Obama Healthcare - Sink or Swim?

It seems that our first black President is going to go down in history as the most controversial President (and I thought that honor would go to Bush?)

From people that have labeled him a “socialist” to those that question the legitimacy of his Hawaiian birth certificate (“Birthers” as they're affectionately know, still contend that Barack Obama's family faked his U.S. birth certificate and that Obama is not a “born and raised” U.S. Citizen - therefore ineligible to hold the office of President), people against this man will do anything to destroy him and any policy he wants to put in place towards his attempts to make America better. Hey, I don't envy the guy at all – Obama inherited a wreck when he got elected and is trying to fix it the best he can.

One of his biggest repair jobs of this country, and what has turned into the most controversial to date, is Healthcare Reform. From the moment Obama first proposed reform to today, he's had to fight tooth-and-nail to get support for reform. He's been met with complete opposition by Republicans and conservatives of all shapes and sizes. Even centrists and some moderate liberals haven't fully supported Obama's plan. The President has crisscrossed the United States, holding “town meetings” along with supporters of his reform, to try and drum up public support in his effort to get healthcare reform passed. Problem is, that with all the slander, spin-doctoring, and the general mistrust in the government, many people in this country - although supportive of reform - are not behind the President's plan. Each time Obama or one of his supporters have tried to explain what will become of the healthcare system after the reforms are put in place, people still ask the same questions or belief the opposite of what they're told – thanks in large part to people like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Sarah Palin filling the minds of those who listen with things such as “socialism”, “senior death panels”, “expanding deficit”, “bureaucratic control over medicine”, “Medicare cuts” and “take your doctors and health insurance away”. All of this has left the populous with a bad taste in their mouths about reform – and closed their minds to what the President and his supporters are saying.

So, as a last ditch effort, President Obama addressed the joint session of Congress on September 9, 2009 to once again explain (on national television) what the reforms will give Americans regarding healthcare, and try to gain support and extend his hand in friendship for cooperation between the ruling parties to come up with a solution to the divide on healthcare reform. And, as it has been from the start, it fell on deaf conservative ears. Other than the one Senator from South Carolina who called out “You lie!!” during Obama's speech regarding not giving public-funded healthcare to illegal immigrants, the gist of the sentiment from conservatives is that the reforms will do exactly the opposite of what President Obama stated they would do during his speech. It seems no matter what this man says, people against his reforms will not waver from their belief that the opposite will happen.

Now, I can't say if the opposition is going from a position of being “anti-black” (most extreme cases) or “anti-liberal/Democrat” or “anti-socialism of ANY form” (same people who oppose Medicare/Medicaid, Welfare, and Social Security), but it seems evident that Obama will only get healthcare reform passed by either 1) relying on 100% support of all the Democrats and thus using their majority to get this legislation passed without Republican support, or 2) will have to make a bill that's mostly conservative-friendly and hope that liberals will get on board anyway even though they don't like the bill. If not, then Obama will be yet another President in a long list of Presidents who could not get healthcare reforms done.

Quite frankly, I'm beginning to get the feeling that this reform bill will wind up being Obama's “Achilles Heel”. With so much controversy, misinformation, and duality of definitions of what's in this bill, Americans can't get a complete grasp on what exactly this bill will offer them and, thusly, don't trust it. If this reform doesn't come off without a single hitch, it will be “fuel for the fire” that Obama and his supporters' opponents will use against them come next elections – the same fate as George Bush, Sr. faced with the infamous “read my lips” quote that made him a one-term president. And it could most likely hinge on one, single statement by the President – the one where he said, “There are also those who claim that our reform efforts would insure illegal immigrants. ... The reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.”

This seems to be a catch 22 for the President – since earlier in his speech he pointed out the need to insure everyone in America so that nobody walks into a hospital uninsured and, thus, add to the rising cost of healthcare. However, what about the proposed “uninsured illegal aliens” that walk into our public hospitals every day, and fill up the emergency rooms with headaches, nausea, colds & flu, and various infections? If Obama holds fast that the plan will not insure these illegals, then the problem of the rising cost of healthcare because of the uninsured getting care will still be there. If he insures these illegals to help bring down the cost to hospitals, then he's going back on his ardent promise that the healthcare reforms won't pay for them (which will be like ambrosia to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly who will eat it up and spew it out as a “see, we told you Obama was going to use YOUR money to pay for illegal immigrants!!”)

