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Health Care Reform: Fasten Your Seatbelts -- Congress is at the Wheel
The truest legislative assessment of the prospects for health care reform was uttered by none other than Bette Davis in "All About Eve:""Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night."
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The Senate Finance Committee proudly announced that it had whacked $100 billion off the projected 10-year, $1-trillion cost of the proposed legislation. The House Energy and Commerce Committee also reported that it had cut a deal with moderate Blue Dog Democrats to limit the sweep of the bill and to curtail the scope of a government-run health plan that would compete with private insurers.
While Barack Obama's August deadline had long ago drifted off on a summer's breeze, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi confidently issued a mid-afternoon statement, promising that the legislation would emerge from the Energy and Commerce Committee this week. But then liberals on the committee rebelled at the concessions to the Blue Dogs over watering down the public option – thereby postponing, at least until Thursday, work on the bill.
(We interrupt this story to offer an updated Surgeon General's warning: "Trying to follow these legislative machinations is dangerous to your health and sanity.")
The best way to understand the health care battles ahead is to remember what Vermont Sen. George Aiken shrewdly recommended as the American strategy at the height of the Vietnam War: "Just declare victory and go home." The White House and the congressional Democratic leadership are too committed to passing a bill to ever admit defeat. So whatever ungainly, mud-caked mess finally emerges from the legislative quagmire, Obama and Company are going to face an irresistible temptation to declare victory and call it health care reform.
Media consultants and pollsters who advise vulnerable Democratic legislators are reluctant to antagonize the White House by talking on the record about the political pressures that their clients face in backing Obama on health care. But before this legislative crusade is over, many Democrats elected from traditionally Republican states or districts will face a long, dark night of the soul over the health care bill.
The political dangers for Democrats come in all shapes and sizes. There is what might be called the Page 579 Problem – a minor provision buried in the intricacies of the health care bill could morph into a potent symbol of governmental excess when demonized in 30-second Republican attack ads. Sticker shock may also be an obstacle. No matter how it is paid for, voters may balk at the federal government spending, say, $900 billion for anything (even free drinking cups from the fountain of youth). Another political risk could come from the Medicare meltdown as voters over 65 (quite happy with their government-run medical care, thank you) angrily protest any potential cutbacks in their favorite program, wedged in under the guise of reducing overall health care costs.
The truth is that – no matter how many town meetings and press conferences Obama holds – health care reform will remain an abstraction until there is an actual bill summary that voters can analyze. That is why polls during this phase of legislative jousting should be viewed with caution since they are riddled with hypothetical questions. (A New York Times/CBS News poll released Wednesday found that 46 percent of the voters approve and 38 disapprove of the way Obama is handling health care.) But the real political test will come in the fall. A Democratic strategist explains, "Then the big question that voters will ask about the bill is 'What's in it for me?'"
Beneath the widespread altruistic belief that health care is a basic human right lays a self-interested personal cost-benefit analysis. This was equally true during Bill and Hillary Clinton's ill-fated 1993 drive to pass health care reform. As pollster Stan Greenberg, who advised Clinton during his first term, recalls in a New Republic article, "Judging whether the plan would help or hurt one's family suddenly became the dominant predictor... of support for or opposition to the Clinton health care plan."
Top Democrats make the argument to each other that if the party this time around cannot pass health care reform – the Holy Grail since Harry Truman – it will face a rebellion from voters for over-promising and legislative ineptitude. As 34-year-old Virginia Democrat Tom Perriello, who defeated a six-term GOP incumbent in 2008, puts it, "The most important thing to keep in mind is that a lot of the freshman class got elected by running for problem-solving over partisanship." Perriello, who supports the public option, is staunchly in favor of reform even though he is among the 60 Democratic incumbents targeted by a Republican National Committee radio ad that ridicules Obama's proposals as "a dangerous experiment."
There are actually Democratic insiders who believe that passing health care reform is more politically important going into the congressional elections than even the economy. In contrast, Republican pollster David Winston, who advises the congressional GOP leadership, persuasively argues, "This is ultimately going to be an election about jobs. And there's going to be one number that people will follow – and that's the unemployment rate."
