who is "they"? it seems to me at least obama is willing to take this on, depsite the blue dog dems and the republicans. if people were HONEST, most would acknowledge we need reform, as you did. instead, what we have is more fear mongering and outright lies (euthanasia?) being thrown around.
we will never get anywhere unless we actually start the car.
Here's the issue, and I'm going to try to be polite and open minded in this and hope you respond back likewise.
Very few people I think believe the health car industry is perfect. I'd say a majority of people feel that reform of some kind must be done.
However...there is not just one way to do reform. Additionally, doing SOMETHING doesn't always equal doing something that helps.
Yes, Obama wants reform. In a general sense, there is agreement with that. However, the issue is what and how he wants to reform things. His ideas of reform, currently, seem to be more government oversight, more government involvement, and more public options (not even going to get into the discussion of all public or not, we'll just stick with this). He believes it seems the issue is that insurance companies are running amock, raising prices because of greed and unregulation, while Doctors are pushing forward unneeded procedures for many people. At the same time he feels there are too many uninsured people and that getting insurance between jobs is difficult.
Now, some of those problems he could find common ground in I'm sure. Getting more people insured is something I doubt many on either side dislikes. Ditto with possibly bringing down the cost of health care.
The issue however is not whether people want reform or not, but HOW.
For the past 6 or so years we heard many people on the left complain and criticize George Bush's "You're either with us or you're against us" mentality. You're either for the War in iraq or you're against america. You're either for the War on Terrorism or you're helping terrorism. Etc.
Yet now many on the left, either knowingly or unknowingly, are doing this exact same thing. You're either for heavily government involved health care or you're against reform (with some in this forum even actually saying or you're unamerican).
What? Really? How is this any less ludicrous then when Bush and his people were doing that kind of tactic? Why is it that when one side is in power there is this immediete notion that somehow there is no reasonable, patriotic, intelligent way to actually think DIFFERENT than the other side? When have we became a people who can't go "Well, I disagree with you on your conclussion, but I respect the fact there can be multiple opinions on a matter"?
The crux here is not that most Republicans are against reform, but in the HOW. Many want tort reform, to bring down the amount of frivilous lawsuits with people trying to become millionaires off honest and sometime unhelpfable medical mistakes. Some wish to remove health care from a federal thing, letting states deal with on the basis of what the needs may most be in a particular state. Others would like to see, if we're going to do something with regulation, DE-regulation so that ala carte options can be done so those who can't/don't wish to spend a lot on coverage can get plans with only things they need. Others would want perhaps a tax rebate that can go specifically to purchasing your own insurance outside of your employers. It goes on and on.
Are all these things full proof? Absolutely not. There's critics to all of them; but there are also proponents to all of them too. Legitimate ones on both sides. At the same time however, there are ALSO critics (and proponents) of all the various things Democrats wish to do for reform.
Ultimately it comes down to opinion, and personal philosophy, and which members of the field of experts you put the most stock in...but to say either side is somehow without a doubt absolutely impossible and you're an idiot to think that way, like some seem to imply, is simply wrong. You may think that the things the other side wants to do are harmful, bad, and are going to lead to bad results...but you have to realize you're doing so based on your own opinion, supported by whatever facts, but realize also that you're position is no better supported in practice then theirs. I highly doubt people on either side, at least on the voter level, are generally going "mwhahaha, I want to destroy america, I hate poor people, everyone should suffer, mwhahaha"
So we come to this bill...
As I was saying above, most of America I believe feels some kind of reform is needed. The PROBLEM comes in the fact that many feel that the WAY in which President Obama and the democrats want to reform it will actually produce MORE problems for our country and for our health care system then no reform.
Think of it as a car with a bad engine. Its not running very smooth, but its running. You have two mechanics, both have two seperate ways to fix the car and the majority of both their ways are in dire contrast to how the other would do it (leaving little middle ground). Mechanic 1 doesn't want Mechanic 2 to try and fix the car, even though it could use fixing, because he believes that what he's going to try to do to fix it will actually cause it more damage making it run even LESS smooth...and vise versa for Mechanic 2. In that situation, they feel that doing SOMETHING, if it is the wrong something, is WORSE than doing nothing. That does not mean that ultimately what they want to do is nothing however.
That is what is happening here. Republicans and some Blue Dogs feel that this reform will not help, but harm, the country financially and the health care system in this country. While they are not happy with how it is currently, they are fighthing this because they feel it would be worse.
Now you ask, why not push for something else?
Because frankly its not practical. Yes, some republicans have stated what they'd prefer to see happen but its not pratical to expect a major plan to be pushed. Why? Becasue you have a President in power whose made the kind of health care he wants one of the center pieces of his election and a congress that has a number of high ranking members who did so as well. You have a republican minority in both houses. The ability to truly put forth an alternative plan, going back the other way, and it having ANY traction is zero to none.
Due to this, the best way to focus their efforts is to stop this bill. I say stop instead of compromise because true compromise is not going to really be able to happen here. Compromise so far has essentially been slightly watering down the democratic parties proposals, which is not so much a compromise but a weakening of their side. Conservatives aren't getting a good deal of their hopeful reforms in, and the general premise that they feel is so dangerous...further government involvement in health care...is at the very heart of the bill, its not going anywhere. So to vote for this, even as a compromise bill, would be to essentially go agaisnt their principles which in turn would be going against the vast majority of voters that put them in office in teh first place...and are they not there to represent their constituents? Then how exactly would be going along with something that, at its very core, is antithetical to the principles they were elected into office on? And it appears, through all of this, that that one core piece of the legislation is not going to be diluted and scaled back enough through compromise to make it acceptable to both sides.
So please, disagree with Republicans on their desired ways to do reform. Be annoyed if one of your representitives is one of those people fighting this if you want them to pass it. But please, do not try and push this notion that republicans do not want reform simply based off the fact that they do not agree with President Barack Obama on how that reform must happen.