Health Care

[RonE]

I am feeling more let down by the House and Senate than the President at this point. One thing that seems lost on many people (Congress and Senate included), about the healthcare reform legislation is that there are two very different issues/conversations going on. The President, Congress and Senate keep talking about reforming the healthcare system but the legislation is aimed at (ahem, gag) "reforming" healthcare finance/insurance/reimbursment which is a completely separate problem. Reforming the health system needs to be done also. In fact the healthcare delivery system should be reformed before the reimbursement/insurance/finance system because containing astronomical and ever increasing costs is crucial to finding a solution to the problems of how to pay for the healthcare delivery system.

[Swells]

Well now Massachusetts is GOP on the position Kenedy held, it should be interesting ... you'll see Obama not being able to pump through any more proposals and the Congress still looks like a bunch of boobs.

I sorta feel bad for Obama too, in a way. He had some Clinton-era fools come in there mess it all up. Meanwhile, Obama gets no credit for saving our country from an outright depression, if he hadn't blown all that fake money on bailouts. Folks you don't know how close we came to 1934, soup kitchens and all. Sure half of it was bs but it worked and now he's the scape goat.

Losing Massachusetts was hard, as even Obama made a personal campaign visit. Big social programs like public health care, climate change, and immigration are probably off another year or two, given the mid-term elections. Hey if you're going to play politics that's the deal. I'm just not sure if the Congress will have the will to do anything, really. They're a sorry bunch of losers. Gosh I hate the Congress.

[dboat]

Originally Posted by Swells

Well now Massachusetts is GOP on the position Kenedy held, it should be interesting ... you'll see Obama not being able to pump through any more proposals and the Congress still looks like a bunch of boobs.

I sorta feel bad for Obama too, in a way. He had some Clinton-era fools come in there mess it all up. Meanwhile, Obama gets no credit for saving our country from an outright depression, if he hadn't blown all that fake money on bailouts. Folks you don't know how close we came to 1934, soup kitchens and all. Sure half of it was bs but it worked and now he's the scape goat.

Losing Massachusetts was hard, as even Obama made a personal campaign visit. Big social programs like public health care, climate change, and immigration are probably off another year or two, given the mid-term elections. Hey if you're going to play politics that's the deal. I'm just not sure if the Congress will have the will to do anything, really. They're a sorry bunch of losers. Gosh I hate the Congress.

Swells, I dont agree with you 100 percent but pretty close.. Scott Brown got voted in because even the Dems were tired of having one party do things unilaterally and ram things down our throat. Frankly, it was beginning to look like a dictatorship. If they keep it up, there is going to be the start of some real housecleaning in DC, and its about time we vote some of those long term idiots out. I am all for term limits..

Dana

[bigjohn]

I agree with that, Dana. I think it was a vote against Washington.

Originally Posted by dboat

Swells, I dont agree with you 100 percent but pretty close.. Scott Brown got voted in because even the Dems were tired of having one party do things unilaterally and ram things down our throat. Frankly, it was beginning to look like a dictatorship. If they keep it up, there is going to be the start of some real housecleaning in DC, and its about time we vote some of those long term idiots out. I am all for term limits..

Dana

[dboat]

Originally Posted by bigjohn

I agree with that, Dana. I think it was a vote against Washington.

Damn, you're smart..

Dana

[bigjohn]

Smartazz!

Originally Posted by dboat

Damn, you're smart..

Dana

[kenny]

Originally Posted by bigjohn

I agree with that, Dana. I think it was a vote against Washington.

Nope, you're wrong. It was a vote for the best candidate.

[bigjohn]

You are at least partly right for a change. The dems had a terrible candidate that ran a terrible campaign, so in that sense, he was the best candidate. Nevertheless-it was still a vote against Washington.

Originally Posted by kenny

Nope, you're wrong. It was a vote for the best candidate.

[Swells]

Originally Posted by bigjohn

You are at least partly right for a change. The dems had a terrible candidate that ran a terrible campaign, so in that sense, he was the best candidate. Nevertheless-it was still a vote against Washington.

I agree with that in part too ... our man in Massachusetts ran an amazingly well scripted campaign and came back from negative territory based on some very good election tactics, messaging, and strategy, clearly showing that the GOP cannot be underestimated.

You can read into that about whether it was a referendum on Obama ... I tend to think the Congress itself shares part of the blame, as I wrote.

If there was a prevailing mood, it was that even in Blue-Blood Massachusetts, Americans are getting tired of spending bazillions of taxpayer money - and debt - on things that will not help them. Massachusetts already has an OK health care plan, with its problems of course, but perhaps they viewed Obama-Care as an unnecessary intrusion into local affairs that was not needed and are not justified. What with the horrible economy, I don't blame Main Street Americans one bit!

sammie

[RonE]

If the Democrats didn't try to change the law to allow for an appointment instead of a special election and had just quietly gone ahead with a special election we would have a new Democratic Senator today. The Democrats however tried to "slip one over" on the people and their efforts to circumvent the system bit them in the ***. Another thing that hurt the Democrats was their constant referal to the vacant Senate seat as "Ted Kennedy's Seat".

[Swells]

Originally Posted by RonE

If the Democrats didn't try to change the law to allow for an appointment instead of a special election and had just quietly gone ahead with a special election we would have a new Democratic Senator today. The Democrats however tried to "slip one over" on the people and their efforts to circumvent the system bit them in the ***. Another thing that hurt the Democrats was their constant referal to the vacant Senate seat as "Ted Kennedy's Seat".

Good to know that you're from California, Ron.

[RonE]

Originally Posted by Swells

Good to know that you're from California, Ron.

?
I am a native Texan and don't need a bumper sticker that proclaims the fact.

[Swells]

Just kiddin', man.

It now appears that the House doesn't have the votes for a health care bill at all, and all bets are off for a year or so. So it's a moot point about the Dem's desire to have the governor appoint a successor to Ted Kennedy's seat ... things were falling apart already. The Senate version of the health care bill was too big, too complicated, and has special provisions such as for the State of Nebraska.

Interesting, the people who are mad about not having a health care bill is the medical industry, which stood to get billions because of expanded insurance. Most doctors, pharmas, hospitals, and insurance companies are not happy about that. One of the larger local beneficiaries would have been to M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston. You don't hear much about that in the news, perhaps because they don't want to be viewed as getting government welfare for a taxpayer-funded medical insurance program. Indeed, large sections of the Senate bill were drafted by none other than the medical lobby, which is one of the more powerful ones in the US. I wonder what Paul Harvey would have said about that!