Define Mandate

Main Entry:

¹man·date

Pronunciation:

\ˈman-ˌdāt\

Function:

noun

Etymology:

Middle French & Latin; Middle French mandat, from Latin mandatum, from neuter of mandatus, past participle of mandare to entrust, enjoin, probably irregular from manus hand + -dere to put — more at manual, do

Date:

1501

1: an authoritative command; especially : a formal order from a superior court or official to an inferior one2: an authorization to act given to a representative mandate of the people>3 a: an order or commission granted by the League of Nations to a member nation for the establishment of a responsible government over a former German colony or other conquered territory b: a mandated territory

Main Entry:

sug·ges·tion

Pronunciation:

\səg-ˈjes-chən, sə-ˈjes-, -ˈjesh-\

Function:

noun

Date:

14th century

1 a: the act or process of suggesting b: something suggested2 a: the process by which a physical or mental state is influenced by a thought or idea suggestion> b: the process by which one thought leads to another especially through association of ideas3: a slight indication : trace suggestion of a smile>

Hillary says she will mandate health insurance. As in, it will be illegal under Hillary's plan for an American to not have health insurance. She says she is especially targeting the 15 million people who can afford health insurance but refuse to get it because they think they are "immortal." Hillary's choice of words. Icey.

I am not opposed to the idea. If there are 15 million people who can afford it, and if you make them go for it, where is the sin? They got the money.

I guess Hillary's idea is that if you give more money to the insurance companies - which is what Hillary's plan is, more money, since if these 15 million healthy, rich people can afford it, if they were to fall sick, they would go ahead and get it anyway - then it becomes easier for us to ask them to deny ill people coverage as insurance companies routinely do.

Barack is saying, wait a minute. Why are we so scared? He is saying, it does not matter if those 15 million healthy, rich people pay in or not, I am going to make the insurance companies do the right thing. They don't get to deny coverage, period.

So it is not like Barack is against mandating. The difference in his plan his mandate is on the insurance companies. He makes them do things like not denying coverage to people who are already paying.

This is a serious difference.

Hillary's plan suggests that the insurance companies don't have enough money and that is why America is lagging behind in terms of health care. That is not a slick claim. That is just plain absurd.

Barack says wrong. The problem is not that the insurance companies don't have enough money to do right by everybody. The problem is they have too much money. And so he makes sure those insurance companies engage in major cost cutting efforts. That is mandate number two in Barack's book.

Hillary promises universal health care with $100 billion plus. Barack puts the tab at $50 billion plus. Because he puts a major onus on cost cutting. He is not only worried about the 45 million plus people who are not insured. He in some ways is even more worried about the hundreds of millions who are insured. He feels they have been paying too much. He thinks if you cut the costs down, the insurance companies still have plenty of money to cover all those currently covered as well those kept out right now.

So it is not like Barack's plan does not have mandates. It has two of them that Hillary's plan does not. His mandates he very much intends to enforce. If the insurance companies intend to stay in business, they will have no choice but to accept Barack's mandates.

Hillary's mandate on the other hand is on the 15 million rich, healthy, immortal people. But it can not be called a mandate because she has not outlined how exactly she will enforce it. What will you do? Garnish their wages? Say something.

And you know where the difference comes from? It comes from the fact that Hillary takes money from insurance companies, Barack does not. Barack's money comes from the people. His is a people powered campaign. And that is why their mandates are pointing in opposite directions. Barack manadates the insurance companies to do the right thing.

The biggest, starkest difference though is not in the plans. It is in who can actually deliver. That person is clearly Obama.

