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A Man on His Way to Bitterness
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Obama the candidate seemed to rise above his opponents. The president Wednesday night was battling enemies, real and imagined.
Xtra Insight: Read more Daily Beast takes on Obama's health-care speech.
This didn’t look anything like the Barack Obama I remember from the campaign. Obama the candidate seemed almost unaware of his opponents. At his best, which was most of the time, he rose above them completely, utterly unwounded by the attacks.
He also seemed like an adult. Obama was forever reminding audiences of the hard choices America needed to make, choices that had been sugarcoated when they weren’t ignored completely by politicians too fearful to tell the whole truth. Once elected, Obama promised, that would change.
Never has a president been warped by Washington quicker. At times tonight, Obama sounded like an embattled second-termer with a 35 percent approval rating. What percentage of his speech was spent lashing out at his enemies, real and imagined? Radio and cable-television pundits, George W. Bush, former Congresses, unnamed ghouls employing “scare tactics,” whose “only agenda is to stop reform at any cost”—they’re all against him, Obama said. And they’re lying.
Never has a president been warped by Washington quicker. At times tonight, Obama sounded like an embattled second-termer with a 35 percent approval rating.
This isn’t how confident leaders speak. These are the complaints of a man on his way to bitterness. So soon?
And whatever happened to the hard choices? Obama spent the early part of the speech describing his plan as the reasonable middle ground between a single-payer Canadian-style system favored by the left wing, and the laissez-faire, Hobbesian chaos so beloved on the right. It’s a plan, he said, that will add “not one dime to the deficit, now or in the future.”
Fine. But when it came time to explain where the money would come from—that $900 billion over 10 years—he flinched. His answer: Why, by eliminating waste and fraud from the current private system, of course. Also, the insurance companies (maybe the most reviled industry in the world since the makers of DDT went under) may have to reduce some of their obscene profits.
And that was pretty much it. Nobody else—not seniors, not the middle class or the poor or anyone else you have ever met personally—was going to have to pay anything for this wonderful new system. In Obama’s telling, there are only upsides. Free ice cream for everybody.
This is deceptive. In fact, it’s a lie. Obama the candidate would have been ashamed to say it.
Xtra Insight: Read more Daily Beast takes on Obama's health-care speech.
Tucker Carlson is a contributor to the Fox News Channel. He previously hosted The Situation with Tucker Carlson and Tucker on MSNBC after working for CNN.
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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Tucker Carlson is a contributor to the Fox News Channel. He previously hosted The Situation with Tucker Carlson and Tucker on MSNBC after working for CNN.
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Tucker Carlson is a contributor to the Fox News Channel. He previously hosted The Situation with Tucker Carlson and Tucker on MSNBC after working for CNN.
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Tucker Carlson is a contributor to the Fox News Channel. He previously hosted The Situation with Tucker Carlson and Tucker on MSNBC after working for CNN.
I think Carlson saw a speech more imagined in his own mind than what was actually delivered.
For Tucker to saying is some thing is deceptive and a lie is hypocrisy of the highest orderr. His entire career can be described as such. Hoped this hack had been fired but HEEEEESSSS BAAAAAACK.
"A Man On His Way To Bitterness"? Ah, Tucker--it takes one to know one--or rather, it takes one to IMAGINE one--as your therapist probably routinely tells you--"If you spot it, you got it".
Give it up, Tucker, even at your tender age you are a washed-up hack nobody is interested in--your lies, distortions and slavish propaganda may have served you well in the past, but it's so outre today--we don't need you anymore--we don't want you anymore.
Go away.
Tucker Carlson??? I thought he died. I guess I was just hoping. He seems to have disappeared
the last year or so... damn... I should have known that was too good to be true.
Just another has been... making silly remarks. There are so many of them around... listening to
themselves.
No...he's still around and still having wet dreams about Obama failing :)
Aw, give him a break, that's the only sex life he has going ....
You can almost see the froth from the anger spittle running down his littler chin when he speaks of how GREAT Obama did last night LOL If it wasn't so funny to watch Tucker in the throes of his anger, it would be sad.
