President Obama went to the hospital to get a persistent sore throat checked out Saturday -- and according to his doctor, it's caused by acid reflux.

Ronny L. Jackson says the president has been complaining of a sore throat for a few weeks. Jackson recommended some tests.

An ear, nose and throat specialist, under Jackson's supervision, performed an examination of the president's throat using a fiber optic cable Saturday, Jackson said.

The doctor said the tests showed swelling in the back of the president's throat, so a CT scan was ordered to be done at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda. Jackson said the scan was performed Saturday purely out of convenience, not urgency.

The scan came back normal. It turns out that acid reflux is to blame for inflaming the president's throat tissue.

"The president has been complaining of a sore throat. In light of that and given that the president has free time in his schedule this afternoon," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said, Jackson "recommended that he go to Walter Reed for some diagnostic tests."

Obama spent about 30 minutes at the hospital before returning to the White House.



Look at all the waste of resources just to take one man to the hospital. And you know he doesnt have Obamacare.
Attachments:

Non of our elected officials have Obama Care. They are all more than happy to accept government funded health care but call it socialism to even speak of a single payer system for the rest of us.

Any of you idiot Republicans ever wonder why that is?

Look up the Grassley Amendment. All members of Congress and most of their staff members get their health insurance through on the DC Small Business Health Options Program, an exchange created by Obamacare.

The Grassley Amendment (or, more properly, Coburn Amendment 226) is one of the few Republican amendments to survive in the ACA. And that happened by mistake - Sen Reid admitted that his staff dropped the ball in not removing it in conference.

There have been all sorts of attempts to "fix" the issue, which does indeed force members of Congress and their staffs to both use the exchanges and, more importantly, not receive "employer" subsidies. Grassley was hoping to exempt those members and staffers who are "well-paid" but is was Coburn's "good for the goose is good for the gander" amendment that prevailed.

Truly a result of the "read it after you vote" method of legislation that caused the ACA to pass. To counter the post above, very few of our elected officials are "happy" about this turn of events, but since it occurred and the public likes it they are more than willing to claim credit for it.

None of this has anything to do with why the President, retired generals, and political appointees go to the "Executive Medicine" clinic at Walter Reed instead of using the same facilities afforded to the rest of the military.

Obama gets special treatment as President. Understood. But how many of us have a doctor who would even prescribe a fiber optic exam and CT scan for a sore throat?

Is that medically necessary? Or even medically advised? And if it is, should those tests be offered to us when we have a sore throat, even if we have a large copay?

I would also like to meet the doctor who can do both those tests and an exam in 28 minutes, as reported here:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obama-gets-ct-scan-sore-throat_820714.html

^^^ Because the wait time for a CT scan at Walter Reed is over 30 days. Longer for an MRI. Doctors are told not to order them, and need their supervisor's approval when they do.

Obama is a heavy smoker and throat cancer is a distinct possibility.

Actually... Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Look up the Grassley Amendment. All members of
> Congress and most of their staff members get their
> health insurance through on the DC Small Business
> Health Options Program, an exchange created by
> Obamacare.


Don't confuse liberal Gerry with the facts. Weather something is true or not is irrelevant to a liberal.

Obama is (was?) a smoker. There was a swelling in the back of his throat. I'm sure the CT was performed to make sure he didn't have cancer. Would you want to be the doctor who missed that?

I don't know about military health care, but I would think that most doctors would at least recommend the fiber optic (or equivalent) test for a persistent sore throat. And doctors order CT scans and MRIs (as well as a bunch of other expensive tests) all the time now. I've had to put my foot down occasionally to get them to stop pressuring me to have all sorts of tests - which almost invariably turn up nothing. Our country could save billions if we could rein in unnecessary testing.

Staffer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Grassley Amendment (or, more properly, Coburn
> Amendment 226) is one of the few Republican
> amendments to survive in the ACA.

Come on, goober! There were nearly 150 Republican amendments included in the final draft of PPACA. Learn some history, for Christ's sake.

> And that happened by mistake - Sen Reid admitted that
> his staff dropped the ball in not removing it in
> conference.

