tursiops says:

Well as an European, I must admit that the US has certainly one of the worse health system in the world, as confirmed by a friend who went there for holidays and got sick, and he words were “The USA is the worse country to get sick”. Also after like the one who said “we have the best healthcare in the world” I don’t think he ever got sick or he must be missing some parts of his brains… Well enough said, I’m happy to be European!

Hmeyers says:

I’m for Obama’s healthcare bill despite the fact I think it is a semi-disaster.

Both parties have put us up to eyeballs in debt, but at least any kind of healthcare bill we’ll have something to show for it.

We’ll have $20 trillion in debt in just a few years — more printed currency than exists in entire world times several — I’d rather healthcare be in that mound of debt so there is at least one achievement in that pile.

I mean what’s better:

1) $20 trillion in debt with nothing to show for it.
2) $21 trillion in debt with at least some sort of crude imperfect and warted start to health care.

To me, the answer is obvious. And, just they won’t be able to give that $1 trillion to some bank, insurance company or car manufacturer that f**ked up.

Animby says:

#37 HMeyers – I “sort of” agree with your point. My problem is I’d prefer a true universal healthcare program. But they can’t pass that because it would put the insurance companies out of business. But with thsi monstrosity we’ve helped fatten the insurance companies, added a trillion to our debt and all to benefit the 10% (30 million) of the population who could easily be cared for under existing Medicare programs. To do this, of course, the other 90% of the population will have to enter a rationed care system. #33 above mentions his European friend who came to the States and got sick. This bill will not help him! When my friend got sick in the UK he was in the hospital for three days and they billed him. Five pounds. Almost US$10 in those days. As a physician, I didn’t think his care was excellent but it was adequate. I once read the UK health service is the largest employer in the EU. It will seem tiny compared to what we will have in the USA. I only hope the care will be adequate.

Civengine says:

I think what we’re seeing here isn’t a well voiced protest from the tea partiers. The tea partiers seem to me to be generally white and historically middle class who are afraid they are about to move downward on the economic scale. Like many of us they are really focused on the future success of themselves and their children, and that future is very fuzzy.

They are seeing the world that they knew and loved go away to be replaced by something scarier and more insecure. They are lashing out against change. And I’m not talking “change we can believe in” but a much bigger change in the world around us.

These people are extremely dangerous, not as individuals, because they are ripe for a Great Man to lead them back “to the way it was.” Great Men almost never lead you back to prosperity, but forward toward totalitarianism.

Animby says:

# 38 Bernard Lebeau said, “Hi, everybody. I am european …
Do you have statistics about the average IQ of republican voters?”

The average IQ of Republican voters is just about the same as the average IQ of Democratic voters and both are about twice that of most Europeans.

I didn’t know there were still trolls to be found in Europe.

Now go away or I shall taunt thee again!

Cursor_ says:

There never was a democracy in the United States of America.

There is none now.

There will never be one.

There are democratic ideals, but not a democracy.

Democracies, like communism, are Utopian ideas. They will not work in a real world situation. That is why we turn to REPUBLICS. A group of people that represent our interests. As we individuals cannot afford the time to vote on every single issue we appoint those reps to do that work. Now we may use a democratic method to choose them, but we have never been a democracy.

PLEASE stop using that word to describe the USA. It is patently false.

And if you want a further explanation of what the USA is, it only uses a minor form of democratic reform. In its most real sense and from the way the founders made it to be, it is an oligarchic republic. A republic where the representatives are elites.

Not just anyone can be a representative, it has always been that way and always will be that way.
But that is how all government has been since the day when the chief of a village got the best hut, food and women. Of course at that point it was usually a meritocracy (A rule by those that merit the job through proven skills and experience) but it was still an elite rule.

We can never get past that form of government because humans are still primates. And primates all have a pecking order of elites on top and non-elite submissives to the dominant primate.

They best we can do is make sure the dominant order is beneficent and chosen for proven results. Again a meritocratic form of rule.

Cursor_

Buzz says:

#22 Morris: I had no preconceived notions when I called up the points I graded you on. I was just writing a summary that stood up to the words in the document.

Your evaluations of these cited points is rubbish.

PlasticMan says:

HaHaHaHa. Now we not only have the “worst health care system in the world” (as some see it) but one run by the worst management entity in the world: the US Federal Government. We are totally F’ed.