Forget the political as personal. The political is entertainment-a-licious in 2009. Variety recently pondered the media future of soon-to-be ex-governor of Alaska Sarah Palin:
In the days since she announced her resignation as Alaska’s governor, Sarah Palin’s decision has remained a source of mystery, speculation and debate. But there’s little doubt that she’ll have a future in the cable news universe, if that’s what she desires.
Even before last year’s presidential election, TV producers and packagers speculated that, should she be freed from the constraints of elective office, she’d be a big “get” as the host of a Fox News show or even a daytime syndicated yakker. When she made her bombshell announcement on Friday, one theory was that she had been made an “offer she can’t refuse” from some TV network.
In a world where Rush Limbaugh is treated as the de facto head of the Republican Party, with tremendous sway over lawmakers given his talkradio perch, Palin could do a lot worse than establishing some kind of a TV or radio brand. Freed from the provincial politics (and investigations) that come with a statehouse job, she could wield more influence from a media platform.
A radio or TV talk show would be easy, of course, but — not forgetting that she hates the media — surely Palin’s prospects are so much larger than that! A sitcom (That’s Our Governor!, Mondays on CBS)? A cable detective drama (Little Miss Lieutenant, in which a hard-nosed homicide investigator [Palin] in the 1970s is constantly battling the sexism of her fellow cops)?
Let’s find Palin a new job! How should Sarah Palin cash in on her media-doll-hood?
(If you have a suggestion for a QOTD, feel free to email me.)
I guess she could sell full size Sarah Palin and the First Dude sex dolls
or she could sell the rights to Hollywood for some sort of evil alternative to Being There/Forrest Gump
She should have a TV series, just so she can quit it just after the midseason sweeps.
I know — a quiz show: “Do you know more about U.S. Civics than a former governor?”. If she can get that past the White House “Department of Law”…
She seems to be raising a lot of money through her PAC.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/07/palins-pac-profits-from-t_n_227178.html
she could write a self help book called “how to increase your brain power by not breathing”
(in case you’re wondering, when asked about her fast speak rate on the latest press conferences she really said that)
I like the TV show idea. How about a game show, “Are you smarter then Sarah Palin?”. Pretty much “Are you smarter then a 5th grader?” but with a new host.
Give me a break.
Your all so down on Sara because you know she’s a serious threat.
With Obama morgaging our future and Biden unable to properly mask the crazy ideas of this administration its only a matter of time until the current admin self distructs.
We’re going to need someone to pick up the pieces. Maybe its Sara, maybe no.
Time will tell
if you thik like that then it’s not surprise that you have trouble spelling her name
Maybe someone who can complete their first full term as governor of a state. Someone who gets a better reaction from a debate then “She did better then I expected her to”.
Republicans seem to have two ideas about why liberals don’t like Sarah Palin. The first one, as Mark’s just demonstrated, is that we’re secretly scared of her because she presents a plausible threat to Obama in 2012. The other one that I’ve heard a lot is that we’re trying to hype her up in the hope that she’ll get the Republican nomination in 2012, because she’s a joke and we know we can beat her.
If you can believe both those things at the same time without crossing your eyes and falling unconscious, you have successfully mastered the style of gut-level, hypocritical, mushy thinking that is necessary to be a Republican.
Obama’s policies will be his undoing.
Government control of private industry, of health care, his plans to rewarding people who do not work hard and to punishing people who do work, etc will not work in the real world. This has failed every time its been tried ala USSR, Soviet Union, Cuba, North Korea, etc. etc.
Palin simply believes in freedom of choice. Personal responsibility. Equality. and less government.
Attack my spelling of someone’s name and ignore the facts. Personal attacks, deflection of issues, changing the English language to make something as reprehensible as Discrimination sound like a good thing ala affirmative action.
Have you read 1984, if not don’t bother its here now.
