Like vicious dogs that have slipped their collars, these corporations do not want to be restricted again, will do anything to maintain their current status. They are dangerous. I now fear that the the lies and rhetoric promoted by the corporations and there shill pundits are moving us closed to open conflict in the form of a civil war.

Mr Obama is working very hard within the current system to restore some sanity to government policy. HE may put forth his ideas to the legislature and the public, but without the support in the legislature, such plans are worthless.

The strategy of the health care industry has been a form of info terrorism, scaring the people into a revolution against the duly elected government.

The background noise of lies and accusations being broadcast as gospel truth is an aggression by the corporations against the consumers, a war that may well destroy our democracy.

Yet even well educated people are falling into lockstep with the message of the corporations, blaming Obama for the indecisiveness of the lawmakers.

Now if you can actually imagine that happening, then you can see a way toward this thing working.

Jay, consider: there are people right now saying “If this thing passes, my faith in the system will be severely damaged.”

Why would anyone think that Medicare is anything other than a government run healthcare program? Because the far right has somehow posited it as such.

So, let’s look at the facts:

The Republicans opposed Social Security in the 1930s, calling it “Communism” and “Socialism.”

The Republicans opposed Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s, calling it “Communism” and “Socialism.”

The Republicans oppose a public option in 2009, calling it “Communism” and “Socialism.”

Strike three! Yer out!

It is interesting also to note that people have been successfully sued for libel, defamation or slander when someone else called them a “Communist.” Perhaps some might turn down the rhetoric, or face the consequences.

As for Social Security and Medicare, if we eliminate the income ceilings on the rich for paying taxes to support Social Security and Medicare, problem solved!

Sometimes you wonder how much power the megacorps of this country can wield, we are finding out right now.

I know you’re impatient, but it has become abundantly clear that we (you and I) will not get what we want. To do reform right will require a complete overhaul of a system most people seem unwilling to engage in revolution to fix. I think he knows that. If he goes all out now with he own plan, whatever it is, in the current climate he will be shot to pieces and might end up being a one-term president. Cynical, I know, but that’s how I see what he’s doing.

Unlike his predecessor, Obama knows that the stability of our government depends on the executive leaving the creation of laws to the lawmakers in congress.

Tell your Senators and representatives what you do and don’t want to see in the bill. It is a distraction to protest to the president about this issue.

In the White House proposal, I see that there won’t be any “rationing” of health care. This makes me suspicious, because in my mind there MUST be rationing one way or the other, unless we were to live in a world where doctor services and medical supplies were free. You point about nursing home care is a good one, in my eyes. Such care is mind-boggling bankruptingly ghastly. How would we afford it in the real world? For “everyone”? I don’t believe it.

I sometimes fantasize that I lived in a place where the citizens and their representatives could have an intelligent discussion about the national proposal. But no, we don’t even discuss a highly charged issue of whether illegal aliens are covered under the bill until a boorish man shouts “You lie!” at the President.

I think that we’re afraid to have an intelligent discussion where people say what they mean and they get to the point. Every time I see a 1,000 page bill I am certain that it could have been shorter but that it was made long and complicated to obfuscate and to allow those with power and money to game the system. I’m suspicious of both the vagueness and the sheer complexity of the proposals.

As frustrated as I am with the left, the calloused attitudes of many on the right disgust me. What are we going to do about poor people who are sick? I’ve heard far too many version of “screw them” from people advocating “small government,” even though they sat their silently when we blew through trillions of dollars for the Iraq adventure and the economic “bailout.”

Here’s what annoys me the most: The public conversation is nothing like the private conversations of the big players who will really be pulling the strings. Imaging listening in on private conversations involving A) groups of Senators or B) Groups of insurance executives or C) groups of drug company executives. If you tape recorded their private conversations and published them in a big newspaper, my conviction is that they would be horrified because it wouldn’t comport with the public positions being taken.

One good rule of thumb is to follow the money. But I suspect that the system is being intentionally designed to make it difficult to follow the money.