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Obama lost me - (Reply to this comment)
by Ahab1973
Obama lost me at the words "individual mandate". Absolute insanity!
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Dec 14 '09
4:14 pm PST
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Re: insightful piece (Reply to this comment)
by vicfar
Thanks for the words of appreciation. Luckily in Europe I don't get to hear Limbaugh anymore (not that I did much when I was in the US). Yes, he is a big fat idiot!
Well, some kind of "health reform" seems on the verge of passing. Let's see what it offers with an open mind, and try to decide whether Obama did a service or a disservice to the country....
Vic
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Nov 25 '09
4:25 am PST
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insightful piece (Reply to this comment)
by bobbo428
This was insightful and thoughtful. I have lived in America all 48 years of my life but am burned out from our competition-is-everything culture. Rush Limbaugh is probably my all-time least favorite American because of his extreme arrogance and tireless advocacy for the rich and powerful.
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Nov 24 '09
3:07 pm PST
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Re: we need insurance reform (Reply to this comment)
by vicfar
Absolutely true, no argument here! Obama is a spineless wimp.
Vic
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Oct 10 '09
1:53 pm PDT
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Re: Re: Re: Hiya (Reply to this comment)
by vicfar
I dont idolize anybody, but Chavez has balls. He is galvanizing the whole South America and fighting US hegemony there. Now that takes guts, much easier to be on their payroll. He is much more of a man than Nobel Prize winner wimpy Obama, all talk and no action.
Vic
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Oct 10 '09
1:52 pm PDT
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we need insurance reform (Reply to this comment)
by busby777
forcing everybody to buy insurance will not reform the insurance companies
~~~
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Oct 08 '09
12:00 pm PDT
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Re: Re: Hiya (Reply to this comment)
by oldcomixfan
Import and naturalize Chavez? Are you serious? You're talking about the Communist leader who forces selected people to sit as his audience during his excruciatingly boring TV program down there in Venezuela? WTF? It's very unsettling you would idolize such a man.
So unsettling, in fact, I must now hum my new mantra in order to regain the miniscule fragments of what's left of my fragile little mind and very squishy spine:
Mmmm mmmm mmmmmm Barack Hussein Obama.
He's the man with the plan
who says we all must lend a hand.
{clap clap clap}
Mmmmm mmmm mmmm Barack Hussein Obama.
We'll run through fields of flowers.
Don't forget to duck your head
near the wind turbine towers. Whoops!
{clap clap clap}
Mmmm mmm mmm Barack Hussein Obama.
If we get the sniffles or the flu
then he'll know what to do. Kerchoo!
{clap clap clap}
Mmmm mmmm mmmm Barack Hussein Obama.
He's the one who thought it.
We now get dizzy from twirling around
as we wait for the IRS audit.
{clap clap thud}
Amen.
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Oct 07 '09
10:39 am PDT
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Re: Hiya (Reply to this comment)
by vicfar
Hi Smorg,
long time no hear! All is fine in chocolateland, except -of course-the weather. How's life in the evil empire? I agree with you 100%, and I think the reform is already sunk; you can blame the O'Reillys of the world and the idiots who listen to them, but more to blame is gutless Obama who's kissing up to the opposition when he's got the mandate for change that he asked for.
Is there anyone with both a brain and a spine left in the US? As I said before, you guys should import and naturalize Chavez! :-) :-) :-)
Cheers
Vic
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Oct 01 '09
8:34 am PDT
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Hiya (Reply to this comment)
by smorg
Well, I knew Obama has was and is a centrist, though, man, it is ridiculous how significant he is making the republican seem despite of their having only 40 seats in the senate. :oP If healthcare reform get sunk because he loses the blue-dog democrats while trying to woo those effectively marginalized (and so really aren't even worth listening to anymore) republican right wingers, then he'd be worth kicking right out of office at the next election (or before) indeed.
Our healthcare system sucks...It sucked a decade ago when you bought an insurance because you knew you could go bankrupt if you get sick without one. Nowadays you can go bankrupt from getting sick even with a health insurance!
