Obama's Fall Continues

According to Rasmussen's latest poll 46% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance. That’s the lowest level of total approval yet measured for Obama. Fifty-three percent (53%) now disapprove.
Additionally,

It is important to remember that the Rasmussen Reports job approval ratings are based upon a sample of likely voters. Some other firms base their approval ratings on samples of all adults. President Obama's numbers are always several points higher in a poll of adults rather than likely voters. That's because some of the President's most enthusiastic supporters, such as young adults, are less likely to turn out to vote.

Government Run Health Care: Native American Test Case

While guaranteed full health care coverage by the federal government, many Native Americans living on reservations are unhappy with the services they are provided. If you want to know what a single payer government run health care system would look like just take a look at how the federal government provides services to Native Americans. Suffice to say it is not very good.

For a full description of this program and its results see my article in American Affairs at Suite 101.

Conservation is Conservative

Stumbled across this organization the other day. Forward thinking groups like this are what a revitalized conservative party needs. From their site:

Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP) is a national grassroots organization dedicated to resurrecting the Republican Party’s great conservation tradition and strengthening its commitment to the responsible stewardship of our environment and natural resources.

REP is based on the idea that Conservation is Conservative® and that dedicated Republicans can and should be dedicated conservationists. We work to advance the original conservative philosophy that compels us to be good stewards of our great American heritage—clean air, clean water, wildlife, and wild lands.

Americans want their elected representatives to be good stewards. The liberals are winning because conservatives have allowed them to seize the stewardship mantle and to claim that only they care about the environment.

Reclaiming that stewardship mantle is an important key to broadening our party’s appeal and winning elections. It is a path to victory that does not require compromising conservative values, just rediscovering them.

As the Republican Party charts its way forward in challenging times, there could not be a better opportunity for you to join us. Together we can play a critical role in moving our party and our country forward.

Conservative America

According to a Gallup poll that came out last Friday, more Americans consider themselves conservatives rather than liberals in each of the fifty states. This appears to support recent evidence that America is becoming more and more a conservative nation. In a June poll, Gallup found that 39% of Americans say their political views have become more conservative since 2004, as compared to only 19% who say they have become more liberal.

Was the 2008 election cycle an aberration? Will 2010 turn back towards a more conservative appraoch to government?

Democrats Misread Voters

Great article from Forbes. Highlight:

In late July, the Pew Research Center reported that President Obama had lost significant ground handling the economy and the deficit, with approval ratings on the economy tumbling from 56% in February to 38% in July and approval ratings on the deficit dropping from 50% in April to 32% in July. No single factor explains the erosion except "cumulative sticker shock." Democrats have misread the mood on the public's appetite for more government.

Community Health Centers- Help for the Uninsured

The New York Times has an interesting Op-Ed by Bob Herbert that details the good a community health care center in Vermont is doing. He liberally quotes from Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders in the article but the ideas actually may have some merit. How is that for bipartisan!

Community Health Centers receive a small amount of funding from the government but they still charge for services, albeit on a sliding scale based on income. Former President Bush pushed for their expansion as soon as he took office so it is an ideas that both sides of the aisle like.

In 2001 Community Health Centers served 10 million people at a cost of 1.16 billion dollars. And by 2006 the centers had served 15 million people for only 1.99 billion. Today they serve 20 million people. 40% of them are uninsured and 90% earn less than twice the poverty level.

That is an extremely cost effective program for the government. In addition community health centers tend to provide quality without undermining private business.

Because they charge on a sliding income scale these centers appeal to patients who can’t afford doctors or traditional insurance. Few people earning above twice the poverty level use these facilities because they’re charged the full price for treatment hence for them regular health insurance is the better deal.

These centers seem to be doing exactly what Democrats want health care reform to do- and it is not costing taxpayers a ton of money. Additionally it is not "giving anything away" as even the poorest have to pay a nominal fee for services.

Perhaps instead of risky and expensive insurance reforms congress should look into expanding Community Health Centers.

Health Care Reform: Truth Behind the Numbers

A look inside the uninsured numbers reveals some surprising results. While people are often told that 1 in 6, or 46 million Americans, have no health insurance, that number is actually somewhat misleading....

Read more at my Suite101 Column.

Pelosi's Hypocrisy

Single Payer Health Care: Canadian Style

Canadian health care is a single payer system much like what the US Congress is now debating over. Though the president himself has been coy about his true intentions, most realize that if the democrats win in the health care debate we will end up with a single payer system.

"I have not said that I was a single payer supporter."
-- President Obama, at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire this week.

"I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care plan."
-- Obama, at a Senate campaign rally in 2003.

Filmmaker Michael Moore discusses health care reform in the current issue of Rolling Stone:

"If a true public option is enacted -- and Obama knows this -- it will eventually bring about a single payer system, because the profit-making insurance companies won't be able to compete with a government run plan and make the profits they want to make....I probably shouldn't be saying this, but I'm counting on the fact that Republicans won't be reading this Rolling Stone."


So what shape is Canada's health care system in? An untold number of people die each year in Ontario, because the death panel or Canadian Therapeutic Products Directorate, refuses to make life-saving drugs and equipment available. However, Canadians are not giving up the fight for access to life saving treatment and drugs. Since it is illegal to transport pharmaceuticals across the border, Canadians have turned to the courts. In fact battles have raged across Canada for years, challenging the bureaucratic claim that cost, not saving lives is the critical element in determining access to life saving treatment and medication.

Last year, the reform process was dealt a serious blow when reform crusader Jim Connors died of colorectal cancer. A wealthy man who paid for his own treatment, Connors had been battling the government of Nova Scotia, over its refusal to provide coverage for the cancer drug, Avastin. Since private insurance is illegal in Canada and the single payer system refused to include the drug in its insurance program, citizens had to pay $35,000 per year on this medication. What Mr Connors rightly pointed out, yet President Obama fails to understand, is that a public insurance program does not hurt the most wealthy, it actually threatens the health of the middle class.