Obamacare: Not So Popular
"There is a growing perception of condescension surrounding the selling of the White House's health care plan. Common sense tells us the government cannot simultaneously expand coverage and reduce costs. The government cannot dramatically inflate demand for health care services and eliminate market mechanisms for allocating them without devising some way of rationing supply and demand through political means. To suggest otherwise, as the White House has, is not just misleading but insulting. And the American people don't like to have their intelligence insulted."The phony sense of crisis, the inattention to the details and the transparent dishonesty of many of the claims have made voters question not only the program but the president. What does Obama have to hide? Why won't he level with us? The discovery that there are hidden, controversial provisions in the plan has sparked rumors about imaginary provisions. Denouncing the false concerns as "lies," as the White House has done, doesn't redeem the apparent effort to obfuscate certain details of the plan. And the now-abandoned request of loyalists to report "suspicious communications" to the White House did nothing to assuage voters' distrust.
"It is this distrust, more than anything, that is eroding Obama's popularity. Voters no longer see him as a grown-up, straight-shooter and basically good guy who is trying to do his best, but as a political opportunist taking advantage of their charity and trust."
posted by Publia at 7:21 AM
3 Comments:
Either you are an insurance industry employee, or you have been lucky enough, never to have experienced financial difficulties of any real measure.
Americans have their chance to invite the hungry to the table, but once again, I fear they will choose greed, instead. Insurance industry execs must be positively salivating at the prospect of adding millions of healthy customers to their roles...those who will pay in, but claim next to nothing in return. This would be fine, if they could be trusted to pass the profits on. If you believe this to be the case, then you are, in fact, intellectually challanged.
Just as banking industry execs salivated over the bail-outs, instead of facing jail time for their crimes,
....Just as the Payday Loan, Student Loan, Credit Card, and Mortgage industries, after fattening political coffers, were allowed to operate with fewer and fewer regulations, while alternately, consumer protections were decimated, so to, must we alternately wise up as a nation and refuse to sign on to the crap these industries sell.
Once, more than twenty years ago, when I was unable to buy both the loaf of bread and the carton of eggs I had in my hands to feed my children with, a stranger chased me out of the grocery with the loaf of bread. She had payed for it and simply handed it to me and said, "I know how it be."
That act of charity and kindness saved my life in so many ways that day. I have never forgotten it.
Are you so selfish, that the extra twenty bucks out of your pocket that might go towards health care for another's child, rather than whatever it is you people buy with all of your money that you would deny a crisis exists? Obviously, you don't live in my neighborhood.
The time has come to end the growing division between the classes that began when Regan declared catsup to be a vegetable through the ensuing witch hunt against the poor that has twisted the minds of a nation and dominated the political landscape for decades. If you'd like to discuss what is truth and what is a lie, that would be a good place to begin.
The poor and the working poor have been making the rich, richer for long enough. You may well be an intellectual equal, but perhaps you are a bit morally inferior due to the narrow frame of reference which is your own good fortune.
If you disagree with my assessment, then take everything you have, including your job, your name, your industry connections, your car, your clothes, everything...Try throwing them out and starting with nothing. See how far you get and how long it takes you just to be able to buy that loaf of bread. I assure you, the word obstacle, will take on a whole new meaning and I highly doubt you would have the strength to endure.
You should not confuse government run programs with charitable endeavors, they have little in common. After Wednesday's speech, it is clear that if the ideas articulated therein become law, there will be no more health insurance industry as we know it, so no salivating. And, if you are convinced that insurance companies make huge profits, you should invest in them and share the weatlth, so to speak.
Are you suggesting that insurance is unregulated? It is one of the most heavily regulated industries, but it is regulated by the states, not the federal government. What insurance has to do with Payday loans, student loans, credit cards and mortgages I am not sure, except those industries are regulated (or not) by the federal government. Going back to state usary laws would probably solve much of the problem that troubles you, and I would note that Illinois Democrats in firm control of both the Illinois House and Senate, as well as the Governor's Mansion, have done nothing.
Are you willing to pay the fines of your neighbor for failing to have proper insurance coverage? That is warfare on the middle class. Those fines may mean that those who lack insurance coverage because their budgets don't allow it will be able to choose neither bread nor eggs for their family. Their equity in their house will probably ensure they can't get foodstamps, either. The rich person who seeks to oppresses you is not your neighbor, it is Barack Obama, who made over $1 million last year, and the Democrat Pary.
I do not have a clue where you live, but here in Illinois we have a comprehensive insurance program for children and those $20. have repeatedly come out of my pocket to pay for what a doctor friend of mine terms Medicaid: "the American Express Gold Card of Health Care."
I don't know what neighborhood you live in; I live in Wilmette where food pantry usage has doubled in the last year alone and those seeking additional funds for children's school supplies has undergone a similar increase for the beginning of this school year.
I am a little unclear about the ending of your post. Are you wishing me dead?
The late Brazilian bishop Dom Hélder Câmara said it well: "When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a Communist."
As for my wishing you dead?
Not sure how you arrived at that conclusion unless you've been immersing yourself in the DOHS website during an orange alert...
I was wishing you the wisdom of experience, but doubting you would have the strength to endure what those you claim are part of the "phony sense of crisis" endure all around you.
One thing I learned from the people in "my neighborhood" is that no matter how little they have, for the most part, they are more willing to share it then are the folks in nicer neighborhoods.
If Corporations are required by law to make a profit- and this I think, we both know to be true - then how can you possibly believe that they serve any motive other than the bottom line & the profits of their stock holders.
Don't you think the woman who changes your sheets at your favorite hotel would like to take her children to the doctor, too? Do you really believe poor people love their children less?
I just can't stand idly by while you suggest we don't exist.
But like I said, it wasn't until I couldn't pay for a loaf of bread that I began to meet the multitudes of people, you insist are only --figments of a crisis.
I wouldn't worry about President Obama taking advantage of the "charity and trust" of the american people. (by the way--your photo/depiction of him bespeaks volumes about your insulted "intelligence." Your argument may have had more weight without it.)
As a whole, Americans tend to be among the least charitable people I've met...but that's the problem of capitalism when it's glorified and left unchecked. Capitalism is great until the wealthiest capitalists start making the all the rules. What you have then, is an Oligarchy. Not really capitalism at all...
Rules are supposed to be made by the people through their elected officials.
Not by officials who've been purchased by the highest bidder.
You might want to do some research on the amount of money Insurance companies have been quietly pumping into this debate.
In the meantime, I wish you peace... but only as much prosperity as behooves the ruling class for you to attain. It's what you accept; it's what you demand, and therefore, exactly what you deserve.
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