Muscatine

so is it not true that in both cases the only losers were the American people. definitely was not the corporations. the bankers and investors got their money.  who gets stuck paying for all these bailouts, the American people. So let me get this straight. our representatives and the president pass these bills in the name of helping the American people. Then it collapses (in the case of the banking fiasco) and what happens next, we reward them with giant bailout money and the American people get the shaft. in the case of of the free trade agreements they do the same thing, by passing bills in the name of helping the American people, and what happens,we lose all of our good manufacturing jobs. Also the best job based health insurance. So the corporations made out like bandits and once again the American people pay for it. 

   So who do the representatives represent obvious not the American people! So now you want us to allow these people to mess with the health care system, C'mon now really, you can't be serious. these people don't run the government like they run their businesses and everything they touch gets worse.

   People come from all over the world for our medical treatment and our universities. why would we want to change that.

    Hey I got an ideal, lets raise the tariffs on imports and lower the taxes on domesticated made products and see if the jobs and insurance come back. Lets pass bills that require companies importing to America to meet  EPA, occupational and minimum wage requirements equal or greater than the U.S.. What something wrong with protecting the citizens of this great nation, is that not what their job is!!!

Mobay, our elected officials work only for those that have something to offer them....campaign contributions, etc,....special services ...like sen. dodd got on his mortgage...definitely not something us normal folk would have gotten....money is power...and to those in washington power is everything.

clintons healthcare plan was nothing more than a dog and pony show...they knew it wouldnt pass, but got the opportunity to say "we tried our damnedest for ya"....and used it to get relected..........just like the republicans contract with america...great theory if they would have continued to build on it......during Bushs' time in the white house ... our conservative friends became wishy washy....hell even Rush Limbaugh has been beating up on them for quite sometime....they are finally starting to show some backbone now...

mobay,

You make some valid points. However, you're operating from the false assumption that the healthcare reform movement aims to replace existing health care and it is not. It's simply another alternative to what is already available. Choice is good in a free market, no? How many times does it have to be said: "If you like the health care you currently have, you can keep it." The purpose of reform is to make sure that there is an affordable and accessible choice for all Americans. It's simply intended to control the costs to make it more affordable.

Certainly, we have a track record of government screwing things up in this country and we should be wary, but I don't think anybody involved ever thought it would be a simple process without disagreement.  But just doing nothing because of past failures is not an acceptable alternative at this point.

And tariffs? I don't think China would like that very much and they, unfortunately, control far to much of our debt for us to piss them off. They may decide to cash in. While I would love to see something done to level our trade deficit, I'm afraid that horse has already left the barn, mobay. In my opinion, we need to focus on what we can fix now like health care costs and plan for the other issues as they come up for re-negotiation.

"Choice is good in a free market, no? How many times does it have to be said: "If you like the health care you currently have, you can keep it."

Yep, you can keep it....for maybe about a year, if your lucky.  Until the insurance company folds or goes out of the health insurance business.  If you don't understand that it is the Dems' objective to eliminate private health insurance by making it impossible to compete, you are foolhardy.   Look, the Obamanites are hell bent on socializing everything they can because that is the way to garner and retain power at the federal level.   Just like  Obamer's friends Chavez, Castro, Zelaya, etc. are doing and have done.  Hell, he's more of a Marxist than a socialist.  Read about him and his wife and what they studied, wrote, who they associated with and admired, and how they have lived and you will understand this.