BTW –
If it were not that Sara was a threat why would people on the left continue to attack her. Seems to me, if she was not a threat she would simply fall out of ala Dan Quale John McCain, or on the other side Geraldine Fierro.
BTW – What happened to Miss California, oh yea she’s no longer in the news…..Get my point!
As a member of no political party, I am ceaselessly amazed by how many people believe the Republican party’s claims about wanting “smaller government.”
Under every Republican administration, the government gets bigger and more powerful. It does the same thing under Democrat administrations, but at least the Democrats don’t usually claim “smaller government” as one of their major goals.
This has failed every time its been tried ala USSR, Soviet Union, Cuba, North Korea, etc. etc
And the whole of Europe…er… No, wait, pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!
Personal responsibility.
“No way did voters not like little old me! It was the liberal media’s fault, you betcha. And the McCain campaign’s fault, also. And now you’ve all offended me so much I’m going to have to resign and take my ball home. P.S. can I keep these suits?”
Equality.
Well, unless you’re gay. Or not a Christian. Or outside “real America”.
and less government.
A statement that, as Victor Plenty points out, dwarfs everything in terms of ridiculousness.
We’ve all read 1984. I suspect your knowledge of it ends at “something about Commies”, because so much of it is far more relevant to the current Republican party than it is to the Democrats. Torture? Check. Two minutes hate? Still there, with “Emmanuel Goldstein” replaced with “Hollywood liberals”, “activist judges” or any number of a rotating cast of folk devils. “We have always been at war with Eastasia”? But of course.
Last time I checked auto industries in “western” Europe were still in the private sector ala BMW, VW, Mercedes, etc….
As for health care….Medicare / Medicaid / social security have all been so successful that we should impose that on everyone? I have heard horror stories with regard to medical care in countries that have socialized medical programs as well.
With regard to Equality – It seems that some on the left would like to claim to be supportive for minority groups, but let a minority with conservative ideals gain some traction ala Sarah P or oh yea Miss California -> This blog shows the result!
We are still (for a little longer) a democracy founded on principles stated in our constitution which protect our free choice of religion and more….
We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty,
and the pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these rights,
Governments are instituted among Men,
deriving their just powers from the
consent of the governed.
With regard to torture – Would it have been if “W” had allowed the terrorists to go ahead with plans of mass destructions in the United States following 911. I suggest that had that happened you would be arguing that he was asleep at the switch.
1. The American health care system was rated 37th in the world according to the WHO. Why would anyone ever want to destroy such a delightful system?
2. Christians are a majority, not a minority.
3. So it’s OK to repress a minority at the want of a majority?
4. Statements gained under torture are unreliable. But even arguing if it worked or not is absurd as it is not only against Geneva convention, it is a insult to what this country stands for.
Funny how conservatives always equate “freedom of religion” to “there shall be none but christianity!”
As an atheist fiercely supportive of gay rights, let’s just say that I don’t find anything to love about the right. Too bad, really, because I’m not a complete pinko commie. I’m actually fairly fiscally cautious and think less government in some areas may be ideal (simply because massive, lumbering beaurocracies seem to take forever to get anything accomplished ;P). But I will ALWAYS vote Dem, because of the religious, gay-bashing, woman-stifling and war-lovin’ I’ve seen far too often on the right.
Just my .02.
I’m not sure that Sara is the right person to lead this country. However she clearly does not deserve the level of slander that has been heaped her way.
The real issue with Sara is that she took on crooks and less than ethical politicians on both sides of the isle. If she were to do that in Washington, I guarantee you that sparks would fly. Folks on both sides of the isle are threatened by Sara.
Sara in Washington would be a little like peroxide in a cut. Peroxide on an cut – no infection and no bubbles, infection and the peroxide bubbles like crazy. Could it be that we have allot of graft and corruption the Government, and concern is boiling over that someone might try to clean that up? It would explain the emotional personal attacks from both sides. Has Sara really said or done anything that can compare Biden. Biden’s become a joke and Sara’s become a target ((maybe there is a little discrimination going on here – the white dude in a suit, vs the dumb chic? – Where are the real feminists)).
