Actually, the way my demented mind works, I think Pelosi's proposal will be helpful because it will give the opponents a chance to run some really scary ads about government run plans and will help to rally the opposition bigtime. MIght as well get on with it and it makes for a better battle than if she were proposing a government run plan but pretending that it was not government run.
The government has close to a $2,000,000,000,000 deficit, and it's growing every year.
Payments to Medicaid/Medicare doctors are 6+ months behind.
Government plans that require participation will be adding in the most unhealthy people, and those most likely to abuse care and WON'T be able to keep premiums low (for more than a year or two).
Unemployment is at 8%+, and instituting government-run healthcare would put another few million people out of work.
What about these scenarios make government-run healthcare appealing to any politician or citizen?
The government has close to a $2,000,000,000,000 deficit, and it's growing every year.
Payments to Medicaid/Medicare doctors are 6+ months behind.
Government plans that require participation will be adding in the most unhealthy people, and those most likely to abuse care and WON'T be able to keep premiums low (for more than a year or two).
Unemployment is at 8%+, and instituting government-run healthcare would put another few million people out of work.
What about these scenarios make government-run healthcare appealing to any politician or citizen?
Yep. The normal mind would think that a few trillion in deficits would kaibosh the whole thing. However the libs are spinning it differently by saying that we have given billions to wall street and automakers so you have to give the people something. I dont agree with that reasoning because we all go down in the Titanic together but have to agree that they are going to get some traction with that argument. Pelosi will be right at the front of the pack with that argument. She couldnt tell ya the difference between a debit and a credit so the dollars are going to phase her.
What about these scenarios make government-run healthcare appealing to any politician or citizen?
The clients that I meet every day who cannot qualify for an individual policy here in SC due to medical conditions, and the high risk pool is so expensive it is a joke. These are the people that get the most angry, voice their opinion to their politicians, and vote.
Actually, the way my demented mind works, I think Pelosi's proposal will be helpful because it will give the opponents a chance to run some really scary ads about government run plans and will help to rally the opposition bigtime. MIght as well get on with it and it makes for a better battle than if she were proposing a government run plan but pretending that it was not government run.
Let the games begin. House Health Plan to Include Government-Run Option (Update1) - Bloomberg.com
This is a good point. It will be very interesting to see how this shakes out. Insurance companies are demonized because that's who people pay, and that is who pays (or doesn't pay) claims. Yet, the problem of the runaway train of health care costs is far more complex than this. It involves obesity, drug costs, technology, entitlement, lack of the right physician incentives, inefficiencies, lack of open/transparent competition for medical services, etc. Reorganizing the payers (especially in a way that involves the hyper-INefficient government) or mandating/guaranteeing coverage (which raises prices drastically for healthy people and rewards people whose lifestyles in some cases may have caused their need for medical costs to the rest of us) does not solve or even address the fundamental underlying problems.
Attack the insurance companies! is a popular but ignorant battle cry that misses the point by a mile.
Has any US Prez or Congress successfully stopped a socialist program?
Even Reagan tried to drop the Dept of Education, should've been easy. Didn't happen.
If Pelosi's public plan prevails in Congress, we'll never get rid of it.
Depends on how you define stop or what you define as a socialist program. If you go with the loose definition of any government ran program that is owned and paid for by taxes, there have been several that were opened to private industry but are still paid by taxes. Reagan managed to privatize most of the US prison system. Costs us about 10 times more now than it did before he opened it up and still charged to taxpayers, but it gets paid to private contractor now. They managed to privatize most of the US Military non-combat services, they cost about 20 times more than they did while government ran. Frankly, its sort of a double edged sword. If you aren't going to enforce the Sherman anti-trust laws, but are going to privatize a bunch of previously government ran industries, you end up with industries with government mandated monopolies where the congressmen setting the pay rate in the budget get their campaign dollars from the same people that they give tax dollars to. Republicans would like to do the same to the dept of education with vouchers and to social security if given the chance, but it definately, by their track record, won't be an improvement of the current system.
