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ObamaCare; All HealthReform News / Comments
Topic Started: Jun 17 2009, 12:52 PM (1,675 Views)
Baldo
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50% Favor Obama Health Reform Plan, 45% Oppose It
Monday, June 29, 2009

Voters remain closely divided over the health care reform plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats, with a high level of intensity on both sides of the issue.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 50% of U.S. voters at least somewhat favor the Democrats’ health care reform plan, while 45% are at least somewhat opposed.

While the overall numbers favor the plan, those with strong opinions tilt the other way. Twenty-four percent (24%) strongly favor the plan, but 34% are strongly opposed. ....snipped
http://tinyurl.com/nes588


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mike in houston
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Was Obama's Healthcare Infomercial More Than Just Staged Questions?

http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/9726

There has been valid criticism over the Obamacare Infomercial held here in VA recently, where the first question went not so coincidentally to an Obama worker. The worker told a heartfelt story about renal cancer and lack of insurance. The question posed by one of my readers with the same condition as she claimed is - was it all an act?

Here is the claim made by Debbie Smith of Appalachia, VA, who was invited to the event by the White House (now that is having some serious connections):

Debby Smith, 53, of Appalachia, Va., was fighting tears as she told the president of suffering from renal cell carcinoma in 1998. The tumor was treated with radiation, but she was no longer able to work and has no health coverage now.

“Now I have a new tumor,” said Smith, explaining that she cannot get treatment, cannot get disability from Social Security, cannot get Medicaid, has dependent kids at home.

Emphasis mine. One has to wonder why she is not been able to work, and why she is not covered under medicare/medicaid (supposedly she is a Veteran, and would easily be covered). But beyond these basic questions comes a scientific one - renal cell carcinoma does not respond to radiation treatments, especially a decade ago in 1998. So is this all staged?

Read the whole thing!
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Joan Foster

This seems backwards to me. It's as if the economy was a secondary concern that had to be dealt with quickly so attention could shift to the rest of the President's domestic agenda. Why so much focus on health care and so little focus on the economy? Perhaps it's because Obama - like many Democratic Presidents before him - wants to be the next Franklin Roosevelt. For whatever reason, they seem to dream of getting themselves into the pantheon of leaders who expand the federal government's role in the provision of social welfare. And health care is the white whale of the Democratic Party's social welfare agenda. The President who finally delivers is guaranteed the spot next to the Squire of Hyde Park.

I understand why President Obama might feel this temptation. Democrats see themselves as members of the progressive party, and their leaders are expected to make progress on issues of social welfare. Their overwhelming numbers in the legislature augur well for a bill - so shouldn't Obama and company give it a try? Yet, there are other factors to consider. FDR guided Social Security through Congress in 1935, after he had already dedicated the government to massive relief and recovery efforts, after GDP had stabilized, and after the public had validated his initial efforts in the 1934 midterm. LBJ pushed for the Great Society in the mid-60s, a time of immense prosperity. Expanding social welfare requires a meeting of the man and the moment, which helps explain why some well regarded presidents (Truman and Clinton) failed in their attempts.

This moment is calling for a focus on the economy. That's why Barack Obama has the top job. It's not because of cap-and-trade, not because of health care, not because of his magnetic presence on the campaign trail - but because the economy was shrinking at a 6.1% annualized rate by Election Day. Americans were voting against recession by voting for him. This gives him a claim to a mandate, which not every President enjoys. He now has an opportunity to put his stamp on the country's economic policy in the name of recovery. Yet he's not doing that. He encouraged the Congress to rush through a poorly designed stimulus package that he had little involvement in; now he has focused the legislature's time and attention on health care, which is a secondary concern right now.

I think this is a strategic mistake. My scan of the history of American politics does not indicate that we've been governed so much by "alignments" - the systems of 1860, 1896, 1932, 1968, and so on. Instead, I see a country that votes for growth. That's the true American ideology. Left, right, or middle - the average American wants prosperity. When the majority party fails to deliver growth after having been elected to do so - the electoral consequences can be significant.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/horseraceblog/2009/07/obamas_strategic_mistake_1.html
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DMom

Wall Street Journal Medical Op-Ed
July 7, 2009
Of NICE and Men

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124692973435303415.html

(and excellent read)

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Kerri P.
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http://www.myembarq.com/news/read.php?ps=1018&rip_id=%3CD99D2NTG1%40news.ap.org%3E&_LT=HOME_LARSDCCLM_UNEWS
Officials push for health care in spite of delay
Sunday, July 12, 2009 2:31 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's overhaul of the nation's health systems is unlikely to be completed by the White House's August deadline, lawmakers said Sunday as Congress turns its attention to other priorities.

Democrats and Republicans alike said the administration's sweeping health care proposals are moving forward on Capitol Hill but cautioned against rushing into a spending plan that could costs trillions of dollars over the next decade. Obama's health and human services secretary said she remains optimistic Congress would send the White House legislation before the year ends.

"I think everything is on the table and discussions are under way," HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said.

But the White House's strategy to leave the legislative back-and-forth to Congress has produced varying and sometimes contradictory versions of health care legislation — along with delays. As the Senate turns its attention to Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings, the focus will turn away from Obama's top domestic priority.

The administration's Democratic partners in Congress hinted they would not deliver legislation before leaving town for an August recess. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said Obama should be pleased with lawmakers' progress; Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said "there really is plenty of time."

snip...
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