Updates Below

The Public Option is dead. The ‘public option’ is a euphemistic label to describe a system like the Canadian and UK government run health systems, which are in deep trouble financially and rationing care like crazy to ‘cut costs’. The UK system is selecting who is worthy of treatment every day (those mythical death panels), with one proposal lumping the sin of growing old in with those social miscreants who are overweight, smoking and drinking:

Smokers, heavy drinkers, the obese and the elderly should be barred from receiving some operations, according to doctors, with most saying the health service cannot afford to provide free care to everyone.

UK news media source here. There are some estimates the UK government health care system was responsible for the negligent death of 17,000 of that country’s citizens, creating 4 times as much carnage as car accidents in that country. This data, along with tons of other stories about the failures of the Canadian and UK government run disasters (proving President Obama’s accidental truth regarding the comparative operation of the US Post Office to its privately run competition), has not been enough to wake the liberal democrats up to the simple reality that Americans don’t want government run health care.

They can blame republicans, Rush Limbaugh or even President Obama for failing, but the fact is the liberals are pushing a concept that has been soundly rejected by Americans for over half a century:

Here’s a highlight soundbite: “The idea of all or nothing has been pursued now for nearly three decades. No one has benefitted from that.”

That was Jimmy Carter back in 1979, proposing phased-in health-care reform, creating insurance for catastrophic illness. He was opposed by Ted Kennedy and the unions who wanted to hold out for a Canadian-style single-payer system on the grounds that Carter’s plan was “too inequitable.” There were 18 million uninsured Americans then. Now there are 46 million.

That was 30 years ago  and my guess is the percentage if uninsured has not changed much, and the country has survived quite nicely since then without government health care. The government run health care ‘public option’ had been rejected for 3 decades before Carter tried. Lyndon Johnson tried and failed, Jimmy Carter tried and failed, Bill Clinton tried and failed, President Obama …  Anyone detect a pattern here?

It is independents and seniors leading the uprising against Obamacare, the wisdom, heart and center of America. It is not the conservatives doing everything (though they/we have been digging up the truth about UK and Canadian government run health care and their panels of death), which is clear because they are not getting an upswing in the polls out of all this. Americans are simply rejecting the liberals – again – as they have for 50 years on this subject. This one article seemed to catch the essence of the trouble the Liberals are in, and by extension the Democrats:

I was not intimidated during J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI hunt for reporters like me who criticized him. I railed against the Bush-Cheney war on the Bill of Rights without blinking. But now I am finally scared of a White House administration. President Obama’s desired health care reform intends that a federal board (similar to the British model) — as in the Center for Health Outcomes Research and Evaluation in a current Democratic bill — decides whether your quality of life, regardless of your political party, merits government-controlled funds to keep you alive. Watch for that life-decider in the final bill. It’s already in the stimulus bill signed into law.

Emphasis mine, you can read about this research center here. The research center concept seems pretty benign to me, but the UK and Canadian systems are quite open about their rationing, picking life styles worthy of care, rejecting people for care. It seems we have the image of the real world burnt upon the child like theories that all these panels and experts will do more than soak up tax money at conferences in exotic places while rationing health care resources. That illustrate the problem libs face, reality is trumping their fantasies. We hear the idiotic theories of Nirvana and the tooth fairy (assuming we get government run dental as well – now there’s an image!), we also see the concepts in action. We aren’t buying.

Seniors are rightfully enraged, mainly because Obama selected advisors that not only fit the liberal expectations, they have pontificated on the real hidden plan for cutting costs for years:

For another example of the growing, tumultuous resistance to “Dr. Obama,” particularly among seniors, there is a July 29 Washington Times editorial citing a line from a report written by a key adviser to Obama on cost-efficient health care, prominent bioethicist Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel (brother of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel).

Emanuel writes about rationing health care for older Americans that “allocation (of medical care) by age is not invidious discrimination.” (The Lancet, January 2009) He calls this form of rationing — which is fundamental to Obamacare goals — “the complete lives system.” You see, at 65 or older, you’ve had more life years than a 25-year-old. As such, the latter can be more deserving of cost-efficient health care than older folks.

Did we pick this vulture to lead the health care proposals? Nope – liberals did. Seniors aren’t stupid, they can read and reason.

And now the democrats and the president are paying the price in the polls. First off, no one is being snookered by all the spin, sound bites and guilt tripping:

That the novelty is wearing thin is obvious. The danger is that the health care fiasco turns him into an unpopular and ineffective President.

Those who say it can’t happen should study a recent New York Times/CBS poll. Among the lowlights:

• Sixty-nine percent believe Obamacare will hurt the quality of their own health care.
• Seventy-three percent believe they will have less access to tests and treatment.
• Sixty-two percent believe Democrats’ proposals would force them to change doctors.
• Seventy-six percent believe Obama’s changes will mean higher taxes for them.

