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StumbleLETTER TO THE EDITOR:
Polls don’t help clarify reality of health care issue
Tuesday, April 20, 2010 | 2:02 a.m.
It’s too bad that the Las Vegas Review-Journal has replaced reporting with poll taking. There seems to be an agenda in doing that.
In one poll the Review-Journal tells us that 52 percent of Nevadans oppose the recent health care reform bill signed into law. Really?
I wonder how many of those 52 percent believe the lie that there are (or ever were) death panels in the health care bill? How many of those polled understand that the bill stops insurers from rejecting health care claims because of a previous condition and that repealing this bill would mean going back to that? How many of those polled against the bill are involved in Medicare and don’t understand that it’s run by the government?
Polling people who don’t understand the questions doesn’t make us understand the issues better; reporting on the facts and talking to experts does.
For the Review-Journal, polls are just subtle ways of “spinning” the issues instead of reporting on them.
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Wait. Medicare is run by the government??? WRONG. It comes under the Social Security Administration.
A recent Associated Press-GfK survey found that, 50 percent of Americans disapprove of ObamaCare and only 39 percent of Americans approve of the new law.
And, by the way, 76 percent of Americans say the economy is poor and the Obama Administration should have made jobs a priority instead of spending over one year shoving through a government takeover of our health care system.
Oh, by the way...
The same Associated Press-GfK poll finds that
disapproval of Obama's handling of health care increased from 46 percent in early March before he signed the bill, to 52 percent now.
62 percent of Nevada voters support repealing ObamaCare and 57 percent fear that it will be bad for the country. Nevada voters link Harry Reid to this very unpopular bill that creates a Federal Government takeover of the health care system.
Again, the only argument that the libs have on why a majority of Americans are against ObamaCare is that they are dumb.
Libs must say that Americans are so dumb that they are easily tricked to be against ObamaCare.
Libs are amazed that despite some 50 speeches, including 2 before a joint session of Congress, by their messiah on ObamaCare that the American people can't get through their thick skulls that ObamaCare is good for them.
You guys are the one with the thick skulls.
Perhaps, on the morning of Nov 3, you will finally get the message that the American people have been saying.
Nah........you guys probably won't get it. You will just blame it on the economy.
52 percent want the Federal government to shrink and not grow. 52 percent believe people should have a choice about how they live and not be told what tomorrow must bring. 52 percent believe government control brings bureaucracy and waste to any program, even those we have no alternative to such as the military. 52 percent believe the people elected to represent New York City should only control New York City and not Neveada, Arizona and the other states. 52 percent believe freedom is taken one step at a time until you don't recognize the country we live in.
Here's a poll done by Budweiser; 85 % burrittibandit loves Bud Light and the other 25% burrittobandit loves Guinness beer. Tacos and burritos will be polled later!
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Grass Roots Contributions
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If reported accurately this is the barometer of where Americans are standing. The show is not over. The Obama reforms are catching on ... both on health ins. and banking.
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Republican Gov. Mitt Romney enacted the MANDATE on healh ins. in his state of Mass ... either buy it or be fined.
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This issue is avoided at all costs by Tea Pots and Republicans.
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As to the validity of pollsters one need only look at the two on FIX Nes - Lundt and Rassmusseesseem - if ever there was distortion it is there on a nightly basis.
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Thank You Zane Gray
I wonder if Mr. Klamman has actually read and understands the 2000+ pages of the healthcare bill. It is obvious from some of the bleating of the congress people that they have no idea what is in it. The actual regulations for administrating the program are still not written and that will undoubtedly be an additional 25 to 30 thousand pages of government total stupidity.
I for one, have had excellent helthcare from my insurance company at a somewhat reasonable price. If I had a choice I would tell the government where they could stick the whole program.
