You didn’t get mad when Cheney allowed energy company officials to dictate energy policy resulting in suffering and death in western states.
You didn’t get mad when a covert CIA operative got outed.
You didn’t get mad when the Patriot Act got passed.
You didn’t get mad when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us.
You didn’t get mad when we spent over $600 billion(and counting) on said illegal war.
You didn’t get mad when over 10 billion dollars simply „disappeared‰ in Iraq.
You didn’t get mad when you saw the Abu Ghraib photos.
You didn’t get mad when you found out we were torturing people & children.
You didn’t get mad when the government was illegally wire tapping Americans.
You didn’t get mad when we didn’t catch Bin Laden.
You didn’t get mad when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed.
You didn’t get mad when we let a major US city drown.
You didn’t get mad when the deficit hit the trillion dollar mark during the
Bush years after he inherited a surplus from Clinton.
You finally got mad when.. when… (wait for it… ) when the government decided that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are sick.
Yes, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer, are all okay with you, but helping other Americans…
That about right?
We cannot let the least tolerant people in America determine the direction of our public debate and democracy. Their racism should not pull the compass of public policy from the true North of equality and justice.
Hey, I just read this! Great! Did you write it yourself?
Here’s a video of a guy who went to Canada to check out their universal healthcare program by posing as a patient. And if you think this wouldn’t really happen, just know that it takes Veterans in the VA here in the US sometimes 3 months or longer to be seen by an MD. My dad is in the VA, so I have some knowledge of the gov’t-run program.
Amie, I have known you a long time, and when you’re passionate about something, you tend to see only what you want to see. You assume too much lumping all those who oppose universal health care into this whole list of those who did not get mad at these various actions. I’ve seen many videos of these protesters and they have been middle-aged and older, for the most part, and aside from talking over the crowd, they have not been disorderly (if one would even call that disorderly). They stood around a politican’s car, but did not block it or scramble on it. They are holding protests a la Dr. MLK, Jr. They want their voices heard by their politicians, and they are frustrated because the politicians in many cases are not wanting to have the dialogue that they promised to their constituents (especially after the first ones didn’t go so smoothly). They are not all conservatives, they are not all Republicans. They have not been violent, but the Union-workers have actually scratched and shoved. THe union workers are having pressure put upon them to support this healthcare from their unions. And ACORN is seeing to it that unions show up in droves. ACORN got their funding from?…lots of taxpayer money in the Obama stimulus bill. I recall you being upset over our deficit under Bush…you must be livid about this multi-trillion dollar hole we are in now.
I know you want to vent, but your list is not accurate. And William here is calling people racist just b/c they don’t agree with his opinions…equally damaging and inaccurate. Gov’t-run healthcare is the issue, right? I don’t support it, and my grandfather was a major proponent in the successful fight for civil rights in SC. So successful was he that the KKK burned crosses in my father’s yard. If you truly care about people, you do the neighborly thing and you help them personally. You don’t do it through the gov’t taking your tax dollars. If you truly want a person to learn to take care of himself, you teach, you volunteer, you don’t have gov’t run handout programs.
This healthcare will actually take away most people’s choice of healthcare because struggling businesses will opt for the cheapest form of healthcare for their employees and the insurance companies will fold. Instead of the insurance companies stipulating what procedures and tests Dr’s can run, the gov’t will just step right in and do the same. Obama has been very forthright about that. When the elderly and infirm become too much of a burden on the gov’t system, they will be denied coverage because they waste the healthy taxpayer’s money and that’s not fair. I can see down the road to all the effects this system will have. Really think about this one, guys.
We need the elderly even when they are not healthy. They have a lot of knowledge and love to pass on to all of us.
And what will happen to children born with birth defects? Will they be a waste of the tax payers money too?
The overweight, the underweight, the disabled, the depressed, cancer patients.
If they get to decide which of the elderly are too sick to bother with then who will be next?
Yep, that’s about right.