It may be time for another revolution in the United States. We need political leaders with the same drive and intestinal fortitude that drove the signers of our declaration of independence.
We need leaders that are willing to dedicate their life to save our country. People that will say, and mean it….Give me liberty or give me death!
Maybe its time we clean house in Washington!
Maybe Sara will help to inspire change.
Why is it that the left is obsessed with attacking christianity?
We have the freedom of religon in the USA. To practice, not to practice. Most people belive in God. If you don’t thats your deal. Why is open hostility toward christianity acceptable?
Is it ok to attack christianity because the majority of americans are christian?
Is discrimination wrong? If so then why is it openly supported by the left?
Is poverty a problem? Then why do we give a pittance to the poor, shouldn’t we find them work so that they can feed and shelter themselves?
Many have difficulty even discussing sexuality. Is it a surprise that sexual choice is a difficult subject. I’m only 50, and I can tell you that freedom of choice on this point is way way way more mainstream than it was even 30 years ago.
Re healthcare – Government can’t run anything efficiently because they have no reason to. In the private sector, if a Dr is not good you can simply choose another.
Here are some facts to ponder.
Americans have better survival rates than Europeans for common cancers. Breast cancer mortality is 52 percent higher in Germany than in the United States and 88 percent higher in the United Kingdom. Prostate cancer mortality is 604 percent higher in the United Kingdom and 457 percent higher in Norway. The mortality rate for colorectal cancer among British men and women is about 40 percent higher.
2. Americans have lower cancer mortality rates than Canadians. Breast cancer mortality in Canada is 9 percent higher than in the United States, prostate cancer is 184 percent higher, and colon cancer among men is about 10 percent higher.
3. Americans have better access to treatment for chronic diseases than patients in other developed countries. Some 56 percent of Americans who could benefit from statin drugs, which reduce cholesterol and protect against heart disease, are taking them. By comparison, of those patients who could benefit from these drugs, only 36 percent of the Dutch, 29 percent of the Swiss, 26 percent of Germans, 23 percent of Britons, and 17 percent of Italians receive them.
4. Americans have better access to preventive cancer screening than Canadians. Take the proportion of the appropriate-age population groups who have received recommended tests for breast, cervical, prostate, and colon cancer:
•Nine out of ten middle-aged American women (89 percent) have had a mammogram, compared to fewer than three-fourths of Canadians (72 percent).
•Nearly all American women (96 percent) have had a Pap smear, compared to fewer than 90 percent of Canadians.
•More than half of American men (54 percent) have had a prostatespecific antigen (PSA) test, compared to fewer than one in six Canadians (16 percent).
•Nearly one-third of Americans (30 percent) have had a colonoscopy, compared with fewer than one in twenty Canadians (5 percent).
5. Lower-income Americans are in better health than comparable Canadians. Twice as many American seniors with below-median incomes self-report “excellent” health (11.7 percent) compared to Canadian seniors (5.8 percent). Conversely, white, young Canadian adults with below-median incomes are 20 percent more likely than lower-income Americans to describe their health as “fair or poor.”
6. Americans spend less time waiting for care than patients in Canada and the United Kingdom. Canadian and British patients wait about twice as long—sometimes more than a year—to see a specialist, have elective surgery such as hip replacements, or get radiation treatment for cancer. All told, 827,429 people are waiting for some type of procedure in Canada. In Britain, nearly 1.8 million people are waiting for a hospital admission or outpatient treatment.
7. People in countries with more government control of health care are highly dissatisfied and believe reform is needed. More than 70 percent of German, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, and British adults say their health system needs either “fundamental change” or “complete rebuilding.”
8. Americans are more satisfied with the care they receive than Canadians. When asked about their own health care instead of the “health care system,” more than half of Americans (51.3 percent) are very satisfied with their health care services, compared with only 41.5 percent of Canadians; a lower proportion of Americans are dissatisfied (6.8 percent) than Canadians (8.5 percent).