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Gee Tuck
What speech were you watching? He didn't sound second term to me. You sound bitter and wishing his first term was over. Obama came off the adult as usual. Of course the republicans come off looking childish as usual.
Who is the bitter man here? Tucker go back to the bow tie and keep to yourself
It was his stint on dancing with the stars that did him in.
This guy apparently has so much bitterness of his own that he's trying to sell it as a preferred life style. And he certainly writes here like a contributor to the Fox News Channel, as he is said to be above . . . using any hook handy to hang it on when denigrating Obama and his administration.
Carlson appears to oppose the elimination of fraud and waste as a way to save money, dismissing the possibility out of hand and blathering in general terms, pausing to call the President a liar.
Obama is not promising "free ice cream for everybody." He's just trying to fix things so that poor little kids don't have to stand outside the window watching others gorging on ice cream--and yearning for a taste of it.
Good post!!!
Which enemies is he imagining? If there aren't members of the government whose sole goal seems to be derailing health care at any cost, then why are so many of them supporting the rumour of death panels? If all of these people who are attempting to stop reform at any cost don't exist, does that mean that Sarah Palin is all in my imagination? If so, I've got a sick, twisted mind.
Extremely unbalanced article, Mr. Carson. Perhaps you need another talking-to from Jon Stewart.
Hmmmm.... Jon Stewart???? Come on. Ben.... he's a comedian... not a actual reporter.
Jon Stewart is a comedian who calls himself a comedian.
On the other hand, we have people who call them selves "Journalists" who are sadly "Comedic" .
Ben, please list all "members of the government whose sole goal seems to be derailing health care at any cost" if you can, Please don't start with Sarah Palin since she isn't apart of any government enity.
With nobody at the tiller, the Republicans must satisfy themselves with Proxy. Actually, isn't Faux "News" owned by the RNC?
Isn't Murdock a Republican Czar?
I agree with this assessment of the speech. I didn't like the tone and his obvious anger and resentment. Also the face making and pouts in the background were manipulative as well
Can I please be the first one to call bullshit?
Obama the candidate was the FIRST Democratic candidate to take on his opponents head-on, without remorse, and without letting up.
I'm sure you were to busy adjusting your shorts the next day (you know what I'm talking about) to remember Obama's speech at the DNC, but that was the most aggressive I've ever heard a candidate - Democrat or Republican - speak openly.
The debates, again, were incredibly pointed. Biden was the one to float above his verbal sparring partner (to avoid providing fodder for right-wingers who had newly discovered feminism) in the debates.
This is the Obama that was promised during the campaign:
He said he would encourage debate, listen, cherry-pick the best ideas, and then move forward strongly with a plan.
Sorry Tucker, I love you (and was even you for Halloween one year), but you are flat out wrong and misleading here.
Exactly.................he would have campaigned on the coming USA's WallStreet caused world wide financial implosion left on the steps to the WhiteHouse................. and the sad ass condition most agencies of our government were left in.
Second that motion. It's just more reductive Republican Bullshit. "Free Ice Cream for everybody" maybe he should get fat, use drugs and become Rush Limbaugh. At the very least he would make a whole lot more money. free Oxy-contin for everybody!
Yeah, I agree with jong345...except for the Halloween part o_O
Fringers won't go away if you ignore them. We found that out. You have to call a bully a bully and a lie a lie. To do otherwise is to be complicit in the lie. It's the same moral courage that drove him to talk about tough choices--the courage of a mature adult.
Huh? Did we hear the same speech? That speech was not bitter - it was beautiful!
lol
"These are the complaints of a man on his way to bitterness."
No, these are the comments of a man who promised to
"Fundamentally Change America."
Did he ever say . . . to what ?
A very clever, calculating man, with the Cheshire Cat Grin,
using a dinner "summit" with conservatives (George Will, Peggy Noonan, etc.) as a smoke screen.
In all those twenty years, he never heard The Reverend Wright speak ill of America, he was only an acquaintance of Mr. Ayers, he had no idea Van Jones was a "former" Communist, he promised not to take over private industry,
the financial sector, the auto industry,
the healthcare system ? Pattern ?
