ATLANTA— When you read CNN.com and the political ticker shows two conflicting stories back-to-back about the same party, you know there is trouble on the horizon. On the ticker this morning, one story talks about a Blue Dog democrat named Allen Boyd (Florida) who is telling his constituents he cannot support the current version of the bill and it would be a good idea to start the health-care reform debate over. The story right next to it describes a hyper left-wing liberal democrat named Anthony Weiner (New York, …his name is apropos) telling his constituents in New York that a bill excluding the public option could not pass the House of Representatives.
Much was written in 2008 and the early part of 2009 about the inevitable crack-up and dissolution of the Republican Party. But the Democratic Party, which controls most branches of government throughout this country, is showing its coalition is very weak- and very divided.
I wonder where this will lead in the upcoming weeks. My prediction remains that a significantly watered-down version of the health-care reform bill will be passed later in the year and signed into law by Barack Obama. I believe that bill will exclude the public option.
But I could be wrong. If the House liberals are as ideological, narrow-minded and uncompromising as they are sounding, there may be no health-care reform this year.
That would be interesting, because I think irrespective of what happens with this particular debate, Democrats are going to lose a good chunk of their hold on the House of Representatives in 2010 on the basis of the stagnating economy.
Seems to me the liberals would want to get at least some form of legislation passed.
TennesseePaul
Stephen VanNuys
Brooklyn Daniel
The Freedom Thinker
if you spent $30 MILLION a day every single day for 2000 years it would still not equal to obama’s $23.7 TRILLLION in financial bailouts
… the main reasons why people get poorer are because of higher taxes and inflation.
I agree, Dave, in terms of taxes and inflation. Those are coming home to roost in the next 2 to 3 years.
But I think that $23.7 trillion number is a little misleading. Obama is not fully to blame for that number.
That number stems from all of the government’s programs that have been initiated, since 2007, to fight this crisis. A huge chunk of those are Federal Reserve programs, over which Obama has no control. A bunch are Bush-era bailout programs, including TARP.
That is also a “worst-case” scenario projection and likely we will never pay out anything anywhere remotely close to that amount.
While that is a horribly large number, it is misleading to pin that on Obama.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25164_Page2.html
All obama will do is outsource anyways. Just think about the all the lobbyists flocking to Washington DC because of obama’s reckless over-spending of $2 TRILLION in just 6 months, which alone is increasing the National Debt by 20%.
Politicians take people’s money and reward the large corporations, in this case companies in the health care industry, since they have the money to more effectively lobby politicians. In the end smaller businesses will be hurt.
Politicians will only reward companies that will be in their best political interest. Honestly, when can you really trust politicians since they are basically professional liars, and being president just means you are the best liar of the time. Why not just give the money directly from the people to the companies and take politicians in government out of the equation?
obama is going to recklessly spend TRILLIONS of tax payers’ money just to give insurance to about 25% of those who do not have it. Over 50% of people’s income go towards taxes, just imagine how many more people will afford health care insurance if their income is almost doubled because of dramatic tax cuts.
Competition is what is needed. It lowers prices of products and services, along with developing new innovations. All of which will benefit consumers. You need to remember that monopolistic tendencies can also apply to government.
The reason why the cost of insurance is high is because politicians in government mandate insurance companies to increase their premiums to pay for ridiculous things. In addition, politicians put up regulations so that Americans are not allowed to get insurance from another state and use the coverage in their own state. This reduces competition making it more expensive for people to get insurance. On top of that medical professionals are not allowed to freely practice their profession in any US state without taking a long and tedious licensing process. This again increases the cost of medical insurance.
In the end, the problem with most economic issues is too much government intervention of the economy by politicians, who will only tend to do things for political self interest. Just like how obama nationalized GM to pander to its unions. Politicians can barely run government, yet people think they can run a multi-national auto manufacturing company?
The solution is SMALLER government, LESS spending, and LOWER taxes.