Why does Obama want Healthcare reform so bad?
- Thread starter papajohn56
- Start date
I would hope that elections in Canada are decided by people who pay taxes and realize that their health care isn't really free.
The lower the income, the less likely someone is to vote. Some would say that more lower income people than usual came out to vote for Obama, yet there was still more voters who made $100,000+ than those who made under $30,000.
I would love to finally see someone with Ron Paul's common sense and logic in the White House... but for all the political bitching and "Ron Paul FTW" 's here in WickedFire, how many of you are actually doing something about it? Anyone actually taking the time to support this guy? I'm not talking about campaign funds... You guys could market the shit out of his name and his ideas better than any campaign intern could. With all the SEO guys, designers, marketers, writers, link builders, etc. on this forum, I find it funny that we can't get a group together to pitch in a whopping hour or two per week each and really get the word out. The majority of the low income voters don't even bother to do their own research on who to vote for - it's all about name recognition.
The point is, posters, billboards, flyers, speeches, etc. can only reach out so far... You want to sit and bitch about Obama, and sling "Ron Paul FTW" around? Then get off your ass and do something about it. I'd be happy to throw in some design work on a project like that.
/rant
For those of you who would like to see Paul in the WH, why? What goals would he be able to achieve? If I understand his positions correctly, he wants sound money, open trade, free markets, less federal bloat, lower taxes, zero imperialism and foreign adventurism, and pure competition that answers to customers.
Given the current political structure, wouldn't his hands be tied by the Congress, a group of legislators who have traditionally voted for the very things Paul stands against?
If he sought to dismantle federal agencies (take your pick), do you believe he would be successful in doing so?
If he sought to establish trade with aggressive states, could he convince the Congress/populace to lend their support?
If he sought to end existing treaties that place our sovereignty on the shelf, could he do it?
If he wanted to close our military bases across the globe and bring our troops home, would he be able?
If he wanted to burn the Fed to the ground and return to sound money, could he?
I like Paul. I like him a lot. But, I'm not optimistic about his ability to bring about lasting change. Not when his influence is limited by the Congress. Not when his time in office is limited (in part) by a voting populace who willingly seeks to gain based on costs paid by others.
I know more than a few of you want Paul in the WH. I'm just confused by what that could possibly accomplish.
Given the current political structure, wouldn't his hands be tied by the Congress, a group of legislators who have traditionally voted for the very things Paul stands against?
If he sought to dismantle federal agencies (take your pick), do you believe he would be successful in doing so?
If he sought to establish trade with aggressive states, could he convince the Congress/populace to lend their support?
If he sought to end existing treaties that place our sovereignty on the shelf, could he do it?
If he wanted to close our military bases across the globe and bring our troops home, would he be able?
If he wanted to burn the Fed to the ground and return to sound money, could he?
I like Paul. I like him a lot. But, I'm not optimistic about his ability to bring about lasting change. Not when his influence is limited by the Congress. Not when his time in office is limited (in part) by a voting populace who willingly seeks to gain based on costs paid by others.
I know more than a few of you want Paul in the WH. I'm just confused by what that could possibly accomplish.
You've got that right. It doesn't matter who the fuck the President is, the two party congress would still push their shit to his fucking desk. He can only get his veto pen ready. I think the ultimate goal here is to split the two party system up in congress. It would be nice to see a lot of libertarians fill up some congressional seats.
I have one major point that NOBODY talks about, and it's something I'll blog about someday.
While subsidized health care may 'work' in other countries, NO system will EVER work in this country until we change our health and nutrition foundations. I don't care how much freedom it gives people.
The reason is because we are rotting ourselves to death with sugar, grain (CORN), and potato lobbies that get these foul 'foods' subsidized, thus making them dirt cheap. We then promote low fat diets (which have been a MISERABLE failure since the 1990s, but Oprah still can't figure that out...), while killing ourselves with sugar and corn and omega-6 fatty acid infested meat that inflames our arteries.
The fats we DO typically eat in this country are nothing more than vegetable oils, corn oil, and canola oil... all complete poison to your body. People are afraid of saturated fat because of FUD that has been LONG outdated - saturated fat is healthy and required. And because we load up on so many grains, nobody bothers to eat any protein, so the country is then a ton of flabby fucks.
This, of course makes sense, because hand-in-hand with these sugar and grain/corn lobbies are the pharmaceutical lobbies! Group A makes us obese and clogs our arteries, while group B can sell you just enough drugs to keep you alive and not kill you until you finally do die many, many years later. It's an amazing racket if you think about it.
Of course the FDA is involved. Look at the food pyramid. 6-11 grains a day? Are you fucking kidding me? Humans haven't even ADAPTED to grains, unless by adaptation you mean fat and inflamed.
So no matter what health system you put in place, they're ALL fucked, until you treat the cause and not the effect.
This is why I'm a paleo dieter, have followed a primal lifestyle for exactly a year now, and I literally haven't had so much as a sniffle doing it. Essentially, the idea is that humans started getting all of these cardiac diseases and obesity problems right when we invented agriculture. So you 'mimic' the way the cavemen ate for the best gene expression possible.
My blood is healthy, my bodyfat ranges between 8-12% (depending on my partying, sadly... haha), my strength-to-weight ratio has never been higher, and I haven't touched a prescription drug in three years.
