Dems’ Poll Slide Means Health Care Failure Not An Option, Aides Say
The poll slide Congressional Dems are enduring right now has increased pressure on Dems to succeed on health care this year, Democratic aides privately acknowledge, meaning health care failure is simply not an option, lest the party court electoral disaster.
Dem strategists looking at the current numbers know that failure in the current environment would be nothing short of catastrophic — and that succeeding on health care reform is the best, and perhaps only, way to stave off the sort of losses that generally hits a party two years after grabbing control of Congress.
Take a look, for instance, at the new Pew poll. It’s chock full of bad news for Dems. It finds that Republicans have pulled into a statistical tie in the generic matchup. That more independents now back the GOPer in their district. And that Dems only hold a statistically insignificant edge on who can best manage the Federal government.
It’s hard not to see these numbers as a direct outgrowth of the health care debate and the current impasse. Either way, Democratic aides acknowledge that failing on health care would trigger a revolt from the Dem base, perhaps depressing fundraising, and cement the view among independents that Dem rule has been ineffective.
“Looking at the lessons of 94, failure is not an option,” one aide emails. “Failure to get a bill passed is far worse for Democrats in 2010 at the polls.”
Interestingly, this has created a built-in tension: While Senate Dems have more control over whether health care succeeds, the stakes are higher for House Dems. It’s a tougher cycle for the House, aides say, meaning they’d likely face bigger losses if Senate Dems can’t resolve their impasse with Republicans or if they don’t opt for reconciliation to get reform done.
Either way, if they look hard enough, liberals can locate something of a silver lining in all the bad news: It ups the pressure on Congressional Dems not just to do health care this year, but do it right.
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Either way, if they look hard enough, liberals can locate something of a silver lining in all the bad news: It ups the pressure on Congressional Dems not just to do health care this year, but do it right.
Nice.
These poll numbers are good for Dems. This way they won’t get complacent.
Of course they will pass SOMETHING – that has never even been in doubt!
“The President and Democratic leaders will have no alternative but to fall back to a much smaller bill…A much smaller bill would definitely exclude a public option…There will clearly be a bipartisan consensus to increase Medicare spending on doctors (the so-called “doc fix”)…more Medicare money for doctors, combined with expansions of Medicaid for the poor. To offset the deficit effect, they would cut Medicare Advantage and nick at other Medicare providers, and maybe do some of the Kerry tax increase proposal. This would be an “incremental” package that advocates would argue is a small step in the right direction…it might be able to get 60 votes, and could almost certainly get the 50 votes needed through reconciliation, and without any significant procedural hurdles. This path could be partisan or bipartisan…This is what Democrats do when all else has failed, to make sure the President has something to sign…This would be small compared to the big reform policy being discussed, but in any other context it would be an enormous bill.”
http://keithhennessey.com/2009/09/02/health-care-moves/
mike from Arlington: I certainly hope you’re right, but how long before whatever Dem solidarity there is to devolve into “every man for himself” territory? I guess the failure to pass health care reform would definitely do that.
sbj
Sorry, that is not reform we can believe in.
@LindaS: So what are you gonna do? Take a look at the link and you’ll see that your options are fairly limited.
“It’s hard not to see these numbers as a direct outgrowth of the health care debate and the current impasse.”
I think one can plausibly argue that numbers are slipping because of the economy. Remember: EVERYONE’s numbers are taking a hit – that indicates widespread dissatisfaction. We argued just the other day that the h/c town hall battles were actually a proxy for a much larger dissatisfaction with the state of things in general. It’s not h/c reform, it’s not big govt, – it’s our wallets, our jobs, our weakened buying power, our friends out of work. We blame govt – Obama, Dems, and Repubs. (The Repubs are just “lucky” that they are the party out of power so they get some miniscule benefit).
“It ups the pressure on Congressional Dems not just to do health care this year, but do it right.”
Greg, what does that mean? What’s your opinion of “doing it right?”
Greg, there are 59 Democratic Senators so all they need is Olympia Snowe to make 60 to get a bill passed. Not everybody is going to agree on the bill but they all could vote for cloture and vote their conscience. The Congress HAS to pass a health care bill.
