An Obama Visit Is A Public Health Hazard

President Obama is visiting Los Angeles again. This will be over a dozen times he's been here mainly to hit up millionaire limousine liberals in Hollywood for money. After so many visits, why are people still inexplicably giving thousands of dollars for a blue plate special at the local Beverly Hills hotel just to hear him speak?

Obama in L.A.

Every time he comes, the Westside of LA becomes a total traffic nightmare. Congestion is bad enough on a normal day. But when the president and his motorcade arrive, the Secret Service closes off the roads that they will be traveling. This makes the gridlock unbelievably agonizing. As a bonus, for security purposes, the SS doesn't tell anybody where the street closures will be so you don't even know which streets to avoid until it's too late.

While all these visits have been an aggravation and a nuisance, now it has risen to the level of a public health hazard. One of the blockades happened to take place near Cedars-Sinai Medical Center when a woman in labor needed to get to the Emergency Room. The presidential entourage wasn't even anywhere near that street yet but the security detail refused to let the woman cross the street to get to the hospital. The poor woman could not do anything about the situation and resignedly sat down on a sidewalk bench to wait for security to let her cross the road and deliver her baby safely.

We doctors already know the president doesn't have the best interest of the general population at heart. Obamacare was passed not because he cares about the health of his fellow Americans. It was done to gain votes for the Democratic party and to capture voters dependent on government largesse for generations to come. But this denial of one of the most basic needs, to deliver a baby, is beyond the pale. Who knows how many people with urgent medical needs like chest pain or shortness of breath were diverted to more distant locations because their local hospital was made inaccessible by this presidential visit.

I say Mayor Garcetti should refuse the president any more fundraising visits. The only people who benefit from his fundraisers are the millionaires who still flock to see him while the 99% of the rest of us just burn up more fossil fuels, vastly increase our carbon emissions, and get denied basic healthcare needs. No More Bama in L.A.!