The American Spectator

S.L. Toddard| 3.15.10 @ 2:30PM

"“The American people want to know if it’s still possible for Washington to look out for their interests. For their future. So what they’re looking for is some courage. They’re waiting for us to act. They’re waiting for us to lead. They don’t want us putting our finger out to the wind. They don’t want us reading polls. They want us to look and see what is the best thing for America and then, do what’s right.”

I wonder if Mr. Klein exhibited this same reverence for the opinions of the American people (as exhibited in polls) when the Iraq War was revealed in poll after poll to be deeply unpopular with a vast majority of Americans.

Warrior| 3.15.10 @ 2:56PM

You have a reverse scenario here. When initiated, the Iraq war had good polling numbers only to steadily deteriorate as the war went longer. Here you have a bad poll numbers prior to the inception with an unknown of which direction they will go. I would guess that they start out bad and get worse once the taxes kick in and the economy continues to bog down. It won't help also when in a few years it becomes next to impossible to get a doctors appointment and we find out that it is a budget buster when neither party votes to remove the half a trillion dollars from medicare as proposed and the bill costs more than expected. However, that is speculation and only time will tell.

S.L. Toddard| 3.15.10 @ 3:44PM

I think we know which way they'll go - today's proposed entitlement program is tomorrow's untouchable "right". Much like they did with Social Security, Medicare et al, tomorrow's Republicans will defend tooth-and-nail today's progressive proposals should they become reality.

Warrior| 3.15.10 @ 5:13PM

Why call out the GOP? Once all this is bankrupted, it won't matter who defended it.

Gene| 3.15.10 @ 7:30PM

The half trillion come from cutting out medicare plus, which is real popular with those who have it ,they are taking it away from them and spending it to insure those "30 million uninsured" of which are 12 million illegal immagrants.

SoCon| 3.15.10 @ 10:09PM

The elderly and the infirm will be 'death paneled' by ObamaCare. Rationing of care will make sure of it.
Sarah was right.

KINGKID337| 3.25.10 @ 11:05AM

AND OFF!! OMG

Ken (Old Texican)| 3.15.10 @ 4:39PM

UH, Toddard
Do you believe in self defense or not?

Please don't quibble.

Do you or don't you?

You certainly defend yourself here every day with fightin' words. Are words your final solution, arse?

OK.
I just wanted to finally understand. You believe in verbally squawking, but don't have the testicular fortitude to take up a rifle and defend your principles...right?
OK,
You have obviously been protected by all of us neo-cons all your life, while you squawked at us. You sir, are a joke.

Crusader| 3.15.10 @ 8:56PM

Ken, I certainly believe in self-defense. However, building schools in Afghanistan and whatever it is we're doing in Iraq is NO WAY to for America to defend herself against islam (plain old islam, not "radical" or "facist," etc).

Gene| 3.15.10 @ 7:36PM

Mr. Toddard ,, you need to go take another sip of koolaid.

Tim| 3.15.10 @ 2:43PM

SL, I dare say a poll would show that the vast majority doesn't want to see you posting here. Will you respect the will of the posters?
;)

Baroness Von Ficklescue| 3.15.10 @ 3:18PM

Silly Liberal! The Iraq War is one of the Obama Administration's greatest achievements!

martin j smith| 3.15.10 @ 3:20PM

When polls are in the Democrat favor they are vital. Now that they oppose them--who cares.

But the more important thing to grasp is this: We are not being governed by a government elected by the people, buta regime that is running our country ( into the ground ).
They will "pass" legislation anyway they want and if it circumvents the constitution so much the better because they do not want it. This country is governed by an Oligarchy similar to any run of the mill totalitarian state. This is what has to be understood. Obama is the figurehead.. When you see what is happening in this light, you will grasp the truth.

ncatty| 3.15.10 @ 3:29PM

"The American people know what they want, and they deserve to get it good and hard." (Mencken)

JP| 3.15.10 @ 3:37PM

And I dare say that the polls reflect what they voters do not want -not what they do want.

Heatpacker| 3.15.10 @ 4:22PM

I learned some very interesting facts in this article.
1) Our elected representatives are not supposed to represent us. They are supposed to do what is in our best interests.
2) Leadership in a democracy means opposing the will of the people.
3) Polls are to be ignored when they tell a politician something he doesn't want to know.
4) It takes courage to pass bad legislation.
5) When BHO says that 'The time for debate is over' he means that it is time for everyone but him to shut up.
Darn it! All of that time in Government class wasted. It turns out that everything I learned was wrong.

