President Obama Stumps in New Jersey for Governor Corzine

Thursday, July 18, 2009

PNC Arts Center

3:15 pm– Members of the press passing out in a massive, seemingly endless line into the center, and its not on the account of President Obama but the scorching heat. Audacity of Hope? More like the Audacity of Heat Stroke

3:20 pm– I just made it through the security check and I didn’t even have to take off my shoes…Yes we can!

3:24 pm– Finally made my way down to the press pool seating area. In retrospect, I probably would’ve have sat in the blogger section, but then I’d be on the side of the Garden State Parkway.

3:30 pm– Some state senator approaches the podium and addresses the throngs of exuberant Obamaniacs and their one Corzine fan. She touts and panegyrizes the achievements and accomplishments of Governor Corzine. Yeah, how’s about addressing the fact that New Jersey received more than 17 billion dollars in Federal Stimulus money and yet no free bottled water in sub-Saharan heat.

3:32 pm– Much to the pleasure of the ultra-partisan crowd, State Senator begins to equate Chris Christie, the Republican candidate for governor, to president Bush. Not surprisingly, the crowd erupted in a raucous of boos. I think Bush is about as popular with the general electorate as flesh eating bacteria.

3:36 pm– Oh my, there appears to be a full-scale chorus singing. The chorus sang mellifluously and were very impassioned, but I fear I was much too much to distracted by the plethora of awkward white guy dancing. Clearly the black part of Obama would be put to shame.

3:45 pm– Whose Congressman’s leg do you have to hump to get a martini around here!

3:46 pm– Still no Obama or that other guy whom one person came to see.

4:00 pm– NJ Governor Corzine just made his way up the stage and to the podium and announces that he’s a Gay American. But seriously, Governor Corzine begins to address the enthusiastic crowd. What, too hot for sweater vests?

4:02 pm– Oh my, this man really needs to touch Obama because he has the charisma of a week’s old meatloaf. If he isn’t the Art Garfunkel to Obama’s Paul Simon…

4:05 pm– The topic of health care–the wheezing 800 pound gorilla in the emergency room–was broached.

4:08 pm– Governor Corzine panders to his most ardent supporters by playing up his support for unions and working class New Jerseyians.

4:12 pm– Governor Corzine announces the arrival of his good friend, Hillary Clinton. But seriously, President Obama has arrived!

4:13 pm– I think I just lost 80 percent of my hearing.

4:14 pm– President Obama begins to address the sweltering but ebullient crowd of thousands.

4:15 pm– I don’t care one iota if President Obama has back peddled on some of his campaign promises, belied some of his most vehement campaign rhetoric, and sheepishly kowtowed to the banks because he is adorable! He’s like puppy’s breath and new car scent all put in one! But seriously, President Obama exudes confidence and is highly commanding.

4:16 pm– Oh no he didn’t! I believe President Obama just handed Corzine his coat jacket. I guess Corzine is doing his laundry now.

4:18 pm– President Obama wastes no time in emphatically declaring Governor Corzine a crucial ally who had helped develop the national economic recovery plan, saving countless jobs, while working wonders on education and health insurance and still cutting the size of state government.

4:20 pm– President Obama seems very ensnared in his presidential campaign rhetoric and almost forgets that he got the job back in November. His tone is just as fiery and forceful as it was on the stump. Clearly Obama feels more comfortable in this arena than he does in the oval office.

4:25 pm– Health Care reform is explained not just in terms of the nation as a whole but to the great many small business owners suffering from soaring costs here in New Jersey.

4:30pm– Enough with all of this trivial health care reform! I want to know why the president hates flies and yellow mustard!

4:36– After lauding Governor Corzine for his own efforts in fixing health care, President Obama took this golden opportunity to highlight his own prescription for a workable and affordable health plan. In fact, President Obama took off the gloves and confronted the most vociferous republican and conservative Democrat opponents of his health plan by loudly declaring “What’s your Plan?!” Kudos!

“What’s your Plan?!” ~ President Obama

4:40 PM– President Obama concludes his 25 minute speech by reaffirming his support for Governor Corzine and thanks the crowd.

A Health Care Letter to the President

Mr. Barack Obama
President of the United States of America
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC  20001

Dear Mr. President:

I have a little problem.  My little problem, however, is part of a big problem – Health Care in America. It is a problem for all Americans.   I want to help you fix this problem. My individual experiences make me both passionate and uniquely qualified to help change health care in America to make our country a better place to live and work.