An under-appreciated problem facing Democrats in passing legislation is that many of the benefits will not kick in until after Obama runs for a second term in 2012. Yes, not until after the 2012 elections. Under the original and more liberal version of the House bill, the uninsured would not receive government subsidies to purchase their own health insurance until 2013, nor would the public plan be established until then. (Medicare, in contrast, was up and running 11 months after Lyndon Johnson signed the legislation in 1965).
Part of the delay would be from the sheer complexity of setting up the elaborate system of rewards and penalties that will be needed to move the nation close to providing health care for all Americans. If, for example, large employers would be mandated to provide health insurance for their workers, that requirement could not be levied overnight. Also, under current congressional budget rules, the longer it takes for a program to fully take effect, the less the purported cost would be over 10 years. So as the health care legislation inevitably gets whittled down during House and Senate negotiations, the phase-in period is apt to be further extended in order to reduce cost estimates.
Obama is also grappling with the "Why Now?" dilemma. At a town meeting Wednesday in Raleigh, N.C., the president repeated his refrain that the status quo is unsustainable. "If we do nothing," Obama declared, "I can almost guarantee you your (health insurance) premiums will double over the next 10 years, because that's what they did over the last 10 years." It is nearly impossible to argue with this long-term math. The problem for the president – and the congressional Democrats – is that it is hard to create a sense of this-is-the-moment urgency to pass legislation designed to ward off problems that are still just over the horizon.
None of this is designed to argue that Obama-style health care reform is unattainable in political terms or undesirable in policy terms. But even with lopsided Democratic congressional majorities, even with the president's mastery of the bully pulpit, even with Wednesday's small-step legislative progress, the legislative struggle over the next few months will be daunting. So fasten your seatbelts -- the real action on Capitol Hill has only just begun.
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Walter Shapiro
Walter Shapiro, a PoliticsDaily.com columnist, has covered the last eight presidential campaigns as a columnist and political reporter... moreRelated Articles
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Comments (192)
Al
6:28AM Jul 30th 2009
Republican 10-Point Plan for Health Care:
1. 50 Million Uninsured in America
2. Another 25 Million Underinsured
3. Employer-Based Coverage Plummets Below 60%
4. Employer Health Costs to Jump by 9% in 2010
5. One in Five Americans Forced to Postpone Care
6. 62% of U.S. Bankruptcies Involve Medical Bills
7. Current Health Care Costs Already Fueling Job Losses
8. 94% of Health Insurance Markets in U.S Now "Highly Concentrated"
9. Dramatic Decline in Emergency Room Capacity
10. Perpetuating Red State Health Care Failure
1. 50 Million Uninsured in America
2. Another 25 Million Underinsured
3. Employer-Based Coverage Plummets Below 60%
4. Employer Health Costs to Jump by 9% in 2010
5. One in Five Americans Forced to Postpone Care
6. 62% of U.S. Bankruptcies Involve Medical Bills
7. Current Health Care Costs Already Fueling Job Losses
8. 94% of Health Insurance Markets in U.S Now "Highly Concentrated"
9. Dramatic Decline in Emergency Room Capacity
10. Perpetuating Red State Health Care Failure
RATE THIS COMMENT:
(0)
(0) 
sandsnnydz
9:07AM Jul 30th 2009
Health Care Reform:
Hide Grandma!!!!
I hear there will be old folks pounds waiting for euthanasia but I hear they .....go quietly.... just like going to sleep.....
Hide Grandma!!!!
I hear there will be old folks pounds waiting for euthanasia but I hear they .....go quietly.... just like going to sleep.....
RATE THIS COMMENT:
(6)
(6) jmwantland
1:40PM Jul 30th 2009
Hey Al break down your 50 million people that do not have health care. Pie that chart out. Oh and by the way that means that 254,059,724 Americans do have health insurance. So you are saying. Spending 900 Billion dollars for the few out ways out the many. I like your democracy. I wonder what JFK meant when he said "Ask not what your country can do for you but ask what you can do for your Country?"