"But when it came time to explain where the money would come from-that $900 billion over 10 years-he flinched. His answer: Why, by eliminating waste and fraud"
" eliminating waste and fraud"
So, government is going to eliminate THEMSELVES ?
fraud is the one that is most important here..... let's really look into this one because there is a hellofalotta money that was acquired through fraud..........
just think about it.
that 3 page sheet paulson wanted the congress to sign in september...
who ever is in charge should act like the last group,do it and when asked if most of the country disagrees, tell them like Cheney did, go f k themselves
think the government pays a lot, you better look into the invoices of the blackwaters under cheney.....
there is a lot of money that should be coming back to those who took it off our shores...
but John McCain told us while campaigning, the jobs are gone folks, and they are not coming back..... he knew what the fruit was looking like while under the previous 8 years.....
Any incoming president would have this tree in the front yard and ended up doing nothing but putting out the fires.
sophia5; once again you belie your namesake; wisdom. clearly the President mentioned in tandem with the cost of the Iraqi war the Bush tax cuts. it was these tax cuts in a time of war that shifted its financial burden to the middleclass that he intimated he was willing to role back to fund Healthcare for the under insured. it appears you and tucker need to youtube the speech.
there was no flinching while he said this. he mentioned it with befuddled confidence that the bush tax cuts equaled a trillion dollars over 10 years which in a time of war compounded our national debt. it placed us in a sink hole of interest rates with the Chinese, to be paid by the middle class with healthcare cost rising exponentially. in another 10 years if we do nothing there will be no middle class and emergency rooms will have uninsured Americans lining its walls from stem to stern. what should we do then sophia5, gaddess of sic information; the real cheshire cat grinning invisibly over your ridiculous comment about The President of The United States of America.
A very clever, calculating man, with the Cheshire Cat Grin, using a dinner "summit" with conservatives (George Will, Peggy Noonan, etc.) as a smoke screen.
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You bigoted woman,if Obama had the power to heal cancer you would still fine fault.You are one of those kind of woman that believe that a man of color can't do anything right.You don't listen,you make up stuff in your silly little mind and make it factual.There is no place for you in this debate.
Do the math Sophia 5;
Cost of a trip to the ER for an ignored medical condition that has deteriorated to he point of not only being nearly fatal, but requiring extensive inensive care v. the cost of routine health care to diagnosis and treat conditon in a timely, less expensive manner and eliminaing suffering. Unscrupulous medical supply companies renting a 500.00 wheel chair to a senior for 100.00 month billed to medicare for 5 years/versus loaner program with a 1 time purchase
Gosh that was so pathetic sophia. Is that all you got? It's really lame
The fact that Carlson is a Fox News channel contributor explains this piece of nonsensical article. Obama's speech tonight was very powerful.
That fact that all you people can do is call names means you can't refute what he has to say.
What don't you get? The speech probably went over your head.
YOU LIE!!!
Oh wait . . . someone already used that on a guy who was telling the truth.
It is very hard to refute an article that was just his opinion. In Mr. Carlson's opinion, Obama sounded bitter. I didn't here that, but there really isn't anything to refute. That said, Tucker Carlson has a terrible track record of judging the way the public sees people (see Jon Stewart)
Caling someone a "Fox News channel contributor" is "calling names"!!! LOL!!! I thought so!
HACK!!
Amen!
(And not even an amusing hack!--but a tedious, cynical hack.)
Amen!
(And not even an amusing hack!--but a tedious and cynical hack.)
Amen!
(And not EVEN an amusing hack; but a tedious and cynical hack. Bollocks.)
I swear he does not even listen to president Obama's speeches! My favorite hack job by Tucker is when he cratiequed Obama's Notre Dame speech, and he said for a speech about abortion he does not even mention the word and in actuallity he mentions the word abortion several times in his speech.
Okay. There's something WAY wrong with the Beast's "Submit" function when my repsonse shows up three times? What's going on at your end???
