Obama Uses Health Care As New Front in McCain Attack

Subscribe to this blog's feed

« Previous | Main | Next »

Obama Uses Health Care As New Front in McCain Attack

October 04, 2008 2:44 PM

ABC News' John Berman, Sunlen Miller, Ursula Fahy and David Chalian report: After days of focusing on the financial crisis facing the country, Barack Obama gave a fresh speech for the first time in a week, trying to open up a new front against John McCain on the issue of health care.

Speaking before a crowd in Newport News, Va., Obama invoked the death of his mother at the age of 53 from ovarian cancer, saying, "This isn't about politics for me. This is personal."

Maybe, but the politics were never far from the surface, with Obama levying a pointed attack on the health plan of John McCain before laying out the details of his own. Obama called McCain's plan "radical," charging that McCain, "taxes health care benefits for the first time in history."

According to the McCain campaign Web site, under his plan, "every family will receive a direct refundable tax credit -- effectively cash -- of $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families to offset the cost of insurance. Families will be able to choose the insurance provider that suits them best and the money would be sent directly to the insurance provider." In order to pay for this plan, however, McCain in part suggests taxing employer-provided health benefits.

The McCain campaign says the plan is designed to give individuals more choices, and the tax credit is larger than the one families receive now. But predictably, Obama is not impressed.

He told supporters in Virginia, "It's the same approach George W. Bush floated a few years ago. It was dead on arrival in Congress. But if Senator McCain were to succeed where George Bush failed, it very well could be the beginning of the end of our employer-based health care system." Obama has been trying to tie John McCain to the unpopular 43rd president any chance he gets.

And Obama charged, "under the McCain plan, at least 20 million Americans will lose the insurance they rely on from their workplace."

The McCain campaign responded in a flurry of e-mails calling Obama’s speech a "radical lie." McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said, "It's a bald faced lie because John McCain will improve the tax code so that middle class paychecks aren't used to pay government bureaucrats but instead will pay for the access to health care Americans deserve." And Bounds called Obama's own plan, "a radical turn toward government-run health care that promises to be as efficient as a trip to the DMV."

Obama's plan, according to his Web site, would "establish a National Health Insurance Exchange with a range of private insurance options as well as a new public plan based on benefits available to members of Congress that will allow individuals and small businesses to buy affordable health coverage." But Obama says, if you like your current insurance, and current doctor, nothing would change. The senator claims that Americans could save up to $2,500 on their premiums. The McCain camp calls it a "push to government run health care."

Throughout the speech to the crowd in Newport News, Obama laced his criticism of the current health care system with the phrase, "It ain't right." He repeated it five times; a refrain that delighted the crowd, even if it is sure to dismay English teachers.

For the first time, Obama told the story of a 16-year-old boy named Devon that he met in Florida and who has a heart condition. Obama said Devon's insurance company won't pay for a procedure, and as a result, he has to "stop all physical activity. No more gym classes. No more football at school. No more basketball at the park with his friends." Obama said he received an e-mail from the boy's mother saying, "My son deserves all that life has to offer. Money should NEVER determine the quality of a child's life." Obama promised the Virginia crowd, "You have my word that I will never back down, I will never give up, I will never stop fighting until we have fixed our health care system."

The health care theme, with the speech and accompanying commercials are a subject the campaign had planned to unveil last week, before the congressional stand-off on the financial crisis. It was a speech written to be delivered in Colorado, with the prepared remarks including a line referring to "a postal worker here in Colorado." Obama clearly caught the problem, and changed the home of the postal worker from Colorado to Virginia.

The new timing of the speech gives Obama a chance to dictate part of the narrative heading into the second presidential debate on Tuesday. And, it puts Obama on the attack at the very time that the McCain campaign says it is about to take a more aggressive tone.

Today, it was the McCain campaign on defense, via e-mail at least. In the campaign's third email response to Obama's speech today, Bounds alluded to Obama's ties to William Ayres, a former member of the radical group, The Weather Underground. Ayres, who is now a professor at the University of Illinois, served on a board with Obama and donated to his campaign.

"On a day when new reports have surfaced about Barack Obama's long association with a domestic terrorist, our Democratic opponent had the audacity to call John McCain's health care plan 'radical.' The American people know radical when they hear it, and John McCain is not the candidate in this election they should be concerned about," Bounds said.

This was Obama's eighth trip to Virginia in the general election. It is a state that no Democrat has won since 1964, though some polls now show Obama with a slight lead.

October 4, 2008 in McCain, John, Obama, Barack | Permalink | User Comments (740)

User Comments

You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

Marget - Obama's reference to "raiding villages and killing civilians" comes about because we are. It's not disrespectful to our troops. It's that the leadership has put them in a situation where there's no avoiding it. Republicans deny the reality they've created.

Posted by: mudge007 | Oct 4, 2008 4:25:22 PM

Barack Obama understands that our health care system is broken and it's a serious problem when millions of Americans are uninsured. The insurance companies are only looking out for themselves and not the sick, and it's wrong! McCain wants to add to their profits by giving them $5,000 for families and he is paying for that by eliminating the tax credits for companies who provide health care to their employees. For anyone with a brain, this would be a complete disaster. People will lose their employee based health care and be forced to buy private insurance from the very same companies who are unfair, charge high costs, and discriminate.