Liberal Reader| 3.15.10 @ 8:22PM

Mr Klein,

As you well know, these polls can be read in any number of ways.

The health care bills in Congress, in the polls, are very unpopular. However, what people quoting the polls generally do NOT mention is that a large number of people who don't like the bills think they don't go far enough. The "public option" has polled as high as 60% for the past year, yet I don't hear you mentioning this kind of disapproval of the centrist bill now being considered.

In addition, the constituent PARTS of this legislation are very popular.

A majority of Americans like the benefits of the bill: they like that preexisting conditions will be eliminated especially (something like 80% of people approve of this in some polls).

To preserve the insurance system, eliminating discrimination based on preexisting conditions (again, a very popular idea) means everyone has to buy insurance, or else people will simply wait until they are sick to purchase it. The insurance companies have a point here, and the Democrats have listened.

I don't like the government telling people they HAVE to buy insurance, but it's the bad result of a bad system. For-profit health insurance is a BAD IDEA. It just doesn't work.

But so long as we're stuck with it, and we ARE stuck with it, thanks to both political parties, we have to try to make it work.

Now, the reason these bills are so long and complicated is because they are NOT government take-overs of health care.

If they were government take-overs, they'd be as long as Canada's original bill: something like 18 pages could fit the policies that would have simply included every American system in Medicare, which is what we should have done.

Nick| 3.15.10 @ 8:55PM

Marxist Reader,

That's the American spirit!

"It's too hard to fix, so we can't."

If John Wayne were still alive, he'd slap you silly. He wouldn't punch you, he only did that to men.

SoCon| 3.15.10 @ 10:20PM

"...he only did that to men." Haha, good one, Nick.

SoCon| 3.15.10 @ 10:17PM

I thought I smelled something bad. Where ya been, Lib Reader; helping your corrupt liberal friends in congress pass more unconstitutional legislation behind closed doors in the dead of night on a holiday?

Ya know--all that TRANSPARENCY baloney Obama bleated about on the campaign trail?

Stan Redmond| 3.16.10 @ 11:44AM

Partially I agree. 50% of the deadbeat tax sucking citizens that pay no taxes want more free stuff given to them by the government (paid for by productive tax paying citizens. Without the free aspect of government provided payment for health 'care' these people won't be happy. The other half who have to pay for these deadbeats don't want any intrusion in to what we will be FORCED to buy something we don't want, AND buy something for someone else. Your condemnation of "for profit" health insurance is such a bogus argument it is laughable. Insurance has worked just fine until government busy bodies got their fingers stuck in the pie. Why can't we buy over state lines? GOVERNMENT. Why does a healthy childless man have to buy insurance that provides baby health services, mental health services, gyncological services, holistic medicine, and all the other nonsense REQUIRED BY GOVERNMENT in insurance plans? There's no choice in insurance and it is incredibly high because OF GOVERNMENT!!! And now the GOVERNMENT won't even give us the right to NOT have insurance.

Does it ever occur to big government progressive liberals that it is their very own policies that cause these problems??? NEVER! There has NEVER been one thing liberal policy has 'fixed.' And the most disgusting part is the 50% of deadbeats that pay no taxes keep voting these turds in to office to fix something they broke in the first place only compounding the problems they caused in the first place. "Flush out your headgear"

Liberal Reader| 3.15.10 @ 8:26PM

To clarify: We should simply expand Medicare gradually. It would cost each American a heck of a lot less than 13,500 dollars per year, the new average (which is constantly going up). The infrastructure exists. Medicare is proven to work. And everyone would be free of worrying about this issue forever. No more bankruptcies because of illness; no more doctors bills. Higher taxes, yes, but no more immobility based on one's need for health insurance, an immobility that is surely paralyzing many in our country today.

Flee| 3.15.10 @ 11:01PM

How about slowly ending Medicare and Medicaid rather than expanding them? Give everyone, retirees included, more of what they earned and get out of the business of health care. It is a business and not something the govt needs to be involved with in any way. That would be reform everyone could get behind. Unless you are on the dole you would prefer taking care of yourself. Since when is it the business of govt to eliminate all potential suffering such as bankruptcy or foreclosure or bills they think are too high? Get out of our lives and we will all be better off.

