How are we going to pay for it??

Tax the rich!!!

Feisty Brownhair (Sent Tuesday, July 14, 2009 12:27 PM)

Am I the only one who thinks this moniker was created because the author can’t spell the word ‘brunette’?  Sarah?  Sarah Palin?  Is that you?

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Clara Kansas City, MO (Sent Tuesday, July 14, 2009 5:27 PM)
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Thanks Clara… that thought has crossed my mind more than once however, I was trying to NOT feed the trolls…  ;0) but like I said this morning what these morons don’t comprehend is that Imitation is the sincerest form of FLATTERY… as far as I’m concerned Johnnie Jerk Off and the rest of his gang can go right ahead & keep it up!  

Just means I’m doing something correct!

We have freedom of choice in the country, but you don't have the freedom to not have health insurance.

Funny you didn't mention the 5.4% tax on the rich people, you know, the ones that invest in the jobs for the country. I guess the government thinks it has a better use for that money. So even though you are unemployed, you'll have free, and crappy, health care.

Go ahead Democrats, raise taxes by a half a trillion dollars. Hope you like being voted out of office, because that is exactly your next stop.

"America's Affordable Health Choices Act."?

More like "The Destruction of America's Prosperity Act".

Look for the GOP to sharpen its argument against the bill -- after the CBO releases its cost estimate.
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The gop doesn't need to wait. They can release their boilerplate argument now:

It costs too much
It costs jobs
It raises taxes
It puts government between you and your doctor
It is going to ration health care
It is going to be as horrible as Canadian health care

blah, blah, blah.

None of it is true, but anything to protect their contributions from the health care industry and anything to try to stand out as against President Obama and the Democrats. Sooner or later, their strategy has to pay off. If they keep saying no to everything, eventually, something won't go as planned and then they can sit back and say, "See, told ya so."

FR: Look for the GOP to sharpen its argument against the bill --

And about a third of the Democrats. This bill is DOA.

Pelsoi, you can dress up a pig, but it's still a pig. And this health care bill of yours is a huge pig.

Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) who has proposed a health-care reform bill every year since 1963, his first year in Congress, emotionally said from the podium, "This is a good bill. It is a uniquely American solution to address the insecurities in health care felt by the American people."

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I wonder if Mr. Dingell has looked at the condition of his state. Take a good look Mr. Dingell, because what Michicgan looks like today is what the rest of the country will look like if you pass this horrible bill. The choice is yours Mr. Dingell.

Chris IL

It costs too much
It costs jobs
It raises taxes
It puts government between you and your doctor
It is going to ration health care
It is going to be as horrible as Canadian health care

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A trillion is too much. Unless it's not your money I guess.

It does raise taxes, quite a bit actually.

It requires hospitals to cut expenses, which means it will cut jobs.

Less money spent to reduce costs plus more people accessing the system will cause rationing. Or do you intend to work the doctors/nurses 24/7?

It won't be as bad as the Canadian system. It will be much worse.

W-O-N-D-E=R-F-U-L...now get it done!

Waxman will work thru the August recess, eh?  And yet last year when oil prices were going thru the roof no democrat would stay and get legislation thru to drill off-shore oil?  Clearly he and Pelosi and others were scolded by Obama and now are all of a sudden giddy about this....but alas, I'm sure there's no mention of tort reform (they love trial lawyers too much) and I'm sure taxpayers will end up forced to pay for abortion on demand no matter their convictions on it.

Yes, they want to rush thIS POS through. I say it's DOA!

don't agree with Rogers on anything else but this:

"You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."*

* Adrian Rogers, 1931-2005*

Please pass, please pass, please pass. I have been working 55 hours a week (not a slouch) for ten years at a job that does not provide health insurance. My husband is self employed. After paying mortgage and college loan forson to go to college - health insurance will be the first to go if can't afford it. I just turned 60 and Blue Cross raised my monthly bill. And they do not provide preventive medicine. I just sold some of our belongings so that I can get a mammogram. What is wrong with this picture? Oh yes by the way - we are Republicans! Did not vote for Obama but now really need health insurance to pass so that we have AFFORDABLE health insurance not asking for FREE!

MEDICAL CARE SHOULD BE THE CHOICE OF EACH AMERICAN

The deciding factor in implementing health care for everybody--LEGALLY--in America, is the Publics voice?  Those who want to just follow the same old road, can do so with the profit taking commercial insurance.  Those who would be satisfied with a government run health care program, can now start demanding it from the lawmakers.  Those who see a Universal health care system, similar to most developed countries in Europe, should start informing every Representative and Senate politician starting today. Rationing in places like England, was caused by the major impact of uncontrolled immigration.

Most American working class can do--without-- high premiums, pre-existing condition clauses. deductibles, co-pays that is representative of the wealthy medical care insurers. Whatever pertains to your family, you should start ruffling the indifferent feathers of the people in Washington at 202-224-3121 Just like illegal immigration , we cannot afford anymore to subsidize the business that hire them or the millions of illegal families.

