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IMHO, the growing frustration in America is about MORE than.....

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by BrotherFish, Mar 30, 2010.

  1. saitou

    saitou J Only Fan

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    The poll says 35% independents are conservative, but 35% is hardly the majority. Moderates lean left and right, your poll doesn't bolster your argument. (It doesn't debunk your claims but it doesn't support it either.)


    The problem with your position is you have to explain how this minority came to power in a country with a democratic process. Either (1) the majority isn't as center-right as you think or (2) the dems aren't as "progressive" as you think.

    Label it whatever you want, but obama campaigned on healtcare, letting bush tax cuts for the rich expire and cutting taxes for lower/middle class, and he still won the popular vote. To put it another way, either (1) the majority is more in favor of socialist policies than you think or (2) what the dems campaigned on and are trying to execute aren't as socialist as you think.

    I defer to Refman's knowledge on the rest.

    The main problem I have with your posts is this assumption that your views (which are in opposition to the administration) are those of the majority when the reality is the party that best represents your views are the minority party in congress and out of the white house.

    If Obama returns for a 2nd term, would you then agree that his admin. reflects the views of the majority?
     
  2. BrotherFish

    BrotherFish Member

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    Obama came in the guise of "HOPE AND CHANGE" and people were so enamored with his charisma and hate of Bush, victory was guaranteed.

    Obama stated in his HCR victory speech, "This is what CHANGE LOOKS LIKE!" The majority is now like WTF did we do? My previous posts show CBS polls that support my claims.

    California's" entitlement" class and labor unions support kept Progressives in power in that state--i.e. Nancy Peloci. She was kept in check until SEIU (Labor Unions) pushed Obama into office. See video in previous post on SEIU and Obama in his own words confirming this.

    California has a lot of clout in Politics--due to the number of electoral votes. And Nancy naturally gained power over her thirty years in the House.



    This is definitely in the realm of possibilities--however, I do not believe Obama will get reelected. Mainly because, unlike Clinton who failed to get HCR passed and then decide to move towards the center-- Obama, Nancy, and Reid, are like "screw the polls"--we are moving ahead with our Progressive agenda with a "It's now or never" mindset. This, IMO, is what is backfiring on them in the current political climate.

    If Obama proceeds with passing all his major ticket agendas (i.e. Immigration Reform and CAP and TAX) and does not do a major course correction after the "shock in November", then I will 100% concede that my views are more towards extreme right wing side of politics-- than I currently believe they are.

    However, all the recent scientific polls that I can find support my viewpoints on Obama and the Progressive leaning agenda. People are waking up and catching on to what's going on in Washington.

    Of course, as I stated earlier, you don't have to wait to 2012, the landslide victories toward the conservatives this November will tell you everything you need to know about where the majority of Americans stand. That is, if you have not already been convinced by the recent "shocking" election victory's by the GOP in the past year.

    If I am right about November and 2012, I expect to you to find this post on the BBS and concede a Rep. Point! Fair enough? ;) :grin:
     
  3. FranchiseBlade

    Supporting Member

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    California's problems aren't the nationally elected representatives, but the locally elected ones who passed the 2/3 requirement to get taxes and budget matters passed. It is stalling a system that is in desperate need of action.

    Obama is right that passing the most significant social program in decades is what change looks like, and the more people are familiar with it, the more they will like it. Pelosi was effective at getting her job done.

    You are overlooking some shocking Democratic victories over the last year as well such in the NY district where a Democrat won for the first time in more than 100 years.
     
  4. Refman

    Refman Member

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    You just lost. The government has taken over nothing with the passage of this bill. The health insurance companies are guaranteed tens of thousands of new customers. This is precisely why the GOP proposed a bill that is very similar to the one that just passed in 1993. I brought that up earlier but you conveniently ignored it.

