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DEL.ICIO.USSCHIP bloat portends start of HillaryCare
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Do we really want to put middle-class children on welfare?
The U.S. House and Senate did that last week, approving a $50 billion expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) that makes 71 percent of the children in the country eligible for taxpayer-subsidized medical care. Included are “children” up to the age of 21, whether they are in this country legally or not. The president has promised to veto both the $50 billion House version and a $35 billion Senate version passed Thursday night. He’d recommended a $5 billion expansion, or 20 percent.
Over the decade since the program was created in 1997, it’s cost federal taxpayers about $40 billion. The House would expand that to almost $130 billion over the next 10, extending eligibility to families of four with incomes of up to $83,000. HillaryCare, here we come.
SCHIP is the federal-funding portion of PeachCare. That’s a taxpayer-subsidized program that entices eligible parents to drop or forgo employer-offered medical coverage for their children in favor of the cheap, and usually better, coverage taxpayers provide. In Georgia, a family of four with income in excess of $48,000 per year can get top-drawer medical coverage for as little as free (children under 6 are covered at no cost). The maximum any family would pay, regardless of the number of children, is $70 per month.
When PeachCare and programs like it were created less than a decade ago, the intent of Congress was to offer coverage to children in families with incomes of 200 percent of the federal poverty level, or $41,300 for a family of four. Georgia, flush with money, upped that to 235 percent. The Legislature this year considered aligning eligibility with the program’s design intent, which is where most other states are. But the governor and Legislature could never get their act together.
The Georgia program was in financial distress, prompting legislative action. Federal taxpayers provide 73.3 percent, Georgians 26.7.
Nationally, 37 percent of all children are in families with incomes of up to twice the federal poverty level, but 45 percent are in taxpayer-subsidized plans, either Medicaid or PeachCare-like programs. The House bill would make 90 percent of the children who now have private health insurance eligible for public assistance.
As the Congressional Budget Office has noted, up to half the children signed up for PeachCare are the result of parents dropping or forgoing private health insurance coverage to buy the better and cheaper subsidized coverage.
The Washington-based Heritage Foundation notes that in 1998, 28 percent of children were covered by Medicaid, the taxpayer-provided medical care program for the poor, or by PeachCare-like programs. The rest either had private health insurance or lacked coverage. In 2005, 45 percent had shifted to taxpayer coverage. By 2012, it projects that only 29 percent of children won’t be on public assistance.
The new House bill also eliminates the existing law requirement that states verify citizenship, thus denying benefits to people in the country illegally. Admittedly, Georgia did a lousy job of verifying eligibility, but that was nonetheless the law. “The last thing we need to do,” said U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.), “is to create a new incentive to enter this country illegally.”
The House bill also lifts the spending, originally capped to the funds Congress authorized, so that PeachCare becomes an entitlement. “There’s no question this is a huge expansion of eligibility, and the removal of the lid on spending turns it from a grant program into an entitlement,” said Westmoreland.
During the PeachCare debate, few Republicans in Georgia seemed to get that the legislation proposed by House Speaker Glenn Richardson would return eligibility for all new enrollees in the program to its original intent.
The stakes always have been the race between public- and private-sector solutions. Congress has just checked the private sector while greatly expanding the public. Bush has, of course, to veto it.
Don’t put the middle class on welfare. Don’t entice responsible adults to dependency.
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Comments
By Mid-South Philosopher
August 4, 2007 8:21 AM | Link to this
Good morning, Jim,
The underlying purpose of all this is national health care or socialized medicine!
Just as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is a veiled effort at paving the way to implement government vouchers for private and parochial schools, effectively ending public education, so is this effort to medically insure the majority of children in the country an introductory step in the process of making health care for all human beings (and one can speculate that it will not be long before veterinary medical coverage for our pets will be forthcoming) an entitlement.
The corporatists, who dominate the ownership and management of the major drug companies, private hospitals, and health care provision institutions, have allowed prices to rise and profits to soar. At the same time, many corporatist companies, who used health plans as perks in the 60s, 70s, and 80s in lieu of salary increases, are now dropping medical coverage on their employees or else providing plans that are more trouble than they are worth.
A vast number of middle class citizens are struggling more and more with the costs of health care. There is a perception, rightly or wrongly, that the government is going to have to step-in and deal with the issue.
The pro socialized medicine forces, like the No Child Left Behind elitists, have chosen children as a tool to foster their liberal ilk. After all, who but Jim and Mid-South would argue against providing health care, via a government entitlement program, for kids!
The President, good corporatist that he is, will veto these bills. However, because of the gross incompetence of his administration, there likely won’t be another Republican President elected for 8-12 years, thus, we will likely see the new Democratic Administration moving to implement some form of socialized medicine early in the coming term.
That, my friends, is when the real tragedy will occur!
By Just think.
August 4, 2007 9:01 AM | Link to this
If Hillary Care were in place when those Minnesota bridge survivors were rescued, they’d still be waiting in line for surgery. I can’t wait for total equality for all in America. I always wondered what communism would be like. Thanks to today’s vicious democrats and impotent republicans, we’ll all eventually find out. Then in 25 years when we collapse from within, we can all blame Bush and two stolen elections. I can’t wait.
By AmVet
August 4, 2007 9:09 AM | Link to this
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/08/03/newt0803.html
Gingrich says war on terror ‘phony’
…warning that the country is losing ground against the kind of Islamic radicals who attacked the country on Sept. 11, 2001.
When Newt was in Washington, I used to think he was many things; clearly very intelligent, very persuasive, very passionate about his beliefs, but essentially misguided in some critical areas and above all, the very architect of the downward spiral of what now passes for civilized discourse in this nation.
Ironically it apparently appears that even he too has had enough of this failed neo-conservative movement, although he essentially authored it!
“We were in charge for six years,” he said, referring to the period between 2001 and early 2007, when the GOP controlled the White House and both houses of Congress. “I don’t think you can look and say that was a great success.”
As a politician, and due to the above mentioned lack of credibility on this matter, he can’t say the obvious - it (Republican control of the government) has in many ways, shown a great incapability of dealing competently with modern realities.
A more effective approach, said Gingrich, would begin with a national energy strategy aimed at weaning the country from its reliance on imported oil and some of the regimes that petro-dollars support.
(Ya think?!)
“None of you should believe we are winning this war. There is no evidence that we are winning this war,”
It should be obvious by now even to the most strident neo-cons - the invasion and occupation of Iraq and the ensuing debacle - can no longer be framed as a liberal or Democratic ploy. Americans of every stripe and political leaning see it as another Viet Nam.
