Obama's first term

[Spang]

A lot of the positive things have been listed. Here are some of the negatives regarding what Obama has done, as I see it:

Promised he would close Guantanamo and then changed his mind.

Restricted the rights of lawyers to visit Guantanamo prisoners.

Signed a law making indefinite detention legal.

Supports warrantless wiretapping.

Increasing the defense budget.

Promised he would stop federal raids on medical marijuana in situations where federal and state law conflict and then appointed Leonhart (who is known for medical marijuana raids) to become the new head of the DEA. The raids continued.
(See also here: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/05/...seeks-to-halt-obamas-medical-marijuana-raids/)

Made lobbying reform promises (one of the main reasons I voted for him over Clinton) and didn't deliver on them.

Allowed the extension of Bush's tax cuts (hopefully this will change but who knows).

Is a secret Muslim radical terrorist Nazi Communist born in Kenya who hates America and white people.

(one of the above I included as a joke)

I would add Obama's drone policy to the list.

 

[Wolfie]

I'm certainly not going to argue that access to good quality health care for all is not important or desirable. I don't think the current plan is sustainable, and neither do the many physicians who are retiring early. Hospitals are scrambling to build new unneeded buildings and acquiring all kinds of expensive equipment now, for fear they won't be allowed to later and won't be able to compete with government-owned, taxpayer-paid entities. I think it's going to be a mess for some time, lots of facilities closing, lots of unexpected huge increases in cost, and ultimately it will settle into a single payer system. If the money is still there.

+1. The ones who work in healthcare see what's really happening.

 

[Wolfie]

I just deleted other posts because I was afraid I said too much that would identify people and don't want to do that. But the US already horribly mismanages Medicaid, Medicare, and other tax-funded programs. We don't need them in charge of health insurance for the rest of us. Something needs to be done but don't put the gov't in charge. That's like putting the mouse in charge of the cheese.

 

[Ansciess]

Something needs to be done

I would like to hear exactly what you think needs to be done then.

 

[ledboots]

Also this.
"As you know if you’ve been reading this blog, Obamacare cuts $716 billion from Medicare in order to pay for its $1.9 trillion expansion of coverage to low-income Americans. It’s one of the reasons why seniors are more opposedto the new health law than any other age group. So why is it that the group that purports to speak for seniors, the American Association of Retired Persons, so strongly supports a law that most seniors oppose? According to an explosive new report from Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.), it’s because those very same Medicare cuts will give the AARP a windfall of $1 billion in insurance profits, and preserve another $1.8 billion that AARP already generates from its business interests." Rest of scary article here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/aroy/20...s-for-supporting-obamacares-cuts-to-medicare/

 

[ledboots]

And this. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303830204577446470015843822.html

 

[Wolfie]

I would like to hear exactly what you think needs to be done then.

Cut back gov't funded entitlement programs and put that $ towards healthcare for starters. Weed out the abuse and outright fraud.

 

[ledboots]

Holy crap. General Petraeus resigns, citing extramarital affair. (I put this here in the Obama thread since it's probably only of interest to Americans. )
http://m.nbcnewyork.com/nbcnewyork/pm_117609/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=4xZskT3J

 

[mlp]

Holy crap. General Petraeus resigns, citing extramarital affair. (I put this here in the Obama thread since it's probably only of interest to Americans. )
http://m.nbcnewyork.com/nbcnewyork/pm_117609/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=4xZskT3J

But we didn't even properly title this thread to alert people that it's about American politics!!!! (Sorry, couldn't resist the snark.)

I'd talk about Petraeus' resignation, but I've promised to not post in any American centric thread that isn't in the U.S. forum.

If a mod will move this thread to the U.S. forum, I'd enjoy continuing the conversation.

 

[AeryFairy]

This does not need moving to the US sub forum, the fact that it says Obama in the title kind of gives it away, and it's a debate/current affairs topic. Please continue, I'm enjoying the discussion

 

[mlp]

I think that's reasonable, but I for one made a promise in the other thread to discontinue assaulting people's sensibilities with all this American centric stuff.

Continue on without me.

 

[Ansciess]

"As you know if you’ve been reading this blog, Obamacare cuts $716 billion from Medicare in order to pay for its $1.9 trillion expansion of coverage to low-income Americans. It’s one of the reasons why seniors are more opposed to the new health law than any other age group...

Yeah, well those seniors are mostly too uniformed to realize their benefits aren't cut by Obamacare, and that Ryan would make the same cuts. They're the "keep government out of my Medicare" crowd.

It’s worth noting that there’s one area these cuts don’t touch: Medicare benefits. The Affordable Care Act rolls back payment rates for hospitals and insurers. It does not, however, change the basket of benefits that patients have access to. And, as Ezra pointed out earlier today, the Ryan budget would keep these cuts in place.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...acare-cuts-medicare-by-716-billion-heres-how/

 

[Ansciess]

Cut back gov't funded entitlement programs and put that $ towards healthcare for starters.

What programs specifically would you want to cut, and by how much?

But, if the saved government money is put towards healthcare, isn't that "government healthcare?" I thought you didn't want the government in healthcare.

 

[Wolfie]

What programs specifically would you want to cut, and by how much?

But, if the saved government money is put towards healthcare, isn't that "government healthcare?" I thought you didn't want the government in healthcare.

You name it. Medicaid, food stamps, WIC, even FAFSA. Abuse and fraud abounds even though some like to say it's rare. Work in the places I have, meet the people I have and you'll see it's not rare. If our gov't could straighten out the mess that these programs are in, then I might not have so many concerns about them being in charge of national healthcare. But I don't see that happening, so no, I don't want the gov't in healthcare.