by Mark Silva
On vacation this week on Martha's Vineyard, President Barack Obama plans to "be playing this by ear.''
That means, for now, the rumored meeting with the convalescing Sen. Ted Kennedy up in Hyannisport or a round of golf with Tiger Woods are, well, just bad rumors. At least that's what the White House is suggesting about a week's vacation which is, admittedly, somewhat seat of the pants.
Kennedy, the senior senator from Massachusetts battling brain cancer, could have made quite a difference in the health-care negotiations underway, Sen. John McCain, the senior senator from Arizona, said today on ABC News' This Week.
" No person in that institution is indispensable,'' the Republican McCain said of his Democratic colleague who helped him pass an immigration reform bill in the Senate - only to see it die in the House. "But Ted Kennedy comes as close to being indispensable as any individual I've ever known in the Senate because he had a unique way of sitting down with the parties at a table and making the right concessions, which really are the essence of successful negotiations...
"So it's huge that he's absent, not only because of my personal affection for him,'' McCain said, "but because I think the health care reform might be in a very different place today."
But, as for all the speculation that Obama, the former junior senator from Illinois, might meet up with the lion of the Senate this week while the Obamas rest at a 28-acre estate on the island off the south shore of Cape Cod, the White House says there are no plans for that.
"Obviously the president and his family have been in contact with Sen. Kennedy and their family over the course of his time as president,'' assistant press secretary Bill Burton said today, en route to Martha's Vineyard with the president. " I can't imagine that contact would continue even while they're here. But there's no plans at this point to go over to Hyannis Port.''
And, as for that golf which the golf-loving president might take in with one of the world's golfing giants, Burton said simply: "I think that's a bad rumor. I don't even know that he's going to be here this week. But no, there's -- nothing like that is on the schedule. There's no plan for that.''
Then again, Burton said: "Let me just start by saying that the president is coming to Martha's Vineyard because it's a beautiful place where the residents are great and the people who come to visit in the summers ain't too bad, either. They've got great beaches, great restaurants, a good community...
"He's on vacation, though, and there are no scheduled plans. And just like when anybody else goes on vacation, if dinner plans pop up, they go out to dinner. If your friends come over, they come over. So I think we'll all just be playing this by ear.''
(Photo of President Barack Obama, lower right, and eldest daughter Malia, 11, lower left, followed by wife Michelle, upper right, and daughter Sasha, 8, departing Air Force One after at Cape Cod Coast Guard Air Station near Falmouth, Mass. today, . By Vince DeWitt/ pool via Bloomberg .)









Comments
"But Ted Kennedy comes as close to being indispensable as any individual I've ever known in the Senate " And McCain wonders why he didn't excite the conservative base.
Posted by: Terry | August 23, 2009 8:41 PM
Millions of Americans have lost their jobs and homes, but obama rents out an estate for thousands of dollars per week.
obama, the elitist, looks down and laughs at the common man.
Paulo
Posted by: Paulo | August 23, 2009 9:30 PM
Theme : The public health is a fundamental human right.
1. When the public health is also one of commodity like a house, we come to a tragic and unthinkable conclusion : As to for-profit business, the more ill patients get, the more profits they make.
Under the most wasteful structure on the planet like no coordinated preventive care program waiting until people get ill, a pay for each and every service reimbursement and frequent readmissions, no e-medical record and deaths, crushing litigations and the more profits via the unnecessary procedures, and the most inefficient paper billing systems imaginable, overpriced pharmaceuticals, bloated insurance companies, medial fraud, exorbitant costs by the tragic ER visits etc, it might be no wonder with the expansive, systematic reform in the pipeline., just one attitude of patient-oriented value in 10 regions has attained 16% of savings in Medicare while their quality scores are well above average.
Aside from the already allocated $583 billion and the savings of this reform package, 16% of $923.5bn (the combined Medicare and Medicaid cost per year, as of July) is around $147.76bn per year and 1.4776trillion over the next decade, and this patient-oriented value alone could be enough to meet the goal.
Please be 'sure' to visit http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/opinion/13gawande.html?hp for credible evidences !
2. The savings via removing wastes turn into limit to medical access, rationing, tax raise, and deficit etc via the irresponsible lies.
Unlike high fuel price and mortgage rate in recent years as the roots of great recession and bankruptcy of middle class, the severity in the high cost of health premiums has come to light lately. Similarly, in an attempt to hide these painful corruptions & wastes, the greed allies struggle to turn the savings via removing these wastes into limit to medical access, rationing, tax raise, and deficit etc.