Over the past few years, he has clearly had plenty of time to review the failings of the “modern” GOP (especially the Bush administration) and his significant part in that. Perhaps he has had some sort of epiphany.
“I believe we need to find leaders who are prepared to tell the truth … about the failures of the performance of Republicans … failed bureaucracies … about how dangerous the world is,”
What an enigma this guy is.
By Analchord
August 4, 2007 9:19 AM | Link to this
Saving Private Spielman- Would Patton have slapped this soldier? Or would he have apologized to him?
This soldier got caught up in the chaos and meyhem of battle zone group think. All soldiers are expected to follow orders; it’s a slippery slope to the herd instinct, especially in war. If you’re in a patrol that gets ambushed, then you’re taking fire with everyone else. If you’re in a patrol that decides to plunder and pillage, (google the “rape of the sabine women”- art instructs us), then you’re all involved, like it or not - there’s no staying clean in war- it’s all or nothing, and to single out one soldier to pacify the tribal instincts of our enemy/ally (same?) smacks of Lawrence of Arabia’s execution by pistol of a single arab to stop the mutiny of his militia tribes as he prepared to attack Acaba!
Bush is visiting the bridge collapse. He needs to visit a similar bridge in Iraq near where Private Spielman followed his orders. Then Bush needs to explain to our enemies/allies what the F we are doing in Iraq. A small Iraqi-Al Queda-insurgent-rebel-sunni/ally, anti-parliament child should raise his little hand and ask W, “What is the mission of US troops here, kind sir?”
By Bush Derangement Syndrome
August 4, 2007 9:37 AM | Link to this
Hey India! Stop cooking! You are causing global warming! Just starve to death to save the planet! It’s all for the children! Don’t forget to teach them to starve to death to save the planet!
All we need now is for Al Gore to tell us all to commit suicide to save the planet. Who’s first? Stupid sheep.
By @@
August 4, 2007 9:38 AM | Link to this
‘Ya know Jim, my job is contractual. At the beginning of every school year, I sign a contract. At the end of the school year, my contract is null and void. Someone told me early on that I could apply for unemployment during the summer months. “Why would I do that?” I asked. “They’ve asked me to return next year.” They said “because you pay into it through tax withholdings every month.” “But that’s not for me” I said, “I can weather the summer months without a paycheck, I’ve saved, there are others who can’t.”
They told me I was gullible. “NO”, I said “just conservative.”
I’m always disappointed to find out that there are people who would rob from the less fortunate, just because they can. I’m always disappointed to find out that the government is so lousy at making sure my contributions are used in the way that I intended.
Disappointed, but not surprised.
It would appear that President Bush’s intention is to provide for more children.
Have you ever seen those parents who give their kid a gift and then spend hour upon hour playing with it themselves? The kid just sits there waiting for his turn.
Parents and the Democrats “playing” with the children…it’s disgusting.
By the way Jim, that nosepicker who arrives here daily talking about your “cherries”? Just once I wish you’d remind him/her that cherries have “stones”.
See ‘ya Jim.
By Duh stands for Democrat
August 4, 2007 9:52 AM | Link to this
Finally! Admist all the good news about the economy and war in Iraq, a headline that makes liberals happy:
{{{{Death row inmate gets new hope, Atlanta Journal Constitution (top of front page.)}}}}
A throat cutter gets spared! Yay!
How many champagne corks were popped in Midtown last night?
{{{{On Aug. 19, 1989, an off-duty Savannah, Georgia, police officer, Mark Allen MacPhail was working a moonlighting job as a security guard for a Greyhound bus terminal when he heard a homeless man cry out from the Burger King parking lot next door. When MacPhail went to help the man, who had been hit in the head with a pistol, he was shot in the face and chest and died. Nine witnesses testified at the 1991 trial that Davis assaulted the homeless man and then shot MacPhail when he came to help.}}}}
What does a stupid cop’s life mean anyway?
~~~~~
{{{{Here’s a question that has come up a few times in recent months: “Why does the AJC allow letter writers to make statements that aren’t factual?” Perhaps the newspaper should run a small disclaimer with the letter for clarity’s sake, she said.-Angela Tuck, AJC}}}}
Geez, this “news” paper runs articles that aren’t factual, hundreds of them.
Perhaps we could put a “disclaimer” on Cynthia Tucker and Jay Kookman columns, no?
~~~~~
From the Vent:
{{{{If we hadn’t spent it on those ungrateful Iraqis, just think what we could have done here at home with $1 trillion.}}}}
Do you libs even know or care where that “$1 trillion” came from?
I can almost guarantee it wasn’t your pocket.
What gives you the right to decide what should be done with it?
Duh.
By Duh stands for Democrat
August 4, 2007 9:58 AM | Link to this
Ooops:
{{{By Duh stands for Democrat August 4, 2007 9:52 AM Finally! Amidst all the good news}}}
By getalife
August 4, 2007 10:13 AM | Link to this
Last night I witnessed the Dem Senate cave to legalizing domestic spying on Americans on C-Span.
I wrote yesterday that only a blithering idiot would vote for ganzo’s oversight on spying on Americans but I was dead wrong. There were 60 blithering idiots and it passed. The same thing happened on the Patriotic Act so the Senators could go home.
The House voted no and they are fighting like cats and dogs. The House will cave too.
I had hope in the Dems to clean up w’s mess but it is not a reality. This country is in major trouble.
By Analyst
August 4, 2007 10:37 AM | Link to this
When are the liberals going to stop trying to provide healthcare to the sick and injured of this country?
What is wrong with them? If liberalism is a disease, then why dont they lobby for a national plan to cure the disease of liberalism?
We are lucky to live in a country where we can afford the trillion dollar occupation of Iraq, and anyone who thinks it’s okay to squander money on sick people in this country is insane and needs rehab, period.
Next, the liberals will want the government to pay for lindsay lohan’s rehab too.
By Analyst
August 4, 2007 10:42 AM | Link to this
Question: What if the Iraqi Parliament decide to kick the US out?
Answer: Bush: “We will cross that bridge when we get to it”.
By Analyst
August 4, 2007 10:48 AM | Link to this
The liberals want to cut and run like surrender monkeys from Iraq.
If we leave, Iraq will disolve into three separate warring nations, each of which will align itself with a bordering nation. These bordering contiguous countries have their own alliances which countries from all over the globe.
Now that’s a world war!
We aint nevah gonna git outta Iraq.
Know it. Internalize it. Believe it.
