I just listened to a town hall meeting Obama had in a supermarket I think, on his health care plan. He is taking questions from every age group and answering peoples fears about his plan.

I am convinced from his words that people are not listening to him, they are listening to the propaganda and fear mongering from those hired by the insurance companies to prevent his plan. I'm not going to type everything that was said.

It's each of our responsibility to find out what he is trying to do, in stead of parroting what the nah sayers are passing off as the truth. If we are getting the spin from the news folks that are against his plan we are not getting the truth. Unless of course we believe he is simply a bald faced liar, in that case we won't be convinced of anything and we will suffer along with the insanely expensive system we have now until only the rich are served by the health system.

Nothing Obama is saying is even remotely close to what I have been hearing. The fear tactics are the same tactics I thought the American people were tired of, yet the politicians are still using them I guess because they believe fear works. Sadly they might be right.

Boo you are absolutely correct. I feel the exact same way.

The thing that is really freaking me out is how can some of these Senators or Congressmen attack the Reform Plan right after Obama speaks and tell LIE after LIE to the News Inerviewer.

Obama: The Sky is Blue, that will be good for everyone.
Senator: Obama wants to turn the sky Socialist RED.
Obama: Blue sky will be healthier for everyone.
Senator: In the Obama plan, you won't be healthy, they are going to KILL YOU.
Obama: Seniors will especially enjoy the blue sky.
Senator: You must Pick your form of DEATH.

This is getting really wacky.

God Help us All.

Promising a blue sky and getting a blue sky are mutually exclusive. He can't fund his plan, so its pointless spouting whats so good about it.

Obama would have already had his health care reform if there hadn't been a public option in the plan. Amtrak and the Post Office are great examples of what always happens when government gets involved.

http://mingle2.com/topic/show/237182

Your right. Let's continue to let the successful private sector Insuarance companies run YOU into bankruptcy:

Ed Hanway of CIGNA has announced his retirement at the end of the year, and the living will be easy, financially at least. He made $11.4 million in 2008, according to The Associated Press, and some years more than that.

That's a lot, although he lags behind Ron Williams, the CEO of Aetna Insurance, who made $17.4 million last year, or John Hammergren, the head of McKesson, the biggest health-care company in the world. His compensation was $29.7 million.

The #1 reason for bankruptcy in America, responsible for more than half of bankruptcies filed nation-wide, happens to be ill or failing health.

These events can wipe you out even if you are reasonably well off.

Our health care is the best in the world.The only reason Obama is getting mixed up in it is because it is one of the last things the liberals have yet to screw up in this country and can't wait to get their hands on it.Obama himself said that medicare was on it's way to going bankrupt so why on earth would he want to add millions of more people to the roster to a system which he admits is on it's way to a slow death?I can't begin to imagine the fraud,waste,and abuse that will result as Americans go to doctors in record numbers for the slightest problem thinking they are sick.Speaking of doctors...how are the doctors going to deal with the addition of 14 million new patients?This is like taking away Fed ex and UPS and telling everyone they have to go to the post office from now on.Can anyone say 6 week wait for a doctor?A lot of people don't see a doctor because they know they have to pay for it and it keeps a lot of people out of the hospitals.Having a free pass will not give anyone any reasons not to stay home and sleep it off like they would probably normally do.

If this is such a great idea how come nobody from any other countries has supported this plan.I have not heard a single person or a representive from another country saying this is a good idea.I have heard a lot of people from other countries saying it was a bad idea and how their countries helth care system sucks.

Right on buddy!
He can't fund any of his plan in TRILLIONS, so it's pointless spouting whats so good about it.

Ya, it's so much easier to lie ones a$$ off. Heaven forbid one actually listens. So the president has to travel all accross the country to speak to people in person because they aren't paying attention other wise, or they believe the paid advertisments that are clearly fear tactics by those with a vested interest in keeping things the way they are. He made some great suggestions how to stop the waste people experience with repeat tests etc that would cut costs etc. Oh well all this is wasted here.

With dead line moved to september, that gives the republicans and democrats against it the time to spend millions of dollars to scare the crap out of people all through August on commercials. Have you seen any of them yet? Their well done, if you scare easy.

No of course not, we aren't smart enough in this country to fund it. Just what the insurers and others want you to think.

Do you even know what the public option means?

Typical, let someone post arguments against democrats or liberals and most of the time they defend their opinions only by lamely claiming FEAR tactics or blaming it on Bush. If that doesn't work, they then try to insult their intelligence.

Thanks for the laugh....

Hmm public option = taxpayer subsodized insurance
Like medicare, and thats working just great.

The Medicare Ponzi Scheme
John Stossel co-anchor ABC NEWS "20/20"

Isn't it high time America did less for the elderly? A politically incorrect question for sure. But Medicare has an astounding $34-trillion unfunded liability (http://tinyurl.com/72bm5h). And because of rising unemployment, its hospital-stay program will go broke two years earlier than previously predicted.

