23% say health care is most important?

[fstsix]

So through four pages of posts no one (or at least few) has really answered the original question.

If only 23% say health care is most important, why is it the foremost item with the U.S. administration, the Congress, and the mainstream media?

Who is the tail that's wagging the dog here?

The answer is pretty simple. Unless health care costs are both controlled and those costs better distributed, there is no hope of getting the deficit under control.

Just as Simple as your explanation of why you only have access to 20 Health care providers in your state .

[x]

If only 23% say health care is most important, why is it the foremost item with the U.S. administration, the Congress, and the mainstream media?

Because the issues that are the hot buttons in the opinion polls are not necessarily the issues that are actually the most important to the country.  This is one reason that our Founding Fathers chose a representative democracy as opposed to a direct democracy.

[f6john]

If only 23% say health care is most important, why is it the foremost item with the U.S. administration, the Congress, and the mainstream media?

Because the issues that are the hot buttons in the opinion polls are not necessarily the issues that are actually the most important to the country.  This is one reason that our Founding Fathers chose a representative democracy as opposed to a direct democracy.

     The "Founding Fathers" were no doubt very astute men with great foresight and a very selfless sense of duty and service to the country as without them this country might not have survived this long. That being said I can't believe that they could have envisioned the power of lobbyists over our "representatives" or their willingness to sell out their countrymen for another term and to line their own pockets.

[stormrider]

If only 23% say health care is most important, why is it the foremost item with the U.S. administration, the Congress, and the mainstream media?

Because the issues that are the hot buttons in the opinion polls are not necessarily the issues that are actually the most important to the country.  This is one reason that our Founding Fathers chose a representative democracy as opposed to a direct democracy.

     The "Founding Fathers" were no doubt very astute men with great foresight and a very selfless sense of duty and service to the country as without them this country might not have survived this long. That being said I can't believe that could have envisioned the power of lobbyists over our "representatives" or their willingness to sell out their countrymen for another term and to line their own pockets.

Bingo, get rid of the lobbyists and the perks they provide, then they may can hear our voice again. BTW, SE, we have a republic, not a democracy.

Republicanism is the value system of governance that has been a major part of American civic thought since the American Revolution. It stresses liberty and rights as central values, makes the people as a whole sovereign, rejects inherited political power, expects citizens to be independent in their performance of civic duties, and is strongly inclined against corruption. American republicanism was founded and first practiced by the Founding Fathers in the 18th century. This system was based on early Roman and English models and ideas. It formed the basis for the American Revolution and the consequential Declaration of Independence (1776) and the Constitution (1787), as well as the Gettysburg Address. It is not the same as democracy, for republicanism asserts that people have inalienable rights that cannot be voted away by a majority of voters. In a government made up as a constitutional republic, the Rule of Law and clearly defined constitutional principles dictate the actual administration of government.

Link to entire article from wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republicanism_in_the_United_States