By AmVet
August 4, 2007 10:58 AM | Link to this
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/8/3/123334.shtml
Poll: Secular Culture Increasing
Jonathan Falwell - Aug. 3, 2007
A recent poll reveals that our fellow Americans are growing progressively more skeptical of the existence of God and do not believe in other key principles taught in the Bible.
These numbers indicate that while people may believe in God, they are not concurrently interested in applying godly principles to their lives. Also consider that in 1965, 70 percent of Americans said that religion was “very important” in their lives. That’s a 14 percent decrease over the last four decades.
What does this mean?
Sadly, I believe it means the church has failed, in many ways, to provide answers to our nation. We have too often expressed disfavor with the growing secular tide, but have habitually done little to effect the destructive transformation of our society.
(Amen, brother and IMHO have actually contributed heavily to this “destructive transformation”, particularly in governmental policy - the very essence of this nation.)
It is apparent that man is progressively creating God in his own image…
He should have listened to Jethro Tull! They said this 36 years ago.
By getalife
August 4, 2007 11:00 AM | Link to this
They borrowed the money from China.
Pinko.
Duh.
By Analyst
August 4, 2007 11:03 AM | Link to this
Look at the fossil fuel situation from 100 million years ago. The dinosaurs were on this earth so long that they formed pools of oil. Where? Right where all the religious feuds, for which man can be convinced to destroy himself, are located.
Coincidence? I dont think so. It’s God, ensuring that we do what He’s been planning for us all along: take ourselves out with eyes wide open.
A nuclear bomb is a bright flash at first, then if you’re on the phone to our ambassador in Moscow, you’ll hear a high pitched tone. That’ll be the phone melting. the only people that will survive will be criminals in concrete prisons, and file clerks in underground metal file cabinets. (and cheney in his man sized safe, which we all now know is a nuclear bomb shelter.)
Duck and cover? No, three ducks to the left, two covers to the right, and then four ducks to the left, and cheney is IN!
By AmVet
August 4, 2007 11:12 AM | Link to this
Andy’s inane assertions aside, “conservatives” aren’t the only ones paying taxes.
Here’s some info on my kind of Democrat. And I know that it must stick in the craw of the Republicans, big time, that he is the second wealthiest man in this country and a big fan of Hillary! (BTW, I am not.)
Warren Buffett’s name is synonymous with Wall Street and big business…
Although his father was a four-term Republican congressman and he was president of the Young Republicans Club at the University of Pennsylvania, Buffett is a registered Democrat.
(He must have seen the light!)
# Buffett wrote an op-ed piece in the Washington Post criticizing President Bush’s proposed cut in the dividend tax as a change that would benefit the rich.
I remember him once talking about how his personal assistant who makes 60 grand a year, has a higher effective tax rate than he does!
He’s one of a tiny few very wealthy and highly respected men in this country with the guts to actually tell it like it is.
By Analyst
August 4, 2007 11:12 AM | Link to this
God can only live in a man. God exists only by being observed by a man. God needs us as much as we need God.
If man stops observing God, then God necessarily ceases to exist. That’s a fact.
By Analog
August 4, 2007 11:21 AM | Link to this
Man IS the center of the universe. The light from distant stars is not there unless man observes it.
All of Einsteins theories requires an Observer.
The universe was created when man first observed it.
What does that mean? God was addressing man when he spoke, “let there be light”. Why would he just talk if no one was there to hear it?
If a tree falls in the forest, and man is not there to hear it, it DOES NOT make a sound.
By Analog
August 4, 2007 11:29 AM | Link to this
We are not creations of God any more than a shadow is a creation of a man. We are like God’s shadow, distilled into existence, the necessary result of the universe coming into being. (the simultaneous ying to his yang).
By Analog
August 4, 2007 11:32 AM | Link to this
If Warren Buffet’s personal assistant only makes $60K a year, then Buffet’s no Democrat.
By AmVet
August 4, 2007 11:38 AM | Link to this
The 60 grand was about 10 years ago, and we’re talking about Omaha, not Beverly Hills or NYC.
By Woohooten
August 4, 2007 11:42 AM | Link to this
“I had hope in the Dems to clean up w’s mess but it is not a reality. This country is in major trouble.”
Mess? What mess Getalife? The economy is roaring. Jobs can’t be filled. Shortages of pilots, shortages of skilled labor, shortages of truck drivers, shortages of heavy equipment and crane operators, shortages of accountants, and on and on. Read any help wanted ads lately? Iraq could have gone better, but it’s getting better. Even the New York Times is rethinking things. But are you really surprised at the current incompetence of Democrats? They are more interested in witch hunts to nowhere. Nancy Pelosi came in gloating talk of ‘we will be the most ethical congress in history’ and ‘we will bring true bi-partisanship to the halls of congress again.’
Then yesterday Democrats in the House ramrodded legislation through with their power trip and sidestepping rules and tradition. Rep. Blunt could not have been more blunt.M/a> (WELL said Sir!) I am not surprised at their tactics and incompetence. They will go down in history as the Flash In The Pan Congress of the 21st Century, Nancy will go down in history as the most ineffective House Speakers, and they will all go down as the shortest termers in history.
Good job America.
Thanks for nothing, Republicans.
By Analogy
August 4, 2007 11:45 AM | Link to this
My wife just got the results of her lastest MRI and Mammogram. The cancer is back. She’s electing to have a double radical mastectomy. The whole world is turning around and around.
We have blue cross. Her portion is $700/month. Her total 2 years of healthcare costs have been $150K, plus the double radical, which will add another ?
If we didn’t somehow have Blue Cross, then we would be faced with no medical treatments whatsoever.
That is unacceptable. Think before you make a total karma magnet out of yourself when you blog about personal responsibility, entitlements, welfare, dependency, and national healthcare.
It was the Foreign-owned Corporate dumping of toxins into our air, food, and water that caused the cancer in the first place. All scientists agree with that. Foreign owned corporate dumping in the USA. Hi Saudi Arabia. How are you? have a nice day. (I have just outlawed the Saudi Royal Family. We begin bombing in five minutes) Reagan, 1982
By Liberal-Drive-by
August 4, 2007 11:49 AM | Link to this
How much should Buffet’s assistant make?
By Woohooten
August 4, 2007 11:51 AM | Link to this
“They borrowed the money from China.”
Look up facts much Getalife? No, of course you don’t. You are a liberal. China owns just 13% of our overall national debt. I’ve heard you liberals lie and say they own it all. Duh.
By Woohooten
August 4, 2007 11:53 AM | Link to this
“They borrowed the money from China.”