Hillary's Health Care Plan: A Bonanza For The Insurance Companies
Education, Health, Credit: Universal And Lifelong
Faith, Family, Work, Health
Mandating Health Insurance: The Poor Have Too Much Money
Health Care As A Spectrum
Health Care Options

In The News

Reporters Struggle For Access To Clinton CBS News ABC correspondent Kate Snow was ready to push through the crowd and ask Hillary Clinton a question until an aide blocked the path of Snow's sound man as he aimed his boom mike in the senator's direction. "Sorry, we've gotta go," the woman said, though it was clear that Clinton would be shaking hands for some time. ..... Moments later, as the Democratic presidential candidate was mobbed by well-wishers, Boston television reporter Joe Battenfeld managed to shout a question -- a meaningless question, truth be told -- about whether she needed to win both Iowa and New Hampshire. Clinton was defiantly bland in response, as if determined that her comments not be used. ...... reporters can generally get close enough to watch but no further, as if separated from the candidate by an invisible sheet of glass. ...... National correspondents are increasingly frustrated by a lack of access to Clinton. They spend much of their time in rental cars chasing her from one event to the next, because the campaign usually provides no press bus or van. Life on the bus means journalists don't have to worry about luggage or directions or getting left behind, since they are part of the official motorcade. News organizations foot the bill for such transportation, but campaigns have to staff and coordinate the buses -- and deal with the constant presence of their chroniclers. ........ Clinton differs only in her degree of discipline, honed during eight years of often testy media relations in her husband's White House. ........ She, like her rivals, wants to deliver a daily message, usually framed around some policy prescription, while reporters want to ask her about the latest polls, tactics or blast from Barack Obama or John Edwards. And answering questions off the cuff always risks the possibility of a blunder, as when Clinton told NBC's Andrea Mitchell during the 1992 campaign that she had chosen to pursue a career rather than stay home and "bake cookies." ....... much of what Clinton wants to communicate -- the nuances of her health-care plan, for instance -- doesn't fit the media's cramped definition of news. ...... Obama, for his part, held a conference call with reporters Wednesday. ...... much of the chatter among the reporters is about MapQuest and GPS devices and Hertz's NeverLost technology as they trade tips on how to track their constantly moving quarry. ....... When a colleague asked the staff for a chance to question Clinton, "they just kind of laughed it off." ...... When Clinton stepped away from the microphones, Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising" began blaring from the speakers, which effectively drowned out any attempted queries from the journalists sprinkled throughout the room. Battenfeld, the Boston reporter, launched his horse-race question during a brief lull between songs. "It's kind of an art form," he said afterward. "I would have asked her about Obama, but I figured she would have turned and run." ....... The CBS anchor asked how disappointed she would be if she isn't the nominee. "Well, it will be me," Clinton said. When Couric pressed, Clinton insisted -- not terribly convincingly -- that she hadn't even considered the possibility she could lose. ........ Her rhetoric against health insurance companies was harsher than might have been expected. They give patients the "runaround," deny care, "slow-walk" the payment of bills, she declared. "This is all part of their business model. This is how they make money. . . . The small-business health-care market is really rigged." ......... As Clinton made her way to the door, she observed: "All this good food -- can we feed the press?" But the press was feeling undernourished. ........ Campaigns often brush off national correspondents in favor of local journalists, who tend to be less critical. ....... only a handful of reporters attended and I arrived late, driving down unlighted streets in a heavy rain as confused Clinton aides kept giving me the wrong directions. ..... I persuaded her tired-looking staff to grant me a single question as she made her way out. The question: Wouldn't providing more media access help get her message out? ...... "We try to balance what we do every day," Clinton said. "I'm trying to reach as many voters as possible one-on-one" while also dealing with the local press, "which has a very big role to play," and making time for occasional interviews with national news outlets. "It seems I have mushrooming demands," she said. "The balancing is really intense." With that, she was off to a waiting plane to South Carolina, while reporters headed for commercial flights to follow her there.