RATE THIS COMMENT: (5)
(5) slfstx
2:04PM Jul 30th 2009
And to add a bit.....The House bill would simply give seniors the option of speaking with an expert about advanced care issues, such as living wills. "This measure would not only help people make the best decisions for themselves but also better ensure that their wishes are followed," responded AARP Executive Vice President John Rother. "To suggest otherwise is a gross, and even cruel, distortion."
RATE THIS COMMENT:
(-5)
(-5) bopp
9:29AM Jul 31st 2009
According to the census bureau 47 million uninsured, 10 million are not U.S. citizens, 10 million choose not to buy insurance, and another 11 million who qualify for schip or medicade but have not signed up. That leaves 10 to 15 million out of 300 million people who want insurance but can't afford it. A 1.5 trillion dollar bill for less then 15% of the population. A plan that would ration care and force people and business to buy into. A bill that will raise taxes on everyone and cost more jobs and lower wages.
We've already got socialized medicine. Government already pays for half of Americans' medical care. Government controls production and consumption by determining the number of physicians; what services medical professionals can offer and under what terms; where they can practice; who can open a hospital or purchase a new MRI; who can market a drug or medical device; and what kind of health insurance consumers may purchase. Government even sets the prices for half of our health-care sector directly, and indirectly sets prices for the other half.
Much of the U.S. health-care sector is private. But private markets are not necessarily free markets. What matters is who controls how the resources are used. More often than not, that "who" is government.
We have far too little competition among medical professionals, insurers, pharmaceutical companies, and hospitals. Yet try to deregulate providers, insurers, or pharmaceuticals and watch what happens. The industry's entrenched interests rally to preserve the laws that protect them from competition. It's no accident that the health-care industry has spent more money lobbying Congress than has any other industry for the past ten years.
Employers are just as bad. Companies that support universal coverage typically do so because it would increase the labor costs of their competition, whether through higher taxes or health premiums.
HEALTHCARE NEEDS TO BE DEREGULATED AND PUT INTO THE HAND OF THE CONSUMER IN A TOTALY FREEMARKET TO DRIVE PRICES DOWN. BEFORE MEDICARE/MEDICADE IN 1965 HEALTHCARE WAS CHEAP. MEDICARE/MEDICADE WASTE $1 TO EVERY $3 DOLLARS IT SPENDS ON FRAUD, OVERPAYMENTS, ADMINISTRATIVE COST. IT THAT A PLAN WORTH EXPANDING? AS IT IS IT COST TAXPAYERS BILLIONS EVERYYEAR. Medicare isn't free it cost the reciepients $130 to $200 a month taken from their SS checks. Plus every employee has taxes taken from their check each week.
This plan is not free the primiums with have to be at least double and we don't know what the co-pays, out of pocket and deductables are.
Read some of the fine print!
The bill states that health-care benefits require "shared responsibility among workers, employers, and the government." That means the government will force all taxpayers to pay for health care for millions of people who don't now buy insurance because they don't need it, or because insurance doesn't cover what they do need. (p.5)
The bill states that the government will investigate "self-insured employers not being able to pay obligations." Government agents will audit and then harass small business owners to force them to pay for insurance they cannot afford. (p.22)
The bill provides for optional "nurse home visitation services" without specifying who has power to exercise the option. Among the various purposes listed are "increasing birth intervals between pregnancies" (this reminds us of China's policies to reduce childbirth by married couples), reducing "child abuse, neglect, and injury" (giving more authority to the already too powerful Child Protective Services), and promoting school readiness (will homeschooling be scorned?). (p.768)
The bill covers family planning. Those are well-known code words for taxpayer-funded contraception and abortion, and will impose mandatory coverage of abortion on demand in all health plans. (p.772)
The bill provides for "culturally and linguistically appropriate communication and health services," and "shall give priority to applicants that have developed partnerships with community organizations or with agencies with experience in language access." This opens up plenty of funding for health and translation services for illegal aliens. (pp.405 & 407)