To all the people attacking the plan:

Are there any openings where you work?

Only those who voted for Obummer should have to pay for it.

Still BUSHED!!! No more stale dead ass Tax CUTS!

2.Facing opposition in Congress, Bush held town hall-style public meetings across the U.S. in 2001 to increase public support for his plan for a $1.35 trillion tax cut program—one of the largest tax cuts in U.S. history.

3.Bush argued that unspent government funds should be returned to taxpayers, saying "the surplus is not the government’s money. The surplus is the people’s money.

4.With reports of the threat of recession from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Bush argued that such a tax cut would stimulate the economy and create jobs.

5.Others, including the Treasury Secretary at the time Paul O'Neill, were opposed to some of the tax cuts on the basis that they would contribute to budget deficits and undermine Social Security.

From today's Washington Post:

'Socialized Medicine? Bring It On

By Richard Cohen
Tuesday, July 14, 2009



When I was in the Army and known to my friends as "Combat Cohen," I could not get over the fact that, during an era of almost universal military service, the American public supported high Pentagon spending despite firsthand knowledge of astounding waste and theft. I cite, for instance, the well-known and frequently witnessed pillaging of food by mess sergeants. From tasting their stuff, I can say that theft is what they did best.

Now I am similarly perplexed. Many, if not most, Americans have some experience with our nation's mostly private health-care system. Yet they still fall prey to the scare tactic that nothing -- but nothing -- could be worse than a government takeover of the system. How things could be worse than they are now, I cannot imagine.

In the past two months, I have spent many hours accompanying a loved one to hospital emergency rooms -- all of them privately operated. The rap on what is sometimes called socialized medicine is that if the government ran the system, the wait would be interminable. Well, I am here to tell you that even when the government does not run the system, the wait can be interminable.

And uncomfortable. In one hospital there was not enough space in the emergency room for all those seeking treatment. My friend got moved from a bed -- where she was relatively comfortable -- to a wheelchair in the hallway. There she sat, in agony, for about six hours. Something similar happened at another emergency room, though this time she was given a cot. The wait, though, was just as long.

The emergency room has become the equivalent of the family doctor. It is where you go if you don't have a family doctor or if you do have a family doctor -- and it's after hours or the weekend. It is also where you sometimes have to go in order to be admitted to a hospital. The staff is mostly courteous, sometimes wonderfully solicitous, but the constant triaging of new people can put you on a treadmill to nowhere. The emergency room is the great leveler of American life. Everyone gets miserable treatment.

On Friday, Bill Moyers interviewed Wendell Potter about health care and such matters. Potter is the former head of corporate communications for Cigna, the nation's fourth-largest health insurer. By his own characterization, he is one of those insurance executives who flew from meeting to meeting in private planes and hardly ever touched ground to meet real people. One day he did. He went to an outdoor health clinic over the Virginia border from his home town in Tennessee. This is what he told Moyers:

"What I saw were doctors who were set up to provide care in animal stalls. Or they'd erected tents to care for people. . . . And I saw people lined up, standing in line or sitting in these long, long lines, waiting to get care. People drove from South Carolina and Georgia and Kentucky, Tennessee -- all over the region."

Thank God we don't have socialized medicine.

Into this debate about the role of government in medical care, I come jaded by experience. In addition to having been Combat Cohen, I was also Cohen of Claims when I worked for an insurance company. This means that whenever someone says something about "government bureaucrats," I smile because I was once a non-government bureaucrat. It is not government bureaucrats who say that certain treatments will not be covered, and it is not the government that purges insurance rolls of the sick or the old, and it is not the government that makes money -- lots of money -- on health insurance. It is private enterprise.

But as Potter points out, the insurance industry sets out to spook the public with talk of "socialized medicine," "government bureaucrats" and "government-run health care." My loved one recently had to return to the emergency room because she was dehydrated. Her insurance company listed the reasons someone could return, and dehydration was one of them. They still denied her claim. The government had nothing to do with it.

The ongoing health-care debate is complex -- not as interesting as Michael Jackson or Sarah Palin. But in deciding what to do and who to support in the current attempt to reform health care, don't rely on insurance industry propaganda, but on your own experience. Recall the last time you went to the emergency room and ask yourself whether the government could possibly do a worse job. If the answer is yes, you might need medical attention more than you realize.

cohenr@washpost.com

I couldn't agree more!

Sorry Feisty. Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery only counts when those doing the imitating are doing so out of jealousy and admiration. In your case, it's purely ridicule. Don't flatter yourself.

