Please…you can write a poll question in any particular way to get any particular answer you want. I will be honest… I don’t know what the big deal is on the individual mandate. We are MANDATED to pay driver’s insurance if we want to be able to drive a car. Nobody bitches about it even though we have to purchase a private product mandated by law. We don’t complain too much about having to pay social security tax and we happily sign up when we reach that age. So why all the fuss over this? The vast majority of people it does not affect…only those stupid enough to elect by choice not to have insurance and those that just can’t afford it and don’t get it from work. If is the fair and right thing to do to mandate that everyone get insurance and the payback is that you will actually have it. Kudos to Obama for pushing this.

The individual mandate is a good thing for healthcare and it is NOT illegal. If it is, then mandatory driver’s insurance, social security tax, and medicare tax is also illegal. The bottom-line is this…if we as docs (I am one) are mandated to treat patients (and we are at least in the ER and for trauma) then patients should be mandated to pay. Not having a mandate simply shift the costs of the stubborn asswipe who won’t buy insurance and then wants emergency care for his MI onto everone else. I would support any system that gets the job done be in single payer (mandated payment in form of taxes), or private market with multiple insurance providers, but in either case, the system falls down when only some people pay into it.

So you are going to vote repub instead in protest???? Pa-lease! I’m not thrilled w/Obama’s record here, but he is FAR FAR better than any repub alternative.

Man….I got a good laugh out of this one. Seriously, I mean it. Agree with all of the points in article. The press should NOT have to defend factual reporting and it is their job to do so. If Mr. Smithers (from the Simposons) doesn’t like it, well who cares? They only care when Mr. Smithers owns the paper.

Can any president “handle” the economy without a cooperative congress? It seems like Obama’s only option to get anything (and I mean anything) done is to capitulate on all issues to radically conservative and stupid repub majority in the house that has been drinking the wrong Kool-aid.
Given that the likelihood of any progress on anything is slim to none with the current incarnation of congress, it is time for Obama to abandon any and all efforts at cooperation and push for his stated agenda that he ran in 2008 on. There is nothing to lose at this point….the other options are so unpalatable as to make one cry.

You like option #2 better? You’d rather have Romney or such in office with the repubs running the show? You’re nuts. Obama is far from perfect and has a pathalogic need for people to like him, but he is orders of magnitude better than the alternative.

Speaking as one of the “dumb motherfuckers” as you call them, you can bitch and moan about who Obama is let his liberal base down, but at the end of the day, it you can’t win an election with just a liberal base so you have to live in the real world where victories are muted and you have to deal with the playing field as it IS and not as you want it to be. The tea baggers and repubs are clinically insane these days, but unfortunately, you can’t ignore them either. Obama has done a good job with the steamin’ plate of crap he has been given

YES, YES!! Warren needs to be put in by recess appointment. The louder the repubs scream on this, and the more the “elite” financial corps try and lobby against, the more it becomes clear that while Dodd-Frank is not perfect, it is a hell of a good start.

It tells me that in no way shape or form would I support socialized medicine. Still paying off the loans now and there was no choice but to take them or not go to school.

We are not “above society” and we have little if anything to do with insurance industry that lops 25-40% off the top of our bill. Maybe we should just stop taking any insurance and do what the dentists do…hand the patient the bill and let the patient deal with their insurance for reimbursement.

OK people, reality check time. Socialized medicine is wildly popular with those receiving the service for FAR less than it is worth and FAR less than than the accumulated value of the time/effort/knowledge of the practicioners.
I guarantee you it is not popular with the people providing the care.

Most countries that have such systems have subsidized education/medical school and we do not. If you think that anyone will put up with socialized medicine pay AND pay for college and medical school, you are high on something. I also guarantee you that if such a system were seriously considered today, that nowhere in the bill would be language to pay me back for the six figure debt that I incurred. Maybe if such bill included language that in recognition of the large decrease in pay/earning potential, all medical providers (MD’s, RN’s, NP’s etc) currently in practice do not have to pay income tax for 10 years, maybe I’d support it. Otherwise, not a chance in hell that I would vote for socialized medicine. Are going to consider then socialized banking and financial services?

No…it removes the layer of political crapola that subjects the teaches/cops/firefighters to the whims of intellectually challenged partisans. There will always be a layer of management by necessity…otherwise systems fail. When I suggested they form a company, that means they own it (they are all shareholders so to speak) If they

Why in the hell would someone electively choose to work as a public employee when it is becoming clear that when times get tough, they get blamed in the “she’s a witch” feeding frenzy.

What public employees need to do is form a separate companies based on profession (teachers, firefighters, cops etc). The company manages and trains its employees and subcontracts with local state agencies to provide service. Once said company is formed, they all quit state employment. If the state wants their services, they negotiate a contract with the company, but they are not directly employed by the state and therefore not subject to this crap that is going on now.