JP| 3.16.10 @ 9:20AM

The Medicare Trust Fund is due to go bankrupt sometime in 2018. This nation simply doesn't have enough people or wealth to support a $45 trillion unfunded liability -whether we go slowly or not.

Grzmlyk| 3.16.10 @ 9:59AM

Liberal reader, you simply do not have one clue what you're talking about. All of this is so much putatitve talk to you; your world view is unsullied by empirical experience. You live in the land of make believe.

There are only two kinds of liberals: Fools and crooks.

The fools think they have it all figured out, and failure after failure after failure never convinces them that their blueprint for a Better World - which hasn't changed since Bismark invented the Welfare State almost 150 years ago - is fatally flawed.

And yet it is you liberal fools who believe you have evolved past the selfish, greedy, primordial instincts of we knuckle-dragging conservatives.

It is this very hubris that exposes the reality that you haven't evolved past diapers when it comes to the facts of life.

For the life of me I do not understand why, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, you time and again cling bitterly to your keynesianism, your welfare states, your fetish for government, your faith in bureaucracy. It is AMAZING.

The crooks are much easier to understand. They simply exploit the fools for their own gain - which, ironically, proves it is they who are selfish. Hence Wall Street's left-wing leanings. And Hollywood's. And Corporate Welfare recipients.

I believe all foolish liberals should be sentened to live in the world they prescribe for others. THAT is the social justice I'd like to see.

Margie| 3.16.10 @ 8:46PM

"I believe all foolish liberals should be sentened to live in the world they prescribe for others. THAT is the social justice I'd like to see."

Perfect!

Gene| 3.15.10 @ 9:15PM

Lideral Reader,,,, Wow, what part of la la land do you live ,, I may want to move there..

Liberal Reader| 3.15.10 @ 9:20PM

Look. No one's saying we WILL expand Medicare to include everyone.

That would be wise, and sensible, and temperate, and just, and compassionate. It would also make sense and be easily accomplished.

So naturally, we're not going to do it. Don't worry, Nick. You'll still be at the tender mercies of a privatized health care system this time next year. It still will be wasteful, foolish, mean, incompetent, crude, bogus, and ineffective. It still will drive middle class people into bankruptcy. It still will fail to contain costs. It just won't be so catastrophic for so many people. You just might like it.

Anonymous| 3.15.10 @ 9:24PM

Destroy your freedom, wellbeing and wealth so ruling Democrats can feel better about themselves? Why?

Liberal Reader| 3.15.10 @ 9:24PM

Or you can always join Rush Limbaugh in Costa Rica or the Dominican Republic -- or whatever third world country he now says he will get medical care in addition to prostitutes in.

Third world countries by and large do have free market health care systems. I'm sure most of you would rather live in Guatemala than France, Sweden, or Canada. I mean, we can't have socialism! Oh no, that would be terrible.

Gene| 3.15.10 @ 9:38PM

Lib Reader : This does not even deserve a response.

SoCon| 3.15.10 @ 10:18PM

Trust me--the troll never deserves a response, unless you're considering the one digit salute, of course!

Liberal Reader| 3.15.10 @ 10:49PM

Which part?

SoCon| 3.15.10 @ 11:24PM

Which part of what, bonehead?

George S| 3.15.10 @ 9:43PM

["I mean, the fact of the matter is, is the president has been on his 60-day tour, and everywhere he goes the numbers just get worse. The American people have essentially voted on this proposal and really what you have is a situation now where I think that the president and the Republican Congress are going to need to figure out a way to save face and -- and step back a little bit.'] - Senator Barack Obama as why Bush should give up social security reform.

Liberal Reader| 3.15.10 @ 10:53PM

Hey, at least I TELL you what I'm for.

I'm FOR a government program that would make medical bills a thing of the past for you and your family.

I don't ever want you or anyone to whom you are related to ever do without medical care because you are too poor. I do not want you to go broke or have to sell your house or take your kid out of college because you get sick.

You can hate me for this, and revile me, and curse me and tell me I'm an evil Nazi, but I won't change my mind.

Gene| 3.15.10 @ 11:11PM

Who do you think might pay for all this, maybe obama out of his personal stash,wake up lib reader and come live in the real world...

Nick| 3.15.10 @ 11:11PM

Marxist Reader,

You KNOW I don't hate you, or anyone else.

What you are "FOR" is an Utopian fantasy.