    How? Please explain in great detail how the GOP would propose to do this and the Constitutionality of the plan. The problem is that you cannot post a 2 minute video clip or a blog post of how that would be done, so I doubt I will actually get a thoughtful response.

    PROBLEM!!!!!!!!!!!! I refer you to the Contracts Clause of the Constitution. The government cannot force an insurer into a contract they do not wish to be a party to.

    Except that the tort reform in Texas has been a catastrophic failure. It has not contained costs. The only thing that has been accomplished is to put a bar on the courthouse door for some meritorious claims, and has been a great money grab for the malpractice carriers.

    I have seen through professional organizations how this works, and it stinks. The policies are still prohibitively expensive. You are actually better off getting an independent broker and buying a crappy policy. The wildcard that is ignored here is that corporations pick up a big part of the premiums for their employees.

    Where would that money come from? Oh yeah...taxes.

    So the same dozen insurance companies can form a nationwide oligopoly and charge higher prices? Great idea.

    LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!! This comes from the same party that decries soda taxes, etc as being contrary to freedom. I am against such taxes, but do not turn around and advocate arbitrary crap like this.

    This I like. Another interesting use of pre-tax dollars. It does not address the cost curve or the uninsured.

    Amen.

    Sure. It just won't be effective and will likely not be Constitutional.

    A recession does not necessarily cause problems for a state. It reveals problems within a state. I promise that none of this would have been a blip on the radar map were it not for the deep recession.

    Again, you have totally ignored some of my salient points.
     
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  5. saitou

    saitou J Only Fan

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    No one disagrees that - it's also the most populous state in the US. If anything, it's under represented in the senate.


    I can't give out rep points, but I'll be willing to concede the majority of the US disagrees with the dems if the dems lose majorities in congress and the white house. I prob. won't remember by then, so feel free to call me out. Until then, crying about dems pushing their agenda when they control congress and the white house feels like sour grapes to me - there are consequences to losing elections and being in the minority.

    While the US may have been a center-right country in the past, you have to take into account the changing demographics. The US is rapidly becoming more racially diverse and less religious, which is changing (or has changed) the status quo.
    http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/012496.html
     
  6. saitou

    saitou J Only Fan

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    Forgot to add scare quotes to center-right. The center-right I'm talking about here is the center right you define in which you are a part of.
     
  7. rocketsjudoka

    rocketsjudoka Member

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    Interesting thread and sorry I missed out on this, there are actually other things more important than Clutchfans..

    Refman and Gladiator Rowdy have done an excellent job addressing most of what I would say but just to kick in my two cents. Brotherfish, I'm willing to take you at your word that you would like a reasoned discussion but frankly the very terms and arguments you use make that impossible. As Gladiator Rowdy pointed out you have either put up many strawman or else you truly have a very poor understanding of what you are arguing against.

    You are certainly free to have a negative view of those who politically disagree with you but you are painting the "Progressives" like the way Borat thinks of Jews as some being these powerful evil entities responsible for all of America ills. And pardon me for saying this but it strikes me as rather laughable to depict yourself as part of some nightwatch out to defend the country against these mysterious enemies.

    As much as you've appealed to history you seem to be engaging in a rather selective reading of it. For example, it wasn't progressives that brought about the mortgage crisis but a Republican Congress. In fact the names on the bill that passed was three Republicans, Gramm, Leach and Biley, who are definately not progressives and are generally considered conservatives.
    Also you have frequently brought up the Massachusset's election of Scott Brown as a repudiation of HCR and also mentioned that Mass had a similar system to what has now been passed nationally. THe problem with this argument though is that it fails to acknowledge that the Mass healthcare policy was passed and championed by another conservative Republican, Mitt Romney, and also is very similar to a plan that was developed by another bastion of conservatism the Heritage Foundation.

    As I said you are free to hold your beliefs but if you are planning on having a reasoned argument I would suggest paying closer attention to the history that you claim to be basing your arguments on.
     
