Q and AAAAA

A friend tipped me off to The Hill Blog's "Big Question" because this week's was about Obama and health care:

Are President Obama’s healthcare plans realistic?

We weighed in. So did many of our allies and coalition partners. Here are some of the excellent answers:

Richard Kirsch, national campaign manager for Health Care for America Now, said:

President Obama’s healthcare plan is not out of the blue. It’s realistic because he created the mandate for his plan when he ran for President. It was a central part of his campaign. Remember, 86 percent of his advertising in October talked about healthcare. Now he’s laid out a plan to pay for it, and Congressional leadership is lining up behind him. All the pieces are in place. It’s happening, and it’s happening this year.

Gerald McEntee, president of AFSCME, said:

President Obama’s healthcare plan is realistic and demonstrates that he understands what is needed to get America on the road to economic recovery. We need to expand healthcare coverage and lower costs for families and businesses. Working families stand ready to work with President Obama to make his plan a reality.

Jeff Blum, executive director of USAction, said:

The United States spends 6 percent more of GDP on healthcare than the next most expensive country, and yet we are less healthy than many countries and health care causes more tsuris than in many countries. President Obama is making a tremendous down payment on helping us – our health, our families, our economy. What’s unrealistic is pretending that we don’t need big progress, now.

Bertha Lewis, CEO and Chief Organizer, ACORN, said:

Not only is President Obama’s healthcare plan realistic, it is also urgently needed for both the physical well being of the American people and the economic well being of our economy. The plan is good. The time is right. Let’s address this challenge squarely, the way Americans know how, and create a stronger, healthier nation.

Maura Pond, web communications specialist, UFCW, said:

President Obama’s plan for healthcare is not only realistic but absolutely necessary. Our current system is too expensive and unreliable to be sustainable in our time of economic crisis. As the greatest country on earth, America has not only the capacity but the obligation to provide quality, affordable healthcare to every citizen. We can’t afford to wait any longer — not having a plan would be truly unrealistic.