Posted on 05/19/2009 11:58:50 AM PDT by RatherBiased.com
Barack Obama is making an enormous mistake on the most important initiative of his presidency. In recent weeks, Obama has stressed that health care reform is the essential ingredient for the success of his economic recovery plan. Yet the president, easily the most gifted White House communicator since Ronald Reagan, has the message all wrong. [snip]
He has said the same thing on many other occasions, almost always stressing the threat of runaway cost. When Obama talks health care, it's cost, cost, cost.
But that's not what people want to hear, or at least not all they want to hear. Of course they complain about the expense of medical treatment, but controlling cost is not their top health care concern.
"Americans will prioritize cost over quality right up until the moment they realize that it's their quality that they are sacrificing," writes the Republican pollster Frank Luntz in "The Language of Healthcare 2009," a brilliant new analysis of the public's health care concerns that also serves as a roadmap for defeating Obamacare. Basing his conclusions on extensive polling and focus-group research, Luntz writes that the public is very worried that a government takeover of health care -- Obamacare -- will result in politicians and government bureaucrats making decisions about what kind of care patients will receive and when they will receive it.
"Nothing else turns people against the government takeover of healthcare more than the realistic expectation that it will result in delayed and potentially even denied, treatment, procedures and/or medications," Luntz writes. "When asked which was a higher priority -- spending less on healthcare or being treated in a timely fashion -- timely treatment beat cost almost unanimously."
(Excerpt) Read more at dev.www.washingtonexaminer.com ...
So this is a test for the GOP as much as it is anyone else. Americans hate and fear even a sense of personal powerlessness more than just about anything else.
Most important initiative of his Presidency? Huh!?
With his Porkulus, Omnibus Spending Bill and his Budget, Obama has already set us on the road to the bankruptcy of the United States of America. Healthcare is just frosting on the cake.
It's amazes me, how destructive Obama and the Congressional Democrats have been and how little response there has been from the opposition party.
Since when do liberals deal in facts?
I remain doubtful also but Zero has spent alot of capital in the first 100 days.
His lapdogs will always be there but those in Republican leaning districts in the house have got to be getting very nervous with some of the generic polling coming out.
I pray for an over-reach on this that gets us back within striking distance of the House leadership for 2012.
Why people regard this fool as such a “great communicator” is completely beyond me. It’d be as if you called a guy holding a gun pointed at your head a “great communicator” because you’ve very, very likely to do what he says.
"Yet the TOTUS, easily the most gifted White House communicator since Ronald Reagan..."
.....more accurate
Republicans will beat Obama on health care, because they will propose a much better leftist oriented bill that they can get behind. That is the model for what the Republican party has become.
When liberals talk about “universal health care” they mean
universally RATIONED health care.
I think he's right.
Actually, the opposition voted 100% against his budget bills, cap and trade might be in the toilet, Guantanamo doesn't look like it's closing.
IF the GOP can defeat socialized health care in addition to all that, I would say they've done extremely well.
Rationing is coming -- outright denial, based on age, infirmity, quality of life expectancy is almost guaranteed, they are already discussing this. People who are going to buy the line that they are going to be getting the same health care/treatment that the rich, privileged will be getting are fooling themselves, have paid no attention whatever to how these systems have played out over the centuries all over the world.
This is going to be the ultimate example of "Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it."
You think Porkulus and Omnibus were bad? This healthcare initiative, if passed, will change everything.
As in Europe, gov. healthcare changes the relationship between the people and the state. In Canada, elections are all about who will provide better services. No talk about “silly” American values freedom and liberty.
This is the big one. It must be defeated.
Agreed. Without that stupid teleprompter, a 2-minute sentence takes 3 hours of "uhhhs", pauses, and "umms".
I wonder if The First Thug's favorite movie is "Logan's Run". No pesky old people over the age of 30 to deal with, no one's "punished wit da bebe", etc.
The rationing will not be instituted immediately, some time will pass before the first person denied treatment is discovered and the story told by the lamestream.
I will tell you, I already heard the "live with it" line back in 1998. It took nine years of going from one physician to another before finally finding a surgeon who understood my problem -- and even then, I had to wait almost six months for my turn at the operating room, I have some permanent damage due to that delay. Ted Kennedy waited two weeks after he was diagnosed. We were not treated differently because he is a senator with a better health plan than I have, the simple difference is that his surname is KENNEDY and my Irish-Catholic surname is not.
I was listening to him discuss this with Hugh Hewitt. Even Byron was doubtful. He and Hugh agreed that the only way to fight it is to make it clear to Joe Six-Pack the exact impact of this program. He said Michael Steele going on Meet the Press and saying "it's too expensive" will not get it done.
After my wife was badgered by a “NJ Workforce” auditor today, I came to the realization of something:
-Neither religion or the “average Joe” are the cause of the world’s problems. It’s GOVERNMENT!
-Who is responsible for wars, famines, neglect, oppression and tyranny? The government!
I’ll tell you this, GOVERNMENT is the arrogant force behind 99% of the world’s problems!
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