  8. solid

    solid Member

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    I was a 60's Liberal, we didn't trust the government to do anything right, we wanted freedom, liberty, privacy. Leave us alone, let us be, stay out of our lives, let us make our own way. My, my how things have changed; politics is upside down.
     
  9. BrotherFish

    BrotherFish Member

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    IMO, I believe Barney Franks is the main cause of the mortage crisis. Here is a timeline of his involvement in the mortage collapse.

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    The following is not to change your mind, but rather just a perpective from the right on the cause of the mortage crisis:

    "The self-proclaimed angels in Washington will tell you they’ve been working tirelessly to expand the American dream of homeownership by making mortgages available to people unable to plunk down 20 percent on a house. Franklin Raines, the Clinton-appointed former head of Fannie Mae from 1998 to 2004, made it his top priority to make mortgages easier to get for people with poor credit, few assets and little money for a down payment.
    The fine print to this noble intent was an ill-conceived loosening of standards. For instance, the Clinton administration reinterpreted the Jimmy Carter-era Community Reinvestment Act to politicize lending practices. Under the CRA, the government forced banks to prove they weren’t “redlining” — i.e., discriminating against minorities — by approving loans to minorities and various left-wing “community group” shakedown artists whether they were bad risks or not. (A young Barack Obama got his start with exactly these sorts of groups.) Sen. Phil Gramm called it a vast extortion scheme against America’s banks. Still, the banks were perfectly happy to pass the risky loans to Raines’ Fannie Mae, which was happy to buy them up

    That’s because Raines was transforming Fannie Mae from a boring but stable financial institution dedicated to making homes more affordable into a risky venture that abused its special status as a “Government Sponsored Enterprise” (GSE) for Raines’ personal profit. Fannie bought the bad loans and bundled them together with good ones. Wall Street was glad to buy up these mortgage securities because Fannie Mae was deemed a government-insured behemoth “too big to fail.” And others followed Fannie’s lead.


    The current financial crisis stems in large part from the fact that people who shouldn’t have been buying a home, or who bought more home than they could afford, now can’t pay their bills. Their bad mortgages are mixed up with the good mortgages. And thanks in part to new accounting rules set up after Enron, the bad mortgages have contaminated the whole pile, reducing the value of even stable mortgages.


    Of course, there are other important factors at work here, having to do with changing technology among other things. And even if the bad mortgages weren’t in the system, we’d still have the hangover from the end of the housing boom. But the financial system could have handled that with the usual corrections. The biggest dose of poison entered the financial bloodstream through Washington. And some people warned us. In 2005, Fannie Mae revealed it overstated earnings by $10.6 billion and that it didn’t really know what was going on. The Bush administration pushed for reforms, but those efforts were rebuffed by Congress, with Democrats Barney Frank and Christopher Dodd taking point, because Fannie and Freddie have spent millions in campaign contributions.

    In 2005, McCain sponsored legislation to thwart what he later called “the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system and the economy as a whole.”

    Obama, the Senate’s second-greatest recipient of donations from Fannie and Freddie after Dodd, did nothing.

    Meanwhile, Raines, the head of a government-supported institution, made $52 million of his $90 million compensation package thanks in part to fraudulent earnings statements.

    But, ah yes, the greedy criminals responsible for this mess must be somewhere on Wall Street.
    "

    I just happen to believe the "Community Reinvestment Act" and Barney Franks is the "root cause" of the mortage crisis.

    http://article.nationalreview.com/3...rent-at-fault-this-time/jonah-goldberg?page=2

    I am not trying to hide from RomneyCare at all, just pointing out the the people of Mass. has realized its not working and is not good for America--hence Scott Brown was voted in to stop Obamacare.

    IMO, here is why Scott Brown won:

    Lessons from the Fall of RomneyCare
    By Michael Tanner

    Michael Tanner is director of health and welfare studies at the Cato Institute. He is the author of Leviathan on the Right: How Big-Government Conservatism Brought Down the Republican Revolution and coauthor of Healthy Competition: What’s Holding Back Health Care and How to Free It, just released in a new edition.

