It’s the anniversary of Barack Obama’s inauguration today and the Yanks are getting a bit pissed off with him already.
In fact, in a similar tale to that of the Conservatives flushing out Labour in Blackpool – and I suspect this will also be the case if the Tories become Government here – Americans are wondering when change will start to happen. They claim that they’re in exactly the same position, worried about the same things, and with exactly the same opportunities (or lack of) as when the warmongering George Walker Bush was the President.
Yesterday, Barack Obama suffered his first voter backlash in Massachusetts after Republican Scott Brown overhauled a 20 percentage point lead that Democrats’ Martha Coakley had held and ousted her 52 to 47. The seat had been held for the last 49 years by Democrat Ted Kennedy who died in August last year.
This is a key loss for Obama because it means his party has lost its 60% supermajority in the Senate; now anyone opposed to a motion can stage what’s known as a filibuster. This means any senator can stand up and speak for as long as they want in order to delay the motion or perhaps convince the audience that the proposition should be changed or scrapped.
Since Scott Brown is politically opposite Obama it means the president is going to have to get at least one of the opposition on-side with his policy: something he didn’t have to do with his supermajority.
This victory has put a chill up the spine of all Democrat senators, because if such a huge lead in a safe seat can be pulverised by a relative nobody, then no senator is safe.
“If anyone has doubts about the next election season let them take a look at Massachusetts
“What happened here can happen all over America. When there is trouble in Massachusetts, rest assured there is trouble everywhere and they know it in Washington.” – Senator Scott Brown
So why doesn’t anyone like Mr “Yes We Can” any more?
In the short term it’s because he associated with and implicated himself in Martha Coakley’s aggressive, unpopular smear campaign that preferred to make Scott Brown look bad rather than herself look good.
In the longer term the main, underlying reason for Mr Obama’s approval nosedive is because he wants to increase tax.
Yes, he wants to apply greenhouse gas taxes and be seen to be doing the right thing, but the main issue is his healthcare reform plan; essentially wanting to create a national health service. Clearly, there’s a large tax implication there and the Yanks do not like it one bit.
However, the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts may well have scuppered the healthcare plan completely. As I mentioned before, Massachusetts was a safe Democrat seat, having been held for almost 60 years first by John F. Kennedy and then by his brother Ted. But it was lost to an unknown. Democrats everywhere will be panicking that this could happen to them during the next election season, so they will probably drop their support for Obama’s healthcare plan in order to save themselves.
I can understand the rage at Obamas taxation plans, but I think America needs a national health service arguably more than the UK does.
America is perceived to be a land of opportunity which it may well be, but there is a lot of poverty particularly amongst people of black and hispanic origin. In the UK these people might have little, but they know they will be looked after under our healthcare system.
Not so in the USA: if they become ill for any reason then they have to suffer if they don’t have health insurance. Is this a modern, progressive, western ideology?
I think part of the reason the Yanks aren’t interested is due to social segregation. The city slickers that can afford Medicare don’t care about the poor black family in the deep south that are at death’s door. There isn’t really a middle ground in their demographic: the average salary is fairly high but that simply means that the haves have a lot and the have nots have very little at all. In short, there’s high inequality.
Obama pledged to solve this and his plans are now in chaos.
But can you argue with democracy?
I knows its sort of off-topic but the Gasjet is running yet another story on that stupid muppet Hamish and I am getting fuck sick of hearing about him. Unfortunately he has successfullly been selected as the UKIP candidate for Blackpool South so that’s two parties ruled out (Liebour and UKIP). I seriously am considering writing to the Gazette and telling them to stop publishing these stupid non-stories. He is now getting all cocky claiming he is a serious threat to Blackpool South. I want Marsden out more than anything but I want an MP who is fighting for Blackpool, not a one-issue muppet who doesn’t give a toss about Blackpool.
Sort of?
Lol, sort because the article is on health and Hamish is anti-health as far as I am concerned by promoting smoking. I just hate the guy so much I had to let some steam off.
On the article anyway having watched the excellent film Sicko, it was frightening how appalling the health service is in America. There was one story when a man was in the USA on holiday from Canada (where healthcare is free) and had a horrific accident with spinal injuries and ended up with a bill for about $600,000. There was also a CCTV video where a taxi pulled up outside a charity hospital pushed an old lady out in a hospital gown with a cannula (drip) still in place and her bags, she had been put in the taxi because she couldn’t afford the other hospital. Labour is already trying to follow the USA’s example in university funding much to my great dismay, we don’t want a US style health service.
You’d be quids in if they privatised it wouldn’t you?
Maybe I would but I do believe strongly in the health service we provide in this country. I do feel nurses are criminally underpaid in the NHS, but I don’t do the job purely for the money. I feel we deserve a better wage and I am fed up of being outearned by manual jobs like BA cabin crew and binmen and tanker drivers but I do my job because I care about my patients and I genuinely like helping people. I feel the health service is one of those things that should be there for everyone who needs it. So while I do support privatisation in many other areas I believe the NHS should belong to the people.
Everyone thinks they deserve a better wage. I doubt bin men earn more than nurses!
I think for what you do the money is alright. As a commenter said on another thread, with the availability of as many shifts as you like, its easy for a nurse to be on £30k (plus pension etc) with 3 or 4 years experience.
He said if you’re not on that, you’re not working hard enough.
And you have the added bonus that you don’t take your work home with you!
