The health care bill is past by just 7 votes!
Mar 24th 2010, 6:13 pm
#256
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Re: The health care bill is past by just 7 votes!
The issue has never been does our system need to be reformed. It does.
Now it seems we've gotten something that we'll be paying the bill for long after Obama and gang are out of office. How nice for them.
Something like 14 states have plans to opt out of it - the governor of my own state told our congressman prior to the vote that we cannot afford it either. My stupid congressman voted for it - meaning I won't be voting for him when he's up for re-election in the fall.
This idea of 'it's a place to start' is just the ultimate example of underachieving. What - we couldn't be bothered to sit down and REALLY hash out something that will be sustainable and also fix what's so badly broken? That's what it seems like to me.
Now it seems we've gotten something that we'll be paying the bill for long after Obama and gang are out of office. How nice for them.
Something like 14 states have plans to opt out of it - the governor of my own state told our congressman prior to the vote that we cannot afford it either. My stupid congressman voted for it - meaning I won't be voting for him when he's up for re-election in the fall.
This idea of 'it's a place to start' is just the ultimate example of underachieving. What - we couldn't be bothered to sit down and REALLY hash out something that will be sustainable and also fix what's so badly broken? That's what it seems like to me.
Mar 24th 2010, 6:14 pm
#257
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Re: The health care bill is past by just 7 votes!
It's difficult to negotiate with people who merely scream "death panels" and "socialism" at any attempt to change the status quo. Let's be realistic here: the Republicans saw this as their way of bringing down Obama's domestic agenda (just as they did with Clinton in the '90's) and had little or no interest in entering into rational debate. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of republican senators who negotiated in good faith. Actually, I wouldn't even need that many fingers.
Mar 24th 2010, 6:15 pm
#258
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Re: The health care bill is past by just 7 votes!
Mar 24th 2010, 6:18 pm
#259
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Mar 24th 2010, 6:18 pm
#260
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Re: The health care bill is past by just 7 votes!
Who are you going to blame for not doing a better job?
Mar 24th 2010, 6:19 pm
#261
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Re: The health care bill is past by just 7 votes!
Although there was a lot of smoke and mirrors, continuing the status quo would have kept wasting money for decades to come. I agree that the democrats could have just cut the $500 billion out of medicare and done nothing more and it really would have saved that much money but they had an agenda to reform health care, so they used the money saved to pay for their package.
Mar 24th 2010, 6:20 pm
#262
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Re: The health care bill is past by just 7 votes!
Just did a quick Google search because I'm sure I can't explain it right.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/op...ltz-eakin.html
http://daily.swarthmore.edu/2010/3/2...orm-not-cheap/
Mar 24th 2010, 6:21 pm
#263
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Re: The health care bill is past by just 7 votes!
The government is just the expression of the will of the people. This is what I really don't understand about Americans, even after living here half my life. They are so fundamentally pessimistic about life ever getting any better.
Mar 24th 2010, 6:23 pm
#264
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Re: The health care bill is past by just 7 votes!
You want a name or?
Pinning that on one person or one group of people only would be pretty hard to do. It just seems like it was more about getting something done than getting the right something done. Who is ultimately to blame for that? I'm sure I don't know.
Pinning that on one person or one group of people only would be pretty hard to do. It just seems like it was more about getting something done than getting the right something done. Who is ultimately to blame for that? I'm sure I don't know.
Mar 24th 2010, 6:29 pm
#265
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Re: The health care bill is past by just 7 votes!
On that topic, can you explain why Brits think that government can solve most, if not all, problems?
Mar 24th 2010, 6:32 pm
#266
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Re: The health care bill is past by just 7 votes!
So presumably you would like to scrap the military, the police, the courts, roads, sidewalks etc?
Mar 24th 2010, 6:33 pm
#267
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Re: The health care bill is past by just 7 votes!
What I had read is that it was a case of 'creative math'. Meaning you had to dig a little deeper into it in order to justify it's supposed budget neutrality.
Just did a quick Google search because I'm sure I can't explain it right.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/op...ltz-eakin.html
http://daily.swarthmore.edu/2010/3/2...orm-not-cheap/
Just did a quick Google search because I'm sure I can't explain it right.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/op...ltz-eakin.html
http://daily.swarthmore.edu/2010/3/2...orm-not-cheap/
Mar 24th 2010, 6:33 pm
#268
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 7,605
Re: The health care bill is past by just 7 votes!
It's difficult to negotiate with people who merely scream "death panels" and "socialism" at any attempt to change the status quo. Let's be realistic here: the Republicans saw this as their way of bringing down Obama's domestic agenda (just as they did with Clinton in the '90's) and had little or no interest in entering into rational debate. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of republican senators who negotiated in good faith. Actually, I wouldn't even need that many fingers.
Reason why they didn't want to sit down and hash it out, to me it seems, that the Democrats wanted to score a political victory and say to future generations, look we did it by ourselves we're awesome. And the benefits don't kick into 2014, I think Obama was counting on not being re-elected that term and let a Republican win so when the healthcare overall rears its ugly face, the electorate will blame the Republicans and vote Democrats back in
Mar 24th 2010, 6:34 pm
#269
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Re: The health care bill is past by just 7 votes!
The people to blame are called the Republican members of congress and their shameless media mouthpieces. They didn't shed a tear about the deficit when authorising the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq, but sent our troops out without adequate supplies and logistics. I have a very short list of "burn in hell" people, and that list includes Karl Rove and Dick Cheney.
Mar 24th 2010, 6:35 pm
#270
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Re: The health care bill is past by just 7 votes!
As for Britain & Western Europe, yes, Government has a pretty good track record. As I said, it is an expression of the will of the people.