There was no conference, goober. The House simply passed the unamended Senate version. Grassley had meanwhile expected that the Dems would reject his amendment, but they turned the the tables on him and passed it instead.

> There have been all sorts of attempts to "fix" the
> issue, which does indeed force members of Congress
> and their staffs to both use the exchanges and,
> more importantly, not receive "employer"
> subsidies.

Inane and worthless blather. The employer contribution provisions remain exactly the same for those now insured through DC SHOP Gold Plans as they were under FEHBP. Nothing in the bill eliminated the employer subsidy. You can just go fuck your stupid-ass self on that one.

> Grassley was hoping to exempt those members and
> staffers who are "well-paid" but is was Coburn's
> "good for the goose is good for the gander" amendment
> that prevailed.

Once again, completely wrong. Grassley hadn't put that much thought into it until it was too late. His basic intent had been to force Congress to go through the red-tape of the exchanges just like everybody else, then use it as a propaganda tool when the Dems refused to go along with the idea. That plan backfired. Grassley did later try to exempt a bunch of his own staff, and he joined with Coburn in trying to exempt senior committee staff and the like. Kind of a bitch there though, since the problematic language was taken verbatim from a failed Coburn amendment that would have forced Congress and staff into a "public option" had one been included in the bill. One wasn't, of course, so the amendment itself became moot, but the more specific wording over who was affected carried forward into Grassley's amendment.

> Truly a result of the "read it after you vote"
> method of legislation that caused the ACA to pass.

Completely worthless bullshit. How big a fucking liar are you anyway? Every lawmaker paying any attention at all knew exactly what was in the bill. After eight long months of debate, the bill passed the Senate just before Christmas. It wasn't passed in the House until March. That's another three months' worth of study time added on, during which time no changes at all were added.

Going to quote Pelosi next as brain-dead dumbshits so frequently do? Her comments were with regard to a moron-level cacophony of flash-mob "death panels" and other such imaginary nonsense that was crowding out all the room needed to explain and discuss what actually was included in the bill. The people who didn't know were people like you.

> To counter the post above, very few of our
> elected officials are "happy" about this turn of
> events, but since it occurred and the public likes
> it they are more than willing to claim credit for it.

Imbecile. Virtually everyone among Congress and their staffs have chosen to be covered by BC/BS, United Healthcare, Aetna, and Kaiser-Permanente, just as they did under FEHBP. Like you, the public doesn't know its ass from a hole in the ground about any of this.

> None of this has anything to do with why the
> President, retired generals, and political
> appointees go to the "Executive Medicine" clinic
> at Walter Reed instead of using the same
> facilities afforded to the rest of the military.

There are legitimate security concerns involved in choices of treatment location. That of course would be entirely separate from the matter of insurance coverage unless one were a total washout know-nothing douchebag. That description would seem to fit you across the board.

I can imagine nothing scarier than having Uncle Joe Biden leading our country.

Don't joke! Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I can imagine nothing scarier than having Uncle
> Joe Biden leading our country.

Do the names Bush, Cheney, Palin, and Quayle just have no meaning for you at all?

I assume you mean Bush 1, who was a fine president (would've won reelection had he not raised taxes). Quayle was sort of weird... I never really knew what to make of him, but I think he is intelligent. Palin is Palin and Cheney is evil. In the scheme of things, I believe that Biden is the stupidest person in politics, and that goes for either side. The man has performed horrendously everywhere: as a student, a law student, a senator, and as a vice president. I voted for Obama, so please don't think this is some right-wing outlook, but Biden is a retard and an embarrassment to our Administration and our country abroad. I maintain that the only reason the 2012 election was close was because he was on the ballot instead of Hillary.

No comparison Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I assume you mean Bush 1, who was a fine president
> (would've won reelection had he not raised taxes).

