Quote:
Originally Posted by Bond
Back on topic, it's hard for anyone to have a frank and honest discourse about health care reform when: a) hardly anyone understands the health care and insurance industry and b) no one has read the proposed bills. I don't think that most people realize that the majority of bills that are passed through the Senate are never read. The Stimulus Package? Passed in under twenty-four hours. The Patriot Act? Voted positively on by the keyword "Patriot."
The above, in my view, is what drives coverage of irrelevant issues, such as the "Birthers," such as Michael Jackson, etc.
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You would recognize this as a problem, then, correct? Listening to the town halls today, one of the major things I noticed was that there were 5 bills that people were trying to comment on. Of course people are going to mix up the policies in the bills.
It comes to the point that the town halls are utterly useless because there is nothing to discuss because the "out" for the politician is always "hey, we're not even out of the committee yet and there is a lot of work to do" or "Thats not MY bill"... Then why are they having a town hall meeting in the first place to push an incomplete or non-accountable plan?
People leave more confused and distrusting then when they walked in. Politicians still don't seem to understand that their constituents take their healthcare very seriously and are going to demand clarity and transparency before they'll support anything as a majority. This isn't some process bill or whether or not to increase taxes on the rich that people will accept the Cliff's Notes on. It hits home for every American and those politicians supporting the public option are still refusing to treat the subject with the seriousness that the voter is demanding. I think people feel disrespected and the anger is VERY real.
This is the greatest failure of communications and leadership I've seen in government since... well... the last time they tried to push through a healthcare bill. Even then, our leaders NEVER talked down to the American people as they are now, dismissing them as ignoramuses, sycophants, racists or worse.