Once again, the irrepressible Jerry Haslip has given us another load of misinformation (BR Star 12-4). He claims (unnamed) polls show ‘moderate independents’ are ‘jumping ship’ on ObamaCare.
According to a recent CNN poll, 53% of those polled think ObamaCare will be a successful program, while less than 33% thought it would fail (and all of those who thought it would fail were willing to say they were Republicans). That means that all Democrats and Independents think it will succeed or are willing to give it a chance.
The main problems have so far been with the website. I have read that in California, the Republicans have put up a false ObamaCare website to misdirect and misinform people. That indicates that they are very afraid that it will be too successful. I looked at one website that listed numerous whoppers about ObamaCare, followed by a one-question poll asking if ObamaCare should be defunded. Not surprisingly, about 2/3 said ‘defund.’ But I have seen reports indicating how ObamaCare has already helped folks save lots of money on health care insurance. Many of them had previously been rejected because of preexisting conditions. These are folks who desperately need health insurance and ObamaCare has already helped them. To get an idea about how popular the program might be, one need only look to Massachusetts, where RomneyCare (the ObamaCare model) is indeed very popular.
On Mr. Haslip’s other issue, the ‘nuclear option’ on the filibuster, he is again misinforming us. The change in the filibuster rules only affects judicial and administration nominees, with all other legislation subject to the old rules. Republicans have completely blocked all court nominees, regardless of qualifications. Almost all of these nominees have been non-controversial. As a result, the courts have become so backlogged it has become a serious problem. Justice delayed is justice denied. Republicans have even filibustered the nomination of the assistant undersecretary of personnel. Let’s face reality! Obstruction is not a reasonable way to legislate.
In the past, the filibuster was rarely used and only used on large, controversial legislation. Since the election of President Obama, almost all legislation and nominees are filibustered. Obstruction is not a reasonable legislative program. It is important for our democratic system of government to have at least two functional political parties to allow active and vigorous debate of the important issues of the day. When one of the parties just says ‘no’ all the time, there is no real debate. It’s a lot like trying to run the government with a bunch of cranky two-year-olds.
Toddy Perryman
Corvallis