>>> back on offense. after two months of being battered by bad media mojo and healthcare.gov headaches, president obama is renewing the push for his signature health care law. and this white house knows, they have no time to waste. to promote the law and boost enrollment, the administration will hold an event every single day from now until december 23rd, the deadline to enroll and get insurance for the new year. and it all started this afternoon, with the president himself, who said we are not going back. >> and that seems to be the only alternative that obama cares critics have, is lets go back to the status quo, because they sure havent presented an alternative. youve got good ideas? bring them to me. lets go. but were not repealing it as long as im president. >> no, were not going to repeal the law. and, in fact, the real ballots may have just begun. >> if ive got to fight another three years to make sure this law works, thats what ill do. whats important for everybody to remember is, not only that the law has already helped millions of people, but that there are millions more who stand to be helped. and weve got to make sure they know that. >> the fresh offensive by the president is a sign that the white house is no longer hamstrung by the problem-plagued website. the presidents chief of staff said today that 1 million visitors had checked out healthcare.gov on monday, with about 13,000 choosing to receive an e-mail to come back at another time. and with the site much improved, house republicans are clearly on the hunt for a new line of attack. >> and its not just a broken website. this bill is fundamentally flawed. >> while the white house wants to claim that healthcare.gov is working, we know that obama care is still plagued with problems. and every american deserves relief from it. >> every american deserves relief from it. really? would that include the 129 million americans with preexisting conditions who can no longer be denied coverage or charged more? do 105 million americans really want to go back to having lifetime limits on their care? and what about that republican alternative for covering the uninsured, reducing costs and all the rest? speaker boehner? >> the american people want to be able to pick their own type of health insurance. they want to be able to pick their own doctor. they want to be able to pick their own hospital. thats what a patient-centered health care system looks like. . you know, actually, mr. speaker, thats a lot of what the affordable care act already does. extending benefits to americans who before now have basically had two choices for their health care. their own home remedies or the emergency room. joining us now is our panel, political analyst, zerlina maxwell, grio and msnbc political analyst, professor michael eric dyson. ladies first. zerlina, were seeing the president on offense, back where he is comfortable in campaign mode. too little too late, or is this what the president needs to do? >> he absolutely needs to do this. im surprised that it took them this long. i know they were waiting for the website to get back up and running, and to a degree in which people are able to log on the vast majority of people. but the bottom line, on january 1st, theres 500,000 people already enrolled. on january 1st, when people can go to the doctor, there are going to be endless anecdotes of people finally getting the care they have waited for for years and years. and i think that republicans dont have an alternative. and thats why its important that democrats start now, be on offense and go to the mid terms next year. >> and the point that zerlina made is just that, youre going to have people getting care, those kinds of stories. so republicans are trying to solicit stories of nightmares, everything that they are doing now has to be negative. what is the republican message at this point when people are actually getting the coverage? >> well, theyre trying to do the bush doctrine. preemptive strikes. try to do it right now, because we know those stories are going to cumulate, as ms. maxwell said, and the anthropology of recovery. and so what happens is, that those people who are recovering, who begin to tell those stories, who begin to tell the truth about what they got. and look, what the president said today is going to become more true. so this is why theyre more antagonist antagonistic. the people who aint got dont get. and is the people who already had going to get better. thats big news when it comes to the fact that, oh, i can stay on my health plan, whereas before i had to get kicked off. now i can stay on and the medicine wont run out and i can address the illness, which will reduce costs in the long run, which is ideal for republican government, except president obama is at the head of this government. >> that his name is on it. and, you know, the professor says the people who aint got it go and get. but there are people who arent going to get, and thats the people being locked out in the 25 states not taking the medicaid expansion, a huge way the health care act was going to expand access to care. is there something the democrats can do politically with that? because they havent real seemed to touch it until now. >> i think they can focus on that message in those states and people running for congress in those states can say, i will work with the governor, i will promote the expansion of medicaid in this state for my constituents. because people want to go to the doctor. the idea that, you know, republicans have no alternative is a big difference between democrats and republicans, because democrats want people to be able to go to the doctor, and republicans do not. that is the fundamental, you know, framework for what were