On the Issues..

In today’s op-ed pages, the always refreshing Froma Harrop is nailing the candidates down on the issues again:

“One thing that can't be changed right now is higher gasoline prices. Thus, calls by Republican John McCain and Democrat Hillary Clinton to suspend the federal gas tax over the summer are worse than pandering. They're counterproductive.”
“Only Democrat Barack Obama had the fortitude to tell American consumers that the exit from high oil prices is the door leading away from oil. He noted that the tax holiday would save the average consumer a mere $30 and jeopardize funds needed for roads and bridges.”

“McCain's idea of a government-run pool to cover the sick ones turns his plan into another bonanza for the insurance industry. It lets insurers make a pile selling their policies to healthy people, while the taxpayers are stuck with the expensive patients.”
“On this issue, Clinton is the only leading candidate to show true grit and deliver a hard fact that many don't want to hear: Universal coverage cannot happen unless everyone participates in the system. This means that healthy people who don't feel like buying health coverage have to be dragged in.”

-And then there’s the war. Although the next president’s freedom of movement will of course be severely constricted by reality, I believe that most Americans oppose McCain’s “one-hundred year plan.”

So let’s do what we can to keep it real. Challenge people when you hear them parroting the samsara baloney they hear batted around on the mainstream media.

This ain’t no reality show.