"Then and only then will we have the REAL opportunity to vote our Political ideology/principles"

Spoken like a true Progressive Mr. E. Too bad your ideology and principles could never be more wrong. Govt CANNOT be the solution to every person's problem. It is not what the framers of our Constitution intended. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness do not come with Govt control of everything. That's the Progressive in you Mr. E. How can one expect to foster, growth, ingenuity and liberty when ones answer is to have a govt control everything? You stated in a blog sometime ago that health care was a constitutional right..where on earth does it say that? your Progressive interpretation tells you that. The tax and debt that your glorious leader Obama has put forth and will burden us in the future is certainly leading to our demise. The majority of the people across this nation DO NOT want this health care bill, but yet you talk of Reconciliation? Progressivism Mr. E and quite honestly...you and your Progressive Ilk scare the daylights out of me! I would say you can "KEEP THE CHANGE" but Obama has taken that out of my pockets too. Health care is a RESPONSIBILITY, NOT A RIGHT! why care about WHERE the money would come from now to pay for Health Care...good grief. Oh wait, I had all my questions answered with that "openess" Obama promised during the campaign...debates on CSPAN? crossing the isle? yeah ok. I will leave you with a quote from Thomas Jefferson: "If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny."

Regulations and mandated requirements are not rights. Society determining what they want as a norm/baseline is not a right.

Rights as prescribed by the founders of this country fall under the first ten amendments to the US constitution. These amendments limit the scope of government over its citizens, not the scope of government to provide items to its citizens.

The fact, that some, like to debate these as negative rights is disturbing. Policy and requirements added to our laws are just that policies and regulations…not rights. These same policies and regulations can be changed with congressional rules without further amendments to our constitution unlike rights.

The 10th amendment grants the State’s vast leeway to provide for its citizens, as in healthcare. If a State declares this, as some have, this is still not a right; it is a policy or regulation in essence a law.

oops...travel should have been "air travel (FAA)."

There are numerous rights that are not delineated in the Constitution. What the Constitution outlines is more the limitations on government rather than the exclusive domain of it.

For instance, you will not find the right to an education, yet we have accepted that all children will receive K-12 schooling. There is no right to fire or police protection, or emergency medical services, yet imagine our society without them. And, the federal government is involved in regulating and funding all of these.

There is nothing in the Constitution that allows the federal government to regulate airwaves (FCC), travel (FCC), money (Fed), or medicine (FDA), yet, imagine the state of our society without any of these regulatory agencies and laws.

It takes Balz to articulate what real leadership is. We need this in Janesville. Where do we start looking for leaders, in the Chicken Coop?

My personal favorite president is London B. Johnson. I heard he came over to the new world in search of tea! Obama is a super coward, he needed his super majority to rubber stamp all of his plans, but they will not because they know what the people really want, is leaders who will lead and do what is right, not what the people want. Because, as you know mostly people do not want what is best for them.

I used to like to play MAD-LIBS as a kid! This is how I read this post:

"John: I understand that capitalism is the driving force of our economy. But there are some areas where capitalism just doesn't contribute to greatness. One of those areas is in AUTOMOBILE MANUFACTURING. As I see it, capitalism is the single biggest obstacle to getting the so-called "AUTOMOBILE reform" passed.

In reality, we're not talking about reforming AUTOMOBILES (at least at this point). What we ARE talking about reforming is MANUFACTURING AUTOMOBILES. Yet, those on the right continue to raise a hue and cry about socialized AUTOMOBILE MANUFACTURING.

AUTOMOBILE companies are for-profit businesses. They pay their executives huge salaries and massive bonuses. They have shareholders who demand dividends. All of those financial gains come at the expense of the "clients." When AN AUTOMOBILE BREAKS DOWN AND NEEDS WARRANTY SERVICE IT is reducing the PROFITS, the AUTOMOBILE company has an interest in dumping that client. It doesn't matter if the client has regularly paid their CAR PAYMENTS for 3 or 4 years. All that matters is the next quarter's profits.

How many AUTOMOBILE COMPANIES do we have in the US? Each of those companies has a separate business structure with separate sales, claims, IT, legal, and executive arms that cost billions of dollars, not to mention the billions they pay to their shareholders. Just think of how many more Americans could receive quality AUTOMOBILES with a single-MANUFACTURER system that is not driven by profit. That doesn't mean operating at a loss, just that those billions could be instead paying to keep our country MOTORING.

If AUTOMOBILE MANUFACTURING were not a for-profit venture, there would still be millions of investment opportunities for capitalists. Why do those on the right INSIST that something as basic as AUTOMOBILES must be capitalist-driven and a privelege instead of a right?"

