Healthcare reform?
 

Good or Bad?

Here is the president's speech last night following the votes needed to pass the new legislation.



I personally do not think the bill does enough, but I also feel it's a great first step towards garnering support for a universal healthcare for all Americans, one day.

I thought the speech was good, and I'm overall happy with the result. On a somewhat related note, on campus four guys are walking around mock-happy about the result, saying things like "Hooray for socialism!" They irritated me, so I yelled go Obama at them. They agreed -_- .

There's a lot of room for improvement still.

Yeah, there have been a few people grumbling about it at work. Ironically they were talking about how they don't want any socialist policies, blah blah blah, where I finally asked, "Well what about Medicare? Should we just drop that?"(the two talking about it are both eligible), to which they said, "No! the government needs to keep their hands off of my medicare". The same slogan that has been blasted and made fun of on Comedy Central, MSNBC etc, the blatent stupidity that has been forwarded to masses of FauxNews viewers.

I think they should just expand Medicare to all citizens, problem solved. It's too simple to ever be put in place and to get people on board with it, politicians need things to go wrong in order to stay relevant.

That's funny.

You know, the government also mandates you have car insurance. I guess that is communist as well, huh?

B-b-but you d-don't have to buy a car. Fuck you pinko, commie bastard! Why don't you go to Canada or something lololol!!1

Basic human rights should trump capitalism every time.

And that is what our lawmakers don't seem to agree on. Which is pretty sad.

I've heard it all. Last night I got phone-bombed by some Republican Committee (I don't recall the actual name that they had told me). She asks me which party I recognize myself with after identifying who she is calling for, and I tell her Democrat, she gets ready to hang up and tells me to have a nice day and I get her to stay on the line to talk to my 'Independent brother'.

I stay on the line for a bit, and she blows up talking points in about 2 minutes, saying everything from "You know, Obama is planning on turning this country into the socialist European nation, increasing taxes, he's going to harm America etc etc etc". I sit on the line and let the rhetoric spew out, and then start asking tons of questions. I ask her how the Healthcare legislation is going to turn us into a socialist state, and she states some more rhetoric and basically goes on another rant for a minute or so-without letting me speak a word. I was disgusted, she threw in Obama is trying to convert us all to the same religion at one point, which made me lol.

This is a disgrace to our country. How can people take telebombers like this seriously? The sad fact is, they called for donations and wouldn't tell me what they were going to do with the money. After a few minutes of questioning she started getting angry with me and finally disconnected the line before I could ask to speak with her superior. Oh well.

The more sad thing is that those "telebombers" are basically what half of our country is. For being in the information age, misinformation sure seems to run rampant.

Top ten immediate benefits from this new healthcare legislation.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-jo..._b_501748.html

Prohibit pre-existing condition exclusions for children in all new plans;

Provide immediate access to insurance for uninsured Americans who are uninsured because of a pre-existing condition through a temporary high-risk pool;

Prohibit dropping people from coverage when they get sick in all individual plans;

Lower seniors' prescription drug prices by beginning to close the donut hole;

Offer tax credits to small businesses to purchase coverage;

Eliminate lifetime limits and restrictive annual limits on benefits in all plans;

Require plans to cover an enrollee's dependent children until age 26;

Require new plans to cover preventive services and immunizations without cost-sharing;

Ensure consumers have access to an effective internal and external appeals process to appeal new insurance plan decisions;

Require premium rebates to enrollees from insurers with high administrative expenditures and require public disclosure of the percent of premiums applied to overhead costs.

That's why people like him. He's great at talking. Let's just hope he's as good at something else, too.

Like growing beards.

People like him for more than just that.

Like what? He played basket ball? He ninja'd a fly? He's pop culture? That's all it is. He's like Hanna Montana. He appeared out of nowhere, got famous, and now he's being washed away. He lost alot of popularity, already. I honestly don't see what's so good about him compared to any othe president. I still say "bring Bill back". I was a kid, and probably oblivious, but as I remember it - life was good until he left.

These are all good reasons.

He's the president. That hardly qualifies as pop culture. Because he makes the presidency more glamorous than his predecessor should not be a strike against his efforts for improving this country.

Washed away? Hardly. What did you expect? Was he supposed to ride the honeymoon period into 2012? That's simply not going to happen. Fact of the matter is, for most of the country, he is a "radical liberal." This is sad, since I don't think he's all that liberal. When you're dragging around a country full of gun-waving jingoist tea-baggers by your nuts, you will inevitably be dragged down some. Despite all this, most polls still have him with a positive approval rating. I think at this stage in his presidency, this is great.

One name is all I need to counter this: Dubya.

Now, you asked earlier why people like him? There are many reasons. I'll list a few:

1.) He's not George Bush.

2.) He pushed a revolutionary health-care bill through congress.

3.) He has amended relations with many nations.

4.) He's increased funding for embryonic stem-cell research, and reinstated the position of science-adviser.

5.) He has attempted to reinvigorate the economy with his stimulus plan.

6.) He has a concrete exit strategy for Iraq.

The fact that he's charismatic is definitely a plus for him. But to think this is the only reason people can find for liking him is blatantly incorrect.

I've done all of these in my sleep.
Dang it, you actually pulled me apart and beat me again! Unlike everyone else who just used one sentence to fight me. ;(