Posted by: Kathy | Oct 4, 2008 4:26:20 PM

Oh boy, here we go with the "domestic terrorist" BS, they are going to try to make Obama out to be a terrorist; damn that's braindead, but I could imagine 51% of Americans falling for it-- if the economy weren't so messed up that they know better than to vote for McSame.

Posted by: Darryl | Oct 4, 2008 4:26:51 PM

Really in despair! Serving on a board with someone does not imply endorsing the person past life story, the same way serving in the senate with sen McCain does not imply endorsing Bush's fail philosophy

Posted by: zago | Oct 4, 2008 4:27:26 PM

Say NO to blackie president Obama mamma.

Posted by: Tanisha | Oct 4, 2008 4:27:39 PM

Say NO to blackie president Obama mamma.

Posted by: Tanisha | Oct 4, 2008 4:27:39 PM

Rod, McSame wants to tax YOU! for the amount of premium the employer pays. That's right, your benefit will be treated as compensation. Nice.

Posted by: mudge007 | Oct 4, 2008 4:28:16 PM

YEAH! Spread some of that socialism around all you rich Republicans! I've been uninsured for three years once my "health" insurance Co. realized I have an auto immune disease!

I'M A HEALTH CARE VOTER!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OBAMA/BIDEN 08

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by: henry | Oct 4, 2008 4:29:16 PM

McCain's health care plan is a plan for disaster. Our health care system is already broken and he wants to destroy it. What we need to do is fix it. Insurance companies have to stop discriminating against the sick and start charging fair and reasonable prices. Those who cannot afford health care from private companies should be able to buy health care from the government for a lower cost. Everyone in this country should have health insurance, it's a moral obligation that the government should provide the people.

Posted by: Kathy | Oct 4, 2008 4:29:39 PM

jim ... correction: Obama / Biden / DNC = Pond Scum

Posted by: Cassandra Washington | Oct 4, 2008 4:29:43 PM

Obama can't cut taxes on everyone making under 250K AND fund all his entitlement programs, pet projects, and massive government he is salivating over.

Think about it folks. Something's got to give there and my bet is his long elegant fingers are going to be reaching into your wallets.

Posted by: Jim | Oct 4, 2008 4:30:09 PM

zago, it does when the candidate has said he agreed with bush's decisions 'OVER 90% OF THE TIME.'

Posted by: Charlotte | Oct 4, 2008 4:30:27 PM

Obama mamma is a muslim, crack smoking, rap loving Nig.

Posted by: Tan eesha | Oct 4, 2008 4:30:27 PM

Obama mamma is a muslim, crack smoking, rap loving Nig.

Posted by: Tan eesha | Oct 4, 2008 4:30:28 PM

Go get em Obama. Palin is a joke, she is running on that Obama has no experience. Hello he has alot more than her and alot better than her. And he is smart.. She can't even answer a question. Can't even finish a sentence. So she has no room to talk on anything. Go back to Alaska (there) and leave the job to Obama and Biden...Please. Do America and the world a favor. We aready have one moran in the office we don't need anymore...Greg

Posted by: greg | Oct 4, 2008 4:30:58 PM

Oh, thank you God for Obama.

I've lived for years with a chronic condition.

I've had to use the Canadian pharmacies for the past two years.

I cannot get health insurance or ANY AFFORDABLE health care in the United States of America...!

What kind of country treats it's citizens this way??

I'm so thankful for Obama.

Posted by: Jane W. | Oct 4, 2008 4:31:43 PM

Jim, do you make over $250,000 a year? If so, then, yes, your taxes will go up slightly. If not, guess what--they go down. Check out the washington post's analysis of both candidates tax plans.

Posted by: Charlotte | Oct 4, 2008 4:32:19 PM

obama will use any one and any thing to promOte his quest for the white house.
HE WILL THROW HIS MOTHER UNDER THE BUS, HE WILL THROW HIS PREACHER UNDER THE BJUS, HE WILL USE PEOPLE STOMP ON THEM AND WONDER WHY U JUST CAN'T VOTE FOR HIM. OBAMA IS RADICAL. HE LONGS TO MAKE THIS COUNTRY PAY FOR HIS OWN PERSONAL PROBLEMS IN LIFE. HE IS NOT STABLE. SARAH PALAN IS THE MOST QUALIFIED CANIDATE.

Posted by: krystal country | Oct 4, 2008 4:32:22 PM

@pete texas was a rep state this year its going all blue.

Posted by: slim | Oct 4, 2008 4:32:27 PM

McCain's campaign reminds me of the old line in the song about a limbo contest (or with them it might be Limbaugh) on how low can you go. They go to fear and smear to distort and distract , but with them nothing is beyond the pale (a phrase that originally applied to that part of Ireland still free from English "culture) or maybe I should say beyond Palin considering her comments of today. Bill Ayers did his political terrorism when Obama was 8 and has long been a professor at the University of Chicago which has long been known for its conservative economists and law school. I thought it was particularly amusing that today's McCain out of bounds comments came out of a Mr. Bounds. Hopefully the American people have had enough of the Rove recipe from 2000 and 2004 and will get off of a political diet of junk food spewed out by the Republican party.

Posted by: bhciapol | Oct 4, 2008 4:32:45 PM

Post a comment