Take home point. If you are going to regulate and have government run not for profit health care, why not government run not for profit grocery stores, dentists, clothing manufacturers, home builders, and apartment buildings? After all, they are all basic needs right?

I believe the government run AUTOMOBILE MANUFACTURING has already occurred! Oops...I didn't intend for it to be that way but funny none the less!

Boy...I'm paging through the Bill of Rights...I don't see health care listed anywhere. For that matter I also don't see the right to own a home, have a job, drive a car, have a cell phone, get cable TV, smoke cigarettes, or go to college. It's amazing...I must have an outdated copy.

The health care issue is something like losing weight. "No pain, no gain". Everyone involved has to sacrifice.

Well said, Cooperguy!

"Again, as President Obama reminded Senator John McCain and all of us yesterday, “The election is over!” NOW it is time for the Democrats, whom WE THE PEOPLE elected in November 2008 to take FULL responsibility and provide the LEADERSHIP NEEDED for health care reform and then let WE THE PEOPLE vote on November 2, 2010. President Obama rightly asserted that’s what elections are for!"
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Again Mr. Eyster you miss the point by a country mile. Yes, we all know the election is over, and to quote Sen. McCain, we are reminded of the results of that election every day. The problem with your logic of "we won the election so we should just cram this piece of crap bill down everyone's throat even though they don't want it because it's best for them" is that the President doesn't just represent the people who voted for him, he represents the entire country and should be acting in the country's best interests. I'm sure you didn't feel this way when W was in office, but now that it's "your guy" you think those of us who are actually paying attention to this boondoggle disguised as health care reform should just sit in the corner and shut up until the 2010 elections. Sorry pal, it don't work that way.

John: I understand that capitalism is the driving force of our economy. But there are some areas where capitalism just doesn't contribute to greatness. One of those areas is in health insurance. As I see it, capitalism is the single biggest obstacle to getting the so-called "health care reform" passed.

In reality, we're not talking about reforming health care (at least at this point). What we ARE talking about reforming is PAYING for health care. Yet, those on the right continue to raise a hue and cry about socialized medicine.

Insurance companies are for-profit businesses. They pay their executives huge salaries and massive bonuses. They have shareholders who demand dividends. All of those financial gains come at the expense of the "clients." When a client gets sick and is reducing the PROFITS, the insurance company has an interest in dumping that client. It doesn't matter if the client has regularly paid their premiums for 30 or 40 years. All that matters is the next quarter's profits.

How many health insurance companies do we have in the US? Each of those companies has a separate business structure with separate sales, claims, IT, legal, and executive arms that cost billions of dollars, not to mention the billions they pay to their shareholders. Just think of how many more Americans could receive quality health care with a single-payer system that is not driven by profit. That doesn't mean operating at a loss, just that those billions could be instead paying to keep our country healthy.

If health insurance were not a for-profit venture, there would still be millions of investment opportunities for capitalists. Why do those on the right INSIST that something as basic as health care must be capitalist-driven and a privelege instead of a right?

(now, I'll sit back and watch as my reasoned posting gets me attacked as a socialist or umpteen other insults)

The election is over? your not reading Obama very well,

John,

Why do you assume the democrats are going to fall in line NOW? They couldnt pass the bill with a super majority and clearly the house parliamentarian will not allow the current bill, obamacare 2.0 to be brought to a vote with abortion language as it stands. It will take 217 Democrat votes to pass.

Also don't look to medicare or medicaid as successful govt healthcare programs. They are centers of fraud and waste which cost billions of tax payer dollars----and are nearing bankruptcy. Your blind faith in the federal government to solve the healthcare problem speaks volumes to your lack of understanding the issue. Please stop your childish TACTIC of capitalizing words MID sentence. It makes your blog NEARLY unreadable.

This is not called leadership its call salesmanship. Obama has to put on a sales pitch to a bad bill that the majority of Americans don't want or can't afford. As Nancy Pelosi said vote for it even if it hurts.In other words put it to the American people even if it will cost you your election. The liberals are eating their own young and thats a good thing.This is typical liberal socialist thinking that the government knows whats better for you and your money than you do. The American people voted for change. But I wonder did they realize that we were going to see debt this size. Debt that our grandchildren s grandchildren will be paying for.The liberal left socialists must realize that the American people are not as stupid as they think. So send Barry out to sell it and make sure the crowds he talks to are all hand picked. And the questions asked are screened beforehand. And then put it on national TV to make it look popular. If it was a good bill it would not have to be "sold"