talking about. and i think that democrats have an advantage. republicans want them to think its a disadvantage. that obama care, the website, wasnt working and all the glitches. but come next year when people are going to the doctor, its going to be a plus for democrats. >> well, it does feel like professor dyson, thats exactly where the president was going. i want to play more sound from today, because he was pretty much sending that exact same message. lets lesson. >> you cant just say that the system was working with 41 million people without health insurance. you cant just say that the system is working when youve got a whole bunch of folks who thought they had decent insurance, and then when they got sick, it turned out it wasnt there for them. go back, take a look at whats actually going on. because it can make a difference in your lives, and lives of your families. >> so, you know, professor dyson, one of the biggest criticisms of the president and democrats and the way they did health care reform, they never really explained that to people. never explained why you have to do health care reform. so that when it happened, people really werent even understanding why we had to go through these changes. has the president gotten better at explaining it? is there still time to reintroduce the idea of health care reform? >> its definitely his desi arnez moment. lucy, youve got some explaining to do. so hes trying to break it down. he talks about bill clinton as explainer in chief. and bill clinton is great. but barack obama has got mad skills, because he clients that baptist preacher-like, slow cadence, where he can get the humor in there. and preachers will say god will slow walk you. and then hes got the peyton manning-- sorry for these analogies. peyton manning throws the ball before the receiver turns the ball to where it should be so he can receive it when it gets there. so what obama is hoping is that im going to put out there now. because a year from now, people arent going to remember the roll-out stuff. its going to be like thank god i went to the doctor and it wasnt the emergency ward and guess what? now ive got my diabetes under control, my chemotherapy here, my viagra. there will be millions of men who will rise to the occasion and say we are grateful for what he has done. >> i just caught that. the thing is, zerlina, i think its actually true, as funny as that was -- and im glad you made that appointment, the website is such a fixation, particularly in terms of media could haverag coverage, because something a reporter can log on to and demonstrate for themselves. its as if theyre acting the website literally can last for another year. because there is not an election for another year. how is that possible, they think that can keep going? >> i dont know. i mean, the problem for them is that obama care is their plan. and thats why they dont have anything to say. and they had to focus on the website. so i think the media and republicans were behind the narrative. you know, this shutdown affected the website coverage. and then the website was getting fixed and we were still talking about the website as if it was broken. and i think that the bottom line here is that once you sign up for insurance, youre not thinking about a website. on january 1st, when i go to the doctor, im not going to be thinking about the website. and nobody is going to ask me about the website. how long did it take you to sign up? nobody is going to be asking that. when you go to get your prescription and no co-pay for preventive care for women, youre not going to be thinking about the website. >> i think about the history books in 2040, are they going to be reading about health care or a web site? nobody is going to care. i have to divert one question about detroit, professor dyson. obviously, you are a detroit native. and get your comments. detroit bankrupt, run by an unelected manager. its a mess. >> it is a mess. chaotic. and it is a repudiation directly of democratic principle, because kevin orr, good brother he is, is really in place of a mayor who the people elected. not only that, they didnt want a city manager to be appointed. and despite their wishes, despite the wishes of the voters, a governor imposed this on the voters of detroit. and now when you bring kevin orr in, look, if you are having trouble in your marriage, do you bring in a divorce lawyer or counselor? which one you bring in tells me what youre thinking about. already they were thinking were going to bankrupt this city. and theres 100 and some other odd cities out here in the same position. are they going to do that to them? and i cant help but believe that the re pudation of democracy is a sad day for america. i know naacp has prepared a lawsuit, along with others to appeal this decision. but i think this is a sad day in america and democracy. but guess what, this is theca anywayy in the coal mine. whats to detroit now will happen to you later. and about the health care thing, they think the menu is messed up. the actual food was great in the restaurant. >> right. >> the menu is messed up. we aint going to eat the menu, dude. >> and high ironic the same party providing health insurance through private insurers is a government takeover, but they -- elected manager in charge of detroit. kind of ironic. super big government. zerlina maxwell, professor michael eric dyson. thanks to both of you. >>> coming up, health care saboteurs beware. time is running out. and do nothing is not a plan. well bring in a democratic member of congress when we come back. i remember the day my doctor said i had diabetes. theres a lot i had to
Posted on: Wed, 04 Dec 2013 09:08:45 +0000
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