Those are some pretty pathetic numbers. If you look at these expectations one wonders why ‘the mob’ isn’t calling for his impeachment. The Washington Post poll out today tells a similar story:

Public confidence in President Obama’s leadership has declined sharply over the summer, amid intensifying opposition to health-care reform that threatens to undercut his attempt to enact major changes to the system, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

…

Disapproval of Obama’s handling of the health-care issue reached 50 percent in the new poll, the highest of his presidency, and 42 percent of those surveyed say they now “strongly disapprove” of the way he is dealing with his main domestic priority. Views of the president’s actions on reform have dropped most sharply among seniors and independents.

Emphasis mine. The independents are the ones who are now disillusioned with President Hope & Change who promised not to be a pushy partisan. After rejecting the GOP for being too partisan, they figured the Democrats understood their mandate. But even 50 years of rejecting government run health care did not sink into those partisan zealots in DC. Independents and seniors are turning on our young president they voted into office.

According to a new Zogby poll, it is even worse:

Asked whether they approve or disapprove of the president’s job performance, just 45.3 percent of likely voters say they approve. That compares with 50.5 percent who disapprove of the job Obama is doing.

…

Of greatest concern to Obama may well be his decline among all-important independent voters. Just 37.5 percent of self-identified independents say they approve of how Obama is handling the presidency. That compares with 59.2 percent of independents who disapprove.

Pew is also showing a decline for Democrats and the President as the health care debate continues to destroy their credibility and the trust of the American people:

In the same vein, the new poll finds favorable ratings of the Democratic Party have declined sharply since spring. Just 49% now say they have a favorable view of the Democratic Party. This compares with a 59% favorable rating for the party as recently as April and 62% shortly before Obama took office in January. Opinion of the Republican Party, which stands at 40%, has not changed all year.

Again, there is a major drop off with independents. I think the most damning assessment came from Charlie Cook, the long time political observer:

For those of you not addicted to the 1:00pm EDT daily release of Gallup’s three-night moving average tracking poll, President Obama’s job approval rating in both their August 16-18 and August 17-19 averages was just 51 percent, the lowest level of his presidency. The latter sampling showed his disapproval up to 42 percent, matching his all-time low hit in the August 15-17 tracking poll. The 51% job approval rating is identical to two other polls released in recent days conducted by NBC News and the Pew Research Center. Today’s regression-based trend estimate computed by our friends at Pollster.com from all major national surveys show an approval rating of 50.7 percent and disapproval of 43.7 percent.

…

A new Gallup poll that shows Congress’ job disapproval at 70 percent among independents should provide little solace to Democrats. In the same poll, Congressional approval among independents is at 22 percent, with 31 percent approving overall, and 62 percent disapproving.

Cook is predicting at least a 12 seat loss for the Dems in the House in 2010, maybe over 20. I think it will go higher. The stimulus bill is still doing nothing for jobs (more on that in a later post), and this health care disaster is not only a failure, but a stark reminder to Americans why the dumped the liberals back in 1994.

After 50 years of America rejecting this same old garbage you would think these people would get a clue?

Update: Yep, it is all the news this morning, our young president in over his head:

The biggest problem for President Obama in today’s ABC News/Washington Post poll is this: only 49 percent of Americans are confident that he’ll “make the right decisions for the country’s future” — down from 60 percent in April.

Voters still like Obama. His overall job approval is steady at 57 percent. But they’re screaming “listen to us” and “slow down.” And they’re worried he’s getting in over his head.

Maybe that’s because he is becoming more and more incoherent:

“There is something about August going into September where everybody in Washington gets all wee weed up!”

Sorry folks, haven’t got a clue on this one. The whole thing is out of control, and it will only get worse in September. Expect a fall of lingering unemployment and growing disillusionment.

Update: Troy Senik at RCP comes to a similar conclusion:

In a hour when the nation teetered on the edge of economic collapse, when we were fighting two wars abroad and an endless rearguard mission to protect the homeland, and when America’s sense of self-assuredness was at its lowest ebb in decades, the Democratic candidate chose a message of sweet nothings. To his credit, it worked – despite being patently absurd.

…

What Obama failed to realize is that a Rorschach test no longer works when you give the painting a name. During the 2008 campaign, the concavity of his message allowed Americans of irreconcilable bearings to invest their common aspirations in him. But as the first act of his presidency has played out, he has shown himself to be anything but transcendent. Instead, he is an utterly predictable creature – a conventional liberal who mixes the weakness of Jimmy Carter with the ideological rigidity of George McGovern. And he is thus engaged in a conversation that the rest of the country concluded decades ago.

That conclusion: liberal policies are junk. And they still are junk. President Obama just could not make good on his sweat nothings, he is too liberal deep down inside, and America’s natural anti-bodies are reacting as expected (see Jay Cost’s similar take from yesterday). The jury is coming to its determination – this has been one of the worst screwed up opportunities in our history.

Update: I want to go back to Troy Senik’s article to highlight a very interesting observation he made:

And on a practical level, citizens who enjoy a world of instant convenience in everything from their music downloads to their airplane tickets aren’t willing to entertain a debate about whether it’s better to ration health care on a Soviet model or a Canadian model.

If this realization spreads, it will be more than independents and seniors rising up against the Democrats. No one wants health care to be more painful than airline travel!

Tags: Obamacare