Agreed. The health care lobby will be spending $hundreds of millions to lobby for the status quo. It is not a sure thing at all that they can be defeated. Most voters have insurance and can be easily fooled with the whole socialized medicine boogey man. If they think that they will lose something they will jettison the uninsured. Higher unemployment among the educated classes, who often get insurance through their jobs, in this recession, may help with this problem.
It depends what sort of program is proposed. I doubt you are going to get agreement between Jon Tester's constituents and Barbara Boxer's.
Your first question is too hard for me to answer in writing. Very very complicated and long. Making it affordable to everyone and retaining choice of doctors and treatments are two big things. To some, mandating coverage for every person is the ultimate benchmark for a couple of reasons: (1) Some just believe it's the right thing to do. (2) Others say it is the ONLY way reform will work because healthy people must be made to pay into whatever public/private combo system is created. The continued rise in the cost of health care threatens our nation and economy long-term. All the major players with a stake in this agree, which is why everyone (including big business and the insurance industry) is on board with the concept of reform and universal coverage. The details are where the whole thing could break apart and split the country. mc mark, the electorate is indeed asking for reform, but building a house of cards outside on a windy day is tough. There are strong opinions on HOW to do it. Those who lose that argument are going to scorch the Earth. There will be huge fights and a pound of flesh will be extracted from Obama no matter what happens. If nothing passes, he will be severely wounded, politically. Adding a 60th seat doesn't mean anything because of the centrist Dems senators. If health care is pushed through using the reconciliation process (which I think is likely), the country will end up very divided.
Republicans continue to render themselves irrelevant The budget resolution won overwhelming support from Democrats but not a single vote from Republican lawmakers, passing the House 233 to 193 and the Senate 53 to 43. Senate Joins House in Approving Obama's Budget Outline
The more this continues to happen, the less fallout for the Dems if they pass health care reform using the reconciliation process. House and Senate Republicans are painting themselves into a very small corner. They are blowing their chance to make a legit case with the public of being able to govern responsibly. This gives Obama a free pass to ignore bipartisanship and just shut the GOP out of legislating because all the blame will fall on Republicans and none on him. Barring a political mishap or crisis, Obama could become teflon while congressional Republicans become tar and everything negative sticks to them. This is bad for the country.
I'm beginning to think this must be the GOP strategy. Fail so hard, and make themselves so incredibly irrelevant for a decade or two (much like the British Conservative party) to the point where the opposition pretty much forgets that they're even there. Eventually, the Democrats will overreach or be in the wrong place at the wrong time.....and the GOP, if it's still around outside the south....will take its place. It's going to be a long 10-20 years for them till then though.....
Not to mention how little experience he has, I mean he was just a community organizer, right? Not even the experience of a "small-town mayor" with "actual responsibilities." Just wait till he gets the hang of this presidential thing.
Very true. Of course, action taken regarding torture and illegal wiretapping is the 40,000 lb elephant-gorilla in the room.
If that's the case, then health care is the 80,000 lb dinosaur-gorilla in the room. Seriously though, someone should do a poll listing the top 5-6 domestic issues of the day (excluding the economy, duh) to see what the pulse of the forum is on what Obama's biggest priorities should be.
lol. Seriously, I think Obama's actions (or, more likely, inaction) in that vein offer far more impact than health care. Yeah, yeah, health care is huge and expensive and an enormous paradigm shift in how the country operates... but.... potential indictments of past administration officials for breaching the constitution - that will really cause some feathers to ruffle.
I don't. I've been following some health IT trade sites, and some of them have been gloomy about the speed of change. But the polling data on what the average health consumer wants and feels should happen have been striking. Primarily, I saw a very good talk by a savvy and successful CEO in this realm. Of course, he is just pimping, you could argue, but I was convinced by a certain level of inevitability.
Part of his development comes from the experience of just being at the White House....growing in to the job. For instance, the fact that he can see Bermuda from the front lawn now really enhances his foreign policy development.
Jews And Muslims agree! A Gallup poll out May 1st suggests Jews and Muslims can agree on one thing: President Obama is doing a good job. In a poll of Americans affiliated with major U.S. religions on Obama's first 100 days, Jews and Muslims gave Obama the highest approval ratings at 85% and 79% respectively. Roman Catholics and Protestants were supportive but not quite as ecstatic, at 67% and 58% respectively. Obama also found broad support -- 73% approval -- from Americans with no religious affiliation, including those calling themselves atheists or agnostics.
