Not so Fast with ObamaCare!!
Via(WSJ Opinion)
ObamaCare Isn’t Inevitable
While still good, President Barack Obama’s political health is deteriorating, threatened by what he thought would be balm — his ambitious plan for a government takeover of health care.
Mr. Obama remains slightly more popular than most presidents have been in their opening months. But his job approval rating has drifted down to 60% in the RealClearPolitics.com average. His disapproval numbers have nearly doubled to 33%.
More troubling to Team Obama is the growing gap between the president’s approval rating and declining support for major items on his policy agenda. Independents are increasingly joining Republicans in opposition to administration initiatives that range from reviving the economy to closing the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo.
Things will likely get worse in the coming months as the congressional stage comes to be dominated by health care. A new poll by Resurgent Republic (a nonprofit, right-of-center education organization whose creation I helped spur), reveals some of the president’s challenges. By a 60%-to-31% margin, Americans prefer getting their health coverage through private insurance rather than the federal government.
Mr. Obama’s record-setting spending binge has also made Americans more sensitive to deficits and higher taxes. Thirty-nine percent said they supported “a health-care plan that raises taxes in order to provide health insurance to all Americans,” while 52% preferred “a plan that does not provide health insurance to all Americans but keeps taxes at current levels.” By a 58%-to-37% margin, American prefer reforming health care “without raising taxes or increasing the deficit” to government investing “new resources to make sure it is done right.”
This is why Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus blanched when committee staffers priced his — which is also the Obama administration’s — draft legislation at a cool $1.6 trillion over the next decade.
The federal government will release an update on the deficit in mid-July, which will likely increase the public’s fear of deficit spending. The current fiscal year’s $1.8 trillion deficit is likely to grow significantly.
There is some good news in the Resurgent Republic poll for Mr. Obama if he can sell his plan as shifting power from “insurance bureaucrats to consumers.” Resurgent’s poll found that Americans favor that by 57% to 38%.
But to argue, as Mr. Obama does, that a government-run health-care plan can control costs better than a market-based system is a mistake. This argument is belied by Medicare’s experience. A study published by the Pacific Research Institute finds that since 1970 Medicare’s costs have risen 34% a year faster than the rest of health care.
Mr. Obama’s trashing of American health care as “a broken system” that must be brought “into the 21st century” doesn’t resonate with most Americans. They are happy about their health care, doctor and hospital. Resurgent’s poll found that 83% of Americans are very or somewhat satisfied with the quality of care they and their families receive.
Nearly everyone agrees that some reforms are needed. But it is also vital to protect areas of excellence and innovation. Stanford University professor Scott Atlas points out that from 1998 to 2002 nearly twice as many new drugs were launched in the U.S. as in Europe. According the U.S. Pharmaceutical Industry Report, some 2,900 new drugs are now being researched here. America’s five top hospitals conduct more clinical trials than all the hospitals in any other developed country, according to Mr. Atlas. And a McKinsey Co. study reports that 40% of all medical travelers come to the United States for medical treatment.
Transforming health care into a government-run system would be difficult to do under any circumstances. Americans are still wary about big government. Health-care reform also always sounds better in the abstract. Public resistance rises once liberals are forced to release the details of their plans.
Meanwhile, the $787 billion stimulus package has not provided the economic kick Mr. Obama promised. The $410 billion Omnibus spending bill the president signed in March and his $3.5 trillion budget plan for next year are also adding to the river of red ink.
Health-care reform was said to be “inevitable” a few months ago. Today, its prospects are less certain, even to Democrats. The issue may even turn out to be a millstone for the party.
Americans are increasingly concerned about the cost — in money and personal freedom — of Mr. Obama’s nanny-state initiatives. To strengthen the emerging coalition of independents and Republicans, the GOP must fight Mr. Obama’s agenda with reasoned arguments and attractive alternatives. Health care may actually be an issue that helps resurrect the GOP.
God Bless, The Truth Tracker Jason R. BootieIf Looks Could Kill!
Via(Moxie)
A Picture Speaks a Thousand Words
We won't let you and your husband show us UP!!
God Bless, The Truth Tracker Jason R. Bootie
What can’t the Liberals and Late Night Clowns get away with saying!!
I don’t care what anyone wants to say, but if a Conservative said anything like what you’ll see below, then all H*** would break loose from the MSM.
