you fagits should of listen to me and vote RON PUAL

obama would be in coencentration camp right now where he belong

it was a love tap

report card:

- bailed out the banks, but has done next to nothing to regulate financial institutions to prevent them from doing the same things that crashed the financial markets.

- the public option no longer exists, the medicare buy-in idea was rejected, and now the going idea is a mandate for 30 millions americans to get health insurance. americans are going to lose out on this and HI premiums still remain unregulated, while americans receive the lowest amount of health coverage per dollar among industrial nations. obama and the democrats could use reconciliation to get a medicare buy-in but they won't ever do this.

- copenhagen was a waste of time, however this is not just obama's failure. no deal was ever going to be made.

- the wars are a sticky issue and it's hard to really justify one way over another at this point, but it is humorous he received a nobel peace prize and then dedicated another 30,000 troops.

obama does a good job at convincing people he is trying his hardest to do something when he has zero interest in actually pulling through on many of the promises he makes.

report card:

- bailed out the banks, but has done next to nothing to regulate financial institutions to prevent them from doing the same things that crashed the financial markets.

- the public option no longer exists.

These two points are both false.  First, it was Bush not Obama who bailed out the banks.  TARP went into effect before Obama was sworn into office.  Second, the public option is only dead in the Senate.  In the House version it is very much alive.  Now those two versions must be reconciled into a final version, so it is still possible that some version of a public option may very well pass.

you are correct about the bank bailout, however bailing out the banks isn't the point. nearly any leader would have bailed the banks given the circumstances. it's the fact that he has done next to nothing on financial reform, and given how badly the banks fucked up, this is absolutely unacceptable. about the public option, it's bleeding to death in a ditch at this point. i am not sure what your opinion of it passing is, but given how the process has been going thus far i would give it a 1% chance of passing. there was an article on huffington post about health insurance company stocks reaching 1 year highs:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/21/seeing-public-subsidy-not_n_399733.html

given how the public option would only hurt private insurance, and the mandate would only help private insurance, these developments suggest that the HI companies and investors already know how this health reform bill is going to end up.

- the public option no longer exists, the medicare buy-in idea was rejected, and now the going idea is a mandate for 30 millions americans to get health insurance. americans are going to lose out on this and HI premiums still remain unregulated, while americans receive the lowest amount of health coverage per dollar among industrial nations. obama and the democrats could use reconciliation to get a medicare buy-in but they won't ever do this.

The health insurance exchange will allow for better competition between states for customers, which'll allow for the regulation of premiums to go along naturally, just as everything else on the market does. There won't be "monopolies" of health insurance, such as in Alabama where 95% of the covered are through Blue Cross, when people will be able to get better deals through the exchange.

Mandating people is not a pretty thing, but prevention is the best means to go about this. Today, when people get sick, they wait and wait hoping their bodies will just fix themselves, and ultimately either get insurance when they're already sick, or see a doctor when the treatment is already become expensive. With someone covered, they can get treatment early on, and effectively save themselves, and the system, all the money that would otherwise go to treat the disease. Multiply this efficiency by 30,000,000.

It's a utilitarian perspective, but what really IS the solution to rising health care costs? Prevention of course. It's the best we've got. With people being covered till they're 26 now through their parents insurance, those entering the job market will be able to better prepare for the mandate costs (no more insurance payments through schools) when they get out. And even if they struggle, medicaid can jump in to help those struggling.

I personally think however, the Reid should employ reconciliation to pass the public option, despite the political problems it might cause for them. Can someone clear up exactly WHAT these costs would be? I'm a little confused as to why reconciliation is never talked about. Republicans used it to pass the Bush tax cuts, why not here to pass the public option?

It's a utilitarian perspective, but what really IS the solution to rising health care costs?

A complete nationalization of the healthcare industry that would effectively remove the parasitic corporate presence in our healthcare by making profit impossible.

Hell, most pharmaceutical r&d is done in public universities, so even that industry could be done away with as well if we had a government willing to seize capital(socialist).

Yeah nationalisation is the only way forward, the idea of private healthcare is absurdly insulting. SORRY BUDDY YOU DON'T HAVE ENOUGH MONEY SO YOU DON'T DESERVE TO BE LOOKED AFTER. It's a shame that our government over here has been constantly fucking it up (like spending several million pounds on an ICT system which has not worked, from a company that has had a WELL KNOWN history of making things which DO NOT WORK)

All that is going to happen in the US is the companies will get richer, and the prices will constantly go up. This is what's happened to the privatised industries in the UK since Thatcher decided to ruin everything. We had nationalised public transport, phone services, mail etc and since it's gone private it's gotten less reliable and more expensive anually. It's naive to assume competition will lower the prices, when they'll basically, I dunno, loss lead the minimum package thanks to subsidies, but then ridiculously overcharge on everything else. you know, like the big chain stores do.

You're right, I am being a little naive thinking the free-market will regulate prices... it does for just about everything else, but health care is an exception. While the public option does seem to be dead, the House is currently opting it out for another possibility as long as it meets these criteria: create more choice for insurers, create more competition for insurance companies and to contain costs.

How they'll do this without the public option is anybody's guess... so yeah, got any guesses? I too don't care if the public option gets passed or not, as long as those ends are met somehow.

i love seeing all the people give obama grades on his first year on all the major news networks

one guy literally said "A+, cuz hes getting things done!!!" BIG SMILE

i give him C-/D+ and i maintain all U.S. presidents atm have an unsurpassable cieling of C+. this is at best.

fuck a curve, they all fail

homer simpson for presidet,