@sbj,
Given the mind boggling ignorance of some in our country you may be correct about the economy. But this very day the right oriented Murdoch paper WSJ printed an article on the stimulus helping the economy. Futhermore as someone involved in real estate the housing prices are actually stabilizing…I know..I know..the sky is still falling but perhaps not as quickly. And am I the only one who has watched his retirement portfolio improve dramatically this year on the generally good news from the stock market. Can’t recall his name but one of Maher’s guests believes that is the real driver…if the stock market is up…everyone is happy…if not…not so much. I realize the ten percent of us who are unemployed have nothing to celebrate but that still leaves 90% who are most grateful the Bush idiots are no longer running the Wall Street asylum. Ahhh but I forget…the single payer system…if passed and utilized by the 15% or so eligible to use it will wreck United Healtcare’s CEO’s ability to earn 3/4 of a BILLION dollars over the past 7 or so years. OMG if the healhcare companies are driven out of existence by real competition we’ll probably have to bail them out as well! Again some more FREE enterprise.
I’m sure there is absolutely no correlation between sliding polls and tea baggers going around the country yelling and screaming Obama wants to setup death panels to kill old people and undesirables. Or the fact the GOP routinely calls the president a socialist foreign enemy. Pretty positive that has nothing to do with any of this.
sbj,
I looked at the link. I don’t necessarily agree with the percentages though. We’ll see, I’m just saying that the path of least resistance doesn not constitute the kind of changes I’d like to see.
Where that leaves me in the next election cycle is probably writing in “none of the above” at the national level and voting for independent candidates at the local level where they have a chance of winning.
Forgive my earlier post…bad proof reading..I meant of course “public option” not single payer system
sbj,
In the meantime I’ll keep fighting for the public option and hope dems can come up with some creative way to get it through. I’d rather not take the fallback position.
urkidding, it is hilarious when you commies become economics whizzes. An article about the future of the economy in the WSJ is what you are hanging the Obama administration’s future on? You know how they say about sporting events “that’s why they don’t play the game on paper”? Well that is true about politics and economics too. Please hold your breath for economic recovery as Obama promises to raise taxes, make energy more expensive, and empower union goons to take over small businesses. If you aren’t turning blue, you aren’t doing it right.
@rukidding:
I am perhaps not making this point clearly. I do not argue that the economy is not improving. I am arguing that the public does not perceive it as improving. And I don’t think it fair to call it ignorance. For instance, I am under a pay freeze, many others are taking furloughs, most of us have cut back on spending. Housing prices and my 401k don’t impact those items at all.
Still waiting for BabyHugo and the other right-wingers to actually prove rukidding wrong on health care reform.
..crickets..
Without a robust Public Option, there is no chance for a bill that will actually contain health care costs. After all the Private Insurance Companies are not in the cost containment business, they are in the skimming off the top business, and they only return about 70% of what they collect, back into actual Health Care for people. Of course they never treat a single patient. They are just running a Ponzi scheme, on steroids.
Without a Robust Public Option, there will be no pressure on the Insurance Racketeers to become less greedy.
A Health Care Insurance Reform Bill, without a Robust Public Option would be like having a Forge without an Anvil.
So far, the man we elected to reform how health care is funded, and to provide universal care for even the poorest, or sickest among us, has been MIA.
In a nutshell, what he has done to date.
I am willing to be a one term President in order to get Health Care reform. He never said that in public, where it might have helped.
I want a bipartisan bill.
I am not fully committed to having a Public Option.
I have not told you what I must have in a bill before I will sign it.
The media are at fault for not fighting my battles for me.
But I am still in favor of some sort of a bill or other.
Job Done.
Now it is thumb twiddling time, while I sit by, and watch all the lying, rabid, anti any reform mobs burn down the village. Surely my earlier sprinkle of cool words will suffice to combat the flames. No reason for me to turn out the fire brigade, or confront the arsonists. After all, that would not look bipartisan enough.
Mr. Sargent:
“Either way, if they look hard enough, liberals can locate something of a silver lining in all the bad news: It ups the pressure on Congressional Dems not just to do health care this year, but do it right.”
Yeah-yeah…do it again, only MORE of it.
The Dems passed Porkulus…polls dropped
They passed Cap and Tax…polls dropped
They bailed out Chrysler and GM…polls STILL dropped
They want to pass HCR…and you think this will magically make the polls do an “about face”?
Are you high right now?
What will be your NEXT excuse if the Dems walk it like the Libs talk it and ram through a single-payer…and he polls take a steeper nose-dive?