Title II of the bill creates a "Health Insurance Exchange," pretending to be a marketplace for health insurance plans. Of course, so long as the "public option" is subsidized by the taxpayers, it can always undersell private plans. (p.72)
The government will specify the health benefits that must be included in any plan participating in the Health Insurance Exchange. If all private plans must include all government-specified benefits (which will surely include benefits unwanted by many people and will inevitably drive up costs), whatever happened to choice? (p.84)
Anyone who does not enroll in an Exchange-participating plan will be "automatically enrolled under Medicaid." The government will thus use force to achieve its goal of universal coverage. (p.102)
Employers will be subjected to a play-or-pay mandate. Those who do not provide health insurance to their employees must give the government a "contribution" equal to 8 percent of average wages paid. (p.149)
Seniors must submit to "advance care planning consultation" (a.k.a. end-of-life discussions) every five years, or more often if there is "a significant change in the health condition of the individual, including diagnosis of a chronic, progressive, life-limiting disease, a life-threatening or terminal diagnosis or life-threatening injury." Will these consultants advise seniors to hurry up and die because they are costing too much money? (pp.425 & 429)
Government bureaucrats will conduct "Comparative Effectiveness Research" to decide the effectiveness of treatments and drugs. That is the exotic label for rationing and, as House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-WI) admitted, drugs and treatments that are "found to be less effective and more expensive will no longer be prescribed." (pp.502 & 520)
Government bureaucrats (not the medical profession) shall determine national priorities for research. (p.505)
Preference in awarding grants or contracts will be given to entities that have trained "the greatest percentage" of public health workers in the government, and that have trained large percentages of "under-represented minority groups." (pp.909-910) Think ACORN!
The Senate bill's official summary also authorizes "home visits" to "improve immunization coverage." Will Americans tolerate a knock on the door from a government agent demanding that we and our children receive all government-ordered vaccines?
The fine print of the Democrats' health-care bill (which imposes incredible debt on our children) gives enormous power to the Obama bureaucrats to impose uniform, government-defined-benefits insurance, to decide how much we must pay or be hit with fines and penalties, and to determine what treatments and drugs are "effective" and will be permitted. This isn't America; this is Marxist Socialism.
We've already got socialized medicine. Government already pays for half of Americans' medical care. Government controls production and consumption by determining the number of physicians; what services medical professionals can offer and under what terms; where they can practice; who can open a hospital or purchase a new MRI; who can market a drug or medical device; and what kind of health insurance consumers may purchase. Government even sets the prices for half of our health-care sector directly, and indirectly sets prices for the other half.
Much of the U.S. health-care sector is private. But private markets are not necessarily free markets. What matters is who controls how the resources are used. More often than not, that "who" is government.
We have far too little competition among medical professionals, insurers, pharmaceutical companies, and hospitals. Yet try to deregulate providers, insurers, or pharmaceuticals and watch what happens. The industry's entrenched interests rally to preserve the laws that protect them from competition. It's no accident that the health-care industry has spent more money lobbying Congress than has any other industry for the past ten years.
Employers are just as bad. Companies that support universal coverage typically do so because it would increase the labor costs of their competition, whether through higher taxes or health premiums.
HEALTHCARE NEEDS TO BE DEREGULATED AND PUT INTO THE HAND OF THE CONSUMER IN A TOTALY FREEMARKET TO DRIVE PRICES DOWN. BEFORE MEDICARE/MEDICADE IN 1965 HEALTHCARE WAS CHEAP. MEDICARE/MEDICADE WASTE $1 TO EVERY $3 DOLLARS IT SPENDS ON FRAUD, OVERPAYMENTS, ADMINISTRATIVE COST. IT THAT A PLAN WORTH EXPANDING? AS IT IS IT COST TAXPAYERS BILLIONS EVERYYEAR. Medicare isn't free it cost the reciepients $130 to $200 a month taken from their SS checks. Plus every employee has taxes taken from their check each week.
This plan is not free the primiums with have to be at least double and we don't know what the co-pays, out of pocket and deductables are.
Read some of the fine print!