    When then-Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney signed into law the nation’s most far-reaching state health care reform proposal, it was widely expected to be a centerpiece of his presidential campaign. In fact Governor Romney bragged that he would "steal" the traditionally Democratic issue of health care. "Issues which have long been the province of the Democratic Party to claim as their own will increasingly move to the Republican side of the aisle," he told Bloomberg News Service shortly after signing the bill. He told other reporters that the biggest difference between his health care plan and Hillary Clinton’s was "mine got passed and hers didn’t."

    Outside observers on both the Right and Left praised the program. Edmund Haislmaier of the Heritage Foundation hailed it as "one of the most promising strategies out there." And Hillary Clinton adviser Stuart Altman said, ‘‘The Massachusetts plan could become a catalyst and a galvanizing event at the national level, and a catalyst for other states."

    Today, however, Romney seldom mentions his plan on the campaign trail. If pressed he maintains that he is "proud" of what he accomplished, while criticizing how the Democratic administration that succeeded him has implemented the program. Nevertheless, he now focuses on changing federal tax law in order to empower individuals to buy health insurance outside their employer, and on incentives for states to deregulate their insurance industry. He would also use block grants for both Medicaid and federal uncompensated care funds to encourage greater state innovation. He encourages states to experiment, but does not offer his own state as a model.

    A Double Failure

    There’s good reason for his change of position. The Massachusetts plan was supposed to accomplish two things-achieve universal health insurance coverage while controlling costs. As Romney wrote in the Wall Street Journal, "Every uninsured citizen in Massachusetts will soon have affordable health insurance and the costs of health care will be reduced." In reality, the plan has done neither.

    Perhaps the most publicized aspect of the Massachusetts reform is its mandate that every resident have health insurance, whether provided by an employer or the government or purchased individually. "I like mandates," Romney said during a debate in New Hampshire. "The mandate works." But did it?

    Technically the last day to sign up for insurance in compliance with that mandate was November 15, though as a practical measure Massachusetts residents actually had until January 1, 2008. Those without insurance as of that date will lose their personal exemption for the state income tax when they file this spring. In 2009, the penalty will increase to 50 percent of the cost of a standard insurance policy.

    Such a mandate was, of course, a significant infringement on individual choice and liberty. As the Congressional Budget Office noted, the mandate was "unprecedented," and represented the first time that a state has required that an individual, simply because they live in a state and for no other reason, must purchase a specific government- designated product.

    It was also a failure.

    When the bill was signed, Governor Romney, the media, state lawmakers, and health care reform advocates hailed the mandate as achieving universal coverage. "All Massachusetts citizens will have health insurance. It’s a goal Democrats and Republicans share, and it has been achieved by a bipartisan effort," Romney wrote.

    Before RomneyCare was enacted, estimates of the number of uninsured in Massachusetts ranged from 372,000 to 618,000. Under the new program, about 219,000 previously uninsured residents have signed up for insurance. Of these, 133,000 are receiving subsidized coverage, proving once again that people are all too happy to accept something "for free," and let others pay the bill. That is in addition to 56,000 people who have been signed up for Medicaid. The bigger the subsidy, the faster people are signing up. Of the 133,000 people who have signed up for insurance since the plan was implemented, slightly more than half have received totally free coverage.

    It’s important to note that the subsidies in Massachusetts are extensive and reach well into the middle class-available on a sliding scale to those with incomes up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level. That means subsidies would be available for those with incomes ranging from $30,480 for a single individual to as much as $130,389 for a married couple with seven children. A typical married couple with two children would qualify for a subsidy if their income were below $63,000.

