"When things really fall apart I think the Nation will turn hard Right - guess we'll see"
Yeah it looks that way since hard right seems to be the ones making all the noise these days. What they fail to realize is that everyone from left to right want fiscal responsibility and less government intrusion. The current problems didn't start with Obama, he inherited it yet the right want to attribute all of it to Obama.
In the 20 of the past 29 years we had a conservative administration - Reagan, Bush I, Bush II. Reagan tripled the deficit, Bush II doubled the deficit. The only President during this time to actually reduced the deficit and created a surplus was Clinton.
As for healthcare there are 2 options - do nothing and let it get worse. Do something and stop the bleeding. The latter would cost much less than the former. The tactic used by the right & healthcare lobby are the same tactics used 16 years ago against Clinton's initiative. The healthcare reform should be a bipartisan effort but unfortunately one side is hell bent on killing the bill through fear and misinformation. How can the other side seek middle ground?
Hats off to former CIGNA executive Wendell Potter for blowing the whistle on his former colleagues. 16 years ago he was the industry executive who led the coalition that successfully killed the last attempt at for a healthcare bill.
We are the only country in the world with a for-profit healthcare. According to WHO we spend $4,187 per capita on healthcare and ranked 54th in the world healthcare in financial fairness of healthcare received. We are ranked 24th in overall healthy among developed nations. Ignore the problem now and like the deficit it would be much worse a few years from now. The right with a presumption of America being #1 in everything need to get a grip on reality.
