American Politics during the Obama Presidency

[Quality Time]

Hey MB,

Just remember, in order for you to get coverage at that price, someone else will be required to pay more than their risk profile would otherwise require.

Do you really believe that younger/healthier individuals and/or the country's taxpayers should be subsidizing your health care?

Thanks,

Jax

Hey I have an idea, if you don't want government interfering in your life, move to Afghanistan, Sudan etc. There are no government services or tax collection there.

[Rock Harders]

Hey MB,

Just remember, in order for you to get coverage at that price, someone else will be required to pay more than their risk profile would otherwise require.

Do you really believe that younger/healthier individuals and/or the country's taxpayers should be subsidizing your health care?

Thanks,

Jax

Jackson-.

Do you believe that citizens of the United States should be simply left for dead if they cannot afford to pay for their own healthcare at "market rates"? Incredibly hypocritical for our very own Jackson to be complaining about government subsidized healthcare, when he himself benefits INCREDIBLY from subsidized healthcare here in Argentina! Not only does Jackson plop himself down as a guest in Argentina, contributing nothing, he "leeches" off the government by benefitting from subsidized electricity, gas, water, public transportation and medical school. His "private" medical services are as cheap as they are in Argentina as a direct result of government subsidies; those doctor fees would be a hell of a lot higher if the doctors had not gone to medical school for "free", the hospital was paying market rates for utilities, and the public transportation was non. Subsidized.

All this leeching and non contributing by Jackson in a foreign country, and he has the GALL to rail against TAX PAYING US CITIZENS benefiting from subsidized healthcare in their own country!

Suerte,

RH.

[Jackson]

How do we motivate more students to want to learn.

I know, let's tell them that the government is going to take 50% of what they will earn after they finish school and start working. That should start a fire under them.

Maybe we give up and just have an undereducated "serf" class who live on the margins of society? Some might say that already exists?

Just continue giving them free money to stay home and fuck off, and that's exactly what you'll have: A "serf" class of permanent Democrat voters.

Of course, in the Middle Ages serfs actually had to work if they wanted to eat, but we wouldn't want the facts to obscure your point.

Thanks,

Jax.

[Jackson]

Because of age, height weight no one wants to wtie health for me. I have basically catastrophe coverage $12,000 in-net work& $24,000. out of network deuctible and max out of pockets at a cost of $1970 per month with a $5,000,000. life time cap. I shopped and shopped with multiple agents year after year. The website is horrible so my agent took care of it.about $1000 per month for platinum plan with in net work amlost no payments by me except for non-fomulary drugs[whichiwillbytviaCanada]. out of network is not good, but i am paying more premium for a very large national network--all my doctors, the locale medical school faculty and the best locale hostitals all participate. It took awhile to shop as the plans are complex and the network in very important.

I think every one agrees that there needs to be fine tuning and fixing. Unfortunately there is not the political will to fine tune and fix.

Hey MB,

Just remember, in order for you to get coverage at that price, someone else will be required to pay more than their risk profile would otherwise require.

Do you really believe that younger/healthier individuals and/or the country's taxpayers should be subsidizing your health care?

Thanks,

Jax

[Miami Bob]

If the locale government does not supply education, does everyone home school? Religious institutions? Privatize?

How do we motivate more students to want to learn. Maybe we give up and just have an undereducated " serf" class who live on the margins of society? Some might say that already exists?

[Don B]

Read an interesting opinion piece about education and the USA's ability to create a productive work force.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/08/op...rssnyt&emc=rss

The comments are as interesting as the piece.

Shocked! I am shocked to hear there is a problem with government managed education. How can this be?

Don B.

[Miami Bob]

Read an interesting opinion piece about education and the USA's ability to create a productive work force.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/08/op...rssnyt&emc=rss

The comments are as interesting as the piece.

[Miami Bob]

Because of age, height weight no one wants to wtie health for me. I have basically catastrophe coverage $12,000 in-net work& $24,000. out of network deuctible and max out of pockets at a cost of $1970 per month with a $5,000,000. life time cap. I shopped and shopped with multiple agents year after year. The website is horrible so my agent took care of it.about $1000 per month for platinum plan with in net work amlost no payments by me except for non-fomulary drugs[whichiwillbytviaCanada]. out of network is not good, but i am paying more premium for a very large national network--all my doctors, the locale medical school faculty and the best locale hostitals all participate. It took awhile to shop as the plans are complex and the network in very important.

I think every one agrees that there needs to be fine tuning and fixing. Unfortunately there is not the political will to fine tune and fix.