    What we don’t know is how many of those receiving subsidized insurance were truly uninsured and how many had insurance that either they or their employer was paying for. Studies indicate that substitution of taxpayer-financed for privately funded insurance is a common occurrence with other government programs such as Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP). Massachusetts has attempted to limit this "crowdout" effect by requiring that individuals be uninsured for at least six months before qualifying for subsidies. Still some substitution is likely to have occurred.

    The subsidies may have increased the number of Massachusetts citizens with insurance, but as many as 400,000 Massachusetts residents by some estimates have failed to buy the required insurance. That includes the overwhelming majority of those with incomes too high to qualify for state subsidies. Fewer than 30,000 unsubsidized residents have signed up as a result of the mandate. And that is on top of the 60,000 of the state’s uninsured who were exempted from the mandate because buying insurance would be too much of a financial burden.

    Billion-Dollar Overrun

    According to insurance industry insiders, the plans are too costly for the target market, and the potential customers- largely younger, healthy men-have resisted buying them. Those who have signed up have been disproportionately older and less healthy. This should come as no surprise since Massachusetts maintains a modified form of community rating, which forces younger and healthier individuals to pay higher premiums in order to subsidize premiums for the old and sick.

    Thus, between half and two-thirds of those uninsured before the plan was implemented remain so. That’s a far cry from universal coverage. In fact, whatever progress has been made toward reducing the ranks of the uninsured appears to be almost solely the result of the subsidies. The much ballyhooed mandate itself appears to have had almost no impact.

    The Massachusetts plan might not have achieved universal coverage, but it has cost taxpayers a great deal of money. Originally, the plan was projected to cost $1.8 billion this year. Now it is expected to exceed those estimates by $150 million. Over the next 10 years, projections suggest that Romney- Care will cost about $2 billion more than was budgeted. And the cost to Massachusetts taxpayers could be even higher because new federal rules could deprive the state of $100 million per year in Medicaid money that the state planned to use to help finance the program.

    Given that the state is already facing a projected budget deficit this year, the pressure to raise taxes, cut reimbursements to health care providers, or cap insurance premiums will likely be intense. Romney likes to brag that he accomplished his health care plan "without raising taxes." Unless something turns around, that is not likely to be the case much longer.

    Moreover, the cost of the plan is also likely to continue rising, because the Massachusetts reform has failed to hold down the cost of health care. When Romney signed his plan he claimed "a key objective is to lower the cost of health insurance for all our citizens and allow our citizens to buy the insurance plan that fits their needs." In actuality, insurance premiums in the state are expected to rise 10–12 percent next year, double the national average.

    The Bureaucratic Connector

    Although there are undoubtedly many factors behind the cost increase, one reason is that the new bureaucracy that the legislation created-the "Connector"-has not been allowing Massachusetts citizens to buy insurance that "fits their needs."

    Although it has received less media attention than other aspects of the bill, one of the most significant features of the legislation is the creation of the Massachusetts Health Care Connector to combine the current small-group and individual markets under a single unified set of regulations. Supporters such as Robert E. Moffit and Nina Owcharenko of the Heritage Foundation consider the Connector to be the single most important change made by the legislation, calling it "the cornerstone of the new plan" and "a major innovation and a model for other states."

    The Connector is not actually an insurer. Rather, it is designed to allow individuals and workers in small companies to take advantage of the economies of scale, both in terms of administration and risk pooling, which are currently enjoyed by large employers. Multiple employers are able to pay into the Connector on behalf of a single employee. And, most importantly, the Connector would allow workers to use pretax dollars to purchase individual insurance. That would make insurance personal and portable, rather than tied to an employer-all very desirable things.

    However, many people were concerned that the Connector was being granted too much regulatory authority. It was given the power to decide what products it would offer and to designate which types of insurance offered "high quality and good value." This phrase in particular worried many observers because it is the same language frequently included in legislation mandating insurance benefits.