Ellen,
A lot of libertarian types who oppose the entire concept of a welfare state throw that argument around. That it is not the responsibility or place of the government to step in and help us when we’re down. We should count on charitable organizations, churches, and old-fashioned neighborliness. And from the supply side, you’re right. It makes you feel a lot better and says a lot more for your character when you’re willing to shell out money and hand it over to someone you know and care about than to just vote for a tax increase on rich people to help out millions of faceless people.
But it’s so easy for people to slip through the cracks. A lot of people don’t have money to throw around right now. A lot of people are having trouble just feeding their own family. And you can’t count on people to give as much as they’re truly able even in good times. And not everyone knows someone who’s so generous.
The bottom line is that I believe everyone has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The entire purpose of the government’s existence is, in my opinion, to protect those rights. Without access to health care, how can a person pursue happiness? Or, in some cases, live? I’m haunted by a story I heard about a woman who left three children with no mother because every week she looked at her paycheck and chose feeding her kids over buying her blood pressure medicine.
Say what you will about Canada or the VA, but no Canadian or vet would ever be in that situation. America already has rationing, and it’s done in the most immoral way possible–by wealth.
Kim,
I’d like to draw your attention to the “socialist hellhole” known as the United Kingdom, which has a health care system completely controlled by the government. Not a tightly regulated private insurance industry, like Germany and the Netherlands. Not single payer, like Canada. But a full-on system of socialized medicine where doctors are employees of the government. It’s called the National Health Service, and it’s like the VA, but everyone gets to use it.
I suspect you’d be surprised to learn, that even in this most egregious atrocity of a health care system, a) there are still old people, b) they have a life expectancy in line with the rest of the western world and LONGER than the United States, c) there are handicapped people, and the NHS does everything they can to accomodate them, and d) there are no “death panels” like real Americans deal with every day at insurance companies.
And that’s not even what’s being proposed in the United States. We’re not talking about a government takeover. We’re not even talking about single payer. We’re not even talking about tight regulation. We’re talking about the same thing we have now, with a few rules added on, and maybe a government-run option (like Medicare) for those who are unable to secure or afford private insurance to make sure that insurance companies do what they can to keep prices down.
Personally, I’m in favor of a system a la Germany (regulated private industry) or Canada (single payer). And what’s on the table is nothing at all like those. But it’s a start.
I think that you are assuming that our government would do it right. AND that what they would do wrong would be quickly fixed. Not likely. This is of course my opinion but it seems to me that the rich and the poor in America now have the best health care. Middle class slips through the cracks.
Of course you seem to be forgetting that Obama has stated that the elderly will only receive care if the government decides that it is worth the taxpayers money. (They are going to determine how long they might live!)
What if that person is your beloved Grandmother or Grandfather? They might not be contributing to the general population anymore but doesn’t the fact that they did for all their lives give them the right to have health care now to extend the quality of their lives?
I have heard that some of the countries have done it pretty well. BUT… I say get it right or leave it alone until you do!
I am speaking as a person who is disabled and laid off and has no health insurance. But I am not quite poor enough yet to get government aid. Yet I am still against it.
I know a mentally disabled man. He is the most honest and giving person I know. What do you think would happen to him with Obama’s health care reform? Ouch! He has a double whammy! He is also elderly.
I hope that if they pass this that you are not the one who has to watch someone you love suffer, possibly for years, because they are not worth the taxpayers money.
Why don’t they start with stopping the drug companies giving huge incentives to doctors and hospitals? Stop the frivolous lawsuits causing doctors to have to pay huge insurance premiums? That would sure lower costs somewhat.
You admit that this is nothing like the health care programs that you feel work well in some countries. Why are you willing to settle? Because it’s a start? Well it might not get better, it might get worse. Fight for what you really want and don’t settle and let some people suffer for it.
By the way, I am for a flat tax. The rich should pay more and the poor less.
Sometimes u need to be strict with children, but that doesnt mean you should hit them. Being strict and hitting children are two different things. What hitting does is makes the child more stubborn. Many a times, we hit a child not coz of his fault but coz we are frustrated about something else in our life. That is very unfair. Would we have liked something similar to be done to us when we were a child? Even if we have gone through it in our childhood, it does not give us any reason to do the same to the little budding flowers. Keep calm, give them love and they will be just fine and listen to you even more.