9. Americans have better access to important new technologies such as medical imaging than do patients in Canada or Britain. An overwhelming majority of leading American physicians identify computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as the most important medical innovations for improving patient care during the previous decade—even as economists and policy makers unfamiliar with actual medical practice decry these techniques as wasteful. The United States has thirty-four CT scanners per million Americans, compared to twelve in Canada and eight in Britain. The United States has almost twenty-seven MRI machines per million people compared to about six per million in Canada and Britain.
10. Americans are responsible for the vast majority of all health care innovations. The top five U.S. hospitals conduct more clinical trials than all the hospitals in any other developed country. Since the mid- 1970s, the Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology has gone to U.S. residents more often than recipients from all other countries combined. In only five of the past thirty-four years did a scientist living in the United States not win or share in the prize. Most important recent medical innovations were developed in the United States.
Despite serious challenges, such as escalating costs and care for the uninsured, the U.S. health care system compares favorably to those in other developed countries.
Hmmm…
There seems to be a serious difference in grammatical correctness between most of mark c’s posts and the most recent, essay length one.
Care to post a link to the article instead of quoting the entire thing?
Hey Mark, As an Australian I am dissatisfied with my government health care.
But
Do i want your system?
No.
I want greater levels of government funding for hospitals and shorted elective surgery lists.
Having had a number of my family go through extended hospital stays and surgeries and recoveries and not have private health insurance, and still get the best and most prompt treatments in state of the art hospitals, without having to pay for any of it makes me quite content with the services I’m getting.
Could it be better?
Yeah.
Could it be worse?
Yeah, it could be the US system
I did NOT “attack” christianity. But, I cannot stand silent when our former president had “faith-based” initiatives and I have spoken with more than one conservative who would be comfortable with making america a theocracy (with christianity at the helm, of course).
The moment I mention I am an atheist you types just scream “attack! persecution!” Even that “most people believe in god” was a little dig. The rest of that sentence was no doubt “so YOUR viewpoint doesn’t count, minority atheist”. In my personal experience (not claiming this as fact, just anecdote), I have had many religious people hassle me about my atheism. I even lost a job once. I have NEVER hassled a single person about their belief in god. To me, it’s a personal choice that is none of my business. Do I want religion in my government? NO. But I respect your personal choice to believe, as long as we do not have institutional discrimination (like against gays) based solely on religious beliefs.
True, acceptance of gays has come a long way, but the last vestiges of bigotry lay in religious intolerance of homosexuality.
mel buddy, you are paying for it. You think Australia just prints money to give to hospitals?
Well, duh Josh. Do i have to contribute some of my after tax wage to health care though? No. Will i still get quality care without having to worry about whether my insurance covers it? No. Do i need to find a new job because of the health benefits program? No.
It seems that some on the left would like to claim to be supportive for minority groups, but let a minority with conservative ideals gain some traction ala Sarah P or oh yea Miss California -> This blog shows the result!
Perhaps I’m missing something, but how the hell have these people been “oppressed”? People calling you an idiot is not oppression. People disagreeing with you is not oppression. Even people spreading rumours about you, nasty as it may be, is not oppression. Grow a spine, Mark.
The real issue with Sara is that she took on crooks and less than ethical politicians on both sides of the isle.
Cough! Cough! Choke! Yeah, she showed those corrupt politicians, alright – claiming hotel expenses for nights spent at home, swiping suits that were born with campaign money, blowing the best part of Wasilla’s annual budget on a frigging ice hockey stadium – truly, this is a model of ethical fiscal conservatism which had those fat cats in Washington shaking in their boots!
Come on Bruno –
Surely there are more important thins to talk about than what Sharah wears on the campaign trail. My guess is that every one on a government payroll at this level is spending way more than most of us on cloths.