The bill states that health-care benefits require "shared responsibility among workers, employers, and the government." That means the government will force all taxpayers to pay for health care for millions of people who don't now buy insurance because they don't need it, or because insurance doesn't cover what they do need. (p.5)
The bill states that the government will investigate "self-insured employers not being able to pay obligations." Government agents will audit and then harass small business owners to force them to pay for insurance they cannot afford. (p.22)
The bill provides for optional "nurse home visitation services" without specifying who has power to exercise the option. Among the various purposes listed are "increasing birth intervals between pregnancies" (this reminds us of China's policies to reduce childbirth by married couples), reducing "child abuse, neglect, and injury" (giving more authority to the already too powerful Child Protective Services), and promoting school readiness (will homeschooling be scorned?). (p.768)
The bill covers family planning. Those are well-known code words for taxpayer-funded contraception and abortion, and will impose mandatory coverage of abortion on demand in all health plans. (p.772)
The bill provides for "culturally and linguistically appropriate communication and health services," and "shall give priority to applicants that have developed partnerships with community organizations or with agencies with experience in language access." This opens up plenty of funding for health and translation services for illegal aliens. (pp.405 & 407)
Title II of the bill creates a "Health Insurance Exchange," pretending to be a marketplace for health insurance plans. Of course, so long as the "public option" is subsidized by the taxpayers, it can always undersell private plans. (p.72)
The government will specify the health benefits that must be included in any plan participating in the Health Insurance Exchange. If all private plans must include all government-specified benefits (which will surely include benefits unwanted by many people and will inevitably drive up costs), whatever happened to choice? (p.84)
Anyone who does not enroll in an Exchange-participating plan will be "automatically enrolled under Medicaid." The government will thus use force to achieve its goal of universal coverage. (p.102)
Employers will be subjected to a play-or-pay mandate. Those who do not provide health insurance to their employees must give the government a "contribution" equal to 8 percent of average wages paid. (p.149)
Seniors must submit to "advance care planning consultation" (a.k.a. end-of-life discussions) every five years, or more often if there is "a significant change in the health condition of the individual, including diagnosis of a chronic, progressive, life-limiting disease, a life-threatening or terminal diagnosis or life-threatening injury." Will these consultants advise seniors to hurry up and die because they are costing too much money? (pp.425 & 429)
Government bureaucrats will conduct "Comparative Effectiveness Research" to decide the effectiveness of treatments and drugs. That is the exotic label for rationing and, as House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-WI) admitted, drugs and treatments that are "found to be less effective and more expensive will no longer be prescribed." (pp.502 & 520)
Government bureaucrats (not the medical profession) shall determine national priorities for research. (p.505)
Preference in awarding grants or contracts will be given to entities that have trained "the greatest percentage" of public health workers in the government, and that have trained large percentages of "under-represented minority groups." (pp.909-910) Think ACORN!
The Senate bill's official summary also authorizes "home visits" to "improve immunization coverage." Will Americans tolerate a knock on the door from a government agent demanding that we and our children receive all government-ordered vaccines?
The fine print of the Democrats' health-care bill (which imposes incredible debt on our children) gives enormous power to the Obama bureaucrats to impose uniform, government-defined-benefits insurance, to decide how much we must pay or be hit with fines and penalties, and to determine what treatments and drugs are "effective" and will be permitted. This isn't America; this is Marxist Socialism.
RATE THIS COMMENT:
(3)
(3) Ruby
2:35PM Jul 31st 2009
The truth is that the House bill would actually give seniors the MANDATE to speak with an expert about advanced care and end of life issues, such as living wills.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (-2)
(-2) ram125
8:24PM Jul 31st 2009
To Al: Democrat's Plan for Health Care ( ObamaCare)
1) Less care for people who have coverage now ( especially elderly). Cash to cover ObamaCare will come be ordering CUTS in Medicare.
2) Insuring 50 millionnew people without adding medical personnel and other resorces: more demand with NO added supply.
3) Rationing- lower- quality medical care for most Americans, especially for the elderly.
4)A federal health board will sit in judgment of medical procedures and protocols and impose guidelines on all providers for when to withold certain kinds of care. In Canada's average 8-month wait for colonoscopies, another result of national-health rationing.
America is the most successful country in the world. It provides freedom and opportunity to its citizens. But millions of Americans have failed to pursue happiness effectively. Obama wants to redistribute wealth in the name of compassion?
6)Look for universal care mess in Massachusetts and everyone can see disaster ahead.
6% of American wwant FEWER goverment services and less taxes.
