IT'S TIME FOR UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE

Who wants to talk about health care when we could instead discuss vandalism and ACORN and partisan politics. I mean, it's not like we have a ******* problem in this country or anything.

FreeDuck wrote:

That's just a hope, mind you. But after all of this town hall nonsense it would be perfectly acceptable for them to stand up and say: "Look, we had an election where this was a major part of our platform and we won. We tried to do it with the Republicans but they won't compromise, so now we're going to do it the way we think is best."

As they say, the hope dies last.

It seems very likely that they have calculated that the move would be counter-productive, risking them a huge political backlash on a reconciliation parliamentary tactic that couldn't itself accomplish the main statutory changes they seek.

The basic argument, that Republicans won't compromise, is self-serving and fallacious. The truth is that Republicans simply don't agree with the draft legislation that has so far moved through the House committees and their attempts so far to modify or limit it have all been rejected by the Democrat majority.

The real issues here are (1) that a growing body of Democrat legislators are themselves having second thoughts about the House Bill ;

and (2) that events are finally forcing the President to commit to the specific elements of the program that he is willing to fight for - thus requiring him to come down from the lofty heights of vacuous abstraction that have dominated his rhetoric so far.

Instead of whining about Obama maybe we should be looking at the actual proposals and asking the people who wrote them to explain them. Then pick one we like and let our elected officials know which one it is.

No worse than the backlash of not accomplishing what they were sent there to do.

It's not only the impatience of the citizens, but their ignorance about things that have wide-spread media coverage.

You are beginning to reveal your core beliefs on this issue.

The backlash from the far left on this and related issues is certainly real. However the history of American politics strongly suggests that it is less consequential than one from the middle of the political spectrum in this country. Unfortunately for the Administration, that is what appears to be developing now.

I was clear enough in my reference to the draft House Health care bill.

I have no more ability to guess the specific "second thoughts" of individual Democrat legislators than do you. However, their continued actions to distance themselves from the draft House Bill are obvious for all
to see.

Your demand to know, "what exactly are these second thoughts?" is absurd on its face. It appears to me that you have been hiding your fixed prejudices behind a somewhat deceitful mask of simply wanting more information.

Many serious people don't believe that additional massive government intervention in health care will deliver any net gains for the country. There may be some new winners and losers, however, the brueaucratization of the system is likely to create a sclerosis that will limit advances and innovation in a system that has so far done both very well. You assert that they are opposed to "fixing the problem".

But if you're going to make me out to be some secret whatever-you-think-I-am, then you ought to come straight out with it and quit hinting. That's right, I'm asking for more information! Suck it.

CNN) -- Immigrants living illegally in the United States could be mandated to have health insurance under the proposed health care reform bill but would be ineligible to receive subsidies to afford such coverage, a report from the Congressional Research Service says.

The report, prepared by the nonpartisan policy research arm of Congress, provides a close reading of the treatment of noncitizens in the House bill on health care reform, HR 3200.

While the report found that federal subsidies to obtain health coverage would be restricted to U.S. citizens and legal residents, it also noted that the bill does not specify a citizenship verification system, something that critics say creates a loophole for undocumented immigrants to receive subsidies anyway.

The report, released Tuesday, "undermines the claims of the president and others that illegal immigrants would not be covered under the House version of the bill," Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, told CNN.

The bill specifically bars illegal immigrants from receiving payments, but opponents of the reform say that without verification, the system is open to abuse.

Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nevada, last month proposed an amendment in the House Ways and Means Committee to add a verification process. Democrats on that committee, including Rep. Xavier Becerra of California, voted it down because the rules it called for would be "unworkable," the Democrat said.

The proposed reform requires that individuals carry health insurance, and the language in the current bill may obligate undocumented immigrants to get health insurance, too, the Congressional Research Service report concluded.

It boils down to terminology. Those living in the country illegally are classified as such under immigration law, but the bill uses tax law terms that identify foreigners as either resident or nonresident aliens.

Nonresident aliens would be exempt from the required coverage, but undocumented immigrants who live in the United States for a certain amount of time during the year would be classified as residents. "Thus, it would appear that unauthorized aliens who meet the substantial presence test would be required under HR 3200 to have health insurance," the report says.

That graph isn't realistic.

Who wants to talk about health care when we could instead discuss vandalism and ACORN and partisan politics. I mean, it's not like we have a ******* problem in this country or anything.