All ObamaCare will do for us citizens is
provide free insurance for 32 million people who are:
1. freeloaders
2. uninsurable because of lifestyle
3. illegal aliens
4. resident aliens
5. minimum wage earners
6. low end socio-economic types
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Edison Research and Pew
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
These two pollsters are undertaking polls to ascertain the percentages of Tea Potters who are
A. On Medicare
B. Take Their Social Security
If this happens it will be very interesting indeed to see just what that tells the media about this group who apparently fully supported the CriminalsBushAndCheney who in fact gave American less government, huge spending, war and torture, wire taps and a basket full of horrors that included the worst American recession in history - as the rich on Wall St. made billions and purchased mansions on Long Island. This as the regular guy on the street had his pension fund go broke and his retirements bankrupted ... this is apparently what they want back ... an SEC and FAA and an Interior Dept. Of Minng Safety that sleeps.
This is also a group who follows the propaganda of Palin and Bachmann who are adverse to acknowledging that it was Mitt Romney the Republican who introduced his state of Mass. to the health ins. mandate .... you either buy it or pay a fine. Where are these hypocrites on the facts? They avoid that because education and truth and facts are things that would destroy their cash bubbles.
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Thank You Richard Roth
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The Uninformed
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Tho badly needed, and thank God it passed, the failure to include a public option took the heart out of the real issue of reform ... making certain there there would be competition in the insurance industry. As a capitalist country, this is a puzzlement. I guess one may assume the lobbyists on K St. came with baskets loaded with cash, golf clubs , country club memberships, private jets and ladies ... lots of ladies.
The bitterness of the uninformed rages due to an interhostility stemming from a difficult up bringing in which work and education was required.
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Thank You Agatha Christie
I like that it is said that Mr. Romney had enacted a similar bill in the state of Massachusetts. And, if we can take a look at polls, it has hurt the level of care in the state. It did not help keep the cost of insurance down and it is bankrupting the state. The federal government has been shoveling moving into Massachusetts to keep this under wraps because it would surely make opposition to this program stronger. It isn't like the people on the right haven't been overstating the case against the bill at times, much like the left has overstated the case in favor of it. But at the end of the day, it will be a huge bloated bureaucratic mess. Anything that does not work will likely be an excuse for more government control.
Think about it. If you force an insurance company to cover people that might have had to wait because of a preexisting condition, that will raise rates. If you remove the lifetime cap on expenditures, that will raise rates. If you say that a plan has to cover children until 26 instead of 18 or 21, that will raise rates. When rates do not stop rising as the government has promised, I suspect that will mean more controls. The current governor of Massachusetts was talking about a freeze on rates the other day.
The system as it exists today needs some help and it needs to be something that provides some decent incentives for the people involved to help control costs.
Also, can we deal with the fact that the term death panel was hyperbole. Did anyone with two brain cells to rub together really think that there was a death panel in the bill? There are groups that will determine and potentially limit what procedures can be done. Read the bill if you think that there are not. Doctors that take a government approved plan have to agree to abide by decisions of the medical advisory boards or be fined. I am continuously bemused by the lack of actual information on both sides of the issue. Look at how shocked some in Congress are by things that are being found in the bill.
floozy-you almost got that death panel thing right but here's what will really happen. You will need approval for surgery or any special treatment. A form will go into the government telling them amoung other things your age and the cost of the treatment. A barely literate clerk will have a chart with patient ages in one column and a dollar amount in the other. The clerk will find your age in the column and will then look at the corresponding cost column. If the cost of your treatment exceeds the allowable amount on the chart, your treatment will be denied. Death panels are too complicated for them to figure out.
Quoting from LarryVegas above:
"And, by the way, 76 percent of Americans say the economy is poor and the Obama Administration should have made jobs a priority instead of spending over one year shoving through a government takeover of our health care system."
Out of curiosity, under whose administration did the economy go belly up? Under whose administration did the housing market collapse? What party fought successfully against health care reform in the 90s and has continued to do so--despite soaring premiums that affect all of us--ever since? The Republican Party.
Obama has tried to tackle, one by one, the disasters bequeathed to him by the previous 8 years of Republican governance. He's been in office for a little more than a year. And has already reformed the health care system--what no previous administration has been able to do in over 70 years.
It took Bush 8 years to drive the nation's economy into the ground, and to triple the deficit. Obama's been working hard for 16 months to pull the nation out of that Republican catastrophe.