First two posts courtesy of NewsBusters.org:
Letterman Attacks Sarah Palin’s ‘Slutty Flight Attendant Look’
Comedian on ‘Today’ Show Trashes Sarah Palin: She’s ‘Very Much Like Herpes’
Following Courtesy of Atlas Shurgs:
Playboy Does Atlas: ‘Hate F**KS’ Women They Could Never Touch, Literally or Figuratively
God Bless, The Truth Tracker Jason R. BootieFollies by Obama Administration!! So Far….
Via(Jenn over @ ScrewLiberals.com)
Obama Administration Follies
Anyone else see a pattern since Barack Hussein Obama was elected?
U.S. Government posts sensitive list of US nuclear sites…
Barack Obama continues the worldwide apology tour in Saudi Arabia and Egypt this week…
Continental Express pilot reported a “missile or rocket” flying near his airplane….
Obama gives Iran the green light to continue it nuke weapons program….
Venezuela Chavez says “Comrade” Obama more left-wing…..
“….the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple….” True, but who said this? RUSSIA!!!!
General(Government) Motors will continue its multimillion-dollar lobbying operation in Washington……Nice.
More Targets Found on Arkansas Shooting Suspect’s Computer…..You know the Muslim guy who shot and killed an innocent soldier, not the creep who shot the baby murderer.
God Bless, The Truth Tracker Jason R. BootieGOP-Owned Chrysler Dealerships on the Chopping Block?
Via(Doug Ross)
Closing Chrysler’s Dealerships: The Reader’s Digest Version
The drones liberals progressives are seething. They’re sobbing hysterically at websites like Fred Silber’s 435.com.
Their issue? They’re trying to figure how to justify the closings of GOP-owned dealerships while ignoring the Democrat bigwigs who have just captured major new territories.
“Hey, it’s all statisticulus,” they say, “and you wingnuts can’t possibly figure out our vector arithmetic and such!”
Perhaps Frank at 432.com could consider the following:
Item 1: Using the list of all 789 dealerships to be closed, WND found that owners contributed $450,000 to GOP presidential candidates; $7,970 to Sen. Hillary Clinton; $2,200 to John Edwards and $450 to Barack Obama. For the “progressives” out there, that’s a 1000-to-1 ratio of GOP-to-Obama donations for closed dealerships.
Item 2: Dealership conglomerate RLJ is owned by Democrat bigwigs Mack McLarty and Robert Johnson. RLJ magically happened to keep all six (6) of their dealerships while its competitors were shuttered. McLarty is a former Clinton chief-of-staff and Robert Johnson (founder of BET) is a major Democrat fundraiser.
Chrysler Dealership Campaign Donation Information has been researched and reported by Joey Smith! Check out the great job he has been doing!
God Bless, The Truth Tracker Jason R. BootieAmerican Flag, Offensive??
Via(CBS 11 News Mansfield, TX)
This is NEVER OFFENSIVE!!
Supervisor Asks Woman To Take Down American Flag
Is it okay to show your patriotism at the office?
For one Arlington woman, the answer was “no” after she hung an American flag in her office just before the Memorial Day weekend.
Debbie McLucas is one of four hospital supervisors at Kindred Hospital in Mansfield. Last week, she hung a three-by-five foot American flag in the office she shares with the other supervisors.
When McLucas came to work Friday, her boss told her another supervisor had found her flag offensive. “I was just totally speechless. I was like, ‘You’re kidding me,'” McLucas said.
McLucas’ husband and sons are former military men. Her daughter is currently serving in Iraq as a combat medic.
Stifling a cry, McLucas said, “I just wonder if all those young men and women over there are really doing this for nothing.”
McLucas said the supervisor who complained has been in the United States for 14 years and is formerly from Africa. McLucas said that supervisor took down the flag herself.
“The flag and the pole had been placed on the floor,” McLucas said. But McLucas also said hospital higher-ups had told her some patients’ families and visitors had also complained.
“I was told it wouldn’t matter if it was only one person,” she said. “It would have to come down.”
McLucas said hospital bosses told her as far as patriotism was concerned, the flag flying outside the hospital building would have to suffice.
Well looks like the hospital is treating to do major damage control. The story doesn’t jive at all.
Read the Kindred Damage Control Press Release here:
You can also email them your thoughts here:
God Bless, The Truth Tracker Jason R. Bootie
The Truth Tracker 