Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
StumbleLETTER TO THE EDITOR:
Democrats’ defense of health care weak
Saturday, March 20, 2010 | 2:03 a.m.
The other day I was watching CNN, and the network said 43 percent of the people polled wanted the Democrats to continue with the health care plan as it now stands, 41 percent wanted Congress to start over, and 15 percent were undecided. (I fall in the 15 percent category.)
It seems as if every other commercial on TV is opposed to the health care plan. The ads are either sponsored by Republicans, the health insurance industry or others.
So my question is: Where is the Democratic response? A couple of times a day you may see something informing the public as to the benefits of the health care plan, but nowhere near what the opposition is putting out. Why?
I know the president has been out lately beating the drum, but is it too little, too late? If they had really tried before to get this thing through, they would have gotten on the stick considerably sooner.
Discussion: comments so far…
Comments are moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors. Our goal is not to limit the discussion, but rather to elevate it. Comments should be relevant and contain no abusive language. Comments that are off-topic, vulgar, profane or include personal attacks will be removed. Full comments policy. Additionally, we now display comments from trusted commenters by default. Those wishing to become a trusted commenter need to verify their identity or sign in with Facebook Connect to tie their Facebook account to their Las Vegas Sun account. For more on this change, read our story about how it works and why we did it.
Only trusted comments are displayed on this page. Untrusted comments have expired from this story.
No trusted comments have been posted.
Post a comment
Most Popular
- Viewed
- Discussed
- E-mailed
- UNLV can move forward without the burden of losing streak to San Diego State
- A wife’s wisdom shows birth control issue needn’t be divisive
- Motorcycle accident claims life of man in northeast valley
- Surprise links, negotiated deals addressed by commissioners
- Hope and change and … what’s missing?
- New York mayor has the right idea
- We don’t need a CEO in charge
- Paying our own way
- Country has ‘given’ citizens a lot
- Jerry Tarkanian: Mike Moser impresses yet again on a day to remember former Rebel greats
Blogs
The Kats Report
Color from scene at Thomas & Mack: We have a wire job! Rebels win, and Louie Armstrong sings!
South Point owner Michael Gaughan's take on 'Vegas Stripped': 'I'll give it an 8' (4 Comments)
Author relishes writing the life story of ‘larger-than-life’ Oscar Goodman (3 Comments)
Elsewhere
Landowner: All roads could lead to Uxbridge casino
Revel reveals smoke-free casino opening
Cirque du Soleil show in Sands China casino to close this month
Meet the woman behind Sheldon Adelson
The Sun
Locally owned and independent for more than 50 years.
The reason that Wailer James is not seeing many TV ads in favor of ObamaCare is that:
THE GREAT MAJORITY OF AMERICANS ARE OPPOSED TO OBAMACARE!!!
Obama and the Democrat controlled House and Senate has squandered more then a year now in trying to shove a sham of a government takeover of health care down the throats of Americans who do not want it passed.
The American people are not opposed to health care reform, they just want the reform done right by going slow and correcting those areas that need changing to provide more Americans with lower cost health care.
Americans believe that the Obama Administration should have had been focused on JOBS and improving the economy for the last fifteen months instead of trying to advance Obama's socialist agenda by a government takeover of America's health care system...
Obama and Bush Both 43...
43% of Americans now strongly disapprove of Obama, same as Bush when he left office.
When George W. Bush left office he was deeply unpopular. In his last month, according to Rasmussen, 43% strongly disapproved of the job Bush was doing.
Rasmussen's Thursday release shows that after 14 months in office President Barack Obama has achieved Bush's 43% of the people strongly disapproving of his performance.
Change that we can believe in...
Bush earned unpopularity for destroying America beyond repair.
Obama earned his for failing to repair it overnight.
Mr. O'Connor, the fact that you fall into the 'undecided' category with 15% of your fellow citizens is illustrative of what is wrong with our country...if, after a year of full-time coverage, you cannot make up your mind would seem to categorize you as a true follower -- one who is willing to let others control your life...I wish you luck...
IT'S ABOUT JOBS...
Real Clear Politics which combines the averages of several recent surveys shows Obama's approval, for the first time, dropping in the negatives.
Rasmussen Reports which has provided the White House with particularly bearish ratings for many months now currently pegs Obama's popularity at just 45% with 55% disapproving of his performance.
Fox News also has the President in the negatives to the tune of a 46-48% margin.