Don’t bother replying…I know how it goes:
Spend MORE money! Make Government BIGGER! Tax hikes on the wealthy capitalist exploiters who own alarm clocks!
Same-old same-old.
@LindaS: Thanks for reading the link.
I think that if you looked closely at HR3200 you would feel that the public option it describes is not to your liking. It’s fairly weak, will only cost about 10% less than private insurance, many aren’t eligible, and won’t impact the price of private insurance.
I have been saying this to my friends and family for months. In so many ways the Republicans have actually ensured that health care reform will pass. Of course they are counting on it passing and riling up their base for 2010, which it will. What they underestimate is how passing health care reform will empower the Dem base for 2010.
It’s on.
“Passing health care reform will empower the Dem base for 2010.”
Most of the proposed significant changes wouldn’t even be phased in until 2013. Why would that help anyone in 2010?
rukidding:
“. I realize the ten percent of us who are unemployed have nothing to celebrate but that still leaves 90% who are most grateful the Bush idiots are no longer running the Wall Street asylum. Ahhh but I forget…the single payer system…”
Look, why not just fqce up to the fact that you ain’t going to get single-payer.
If you could have, you would have. You had your best shot at it two or three months ago, and TheOne and the crew on the Hill decided that Porkulus and the Bailouts were more pressing.
Dude…deal, wilya?
Everything you allege about the employed/unemployed is a valid point…but now apply the same yardstick to heath care.
202 million citizens and legal aliens HAVE health insurance. Maybe it’s not what they’d all LIKE, but they have it, versus 47 million,(does that number include the 20 million illegal aliens, I wonder?), who don’t have health insurance, but still manage to clog the ERs where they get treatment anyway.
If you loy would sober up and drop the socialist 40-bong hit “It;s all FREE,Man!” dope-addled dreaming, maybe we could find room to compromise on Health Insurance reform.
Which is a whole different battlefield.
sbj
Actually I have read most of it, quite boring really, glad I’m not a legislator. Is it perfect, hell no, is it a beginning, I think so. Let’s see what comes out of conference if it ever makes it that far.
It sure beats any of the repubs talking points: tort reform, buying across state lines, tax cuts. OOOh I can’t wait for that kind of gift to the insurance industry to be enacted. Add mandates and instead of lowering costs we’ll boost insurance co. profits, but hey I could buy stock in Humana and maybe make some money.
Obama is weak. His leadership is weak. If the White House is really saying that, it means he is getting ready hang his base out to dry in order to get something passed. I’ll go on record right now, if that’s the case, in saying that the bill will be a veritable frankenstein and it will do nothing –nothing at all — to improve the health *care* or *insurance* issues that we face. In fact, I predict with a fair amount of confidence that whatever passes will make things WORSE than what we have now. The insurance industry will get richer, there will be no cost containment, Medicare will continue be on the brink of insolvency. You could actually see this coming when he and his incompetent, small-time comm team started all this hedging and tap-dancing.
They’ve been bullied by a political party with 17% approval, plus beltway punditocracy.
Well. Looks like both the NJ and VA Gubernatorial races are swinging back to the Democrats.
So much for that referendum on Obama.
LindaS:
“Add mandates and instead of lowering costs we’ll boost insurance co. profits, but hey I could buy stock in Humana and maybe make some money.”
If the insurance companies can provide a service or product at a rate low enough for all or most of those who wish to have it can afford, should they NOT make a profit?
@James,
We voted out the Republicans, and reduced them to a rump, regional party, because we were promised that those we elected would not engage in business as usual.
Well they have kept that promise, because President Obama, and Harry Reid have allowed the ousted Republicans to call all the shots.
It is a amazing; We desperately need have both President Obama, and Majority Leader Reid(There is an Oxymoron for you.) to take advantage of their great health care plans, and go get backbone transplants, at once.
James:
“In fact, I predict with a fair amount of confidence that whatever passes will make things WORSE than what we have now. ”
Your journey to the Dark Side is almost complete…my Paduan Apprentice!
“Medicare will continue be on the brink of insolvency”
Yes…yes…feel the logic flow within you!
“You could actually see this coming when he and his incompetent, small-time comm team started all this hedging and tap-dancing.”
Now, take up your light-saber and log in to Free Republic, and your passage will be complete!
Empowering the activists in your party has little to do with when benefits take effect. I’m not talking about the Independents here I am talking about the card carrying members of the Democratic Party that believe in the party platform position toward health care. Where do you think the energy for mid-terms comes from? Some of us do a whole hell of a lot more then just read and post comments on blogs.