[Punter 127]

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said on Sunday that Obamacare's endless problems could create a "complete meltdown" and endanger Democrats' control of the U.S. Senate.

"If it's so much more expensive than what we anticipated and if the coverage is not as good as what we had, you've got a complete meltdown at that time," Manchin said on CNN's State of the Union. "If it falls of its own weight, if basically the cost becomes more than we can absorb, absolutely.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...ive-GOP-Senate

Forget about Thailand lets talk about something that matters.

[Tiny12]

New York Times, Thomas Fuller, December 16 & 22,2013 (selectively condensed).

"In one of the more provocative moves of Thailand's month-long political crisis, anti-government protesters marching through Bangkok Sunday vowed to disrupt the coming elections in their campaign to rid the country of its most influential political family. We will shut down the country, we will block everyone casting ballots, vows Suthep Thaugsuban, the main protest leader. As with the division of the red and blue states of the United States, Thailand's geographical divides have become even sharper as the crisis continued."

"In today's fractured Thailand, a majority wants more democracy, but a minority including many rich and powerful people, is petrified by the thought of it. What unites the protestors is the desire to dismantle Prime Minister Yingluck's Pheu Thai party, which has won every election since 2001. The anti-democratic ideas put forward by protest leaders are in jarring contrast with the image of Thailand as a cosmopolitan country open to the world.

"Thailand today is a much richer than two decades ago, but it is also more divided. On the face of it, the crux of the protest appears to be a classic power between a dominant majority and a minority frustrated by its losing streak in elections and its inability to influence national policies in a winner-take-all, in a highly centralized system."

You can only laugh quietly to yourself, the absurdity of the human race. We think we are so clever, but we are no different from the rats in the sewers. I escape to Thailand, but I could not escape Starbucks and the Tea Party.

Yes, there are similarities between the ruling Pheu Thai party and the American Democrat Party. Pheu Thai is fiscally irresponsible and buys votes from rice farmers, factory workers, etc. But its populist agenda is a disguise for its true purpose, which is doing the bidding of a billionaire businessman (Thaksin Shinawatra).

You're not going to see me defending their opposition, the Thai Democrats. I suspect you're trying to make an analogy between the Yellow Shirts, being a subset of the Thai Democrat Party that has taken to the streets to try to overthrow the government, and the Tea Party. If so, the analogy is ridiculous. In terms of their strategies, the Yellow Shirts have much more in common with the Occupy Wall Street movement, of which I think you approve, than with the Tea Party. The Tea Party, however you define it, has never gone beyond parliamentary procedure in its attempts to return the federal government to fiscal sanity. The Tea Party has never and will never attempt to overthrow the government with massive demonstrations.

[Rev BS]

I agree we need to hear more.

I have been there, I am not clear on what our problems are to theirs.

I know their's is really bad.

The only impeachment should be the Do Nothing Congress. But that is to the Voters.

New York Times, Thomas Fuller, December 16 & 22,2013 (selectively condensed).

"In one of the more provocative moves of Thailand's month-long political crisis, anti-government protesters marching through Bangkok Sunday vowed to disrupt the coming elections in their campaign to rid the country of its most influential political family. We will shut down the country, we will block everyone casting ballots, vows Suthep Thaugsuban, the main protest leader. As with the division of the red and blue states of the United States, Thailand's geographical divides have become even sharper as the crisis continued."

"In today's fractured Thailand, a majority wants more democracy, but a minority including many rich and powerful people, is petrified by the thought of it. What unites the protestors is the desire to dismantle Prime Minister Yingluck's Pheu Thai party, which has won every election since 2001. The anti-democratic ideas put forward by protest leaders are in jarring contrast with the image of Thailand as a cosmopolitan country open to the world.

"Thailand today is a much richer than two decades ago, but it is also more divided. On the face of it, the crux of the protest appears to be a classic power between a dominant majority and a minority frustrated by its losing streak in elections and its inability to influence national policies in a winner-take-all, in a highly centralized system."

You can only laugh quietly to yourself, the absurdity of the human race. We think we are so clever, but we are no different from the rats in the sewers. I escape to Thailand, but I could not escape Starbucks and the Tea Party.

[Member #4112]

Harry Reid interceded for foreign investor's visas for the SLS casino being built in Las Vegas, is a prime example of an "unappealable" denial of an investor visa by Homeland Security being reversed by a Democrat for political and economic reasons.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...oker/?page=all

I do not imply this does not happen on both sides of the isle because it most certainly does and we only hear about the ones who are caught which is probably only a fraction of the number what actually transpire. Term limits for the House and Senate would go a long way to eliminating many of these abuses.

