Panicked People
I find it amazing that people opposed to a possible government-run health care option continue to call it socialism.
It is no more socialistic than Medicare, public schools, or the Interstate Highway system.
Responsible conservatives ought to be out there leading the push for an honest debate.
A real socialistic government would be buying everyone a dictionary and forcing people to sit down and read it, beginning with the word 'option."
3 comments:
James - to level set - after it is all said & done are you for universal / single-payer health care system (along the lines of Canada and the UK) in the U.S.?
That's correct, on it's face.
One key difference though. I am 27. I will NEVER see a dime of Medicare money. It's supposed to be cashflow negative in the next seven years, completely insolvent in 15 at the most. Yet here I am paying the taxes into it, never had a chance to voice my concerns when it was being created. Now? Just the paltry sum of $62 TRILLION in unfunded liabilities that we will either have to drain out of the middle class via taxes or inflation.
The Interstates were originally constructed for the purposes of national defense as well. They were built in Ike's term, and that was a pretty intense period in the Cold War.
And the public schools? Forcibly removing money from a paycheck or property tax bill to educate others does make society better, I grant you that.
But our system sucks. We spend more per pupil than any other industrialized nation, yet what do we have to show for it? People majoring in sociology, polisci, fine arts, and marketing? Taxpayer dollars are subsidizing hobbies, and you damn well know it Jim. Meanwhile, India and China are graduating engineers, scientists, and the like at a breakneck speed. The whole paradigm of education needs a gigantic shift. Mathematics, science, and real critical thinking skills are much needed. The sad part? I am pretty sure that schools such as MPS would still fail. Why? There is a major cultural problem in the cities wherein young blacks are growing up in fatherless homes. I know you liberals use the whole culture wars thing as a punchline at your cocktail parties, but it is there, and no amount of money is going to come close to fixing it even if you give the government more power to "fix" any of the problems society faces. Interesting things happen when individuals act in their own self-interest.
ALL of the republican talking points have been the handy work of Frank Luntz, Word-smith too the neo-conservative manifesto, "Project for a New American Century" and recently authored "Words that Work". Sadly they have'nt been Ideas that Work.
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