Bilgeman
You lost me at a rate low enough for all or most who can afford it.
There’s the problem.
@Trinty,
Yes we will. We did not electthose people to give us the same old run around.
It looks like President Obama has already become trapped in “The Bubble” and no one is talking truth to power.
He is on the verge of being a failed President. When you allow a small shrill minority, from a rump regional party, that was ousted in disgrace, to push you around on domestic issues; you are being watched from abroad.
Once those people abroad, whom he plans on entering into negotiations with, see that he can be pushed around, and made to buckle easily, then they will not view him as some one that they will have to make reasonable compromises with.
He is shooting himself in the foot, and around the world, leaders are taking it all in.
Someone better crash through that bubble, and let him know that he is on the verge of destroying any chance he has, to be a successful president.
You can not be a weak vacillating leader at home, and expected to be treated as a strong leader, on the world stage.
@Liam.
well, i’m not sorry that the freakish team of McCain and Palin didn’t get elected. The work and the support for the Dems in the general election was well worth booting the Republicans out. Same with supporting some Blue Dogs in ‘06 — it was necessary in order to grab the agenda away from the radical Republicans. So those were the right moves to make. And I’m not very much of a liberal either. I’m pretty much a labor Dem with a closer focus on greenwald-style civil rights (anti-war crimes, for example). That doesn’t make me a lefty by any means.
So I don’t know who these Obama people think they are poking in the eye with such evident glee. I hold them responsible to get a job done, and if they are already caving to the 17%-approval Republicans, they are losing me. Not that they really care, of course. Evidently, as long as they can stick it to the mythical “left” they can party all day long. Until the next election.
edit:
as someone they will not have to make…..
I’m so sick of all the strategizing over the next election! Show some cojones and do the right thing!!! Use reconcilaition to pass a better healthcare reform with a more robust public option. Instead, what we’ll get is incremental nonsense and half the D’s will disassociate themselves from it when they run in 2010. Pitiful.
@James,
I agree, and I am strongly pro union, and pro labor. That is how the country developed a strong middle class, and now that al the manufacturing base has been shipped overseas, we see the middle class being destroyed.
When you manufacture very little in the way of consumer goods, and allow them all to be produced in slave wage countries, then you are destroying the core prosperity of the country.
We borrow from China to purchase all the consumer electronics, clothing, etc, that we use to make, and then China loans the same money back to us, to purchase more of the same products from them.
We can not sustain that huge imbalance of trade. We are bleeding ourselves to death, and we have few good paying factory jobs left for the two thirds of young people who are never bright enough for college, but are good with their hands, and need decent wages to support a family, and maybe send the bright one in their family to college.
That was how it used to be, until the Oligarchs, and their Republican handmaidens decided that they would rather bleed the country to death, by shipping out all the good manufacturing jobs to places who pay nothing, and have no environmental protection standards for workers.
The global race to the wages bottom is killing us, and it is not helping those workers in China, because they are not getting paid enough to ever purchase anything that we might export, but of course that is a moot point, since we no longer make much that the would want to purchase.
LindaS:
“You lost me at a rate low enough for all or most who can afford it.
There’s the problem.”
Well it’s only a problem if you cling to the belief that it should be free.
Do YOU work for free? I think not.
I certainly don’t.
So it’s going to have to cost SOMETHING
And that means that there are going to be those who can’t or won’t afford it.
That’s the breaks, that’s the way life is.
You can nurn down a perfectly serviceable split-levels because you believe that people SHOULD live in mansions, but all that’s going to accomplish is to make people homeless.
We can’t build a Utopian Paradise here on Earth, and we should stop kidding ourselves that we can.
The best any of us is ever going to get to live in is right here and right now.
And that’s pretty d*mned good.
why not just fqce up to the fact that you ain’t going to get single-payer.
We can get it now, or we will get it later under more difficult circumstances, but it will happen. The logic of it sooner or later, under present circumstances or worse ones, will convince too many people of the logic of it. Someday even the US Chamber of Commerce will wonder why it resisted the idea.
(****. I should proofread….)
oddjob:
“We can get it now, or we will get it later under more difficult circumstances, but it will happen.”
So you’re a True Believer in the Beneficent Power of the State huh?
“The logic of it sooner or later, under present circumstances or worse ones, will convince too many people of the logic of it.”