Too many people are way to focused on Sarah’s son who has downs, her daughter who got pregnant (without being married – oh my gosh that really happens), that Sarah can see Russia from her back door. Give me a break! This stuff is not the issue any more than what Barrack’s wife thinks about government, what she wears, who Barrack hangs out with, what his middle name is, or even if Barrack was actually born in the USA.
The news on both sides has us all talking about the wrong things! It would be great to see an honest debate over the real topics with real and verifiable facts.
Facts are friendly, if we could have real discussion on that, then we would have a chance of electing leadership that might be able to pull us out of this mess.
Josh B
Quite astute observation. I am not an English major, have made no attempt for grammatical correctness, and yes I did scrape those facts from someone else’s work.
Do a search for articles that reflect no political agenda and you will find facts on this stuff.
We all need to be careful. It’s really easy to spin this stuff to support a political view. In the end this isn’t about politics – ITS ABOUT OUR LIFE and yes OUR MONEY!
Mel – Have you ever had any procedure in an American hospital?
My wife was lucky enough to have a top surgeon in Vanderbilt remove her synovial lining and reconstruct her left knee. This surgeon was one of only a few people in the world that is doing this procedure, (others wanted to amputate). She was in the hospital for a total of 2 days! Trust me, private insurance companies have no interest in extended hospital stays. Our (private healthcare plan) which is paid for by payroll deduction paid for nearly all of the cost!
How would this have played out in Germany, England, or Australia? Would she still have her leg?
If I get sick or need serious medical attention there is no where in the world I’d rather be than her in the USA.
@mark c: My wife was lucky enough to have a top surgeon in Vanderbilt remove her synovial lining and reconstruct her left knee. This surgeon was one of only a few people in the world that is doing this procedure, (others wanted to amputate). She was in the hospital for a total of 2 days!”
my sister, who lives in tennessee, works as a driver/nurses aide for a senior assistance company. this company does not have *private* health insurance. my sister had to wait for over *two years* before she could even get a vascular doctor to look at her leg after being told by the local health clinic they could do nothing for her. every one she called, when they found out she had “no insurance” told her: “We don’t prescribe pain medication.” because she had no insurance and her income was low, they *assumed* she was a junkie looking for pain medication.
i’m no communist, but i think that a government should supply its citizen with some basic standards of living. i have a decent job and because i’m single, i pay very high taxes… and i pay for the health insurance (which doesn’t cover my eyes and teeth, by the way!) my firm “provides”… why can’t some of my tax money go to supplying some basic care for my sister so she can go about doing her job and paying *her* taxes.
the “socialist” bugaboo about health care has been around too long…time to put it to rest. we all pay taxes (at least those of us who aren’t rich enough to have shelters that avoid them) and i think my idea of where my tax money should go is as valid as the next persons. i want my taxes to go to keeping america healthy, productive and educated.
none of which really has anything to do with the original question of this post, which was, what should Sarah Palin do with her media-doll-hood? nothing. spare me any more of her rambling and platitudes.
the government cant provide anything becasue they dont produce anything.
The government can only collect money and redistribute it.
If government takes enough money out of the private sector, we will all live in poverty.
Look at what happened in east germany versus west.
The same people on both sides, govenment was the difference.
By the way, the ritch pay most of the taxes in the US – The shelters bugabo has been around too long as well.
As has the idea of our tax system being “Progressive” its actually quite regressive the harder you work the more of your money is taken away.
What do you do when your employeer doesn’t pay you what you think your worth?
Find another job. Healthcare is a benifit that employers provide. Its part of your salary. If yours isn’t enought – Change jobs.
Oh yea, Washington is in the process of driving us into the next great depression and jobs are hard to find.
Another stimulous is clearly not the answer. We need to reduce governemetn spending, reduce taxes, and get the economy going again.
Then maybe you can find a job that provides you with the level of compensation you need.
But this is my question Josh, Why should healthcare be related at all to your job?