Whoops. I meant to say China owns 4%.
Don’t ever lets facts get in the way of liberal rant.
By getalife
August 4, 2007 11:55 AM | Link to this
My goodmess, get off the dope man.
Why do you think they call it dope?
Geez.
By Analogy
August 4, 2007 11:56 AM | Link to this
Warren Buffet’s personal assistant should be making at least $250K. Hell, if a McDonald’s employee works 2 shifts, seven days a week, he’ll make $200K easy, and all the fried pies he can pilfer. I can find more money than $60K a year just in my couch. No, no ,no, Buffet’s obviously a phony. He’s a neo-scrooge, and should be behind bars with the rest of the pirates.
Revolution is coming. prepare, folks. Rome fell apart when the money became worthless. A five dollar bill today is a one dollar bill in 1970.
True. Fact.
When a person is making good money and still cant afford shoes, then what’s the point? he cant buy cheap foreign shoes cause the chinese will booby trap them with athelet’s foot bacteria or cause a club foot. This is all Warren buffet’s fault and sam walton’s and donald trump’s daughter’s lesbian apprentice lover. (the no good rats)
By Woohooten
August 4, 2007 12:02 PM | Link to this
“Although his father was a four-term Republican congressman and he was president of the Young Republicans Club at the University of Pennsylvania, Buffett is a registered Democrat. (He must have seen the light!)”
Yeah AmVet, so what? David Horowitz is a former Marxist “New Left” hippy liberal who woke up from his coma. Reagan was a former Democrat who came out of the fog.
By Analogy
August 4, 2007 12:15 PM | Link to this
What is going to happen to my poor wife? they cant wait, her surgery is imminent. She’s still in shock and denial, and is abusing the opiates she been using to counter the pain that the maintenance RX has caused, in trying to prevent the recurrence of cancer.
It’s a viscious cycle, cancer is. I contracted a cancer five years ago, but an early surgical proceedure has kept it at bay.
I’m still on a death watch of my own, and could be facing the medical industries best efforts at any time, it’s a matter of luck, or probability, or the random destiny derived of chaos.
Icould also live to be 100, but dont bet on that. I expect that 72, which was guaranteed to me in the fifth grade by the insurance company estimate, (and they are NEVER wrong), will be my lifespan.
Want to know how long you’ll live? Look at your life-insurance premium schedule at find where it jumps from 40 dollars a month to 4000 dollars a month. That’s when you’ll croak, my friend. The statistical tables are BIBLE!
God is real, you’ll find, but he’s not of this world.
BTW: any minister who tells you to pray for your own prosperity, or that GOD will help you financially or in any earthly way, is Satan in disquise. Lose that preacher.
What do people think will save them? God’s insider trading? Please.
Quit defacing the face of god with prayerfully derived retirement plans. There’s a retirement plan alright: you die, sinner.
By Woohooten
August 4, 2007 12:25 PM | Link to this
I’m with you, Analchord. Let’s all just turn to the government for our health care and retirement. Let’s just fire millions in this nation tied to health care companies and finance companies and tell them all to take a $40,000 government union job. Or $50,000 for a supervisor.
Hell I want to wait in line with a cut off finger while some old dried up lonely hag in front of me gets a scratch band-aided up. I don’t want to risk making a 10% return on my retirement portfolio and would rather the government collect all my savings and other working Americans, lump it all into one big pool, and then give us retirees an equal monthly check.
Now that’s my idea of American paradise.
By Analogy
August 4, 2007 12:37 PM | Link to this
Today’s investment term: Flipping Houses: what investors are doing to the homes they bought earlier this year and put money into trying to sell them for a profit. They’re flipping off those houses with the middle finger!
By @@
August 4, 2007 12:50 PM | Link to this
Oh my, what’s going on in here?
AmVet a/k/a Huge @ 10:58:
I’m having a difficult time seeing you as anyone other than HUGE, your self-admitted, but should be committed blog persona….
By Huge December 27, 2006 08:51 AM | Link to this
Lucko,
Great job at combining two of the religious wrong’s favorite topics into one cartoon!
dull dunce,
You should probably just go take a long nap for the rest of the day. Just pretend you’re back in high school and wishing you could go smoke a fat one instead of listening to all of that heretical science mumbo jumbo.
Although, seeing another mindless flat-earth neo-con getting b1tch slapped around all day on this topic will, no doubt, be rather amusing.
Too bad for you that your alter-ego, suck, got tossed into the garbage pile of blog history. His take on this was just hysterical. But I’m pretty sure that in spite of his whining about the death of this blog, RW will be along soon to tell everyone about the “holes” in the fossil record!
I’m sorry, but you were the lowest life form when you were Huge, and you haven’t evolved one iota.
This from Alan Keyes: Without appeal to an authority above human will, the only authority left is the course of events itself, grounded in the force of arms or of circumstance. And so there is no basis for justice except that force. We should thank God every day that this nation was not founded on that principle of force – it has been our great blessing that over the course of American history another understanding of justice was available to inspire the consciences and encourage the actions of our decent people. Clearly many great advances in American history depended on this. The fight against slavery, the battle for civil rights, for women’s rights: Each required consciences that were animated by the conviction that justice demands respect for the dignity of the weak, the dignity of the conquered, the dignity of those who have not been endowed by circumstance with superior power.
Why am I not surprised that you would celebrate a society in moral decline. You are, afterall an evolutionist who places great confidence in the Origin of Man where the argument is that “things just TURN out”. Interesting word TURN, like in U-TURN something that you see as progress.
By The Captain
August 4, 2007 12:58 PM | Link to this
Another great column Jim. If we don’t allow the market to weed out these losers who can’t afford health care their genes will continue to poison our society for generations.As you stated in your column, the real problem her is that these types of programs actually provide cheaper, better care than the private sector. This is unacceptable; if these programs actually work, then we must do all we can to stop them. It goes against every conservative principle to not profit off of these sick children. For the sake of our country they must be force back onto private health plans or the entrepreneurs who run these business will suffer. We cannot allow people to invent a “Right” to affordable, good, health care at the expense of our actual “Right” to run a business and make a profit, Damn socialism I tell you! It’s the job of every good conservative (it is after all our philosophy) to demand that we not help anyone who cannot help themselves, and by keeping health care in the private sector we can finally assure our society the weakest among us will not survive long enough to ruin our society.
By OR
August 4, 2007 12:58 PM | Link to this
TURN OUT the weakest of the species. I saw you out this liberal idiot the other day @@. Good job!!!!