To quote the president, "this would be laughable if it wasn't cynicism" at its best. There was not a single day, minute or second tucker carlson ever gave credit to Barack Obama during the campaign. Not once. Everything he did was not either mature enough, or American enough. And now you are out swinging on how he has let himself don by lashing at the opponents of health-care reform? This is not a campaign. This is people's lives. Lives that the likes of you are using as a play mat because you believe yours and the insurance executives who fork out millions in profits are more worthy than.
You have no sense of thought and it is sad that you have a forum to spew your inane views. views that not only subtract from civilization, but hurt it so bad we have to reset it.
Please go away!!!
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What credibility does this dork tucker carlson have to critique anything at all. Other than the fact that he has a access to forums like TDB, he has nothing in his head that warrants being read or listened to. he is always looking for ways he can seem all-knowing while more and more revealing that he has a mind of 70 year-old sheep lying in a puddle of it's own crap.
Did he watch the same speech I watched? I saw a President who specifically credited ideas by John McCain and G.W. Bush. He also proposed that the health care bill would explicitly require cuts if necessary to ensure there's no impact on spending. The US pays more for health care with poorer results than any other 1st world country. In countries with regulated private, competitive insurance companies, administrative costs are one third what they are here. We pay too much and get lousy results. Health care reform would seem to be a no-brainer.
I don't understand how it will become law for an insurance company to pay for "pre-existing conditions". By this nonsense, nobody in their right mind would ever purchase insurance until they get sick. Kinda like buying auto insurance whenever you get in a wreck. The premiums would be astronomical. How does paying for "pre-existing conditions" help when it comes to driving insurance costs down?
people are not cars. we die if we don't get treatment for medical conditions. You can live without a car. You cannot live without a life.
Thus, the concept of "Universal" coverage. In part, you are paying for your future medical needs while you are well and able.
Tucker wants Obama to ignore the attacks and lies. Wasn't that what he did these past weeks when his poll numbers tanked?
In politics, attacks and lies not confronted and countered usually stick. But then, that's what Tucker wants for the president.
This speech was unusually partisan. Sarah Palin seems to definitely be under their skin. Usually if you think someone is irrelevant, you ignore them... Read:.. Is Obama A Snake Oil Salesman?...at....http://cooperscopy.blogspot.com/
coop, please send as much money to her PAC immediately.
Plugging your own blog on someone else's site is tacky and in poor taste . . . even for the internets.
cooperscopy; "Usually if you think someone is irrelevant", you ignore them; that's malarky. what is this bull about sarah palin not being relevant. her comments like yours are applicable. her profit like your is to distort the message of healthcare. its to limit real dialogue by subplanting it with fear and lies. the question is why? all evidence points to claiming control and power for the GOP. the unfortunate thing you dips -- in the GOP -- don't understand is garbage in garbage out. you start with a lie you end with a lie, and reversing the damage requires a multitude of facts proportional to your wreckage.
cooperscopy you and your ilk are phogbounds and snake oil sales men who require more than looking the other way or wishing to the corn field to nuder. you and sarah palin are the unfortunate spawn from the bitch that birthed joseph mccarthy, and keeping at least one glazie on you at all times is a must.
There are reputable studies which indicate that right wing extremists like Carlson are suffering from a form of mental illness. Include anyone else associated with Fox News in that assessment. Carlson should ask for either "a bottle in front of me" or "a pre-frontal lobotomy".
i keep asking where the professionals are........ this group's over the summer manifestations are classic, dsm noted, behaviors.......
Insurance companies obscene profits? According to the IRS, the average health insurance company clears three cents on the dollar, and the industry ranks about 37th on the list of profitability. Look at it this way, if your insurance company denies treatment, you can get a lawyer or go see your congressman. If the federal government manages your care, who's going to help you when the bureaucrats deny your claim???
