FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
It's turning out to be a piece of legislation that nobody wants - not the public, not a consensus among the members of Congress. Nobody. Except maybe the pharmaceutical and insurance companies.
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Amid dire warnings from Senator Chris Dodd that the health care reform bill is quote "hanging on by a thread" comes news from a major poll that the public has lost interest.
After months of debate - a couple of 2,000-page monstrosities passed the House and Senate - and our illustrious political leadership has dragged those documents behind closed doors, out of sight of anyone, in an attempt to reconcile them into a single law.
Apparently it's not going so well.
CBS news found only 36-percent of Americans approve of the way the president is handling health care - an all-time low. 54-percent disapprove. Congress' numbers are even worse.
But the bulk of the political damage, whichever way this goes, is likely to accrue to the president. He has spent most of his first year in office obsessed with health care reform - many say at the expense of other pressing issues. Now that he's on the verge of getting something, the appetite for what was once a grand idea has soured considerably.
Here’s my question to you: After months of debate, what are the chances health care reform happens?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Mike from Denver writes:
I can only hope the chances are slim. By the time the compromises and payoffs are concluded, what was once a noble idea will be just another government agency that costs billions and does nothing.
G. writes:
On the surface, it seems it doesn't matter. It's been so stripped down that it's practically useless. It adds cost to the poor and will likely increase the bankruptcy rate. All in all, seems the Obama leadership is crumbling. "Yes we can" has turned to, well, "I thought we could."
Kyle from Vermont writes:
A health care bill will pass but it will not be real reform. Mandatory health care without a public option is nothing more than a windfall for the insurance companies.
Dave writes:
Yes, Jack. There is no way the Democrats will pass up the opportunity to ruin the best health care delivery system ever known to humankind and place the American people under the control of the government. Know anyone who is alive today because their health emergency occurred while in the United States? I do.
Vivien from New York writes:
Only thing to now do is push the bill through and go back later and make changes needed to make it a good bill. Perhaps people will wake up one day when their insurance rates are so high to realize a public option would have been a good thing.
Dave from Peterborough, New Hampshire writes:
Jack, I believe that the bill will pass, but calling it reform is a little over the top. The only thing it does is solidify the strangle hold that the insurance companies have over us. Will costs go down? No! Will the quality of health care improve? No! Will insurance companies grow richer? Yes, with new customers forced to buy insurance that they can't afford. Where does the reform come in?
Mark writes:
There was a good health reform bill
That Republicans swore they would kill
They ranted and raved
Until Democrats caved
And now it's a bunch of hog swill