SAY NO TO MASSIVE ENTITlEMENTS !!!!
1) Less care for people who have coverage now ( especially elderly). Cash to cover ObamaCare will come be ordering CUTS in Medicare.
2) Insuring 50 millionnew people without adding medical personnel and other resorces: more demand with NO added supply.
3) Rationing- lower- quality medical care for most Americans, especially for the elderly.
4)A federal health board will sit in judgment of medical procedures and protocols and impose guidelines on all providers for when to withold certain kinds of care. In Canada's average 8-month wait for colonoscopies, another result of national-health rationing.
America is the most successful country in the world. It provides freedom and opportunity to its citizens. But millions of Americans have failed to pursue happiness effectively. Obama wants to redistribute wealth in the name of compassion?
6)Look for universal care mess in Massachusetts and everyone can see disaster ahead.
6% of American wwant FEWER goverment services and less taxes.
SAY NO TO MASSIVE ENTITlEMENTS !!!!
RATE THIS COMMENT: (6)
(6) bob
4:58PM Jul 31st 2009
AL YOU MOST BE MISTAKING THAT IS WHAT THE LIBERAL DUMOCRATS WANT
RATE THIS COMMENT:
(2)
(2) fmly4chuns
2:47AM Aug 1st 2009
Watch Real Time with Bill Maher for today, July 31st. Wow, it will wake you up, republican and democrats alike. We need to pay attention to what is going on behind closed doors. Go to Hulu or go to HBO and see the show...
RATE THIS COMMENT: (-4)
(-4) allergyguy270
5:52PM Aug 4th 2009
Red state healthcare actually works. Look at Massachusetts, California, New York (Blue States) for plans that don't.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (0)
(0) kathy
6:38AM Jul 30th 2009
Al, you must be one of those Stupid Democrats who would follow the rest of the sheep over the cliffs. Just another uninformed follower. How could you be so ignorant as to want any plan they shove at you?! enough said.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (0)
(0) NANCY
6:49AM Jul 30th 2009
The good news that as bad as things are for the Republican party, with the Dems in charge of Congress and the White House, things are only going to get a lot worse. The party of white Christians is looking at the trend of the country getting darker and less religious. Their support is going way down among young and more educated voters. In 2008 Obama carried - 78 of the 100 counties with the highest education, McCain carried 88 of the 100 counties with the lowest education. They don't have a single potential 2012 presidential candidate who has a chance of winning any states that McCain lost. Their power base is now down to states with minimal DNA diversity and a bunch of old women who think the Earth is 6,000 years old and that Creationism is science. While the Limbauciles, like Kathy, can still get together on these types of boards and engage in their favorite form of recreation, lie swapping, they are nothing more than comic relief to the reality based community.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (0)
(0) rocksabound
1:02PM Jul 30th 2009
Sorry, Kathy, but the erstwhile "conservative" (actually, read SELFservative) Whiz-Bangs have had MANY YEARS to formulate some sort of "plan" that would deal with the problems in any smarter manner --- and they have long FAILED to do anything substantive. And THAT is the mean, nasty, ugly, bitter, net-effective-result, practical nuts-and-bolts, God's-honest-truth reality of the situation.
For these guys to come along now and obstruct (yet again) the efforts to come to grips with the whole subject on the grounds that what can now be (belatedly) achieved will not be immediately, right out of the starting gate, "perfect" is really about the height of hypocrisy on their part, and stupidity on the part of all those out there among "we the People" who would heed their clarion call to once more do nothing about anything (and then maybe the problems will somehow simply go away). As Forrest Gump's momma famously said, "Stupid is as stupid does".
I point out to you that the British National Heath Care system got its start NOT in a time of prosperity there at all. Actually, it had its origins in the depths of the bombed-out aftermath of WWII. Is it "perfect"? No. But it sure beats the alternative of millions and millions of folks being "squeezed out" of medical care!
For these guys to come along now and obstruct (yet again) the efforts to come to grips with the whole subject on the grounds that what can now be (belatedly) achieved will not be immediately, right out of the starting gate, "perfect" is really about the height of hypocrisy on their part, and stupidity on the part of all those out there among "we the People" who would heed their clarion call to once more do nothing about anything (and then maybe the problems will somehow simply go away). As Forrest Gump's momma famously said, "Stupid is as stupid does".