Obama's speech was powerful? Where's the bill?? Why have the conservatives read the bills backwards and forwards and our representatives have not? Where's tort reform to reduce the cost of preventative medicine? Obama also said insurance will be forced to cover preventative care because it lowers overall health care spending. Not true. Preventative care actually dramatically raises the cost of health care for everyone. If they can force everyone to buy insurance, and there's some doubt that's constitutional, they might succeed in keeping spending from rising more than 10%. After these promises are long forgotten, the bill for it will come due. You'll see severe rationing, new laws to force people to change their lifestyles and reduce government expendatures, and dramatic tax increases. If medicaid and Medicare are rapidly going broke and we must cut costs to prevent bankruptcy, how can we possibly afford to guarantee everyone's health care costs. It would be great if we could buy everyone a brick house, a pick up and a chicken coop, but at least we understand it's unaffordable. Alarmingly there are those that think we can afford free medical care. Hopefully they grow up before we go broke.
Here's some stats from 2008:
Fortune Rank Company Profit ($billions) Profit as % Revenue
25 UnitedHealth 4.6 6.2
33 WellPoint 3.3 5.5
43 MetLife 4.3 8.1
85 Aetna 1.8 6.6
141 Cigna 1.1 6.3
So, from this data, it looks like insurance providers are doing pretty well on their profit margins. I'm not doubting your research, just make sure you're looking at the Health Insurance industry and you're not taking into account other types of insurance (car, homeowner's, etc).
As far as preventative care is concerned, it drastically reduces overall healthcare costs because preventative care reduces the need for complicated, expensive procedures down the road.
As far as rationing is concerned, we already have rationing based on wealth and health. You can get great healthcare today in America, but it costs a ridiculous amount of money. If you have a pre-existing condition, you can't get healthcare.
My 22 year old sister is looking down the barrel at not being able to get insurance. When she graduates from college (in December), she will no longer be able to be covered by my parents' insurance. She was diagnosed with Diabetes when she was 12. It was no fault of her own. She didn't overeat or suck down junk food all day. She just pulled the short straw in our family's genes. Diabetes is a standard pre-existing condition for the insurance industry. She has already been told that she will not be able to get individual health insurance. Essentially, she has been told that her healthcare has been rationed.
The system we have sucks. Point blank. Period. Obama's proposal is the most viable one we've heard in the past 15 - 16 years. Now is the time to make this change.
Not only can diabetics not get individual health insurance, you ever try to by a life insurance policy. I will have to donate my body to science or be buried in the back yard next to Scruffy.
Without addressing each bit of hysteria (and inaccuracy, and crystal ball prediction), a simple answer is this:
Other nations provide Universal care without any of you imagined consequences.
Japan provides Universal care for less than half our cost per capita.
At less than 50% of our costs, the Japanese consume THREE times as much medical care per person (Tests, Medicine etc).
Treatment is available as quickly, and often much faster than in the US (especially considering long emergency room waits for the uninsured).
They see a doctor much more often than in the US, and have a much greater emphasis on preventative care.
Problems are detected sooner, and treated at a lower cost.
The primary savings? Their insurance system, while privately owned, is NON-Profit.
If you don't already understand this, possibly you are simply:
Incurious (the information is there... easily found).
Or more likely... you have an alternate agenda
Similar to most sincere Americans I'm interested in trying to get a realistic and honest assessment of the costs and benefits of this reform. This should not be a Left or Right issue. I think Obama's continued skirting away from the facts of sacrifices everyday Americans are going to have to make weakens his stance substantially. In his last big speech when asked what sacrifices Americans would have to make he spoke to the tune that they would only sacrifice unnecessary health care that would not make them healthier. Same song different night tonight. He can't seriously think he can deceive all of America with that garbage. We all are going to have to make sacrifices. Be honest, we see through that.
As a health care professional it all starts with trimming costs and procedures but this easy and smooth sailing Obama Change does not come without a lot of people suffering. We need reform on fronting the bill for illegal aliens that can walk into any ER and get instant care without a penny from their pockets. We need reform on illegal women having 6 babies on America's dime when the doctors can't even ask them about their social security numbers. We also need reform on greedy attorneys chasing up costs with every ambulance they latch their teeth into. These are obvious reforms that politics and special interests keep Obama from touching. He wants this massive overhaul but realistically we're getting a massively truncated bill that is looking like it should have appeared in the first place, with thought-out and well researched information.
