Do we trust them to do the right thing?

Helen, of Margaret and Helen -- two ladies old enough to speak their minds without caring of the consequences, has a few things to say about the rowdy town hall meetings. Helen comments that most of the loonies that are being the most disruptive are appear to not bother educating themselves. Perhaps freedom of speech should be restricted to those with a minimum education. However, this is the comment that got me laughing:

Margaret, I don’t know what plans you’ve made up there with Howard, but down here with Harold, we have living wills to determine how we will leave this world when the time comes. Mine states that unless the feeding tube is large enough for a piece of pie, I don’t want to be hooked up to it. Harold, of course, says his can only be connected to him if the other end is connected to a bottle of single malt scotch.

Helen points out how ridiculous the idea of death panels is, then observes:

By the looks of the American citizenry turning out for these town hall meetings, we’re doing a fine job of killing ourselves with fast food, cigarettes and an overindulgence of ignorance.

Charles Blow of the New York Times notes that some of the crazy ideas about health care -- care will be rationed, taxpayers pay for abortions -- are being held by more than just the GOP and the fringe. Like a third of Democratic voters. Why? Gullibility? Resent a black man as president? Perhaps more. Perhaps a distrust that government can do the right thing.

A recent study of polling data notes that when a GOP president takes office he gets a high score for trust in doing the right thing. When a Dem president takes office, the score is usually low. The data:

Carter -- 35% believe government will do the right thing.
Reagan -- 51%
Bush I -- 44%
Clinton -- 24%
Bush II -- 55% (poll taken just after 9/11)
Obama -- 20%

Blow concludes that the country just doesn't trust Dems to do the right thing. Especially since Dem voters also strongly don't trust Dem presidents.

I don't completely buy his conclusion. Then again, I'm likely biased.

If we don't trust the guy to do the right thing (apparently true for 80% of those polled) why did we vote for him? Why not vote in the GOP guy whom we trust?

I propose another conclusion, based on the fact these polls are from the first few months of a president's tenure and not at its end. That means the newcomer's score is partially based on his predecessor.

Carter came after Nixon and Ford. Nuff said.

Clinton came after Bush I earned a 91% approval rating for the Gulf War and squandered it so thoroughly he was booted out of office 20 months later.

Obama comes after Bush II. And I've ranted enough about him.

After 8 years of Georgie, 80% of the country doesn't trust the government to do the right thing? Big surprise.


But another take on the health care debate made me go back and add a word to the above sentence "I don't buy his conclusion." Alas, Dems are piling up a strong record of being a bunch of wimps. So while I believe a strong component to Obama's score is Bush's abysmal record, there really are some trust issues over Dems doing the right thing.

The big idea thrown into the health care debate comes from Ted Kennedy's passing. A lot of talking heads noted that Ted frequently passed as much of an idea as he knew he could get votes for and came back for another chunk later. Ted had been working on health care issues since 1964 when he had a great need for medical services after a plane crash and an early chunk was Medicare and Medicaid.

So if we can't get all of health insurance reform passed now, let's scale back the package and come back for more later.

Bad idea.

The GOP is already making lots of headway by telling middle class folks the bill will do nothing for them, only require them to pay more taxes to give health care to poor people (who tend to be Those People). Alas, the bill has already been scaled back and some provisions don't show up until after the next prez election and in the meantime those who hurt because of no insurance still hurt. Scaling back the package even more means the middle class parts of the bill will be cut entirely, which means the GOP will be correct. Which is why the GOP is proposing the idea in honor of Ted. Such an honor.

This is another case in which the GOP doesn't have to be in power (not even close) to get the Dems to roll over and play dead -- and do whatever the GOP wants. Lob some more teabags and soon the country will believe that as bad as the GOP is, at least they aren't as lame as the Dems.