Clinton campaign demands Obama ad be taken down Boston Globe new polls out this morning showing Barack Obama still leading Hillary Clinton in Iowa and gaining ground on her in New Hampshire ..... Obama spokesman Reid Cherlin said it was "curious" that the Clinton campaign has decided to attack the ad today instead of when it first ran in Iowa two months ago.
With Iowa tight, NH becoming Clinton's firewall Boston Globe With Hillary Clinton faltering in polls leading up to the Iowa caucuses, the New Hampshire primary is looming as a possible make-or-break moment for her - in a place where she has most of the party's key endorsements and a sizable lead in the polls, but where a defeat could be devastating. ...... New Hampshire's recent tradition of electing female politicians. ....... her enviable organization does not guarantee protection against the wave of momentum that could propel Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, if he were to win the Iowa caucuses ...... she could not lose both Iowa and New Hampshire and survive in the race. ...... New Hampshire is the firewall of last resort .... Clinton is expected to spend much of December traveling the state. ...... a growing sense of urgency among the New York senator's Granite State ranks ...... Obama's campaign said it has kept pace with Clinton's in paid staff and its volunteers are just as busy knocking on doors, making phone calls, and writing postcards. ..... the campaign knocks on 20,000 doors a week, questioned the Clinton figures, saying Obama canvassers rarely run into their Clinton counterparts. ....... In 2000, Vice President Al Gore had the backing of most of the party establishment, and eked out a four-point win against Senator Bill Bradley ......... Obama has been on the scene for 10 months running against the most powerful Democratic political force for two decades, the Clintons ....... people do not enter the voting booth pondering whom their state representative has endorsed ........ Women are unusually prominent in New Hampshire politics, perhaps because its part-time Legislature has attracted female candidates for decades. ...... A CNN/WMUR poll in September put her ahead of Obama by 43 percent to 20 percent. In a Suffolk University/WHDH poll this week, she led him 34 percent to 22 percent. ...... the results of the Iowa caucus could significantly influence the New Hampshire primary ..... if Obama won Iowa, there would be a flood of positive press about him and questions about whether Clinton is electable. "It's unfair and inaccurate, but it would be a lot of chaff to have to navigate through in five days" ........ If Obama wins Iowa, Scala said, Clinton's imperative will be to hold on to college-educated, professional women, among whom she has done surprisingly well, considering that Obama's idealistic campaign is attractive to their demographic. ...... it will be five sleepless nights for the Clinton campaign
Obama vs. Clinton, Edwards and Paul Krugman Yahoo! News under the Obama plan, as it now stands, healthy people could choose not to buy insurance -- then sign up for it if they developed health problems later. Insurance companies couldn't turn them away, because Mr. Obama's plan, like those of his rivals, requires that insurers offer the same policy to everyone. ........ Obama claims that his plan does much more to control costs than his rivals' plans. ....... mandates won't work, pointing out that many people don't have car insurance despite state requirements that all drivers be insured. ....... Obama remains, in many senses, the most appealing Democratic contender. And there is good reason to believe that he could emerge in coming weeks as the most serious challenger to Clinton. He could, yet, be the Democratic nominee and the president.
Two Tough Timely Questions for Obama ABC News Obama points out that Clinton refuses to say how she'll require individuals to purchase health insurance.
Clinton, Obama go into slam flunk mode Chicago Sun-Times Health care is the top domestic issue for Democrats running for the White House and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton unleashed Wednesday another, stronger, round of criticism aimed at Sen. Barack Obama over whether a law is needed to require people to buy health insurance. ....... Gov. Blagojevich did not embrace mandates in a state plan now stalled in the Illinois General Assembly. ...... The Obama campaign vigorously rebutted, preparing now to make an issue over Clinton's failure, while first lady, to convince Congress to pass health-care reform. ....... "Another day, another desperate attack. Demonizing anyone who doesn't share her exact plans on health care is exactly why Hillary Clinton flunked the opportunity she had to pass universal health care in 1993. The truth is, Barack Obama's universal health care plan makes coverage affordable for every single American, he just doesn't agree with Hillary's plan to start by forcing everyone to buy insurance they can't afford" ..... Obama gauges people will buy health insurance if the federal government helps keep down the price. The Democrats call for insurance companies to cover people with pre-existing conditions.