector because perhaps they have a pre-existing condition. They can't get it through their employer, because their employer offer it. So, some people are forced not to have it. Other people choose not to have it.

HARRIS: So, when you take the senator's numbers, 11 million are illegal immigrants, and there's some pushback on that. Sixteen million are SCHIP or Medicaid eligible. And you just talked about all of that. And 11 million make more than $75,000 a year and opt out for whatever reason from purchasing insurance.

When you factor in the numbers from the senator, that's how he comes up with this idea that leaves nine million uninsured Americans who need help. Correct?

COHEN: Right. And a lot of people would really argue with that, including the Census Bureau.

HARRIS: OK. And again, we've had the senator on the program, we will have him again. As soon as he wants to join us, we'll have him on to talk about these numbers and to talk about the health care debate, where we go from here. Because he is, would you agree, very important to this discussion?

COHEN: Oh, he is. He's very thoughtful on this discussion.

HARRIS: Smart.

COHEN: And unlike some people who just complain, he actually has come up with some plans on his own.

HARRIS: Appreciate it, Elizabeth. Thank you.

COHEN: Thanks..."