Has your support for health care reform increased or decreased?
(PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES)
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
The battle lines are drawn - when it comes to health care reform. Senate Democrats now say the debate has practically stalled; and they're blaming Republicans for blocking votes. The Republicans deny it.
At issue: The 10-year, nearly $1 trillion bill that would require most Americans to carry insurance, expand Medicaid and require insurers to cover people regardless of their medical history.
That's what we do know about this bill... but buried in the thousands of pages of legislation are other things that people might not know about.
For starters - under the Senate's plan, the Secretary of Health and Human Services would be granted broad new powers - including the authority to decide what procedures insurers should cover and who should get them. I don't know about you, but that idea creeps me out.
Also - Critics say that despite President Obama's promise that illegal aliens won't get health coverage - hundreds of thousands of people here illegally could get just that under this legislation. That's because while the bills making their way through Congress either mandate or encourage businesses to cover all employees - there are no exemptions to screen out illegals, who usually get jobs by using fake identities.
Meanwhile a new USA Today/Gallup poll suggests that despite all the efforts of the president and Democrats to get this legislation passed, Americans are leaning against it - with 49-percent saying they would tell their member of Congress to vote against a bill - just 44-percent say they would want them to support it.
Here’s my question to you: Has your support for health care reform increased or decreased in the past 6 months?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Has scientific community been honest about global warming?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Al Gore called global warming "An Inconvenient Truth"... but suddenly a lot of people are asking what the truth really is. It's been dubbed ClimateGate.
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/12/02/gore.climate.gi.jpg caption="Former Vice President Al Gore gives a speech about climate change."]
A climate scientist at the center of a growing controversy over hacked e-mails is stepping down from a British University's climate research unit under a cloud of suspicion.
Critics point to a thousand pages of leaked e-mails and documents between this scientist and others which they say prove that global warming is not a threat. They say researchers are ignoring data that questions whether global warming is real, and have conspired to discredit those who question the phenomenon.
Here in the U.S., some members of Congress are demanding a hearing into research done by the climate change panel of the U.N. to find out if it "cooked the books" on global warming.
This is all coming to light right ahead of the global climate summit in Copenhagen. What's the old expression? "Timing is everything."
The scientists who believe in global warming say their case is based on "all kinds of evidence," like what's happening to the ice in the Arctic. The White House insists that "climate change is happening," adding they don't think the science is "in dispute anymore" among most people.
But not everyone is convinced.... A recent poll shows the percentage of Americans who believe global warming is happening has dropped from 80 to 72 percent in the past year.
Here’s my question to you: Do you think the scientific community has been honest when it comes to global warming?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
How optimistic are you about success in Afghanistan?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
When it comes to Afghanistan, President Obama better be right. After months of meetings and criticism that he was "dithering" and "weak" on Afghanistan - he finally made what may be the most important decision of his presidency.
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/12/02/art.obama.w.pt.gi.jpg caption="President Obama spoke at West Point last night. He laid out his plan for an increase of 30,000 troops in efforts to eventually begin to transition U.S. forces out of Afghanistan starting in July 2011."]
But the announcement to deploy 30,000 additional troops is cloaked in contradiction. We're going to rush more troops in so we can begin to rush them out in 18 months. The Taliban and al Qaeda will probably make a note of this timetable.
You don't suppose the decision to withdraw in July of 2011 would have anything to do with the President's 2012 re-election campaign do you?
There was no mention of how we're going to pay for this. The 30,000 additional troops will cost an additional $30 billion in the first year.
Where's that money going to come from? Some Democrats are calling for a so-called "war surtax." But With a fragile U.S. economy, an unemployment rate topping 10-percent, and a costly health care reform plan on the table - there may not be much appetite for that.
Meanwhile - a new USA Today/Gallup poll suggests the American public has just about gotten its belly full of Afghanistan. Only 35-percent approve of what President Obama is doing there. That's down from 49-percent in September and 56-percent in July. 55-percent disapprove… not the kind of numbers that are likely to lead to a second term. Can you spell Vietnam?
Here’s my question to you: How optimistic are you about success in Afghanistan?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
@jackcafferty on Twitter
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