Please Mr. President, stop trying to seize your spotlight and bolster your poll numbers by pulling off the impossible. Give us a reasonable change in reform and stop feeding us full of rhetoric and partisan politics.
Obama told us that he is going to buy a nice big new Hummer and pay for it by scooping out barrels of lost change that he will find in the couch cushions. He he!
Jah, I bought that along with the Brooklyn Bridge.
sadie, at least he won't be giving ot to your favorite insurance exec.
Go back to wearing your bowtie, propagandist.
You are so full of it. Selling perception instead of open-mindedly reporting.
Tucker the sucker = NO CRED
Thank you, Tucker, for an excellent evaluation. Pity the poor folks who haven't caught on to the truth about the POTUS yet; those who can only lash out with unintelligible claptrap because they haven't yet figured out the simplest of economic principles: you can't get something for nothing. BTW, thanks for the textbook expose, too. It was important.
Saving 900 Billion in 10 years by cutting government waste and fraud is akin to solving our oil import excesses by putting more air in our tires.
At least it's honest.
Life is so good and easy in Obama's America! All we have to do is eliminate all the waste in Medicare, and we can pay for the entire country to have Obamacare. Once we have Obamacare we will save so much money in medical care we can reduce the countries debt by trillions. Magic!!! Just think! In a couple of years when everyone is in Obamacare except for the President, Congress, and Federal Employees, we'll be able to buy the entire world by eliminating the waste in Obamacare. This is really a wonderful investment! I'm inspired! Tomorrow I'm going to eliminate the waste in my household budget, and I bet when I'm done I'll be a millionaire!!!! Obama has opened by eyes!!!
You have no imagination. Also, you seem to thimk Karma is a dish with curry. Payback is hell.
Payback is tougher to swallow than chicken karma.
You seem to have an excessive amount of waste to eliminate.
The CBO says that we have anywhere from 17 - 28% waste in our government spending. Add that to the estimated 9 - 11% of fraud in our spending, and I think we can take care of healthcare.
If you don't believe me, look what we spent on Blackwater. Roughly 83% of that was fraudulent spending.
Per PWC research, of the $2.2 Trillion spent on healthcare annually in the US, $1.2 Trillion is due to waste and inefficiency. About $200 billion a year is spent on processing insurance claims due to each insurance company having different requirements, which eliminating the border restriction that Republicans want will only add to the cost of processing insurance. Creating electronic medical data will reduce the cost of this area. $91 Billion is due to defensive medicine. There is a lot of waste in healthcare that can be reduced. Obama is not wrong about this area.
"$91 Billion is due to defensive medicine".
Gee, after nine months the blessed one finally acknowledges this, and his answer is to "try out" tort and personal injury award reform in a couple of states. Yeah sure, as soon he can find a couple that pigs fly over.
There were hundreds of crooked greedy executives to go after on Jan 20, but they were on Wall Street, not in insurance offices. Ever wonder why they aren't in jail instead of spending billions of taxpayer dollars tossed at them?
Hope and change my **s.
Tort reform happened in three states (Texas, Missouri and one other) and there was NO impact on the cost of insurance, as a matter of fact insurance continued to increase. Republicans should do their homework and provide real solutions.
Actually tort refrom in Texas has done nothing to provide more insurance to others who don't have it or are under insured. In fact, Texas just stopped insuring it's poor children. Tort reform is a small part of the change we need.
Imagine, all we have to do is start a war with Iraq and we'll have energy security. Magic! Jeesh, I'd rather try my hand at saving lives than destroying them. But good luck to you anyway.
All you little progressives who believe in Santa Claus put your hands up. Just as I thought. All of you. If Obama had worn a white beard and munched cookies he could not have impersonated the old guy better. FREE health insurance YAYYYY!. Government going to take care of us for nothing YAYYYY! Deficit??? What deficit?? No deficit. No debt. Medical care all free.
You tiresome moronic dopy Democrats. You are dragging the country to ruin. And you are loving it.