Not fast enough for you?
AP
Quoting from AmericanPatriot above:
It's Bush's fault....
I'll repeat--why does Obama have to worry about the economy so much? Why did it collapse in 2007-2008? Who was in charge? How long did it take the govt to pull the nation out of the Great Depression (caused by another Republican administration, I might add). The answer: 10 years.
Like I said, after 16 months in office, is Obama not working fast enough for you?
Quoting from AmericanPatriot above:
It's got to be somebody's fault, but it can't be Obama's fault, because he is the savior...
Your take is kinda hilarious, really. Your party hands Obama a giant vat of rotten, stinking, dung (the economy), carefully put together over 8 years. Then, as soon as the next part gets into office, you start screaming: "don't point your fingersat us, just make it all go AWAY!"
Of course there's no fault, Larry. Just like in a car accident. All the police do when cars collide is to shake their heads, and say, "our job is not to assign blame, or to determine how this ghastly accident happened. Our job is simply to haul the crashed cars (the economy) away. No questions asked."
Right?
Quoting from AmericanPatriot above:
Obama was forced to run for President. Poor guy had no idea what he was getting himself into...
Obama ran for president, defeated his Republican challenger, and has been in office for 16 months. During that time, he got the largest health care reform passed in more than 70 years, a plan designed to lower skyrocketing health insurance costs and that will cover more than 30 million currently uninsured Americans. The Republicans fought that reform down to their last vote--just as they did in the 90s. Since the 1990s, health care costs have continued to skyrocket--with no Republicans with a plan that would fix that problem. Consider it fixed. In 16 months.
Now Obama is moving onto financial reform (Oh, and did I forget that his first piece of major legislation was a stimulus plan to help the nation recover from the Great Recession that the Republicans had pulled the nation into? What is considered a classic economic fix to pulling a country out of a severe recession, going all of the way back to Keynes?).
The Republicans, of course, who are responsible for the nation's economic collapse, brought on in large part by deregulating the financial industry, will fight regulating that financial industry to the last vote. And they will lose on that one too. And then complain some more that Obama is getting nothing done.
Meanwhile, your beef is that after 16 months Obama isn't doing enough fast enough to try and fix the enormous problems delivered to him by 8 years of Republican mismanagement. And pretending that the nation's history began in January 2009. That there is no past. That there are effects--just no causes.
Business as usual, of course. When your party is the one that wrecked the economy, the best bet is to try and blame the person currently busy fixing it. And to pretend that your party had nothing to do with it.
AP
"Your party hands Obama a giant vat of rotten, stinking, dung (the economy), carefully put together over 8 years."
Not quite. He ASKED for it. He FOUGHT for it. And now that he has it, he acts like it was dumped in his lap...
Also...
"Since the 1990s, health care costs have continued to skyrocket--with no Republicans with a plan that would fix that problem. Consider it fixed. In 16 months."
Hardly. It's far from fixed, even with the bill being passed.
Quoting from AmericanPatriot above:
We Democrats never take the blame or responsibility for anything.
Gota pass the "Buck" back to Bush...
Actually Obama was surprised to find that the two wars weren't added to the budget, the Bush administration had hidden the numbers.
Another surprise was the expanding pharma deal Bush cut, Obama had no idea what the cost was.
Imagine if McCain won the election, where would we be now?
Cutting taxes for the wealthy added to the deficit, they haven't been paying their fair share.
We, the middle class, have been paying for or bailing out the wealthy for eons.
"Your party hands Obama a giant vat of rotten, stinking, dung (the economy), carefully put together over 8 years."
jbonello says:
"Not quite. He ASKED for it. He FOUGHT for it. And now that he has it, he acts like it was dumped in his lap...."
Hey, he's been busy fixing the mess he inherited. First president to overhaul healthcare (the # 1 cause of bankruptcies in America) in over 70 years.
Your gripe? That's he's not fixing the problems he inherited from your party fast enough. And that anyone would dare mention where those problems came from or what polices created them.
