Maybe heavy social media users believe healthcare is the number one issue, but being a little old lady from Pasadena type I can tell you most people I speak with (in person - verbally) say its about the lousy job market, high gas prices and too many government programs.

The reason Obama-Care is still the number 1 issue is because we, the majority of Americans, said NO!!! The Obama administration and the Democrats pushed this law on all of us. Obama and the Democrats now stand up and tell you that they have been doing good for the American People? How about listening to us for once.

Obama and the Democrats that supported him and Obama-Care all need to be thrown out of office. The plan is expensive and wind up to be one of the largest tax increased in this country. That right folks a brand new very expensive tax. The rest of the money will come from cuts to Medicare and Social-Security to the tune of over $1 Trillion Dollars. The Obama Bunch says this will not effect the services or cost to these programs, that's ridiculous.

to find out I had a treatable condition

1. It's a tax! There wasn't much for Republicans to love in the Supreme Court's ruling that Obamacare is constitutional, except that they concluded the individual mandate is, for constitutional purposes (but not for others), a tax. The soundbites write themselves. Republicans can now brand Obama as raising taxes on the middle class, or, if they're feeling particularly blustery, "the biggest tax increase in the history of the world." But ABC News' Michael Falcone pulls up video from a January 2008 Republican presidential primary debate in which Romney seems to think such a tax is pretty great. When the debate moderator asks, "Governor … you imposed tax penalties in Massachusetts?" Romney defends the mandate by framing it terms of personal responsibility. "Yes, we said, look, if people can afford to buy it, either buy the insurance or pay your own way," he said. "Don’t be free-riders."

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2. It's "ultimate conservatism." In 2007, Romney said that when the uninsured show up in emergency rooms and get free health care, that's a "form of socialism." By contrast, his health care law was conservative and inspired by the Heritage Foundation, something that is true and that the Heritage Foundation would probably like people to forget.

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Romney said a version of this multiple times. In January 2008, he told Fox News Sunday, "I think it's the ultimate conservative plan." Last year, Romney also said his law was based on "fundamentally a conservative principle."

3. It's a good national model. Romney boasted that Congress and the President could learn a lot about health care reform from his Massachusetts plan during an interview with CNN in 2009, "I think there are a number of features in the Massachusetts plan that could inform Washington on ways to improve health care for all Americans," he said "The fact that we were able to get people insured without a government option is a model I think they can learn from." Start at 1:05 and note the lack of concern about constitutional issues.

4. It's humane. When Romney left office in 2007, his staff erased his office's emails from a server computer in an attempt to wipe them from the public record. But earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal found a few survivors, including Romney's own early drafts of his April 2006 Journal op-ed about the passage of Romneycare. Romney used language that would surely irritate many conservatives, and it was toned down when eventually published. Nevertheless, Romney's original thoughts are preserved forever:

Some of my libertarian friends balk at an individual mandate. But is it libertarian to insist that government pick up the tab for those without insurance or means to pay? An uninsured libertarian might counter that he could refuse the free care, but under law, that is impossible — and inhumane.

Just to find out they need more money to pay for Obamacare and pay for our sky rocketing debt. Did I do that ! The deficit tax is 3500 alone and will go up kaching !. Then add Bush tax cuts and the rest they always talk about(RML NWO) and now food stamps is sounding good right about now over a job--> Welfare 101 : Crime Pays when government takes over.

As we get taxed to death for all you nay sayers or whatever you are ONE QUESTION --->will being taxed to death help the economy , will it help produce more jobs ? More money taken from the bottom that will not flow up and less money at the top to trickle dowm means more taxes and less jobs and a bigger burden on those with a job to keep paying more till POOF just like Greece ! taxing us more will not help the economy grow in fact it will help it implode . Do the math.

Yeah, health care is the issue because right now no matter what happens, it'll break the bank. But Obama's solution is not popular (never was), and Democrats have no intention of changing the abomination they rammed down the country's throat in highly questionable fashion. The so-called, badly mis-named Affordable Care Act will kill this country if fully implemented. For you single-payer idiots out there, I have relatives in Canada and they are NOT well served by it. I know there are a lot of socialists on this board who bleat about profiting from someone's sickness, but that is so much nonsense. Try health care in Russia. Or Cuba. No, it's not Michael Moore's dream place to get sick. We have the best health care in the world, but the delivery system needs to be overhauled for sure. Real competition needs to enter the system to keep costs from continuing to sky rocket, and it would be nice to keep trail lawyers from profiting off others' misfortune while picking our pockets through unnecessary, extravagent lawsuits.

Can't figure out why you are slamming Obama for his health care plan when Romnay actually wants to keep a major part of it.Plus the fact that this isn't even entirely his bill.Both Ted Kennedy and Hilary Clinton have been in it from the start.

@HopeisGone -- MSNBC is not reporting that health care is the # 1 issue / problem facing our nation as you seem to interpret but to be more precise / rather they report that the health care, ACA ,that Obama signed into law is the most talked about subject on social network sites ie: twitter , facebook per a computer analsys / sampling of over 3 million comments. There are , no doubt, many important issues / problems that we Americans need to fix but health care is bankrupting America so it remains a top concern. I will say that if our elected officials will put Americans first and bring back jobs to American people a lot of our economic issues will fix themselves. It is , to me , a no brainer that if people have work THEN ---- our tax base goes back up as more people are paying into the IRS, foreclosures go down, so people don't lose their houses and , in fact , again a no brainer , people start buy houses again and all sorts of products. Someone much smarter than myself once said --our problems in America cannot be fixed until we fix Washington DC, that is to say, we need politicians and elected officials who's main concern is to take care of Americans first -- who elected them into office. Unless or until we fix corrupt governing and get politicians from the president down who know how to keep a budget-- I hate to say or even think -- The economy in this great country of ours will not improve. I say to any politicians who will read this ---- for the love of GOD --- bring back our JOBS. We cannot compete with any country who pay there people a per hour wage that equates to slave wages here in America ---- SO create a level playing field and BRING BACK OUR JOBS ---------------------------- ENOUGH SAID.