Yes, Henry Waxman is right. They need to stay until it's done. Lock them in a room without air conditioning in Washington in August. Let us see how fast they want to get out of there. Hot, muggy conditions with gentlemen and gentleladies sweating and glowing as they nearly pass out from the heat. Let them not even open a window. A fan made of folded paper and wielded by some lackey might do well to help move some of the air but suffer if necessary to get the job done. It that is what it will take, why not?

All the gloom and doom the sky is falling from the Republicans would soon disappear as they would gladly vote for it just to get out of there.


Chris IL

It costs too much
It costs jobs
It raises taxes
It puts government between you and your doctor
It is going to ration health care
It is going to be as horrible as Canadian health care

Just how will it cost too much? What facts and figures do you have? Is this just the rants of some radio bigmouth or do you have facts and figures to back up your assertion? If so publish them now. I dare you.

Whose job will be lost? Again, where do you get that notion? I want to learn. Please educate me regarding who will lose their job over this?

It raises taxes? Maybe so, but I would rather pay $400 more in taxes and nothing more than continue to pay $1000 a month for two people for health insurance. That health insurance has to many "we don't cover that", "We'll only pay for part of that" kind of thing.

How will the government be between me and my doctor? Please give detailed explanation. Right now there is some clerk in a high rise office building between me and my doctor. If they decide I don't get treatment because the company won't pay I don't get treatment and they get a bonus for saving the insurance company money.

How is it going to ration healthcare? What evidence do you have of that? Maybe at first appointments may be difficult because people currently uninsured will need to see a medical professional due to putting it off for so long but eventually it will even out and you won't have to worry about getting the care you need when you need it. Going to the doctor for every little sniffle or a hang nail will be a problem but that can be addressed as the cases come up.

The attitude the right seems to have is "I've got mine, to hell with you".

Have you ever experienced the first hand,the Canadian or other health care system? How can you know how bad it is if you have not experienced it several times over a decade or so? (once wouldn't be enough) What evidence do you have? Show us thousands of cases of poor medical care for Canadians or Brits, Swedes, Germans or others who have universal healthcare. Theirs is totally paid by the govt. If you don't like or want the public option don't sign up for it? The plan being proposed allows you to keep exactly what you have. If you like it, keep it and nothing for you will change. Someone else may have no insurance at all but this plan will make it so they can afford medical insurance. That insurance will pay for their treatment.

I went to college, got a good job, make good money and live in southern California.  Since everyone seems to think I should pay for EVERYTHING how the hell am I going to pay MY MORTGAGE?  My paycheck is one deduction after another and half of my check is gone before payday.  I am in the highest tax bracket and I get a minimum of deductions because of the AMT. I have to pay for my own health insurance which is $4500 per year with a deductable of $5000 so why the hell do I have to pay for you?  Why does everyone think I can pay for this?  If everyone wants everyone insured they should all chip in.  I am a democrat and I believe in paying for my share but I can't afford any more.  I never got the Bush tax cuts because they were for people above my salary and I didn't get the tax break you all got from Obama so if everyone wants the middle class to come back stop taking everything away from us.

This is GREAT! Sounds like the IRS had a hand in writing this wonderful proposal. Gives the American people a choice. You pay if you want it and you pay if you don't want it. Does the word REVOLUTION, ring a bell?

I see the Rightwingnuts have taken over FR again.  Lovely system.

However, the fact still remains that the United States pays far more as a percentage of GDP for health care than any other industrialized country.  The fact also remains that the outcomes of our 'system' are not nearly as good as those of countries that spend considerably less than we do.  Further, the profit motive, on which our 'system' is based, has failed to address either of these points in any positive way.

Now, again, Congress is trying to come up with a solution so that health care doesn't sink us as a country under its increasing weight.  How many times is this now since Harry Truman proposed we do something in the 1940s?  And, again, the same morons are regurgitating the same arguments they always do every time this comes up.  "It won't work!", even no one even knows what 'it' is yet.  "We can't afford it!", even though the 'system' we have now is bankrupting us, and many of these same morons utter nary a peep when we spend similar amounts on elective wars.  "Why should I have to pay for someone with no health care insurance?", even though we are already paying for it in the most inefficient way we can.  "Government is less efficient than the private sector!",  even though decades of statistics with Medicare, Medicaid, and the VA show just the opposite to be true.  "Health care will be rationed!", as if it already isn't rationed by the holy free market.

And on, and on, and on, ad nauseam.

Well, bad news, wingnuts:  The Status Quo is wrecking the country.  The country will not survive if it is not replaced by something that works.  Investors who make money from others' poor health are going to have to find something else to invest in, because we can't afford to give them their cut any longer.  They add nothing to the system but additional costs.   Executives that make multiple millions running hospitals and insurance companies are probably going to have to get by on mere hundreds of thousands again.  We can no longer afford to be so generous.

Congress may or may not come up with the best solution, but at least they are doing SOMETHING, which is quite the accomplishment in itself.

But, it is an absolute certainty that we cannot do NOTHING.

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