American Morning
Debating religion and health care reform
President Obama's latest health care push – talking up reform to faith-based groups and religious leaders. In a conference call with at least 140-thousand people, the president called reform "a core ethical and moral obligation."
Rev. Jim Wallis, a member of the President's Advisory Council on Faith-Based Partnerships, and Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, debated the issue on "American Morning" Tuesday.
Mass. could be model for national health care reform
With so many town halls descending into Jerry Springer Shows on whether "Obama Care" means "death panels" for seniors (it won't), Massachusetts enjoys near-universal health care and it isn't breaking the bank.
Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney pushed through health care reform as governor of democratic Massachusetts three-years-ago. The result? 97 percent of the citizens in this state have health care. The program has a 69 percent approval rating and taxpayer watchdogs say it hasn't wasted public funds.
So what's the difference between "Romney Care" and "Obama Care"? In Massachusetts there's no public option. Citizens here are mandated to buy insurance or pay fines.
Romney says Democrats have only themselves to blame for the rowdy town halls on health care. But when asked whether Sarah Palin was wrong to say the president's plan would usher in "death panels," Romney would only say, "I don't read that in the bill."
Rep. Frank fires back at rowdy town hall
We've heard all kinds of snarky, snide, and sarcastic remarks during health care town halls. They're just not usually coming from the member of Congress at the front of the room.
But last night Congressman Barney Frank got rather frank with some of his constituents in Massachusetts. CNN's Jim Acosta was in the room during the rowdy debate.
Man carries assault rifle to Obama protest - and it's legal
PHOENIX, Arizona (CNN) - A man toting an assault rifle was among a dozen protesters carrying weapons while demonstrating outside President Barack Obama's speech to veterans on Monday, but no laws were broken. It was the second instance in recent days in which unconcealed weapons have appeared near presidential events.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/POLITICS/08/17/obama.protest.rifle/art.obama.gun.pool.jpg caption="A man is shown legally carrying a rifle at a protest against President Obama on Monday in Phoenix, Arizona."]
Video from the protest in Phoenix, Arizona, shows the man standing with other protesters, with the rifle slung over his right shoulder.
Phoenix police said authorities monitored about a dozen people carrying weapons while peacefully demonstrating.
"It was a group interested in exercising the right to bear arms," said police spokesman Sgt. Andy Hill.
Arizona law has nothing in the books regulating assault rifles, and only requires permits for carrying concealed weapons. So despite the man's proximity to the president, there were no charges or arrests to be made. Hill said officers explained the law to some people who were upset about the presence of weapons at the protest.
"I come from another state where 'open carry' is legal, but no one does it, so the police don't really know about it and they harass people, arrest people falsely," the man, who wasn't identified, said in an interview aired by CNN affiliate KNVX. "I think that people need to get out and do it more so that they get kind of conditioned to it."
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Prof: Health care 'rationing' not as scary as it sounds
In the debate over health care reform, we keep hearing the word "rationing." For Republicans, it's been one of the top talking points. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) said, “…rationing is underlying all of this. …If you don't get health care when you need it, you know, ultimately it's going to affect your life.”
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/08/19/singer.peter.cnn.art.jpg caption="Prof. Peter Singer says rationing is already happening in private health insurance companies."]
Peter Singer, a bioethics professor at Princeton University, says rationing isn't as scary as it sounds. He joined John Roberts on CNN’s “American Morning” Wednesday.
John Roberts: When you talk about rationing health care, what specifically is it that you mean?
Peter Singer: Firstly, it’s the public part of health care that I'm talking about. I’m not talking about stopping people paying for whatever they can afford to pay for or paying for whatever extra insurance they can pay for. But if you have public funds going for something, you want and the taxpayer wants to get good value for that public funds.
So that means you’re going to have to say, look, at the margins, if there's a very expensive new treatment or new drug that perhaps doesn't do any good anyway – perhaps there's no good scientific studies that show it's going to help you significantly – we're not going to provide that. We're going to say, we want to get a certain standard of value for money, just like you would if you're shopping at the supermarket. That's rationing.
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Filed under: Commentary • Health • Politics