I love my job, and it pays well enough, i’d hate to have to give it up to go somewhere else because of the Health package. And i really don’t understand why i should.
But then, i don’t have to. I have my super nice government health system that allows me to do what i want.
I assume you meant to address that question to mark c?
You shouldn’t, unless you find a private insurance package that offers better coverage for the money than the national plan. In that case you should weigh how much you love your current job versus the benefits of the better coverage.
I could make a flowchart…
Sorry Josh, yeah i did mean it to him.
But again, i really, really don’t think i should be weighing up anything to do with health as part of my job.
but again, i don’t. I’m Australian.
Don’t change jobs then, that is your choice.
What I don’t understand – Why should my money (taken by the government) subsidise your choice to stay in a job that doesn’t pay you what you want.
Unless your disabled, it’s your job to make sure I have a place to live, food to eat, and health care.
Mel – I ask again – Have you ever experienced health care in the USA?
Sounds like your Australian system has a few of the problems that worry me….
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[edit] Issues
[edit] Aboriginal Health
Indigenous Australian health and wellbeing statistics indicate Aboriginal Australians are much less healthy than the rest of the Australian community. One leading indicator, infant mortality rates, including stillbirths and deaths in the first month of life, show Aboriginal infants die twice as often as non-indigenous Australians.[6]. Another revealing statistic is the 17-year gap in average life expectancy between indigenous and other Australians.
[edit] Preventable diseases
Cigarette smoking is the largest preventable cause of death and disease in Australia. [7] Australia has one of the highest proportions of overweight citizens in the developed nations in the world. [8] Consequently Australians are constantly reminded by initiatives and advertising, to eat healthy foods and maintain an exercise program to avoid suffering obesity related disease such as diabetes.
See also: HIV/AIDS in Australia
[edit] Poor services
State governments are responsible for managing hospitals and community health care centres. Services across the country have been routinely criticised for lengthy waiting times in emergency rooms and for non-life threatening operations[citation needed]. Poor standards at New South Wales hospitals were highlighted after Jana Horska had a miscarriage in an emergency room toilet at Sydney’s Royal North Shore Hospital. In October 2008, many hospitals in New South Wales were threatened with closure from non-payment of bills for necessary medical supplies.[9]
[edit] Remote, rural and regional services
Many parts of remote and rural Australia suffer from a shortage of doctors and health care services, so the federal government started the Medical Rural Bonded Scheme to encourage medical practitioners to settle in rural areas. The Royal Flying Doctor Service provides medical services to remote stations and communities separated by great distances. The Kimberly and Pilbara regions of Western Australia are at a crisis point due to a chronic lack of GPs.
Abortion laws in Australia are determined by individual states. For legend, click image.
[edit] Other
Australian health statistics show that chronic disease such as rheumatic heart disease, particularly strokes which reflects a more affluent lifestyle is a common cause of death.[6] Australians are prone to a high skin cancer rate with cancers reducing and disabling Queensland the most.[6]
The Morris Inquiry and then the Davies Inquiry, were instigated after whistleblower Toni Hoffman reported medical malpractices by hospital doctor Jayant Patel
Other issues include compensation for victims of asbestos exposure related disease and the slow development of HealthConnect. The provision of adequate mental health services and the quality of aged care, are other problems in some parts of the country[citation needed].
Hey Mel – Check this out.
When you adjust for these “fatal injury” rates, U.S. life expectancy is actually higher than in nearly every other industrialized nation.
Diet and lack of exercise also bring down average life expectancy.
Another reason the U.S. didn’t score high in the WHO rankings is that we are less socialistic than other nations. What has that got to do with the quality of health care? For the authors of the study, it’s crucial. The WHO judged countries not on the absolute quality of health care, but on how “fairly” health care of any quality is “distributed.” The problem here is obvious. By that criterion, a country with high-quality care overall but “unequal distribution” would rank below a country with lower quality care but equal distribution.