I want Santa Claus to give me my WMD now!!!! I asked for it special-like. He promised meeeeeeeeeeeeeee. He wouldn't lie, would he? :-(
Why weren't you screaming when Bush was in office wasting trillions on a needless war?
My youngest son put it as well as anyone I've heard.
Dad, under Bush we were screwed, under Obama we're doomed.
No disrespect, but it doesn't sound like your son understands what happened under Bush.
He was the start of our money troubles. Medicaid Part D? $6 billion to insurance companies annually guaranteed. Iraq alone would pay for healthcare. Obama's taking centrist, moderate left action where drastic left action may be needed. He's trying to bring us back from the brink and inspire us to be better at the same time.
And 9 months in, he's doing a much better job than his predecessor.
As a register nurse with 30 years experience in critical care, let me me assure your readers that you have no idea, none whatsoever, about what you think you're talking about. Check with your insurance company, but I seriously doubt they cover "dumbass."
Pretty hard hitting oped piece, but painfully on target. I wish I could go into the more intricate 'causings' of this shift, but to be simplistic....he's President now. All grown up and in Office...a dangerous place, unsuited for man or beast. And then there is the economy to consider, which would itself all but wipe off the eepish smirk from any President's face.
That The People fail to understand the full importance of this legislation is of even greater concern. There must be a ravenous cost cutting applied to the delivery of service and that is an octopus that is all tentacle once engaged. The alternative is what we have now, millions of uninsured and no business coming through the door. To strike a compromise here, to sell the compromise, isn't in fact occurring. You are right in pointing out the differences between Hobbes and Single Pay Canada. The breach is that far apart.
In my own experience, I have never heard anyone from Canada or England complain about their Health Care. But I don't hear any complaints from Americans either. They simply don't go because they have no Health Insurance (it's too expensive), or die, whatever comes first.
We Americans are such cheerful souls as we march off to die in defense of the State's purse strings. And you were worried we'd become Communists? How 'civilized' of us....really.
You need to get out more if you have not heard of complaints of the Canadian and English health systems.
The only ones I hear complaining about Canadian and English health care systems are uninformed Americans. In fact, when some moron who obviously didn't know the distinguished scientist Stephen Hawking was English said if Hawking had to rely on the English health care system he would be dead, Hawking replied,"If it were not FOR the English health care system I would be dead."
So much for the well informed critics such a sycondon...
I was in Calgary a few years back on business and was watching the 7PM Canadian News when it was announced that the Province of Alberta had earned a sizable surplus as a result of it's Oil Shale Royalties. The question was 'What do we do with the Province's Surplus?'
1.) Return the money to Taxpayers
2.) Retain the surplus to balance future budgets
3.) Increase Education Grants and Health Care Coverage
Care to guess which option was favored by the majority of Albertans? That's correct, it was 'door #3'.
If the Canadians are dissatisfied with their Health Care System, then what explains their vote? The same would apply equally in England's case.
Pretty much on the mark, Tucker.
You usually aren't.
For the first time tonight, I actually felt ashamed and sad for the president. It isn't a good sign at all when his critics, among which I always have been one, feel this way.
If Obama had led with health care rather than the ridiculous bail-outs and the scandalous and criminal stimulus program, he would have gotten almost anything he wanted regarding health care. Alas, he chose corruption and self-interest over what was necessary. It is an American tragedy that the first president of some color wasn't lacking in any color of the city where he made his political bones, Chicago. God help us all.
I do find myself feeling sorry for Obama too. He's learning the hard way.
Taking on Americans is a lot more difficult than taking on Republicans.
Get a grip on reality. Repubs are a small minority and are offering no cooperation at all. How long is Obama supposed to extend his hand? Jim DeMint of SC revealed the true Repub strategy when he boasted that defeating Obama on health care would be his "Waterloo". That showed how incredibly unpatriotic Repubs are: they would rather do what is necessary to help their party in the short-run than what is necessary to help their country in the long-run.
"Repubs are a small minory."
really?
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/52602
Thank you.
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