Gallup places Obama's numbers in the negatives for the first time. 46% of American adults now approve of the President's job performance against 48% who disapprove.
I get a kick out of the Bush43 bashers who consistently post their swinetripe bashings, as if anyone with a knowledge of civics would believe it. Bush43 was a typical RINO, i.e., he allowed the deficit to swell beyond our ability to pay on it. Now, Barry H. Obama, a political lightweight who never had a real job until the hoodwinked populace voted for him, is sending us to bankruptcy. The poor will get poorer, the already shrunken middle class will grow even smaller, and the rest of us will have to carry the load. Some of my contemporaries will then look toward a fuehrer-like nitwit to take charge, and that will end this Republic.
one thing is clear...
the stupid pathetic ugly lying republicans will do or say anything to get their way...
the gross mistake known as the bush tax cuts were pushed thru via reconciliation...
and those tax cuts mushroomed the national debt from $4 trillion to $10 trillion...
so you have to laugh...
i mean laugh out loud...
when these same stupid pathetic ugly lying republicans cry...
cry like itty bitty children...
when they get a taste of their own medicine...
hee hee hee...
Well, it's hard to defend something when you yourself have no clue what it's about and make no mistake the Democrats have no clue about this healthcare bill. To paraphrase the wild-eyed moonbat Nancy "Swamp Thing" Pelosi, "the bill is going to have to pass before we know what's in it". At this point the Democrats don't care what's in it, they just want to pass something so they can beat their chests.
Ask your Congressman, why are Nevada hospitals going to be paid less than other states for the same services? Surprised? The bill used to say everyone gets the same but a last minute change has 17 states, NEVADA included, who get paid less than the other 33 states for the same services.
When you ask how UMC can be broke and why private patients have to pay even more to make up for the loss, ask your Congressman why they are selling out Nevada so Florida can get more?
This isn't reform this is just buying votes where Congressmen represent their states and ours just fall in line for less.
Titus Announces Support for Health Care Reform
Washington, D.C. -- Congresswoman Dina Titus of Nevada's Third District announced that she intends to vote in support of legislation that will amend and improve the Senate-passed health care bill.
Las Vegas, NV, - Independent Voter Larry Vegas of Nevada's Third District announced today that he will not cast his vote this November for Dina Titus if she votes for the Senate-passed health care bill.
Democrats have no principles.
Obama cut a deal with drug companies and he agreed not to push for imports of drugs.
This bill is not single payer.
It even does not have the public options.
Democrats have no principles.
Americans want reform. Republicans only the support the top 2%. Republicans are just representing a global corporate few.
I agree that no deal should have been cut with the drug companies. No drug produced in the U.S. should cost more in the U.S. than in any other country. We should not even have to think about the reimportation of drugs into the U.S. Whats even more despicable is that a lot of basic research into new drugs is supported by NIH, a government agency, so if anything, the American people should be getting a discount or have march in rights!
Single payer did not seem to have much momentum from the beginning, we didn;t get public option because of Republican obstructionism coupled with right wing Democrats.
60% of Americans wanted out of Iraq, Bush's numbers were in the 30s and Chaney's as low as 19%.
The Hannitized Dittoheads said: "this shows what great leaders Bush and Cheney are, they are not going to be influenced by the polls."
Now the rant-radio types like the polls. Obama is still in the 40% range.
What is really funny is that Obama says the deficit spending will cease and the National Debt will be reduced because of this bill.
Who's zoomin' whom here?
"get public option because of Republican obstructionism coupled with right wing Democrats"
The Democrats had full control of the Congress for nearly a year.
It is all on their shoulders that there is no public option.
stgRock is having another hissy fit.
"Democrats have no principles."
Is that a fact, stgrock? And, what. We are to believe that you and yours are SO "principled"?
You and yours who would deny your friends and neighbors life-saving health-care, and deny YOU the opportunity to reign in costs and help balance the budget.
Right. Riiiiight!
Wailer Larry won't be telling you that the RepubNuts are SO DESPERATE to stop this bill, that they are buying out every damn TV station's supply of available spot time to try to "dissuade" us of the notion that health care reform is good. It's a bunch of outright B.S. and distorted facts, but it runs about every 2 minutes, especially on the local FOX affiliate.