For my recent ABC special "You Can't Even Talk About It" (http://tinyurl.com/ryd3co), I spoke with residents of La Posada, a development in Florida that made Forbes's list of top 10 "ritzy" retirement communities. These folks are well off. And they get a bonus: You pay for most of their health care under Medicare.

The retirees love it. Everyone likes getting free stuff. And Medicare often makes going to the doctor just about free.

Why is this a good thing?

"What about those young people [who pick up the tab]? What kind of legacy are we leaving for them?" asks Harvard Business School Professor Regina Herzlinger. "We're really stealing from them."

Some high-school students are alarmed about the scam. "20/20" interviewed a group that is willing to help needy seniors — they volunteer at a food bank — but they are angry that Medicare forces them to pay for even wealthy seniors.

"This program, Medicare, is essentially ripping my generation off," Zach Hadaway said.

Policy experts say the kids are right.

"The government spends around $6 on seniors for every dollar it spends on children, and yet the poverty rate among children is far higher," said Andrew Biggs of the American Enterprise Institute (www.aei.org).

The federal government stiffs the young in favor of the old.

So I told the La Posada seniors that the kids called them "greedy geezers." They said, "We've paid our dues." Money was taken from every paycheck they earned.

But, in fact, the average Medicare beneficiary today collects two to three times more money than he paid in.

"I would argue that this is not only unfair, it's downright immoral," says billionaire Pete Peterson.

Peterson is a rarity: a senior who decided he cannot in good conscience accept Medicare. He and his foundation (www.pgpf.org) worry about the looming fiscal disaster.
When Medicare began in 1965, six working-aged people paid for each Medicare recipient. Now the figure is four. It will get worse as baby boomers like me retire.

Medicare is unsustainable.

"There is $34 trillion sitting off the balance sheet, waiting for future generations to pay," Herzlinger said.

That's how much more Medicare money government has promised than it has budgeted. It's the price of about 30 Iraq Wars.

We locked up Bernie Madoff for running a Ponzi scheme. Medicare is a bigger one. Seniors think the money deducted from their paychecks was stored in a trust fund. But, in fact, it was spent immediately. The "trust fund" is an accounting gimmick.

The giant seniors' lobbying group, AARP (www.aarp.org), rarely talks about Medicare's coming bankruptcy, and it rejects reforms like means-testing or raising the eligibility age, claiming most problems can be solved simply by lowering health-care costs.

"Do things like make better use of health information technology," David Certner, AARP's director of legislative policy, told me.

The Congressional Budget Office says such reforms won't save much money.

"Well, they're going to have to," Certner said.

That sounds like wishful thinking — not unusual among powerful lobbies that ignore basic economics. When something is free for one group, demand runs wild, pushing up prices for those who must pay for themselves and the subsidized group.

On top of that, the demographic problem Peterson emphasizes won't go away, no matter how cleverly the "fix health care" argument tries to bury it. Fewer workers per retiree means shrinking Medicare tax revenues — period — even if health-care costs are flat.

"Ultimately, somebody's going to have to give up some medical treatment they'd been getting," Peterson says.

Our group of seniors had second thoughts after we spoke. "I hear what the kids are saying," a man said, "When they get to be our age, there may not be any Medicare."

"Tell them to change the law," one said. "If the kids can get the votes, then they can get it done."

Fat chance. The elderly vote on Medicare.

Most young people don't even know they're getting ripped off.

John Stossel is co-anchor of ABC News' "20/20" and the author of "Myth, Lies, and Downright Stupidity." To find out more about John Stossel and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2009 BY JFS PRODUCTIONS, INC.

DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.

Back to Boo's Original post:

It is obvious that John Stossel many of the posters on this thread are not paying attention to what the President is saying.

People have ideas stuck in their heads and can't seem to listen.

People are spreading fear and propaganda.

Don't be afraid.

Aloha

It's one thing to listen to what Obama is saying.
But if you start reading the bill congress is working on it's not the same thing.

All I hear is one side saying: "This is in the plan and it is terrible" or the other side saying: "Things cannot continue as they are."

If anyone can clearly explain Obama's plan, I think that would go a long way to reaching an accord.

Once again, a poster didn't post any legitimate debate that shows otherwise.

Obama is trying to explain but he is fighting those that want to keep it the way it is, it's like screaming in the middle of a concert, no one can hear over opposition.

Ya go ahead and tell young basically healthy people that old people are stealing from them, and watch them over react and jump on the bandwagon of those in oposition, because it's far easier than doing their own listening to.

If you want to know Obama's plan than for heaven sakes tune into it on cspan or find the transcript. Listen to him answer the fears that are out there.

Sorry I am so so sick of those poopooing this plan yet ask others to post the opposite position. If I have to get my own information, so do you. I told you where to look, now you have to get up and go look.