I was reading through the comments thinking that the thing that has struck me most about the whole situation is the unrelenting opposition (on the part of friends and family, at least) to health care reform- period.

They are so afraid of this bill that it has tainted the idea of any potential change. That’s not a good attitude to take, but they have- they’ve literally shut down to any reasonable alternatives as Maladjusted mentioned above.

BTW, I meant to compare Grenville to the Obama administration more than another European – ha!

Thank you for for taking the time to put these up.

I have (quickly) read all of these, and am inspired to look further into the issues.

It’s true that I still don’t entirely understand the argument, but I am definitely getting more of a sense of what’s going on here. (Can’t be a bad thing.) Also, I will definitely now seek out more material on this in the hope that I might more reasonably sort out propaganda (from either side) from facts.

I do feel a little guilty at making you take the time to do this, but then I also know that I’m not the only fan of your blog who is neither an American, nor a supporter of the GOP. As always, the fact that you will attempt to communicate your on these matters rather than simply taking an easy: “who cares what random crypto-socialist foreigners” think does you credit.

Hope you’re well and that the hands are back to normal.

-Mal

http://www.reason.com/news/show/135127.html

Now Reason.com is quite obviously libertarian, but you can find the Heritage Foundation – yes, they’re right-wing, but they’re not making stuff up – arguing pretty much the same thing. Talking points of theirs:

http://www.heritage.org/Press/FactSheet/fs0036.cfm

The general argument is not that health care reform isn’t needed; the argument is that what is being proposed – as reason puts it, a government takeover of at least 1/5 of the economy is neither desirable nor feasible. Even without health care reform, this is how the US deficit is shaping up this year compared to the Bush years:

http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/74459/

That projected deficit for this year is more of a deficit than all the Bush years combined, w/o any health care reform. This is government on a scale we’re not used to, for priorities that not all of America agrees with; the South, which is pretty much all red states, is 40% of the armed forces:

http://www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/cda08-05.cfm

Now that’s pretty much all Heritage. Other links detailing the numbers and whether or not this is even feasible are at the WSJ, and there is a potent argument at other places that European systems have been piggybacking off of American innovation for some time and rationing it. Again, the argument continues that if one closes off even what little of a private sector we have, we won’t even have that much.

More links, but I think you’ve seen these before:

How is this all gonna get paid for? Oh yeah, rich people, I forgot about that — http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124779717982855785.html

Do the President’s numbers add up? Of course not, and that’s a major reason why a lot of people are very angry. There absolutely is a feeling on the Right that they’ve been excluded from anything like rational debate, not just now, but for the hammering they’ve been taking for 8 years — http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/obamacare-gets-a-red-light-from-cbo/

If you want more links, or links from different sources, ask and we’ll look. But yeah, the anger is palpable. Quite a few of us feel that the Democrats actually caused the subprime mess – they were receiving top dollar in donations from Freddie Mac & Fannie Mae – and we know they’re not above bankrupting this country, or the world, for a few of their constituents. It’s very difficult to work with people you don’t trust, esp. when you don’t feel they’ll take bullets for you (and if you’ve met some of the liberals on campus here, the ones that have jobs in the Obama admin now, well).

Oh, on Democratic party donations – a few political scientists will say the Republicans are the party of the rich –

http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/list.php?order=A

You can take this as a confession of ignorance, but I’m just getting the feeling that most people here think that the bill is obviously disastrous and needs to be opposed (not amended but rejected, as one of the impassioned citizens in the video says), but rejected out of hand: no health care reform for the U.S.? Why is this? Is the system really so good? Could you perhaps post some links to some good arguments for the opposition that won’t make (liberal press reading foreigners) like myself beleive the lines about right-wing conspiracy?

I am reluctant to hold back on some criticisms of the Right, for this reason: a lot of people who are into far more extreme activities are using the better activists as cover. And I’m wondering where on earth was the concern for purging that element years before.

I think there’s a very good chance this health bill is sunk. cf:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/horseraceblog/2009/07/obamas_tactical_mistake.html