Other good critiques of the WHO study include Glen Whitman, who blogs about it here and published a summary here, which also links a more detailed Cato policy analysis here.
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tags: foreign, John Stossel, quality
United States has best cancer survival rates
“Universal” Health Care Kills
Critiquing the latest Commonwealth Fund study
British National Health Service denies care
Czech medical care no longer “free”
Don’t just listen to Michael Moore and CNN (aka Communist News Network)
If Sarah could help draw attention to the facts, and dispel some of the lies she would get my vote, and the vote of millions of others!
If she just wants people to leave her alone, she should switch parties and the attacks would stop.
The idea that just switching jobs will cure one’s problems is an interesting idea that doesn’t bear close examination. Employers are trying to find ways around paying benefits. They hire part time workers and work them as many hours as possible without them turning into full time workers; the same goes for temp workers. They ship jobs overseas.
And some jobs just aren’t going to provide a middle class lifestyle regardless. Imagine an America where everyone was at least middle class. Who would sell us tickets, serve food in restaurants, wash cars, be the nanny, or any other number of services. Certainly, there is no reason these people should be rich, but why should 40% of Americans be without health care insurance simply because their job pays so poorly? Someone has to do those jobs until we invent robots to do all the boring stuff.
Before anyone suggests just bringing in more immigrants, which has been the American strategy so far, remember that the same political party in the way of helping the unemployed and under-employed is the same party that wants to keep foreigners out.
As for Palin, I say let her have a talk show. Run it up against Oprah and let them duke it out in the ratings. If Palin loses, then foot in mouth disease might drive her out of politics. If Palin wins, then why would she take a pay cut to be President?
Ah yea it is an interesting time.
How to stay in business when forced to compete against people who are willing to work for a little of nothing in developing countries.
Shifing the admin of health care from the private sector to Governement doesn’t really address that one. Is government better at managing anything than a business that is in competition with outers?
Health care will continue to cost money. That money has got to come from somewhere. Will govenment really be more efficient at manageing healthcare than private industry? Is better at managing any business than a business with true competors?
By The Way – There is no chance of footin mouth driving anyone out of politics. Biden is the proof.
40% without healthcare – You might want to check that.
Start with the math. We have 300 million Americans. Subtract the 45 million — 15 percent of us — with no health insurance. That leaves 255 million Americans, or 85 percent, with it.
And the insurance is lousy, right? Not according to a 2006 ABC News/Kaiser Family Foundation/USA Today survey. It found that 89 percent of Americans were satisfied with the quality of their own health care.
Nearly half of the 45 million fall in the category of my 26-year-old nephew. He smokes cigarettes, dates, eats out, goes to movies and, like all young people, lives through his cell phone.
…With a change in priorities, these young folks — far more representative of those without insurance than the forlorn husband and wife sitting on a porch swing — could both afford and qualify for health insurance. They simply consider it a low priority.
~~~~~
Life is all about choices. I don’t want the government make the choice for me.
Ahem. You appear to have a bit of pronoun trouble, Mark C.
Given the political philosophy expressed in your other posts, I’m quite sure that the above quote is not what you meant to say.
Do we allow a complete government takeover of the section of health care it doesn’t already run, for 10-15 million or so without health insurance on a persistent basis? Again, 255 million Americans already have it. Many millions more could get it if they wanted to. And 89 percent of Americans are satisfied with the care they now receive.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I contend that people thing there is a problem because politions want to manage a biger part of our money.
This is nothing but a power grab. Government is useing our compassion to attempt a HUGE power grab.
Folks in the left leaning media are being played, and they are takeing a big portion of us with them.
LOL – Tonio
Unless your disabled, it’s your job to make sure I have a place to live, food to eat, and health care.
UPS – It would be nice. But your quite right that is not what I meant to say.
What really gets me is the commercials that say we don’t want the government between us and our doctors, but I wonder who pays for those commercials. Could it be the insurance companies that stand between us and our doctors?