    At the time the legislation passed, Ed Haislmaier of the Heritage Foundation reassured critics that "the Connector will neither design the insurance products being offered nor regulate the insurers offering the plans." In reality, however, the Connector’s board has seen itself as a combination of the state legislature and the insurance commissioner, adding a host of new regulations and mandates.

    For example, the Connector’s governing board has decreed that by January 2009, no one in the state will be allowed to have insurance with more than a $2,000 deductible or total out-of-pocket costs of more than $5,000. In addition, every policy in the state will be required to phase in coverage of prescription drugs, a move that could add 5–15 percent to the cost of insurance plans. A move to require dental coverage barely failed to pass the board, and the dentists-along with several other provider groups-have not given up the effort to force their inclusion. This comes on top of the 40 mandated benefits that the state had previously required, ranging from in vitro fertilization to chiropractic services.

    Thus, it appears that the Connector offers quite a bit of pain for relatively little gain. Although the ability to use pretax dollars to purchase personal and portable insurance should be appealing in theory, only about 7,500 nonsubsidized workers have purchased insurance through the Connector so far. On the other hand, rather than insurance that "fits their needs," Massachusetts residents find themselves forced to buy expensive "Cadillac" policies that offer many benefits that they may not want.

    Governor Romney now says that he cannot be held responsible for the actions of the Connector board, because it’s "an independent body separate from the governor’s office." However, many critics of the Massachusetts plan warned him precisely against the dangers of giving regulatory authority to a bureaucracy that would last long beyond his administration.

    ClintonRomneyEdwardsCare

    Despite the problems being encountered in Massachusetts, the Romney plan continues to receive a surprising amount of support as a model for reform. The health care plans advocated by all three of the leading Democratic presidential candidates- Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Barack Obama-are all substantially the same as Romney’s. They are all variations of a concept called "managed competition," which leaves insurance privately owned but forces it to operate in an artificial and highly regulated marketplace similar to a public utility. All of their plans include an individual mandate (only for children in Obama’s case, and for everyone in Clinton’s and Edwards’s plans), increased regulation, a government-designed standard benefits package, and a new pooling mechanism similar to the Connector.

    Romney denounces Senator Clinton’s plan as "government run health care," but there really is very little difference between the Romney and Clinton plans.

    In addition, several states have been seeking to use Massachusetts as a model for their own reforms. In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger added an employer mandate to a plan that otherwise looked very much like the Massachusetts plan. Other states considering similar proposals include Alaska, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Oregon, and Washington, as well as the District of Columbia. Although none of these proposals has made it into law, several remain under active consideration.

    No one can deny that the U.S. health care system needs reform. Too many Americans lack health insurance and/or are unable to afford the best care. More must be done to lower health care costs and increase access to care. Both patients and providers need better and more useful information. The system is riddled with waste, and quality of care is uneven. Government health care programs like Medicare and Medicaid threaten future generations with an enormous burden of debt and taxes. Given these pressures, the temptation for a quick fix is understandable.

    But, as Massachusetts has shown us, mandating insurance, restricting individual choice, expanding subsidies, and increasing government control isn’t going to solve those problems. A mandate imposes a substantial cost in terms of individual choice but is almost certainly unenforceable and will not achieve its goal of universal coverage. Subsidies may increase coverage, but will almost always cost more than projected and will impose substantial costs on taxpayers. Increased regulations will drive up costs and limit consumer choice.

    The answer to controlling health care costs and increasing access to care lies with giving consumers more control over their health care spending while increasing competition in the health care marketplace- not in mandates, subsidies, and regulation. That is the lesson we should be drawing from the failure of RomneyCare.


    http://www.cato.org/pubs/policy_report/v30n1/cpr30n1-1.html
     
  10. DonnyMost

    DonnyMost Member
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  11. KingCheetah

    KingCheetah Atomic Playboy
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    More words, smaller font.
     
  12. ROXRAN

    ROXRAN Member

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  13. GladiatoRowdy

    GladiatoRowdy Member

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    Exactly what I have been saying about this guy all along and this post is the reason you are my favorite conservative poster.
     