'"Since the 1990s, health care costs have continued to skyrocket--with no Republicans with a plan that would fix that problem. Consider it fixed. In 16 months."'
Hardly. It's far from fixed, even with the bill being passed."
And your party's fix for healthcare? To fight tooth and nail so that it never gets fixed. It got fixed over your dead bodies. Certainly something you can be proud of.
Must be tough to be a Republican, given a long and sordid track record of skyrocketing deficits since the 1980s and ending in the Great Recession implosion.
Seems like your whole party has suddenly become amnesiac. Their hands are stained brown from the great implosion and their prime beef is that the new party isn't cleaning up all of the brown spattering quickly enough.
Time to accept some responsibility fellas.
AP
You forgot the 'e'
Why is the "FO" in "FOSimons"?
LarryVegas says: It's Bush's fault....
YOU FINALLY GET IT!
Don't call Obama a savior but what can you call a man who:
Shoved a healthcare bill down our throats that eliminates exclusion from buying health insurance due to pre-existing conditions and lowers the deficit.
Removed restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research
Expanded the SCHIP program to cover health care for 4 million more children
Began the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq
Families of fallen soldiers have expenses covered to be on hand when the body arrives at Dover AFB
Ended media blackout on covering the return of fallen soldiers to Dover AFB
Ended the previous stop-loss policy that kept soldiers in Iraq/Afghanistan longer than their enlistment date
Increased pay and benefits for military personnel
The US now has a no torture policy and is in compliance with the Geneva Convention standards
Limited lobbyist's access to the White House
Negotiated deal with Swiss banks to permit US government to gain access to records of tax evaders and criminals
Ended the previous policy of offering tax benefits to corporations who outsource American jobs; the new policy is to promote in-sourcing to bring jobs back
Ended the previous practice of forbidding Medicare from negotiating with drug manufacturers for cheaper drugs
Ended previous policy of awarding no-bid defense contracts
What do you call a man like that?
You call him A LEADER!
I call a spade a spade when the shoe fits. Barry Akbar Obama is an illegal alien and a Marxist-Leninist socialist. All combinations in the previous sentence are a danger to America and its capitalist system.
Regarding Pierre's comment:
"I call a spade a spade when the shoe fits. Barry Akbar Obama is an illegal alien and a Marxist-Leninist socialist. All combinations in the previous sentence are a danger to America and its capitalist system."
Funny, Pierre, how Obama is busy trying to dig the nation out of the biggest economic collapse since the Great Depression. And all of that happened on Bush's watch and the rest of the "free market only" prognosticators.
If you notice, all of the western European democracies and our own are social-democratic governments--a mix of free enterprise and government-run programs. The mix varies from country to country. But all of these countries, including our own, recognize that we need a mix--that free enterprise left to its own, unregulated devices, usually ends up in a Great Depression. That's because you have to regulate guys such as those who were running Goldman Sachs and almost every bank in America. That's why health care costs--left to the free market--kept skyrocketing.
If you don't regulate people's natural greed--then greed will always win out.
Obama a "Marxist-Leninist?" You couldn't find a more center-of-the-road politician out there....
AP
Quoting from AmericanPatriot above:
Please make it Bush's fault...
We missed you Willie while you have been gone for 10 days....
IS LARRY VEGAS A PAID POLITICAL HACK???
Who would pay for that juvenile rant of his? Maybe the tea party?
AmericanPatriot offered up the following pablum: "Obama a "Marxist-Leninist?" You couldn't find a more center-of-the-road politician out there"
Wow! How to begin? AmPat, Did the space shuttle return you from the farthest edge of the atmosphere today? A place where facts don't exist or are spun 180 degrees? Were you up on the space station the last couple of years? Or maybe the dark side of the moon where you were completely cut off from all communication (and clues)? If so, let me bring you back up to speed.... President Obama, in his abbreviated stint as a (very) junior Senator from Illinois, was widely recognized as THE MOST liberal Senator based on his voting record. And since his inauguration he has surrounded himself with acknowledged socialists, Marxists, even a self admitted 9/11 "truther" and communist..... And you call this guy "center of the road"?