By Woohooten
August 4, 2007 1:03 PM | Link to this
*”It’s the job of every good conservative (it is after all our philosophy) to demand that we not help anyone who cannot help themselves,”
Hey Captain, smart guy, what part of extending eligibility to families of four with incomes of up to $83,000 do you not understand? Just like a damned stupid soy milk liberal. Not ever knowing when to say enough is ENOUGH.
By Analogy
August 4, 2007 1:04 PM | Link to this
Turn? @@’s turning alright. Turning Japanese!
Ireallythinkso.
By Nip
August 4, 2007 1:08 PM | Link to this
Turning Japanese, @@ is Turning Japanese Ireallythinkso.
Turning Japanese, @@ is Turning Japanese Ireallythinkso.
By the Captain
August 4, 2007 1:14 PM | Link to this
Who are you\calling a Liberal!!! I clearly stated that I support every effort to stop this socialization, of our health care. Especially since it is becoming quiet clear that these government programs can provide health care cheaper and better than private companies. I am all for the concept of privatization even if it comes at a cost to society. That my friend is my conservative principles! Something you don’t seem to understand, but that’s O.K. most people who support us don’t quiet think through to the underlining principles that conservatism is built on, but as long as you support us then that’s fine.
By Nip
August 4, 2007 1:17 PM | Link to this
Turning japanese, @@ is Turning japanese Ireallythinkso
Turning japanese, @@ is Turning Japanese Ireallythinkso
By Nip
August 4, 2007 1:24 PM | Link to this
Remember, the RX companies oppose the free market principles because they dont want any quantity discounts when groups make large purchases of drugs. RX lobbies against free market law.
The RX companies are government control of prices supporters, not free market supporters.
Get your Facts here. I know all. I see all.
I am RetroRocketMan!!
By getalife
August 4, 2007 1:31 PM | Link to this
Meth heads on this blog.
Geez.
By Captain Freedom
August 4, 2007 2:06 PM | Link to this
THE Captain finds himself irked by the audacity of the poseur who calls himself the Captain. If emulation is the highest form of flattery, then this assumption of THE Captain’s persona is nigh upon hero worship.
Granted, THE Captain is impressed with the Right Thinking logical consistency of the Captain, and hesitates to stifle his impressive addition to the intelligent defense of True Belief, as also espoused by jbm, tftt, and Markus the Impaler.
In the end, we are made richer by the efforts of the might Keyboard Warriors who keep us safe from Islamoecoliberfascism. But all that aside, kid…you might also strive to earn points for originality.
By KC
August 4, 2007 2:06 PM | Link to this
Hillary Clinton is a two-faced, backsliding, butt-kissing vote chaser.
By Redneck Convert
August 4, 2007 2:13 PM | Link to this
I wish things would go back to the good old days when people that got sick and couldn’t afford doctors at least had the decency to die, maybe with a preacher at their side. Now we got Peach Care and welfare and Medicaid and about everything else that comes out of our good Christian pockets. It’s communism, I tell you. Us good conservative Christians want to put a stop to it. If you get sick its God’s way of telling you its time to lay down and fade off to Heaven. You have no right to go to a doctor on our dime and live longer.
Captain Freedom got a point. What will happen to the insurance cos. if we go taking their business away and paying for doctoring ourselfs? So this kids care is not only Godless its also against Private Innerprize. Don’t nobody make no profit if the guvmint is paying the bills. What kind of world will be living in then?
Anyway, I see somebody tried to pick up Aquagirl yesterday. Must be pretty desparate. They don’t know she’s about 83. Anyway, she says she’s saving herself for Captain Freedom, and I reckon thats alright, since I fixed his wife’s pipes a year or so ago while he was out of town. Next thing you know some guy will be trying to pick up Sister Dusty. This blog is becoming a reglar Sodom and Gonorrhea.
See what comes of defying God and innerfearing with Private Innerprize? Our morals just go straight downhill.
By Howard
August 4, 2007 2:18 PM | Link to this
Jim…great column on how the liberal Democrats are trying to advance piece-meal their insane idea of national health care. These perverted nit-wits couldn’t get any of their crazy agenda passed by the people of this country if they presented it on the whole plate…so they try to squeeze little bits at a time on the naive public…by trotting out their usual weapon: We’re only thinking of the children.” Bull!! They want total control of everyone’s lives…and all their money…plain as that. Ever been to an emergency room?? Noticed the hassle and the long, long, long wait while cases are admitted based on seriousness?? That would be a microcosm of Hillary Care or Obama Care if it was passed. I don’t know about anyone out there among your readers, but I am perfectly happy with the private sector and do not want the government of the United States handling my health care!!! Look how incompetent aned silly they handle passports and eveyrhting else they touch!!!
By The Captain
August 4, 2007 2:33 PM | Link to this
Originality? I don’t know how old you are, but I’ve had that name for freaking years, just not in this magical land of 1’s and 0’s. But we both may be running for the hills soon, my sources in the DOD claim that some guy named Captain America, is looking for the both of us.
By Woohooten
August 4, 2007 2:46 PM | Link to this
Now we have an investigation into the House zoo and stolen vote on Thursday.
Good.
“We are not irrelevant here,” said House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.). “Just because we are in the minority doesn’t mean we’re irrelevant.”
You got that right, Blunt. They said the same thing to you when you were in power, and you and your fellow congresspeople obliged. They did not. Rule breaking, malfeasance, and basement legislative tactics.
“And, he said, electronic records on the vote disappeared from the House’s voting system and on the House clerk’s Web site.”
I’m so unsurprised.
Good job, America.
By jm
August 4, 2007 2:47 PM | Link to this
If given the choice between Hillarycare and “no care”, I am willing to bet even Mr. Wooten will choose Hillarycare. The best way to avoid Hillarycare is to figure out a cost effective way for everyone to have access ot healthcare.
By Woohooten
August 4, 2007 2:58 PM | Link to this
“If given the choice between Hillarycare and “no care”.”
jm, at what point would this nation ever have no care?
A stupid argument.
By Woohooten
August 4, 2007 3:10 PM | Link to this
The Daily Kos Quack convention censors a soldier. Isn’t this the same event where Democrat politicians and presidential candidates are flocking while liberals peed on themselves about talk radio show hosts visiting Bush this past week?
Another weekend shocking news story from liberals.
By Dusty
August 4, 2007 3:19 PM | Link to this
Wow… getalife finally got one right @1:31
“meth heads on this blog”
that and we have three Captains too many. And Red Neck is trying to play footsie with me…. Honey, if you were the last man on earth….and so forth.