So what would be left? If you don't have insurance you don't get healthcare at all? Every humanitarian and ethnic group would call for Obama's blood if he imposed that. So would he then authorize a nationwide crackdown on illegal immigrants and send them all back to the country of their origin? Again, those who are pro-immigration (legal or otherwise), Latino groups, and every other ethnic group in support of people fleeing poor conditions in their country and seeking a better life in America will want to tar-and-feather him for that.

So I feel that this reform, if passed, will be a lose-lose situation for Obama and the Democratic Party in general. Now, if the intention was to pass healthcare reform regardless of the political ramifications, then it wouldn't matter to him if he needs to “fall on his sword” so to speak – or for Democrats to fall on their collective swords - in order to get healthcare reform passed. Because, as I stated before, this initiative could be what drives Obama, and the Democrats, out of power if it's not 100% perfect and completely accepted by all (except for those on the “fringes” of the left and right). This would also include if even one PENNY is added to the deficit or 0.00001% in higher taxes is levied to pay for this. Again, that would go against what Obama promised and, thus, be the battle cry for the GOP in their bid for the Presidentcy in 2012.

Why Liberals Get a Bad Name: PETA

Oh, for the love of tofu....

This is just plain stupid!
PETA Says No More Fly-Killing, Sends Obama A Humane Fly Catcher (ABC News blog)

I thought that PETA stood for "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals", not "Allthings"!

Are they being serious?! Now we're monsters for swatting pests?! What's next? Outlawing cold and flu remedies because, "viruses are living creatures too!"

And my fellow liberals wonder why we get slammed by ultra-conservatives like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. It's for stupid crap like this!

Flies, or the Common House Fly (Musca Domestica Linnaeus), multiply faster than rabbits (in 4 months time, one pair of flies - if none of their offspring are killed, eaten or otherwise prevented from multiplying - will become 191.01 quintillion flies! That's 18 zeros after the 191!!), carry bacteria and in some case diseases, and (in case those of PETA forgot), they begin life as MAGGOTS! Have you ever seen flies feeding on flower pollen or drinking from a clean lake or stream? No! They're hanging around road-kill carcases, feces and stagnant, mosquito-infested pools of water!

Give me a freakin' break! And PETA wants to SAVE these things??!! If it was up to them, this whole world would be infested with disease-carrying pests that would spread a plague across the world that would make Bubonic plague, swine-flu, ebola, west-nile virus AND limes disease combined look like a minor head cold!

Unless of course, their goal is the extermination of all life on the planet! Left unchecked, pests like flies, mosquitos, ticks & fleas would devastate the planet - including all those precious animals that PETA is supposedly protecting!

PETA, stick to what you know - ANIMALS. Last I checked, the common house fly is NOT classified by any credible biological scientific research as an animal...

...it's an INSECT, you morons!!!

Stupidity abounds (what else is new?!)

I find it so darn difficult to deal with the public in general - the blatant to subtle stupidity that seems to overcrowd this nation that is the United States is astounding.

I may not be the brightest bulb or the sharpest knife on this planet, but I feel as though I'm not too far off in my level of maturity and intelligence from those that hold high positions in our society (which include politicians), and I consider myself to be no brighter now than I was when I was in fourth grade!!

How about what's in the news? Everyone keeps complaining about all the "liberal spending" the Obama Administration is doing. Yet, back in the 1930's, when faced with a similar economic crisis, conservatives then convinced America and those in power NOT to spend, spend, spend and drive up the national debt to save our financial institutions and bail out a lot of America. What happened? The Great Depression, that's what happened!

