Americans horribly, dangerously uninformed and misinformed about ACA

[Doctor_J]

The American Public's Shocking Lack of Policy Knowledge is a Threat to Progress and Democracy

The genuinely shocking degree of public ignorance regarding the ACA that has been revealed by this slew of recent polls, more than three years after the law was signed by President Obama, should not be something to which we respond by simply shaking our heads and lamenting that the American people are so "disengaged." No, this ought to be viewed as a very serious political crisis and a grave threat to whatever semblance of health our badly disfigured democratic culture still maintains.

If anything, the trend is going in the opposite direction, with the public having actually become less informed with time: Levels of awareness of other key provisions have either remained stable or declined over time.

For example, the shares who are aware of the law's subsidies, Medicaid expansion, and closing of the Medicare prescription drug "doughnut hole" have all decreased since right after the law's passage in 2010 (by 12 percentage points, 6 percentage points, and 7 percentage points, respectively). This leaves substantial shares unaware that the law includes each of these key provisions.

The public is not just uninformed, but also misinformed, about the most consequential social reform signed into law in many decades. More than half of Americans reported to Kaiser that a public option was, in fact, included in the ACA. More than 40 percent believe that the law provides subsidies to undocumented immigrants to purchase health insurance, establishes something very closely resembling a death panel, and cuts benefits for seniors currently enrolled in Medicare (43 percent, 42 percent and 42 percent, respectively).

More:

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/19279-the-american-publics-shocking-lack-of-policy-knowledge-is-a-threat-to-progress-and-democracy

Hate Radio and Cable "News" are a clear and present danger to the country

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. " Americans horribly, dangerously uninformed and misinformed about ______"

_____________ - pick a topic, any topic. It goes beyond hate radio and cable news - TV in general is, with a few exceptions, a great way to lower IQ....

[lordsummerisle]

3. You beat me to it

I was just about to post exactly this...

[dkf]

2. They are even less informed about how well the Canadian system works.

They think medicare is better!!! Amazing.

[ConcernedCanuk]

5. Canadians as a whole are much better informed about the USAmericans

.
.
.

than USAmericans are about Canadians.

Many other nations know more about USAmerica than USAMerica knows about them.

By "know" - I mean a more accurate picture.

Heck, I believe that USAmericans on the whole may know less about the truths of USAmerica than much of the rest of the World does.

I believe there are two main reasons.

ONE:

USAmericans are constantly misinformed by their own leaders, for one reason or another.

TWO:

USAmerica has ingested itself into most of the rest of the World's countries so we "watch" the USA.

Read below from the link: http://archive.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance8.html

The number of countries that the United States has a presence in is staggering. According the U.S. Department of State's list of "Independent States in the World," there are 192 countries in the world, all of which, except Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, and North Korea, have diplomatic relations with the United States. All of these countries except one (Vatican City) are members of the United Nations. According to the Department of Defense publication, "Active Duty Military Personnel Strengths by Regional Area and by Country," the United States has troops in 135 countries. Here is the list:

Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
Antigua
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahamas
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belgium
Belize
Bolivia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Brazil
Bulgaria
Burma
Burundi
Cambodia
Cameroon
Canada
Chad
Chile
China
Colombia
Congo
Costa Rica
Cote D'lvoire
Cuba
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Djibouti
Dominican Republic
East Timor
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Eritrea
Estonia
Ethiopia
Fiji
Finland
France
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Guatemala
Guinea
Haiti
Honduras
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Latvia
Lebanon
Liberia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Mali
Malta
Mexico
Mongolia
Morocco
Mozambique
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nicaragua

Niger
Nigeria
North Korea
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Romania
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Serbia and Montenegro
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovenia
Spain
South Africa
South Korea
Sri Lanka
Suriname
Sweden
Switzerland
Syria
Tanzania
Thailand
Togo
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
Uruguay
Venezuela
Vietnam
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe

This means that the United States has troops in 70 percent of the world's countries. The average American could probably not locate half of these 135 countries on a map.

/snip/

The U. S. global empire — an empire that Alexander the Great, Caesar Augustus, Genghis Khan, Suleiman the Magnificent, Justinian, and King George V would be proud of.

March 16, 2004
____________________________________________________________________________________________

The numbers have changed somewhat in the last 10 years

Mostly upwards, US now has a military presence in around 150 countries, bases in 70 or more.

And many of us are watching,

closely.

CC

[blkmusclmachine]

4. DC DEMS don't seem to be too concerned over 1,000 uncontested Hate Radio Stations,

or Corporate owned and operated, black box vote "counting" machines.

WHY???

[freebrew]

6. Yesterday, watched that idiot David Gregory

interview several pols. Maybe someone should also inform him about correcting errors(lies) by the repub guests.
I can't count how many times it was said that the repubs were sent to DC to repeal the ACA.
As I recall, and I remember Olbermann's nightly question, "where are the jobs Mr. Boehner?".

In 2010, the repubs convinced the idiot population in many states that PBO wasn't doing enough to create jobs. Enough of the idiot population fell for it and that along with gerry-mandered districts gave them a majority in the house.

NOTHING was ever mentioned about repealing ACA until after the election.

Am I the only one that remembers this?

[Doctor_J]

7. Gregory knows perfectly well about the Republican lies

His main function is to put a "non-partisan" spin on it. He is a lying, cowardly, far-right terrorist and propagandist.