First, a short history of my little problem: I am a 49 year old American who moved to the UK ten years ago. I was a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of an international health care company, and I accepted an assignment in Glasgow, Scotland for a 6-months stint that somehow turned into ten years. While staying true to my American roots, I have enjoyed my stay in the UK and enjoyed a successful career – except for one little glitch when in 2005, I was diagnosed with tonsil cancer. Six months of intensive treatment (surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy) has been followed by three years of aftercare.  All of my care was provided efficiently and effectively by the wonderful, capable doctors and nurses working for the National Health Service (NHS) here in Scotland. In some ways, I consider myself fortunate that I was diagnosed with this terrible disease while in the UK where I had access to the NHS to provide care.

But, now my little problem: I would like to move back to the U.S., but cannot – because no insurance company will come near a cancer survivor like me.  So, every summer, I visit my family for two weeks, and every April 15th, I send the IRS a check for my U.S. taxes for the privilege of being a U.S. citizen. And I now wait until I am 65, when I will be covered by Medicare, to return to my home  – this, of course,  is fifteen years away.   This, Mr. President, is no way to run a country.

Ironically, since I have worked as a financial executive for various health care companies for over 20 years – I understand all too well why insurance and health care companies run the other way when they see me coming. As a cancer survivor, I am a big, fat financial liability waiting to happen.  I also know that there are ways I can “sneak” into the U.S. health care system by getting a job with an employer with an insurance plan or otherwise getting into a group plan and hoping that preexisting conditions do not trip me up sometime in the future.  But then again, I know those insurance underwriters are smart and vigilant (that is what they are paid to do); they are continually finding ways to exclude the high risk patients from their insured population. And even if I do get into an insurance plan, I would imagine the fine print of the policy would find a way to exclude me if I became a major liability.  So, is this really any way to live my life?  Is this really any way for anyone to live their life?  Is this any way to run the greatest country in the world?

So for now, I will remain here in the UK. I know the UK is not perfect, and it has its own health care issues. But I know one thing is certain – if I show up at the hospital in the UK diagnosed with cancer again, I will be treated, and I will not be financially ruined.  The peace of mind this gives me is more than enough reason for me to stay here in the UK until we solve our little health care problem in America.

As I said at the beginning, my little problem is really an American problem.  The real problem is that millions of other Americans who have similar or worse tales of woe and do not have a solution.  They come in all shapes and sizes. Someone gets ill and then loses his or her job and health insurance coverage, and someone’s illness is excluded from insurance because of the fine print in the policy, for example because of preexisting conditions that were either conveniently or inconveniently forgotten at the beginning of a policy. The circumstances are wide and varied.   Far too many people in America live in fear or ignorance of a health care event which can be catastrophic to themselves and their family.  The free market system of American health care has developed in to a multi-headed hydra which is designed more for making profits than for caring for the sick – or even keeping people from getting sick in the first place.

I am passionate about helping fix the problem.  I offer my services to you as cancer survivor, as an experienced financial executive, and as an American who wants to make the country a better place in which to live.  I will consider any role in your administration (or indeed anywhere in the U.S.) which will put me in a position to help fix health care in America.  I want to come home and help, but the irony is that I can’t come home until I get my health insurance sorted.

My compensation for providing such services is simple.  My compensation will be to once again live in a country where if I (or anyone) am diagnosed with cancer (or any major disease), I will be treated and I will not be financially ruined.  The peace of mind that comes with this end result will be more than enough reward for any service that I can provide.

Thank you for your consideration.

I remain a U.S. citizen, proud of America, and missing my home.

Warren McInteer

Glasgow

United Kingdom

P.S. I have written also written a two part series for Demockracy.com on the subject that goes into more detail regarding the problems and solutions of U.S. health care.  If you are so inclined, please look at these pieces and let us begin the work to fix American health care:

Health Care in America: A Time for Change

Health Care in America: A Way Forward

A Progressive Health Care Solution

In one of my earlier posts, I said that I hoped President Obama would be progressive. I further tried to offer a definition of progressive, to be contrasted with liberal and conservative. That didn’t go over too well. I’m trying again, this time by using the concrete example of health care. How would a progressive go about health care reform? This is the question that I answer in Demockracy’s first-ever podcast – take a listen:

Progressivism and Health Care

Harry, Are We There Yet?

On January 3, 2009, just one week ago, the 111th U.S. Congress was sworn into session. So now that all the dust has settled, where do things stand? The dust has settled, right?

Well, things are pretty straightforward in the House where the exact number of the Democratic majority matters little at this point. With a comfortable majority, even when subtracting conservative blue-dog Dems, most legislation will be a foregone conclusion. Of course, the Senate with its arcane rules and blue-blood past has always been the voice of idiocy and reason at the same time. This is not a new phenomenon. President Garfield is famous for allegedly responding to his wife’s call that robbers were in their house, with a quip of “No, my dear, not in the House, but there are plenty in the Senate.”