Lets see, with drug lords and the Mexican government basically "at war" with one another that causes civilians, honest police and the occasional tourist to die, millions of Mexicans flooding into our country illegally yearly looking to get away from all the crapola in their country, and the fact that EVERYONE knows the place ain't the "cleanest" country in the world, everyone thinks it's a good idea to go vacation there! So is it any surprise that Swine Flu broke out and spread across the world thanks to those that DID vacation there?! Duuuuuuuhh!!

How about the news recently with the "Air Force One fly-by" in New York City? First off, there was the stupidity of the officials that did this stunt (it was a photo op of AF1 so to update the White House’s database of photographs of the plane with having national landmarks as the backdrop – including the Statue of Liberty) who did informd both the FAA and New York City police and airports about the fly-over, yet told them NOT to tell the public – which included the stupidity of NYC officials NOT informing the MAYOR OF NYC of what’s going on (really, don't you think that at least the mayor should know what the U.S. government is doing in his city?!) What was increasingly stupid, was that the whole city got in an uproar and ran like rats from a sinking ship while the plane was flying around. They actually thought that it was another 9/11-style terrorist attack!

Okay, the likelihood that terrorists would be able to get a hold of Air Force One and fly it into the Statue of Liberty or re-bomb ground zero with an F-16 flying behind it, makes as much sense as appointing Newt Gingrich to head the Social Security Administration!

I also love on how people keep saying Obama is arrogant. Of course most, if not ALL, of those accusations of arrogance come from conservatives & right-wingers! Is it arrogance for an American President to be proud of being the leader of America (or as they always say, “the greatest nation on Earth”)? If he didn’t say that, conservatives would have a problem with him not having ENOUGH pride! And how is it arrogant for Obama to go to the World and tell them in not so many words, “We [America/Americans] screwed up and we’re trying to fix it.” (i.e.- Iraq War, economic collapse, etc.)

What it comes down to is that there’s nothing Barack Obama can do without it being “wrong” in the eyes of The Right. Even if Obama was to end world hunger, poverty, war, and bring about an unprecedented period of utopic perfection, he would STILL be blamed for “the world being too peaceful and perfect” by The Right!

Want some population control? STUPID PEOPLE SHOULDN’T BREED!! That would drop the population of the planet in no time!

Okay, now what Prez Obama?!

Barack Obama has been President for approximately (since this post) 64 days. In that time, he and the Democrats on Capitol Hill have passed the Economic Stimulus Bill and have a number of other bills to work on improving health care and education in this country. The country's financial institutions are getting bailout money, as well as other manufacturers and commerce companies are seeking "hand-outs" from the Federal Government to help keep their businesses from going under.

That's all fine and dandy, but how's that helping average America - y'know, the "people on Main Street"?

With all that's been happening, I'm still paying too much interest on my mortgage, my bills are still high, and the company I work for has cut everyone's hours and is struggling even more to keep from going bankrupt! I'm unsure if I'll have a job still by summer, let alone if our company will survive this way for the next 4-5 years - which is how long both Warren Buffet and an economics professor from one of America's top ivy-league schools has estimated it'll take the U.S. to come out of this recession. Also, both have estimated that unemployment will reach double-digits (over 10%) before the year is out!

I don't know about you, but that sure as heck doesn't give me the confidence I need to go out and "stimulate the economy" by making big-ticket purchases, or any other purchase for that matter, with my money since I a) live paycheck-to-paycheck and b) don't have enough savings to float me until the job market gets better!

So President Obama - what suppository to you plan to give our economy to improve ALL jobs by getting businesses to DO business which they in turn will need to hire people at liveable wages (as well as give them job security) to work those jobs which will give those people the money they need to cover their bills and have some left-over to spend and stimulate commerce by buying that wide-screen TV or DVD/BlueRay player or go to that health spa, etc., etc., etc.?

I await with baited breath - as in my breath will smell like fishing chum after I lose my job, my home, my savings and am living on the streets begging for food!! I can't wait for the economy to fix itself. I, and most of America either losing their jobs or getting cut back so much that money gets too tight to manage without going into massive debt, need a solution NOW!