Originally Posted by chelsea24

[...snip]...
I'm a realist. I'm not looking for conspiracy theories around every corner. I don't for one minute think this country is being steered toward socialism or communism.
.....Then i suggest that you review some dictionaires to clarify socialism/communism. The American Heritage dictionary defines socialism this way: "Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy." Based on that definition it is my opinion that all of Obama's policies are taking the USA down that path...financial industry, auto industry, health care industry -the majority parts of our economy - all being controlled by a centralized government.
I don't for one minute think anyone wants to "pull the plug on Grandma." This kind of silly rethortic makes my toes curl!
...I agree that no one wants to do that, but the unfortunate fact is that the House policy was developed to provide that care plans would be tightly controlled; the men who developed the policy were published as saying that health care should be carefully distributed to the parts of the population that can best benefit the population as opposed to those who are a drain on the population; such information is enough to cause those who are seen as a drain on the population to fear for their lives. The House policy lacked specifics and left too much room for possibilities.

My hope is that when Obama lays out his plans on Wednesday, he will indeed, include such things as allowing people to buy insurance across state lines, boosting competition. (Romney) and some tax credits for businesses (McCain) and especially pay-for-performance.
...Such is the hope of many; but Pres. Obama no longer inspires me to hope for the good that he campaigned for; I now fear his proposals rather than hope for them.

If you don't think our doctors and health care system in general has gotten slovenly and greedy, you're not looking hard enough. However, I'm not going to give up on a Public Option and I will be very disappointed in him if he does. I won't mind if it's delayed and not taken on at this time, but brought up again in the near future. I get it, give and take.
...A Public Option owned and distributed by the government should never be brought up again! Such an option clearly eliminates the right of our citizens to one of our founding principles - the right to free enterprise. This option needs LOTS of rework that will provide for private enterprise participating with public protection. Let the gov't develop a minimum coverage policy that must be distributed by private enterprise.

But, I do believe that good Health Care should be a right of every American.
...We disagree. Good health care should be available to every American not a right of every American. Clinics and emergency rooms already meet that goal...and gov't $$ could be distributed to improve that avaliability. The infrastructure is already in place for that and does not require the creation of another federal bureaucracy.

I guess my point is that I sincerely feel that President Obama tries to work across party lines
...We disagree again. I do not feel that he has encouraged the two parties to work together. I cannot recall one decision where he has relied on input from the loyal opposition. Further, he has done nothing to curtail the likes of Nancy Pelosi and other members of his party from making their disparaging remarks. My opinion their is that he is letting them throw the snowballs and enjoying every toss. He has failed to behave as a professional individual much less a president by allowing the playground bullying to exist.

and my guess is his final decision will be something from both sides of the aisle. And that's OK. My grip is with the Republicans (and don't fool yourself, they're out there) that will categorically oppose any and everything put out by this Administration. The Republicans haven't been labeled the party of "NO" by accident.
...I believe we could have avoided the tea parties and the town meetings of this summer if the President had taken ownership of a health care policy from the git-go and then assigned it to a bi-partisan group for fine tuning. But he chose to toss it out to individual committees that developed four policies - not at all consistent with each other. However, I must say that as a member of the conservative side of politics, I thoroughly enjoyed the name-calling and disparagement that made fools of the participants.
...I must also agree with Bucco where he states "I understand your comment saying that the Rep party is the party of NO...I think that saying began during the last administration and refered to the Democrats"... That label has been around for a while - it is just the Republicans turn to behave like a speed bump - but you know, sometimes speed bumps are a good thing.

I'm not going to sit here and defend Van Jones. Quite frankly, he could have been the best man for the job, but I personally don't know that. What I can't tolerate is all of this character assassination. It's slimy and insulting to the American public in general. I don't care what side of the aisle does it.
...and here I agree with ..snip..

But, lately I've been wondering.... When did this country get so mean-spirited? Maybe that's a question we should debate.
...I cannot speak for others, but I can sure show my mean streak when someone tries to take away the things that I have worked my a** off for years to attain. I traded in my registration as a Democrat for one of the Republican pursuasion when I began to see my $$ redirected to policies I could not support because they benefitted individuals who would not take the same initiatives that I did when they were presented to me as opportunities.