In contrast, not to mention a wide range of consumer protection, this promising reform takes initiatives in more primary care docs and improved long-term care. Unnecessarily, hope should not be replaced with fear, just like people don't have to fear quitting drug.
3. Under the free market theory and the premise that the public health is also one of commodity like a house, if the demand decreases on a large scale, accordingly the price tends to reflect it, as in the case of house price, and it never happens for the price to spiral up. One step forward, in case the price is spiraling up, to be sure, the remaining clients should withdraw the contract or choose the other options. Sadly, no way-out other than the prohibitive ER is allowed in America. Therefore, the victims today and tomorrow deserve an overdue protection from non-profit Government.
4. When some part of our body is ailing seriously, we are going to lose competitiveness, equally, when some part of a nation is ailing servery, it is going to loose competitiveness, too.
5. Unlike the original financial concern over recovery from Catrina catastrophe, the recovery work is going smooth with no big problem, to my knowledge. The last thing to want would be for this health Catrina to be left untreated. And there is enough room for savings from the unsustainable wastes.
6. Equation (By decade) & the flower of this reform !
$1.042trillion (cost of reform) + $245bn (cost to reflect annual pay raise of docs) = $1.287bn (actual cost of reform).
$583bn (the revenue package) + $80bn (co-called doughnut hole) + $155bn (savings from hospitals) + $167bn (ending the unnecessary subsidies for insurers) + 129bn(mandate-related fine) + $277bn (ending medical fraud, a minimum of 3% , the combined Medicare and Medicaid cost of $923.5bn per year, as of July,) = $1.391trillion + the reduced cost of ER visits (Medicare covers some 40% of the total) + the tax code on the wealthiest more reduced than originally proposed = why not ? (except for a magic pill, an outcome-based payment reform & IT effects and so forth).
Additionally, the last thing to expect, no e-medial record(under a fee for each and every service payment, hospitals are resistant to introduce IT system) , is happening now in the sector requiring the best accuracy in terms of dealing with human lives, which leads to a shocking portion of risk-carrying duplicate tests, fatal errors and deaths, as a consequence, these cause a vicious circle, about $100bn worth of litigations and even more profits via unnecessary procedures for hospitals .
Clearly, the American style innovation, outcome-based payment reform, could speed up the adoption of IT system, under this package, docs' pay is dependant upon patient's outcome, no intervention, wastes, frequent readmissions, low-quality are allowed later on.
It is firmly believed with the preventive care program in operation, this innovation could make a big difference just like GM has surprised the world with the adoption of EV-conversion technology from pioneers and outpaced the excellent hybrid cars (the release of BYD's earlier appearance in America and the ambitious plan of Germany for 1million of EVs by 2020 etc might support it).
7. Over the duration of time-consuming discussion surrounding this common sense, a fundamental human right, and slow down to shout and disrupt, and lie irresponsibly, America has been loosing market share in a futuristic sustainable energy arena. But just like if a country attempts to steal cash from wall street, America can't wait and see, so the opposite is the same. Taking the invaluable lives and gigantic war spending into account, it can be cited as one more extended reckless disaster, regardless of the result, as this great recession says.
Please note that time does not fix the endless greed, energy depletion, only science and innovation can meet the challenge.
Thank You !
Posted by: hsr0601 | August 24, 2009 4:15 AM
Very boring- The Obamcare is more exciting.
Posted by: Inky | August 24, 2009 6:28 AM
The country owes Obama thanks for giving it a vacation from him! Every day, every hour he seems to be making a Telepromptered speech which does two things: (1) Blames someone else and (2) Apologizes for America is some way.
Posted by: Daryl | August 24, 2009 9:38 AM
Paulo--Obama is paying for his own vacation. What--people can't spend their OWN money on things they want?
Posted by: Janstress | August 24, 2009 10:05 AM
Terry, the Senate is one big old boys club, and the House another. Every two years they put on a show for the proles, an "election," where they say bad things about each other to excite their respective bases, then, when it's all over, they go out for drinks together. I've long ago come to the conclusion that their supposed differences matter a lot more to us than they do to them.
Posted by: DaveB | August 24, 2009 10:58 AM
No plans to go there, Burton says. Then, this morning, are the reports that the Secret Service visited several times yesterday.
Why do they lie?
Posted by: Beth | August 24, 2009 1:01 PM