They urge their followers to do almost anything to derail his landmark social legislation.
Of course, I'm talking about 1963.
Today's hate-filled, ignorant rhetoric coming from the right serves no legitimate purpose.
Isn't there even one Republican willing to defy the lunatic fringe of their party?
Or is this fringe the new GOP base?
Like many Americans, I'm old enough to remember the terrorist act of Nov. 22, 1963, like it was yesterday. My hope is we don't see history repeat itself in the very near future.
Bob Smagula
Santa Barbara
'Obamacare' revisited
Re “Healthy skepticism,” Opinion, March 23
The juxtaposition of Tuesday's Op-Ed articles on healthcare couldn't paint a clearer picture of conservative cruelty.
Robert Hollister speaks for millions of middle-class Americans trapped with insufficient funds and insufficient care, while Jonah Goldberg callously portrays the president as thinking people are "too stupid to go the doctor."
They're not stupid, Jonah, they're unemployed, uninsured and/or broke.
Jess Winfield
Los Angeles
Goldberg may be right when he says "healthcare costs have been skyrocketing because consumers treat health insurance like an expense account," but I take offense at his claim that "profit-hungry insurance companies were never the problem."
In 2009, Blue Cross raised my premiums 35%, and its parent company, WellPoint, almost doubled its profits to $4.7 billion.
This year Blue Cross raised my rates 39%, and I'm sure its goal is another Wall Street-pleasing boost in profits for 2010.
Dick Sanders
La Quinta
Goldberg is once again posing as the poster child for let-the-market-decide ideologues.
He sets up one straw man after another in his effort to demonize what the administration has accomplished against rigid don't-bother-me-with-facts opposition from Republicans.
Goldberg's whining that Obama and the Democratic leadership "won dirty" is pathetic. It's an example of the pot calling the kettle black.
And raising the specter of rationed care nicely ignores the reality of what we already have: rationing by insurance industry sleight of hand.
Goldberg comes across as nothing more than just another insurance industry shill.
Martin Parker
Thousand Oaks
Goldberg's column is a dead-on description of the new healthcare plan -- particularly the part where it will (by intention) lead to the Democrats pushing a full-on single-payer system to solve problems that already existed, not to mention problems they are creating.
Only market-based solutions, like increases in medical savings accounts with the government only handling catastrophic care, will actually contain costs.
Richard Sol
Los Angeles