But @@ brings good points to Wooten’s good points. And she also knows a phony when she sees one. Right, Huge/ Amvet?
I think that government healthcare for children should be for those who are indigent. Eighty thousand dollars for a family limit expresses no need for aid. In fact, it seems rediculous.
I do not want national healthcare any more than I want Democrats in Congress running the military. Both would be doing something that they were not meant to do.
By jm
August 4, 2007 3:26 PM | Link to this
woohooten@3:10 - well apparently I must have missed something. According you everyone in this country now has healthcare. In that case, Mr. Wooten’s article is pointless because SCHIP is no longer necessary.
By Woohooten
August 4, 2007 3:32 PM | Link to this
Sean Penn is the definition of modern kook liberalism. He’s as dumb as Spicoli. Any time you see someone near a portrait of Che, you know you are dealing with a kook fringe liberal. That reminds me. Why isn’t Peppermint Patty aka Cindy Sheehan down there?
By Woohooten
August 4, 2007 3:46 PM | Link to this
jm, I hate to break you bad news, but the large majority of Americans, like 85% I believe, DO have a health care plan. ALL Americans have access to it. Yes, perhaps many of those without a plan cannot afford one, but others can. This goes right back to the $83,000 issue that Jim brought up. When is enough ever ENOUGH for you liberals? That’s the problem with you people on the left. You never know when to draw the line. It’s always more, more, MORE. And always with other people’s money.
By jm
August 4, 2007 3:50 PM | Link to this
woohooten - I could ask the same question about when is enough ever enough regarding W the incompetent’s little fiasco in Iraq.
By Nip
August 4, 2007 3:55 PM | Link to this
Even the liberals have to admire Bush’s stubborn refusal to flip flop on Iraq. He may be leading this country to a foreign policy catastrophe, but at least he’s not playing to the polls.
I’ve suspected all along that Bush had smart enough think tank advisers who warned him of the Ethno-sectarian complications in winning the peace. I think there’s a larget picture that Bush was looking at the Cheney classified so Bush cant tell us, and instead he’s enduring the slings and arrows from both sides of the aisle. (and from under the desk) If only Clinton would have thought of hiding in a man sized safe with monica, he would have never been caught, eh?
Back to Bush. He still can emerge the greatest prez that ever was if this thing starts to come together. It’s still not totally impossible, but know we cant ever leave if he’s wrong. Never ever leave. Think about the implications of that kind of a financial burden on our grandchildren.I
It could be over for our republic as we know it. I am running for prez. I promise a man sized safe in every living room!!! All your email will be classified top secret by you!!
Vote for me. Mini-cheney.
By Woohooten
August 4, 2007 3:58 PM | Link to this
jm, perhaps you need to consult that vast right wing outlet the New York Times for that answer, this article written by a couple of fellers from that vast right wing Brookings Institution. It must suck to be in the position where military failure means victory for a political party.
By Nip
August 4, 2007 4:13 PM | Link to this
What is crime? It’s a symptom of not having anything to lose. Our society gave half of us nothing to lose a long time ago. If enough people have nothing to lose, it’s called revolution.
I feel like we are on the verge of major socio-political change in this country. When you read the comments of the conservatives on this blog, you realize what’s at stake, because those comments are in the air, trust me, @@ and Dusty and CuttheCheese didn’t write those ideas, they hacked them from the media. The media. What is the media?
It’s the QVC-ing of Wallstreet, the Donald-hair of the Islamic Dog, the Paris Hilton video highlight of the Iraq War era, When future generations research the Iraq war era, they’ll most certainly find Paris HiltonHead first. Agree?
No, we are witnessing monumental change. I fell like I’m Voltaire, or Robespierre, or the Antichrist, I mean, it seems so obvious to me that this is it. the end.
But what if I’m wrong, and just need a beer hat refill that wasn’t manufactured in china and is leaching lead into my bud, making me delusional? Then we are to believe that we can continue down this path of allowing a handful of men Bush/cheney/rove/rosie odonald and al queda cola to go through some primitive dance of doom that will inexorably lead to our destruction? It’s like their all faking en passant in a nuclear chess game, like they think they’ve developed fail safe methods for cheating at hop scotch, and now can rule the playground.
no, no, no, we have to stop them as people. We have to simply say no. And I’m running for president based on that platform: It’s time to stop the march to madness.
Stop the March 2 Madness.! Vote Analchord in ‘08. I’ll fix things but good!
By Woohooten
August 4, 2007 4:16 PM | Link to this
Yes, reversing the tax cuts would have saved the bridge from collapsing Minnesota. Let’s see what Minnesota has done with our tax dollars in 2006:
Archery in the Schools Grants..$ 75,000
Art Grants to North Dakota..$ 128,825
Avian Flu Preparedness..$ 5,000,000
“Bears of the Ussuri” Exhibit (Minnesota Zoo)..$ 20,640,000
Becoming an Outdoorswoman..$ 45,000
Bemidji Regional Events Center..$ 3,000,000
Big Island Campsite..$ 2,000,000
BioBusiness Alliance..$ 467,000
Bioscience Development Grants..$ 28,500,000
Birding Maps..$ 100,000
Board of Architecture, Engineering, Land Surveying, Landscape Architecture, Geoscience and Interior Design..$ 1,570,000
Boxing Commission..$ 50,000
Central Corridor Light Rail..$ 13,050,000
Character Education..$ 1,500,000
Critical Habitat License Plate Promotion..$ 26,000
Ethanol Producer Payments..$ 34,013,000 FarmAmerica..$ 256,000
Film & TV Board..$ 500,000
Film Production Incentives..$ 1,700,000
Get Ready, Get Credit..$ 4,133,000 Giants Ridge Golf & Ski Resort..$ 1,768,537
Hiawatha Light Rail operating subsidy..$ 9,350,000
Integration Revenue Program..$115,337,000
Ironworld Discovery Center ..$ 1,550,794
Itasca County Steel Plant infrastructure..$ 23,500,000
Job Opportunity Zones (JOBZ) ..$ 16,900,000
Legislative “Effectiveness” Forums..$ 37,000
Let’s Go Fishing..$ 325,000
Medicare Prescription Drug (Part D) Program..$ 3,600,000
Met Council Livable Communities Grants..$ 8,184,000
Metro Greenways..$ 500,000
Minneapolis Teachers Retirement Fund bailout..$ 36,000,000
Minnesota Agricultural Interpretive Center..$ 200,000
Minnesota Horticultural Society..$ 35,000
Minnesota Humanities Commission..$ 800,000
Minnesota International Center..$ 85,000
Minnesota Inventor’s Congress..$ 120,000
Minnesota Planetarium & Space Discovery Center..$ 22,000,000
Minnesota Twins Stadium..$776,093,378
Mountain Iron Renewable Energy Park..$ 500,000
Northeast Minnesota Rail Initiative..$ 1,300,000
Northstar Commuter Rail..$ 97,500,000
Ordway Center for the Performing Arts..$ 7,500,000
Perpich Center for Arts Education..$ 15,380,000
Polar Bear Exhibit (Como Zoo)..$ 9,000,000
Private Detective Board..$ 252,000
Public subsidy for campaigns..$ 3,610,000
Quality Compensation (Q-Comp) Aid..$ 85,941,000
Red Rock Commuter Rail..$ 1,000,000
Rehabilitation of private shooting ranges..$ 300,000
Renewable energy inquiries..$ 75,000
Roseville Skating Oval..$ 500,000
Rural Transportation Assistance Program/Bus “Roadeo”..$ 143,542
Rushford Institute for Nanotechnology..$ 600,000
Shubert Theater..$ 12,000,000
Southwest Regional Events Center..$ 11,000,000
Taconite Aid to Non-Taconite School Districts..$ 3,014,248
Taconite Economic Development Fund..$ 20,784,000
University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum (land acquisition)..$ 650,000
Winona Shakespeare Festival..$ 310,000
Unlicensed Complementary/Alternative Health Care Regulation..$ 130,000
Union Depot Transit Station..$3,500,000
Workers Memorial..$ 100,000
WomenVenture..$ 300,000
Vikings Ship..$ 1,000,000 (a VIKING ship????)
