Health Care

1,000 Words: Belly of the Beast Edition

By Karen Tumulty | March 5, 2010 | +

This photo, of President Obama meeting with health insurance executives, comes from the White House Flickrfeed:

Related Topics: health insurance industry, 1,000 Words, Barack Obama, Health Care

  • Latest on Swampland

    Pete Souza / The White House via Getty Images
    Closeup May 25, 2012

    Political Picures of the Week, May 18-25

    TIME’s photo editors bring you the best pictures of the past week from the Beltway and beyond.

    From our Partners

    Obama Administration Blocks Global Health Fund To Fight Disease In Developing NationsHuffPost Politics

    From left: AP; ABACAUSA
    2012 Election May 25, 2012

    The Phony War: Obama and Romney Are Debating Character, Not Policy

    More than five months from Election Day, the back-and-forth about Mitt Romney’s record at Bain already feels played out. Unfortunately, there’s good reason to expect the campaign continues in this vein indefinitely. Neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney are terribly interested in dwelling on policy platforms. Romney’s plan to slash spending and keep taxes low on the wealthy isn’t especially popular, at least not at any level of detail beyond a blithe promise to shrink the deficit. Meanwhile, Obama’s signature first-term achievements, like health care, the stimulus and Wall Street reform, are all unpopular or tricky to sell. (The Dodd-Frank bill is the most popular of these, but hyping it means offending wealthy donors.) So what we’re getting instead is a superficial duel about character–and, worse, one that’s based on the largely false premise that the better man can better “manage” the economy back to health.

  • http://www.simonvinkenoog.nl/beeld/Yogi%20-%20Annelies%20Rigter.jpg yogi

    “So I got two Cob salads, one hamburger with no pickles, three double cheeseburgers…”

  • http://www.simonvinkenoog.nl/beeld/Yogi%20-%20Annelies%20Rigter.jpg yogi

    “All right who’s the wise guy that put in this line: ‘All work and no play makes Obama a dull boy’?”

  • http://www.simonvinkenoog.nl/beeld/Yogi%20-%20Annelies%20Rigter.jpg yogi

    “Section IV, paragraph 2: Prescription Drug Pricing: Hey! Wait a second, these are just the rules fo that calculator game Drug Wars!”

  • the committee

    “In the list of people up against the wall, you’re in the top 20.”

  • sacredh

    First of all, I’d like to thank all of you bloodsucking leeches for coming to the White House today.

  • sacredh

    Welcome organ donors! Rahm, bolt the door.

  • http://www.simonvinkenoog.nl/beeld/Yogi%20-%20Annelies%20Rigter.jpg yogi

    CEO from Kaiser: “Hey how did the CEO of Providence get out of this?”
    Obama: “Oh, his voice has been denied, had a pre-existing condition of @ssholeness.”

  • iamsource

    LOL

  • deconstructiva

    …and after lunch, Obama speaks to the HCI executives:
    “Now let’s get down to business, but first I must read this. According to the Senate Parliamentarian here with us, Ms. Tumulty, I AM allowed to have the Secret Service lock all doors and enforce the Senate No Potty Breaks™ rule until I get legally binding endorsements from you all for a Single Payer HC System™ just like police and fire departments….”
    (…and yes, Obama, Sebelius, and Tumulty ate / drank very little during lunch; the executives stuffed themselves to the gills.)

  • deconstructiva

    Obama: “…which will then achieve our goal of bending the cost curve…. Mr. President, meet me in my car afterwards, I’ll be in the back seat in my lingerie waiting breathlessly, you one hot hunk of burning love. Kathleen. …uh… ahem, strike that, folks …never mind.”
    Sebelius smiles and whispers “Good one” to Hillary.
    Hillary (mumbling to herself): “My God, he will read anything put in front of him, teleprompter or not.”

  • Commenter 2B named later

    Obama: “B plus? Come on!”

  • deconstructiva

    Obama: “Since some of you here have declared birth to be a pre-existing condition, let me make this announcement. Since no one can find MY birth certificate, I am legally exempt from all pre-existing denials and recissions. Therefore, I have asked Sec. Sebelius to coordinate with ALL county and parish birth records departments to misplace or destroy birth certificates for EVERY known U.S. citizen effective immediately….”

  • Commenter 2B named later

    Now THAT’s a classy reference.

  • sacredh

    Mr. President, I believe you are out of your depth here. I don’t think you could tell the difference between a bulemic and a stag party.

    Obama: Well…at a stag party, the girl pops out of the cake and with a bulemic….

  • jcapan

    “Obama meets with his constituents”?

  • sacredh

    Obama: Is there anybody here that doesn’t have health insurance?

    Executives:

  • sacredh

    Obama: I see here on your proposals that you’re insisting that greed isn’t considered a pre-existing condition.

  • sacredh

    Obama: This would normally be an 8-10 hour meeting, but if we all snort a few lines I think we can wrap it up by lunch.

  • sacredh

    Obama: Would anyone like a cup of coffee or tea? You can take the teabags home as a memento.

  • kbanginmotown

    Obama: Folks, hold on to your seats. What happens next may well determine the future course of Health Care Reform in these United States. I have in my hand a strongly-worded memo from Senate Majority Leader Reid…

  • sacredh

    Obama: To show you how seriously I’m taking healthcare reform, you’ll be served hospital food for lunch. We have green jello for dessert.

  • michaelfury

    The President reads the Niels Harrit paper aloud:

    “When ignited in a DSC device the chips exhibit large but narrow exotherms occurring at approximately 430 °C, far below the normal ignition temperature for conventional thermite. Numerous iron-rich spheres are clearly observed in the residue following the ignition of these peculiar red/gray chips. The red portion of these chips is found to be an unreacted thermitic material and highly energetic.”

    http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/meanwhile/

  • constantweader

    President Obama, who is also a Constitutional lawyer, is making his case to top insurance execs that they should not have cancelled his health insurance just because his cholesterol level is up a little & he sneaks a Marlboro once in awhile. Secretary Sebelius bows her head knowing the odds are against her boss, because as “sacredh” noted, the jury is composed of bloodsucking leeches.

    The Constant Weader at http://www.RealityChex.com

  • sacredh

    Let’s go over this one more time. I won’t socialize medicine if you stop raping the public. I’ll promise to keep you in BMW’s if you keep people from going bankrupt. Just to sweeten the deal, I’ll prohibit the importation of drugs from Canada if you stop giving all of the good stuff to Rush.

blog comments powered by Disqus