  14. ROXRAN

    ROXRAN Member

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    [​IMG]
     
  15. Ottomaton

    Ottomaton Member
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    That's completely out of touch with reality. The opinion polls in Massachusetts show that people are overwhelmingly in love with their health care reform. People there love it. More than 80% say they are totally opposed to repealing it in any way shape or form.
     
  16. BrotherFish

    BrotherFish Member

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    No one is claiming that HCR in Mass. should be repealed. It just a growing concern about the uncontrolled costs associated with it that has people concerned.

    Also, the opinion polls have changed from 2008 to 2010 with the rising costs.

    Therefore, Scott was able to turn out more of the "strongly against" group vs. Martha's "strongly support" group because there were more of the "strongly oppose" group than "strongly support" group for Martha.

    I agree that a majority still support RomnieCare, but due to cost issues--it has weakend the support a lot from 2008 to now. The support will only get worse as costs keep increasing--that's all I am try to say.

    http://cnsnews.com/news/article/60139

    http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31708.html
     
  17. geeimsobored

    geeimsobored Member

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    LOL Rasmussen. I work in the politics game and that's complete bull****. Before anyone ever links some garbage from Rasmussen understand how their polls work. Rasmussen simply robo calls until they hit their requisite number of responses. And look at biases in robo calling. If its not a question (which is always worded in favor of the response wanted) you're not responding to it. So yes, Rasmussen is great at creating polls of the response that they want (since they can robo call as many people as necessary to create the target sample size) but they're horrible among anyone who works in the industry.

    Linking Rasmussen as a poll isnt any justification for anything. Your other article talks about exit polls another bull**** polling technique. I'm going to save you the time about lecturing about exit polls and say that people have posted about how awful those are. Hell the 2000 elections were ruined by those.

    Bottom line, make an argument instead of being basso jr. and linking articles that don respond to anything.
     
  18. BrotherFish

    BrotherFish Member

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    Fair enough. Since you are in the politics game, which polls in general, do you feel are an actual representation of people's stance on issues?

    Is there any trust worthy polls for how people actual feel about health care in Mass for this year?

    Is the recent CBS poll on health care also BS?
     
  19. Ottomaton

    Ottomaton Member
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    This makes no sense at all. They support it but they are afraid of it... If they really were afraid of it they wouldn't support it so unequivocally. When I'm afraid of something, that's a pretty good indicator that I won't be telling a pollster how much I love it. I think you are making the mistake of projecting what you and the Cato Institute people think onto the actions of the people of Massachusetts. Massachusetts is probably the least "Cato Institute friendly" state in the USA (well, maybe second to Vermont).

    A more plausible explanation is that they already have their "socialist health care" so they don't really care if someone offers it to them. In fact, they love their current version of socialism so much they are worried that a Federal version might result in too many cooks stirring the pot and damage their great Socialist experiment.

    I guarantee you on the basis of my experience living in Massachusetts that if they didn't already have something similar in "Romneycare" but rather something more like the rest of the country, they would have been all over supporting HCR.
     
  20. Refman

    Refman Member

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    You are terribly misinformed. The CRA was merely the first step. I commend to your reading the following article.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/business/21admin.html

    This article shows, in some great detail, how George W. Bush (R) tipped the scales on the mortgage market. He put into effect requirements on Fannie and Freddie to increase mortgage lending to low income individuals. He reduced the liquidity requirements for Fannie and Freddie to insanely low levels.

    President Bush held rallies trumpeting the new availability of home ownership to those who could not obtain it before.

    He also set aside $200 million a year in assistance with down payments and closing costs. He advocated and obtained government loans for a down payment.

    If the CRA started the mortgage crisis, the Bush policies created an avalanche of bad mortgages. The CRA was merely the tip of the iceberg. It was the requirements signed by Bush that crashed the proverbial Titanic.
     

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