Posted on 07/30/2009 2:05:38 PM PDT by seanmerc
WASHINGTON -- Strong support for health care reform comes from Americans from all walks of life.
Thousands of doctors and nurses are on board in support of broad-ranging reform that would bring the security of health coverage to millions of people who lack it.
A new Gallup Poll released Wednesday shows that 44 percent of Americans believe a new reform law would improve medical care in the U.S., while 26 percent said it would improve their personal medical care. The insurance industry and some of the medical moguls continue to demonize health care reform as "socialism." The broadcast wing of the Republican Party, led by Rush Limbaugh, is pumping out fear-mongering falsehoods about health reform.
I am concerned that members of the House and Senate who favor reform have a massive task ahead of them during their August break: They need to re-educate the public about what reform will do -- and what it won’t. For example, it will not encourage euthanasia among senior citizens.
It’s a funny thing that the catch-all derogatory blast of "socialism" was not heard when the federal government aggressively intervened in Wall Street to give bonanza taxpayer handouts to Goldman Sachs and its ilk; some of those firms are now making record profits. You can smell the bonuses coming down the road.
You heard the "socialism" epithet loud and clear if a single-payer health care system were suggested. I call that kind of approach "Medicare for all."
Why should that be a bridge too far for a country as rich as ours?
Some right-wing Republicans like Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina are training their big guns on Obama in hopes of defeating him on the health reform issue, hoping that such a loss would bring a screeching halt to the president’s overall high popularity.
"If we’re able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him," DeMint said recently.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., cautioned against "a government-run system in which (medical care) is either denied, delayed or rationed." Of course, that overlooks the reality that the present system denies health coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions. The present setup also rations care based on prices and the ability of individuals to pay.
The so-called "Blue Dog" Democrats are in the same camp with the conservative Republicans in opposing any real reform program.
The go-slow contingent in Congress ignores the growing number of unemployed people, who lose their employer-provided health insurance when they lose their jobs.
Surveys show that there are 47 million Americans with no health insurance, a statistic that should be unacceptable for a civil society.
The cost of health reform proposals has been estimated at $1 trillion dollars over 10 years, a forecast that has given health reform foes new ammunition at a time of an already bloated federal budget deficit
But why is there no debate about the $1 billion a week-plus being spent for two unnecessary no-win wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, started by President George W. Bush and foolishly continued by President Barack Obama?
Despite all his concessions, Obama should forget trying to win bipartisan support on health care reform -- an impossible dream. The Democrats in Congress should go ahead and pass reform legislation. Let the nay-saying Republicans explain themselves to the voters.
I just wanted to say "LOL," but it wasn't worth having to scroll through that, that, image to do it.
She certainly is the antidote for Smilin Bob Syndrome.
Suzanne Geha in about 15 years.
And is she expemted from “end of life counseling?”
Yoo-hoo, Helen Thomas ping list members. Here's HT's latest liberal lunacy. FReepmail me if you'd like to be added to the list.
It never gets any less scary.
MY EYES !! MY EYES !!
Nurse Ratched sure has aged over the years...
Helen Thomas is truly a wicked person, for all the “work” she’s done through the decades. However, I’m glad conservatives are standing in the way of a government takeover of, what, 1/6th of the U.S. economy or more?
What an idiot....
What an idiot....
Um, Helen, doesn't that mean that the MAJORITY of Americans DONT believe a new reform law sould improve medical care, and that a vast majority dont think it would improve their own personal care? Helloooo, cobwebs, helloooo!
Because it will make our country as poor as theirs.
She’s too old to even get an aspirin under obamacare.
Only clicked on this thread because I’m trying to lose weight and figured a picture of Helen would ruin my appetite for tonight. I was right.
So lets see, the Rats have a majority in the House, and the Senate, and its Conservatives that are holding up Health Care, Hmmmmmmmmmm
spoken like a true washington insider..
Now she’s carrying Obama’s water again. I was starting to warm up to the bat when she confronted him on transparency. But, knowing this administration, it was probably staged.
A filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, at that!
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