The former governor of Vermont is leading the charge against Obamacare because it is not socialistic enough. Dr. Dean wants the government to completely control the health industry in the USA.
He wants this because it is an excellent way to redistribute income. You take money from the wealthy through taxation, and you give it to the less wealthy through extended Medicare benefits and free health insurance.
President Obama knows that kind of thinking is rejected by most Americans, so Mr. Obama will settle for a new health care system that he believes provides some protection for working Americans but is not controlled by the feds.
At this point, President Obama needs to pass any kind of health care bill to avoid huge political damage. That is likely to happen in January.
But Howard Dean and his merry band of radicals is not going away quietly, thus we have an ideological war within the Democratic Party.
It's very similar to what's going on in the Republican Party. You have the committed right, the Sarah Palin crew, vs. moderate Republicans, the John McCain people.
Anyway, the polling on Obamacare is very interesting. The most recent Rasmussen poll among likely voters shows 56 percent of them oppose Obamacare, the highest level ever. Just 40 percent support it.
Ironically, at this point you have far left and conservative people both opposing Obamacare, as Sen. McCain pointed out:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, R-ARIZ.: If you live long enough, all things can happen. I now find myself in complete agreement with Dr. Howard Dean, who says that we should stop this bill in its tracks, we should go back to the beginning and have an overall bipartisan agreement. Dr. Dean, I am with you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
"Talking Points" continues to be very skeptical of Obamacare. It fails to stop nuisance lawsuits against doctors. It fails to provide competition among health insurance companies by allowing them to sell across state lines, and it's basically a confusing hodgepodge of stuff nobody can understand.
With trillions of dollars in play, 56 percent of the American voters are correct. This is not a good piece of legislation.
And that's "The Memo."
Pinheads & Patriots
As you may know, Bob Dylan has a Christmas album out, which is incredible beyond anything I've ever heard. And so does the '70s rock group Blondie.
Click here to listen to Blondie's version of "We Three Kings"!
Is that patriotic? You make the call.
On the pinhead front, for some reason country singer Toby Keith showed up at the Nobel Peace Prize exposition and promptly got into trouble during a performance with Will Smith.
Click here to see Toby Keith's controversial performance.
For making the slanted eye gesture, Mr. Keith is a pinhead, although he does do good work with the troops.
— You can catch Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" and "Pinheads & Patriots" weeknights at 8 and 11 p.m. ET on the FOX News Channel and any time on foxnews.com/oreilly. Send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com
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