Nothing controversial gets done in the Senate, of course, unless you can somehow muster 60 odd votes for your particular bill. With that said, I began to ask myself what exactly is the makeup of the Senate as of today, the 11th of January.  The number of Republicans looks fairly certain.  With Norm Coleman losing the recount in Minnesota and with Illinois refusing to hold a special election, there will be almost certainly 41 Republicans in the upcoming session. However, after that it gets a little tricky. Right now, there are 53 Democratic Senators, not including Joe Biden, who is still a Senator and who will also become vice president in a week. Biden stayed on, unlike Obama, because he got a photoop with Dick Cheney while being sworn in for his seventh six-year term. (Perhaps he and Cheney can talk about whether Biden will actually be switching branches of the government next week.)

So that leaves us with 94 total Senators. Who else is left? Well, there is also one Benedict Liebercrat and one Ben-and -Jerry socialist (Bernie Sanders, Vermont), making 96. But this is not a Lost episode, and I am not having a flashback to before Hawaii became our forty-ninth state in the year my mother was born. Instead, what we have here is four Democratic Senators in limbo, with only one assured of actually becoming a Senator.

Still confused?

Well, let’s take a brief look at all four of these individuals who could potentially fill out the remaining four spots. Or at least at three of them. Or maybe at two.

1. Well, we know who one will be for sure anyhow, Ted Kaufman of Delaware. Mr. Kaufman, a long-time aide to Joe Biden, will be a two-year seat warmer for Joe’s son Beau to continue the nepotism tradition of the Senate. I think we can agree that Mr. Kaufman’s isn’t all that interesting, so let’s move on.

2. Next in the order of likelihood is either Al Franken or Roland Burris. Now these two, unlike Mr. Kaufman, are very interesting stories. Mark Wilson gave a good background about the legalities surrounding the Burris appointment. In short, Burris is the legitimate appointment of illegitimate and recently impeached Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. First, Harry Reid appeared to be playing hard ball, and the Senate Sergeant at Arms (no, this is not Britain) even went as far as denying Mr. Burris’ credentials this past week. However, as the days go on, it looks likely that Burris will probably become the junior senator from Illinois. Well, unless Blago is actually convicted by the Illinois Senate before the U.S. Senate finally caves. The fact that some, including Chicago Congressman Bobby Rush, are comparing the treatment of Burris to a lynching, makes it likely that Mr. Reid will capitulate.

3. The other interesting individual here is a comedian who is ahead by only 225 votes after a two-month recount. Famous for his Saturday Night Live role as Stuart Smalley, Franken looks to be good enough and smart enough to actually become Minnesota’s Senator. However, unlike in Illinois, where the law is probably on Burris’ side, Franken still legally is not allowed to be sworn in as Senator, and it’s not exactly clear when that might change. Incumbent Senator Norm Coleman, who had a few hundred-vote lead before the recount of all the lizard people votes, has filed a lawsuit, and Minnesota law states that the results cannot be certified until this is settled. Yes, Franken will most likely pull this out at the end of the day (or month or winter), but it’s not completely over yet.

4. Finally, we get to the seat that, although everyone this side of Cher is lobbying for it, hasn’t actually had anyone appointed to it yet. New York Governor David Paterson, who is apparently too scared to tick off either the Kennedy or Cuomo family, has waited nearly two months and still has not selected anyone to fill Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat. We know it will likely be a political scion–we just don’t know which one yet.

You’ve probably noticed that I’ve linked to a few other previous articles that I have written in the past. This isn’t because I’m feeling cocky or self-important tonight. Rather, it’s to demonstrate a point. We have been in purgatory season for U.S. national politics for the past two months, with only Senate seat payoffs, tainted ballots, and dinosaur bailouts to keep our domestic palate wet. Thankfully, this long national political nightmare is about to come to an end. No, I’m not talking about the Bush presidency (although that will be nice as well). Rather, the dead zone between the election and inauguration is finally almost over, and we will at last have some fresh new policy to talk about in the coming months. Now we can start debating important things, like how long until the new Congress actually passes meaningful legislation. Nancy Pelosi has promised to keep the House in business through its President’s day vacation if the Stimulus package is not passed yet. Harry Reid has made no such promises. The word on the street is that the House might even reintroduce the State Children’s Healthcare Insurance Program (SCHIP) expansion bill again as soon as this coming week.

I’m starting to feel excited about U.S. national politics again. Kind of like a kid who might be lucky enough to find health insurance under the Christmas tree (and maybe a tax cut after that). How in God’s name did people wait until March for this dead season to end back in the days when there were actually supposed to be 96 Senators?