Kevin:
Either way they would have better than us. If they want ObamaCare...let them be on it as well. Send the same note to Pelosi and Harry Reid...if you want to shove through a government sponsored debacle...partake in it as well. Then let the chips fall where they may.
Jack:
I'm not happy about your so called ObamaCare either but why should members of Congress have the best health care on Earth (paid for by us) while millions of taxpayers get nothing? They want to repeal our health care, then they should repeal their own health care too. Pelosi, Reid, Boehner, McConnell et al.
Lou (Me):
Absolutely; it applies to all of them. This is not a lib/con issue. It's a Congress vs. the rest of us issue. Congress could gain back a lot of credibility with the American people if they were to eliminate their own special health insurance plan and adopt the same options they are pushing on the public.
Andy:
Congress should be "like us" and that includes accessing the same health care we do. There is a need for term limits: our elected officials have carved out a special class for themselves and that has to stop.
Lou(Me):
Term limits? Gasp, do you mean, an actual regulation infringing our right to choose? :) Some people argue that every election is an opportunity to impose term limits. So, we can't trust ourselves to not be bought off by politicians bringing home the bacon and/or by money in advertising that influences/scares how people vote?
. . . . Obviously, I'm being sarcastic. I do unfortunately think that we need term limits. I've been railing about these issues for some time now.
Andy:
Lou, (1) I am tired of career-politicians campaigning 24/7 and (2) voters who only have their self-interests in mind. Frankly, we should only allow people to vote who have a stake in the outcome (such as people who pay taxes!). However you frame it, SOMETHING has to change!!!
Kevin:
Andrew that is my problem with Govt sponsored healtcare...47% of perople pay no taxes and often get back money as well as use programs like food stamps and disability. Now we are going to give them health insurance we don't have the money f...(tharr be more)or. Flat tax or national sales tax...then everyone pays something according to their use and consumption. Then when the money is there...lets discuss national healthcare and how it should be set up...not use it as a way to pander to a voter base to prop up one political party. As the always eloquent stooge Joe Biden says.."it is a big F*kn deal"! Because we are broke. And Joe you are right...it is all about a 3 letter word...J-O-B-S!!! And we laughed at Dan Quayle while Joe is around?
Jack:
Let's not forget about the filthy rich who pay a much smaller percentage of their income in taxes than the rest of us. Also, there are a lot of people out there who work, pay taxes but don't get health care through their employers. There ar...(tharr be more)e also a lot of small businesses that can't afford to offer their employees health care. Health care reform is not just about people on welfare (a thinly veiled euphemism used by white males for minorities).
I'm against term limits in principle but let's face it, most of the sheep out there just vote for the name that's familiar to them. We can't expect everyone to actually vote based on issues, now can we?
I'm against term limits in principle but let's face it, most of the sheep out there just vote for the name that's familiar to them. We can't expect everyone to actually vote based on issues, now can we?
Correct..Healthcare reform is not at all about people on welfare...white, black or hispanic. They already get it for free. It's about the Democratic party shoving through something the majority of this country does not want at a price we cannot afford in order to solidify a voter base.
ReplyDeleteWhat qualifies someone as "filthy rich" as opposed to successful? Do Bill Gates and Steve Jobs qualify as filthy rich? How about your doctor, lawyer or dentist? Paying anything is a greater percentage than the 47% who pay nothing and in many cases get money back.
Class warfare does not solve the problem.
You can't throw the white male thing in this. That is a thinly veiled euphemism for self-hating reverse racism. This is about being broke and spending more money on a government program that cannot be reversed once enacted.
The original healthcare bill that the Democrats wanted was a single payer system, like Medicare. The current bill is a bad bill because it was watered down by Republicans who rely on campaign contributions from the insurance industry. I don't like the current bill either but at least my 20 year old son will soon have coverage again.
ReplyDeleteIf you ever went to my dentist's office, you'd know that he is far from rich, filthy or otherwise. I would call Bill Gates and Steve Jobs filthy rich but that's not really who I'm talking about. I'm talking about the CEOs of investment banks like Goldman Sachs and a company like Halliburton that gets billion dollar no bid contracts from the government. People like them are the reason our economy is in the toilet. The rich keep getting richer because they own the government and the poor keep getting poorer. The middle class is an endangered species. The rich get all the breaks and the poor get the shaft at every turn. I really don't understand why conservatives tend to side with the rich when most of you are one layoff away from joining the ranks of the poor. Lose your job, lose your health coverage. Besides, you and I pay for healthcare for the poor when they end up in the emergency ward anyway. Isn't it better that they have health coverage so they can at least get regular check ups with a doctor before they get sick? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It's a lot cheaper too.
Class warfare was declared by the fat cats in Washington, not me.
Let's face it, most conservatives are white males. The Michael Steeles of the world are the exception, not the rule. When you see a gathering of liberals, you see both genders and every color and religion under the sun. If you don’t see that, you’re being either naive or blind.
A friend of mine has been unemployed for a few years now. He can't get unemployment because he was self-employed. He was paying for his own minimal health coverage. It was a Blue Cross plan that was subsidized by the state. Your new Republican Governor just took that away from him. What I want to know is, if he gets sick, can he stay at your house so you can nurse him back to health? One of the biggest differences I see between liberals and conservatives is that liberals have compassion for their fellow man while conservatives seem to have nothing but contempt for their fellow man.
Speaking of government programs we can't afford, how about wars in two countries. Why don't conservatives ever talk about cutting some of the money from the military budget? We could take some of that money and put it into healthcare for Americans. That would be better than using it to exterminate Muslims over seas, wouldn't it? Don't tell me about national security. Those two wars are for oil and corporate profits, nothing more.
Anyway, my original premise was, why should Congress get the best healthcare program on Earth while millions of Americans get nothing? We pay for their healthcare. Why shouldn't Congress have to deal with the same healthcare situation as their constituents? Should we also pay their mortgages and their grocery bills?
Kevin, I have a sincere question for you: Where did you get the data about "47% of people pay no taxes". I'm not sure I buy that, and most likely there is some context to the stat that needs to be explored, so I'd like to know more about it.
ReplyDeleteI leave you with a quote that is derived from a someone who was reviewing the book "Aftershock". I was reading his review on Amazon. I changed it a little.
"When an honest, hard working individual cannot earn enough money to provide a modest living for a family, we are in trouble".
From an essay from my site....... A Canadian perspective on the healthcare debate......
ReplyDelete..............The furor that arose, pre the Obama administration, and was a major platform during that election, was that something had to be done, as "40 million Americans" were without healthcare? What happened? Didn't they pass a new history making healthcare law?
The initial proposals at the outset of the debate, for a single payer, everyone covered system, similar to most European nations, and most domestic plans in other civilized nations, was considered to be too socialist for America, and caused all kinds of virulent rhetoric and animus from the extreme right!
So much so that the left, and President Obama, caved in to that insurance company led lobby, and the furor that arose from an angry populace, that really had no idea what the healthcare plan contained, but were seemingly convinced by punditry in the media, that the country was being turned into some form of a workers paradise, a la' Stalinist Russia?............
please click on the link below to access the whole essay.
http://www.jamesconvey.com/1/post/2011/01/american-healthcare-rises-again.html