Quite the opposite, actually. Wait for it…
“Someday even the US Chamber of Commerce will wonder why it resisted the idea.”
Social Security was the answer to somebody’s prayers, and we’re all running around wondering how we’re going to get out of it’s way when it topples over and runs out of money.
Likewise, Medicare/MedicAid was the greatest thing since dishwasher-safe rubber ***-toys…and they’re near if not at, insolvency.
(But just TRY telling Granny she can’t have her electric mobilty scooter and her “Don’t worry-be happy!” pills.
Even the few sane Democrats can see that these entitlement programs have bankrupted us to the point where we have to devalue our entire currency and screw everyone over doubly, at the least.
But I will admit that it’s rather awe-inspiring to see you all saddled up and locked n’ loaded to go marching for yet ANOTHER big wasteful government entitlement program.
I mean really…what does it take for you to finally learn?
what does it take for you to finally learn
The data of all the rest of the world’s industrialized democracies.
I’ll choose the data over speculation about what will or will not happen next to our own entitlement programs. Obviously they will be restructured, but if you think they’ll be extinguished then you don’t realize how much good they already do.
As I said, someday even the US Chamber of Commerce will take it as a given that the nation’s healthcare should be paid for via a single-payer arrangement, and we will be able to afford it, we will still be a free nation that passionately believes in securing the blessings of liberty to us and our posterity, and we will still argue about how best to achieve that.
(BTW, if the response is going to be something about the evils of rationing treatments?
We already do that. It’s just that mentioning that fact is taboo.)
I am hoping he’s a better politician than we might think. His crisp, clear, non-selected town halls showcased the American public as intelligent, even if they disagreed, while the Republicans showed themselves as represented by and representing what one could only see as the deeply troubled, the unhealthy in mind and body, and the uneducated. Does mainstream America look in the second mirror and see itself reflected? I hope not. And it still seems weird to me to imagine that Obama could be swayed by the trumped up crowds and the pure evil of Republicans trying to make him and health care fail.
oddjob:
“The data of all the rest of the world’s industrialized democracies”
Just out of curiosity, have you ever been to the rest of the world and it’s industrial democracies?
I have. And places that aren’t necessarily industrial OR democracies, either.
But even in the places that are, life isn’t 24/7 wonderful.
In fact, it’s pretty damned crappy in wyas that would surprise you.
Sure, you get “free” medical care,of varying quality, but you’re taxed at about 75% of what you earn, if you can even find a job, (and that isn’t a given at all).
The point is, our ancestors largely LEFT Europe and the paternalism of Feudal society, (which is what state socialism really is, just substituting the State for the king or the lord), to make something new here.
If you want to live like a teenager in the basement forever, ten by all means, feel free to emigrate to the “Government is Your Family” lands.
Here, we have constructed, for better or worse, that Government is the free association of equals.
“Obviously they will be restructured, but if you think they’ll be extinguished then you don’t realize how much good they already do.”
Did it ever cross your mind that the good that is done is done in spite of, and not necessarily because of these programs?
Did it ever cross your mind that the good that is done is done in spite of, and not necessarily because of these programs?
Millions of your fellow citizens will flatly disagree with you on that one.
As to being elsewhere. I have visited, not lived. I also note that people who could easily vote for other healthcare systems if they wanted them choose not to – ever.
You speak of “freedom”, never noticing that you aren’t free when through no fault of your own your financial life is destroyed by a healthcare debt you couldn’t pay – not because you wanted to freeload, but because you simply could not afford what it required to become a functioning human being again.
May you never have a pre-existing condition.
I was born with one……….
Every time I try to read an article and an ad pops up to block the view, I not only immediately back out of the site. I also make a note of what site permitted it, tell all my friends to avoid the site and why they should, and I never visit that rude site again. If the ad is an “environmental” ad, I then go outside and burn garbage and coal in order to pollute the neighborhood in “honor” of the outrageously intrusive “environmental” organization and also tell all my friends (via Facebook, I have more than 2,000) to boycott that organization. You will never see me on this site again.
@oddjob,
you are wasting your time trying have a dialog with Bilge guy. Just a couple of days ago, he stated that he wanted to Nuke N.Korea.
He also supports the use of torture.
Do you really expect someone that barbaric, to really give a rat’s arse about the plight of other humans, who may not be able to afford medical care!