But then... this is a country where there are 2 digits worth of percentage of people who don't even know that Hawaii is a part of the USA... What can you do? :oP
Hope this autumn is treating you well, at least. :o)
Ciao,
Smorgy
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Sep 30 '09
4:15 pm PDT
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Re: In a nutshell (Reply to this comment)
by vicfar
Well, you are certainly correct. The bottom line of my essay is that Americans won't get a reasonable health care system because they just don't want one, and they are not ready to accept the changes that this would entail...including but not limited to the issue you mention.
Thanks for the comment
Vic
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Sep 27 '09
2:14 pm PDT
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Re: interesting (Reply to this comment)
by vicfar
Even if you were right, i.e. that the US funds much of the medical research in the world and others benefit from it (which is a groundless statement), I don't see how that would affect drug pricing. Drug pricing is a complex, contractual issue between drug companies and dispensaries, and depends on many factors. Actually, it is because the US prefers a free-market system that you pay more, whereas EU governments prefer to enact price controls.
In general, companies who market new drugs enjoy 20 years of exclusivity, and therefore nobody can really enjoy the benefits of US research other than the company itself. Indeed they do...and charge you what they can get away with...
Vic
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Sep 27 '09
2:11 pm PDT
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In a nutshell (Reply to this comment)
by AliventiAsylum
this is it:
"they don’t seem to accept the idea that things can go wrong in life: somebody else, other than themselves, must be to blame"
People cling to the notion that if they live their lives right, pray to the right God, live in the right neighborhood that nothing really bad will happen to them. It's only when it does actually happen to them that the lightbulb goes off and then suddenly SOMETHING MUST BE DONE!!!! Usually having something to do with government involvement.
Patti
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Sep 19 '09
4:48 am PDT
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interesting (Reply to this comment)
by busby777
You must know that the main reason that other countries have lower medical costs is that the US has been funding most of the research and technology that benefits them. And that we do not have free enterprise in the US. We have plenty of gov't regulation, and that regulation is flawed and often corrupt. We do need reform, but the plan that Obama outlined in his speech is impossible to realize. It will not work.
~~~
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Sep 11 '09
12:16 pm PDT
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Re: Hmmm... (Reply to this comment)
by vicfar
Mike,
he's a total failure when you think about his empty campaign promises. I know he risks a bullet in the head by going against any of the lobbies I mentioned, but someone who wants to be a leader ought to have the leadership to engineer change. "Stay the course" or "seek consensus with your adversaries" after promising change isn't really inspiring anyone, the Left included.
He may surprise me yet, but many commentators have made the point that you can see what the guy is about in 6 months. Unless something big happens to him (like 9/11 to Bush), he's unlikely to do anything to stop the financial meltdown that's taking place, the disastrous wars he is expanding, and the health care mess that he is making probably worse (if possible).
I agree with you on the tax rate - it is just a different model. Europeans complain all the time. I rather enjoy having great public spaces, low crime rate, clean airports and highways....you know, all the stuff tax money can buy!
Thanks for commenting
Vic
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Sep 11 '09
7:58 am PDT
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Hmmm... (Reply to this comment)
by henry_thoreau
"... Barack Obama is a total failure as a president."
Is it not, perchance, still a tad too soon to make that declaration in such an essentially unqualified manner and degree? I mean, do you seriously believe that anyone (including you yourself) could step into the oval office and immediately deliver a total restructuring of this (so-called!) health care system [not to mention "the American way," heh]? You know full well what would surely happen if Obama (or any new president) inflexibly insisted on a French/Belgian-type of health care system “overnight.”
In any case, even factoring those occasional instances when the reader more or less disagrees with a particular point you posit, you've provided yet another unfailingly compelling read.
Mike
P.S.: Mind, I'm speaking as one who (virtually his entire 55 years) has always wished--and always will wish--that we had "universal" health care (i.e., a so-called "public option") in this ostensibly "world-leading" nation. [This is not to say, admittedly, that I'm remotely eager to embrace "your" aforementioned tax rates. (Sigh.) ;-)]
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Sep 11 '09
7:39 am PDT
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