Paul
Understand, but who will do a better job admin the program? An insurance company that has to compete with outers for business, or the government with no competitors?
When W was in charge the dem’s called for bipartisnship. Now, with the dems are in charge they say screw the bipartisnship.
We have a full-out Socialist President now. This guy is pulling out all of the stops. Purchasing GM & Crysler, Government control of the banks, take-over of healthcare, and tax hikes for everyone that make more than 50 K/year are coming.
Obama about to proove that it is possible for a one term President to cause a global economic depression.
If O is successfull, none of us will have healthcare, or jobs to worry about.
How can we feel good about this as the guy drives our country into a brick wall?
I am for anyone that can stop the madness, if its Sarah, then Go Sarah GO
Mark C, it’s great to not live in your imaginary world where you spout nonsense and you think that makes it magically true. It sounds like a very scary place. I hope you escape from it someday into the real world, where people start to realize extremist political pundits care only about winning elections.
These people spewing thinly disguised hatred across the airwaves don’t care about accurate or honest descriptions of reality. They don’t care about the good of the nation. And they definitely, absolutely, will not ever care about you.
They will distort reality as much as they can get away with, if they think it might bring voters to their preferred party. Here is just one example of the many outright lies they foist on their own viewers.
It amazes me that you, or anybody, can still believe the craptastic doom prophecies coming from the exact same pundits who claimed everything was going just peachy when disaster after disaster resulted from their party’s policies.
As for bipartisanship, it was the Republican leaders who opted to abandon constructive compromise this time around, just like they did back when they held all the power. And I say that without being a member of either party myself.
Do I think the Democrats are perfect in everything they are doing? Of course not. Every policy decision from either party has plenty of mistakes that will need to be corrected down the line. I speak in their defense at the moment only because their policies are a pragmatic response to the current set of crises they’ve inherited from years of Republicans’ slavish adherence to unrealistic ideological purity.
If the Republicans ever pull their heads out of their asses, start doing the real pragmatic work of political compromise, and stop trying to make me believe nonsense like “OMG Obama is so totally a socialist!!1!1!” I might someday speak in their defense, too.
I hope they do pull out of this self-destruction spiral. I’d sincerely hate to see the Republican party in complete collapse. The last time our country lost a major political party, it was a harbinger of the Civil War.
Nobody sane wants another one of those.
You’ve just said a full page of nothing!
Obama is running the national debt dramatically higher than at any time in history.
Unemployment is quickly exceeding any recession in history.
The number of people that are out of work and have given up is higher than ever (check the bureau of labor statistics).
Obama is buying up private industry.
In light of all this we hear about jobless recoveries, and how people are happy to have and spend less. Yea right…
There are very few media outlets that go against the liberal group think, and liberals are trying to shut those down.
The liberal meaning of bipartism is -> Agree with what I say. Its time republicans get some back bone and do the right thing and quit giving in.
This is exactly why McCain lost, he came acrost a weak and unconfident.
Mark C, you should know, being a leading expert on the art of saying nothing.
Funny how your side of the aisle always plays down the importance of deficits, telling us all not to worry whenever they’re the ones in charge of the budget. Everything else you’ve said is equally laughable to anyone who has followed the long line of ridiculous claims made by people like you.
Screeching “liberal!” over and over again actually is your idea of a compelling argument, isn’t it? How sad. But I suppose it’s to be expected, given the complete lack of intellectual honesty in the pundits and party leaders who have purchased your soul for magic beans.
I hope you break free of them before they finish the work of utterly destroying the Republican party. I really do.
Again you attack me, but say nothing to support your point of view.
Typical…
Maybe an attack on my daughter, my son, my x wife.
My claims can be verified.
Are these the rediculous claims?
Purchasing GM & Crysler, Government control of the banks, take-over of healthcare, and tax hikes for everyone that make more than 50 K/year are coming.
I know it seems impossible, but it is happening now.