I point out to you that the British National Heath Care system got its start NOT in a time of prosperity there at all. Actually, it had its origins in the depths of the bombed-out aftermath of WWII. Is it "perfect"? No. But it sure beats the alternative of millions and millions of folks being "squeezed out" of medical care!
RATE THIS COMMENT: (-2)
(-2) rjeffreycook
1:44PM Jul 30th 2009
You must be one of those stupid Republicans who believes in Trickle Down Economics that never seemed to trickle down because of the greed in this country.What happened to America?
RATE THIS COMMENT: (-4)
(-4) kathy
4:47PM Jul 30th 2009
In reply to some of ya'lls remarks, rjeffreycook, while I'm not a Republican I am intelligent enough to know that this particular bill needs rewritten. And doesn't it tick you off that for any party to want to shove crap down our throats? I'm not just pissed at the Democrats, I'm pissed off at the Republicans too. After all that has happened these last 25 years a hell of a lot of us have finally figured out WE DO HAVE A SAY. You seem to think that I'm against A Health Care Plan, NOT SO, But what I want is a Health Care Plan without all the nonsense. We can have that. But what else does the Feds need to do? Quit sending money to pissy ass little countries who hate us, for one. Are they going to do that? probably not. The waste of OUR MONEY, they can cut that out, but are they going to? probably not. We could have a great healthcare system in this country, one in which we could choose any Doctor or any treatment we Need. Need to encourage more Doctors to be Family Physicians. But, there is one thing I dont want, I dont want to pay for people who are here illegally. Theres another issue right there. Because people who dont pay taxes into our system are just bleeding it dry.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (4)
(4) JoeF
5:44PM Jul 30th 2009
Kathy, wasn't it Bush who wanted to privatize social security and invest it in the sub prime market. THAT was stupid! Thank God, the Dems stood against him on that one or, there would be another 50 million without any income.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (-6)
(-6) Kristen
7:26AM Jul 30th 2009
OMG!!! You HAVE to see this????
Obama want's attention OFF Health Care.Don't get off track!
Obama's NEW who Lives andDies Lottery! Out of his Health Care Plan Page 425! If you REALLYcare about your health or your parents and your right to LIVE! Go tothe link below, play the Audio link, Go to main page wait for it to open go to Audio Archives Monday July 27th click on Betsy McCaughey's name scroll down and play her live Audio Interview.Hear her READ from O's OWN page425 and who it targets! Obama's Health Care Plan page 425 consists ofMandatory Seminars every 5 years! To help you (if your a Senior or
have a Chronic illness) CHOOSE the best way for YOU to end your OWN
LIFE! 500 billion Senior's or Chronically Ill will have NO health Care! She also reads on page's 16 17. You absolutely CAN NOT keep
your health care and Dr! What he say's on TV daily is a LIE! He
want's to weed out anyone including Children with chronic illnesses!
PLEASE go to this site and SEE it for yourselves!
www.fredthompsonshow.com (It doesn't matter if you like him or
not)Just Listen to the FACTS OF Obama's Plan from a Dr's Radio
Interview and hear her READ Obama's REAL Health Care Plan! What she
say's will and should shake the earth under your feet regardless of
what party your with, you WILL NOT want this! Please don't take my
word for it or just dismiss it! PLEASE Hear it Spoken ALL for
yourself! Copy and paste this everywhere! And write and call your
State Congressman!
Obama want's attention OFF Health Care.Don't get off track!
Obama's NEW who Lives andDies Lottery! Out of his Health Care Plan Page 425! If you REALLYcare about your health or your parents and your right to LIVE! Go tothe link below, play the Audio link, Go to main page wait for it to open go to Audio Archives Monday July 27th click on Betsy McCaughey's name scroll down and play her live Audio Interview.Hear her READ from O's OWN page425 and who it targets! Obama's Health Care Plan page 425 consists ofMandatory Seminars every 5 years! To help you (if your a Senior or
have a Chronic illness) CHOOSE the best way for YOU to end your OWN
LIFE! 500 billion Senior's or Chronically Ill will have NO health Care! She also reads on page's 16 17. You absolutely CAN NOT keep
your health care and Dr! What he say's on TV daily is a LIE! He
want's to weed out anyone including Children with chronic illnesses!