How could that be? Please explain how any of the bills and executive orders he has pushed through to date have been anything less than far, far, left of center... With one exception of course... Extending the electronic eavesdropping part of the Patriot Act was a pretty gutsy thing for a far left, progressive politician to do.... Doesn't that just drive the moon bats nuts? Wonder why they never talk about that now?... But when "Bush did it", liberals and their lap dog media were aflame in contempt for the administration..... Isn't it funny that it's not a problem now?
All that I ask is that you honestly evalaute our president based on his actions, not just his words.... We conservatives were not pleased with George Bush and criticised him mightily when he and other less than conservative(progressive) congressmen and women ran amok with spending. Is it possible that President Obama has no faults? I never hear a liberal on this message board offer a word of criticism for the President or leaders of the house and senate.... Why is that? If Democrats don't soon regain their voice I am afraid the radicals will overrun the Democrat party... And if that occurs I truly fear for our country and our children's future...
Allveteup says:
"let me bring you back up to speed.... President Obama, in his abbreviated stint as a (very) junior Senator from Illinois, was widely recognized as THE MOST liberal Senator based on his voting record. And since his inauguration he has surrounded himself with acknowledged socialists, Marxists, even a self admitted 9/11 "truther" and communist..... And you call this guy "center of the road"?"
Yeah, and so do others. Such as the Communist Newsweek:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/232167
I guess Hank Paulson and Geitner are commies too, eh?
You can bet General McCrystal is. A Commie-Pinko-Socialist if I ever saw one!
Oh and Gates--a Commie too.
And of course Salazar. Part of a 5th Column, no?
Hey, and then there's that General Shinsheki, head of Veteran's Affairs. The guy who told Bush they'd need 200,000 soldiers in Iraq--and Bush promptly fired him. And then, of course, they eventually sent about 200,000 soldiers and contractors over there.
Yep, clearly Obama is a Manchurian Candidate.
Thanks for the heads up!
AP
Obama is "center-of-the-road"
I'd like to say that's the funniest thing I've heard in a week - but I realize how pathetic it is that some people actually believe it or they actually think those of us with brains can be convinced to believe it.
Liberals in denial. Now there's something new!
Denial and deflection.... anything but the truth eh AmPAt?
Most Liberal Senator in 2007
http://www.nationaljournal.com/voteratin...
Did you read the article you cited? Even with Newsweek's usual liberal drool all over it, it is less than a glowing endorsement of our President and even backs up my point by saying and I quote "And yet many Americans--or at least many politically engaged Americans, who are the ones who count most in such matters--appear to think Obama has been a revolutionary who is only now learning his lesson." It goes on to state the AUTHOR'S position and with a thorough read you can clearly see that he had to wipe his chin a few times... (koolaid runover?).....
My second point about who he has surrounded himself, did I say ALL people around Obama? Did I infer it?
No, I said he surrounded himself with such people... Go ahead dispute the facts, you know the names. Start with Van Jones.. Self acknowledged communist and 9-11 "truther". Please I'd like to hear your deflection there. How about Mark Lloyd in the FCC and his love of the "incredible" Chavez regime? Or Carol Browner with her Socialists International ties? But wait there's more, advisor Ron Bloom who was quoted "We kind of agree with Mao that power comes largely from the barrel of a gun." Or his current spiritual advisor Reverend Jim Wallis who believes in wealth redistribution, a Marxist trait... You'd think our President would have learned his lesson with radical Marxists after finally breaking with his last pastor ehhh? You remember Reverend Wright?.. By specifically not mentioning these folks in your diatribe it appears that you already know this stuff and like a lot of your liberal friends are just in denial. (Not a river in Egypt) Are you really OK with these folks? Are these the type of folks who should help guide decisions on the worlds most complex and largest economy, the strongest military and the greatest nation the planet has ever known? You really OK with all that? Seriously?
Lastly, don't try and put words in my mouth.. I said nothing about a "Manchurian candidate" Your words, not mine.