Smokie is vary appropriate.I happen to like Obamacare as you call it,even though it was Kennedy & Clinton that started all of it.My daughter who is disabled is able to stay on our insurance because of it.And there are millions who also benefit from it.Our daughters medical bills,after five brain surgeries were over a million dollars,had it not been for his health care law we would have lost everything !!

“We are going to be gifted with a health care plan that we are forced to purchase, and fined if we don’t,” Bellar continues, “signed by a president who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes, by a government which has already bankrupted Social Security and Medicare, all to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that’s broke.”

“What the blank could possibly go wrong?”

I'm a healthy young individual and don't want to spend the 9K+ the CBO estimates a policy will cost in 2014. No problem, I don't buy the policy and pay the much smaller penalty of $98 (it increases every year up to a cap of $600+). When I get sick down the road I buy a policy that covers my illness because the Ins companies can't deny me. Great thinking Dems!

The dems worst nightmare is that folks are still mad about obamacare and will take it out at the polls like they did in 2010.

Can;t wait for Obama to fall off his bs in this debate

I still think Ben Stein said it best....

Paradoxical Quote of The Day From Ben Stein:

"Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen."

Now add this, "Many of those who refuse, or are unable, to prove they are citizens will receive free insurance paid for by those who are forced to buy insurance because they are citizens."

"one issue — health care — has consistently defined the presidential campaign as President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney head into their first debate Wednesday evening"

If the above quote, taken directly from the first paragraph of this article, does not show MSNBC's bias for Obama, nothing does. I am mildly amazed that MSNBC would issue such a blatantly false statement, and that a large number of individuals posting on this site would agree with it. The economy is in shambles, and getting consistently worse - the government issues statements that things are improving - forgetting to count those who are still unemployed but not actively collecting unemployment compensation in its figures. Further, the cost of food and energy, both of which have skyrocketed under Obama's leadership, are excluded from its cost-of-living computations.

Why the mainstream media keeps its collective head in the sand is beyond all rational thought - things are NOT getting better, in spite of what we are being spoon-fed.

Obama's fiscal policies have not worked. It's that simple. Will Romney solve our financial problems? I honestly don't know. What I DO know, is that Obama's attempts have increased the deficit, exacerbated the problem, and plunged our children and grandchildren into debt. It's time to change leaders & give a proven businessman a chance. Clearly, the politician currently in the White House can't do the job.

Remember in November.

If you're going to live in the USA and benefit from all of the things that are available then we have to be willing to pay taxes for those things, and that includes health care. Many on this board have this perception of reality that you don't have to contribute to anything. Well guess what. You're very dependent on other people for each and everything you do on a daily basis. Whether you own a car or ride a bus your taxes go to support these things. From the food you eat to the toothbrush you use to clean your teeth each night you are dependent on others. In turn they are also dependent upon you in a similar fashion.

If you don't like it, then I would suggest you look for some island where you can go native.

Let's not forget that a vote for Romney is the same as saying you want your taxes to be raised close to or more than $2K a year. After all that's his plan and it's a bit short on details so in reality the tax hike could even be more. His answer to our economic problems is to raise the taxes on everyone that is making less than $350K a year, and then at the same time he's going to give the wealthy (making more than $350K a year) another tax break – at the American taxpayer's expense. I guess when you listen to the GOP and the party of “No New Taxes” it only applies to the wealthy members of the party. Everyone else is used for their votes and then discarded out in the cold.

Think about it...

Democracy;

1.
of, characterized by, derived from, or relating to the principles of democracy

2.
upholding or favouring democracy or the interests of the common people

3.
popular with or for the benefit of all: democratic sports

No one in the media is talking about the 3.8% tax that home sellers are going to have to pay to help fund Obama Care. You know, one of this little things that Pelosi said we'd figure out after the bill got passed. So let me see, if you hire a realtor to sell your home, lets say for a 7% fee, it will now jump to almost 11%. So, if you have already under water on your home, you just sunk further down.

This is just the start of it folks. If it doesn't get repealed, hang on.

The only reason corporations and some small business are against national health care is because it could put them out of business think about it, more people would be willing to take a chance on starting a business if the knew there family had health Insurance, Joe wouldn't have to work for a XYZ plumbing company, he has the tool's Joe can work for himself.( Trust me big business is shaking in there boots because all the Joe's in the country can say the door's been open I can do this just for myself and not slave for these unregulated capitalist pigs.

The far left media gets it wrong again. It's the economy, stupid!

Why did Romney agree to having Jim Lehrer, a liberal Democrat, act as moderator?

It is shameful that our great nation have people dying of diseases that can be cured, but due to our lack of healthcare they have no happy ending. The ACA is a great first start.

Health care, the economy, wars, housing, the environment, alternative energy, etc.

It would take the whole debates just to post all the things that the Democrats and Republicans have not worked on or fixed in the past four years.