PLEASE go to this site and SEE it for yourselves!
www.fredthompsonshow.com (It doesn't matter if you like him or
not)Just Listen to the FACTS OF Obama's Plan from a Dr's Radio
Interview and hear her READ Obama's REAL Health Care Plan! What she
say's will and should shake the earth under your feet regardless of
what party your with, you WILL NOT want this! Please don't take my
word for it or just dismiss it! PLEASE Hear it Spoken ALL for
yourself! Copy and paste this everywhere! And write and call your
State Congressman!
RATE THIS COMMENT: (6)
(6) The TRUTH
8:28AM Jul 30th 2009
Facts? When people who suffer from the genetic defect that causes right wing extremism use the word "facts" you can be sure of two things, they are about to lie to you and try to scare you.
I remember some of their "facts" from the 1950's and 1960's. They claimed that the attempt to fluoridate our public water supply was a communist plot meant to kill us. Then there was the communist plot within our country, which was never more than hundreds of undercover FBI agents joining the Communist party, under the direction of a right wing freak who spent most of his time at home wearing dresses. We also has their mythological Domino theory which led to9 the needless death of over 50,000 of our brave troops in Vietnam.
Some of their more recent facts include Creationism and that President Obama is Marxist and an illegal immigrant from Kenya'
Got and more "facts" for us Limbuaciles?
I remember some of their "facts" from the 1950's and 1960's. They claimed that the attempt to fluoridate our public water supply was a communist plot meant to kill us. Then there was the communist plot within our country, which was never more than hundreds of undercover FBI agents joining the Communist party, under the direction of a right wing freak who spent most of his time at home wearing dresses. We also has their mythological Domino theory which led to9 the needless death of over 50,000 of our brave troops in Vietnam.
Some of their more recent facts include Creationism and that President Obama is Marxist and an illegal immigrant from Kenya'
Got and more "facts" for us Limbuaciles?
RATE THIS COMMENT: (-4)
(-4) joe714
4:55PM Oct 7th 2009
I just want to know where Pelosi is going to be taking "our jet" on her next vacation? I know after the she strongarmed the passage of the Stimulus bill she took off to Italy with family and friends on our dime--Since the health care bill didn't meet the Aug. deadline that Obama wanted so he could sign in a rush and no one read, I'm just wondering whre Pelosi if off to now?
We know the Pres & the entire family is taking another vacation to Martha's Vineyard (after vacations in France, England, Russia, Poland, Italy, Africa)and he is so stressed--kind of sounds like the IRS convention that is bankrupt but paid for a convention to relieve thier stress. Give me a break. Does the Prez understand that people are losing jobs as well as their homes--and now we have to pay for another vacation for them all? I can see the secret service but do we need to pay for their servants to travel with them?
We know the Pres & the entire family is taking another vacation to Martha's Vineyard (after vacations in France, England, Russia, Poland, Italy, Africa)and he is so stressed--kind of sounds like the IRS convention that is bankrupt but paid for a convention to relieve thier stress. Give me a break. Does the Prez understand that people are losing jobs as well as their homes--and now we have to pay for another vacation for them all? I can see the secret service but do we need to pay for their servants to travel with them?
RATE THIS COMMENT: (8)
(8) sandsnnydz
9:20AM Jul 30th 2009
$100,000 for a two week vacation in a $20 million dollar house on 28 acres on Martha's Vineyard
thats not even counting the staff and Air Force One because you know ....they are not loading up the SUV for a rode trip!!!
the Obamas really know how to vacation at our expense don't they?
just how many vacations have the Obamas taken since school recessed for summer?
thats not even counting the staff and Air Force One because you know ....they are not loading up the SUV for a rode trip!!!
the Obamas really know how to vacation at our expense don't they?
just how many vacations have the Obamas taken since school recessed for summer?
RATE THIS COMMENT: (4)
(4) 
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