You can't claim that you "[...] don't ever want you or anyone to whom you are related to ever do without medical care because you are too poor", when, under ObamaCare, bureaucrats are going to deny medical care to people.

Medical care is a SERVICE, not a right. Services are never free. Someone has to pay.

SoCon| 3.15.10 @ 11:21PM

Lib Reader, YOU ARE AN EVIL NAZI but that's okay we don't hate you for it. We are good Christians, after all--and we try to live what we profess.

Margie| 3.16.10 @ 12:04AM

LibRead,
I don't hate you either. As for cursing you & calling you names, etc, well you do that to us quite often and you are extremely condescending. It's hard not to respond in kind. But anyhow, I agree with Nick. And what I don't buy is that you don't already KNOW it's wrong. Socialized medicine is wrong for so many reasons but mostly because it is a complete and utter redistribution of wealth. It is stealing from one's paycheck to give to another, involuntarily.
Charity is one thing, and God loves a cheerful giver, but that is voluntarily giving, not by a dictator type President who mandates it.
~And lastly, I too will never change my mind, but will still hope and pray for your conversion!
p.s. I've been wanting to ask you this question: Do you also post as "Drew?"

Drew| 3.16.10 @ 12:50AM

Yes, I do. Clever ain't I?

Flee| 3.15.10 @ 11:05PM

Eliminate medical bills? Where are you going to get doctors in this utopia of yours? Will they all be happy helping us all out of the kindness of their hearts? Me and my family don't need or want the help of the govt with our health care thank you very much. That is the message that is being given to our so-called leaders. They remain deaf to the message.

Nick| 3.15.10 @ 11:34PM

Marxist Reader,

Why did you stop trying to make the bogus case that Christ wants all of us to pay more taxes to help the poor?

Was it because of these Bible verses?

"14When you have come into the land, which the Lord your God will give you, and possess it, and shall say: I will set a king over me, as all nations have that are round about [...] 16 And when he is made king, [...] 17 He shall not have [...] immense sums of silver and gold."
- Deuteronomy 17: 14,16-17

"14 And the weight of the gold that was brought to Solomon every year [TAXES], was six hundred and sixty-six [666] talents of gold: 15 Besides that which the men brought him that were over the tributes, and the merchants, and they that sold by retail, and all the kings of Arabia, and the governors of the country."
- 1 Kings 10: 14-15

Teabag| 3.15.10 @ 11:51PM

Sorry, Liberal Reader, but your idea that Government-run health care will keep us from going broke doesn't fly. The costs, via soaring taxes on you and the rest of us, are projected to make health care more expensive than private insurance - because WE will then be paying, not just for ourselves, but for millions of the currently uninsured. We need health care REFORM, not the bogus bill before Congress.

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martin j smith| 3.16.10 @ 7:18AM

Dear Liberal; Reader: " have a nice day".

bostinks2| 3.16.10 @ 9:47AM

Polled 9.7% unemployed. i want to believe that these unemployed would rather work to earn wealth which would enable the ability to pay for more than just "adequate" healthcare. I would also like to believe that these same unemployed are disillusioned with the U.S. version of the Temple Mount that is the White House and vote to restore the greatest country on earth. There are criminal elements imposing a government run system that will harm citizens more than help.

Bostinks2| 3.16.10 @ 10:27AM

Government run, socialist-style health care has been a dismal failure everywhere it has been instituted. Proof: H1N1 is a perfect example. In that one the scare was not warranted and second, not only was a shortage of the vaccine, but some batches were recalled at the expense and waste of millions of taxpayer dollars. So .. how can a liberal justify that government Healthcare for the masses works without wasteful spending or forced closures of drug manufactures because they cant make a profit. Liberals advocate less choice for the individual and more centralized power and authority for the state in medical matters. I prefer the establishment of tax free Health savings accounts for individual healthcare.

Bostinks2 | 3.16.10 @ 10:46AM

I am 1 small individual that can be grouped into "the american people" please dont include me as part of obamas imaginary group, as his always adnausium, self induced poll of 95%ers who want government run healthcare.

Texas conservative| 3.16.10 @ 12:08PM

I might have missed it, but is no one concerned about the ever increasing national debt and its impact on future generations in the name of nationalized health care that is sure to be more costly and less effective? Liberal Reader, bottom line is that we can't afford this...monetarily or in the price we are paying with our individual freedoms.

higgins1990| 3.16.10 @ 1:29PM

President Clueless.

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