It's disgusting. But, ya know what, those Neo-Nuts are going to spend OOODLES OF MONEY to mislead you because THEY DON'T WANT THE DEMOCRATS IN GENERAL, AND OBAMA IN PARTICULAR, TO SUCEED!
And they are willing to let people SUFFER; THOUSANDS AND MILLIONS.
Because they are "principled." And Democrats are not.
You have a good point gmag39. I would say that the Republicans have only one principle: Do all that you possibly can for the rich and, by extension, for corporate profits. Period. They are VERY, VERY principled (and I think very transparent) in this regard.
Sgt, you are right that the Dems had full control of congress and couldn't get the public option done. You have RINOs and we have DINOs, which is why this didn't get done.
It would help if the republicans would update their talking points.
Larry says Gallup has Obama's job approval rating as 46-48?
Not true.
Today it's 47-47.
All these people who cried bloody murder when anyone criticized Bush are now doing everything they can to undermine and destroy Obama's presidency, even being dishonest or lazy.
I, for one, can't wait until Obama signs health care reform into law so that Rush Limbaugh moves out of the country.
"YOU the opportunity to reign in costs and help balance the budget."
Will forever resign from public comments if this ObamaCare does not reign in cost or becomes another entitlement that busts the budget?
I was one calling George W 43 a senseless deficit producer, one who ran up the deficit by expanding government instead of reining it in.
Just hide and watch, Barry H. Obama, our foreign-born president, will make George W 43 look like a Bonanza and 15th street piker before he's through. He is on his way to damaging this Republic beyond repair.
I'm curious, how many of you think a "nuclear option" is reconciliation?
Vernos,
NONE.
But some of us will LIE ABOUT IT!
Health care reform will pass and President
Obama will go down in history as one of the
all-time great leaders.
Republican losers will cower in shame.
Their greed has never been more pronounced.
Healthcare bills will fall by the wayside as the American people are unwilling to support socialized medicine.
I sense that use of the reconciliation is more about power than about fairness. I believe that some will use reconciliation because they can get away with it rather than because they know that using regular order would be good for our democracy especially on something as big and has the lack of popular support like ObamaCare.
But if the right of free and open debate is taken away from the minority party and the millions of Americans who asked us to be their voice, I fear that the already partisan atmosphere of Washington will be poisoned to the point where no one will be able to agree on anything. That doesn't serve anyone's best interests, and it certainly isn't what the patriots who founded this democracy had in mind.
We owe the people who sent us here more than that. We owe them much more.
Orrin Hatch, Republican stuffed shirt from Utah, claims that this bill will be challenged by at least 30 states. He claims that it will take the better part of 2 years before the thing is settled by the Supreme Court.
Civil war is on the horizon. Most cities will not be able to sustain themselves.
Teamster: I agree with you mostly, but to say Republicans will cower in shame, I have to draw the line.
They have no shame, and they will never admit mistakes or misdeeds.
Sociopaths haven't the ability to have empathy for their fellow human beings. Though Republicans are not Sociopaths.
I haven't witnessed any empathy or humility from any Republican on the national stage. Even Sanford, and Vitters and Ensign were fairly shameless in their confessions of sexual misdeeds.
But the one who has the Grand prize in shamelessness is none other than Larry Craig. When he persisted in his non-gayness in front of the Idaho and National press, with long suffering wife there. Anybody would have felt sorry for her.
Rush Limbaugh was shameless when he mocked Michael J. Fox for his Parkinsons disease.
So Teamster, be very mindful of who you can assess as empathetic and able to express shame.
We are not in Japan, and our leaders as a rule will never feel shameful or show their shamefulness. The GOPers are unable to show it, but I won't go as far as to call them Sociopaths.
I will let their actions speak for themselves.
On the other hand the Democrats are a party of sympathetic and understanding men and women. Men and women that are only in public life to help and assist their constituants. Men and women that cannot and will not take bribes and favors for legislation that they vote for in Congress under oath in plain sight of Our Most Holy Redeemer.
John Edwards was clearly framed. It is obvious to everybody that some Republican bastard was humping the woman that carried John Edwards child. The DNA test was forged by a Republican too.
Eliot Spitzer the once Governor of the Great State of New York. A Democrat that was considered Presidential timber. A great Democrat that had to resign in disgrace over the scandal that was engineered by Republicans. It was the Republicans that induced him into copulating with that whore while on Government business. Yessiree, those Republican doggs are devious. I want to know how they convinced Spitzer that he had an erection while he was with that woman
It appears that the proof will be in the pudding.....in other words. health care reform will be passed by Congress and be signed into law by President Obama in the very near future....