Some fair points but I’m not on £30k a year, I read an article the other day where binmen in Birmingham were earning a £20k basic wage and massive bonuses taking their wages up to £40k-50k and some road workers were even earning £80k a year. I know these are extreme exceptional examples but what makes these jobs so special they get that sort of money? What makes BA cabin crew and tanker drivers so special they get £30k ? Then when they want more they just hold the country to ransom which nurses would never do we are not selfish like the greedy BA cabin crew. Nursing a is a very demanding job and a lot harder than some think. We don’t simply ‘look after’ people we are highly skilled professionals and further up the ladder there are very highly qualified nurses that are effectively ‘mini-doctors’ but still earn less than train drivers and tanker drivers. It is not fair.
Tanker drivers get £40k I think not £30k. But its danger money as if anything happens to their vehicle they’re dead.
Strap a few thousands gallons of petrol to your back every day and I’m sure they’ll pay you a bit more
30k that much?????????
My point exactly, there are much more dangerous jobs that pay a hell of a lot less like firefighters, soldiers and countless other jobs. I have a friend who is a lorry driver and he said it is easy to drive with a bit of practice, at worst it gets boring sometimes.
I know this is late but I am so tried of public sector worker bitching about their pay. TB a nurse straight out of university is on 21K (or as near as) and without getting another promotion it goes all the way up to 27k with one promotion 33 1/2k with two 40K. Then we have NHS pension which must equate to another 5K a year plus a very generous sick policy and a secure job, which in this climate must reflect on wages. So nurses aren’t doing that bad and I didn’t even mention shift enhancement or weekend and bank holiday enhancement and all this for a basic 37 hr week not bad at all
Hey Black Pudding!
Don’t think I’m being flippant but you would make a bloody good matron.
BRS
I thought you lived in Benidorm..
…not at Blackpool Council.
Unless thats a really strange route path
What, in and out of the town hall? lol
Come on BRS, who are you?
My money’s on Simon Blackburn.
I’ll put £5 on that one too.
Perhaps TB would make a good “matron” and then he could attend to your mental health needs, (which are severe), with remarkable ease; simply by the use of a 11KV electricity supply.
Lmao Harold, that’s the best comment I have heard all day.
But back to the subject anyhow, like I say I support privatisation in many areas but like I say health and education should be free to all. I took one of my family to A&E last week and they spent a few days on a ward and the staff and the quality of service was excellent but the best thing is you are safe in the knowledge noone is going to hand you a big bill at the end saying; £x for the doctor’s fee, £x/night for your bed and board etc etc. The NHS is a great institution and should be left untouched. I have nothing against private healthcare but I feel we should keep the system as it stands where you have the choice.
I agree, but I’m not a fan of consultants moonlighting on BUPA schemes when the NHS is paying them.
I think the NHS needs managing properly but aside from that it’s a fairly sound institution. Probably a bit overstaffed.
I’d hope the Tories would get stuck into it and toss the dead wood by the wayside. But who knows, it would be massively unpopular if the service was made more efficient and nurses were laid off.
You cant have your cake and eat it.
Same here, there are too many managers and jobsworths who do nothing. I think the professionals should run the NHS, no government interference, no silly targets and bureaurcracy. I don’t think we have enough nurses personally some of the wards I have worked (I won’t name any) on are drastically understaffed. BA cabin crew are threatening strike action because BA wants to reduce the number of crew on a 747 from 14 to 12. Big deal, while on some BVH wards there are 20-30 patients sometimes with one (two if were lucky) qualified staff nurse for the whole ward and a few healthcare assistants/auxillaries on busy wards. There are too many managers in my view.
I agree with that. As I have mentioned before I plan in the future to hopefully attend medical school and retrain as a doctor myself. If I am a consultant I have no intention of doing so, my committment would be to the NHS completely.
Every credit to you TB, I trained as an electronics engineer (graduate), now I am funding my own training to be a management accountant, (CIMA) lol.
Excellent Harold that’s what I like to see a bit of ambition and determination. I can’t believe Brown the Clown is going around claiming he believes in a fair society of hard work and aspiration, bollocks he does.
TB I wish you all the success mate, you deserve it.
In Gordons BROWNken Britain, we have “defferred sucess” and celebration of mediocrity;little wonder we have a sponging culture of do fuck all slobs.
Likewise Harold, Labour do everything they can to crush aspiration and hard work.
No surprise that socialist societies develop the slowest!
Socialism is enforced RETARDATION.
Hear hear, but what makes me laugh is how socialists always think their way is ‘perfect’. There is a total wanker called ‘goodsocialist’ who appears on the Lancashire Evening Post website and writes a loaf of socialist propaganda and he referred to conservatism as ‘fascism’, I have never heard anything so ridiculous.
I agree.
It does seem that the irony is lost on groups like UAF that are campaigning to ban legitimate political parties.
Socialists like to shout a lot but don’t really know what they’re talking about.
Look at Mr Obama. What’s he achieved so far? Nothing. What’s he going to achieve now that he’s lost his majority? Nothing.
Conservatism is fascism? Whilst Fascism has an ultra conservative aspect to it, if you look at the origins of fascism,it a nationalist form of SOCIALISM.
Mussolini before he created fascism, was, a guess what?????
A SOCIALIST.
Another contributor to the sorry state of the NHS under Liebour is the current Health Secretary, the smarmy hypocritical little twerp Andy Burnham. Enjoying wrecking the NHS while you can Burnham, a few months time you will be Shadow Health Secretary in Miliband’s Shadow Cabinet, I don’t reckon Brown the Clown will survive if sorry WHEN they get booted out in May.
Dont forget Ed “the ‘ead” balls!
agreed TB, bunch of tosspots they are.
UAF = unemployable and filthy.