Its frankly sad the state things are in now, you can basically rely on that any time a Republican says privatize they mean take tax dollars and give them to their contributers at a much higher cost than the government can do something, and when a Democrat does anything you can basically assume its going to be mismanaged into costing twice what it should and providing services to a lot of people who are going to abuse the system with no accountability. Both parties are completely inept at actually doing the right thing. It's like Churchhill said.. Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.
What a bunch of whiners, moaners, bitchers, and complainers! If you guys took the collective energy you spend preaching to your own choir and instead organized and wrote letters, press pieces, and even visited the local or DC offices of your legislators, you'd get a lot more accomplished.
You conservatives are so damn lazy, I can't believe it. You honestly believe that posting your horror stories is going to change things.
Well, it won't.
Decisions are made by those who show up.
Get off your ass and do something positive instead staring yet another thread about the evils of any system other than the current one... that nets you a six figure income. Come up with your OWN plan, organize the agents on this board in to an interest group and get out there and fight for media attention.
That's how the game is played. Find yourself another "Harry and Louise" and play it over and over again until the tide turns in your favor.
Do folks have any idea how many demonstrations and sit-ins, and protests (legal as well) in the 50s and 60s before we got the public accommodation, school, and voting rights laws changed?
All you guys just feel you have an entitlement... that if you bitch loudly enough to each other that just by magic it's all going to pop your way!
Read it again. Decisions are made by those who show up.
There is a good reason that conservatives are not as visible as liberals.
Liberals tend to be unemployed and therefore have the time to prostest.
Conservatives are too busy earning a living to take the time to prostest.
Rick
You forgot the secondary reason, there are about twice as many liberals as conservatives. Twice as many = twice as visible.
As an aside, they also don't send camera crews into the trailer park to get the opinions of the unemployed conservatives. The unemployed liberals tend to live closer to the news outlets.
What a bunch of whiners, moaners, bitchers, and complainers! If you guys took the collective energy you spend preaching to your own choir and instead organized and wrote letters, press pieces, and even visited the local or DC offices of your legislators, you'd get a lot more accomplished.
You conservatives are so damn lazy, I can't believe it. You honestly believe that posting your horror stories is going to change things.
Well, it won't.
Decisions are made by those who show up.
Get off your ass and do something positive instead staring yet another thread about the evils of any system other than the current one... that nets you a six figure income. Come up with your OWN plan, organize the agents on this board in to an interest group and get out there and fight for media attention.
That's how the game is played. Find yourself another "Harry and Louise" and play it over and over again until the tide turns in your favor.
Do folks have any idea how many demonstrations and sit-ins, and protests (legal as well) in the 50s and 60s before we got the public accommodation, school, and voting rights laws changed?
All you guys just feel you have an entitlement... that if you bitch loudly enough to each other that just by magic it's all going to pop your way!
Read it again. Decisions are made by those who show up.
Al, I hadn't seen a lot out of you lately. Thought you might be sick. Good to hear that you are still here!
Read it again. Decisions are made by those who show up.
And if you want to be a real leader in the eyes of a liberal, then show up and vote "present" when the big issues come up. It puts a warm and tingley feeling up their leg.
And if you want to be a real leader in the eyes of a liberal, then show up and vote "present" when the big issues come up. It puts a warm and tingley feeling up their leg.
In the state of IL where a lot of the uneducated Rush listeners that just repeat his show are misinformed, a present vote indicates that while you do not agree with 100% of the legislation in question, you do not wish to see it defeated. It's like voting "sort of" rather than not making a decision at all. Its funny to watch all the Hannity/Fat Pillhead listeners that have no idea what that means repeat it though. It is a strange rule that dosen't exist in most of the country so they just run with it because people don't understand and since they don't care to explain what it means they can use it to make people ignorant of the rule think it means something bad. Bravo for your repeating of their propaganda.
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