Total: $635,685,946
But it’s all Bush’s fault and tax cuts, you stupid people!
By jm
August 4, 2007 4:18 PM | Link to this
woohooten - it wasn’t the military that failed. Their job was to overthrow Saddam, which they did quite well. The failure was that W the incompetent and his merry band of neocons had no clue about what would happen next. The failure in Iraq is not military, it is political. Regarding the article you cite from the Times, I guess you glossed over these lines from the last paragraph: How much longer should American troops keep fighting and dying to build a new Iraq while Iraqi leaders fail to do their part? And how much longer can we wear down our forces in this mission? These haunting questions underscore the reality that the surge cannot go on forever.
By Woohooten
August 4, 2007 4:25 PM | Link to this
Nip @4:13
“Vote Analchord in ‘08. I’ll fix things but good!”
Did we have a little problem with our ID there?
By Nip
August 4, 2007 4:29 PM | Link to this
jm, you place too much on the surge. Do you even know what the surge is, or what it portends? It’s an old school anti-insurgency by the book military offensive. Google counter insurgency and you’ll see the surge’s profile from decades old military think tank derivative tactics.
Now, your comment implies that we can leave Iraq if the surge dont work. We can only leave Iraq if the surge DOES work.
By Woohooten
August 4, 2007 4:33 PM | Link to this
jm, I am not going to waste time being dragged into your world of the Iraq situation. You want it to fail, I do not. Now move on. We are still in Germany, Japan, and South Korea, remember?
My viewpoint of the NYT article and what you quoted:
“These haunting questions underscore the reality that the surge cannot go on forever.”
Nobody ever said we’d need to fight forever. We aren’t fighting Hitler today either, but we are still on his soil.
By jbmlaw
August 4, 2007 4:42 PM | Link to this
Dear Woohooten @ 4:16, if your numbers are real, that is the post of the year.
By jm
August 4, 2007 4:42 PM | Link to this
nip - we will leave Iraq the same way the British left last century.
By Carbon Footprint
August 4, 2007 4:42 PM | Link to this
Vote for Analchord!! (that’s me)
By jm
August 4, 2007 4:45 PM | Link to this
woohooten - sounds like you are cutting and running. As for wanting failure, not quite, but I am a firm believer in the first rule of holes: “When you find yourself in one, stop digging”.
By Spartacus
August 4, 2007 4:46 PM | Link to this
I’m Analchord!
By Analchord
August 4, 2007 4:49 PM | Link to this
I’m Spartacus!
By Analchord
August 4, 2007 4:56 PM | Link to this
Okay, jm, you’ve really set me up to educate the masses on Iraq here. thanx.
We will leave like Britain did last century? Britain put the Sunnis in charge last century and that evolved into Saddam. So they never really left. The Sunnis were Britain’s violation of the Prime Directive: never interfere with the natural order of tings.
The Sunnis ruled for generations with an Iron Fist and have so soured the Shia majority about sharing the country that we can never leave without a regional holocaust and possible global conflagration.
Do your homework. Then comment.
By Woohooten
August 4, 2007 4:58 PM | Link to this
jm, what part of “I will not waste time” do you fail to understand? You have your view, I have mine. Yes, you and your ilk do want us to fail in Iraq. To say anything otherwise in the over four years of discourse on Iraq from your kind on record is delusional.
By Woohooten
August 4, 2007 5:01 PM | Link to this
jbmlaw @4:42 -
Unlike liberals, I do not lie and make up stories.
By Woohooten
August 4, 2007 5:09 PM | Link to this
I have come to the realization that the only “waste” of taxpayer dollars that liberals ever b_tch about is Iraq.
By AmVet
August 4, 2007 5:31 PM | Link to this
Here I’m off being a good capitalist and alas, yet another personal attack.
Oh the indignity of it all!
By @@
I’m having a difficult time seeing you as anyone other than HUGE,…
My ex-democratic blogger, you may well have many difficulties in life. Learn to conquer them instead of just living in the past and b!tching about people.
I’m sorry, but you were the lowest life form when you were Huge, and you haven’t evolved one iota.
A bit harsh, even for you @@. I thought I was at least a couple of notches above the lowest life form, but perhaps I was mistaken all this time!
So no, you’re not sorry, that’s just a lie to make yourself feel better. You’re actually happy that you get to be right about everything and everyone. And for a self professed Christian, it is sad that you allow no room for any body’s redemption and are capable of so little charity.
And it is more than a little ironic you chose the word evolve. It’s a fact of life, @@, and you shouldn’t fight it so! It might help YOUR persona!
Why am I not surprised that you would celebrate a society in moral decline.
Perhaps just a typo, but shouldn’t the above end in a question mark? Unless of course, it is not a question at all; just another of your odd and hateful versions of a “statement of fact.” But really it is obviously just hyperbolic nonsense.