Time and time alone will validate the necessity and worth of the bill Obama signs into law. I happen to believe that the bill will prove to be a giant step forward toward bringing about universal health care for all 300+ million Americans.
It's not a perfect bill, but I'm I'm not sure an American president has ever signed into law a "perfect piece of legislation."
That's the nature of the beast that we live with.........democracy!
I'm looking forward to seeing the health care bill signed into law so we can move forward and start dealing with other much needed issues.....
I called today & left a message with my representative, encouraging her to vote "yes" on the health care bill.....I believe she will! Not because I ask her to, but because it's the right thing to do!
This is what the Democrats can do for you.
Abscam (sometimes ABSCAM) was a United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sting operation run from the FBI's Hauppauge, Long Island, office in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The operation initially targeted trafficking in stolen property but was converted to a public corruption investigation.
The investigation ultimately led to the conviction of a United States Senator, five members of the House of Representatives, one member of the New Jersey State Senate, members of the Philadelphia City Council, and an inspector for the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
This is a few of the honorable that they overturned
Of the thirty-one targeted officials, one senator, Harrison A. Williams (D-NJ), and five members of the House of Representatives John Jenrette (D-SC), Richard Kelly (R-FL), Raymond Lederer (D-PA), Michael "Ozzie" Myers (D-PA), and Frank Thompson (D-NJ), were convicted of bribery and conspiracy in separate trials in 1981. While most of the politicians resigned, Myers had to be expelled and Williams did not resign until the vote on his expulsion was almost due. Five other government officials were convicted, including New Jersey State Senator Angelo Errichetti; members of the Philadelphia City Council.
Heaven help the Republic. The nitwit big spenders in the nation's capital (known as Marxist-Democrats) are leading themselves to bankruptcy. The Pied Piper, Barry Kenyan, at the lead.
Four of the five Congressmen were Democrats.
So you see teamster and dogg, there isn't one member of Congress that is pure of heart. No Senators either and certainly no Presidents in this century.
Don't be too enamored of your politicians. They are not in that business for YOUR benefit. They are career politicians and master mechanics of the system. Yheir number one job is to get re-elected. If they vote for a bill that somehow benefits you and your family that is all well and good. They also make decisions in their lifetime that harm ypou and your family. They refer to it as 'for the greater good'. They can't prove it, but they say and do it anyway.
doyen....
The republicans against health care reform don't
have a heart.
President Obama, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi
are pure of heart.
You are on the wrong side of life.
Diamonddogg......
I agree with your comment.
I ment to say, republicans should cower in
shame. Thank you for pointing that out.
LMAO!! I bet you believe in Santa Claus too teamster.
teamster:
You certainly are childlike.
Rough......
You too, are on the wrong side of life.
Comment removed by moderator. Comment contained a personal attack.
On the road of life, I'm way ahead of you.
Comment removed by moderator. Comment contained a personal attack.
You republicans still don't understand why you
got booted out of power.
By your comments, you may never understand.
Yes I do understand. That does not alter the fact that you are in arrested development.
I read all your posts from last year. Your are really in trouble young man. I suggest a couch doctor.
I'm doing just fine, thank you.
You republicans just can't handle the truth.
Like I said, you're on the wrong side of life.
Why do you think I'm a Republican?
"So my question is: Where is the Democratic response?" You'll see it in today's vote.
If they ever do pass this and it does go into effeect, I can't wait to see all the lazy freeloaders crying about their new IRS fines and monthly audits because they were too lazy to go out and buy their insurance.
That's the upside for me. Most people think passing this law means no accountablility and that everyone will magically have health insurance. You will have to make sure you are covered. Look at how car insurance is regulated....the DMV does random monthly checks to make sure each registered vehicle is insured. When they ping someone who's insurance has lapsed (missed payment or non-renewal) it becomes a massive fine, suspension of registration and drivers license, and a beaurocratic nightmare.
Imagine the DMV on steroids - that's the IRS. When they decide your insurance is invalid, you missed a payment, or it's not sufficient, say bye-bye to your earned income credits and any refunds you had coming, and hello to big fines and wage garnishments.
Rough is independent. He takes or disdains with equal veracity. Teamster is retarded if he's unable to discern it.