Quote:
Originally Posted by arcdog
You are seriously lost if you think the health care reform bill is the primary thing, muchh less the only thing, keeping unemployment high. That's really lol braindead stuff.
Also loved the "perfect storm" you described that got Obama elected, when in fact 4 of the last 5 Presidential elections have seem the Democratic President receive more votes than the Republican. Just because all of your inner circle vote Republican doesnt mean the rest of the country does.
Yes, I would agree that our economic problems are much more complicated than the passage of healthcare reform. Would you agree, however, that the healthcare reform is a burden on the economy, and has likely discouraged hiring by increasing the costs of an employee to the employer? If you were an employer in a shaky economy and it suddenly became much more expensive to cover the costs of the employee, would you become more reluctant to hire?
Here is a
report from The Heritage Foundation, showing a remarkable correlation between the passage of healthcare reform, and a 90% drop in hiring (scroll down a page to see pretty graph).
The Heritage Foundation is at the very least a pro-conservative group, so the report cannot be considered unbiased. And, correlation does not mean causation. However, it is disturbing at the very least.
Here is what I would expect to be
a more unbiased report (but I don't claim that it's completely unbiased). It's produced by the
investment house UBS. Reports like these are intended to give their clients and investors insights into the markets, so its in their bests interests to be correct as their credibility as an investment house is on the line. That being said, there are a lot of crappy reports out there, and a lot of conflicts of interest. Most of them, however, are very insightful. Here's a
forum discussion about another, similar UBS report that just hits on some key points (admittedly, likely biased selections).
I personally think that it's safe to say that healthcare reform is a drag on the economy, and that it discourages hiring (and may even encourage firing). If that's the case, then it was not wise to pass such legislation until the economy was out of the woods. President Obama should either work to get the legislation repealed once he realized that the economy was not rebounding and the effect that the legislation has had on the economy (hey, one of the reasons we liked President Obama was because it seemed like he could admit when he had made a mistake, which President Bush famously could not), or if he doesn't, then we ought to look for someone who will.
And, I agree, President Obama would have won in 2008, no matter WHO the Republican candidate was (including Governor Johnson). President Obama is eloquent, ran the perfect campaign, and very successfully cast himself as being the anti-Bush (with whom most Americans were fed up, including me). In other situations, he may not have won with such a landslide. President Obama hasn't proven to be what he claimed to be, though. He had the ability and overwhelming support to bring real change, but focused on partisan legislation (like healthcare reform and favoring unions at the expense of the economy), continued the wars, continued failed fiscal policy, continued racking up debt (on OUR credit), renewed the Patriot Act, starting
assassinating American citizens (that's wrong, no matter who it is... are we a principled nation who despises tyrants who take for themselves the ability to take our lives without due process, or not?), etc., etc., etc..
Elect Governor Gary Johnson. He has a
record that PROVES that he is real change. He isn't some unknown with no political record who can claim that he's whatever the moment needs. He's someone with experience, and
he's PRINCIPLED. Almost to a fault. You'll know exactly who you're electing, and what he'll do in office. No questions. No surprises. Honest, principled leadership. Isn't that what we've always hoped for? If you're a Republican, then vote for Governor Gary Johnson. If you're a Democrat or Independent (like me), then declare Republican and vote for Governor Johnson in the primaries, and you can undeclare or switch affiliations after that.
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