As is true for most of us, facts, indeed, @@, never seem to quite get in your way when the worst of your inane opinions come to the fore.
It strikes me that you are the polar opposite of a Buffett. He was raised by Republican parents but was ultra-successful by swearing off that political party.
(And yes, Woohooten there are many people who have done the opposite, and all of the red herrings in the world don’t change the fact that Buffett is admired as one of the very few wealthy Americans who sees the current plutocracy in this country for what it is. A HUGE problem for all of us.)
And you, @@? Raised by Democratic parents, so you say, but have chosen to migrate (not evolve!) to hard-core neo-conservatism.
There just might be a lesson there for many of us.
By Analchord
August 4, 2007 5:36 PM | Link to this
Sharapova looking really good this weekend.
By Duh stands for Democrat
August 4, 2007 5:37 PM | Link to this
{{{{By Woohooten August 4, 2007 4:16 PM Yes, reversing the tax cuts would have saved the bridge from collapsing Minnesota. Let’s see what Minnesota has done with our tax dollars in 2006: “Bears of the Ussuri” Exhibit (Minnesota Zoo)..$ 20,640,000}}}}
Excellent post.
The Bush haters conveniently do not remember things like that.
~~~~~
Fireworks broke out at a Friday morning session of the second day of the YearlyKos Convention titled “The Military and Progressives: Are They Really That Different?”. An as yet unidentified uniformed soldier attempted to address the panel on the subject of the “Surge”. He was unceremoniously escorted out by panelist Jon Soltz.
At least they didn’t spit on him, I don’t think.
Look at the things you think about when you are consumed with rage and hatred: “The Military and Progressives: Are They Really That Different?”
WTF does that even mean?
Geez.
~~~~~
Since you libs don’t know anything about war and winning it, let me show you some signs of impending victory:
{{{{The U.S. death toll in Iraq fell to an eight-month low for July, with at least 73 service members killed, the Pentagon announced today. That’s a drop of 25% from April and June and 57% from May>, and the lowest figure since last November, when at least 70 U.S. deaths were reported.}}}}
{{{{The United Nations is poised to take on a greatly expanded role in Iraq and soon will be charged with aggressively pursuing agreements between key political and religious parties while improving relations with neighboring countries.}}}}
Contrary to what you think, cutting and running is not victory, talk amongst yourselves.
~~~~~
{{{{Markos Moulitsas, the founder of the liberal Daily Kos Web site, said Mrs. Clinton had “done a great job of blurring on the war.” An adviser to one of Mrs. Clinton’s opponents, who did not want to be quoted by name offering praise for the way she was handling the issue, described the senator’s change as “more of a slide than a flip-flop.”}}}}
By Woohooten
August 4, 2007 5:39 PM | Link to this
“(who sees the current plutocracy in this country for what it is. A HUGE problem for all of us.)”
AmVet, you liberals view economic inequality as the rich keeping the poor people down. You always have. You always will. There have been more self-made millionaires created in the last 20 years in this nation than in it’s entire history. You are an intelligent person no matter what your moniker, but if you buy into the liberal hysteria of income inequality that needs to be “corrected” in some way, then you are the opposite of why this nation is great. And that goes for Buffett as well.
By Analchord
August 4, 2007 5:49 PM | Link to this
Sharapova is an amazing creature. She’s got it all, and I cant get enough of her. Have you ever seen legs like that?
Watch her walk.
By AmVet
August 4, 2007 5:57 PM | Link to this
Woohooten, this is a subject that always causes much gnashing of teeth - taxes.
As a small business owner, trust me, I know all too well, and in great detail, about all of the many taxes I must pay.
Of course, I;m not thrilled about it, but unlike some of the more rabid corporatists I don’t see the goal as trying to get everything I can out this country and not pay for any of it.
I just pay them and am happy, no thrilled, that every single day of my life I get to live in the USA where I can complain about it and maybe even effect some change!
To run a business or a household or a country it comes down to value, not cost. What do I get in exchange for my money?
As you so excellently pointed out about Minnesota, most Americans are, or at least should be, much more interested in how their dollars are being spent and want to know that they are being used WISELY.
And there’s the rub. Some of it is common sense, but apparently a great deal of it comes down to personal prejudices and self-interest.
And the “income redistribution argument” is for me in some ways fallacious.
No matter HOW you slice it there is already a ton of it going on. My point is that it is just way past time to end the inherent unfairness that Buffett pays less effective taxes than his secretary.
The tax system is completely rigged and needs to be changed, but the hows and whys may forever be in great debate.
AmVet, you liberals view economic inequality as the rich keeping the poor people down.
One last thing, I am quite capable of forming and writing my own thoughts, I don’t your help in speaking for me and using silly labels.
By jm
August 4, 2007 6:00 PM | Link to this
woohooten, one other thing. I am looking forward to listening to the howling from conservatives that will start when the requests for money to rebuild Iraq start rolling in. Regardless of who wins the white house in 2008, they are going to start requesting hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild Iraq.
By Woohooten
August 4, 2007 6:01 PM | Link to this
AmVet, thank you for your response. However, as someone who has many friends and family that own businesses, you are the first to mention “plutocracy” as a problem and hail Buffett for assailing it. The causal effect of a free capitalist nation is that those who strive for success will get there. Those who don’t will not. That’s not living in a plutocracy. That’s living in the best damned nation on the planet.
I don’t mean to label you, but your words are your words.
By Analchord
August 4, 2007 6:03 PM | Link to this
OJ Simpson is getting face time on television in an interview. He just came out for Hillary Clinton.
There is an OJ cult.
By AmVet
August 4, 2007 6:10 PM | Link to this
I don’t mean to label you, but your words are your words.
Indeed they are my friend, but as I cautioned @@ about “being sorry”, You do the very thing you deny.
I don’t see why you have a problem with the term plutocracy.
My experiences tell me that is exactly what we have in this country.
You may try to spin it that I’m inferring many things I’m not. But it is an irrefutable fact that the rich make the decisions in this country and actually control its destiny.
There’s nothing wrong with that, as long as the “foxes aren’t guarding the henhouse” exclusively.
And it looks like they are.
By Woohooten
August 4, 2007 6:13 PM | Link to this
“I am looking forward to listening to the howling from conservatives that will start when the requests for money to rebuild Iraq start rolling in.”
jm, I am looking forward to listening to the howling from you liberals when Iraq’s oil output ramps up and some of those funds come back to us via Halliburton to pay for it.
By catlady
August 4, 2007 6:16 PM | Link to this
My suggestion: all or nothing. either we set Pe