@Lair,
Well I just want to say thank you to that ad for having got rid of a nut job such as you.
Great job, ad! Thanks for taking out the trash!!
If they do not pass health care reform now, I am 100% certain that they will lose the chance to pass any reforms for a generation. I guarantee it. To be sure, Obama has been caught flat-footed by the hysterical Republican opposition. They are very good at mobilizing their base using hysteria, fear, lies, racism and general BS. We know that. We have seen it a million times, but they have nothing positive or constructive to offer.
This should be a lesson to Obama that the Republicans will stop at nothing to prevent real change and reform in this society, and he MUST stare them down now, or lose the chance to pass anything.
If the election were based on my vote she’s right. No real reform with government option plan, no vote from me for the incumbants. Obama needs to find his inner FDR NOW!
If Democrats fail to pass legislation that is comprehensive and covers all families, then the party should be *replaced* by a new progressive one that actually works for working class people, not corporations…..period.
Poll numbers are dropping for Democrats and President Obama because we are not seeing the change we voted for. Progressives have already compromised on single payer. We are not going to compromise on a solid public option. Obama’s administration has not brought us the change, accountability and transparency we believed he would. Guantanamo, searches, wiretapping, rendition, etc are still occurring; refusal to fully investigate the Bush administration (outing of a CIA agent, manipulation of intelligence for justification to go to war, vote fraud, etc). If Democrats, with a majority, cannot do the most important thing for the American people, stand up to corporate lobbyists, pharmaceutical and insurance companies and do what is right for the American people and pass at minimum, a public option, then this president is not someone we can believe in, nor is the Democratic party one I can continue to participate in. Whoever mentioned above that it is time to start a new Progressive party, I’m with you. As an executive board member/state delegate, I’ve been a loyal and hard working Democrat for a long time. But like many other long time Democrats, the party is about to leave us behind if they do not stand by the Democratic Party Platform and pass a solid public option at minimum. I hope they are listening. I sent a letter to the White House today. I hope you will too.
The root cause of the current healthcare problem is over-spending – 17% of our GDP to be precise. This is 30% more than our economically competitor countries. Hence spending more money on healthcare is not a solution. New York is a high healthcare-cost state. And New York City is in the top tier. The presence of ‘teaching hospitals’ in the city does not hold much water as treatment in other cities and institutions have not increased healthcare costs e.g. Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic. (See Dartmouth Atlas data).
Our penchant for spending more money to solve problems has not yielded success; specially in New York – a high tax state. In education, despite our high ‘cost per pupil’ expenditure, we continue to have poor grades as reflected in the standard benchmarks in education; compared to the rest of the country and the world.
New York state’s and city’s fiscal problems, like California’s, have occurred under both Democratic and Republican administrations.
Centrists and Independents have to come-up with sensible policies that can ‘think out of the box’ without ‘reinventing the wheel’. And Democrats need to heed to centrists’ suggestions to hold on to power.
If some form of health reform is passed, at least some people will benefit and I am not talking about those lining their pockets in the process. If it is at least possible to ensure that everyone can get insurance regardless of a prior condition, then some people who aren’t insured for this reason can have access and those who are trapped with their current insurer because of a condition will have alternatives. Such a modest gain will likely not bring any popularity to Obama, but it may enhance the competitive landscape to better serve the population.
Having gone through the article as well as the comments of my learned fellow commenter I find it imperative to mention that in case we find the HEALTH CARE is too expensive for us, which we tend to believe in some cases it is. Then why not move to ask for a total stoppage of billions and trillions of dollars given as grants to country/countries and the same be spend by the government on own citizens. But the citizens are scared to death to ask for that to happen. Why?
We ourselves do not know, why we don’t shout for that to be done to stop giving grants and spend the public money for the cause of own public welfare rather than spending on others when own public is suffering under the pangs of oppressions and suppression because of these incompetent congressional representative always doing thing with ulterior motives .
Why shouldn’t the national policy be to help/ give grants to others if something is left over to be given after spending the amount for the welfare of won citizens? But no, these congressmen must feed their kith and keens first with our hard earned money, then later they think about us the Americans.
Now time has come to stop this stupid policy of giving away American tax exempted dollars as grants to any country from now on and the same money be spent on Health Care and on other national projects for the welfare of the Americans first. Yes the left over may be given to countries begging to survive.
Great information, I will be linking back to you and going to look around at your other posts.