One other thing we are losing site of in this argument are the multitude of created agencies run by unelected bureaucrats whose regulations have the effect of law, HHS and EPA come to mind.

Lazy lawmakers too busy to enact the actual regulations for the laws they pass, hand off this duty to the bureaucrats to propagate the actual regulations. Perhaps if the lawmakers had to think through the regulations of laws PRIOR to enacting them we would not have many of the laws now on the books.

Term limits for the House and Senate is only half the issue, the other half is to reduce and / or eliminate many of the agencies staffed by unelected, faceless bureaucrats who remain in place from election to election and administration to administration.

[Tiny12]

There are kernels of validity in your response, but in general, it is the same emotional rhetoric that has been ingrained into your thinking that you and the upper classes are superior in morality than the lower classes. The poor will always remain poor because of poor choices, but also because, they will always have less choices.

That's absolutely not true. Neither I nor anyone else on here believes morality is a function of how much money you make. Getting back to the same point both you and Doppelganger made recently, politicians and those who sway them are the biggest culprits. It's politicians who provide $300,000 in subsidies to a wealthy Montana farmer. And politicians who give an able-bodied individual with ample job opportunities 96 weeks of unemployment benefits. The politicians are more to blame than the farmer or the slacker, although I wouldn't look up to either.

Also, "The poor will always remain poor" is not a given. Better education and economic growth would improve that.

[Rev BS]

Reverend, Do you believe food stamps should be used to buy beer? People should be perpetually paid not to work? Then why do you have an issue with what Rand Paul and James Inhofe said? The "subsidies to wealthy farmers" issue isn't a Democrat vs. Republican issue. It's something that's kept in effect by farm state politicians of both parties. Your statement that the median income of a new Congressman is $1 million more than the typical American household is a complete fabrication, so I suspect the other statistics quoted in the same paragraph are too. So while I would have no problem with a food stamp program providing benefits of $1.40 per meal to poor children and others legitimately unable to work, I doubt your numbers. I do agree with you that many people are on food stamps through no fault of their own. They would come off food stamps if the economy were to improve. And that would occur more quickly if government implemented pro-growth policies instead of pursuing Obama's re-distributionist goals.

People responsible for government programs that keep people lazy, dependent and stupid are the ones who are morally reprehensible. More helpless people in poverty means more votes for Democrats. So keep them dependent on government programs, and make sure the teachers unions look out for their own best interests instead of the students'. Democrats want to keep the poor WEAK.

There are kernels of validity in your response, but in general, it is the same emotional rhetoric that has been ingrained into your thinking that you and the upper classes are superior in morality than the lower classes. The poor will always remain poor because of poor choices, but also because, they will always have less choices.

The statistics were copied from the NY Times article, so while you can challenge the figures, it does not take away that Congress is nothing but a bedding session between legislators and interest groups today. As a result, it is a roadway to eventual wealth for most legislators as they pave the way for the interest groups to plunder & pillage (for lack of a better phrase).

The "beer" quote is so ridiculous. Not that it isn't true, but because "fraud" and "cheating" are now part of the American fabric. For example, whilst railing against illegal immigration, so many are customers of products and establishments that uses illegal workers, or even use them themselves. Where is the outrage!

We used to laugh at Third World Countries and their blatant corruption. Corruption in American is so sophisticated that they are able to enact legislation to decriminalize illegal activity. As Carson asks, who went to jail beside Madoff? How about Cheney, Halliburton, and the Pentagon?

Come by Bangkok, I'll arrange a few de-programming sesseions.

P.S. Just an opinion, nothing personal here.

[Tiny12]

Reverend, Do you believe food stamps should be used to buy beer? People should be perpetually paid not to work? Then why do you have an issue with what Rand Paul and James Inhofe said? The "subsidies to wealthy farmers" issue isn't a Democrat vs. Republican issue. It's something that's kept in effect by farm state politicians of both parties. Your statement that the median income of a new Congressman is $1 million more than the typical American household is a complete fabrication, so I suspect the other statistics quoted in the same paragraph are too. So while I would have no problem with a food stamp program providing benefits of $1.40 per meal to poor children and others legitimately unable to work, I doubt your numbers. I do agree with you that many people are on food stamps through no fault of their own. Many would come off food stamps if the economy were to improve. And that would occur more quickly if government implemented pro-growth policies instead of pursuing Obama's re-distributionist goals.

People responsible for government programs that keep people lazy, dependent and stupid are the ones who are morally reprehensible. More helpless people in poverty means more votes for Democrats. So keep them dependent on government programs, and make sure the teachers unions look out for their own best interests instead of the students'. Democrats want to keep the poor WEAK.