I hated it when Reagan did it with little black kids sitting around him acting like they were his good friends and I hate it when Clinton and Bush staged these ridiculous BS photo ops.  It truly pisses me that they  [ all politicians ] think we are so naive.  They know that every move is recorded somehow and yet  we still get this phony crap. 

I am not sure what upsets you so much about that particular little public photo opportunity display, but discussing health care reform plans with those within the industry (no matter how they got the invite) seems fairly innocuous. I think the bigger question is why not one Republican will support the majority party's proposals, and also refuse to take part in any real substantive move away from the cartel dominance the insurers now wield over all matters medical. 

It is one thing to rail at the quality of the proposals but to continue to misrepresent possible solutions as laden with death panels, robbing seniors of benefits, tort reforms as being some real savings on what we spend, and labeling a public option as socialism helps no one. Certainly not anyone hoping to see medical costs come into line with where wages are these days.

I would appreciate some honesty by our leaders.  Nobody can possibly buy this idiotic farce.  That is the topic of this post.  I agree many changes are needed  in our insurance system but why not put forth an honest face every time you address the public with a problem.  For me all these lies individually are minor but together they portray an attitude toward us that is disrespectful and does nothing to further the cause.

I would agree an honest and forthright approach is what our goal for policy making should be. That being said, in the two-party system we have one side always at odds with the other, and determined (for a very long time) that it is in their political best interest to destroy by any means necessary all of the proposals by the other side. We have created an atmosphere where governing cannot take place.

The replacement of governance by elected officials has been hijacked by the backroom lobbyist who actually writes the legislation and through advertising propaganda sells the bills to a public not privy to the process. This is why people are angry, but the anger is focused on the wrong parties. The hostility should be focused on those who actually corrupt the system, the corporate owners of this society and their paid henchmen the lobbyists, not the role players of government, which are the people's last refuge of having any say in any matter.

If Americans would put on some Skin Bracer and slap themselves in the face one morning, and realize 95% of us are all in the same precarious boat with next  to squat as the sum total of our wealth we might be able to make changes to our current dismal situation. Let us honestly talk about the issues of water, energy, health care, roadways, education and recreation and how we need to fund them. Let us get away from labels which only serve to separate and demean people.

I personally do not care what political affiliation anyone on these blogs has. I care about what people stand for. What are the American ideals we now stand for? Is it truth? Then tell me why is advertising currently the most important piece of our Democracy. Free speech has been convoluted to mean paid advertising in this day and age. Or, paid subscriptions to the public airwaves controlled by a handful of corporate telecommunications giants. You can get locked up for uttering a profanity in the wrong place, but no one gets locked for lying about the wonders of Vioxx, or any number of other drugs that have been found to have been marketed falsely and that killed people.

Is justice an American ideal? Then tell me why is our nation currently the leading gulag nation of the world. Is our society so sick with dysfunctional people that we must lock up millions because there is no place for them? And why does justice always single out the poor for the most harsh sentences when corporate executives on Wall Street can cause the collapse of our economy and rob citizens complete savings and then get cushy government jobs? Why do Goldman-Sachs people run the country into the ground and get to continue to run the country? Why does a person robbing a liquor store of two hundred dollars get 20 years and people who have robbed billions get parole? 

We purport to care about education, but we cut education at every economic bump in the road while always saving money for prisons to keep those from the streets of poverty behind bars.

So let us have transparency on policy issues and argue honestly on the merits of facts, not political slogans or supposed ideology.  I am down for it.

Well put Adam. I believe that politicians of both parties, for the most part, are out of touch with what the people want. The politicians are in the thrall of corporate lobbyists who put up big money to get them re-elected. Having said that, I still believe that the best hope for a majority of Americans is a party with a more progressive stance, as opposed to the Conservative - "greed is good" outlook of the 1980s. There is a pie out there, but it has already been sliced up and the only thing the vast majority of us are going to get is a couple of crumbs. Why do you think that gambling has become our national obsession over the past 30 years? 

Thank you Adam, that was on the money.  I appreciate the way you spoke to the needs of our system without partisan labels.  You covered a lot ground and did it very well. 

The only thing I found to disagree with is this....

"Politicians of both parties are out of touch with what the people want"

I don't believe they're out of touch, we're too vocal for that.  I think they just don't care and are only interested in their own agenda.  If it coincides with ours we cheer and they preen.  If it doesn't, too bad for us.

Right Nancy, I just don't know if we can cheer or boo loud enough to drown out the sound of cash registers of the lobbyists.  I feel the same intense frustration Adam seems to have and I really can't see any reason to think any item mentioned will get addressed, ever.  If it's not a manufacturing lobby, it's the unions, et al.  I have tried to  visualize how our government would operate if there were term limits on all elected positions.  A thirty day limit on campaigning.  I had a couple more paragraphs down but it was just, if only and what if,  The expectations we have that our leaders are going lie and cheat and be indebted to special interest groups and lobbyist drives me nuts.  Honor and trust sure would be refreshing.