After being a lap-dog Vice President up to his eyeballs in the criminality of the Iran-Contra scandals, he was actually an awful President. First, and after all they'd done, Bush simply abandoned the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan after the Soviets left, thus sowing some of the early seeds of 9/11. Then he called on Kurds and Shia to rise up against Saddam Hussein at the end of the Gulf War, and when they did, Bush ran away to ride in a victory parade while Saddam was creating all those mass graves that we eventually uncovered in 2003. More seeds. Then he sent US troops into harm's way in Somalia, following what would become a family tradition by having exactly no plan at all for how the mission was to proceed or end. He further failed to pay enough attention to realize that North Korea was building a plutonium reactor at Yongbyon. Bill Clinton would be left on the brink of war over that cock-up. Then there was "the economy, stupid", including the ongoing S&L crisis, rising unemployment and poverty rates, and what were then the worst budget deficits of all time. And endearing himself to today's right-wing, he pushed the Immigration Act of 1990 that increased legal immigration by 40%.

On the plus side, he did appoint David Souter to the Supreme Court, he signed the ADA, and he quit the NRA. Other than that, he just plain wasn't worth very much.

> Quayle was sort of weird...

Quayle was simply an incompetent. No less so than Sarah Palin. Cheney of course really was Darth Vadar. A more patently venal man would be hard to pick out of recent political history.

> I believe that Biden is the stupidest person
> in politics...

Well, it's a free country. But Biden is among our most highly respected voices on foreign policy while all those TEA Party ideologues are highly respected on no topic at all. Especially on matters such as whether rape can lead to babies or tax cuts can lead to revenue increases. You might seriously need to reconsider your "Stupidest Person in Politics" selection in light of all those folks.

Huh??? Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Well, it's a free country. But Biden is among our
> most highly respected voices on foreign policy


Bwahahahahahaha

He's a joke. Been on the wrong side of everything.

"Cheney of course really was Darth Vadar. A more patently venal man would be hard to pick out of recent political history."

Truer words were never spoken.

Dats funny Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> He's a joke. Been on the wrong side of everything.

Even the SALT treaties?

Huh??? Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Dats funny Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > He's a joke. Been on the wrong side of
> everything.
>
> Even the SALT treaties?


The Facts

It was not the START agreement that was up for discussion in 1979. It was the SALT II agreement. The START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) talks did not even begin until 1982, under Ronald Reagan. They are two entirely different sets of arms negotiations. A wonkish point perhaps, but someone who prides himself on going head to head with Brezhnev should get his Cold War treaties right.

Biden did not meet Brezhnev when he led a Senate delegation to Moscow in August 1979. By that stage, the Soviet leader was well into his dotage, and certainly not up to having long talks with visiting American senators about SALT II. Biden and the other senators met with Soviet prime minister Alexei Kosygin.[See AP, Aug.30, 1979; WP, Aug. 31, 1979.]

There were six senators in the delegation, not 19.

The senators did not "negotiate" the SALT II treaty, which had already been negotiated and signed in Vienna in June 1979 by Brezhnev and Jimmy Carter. The most they did was haggle over the terms of ratification by the Senate.

"Negotiating treaties is the responsibility of the Executive branch," said arms control expert Jack Mendelsohn, who served with the SALT II the negotiating team in Geneva for several years. According to Mendelsohn, Biden's involvement in the treaty was more like dealing with a troublesome "hangnail." The treaty could not be ratified "until we clipped the hangnail off."

Anyone who is not an arms control junkie is welcome to stop reading here, and skip to the Pinocchio Test. For Cold War nostalgics, the hangnail in question consisted of a concern among American hardliners that the Soviets would evade treaty limitations on missiles by vastly expanding production of shore-based naval attack planes called Backfire bombers. Moscow insisted that the Backfires could not reach U.S. territory, but the hawks were convinced otherwise. (They did not take the Soviets up on their offer to put a U.S. general in the cockpit and see how far the plane would go before it ran out of fuel.) Eventually, the Soviets agreed to limit production of Backfires to 30 a year.

In the end, Biden's efforts were for naught, as the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in December 1979, and the Senate never ratified the treaty.

The Biden campaign declined to comment on the record.

Huh??? Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Well, it's a free country. But Biden is among our
> most highly respected voices on foreign policy

Only by uninformed partisan asshats. No doubt, he is great at plagiarizing British members of Parliament. I guess that qualifies him to be a respected voice on foreign policy.