Fuck the system, go caveman. Seriously - try it for 30 days and you will NEVER turn back. If anyone needs help the first link is a great place to go.
Links:
Definitive Guide: The Primal Blueprint | Mark's Daily Apple - The lifestyle I follow
Is Saturated Fat Healthy? | Mark's Daily Apple
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM"]YouTube- Broadcast Yourself.[/ame]
Big Fat Lies with Gary Taubes, 02/06/08 Stevens Institute of Technology
While subsidized health care may 'work' in other countries, NO system will EVER work in this country until we change our health and nutrition foundations. I don't care how much freedom it gives people.
The reason is because we are rotting ourselves to death with sugar, grain (CORN), and potato lobbies that get these foul 'foods' subsidized, thus making them dirt cheap. We then promote low fat diets (which have been a MISERABLE failure since the 1990s, but Oprah still can't figure that out...), while killing ourselves with sugar and corn and omega-6 fatty acid infested meat that inflames our arteries.
The fats we DO typically eat in this country are nothing more than vegetable oils, corn oil, and canola oil... all complete poison to your body. People are afraid of saturated fat because of FUD that has been LONG outdated - saturated fat is healthy and required. And because we load up on so many grains, nobody bothers to eat any protein, so the country is then a ton of flabby fucks.
This, of course makes sense, because hand-in-hand with these sugar and grain/corn lobbies are the pharmaceutical lobbies! Group A makes us obese and clogs our arteries, while group B can sell you just enough drugs to keep you alive and not kill you until you finally do die many, many years later. It's an amazing racket if you think about it.
Of course the FDA is involved. Look at the food pyramid. 6-11 grains a day? Are you fucking kidding me? Humans haven't even ADAPTED to grains, unless by adaptation you mean fat and inflamed.
So no matter what health system you put in place, they're ALL fucked, until you treat the cause and not the effect.
This is why I'm a paleo dieter, have followed a primal lifestyle for exactly a year now, and I literally haven't had so much as a sniffle doing it. Essentially, the idea is that humans started getting all of these cardiac diseases and obesity problems right when we invented agriculture. So you 'mimic' the way the cavemen ate for the best gene expression possible.
My blood is healthy, my bodyfat ranges between 8-12% (depending on my partying, sadly... haha), my strength-to-weight ratio has never been higher, and I haven't touched a prescription drug in three years.
Fuck the system, go caveman. Seriously - try it for 30 days and you will NEVER turn back. If anyone needs help the first link is a great place to go.
Links:
Definitive Guide: The Primal Blueprint | Mark's Daily Apple - The lifestyle I follow
Is Saturated Fat Healthy? | Mark's Daily Apple
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM"]YouTube- Broadcast Yourself.[/ame]
Big Fat Lies with Gary Taubes, 02/06/08 Stevens Institute of Technology
I think you'd have to define "work." Does that mean lower costs? Better service? No shortages? Pure competition in the market where actors aren't insulated by regulation and licensure? Does it mean health care is delivered at a price set by the market without appropriating the private property of others?
I agree with you that we treat our bodies pretty badly. We pave a road to recurring illness and lasting poor health. However, we may define "a system that works" differently.
+rep on Mark's Daily Apple. He's always a good read.
I honestly don't know. To me, I like the sound of "Pure competition in the market where actors aren't insulated by regulation and licensure?". Make people pay the price and they'll figure out how to be healthy.
I do also know that if everyone at like I did, food would be a lot more expensive and we'd have to clear out a lot of farmland for cows and chickens, but we'd all be fiitter and happier.
I'm actually heading up to Venice right now to buy some veggies and a stash of truly cage free eggs from the Amish. They taste way better than your store eggs too - no lie.
Not to nitpick, but it's easier to grow more corn in the US than sugarcane, so they actually use import limits and tariffs to inflate the sugar price. That's why so many products have switched to the less healthy high fructose corn syrup. In Mexico their soda still has the real sugar.
The Fucking Constitution said:
I can only hope that one day we will see a time when politicians actually respect the constitution and abide by it realizing that it doesn't place limits on citizens, but the Federal Government, though I certainly wouldn't hold my breath. If anyone would read the fucking thing, they would realize that the Federal Government isn't allowed to do 90% of the shit they are doing...including having any type of control over your health care. So sad that our nation has been whittled down to nothing more than a bunch of mindless drones who parrot whatever politician they've fallen in love with says. Seriously, read the constitution. It's not that long. There are a few big words, but I think most of you will be able to manage. You can pick up a copy at Borders for $5. It would certainly go a long way in these political debates. I would be willing to bet that I can negate all most anyone's arguments just by citing it.
This country is done. Needless wars, Trillion dollar debts, Health Care "reform", Patriot Acts, etc...so fucking sad.
I actually agree with you on this. While I certainly prefer the type of system used here and in most developed countries I can't see much point to Obama's scheme. Just like the terrorists they created to keep the people afraid, it does seem that this is just another way of controlling people.
Berto, I agree with you man but unfortunately there's a lot more money in treatment than prevention and the whole fucked up system is about $$$s.
Singapore probably has the best concept for healthcare in the world. Some of the top healthcare in the world, they're one of the healthiest nations in the world, and their life expectancy is 82, vs the USA which is 68. The USA spends 17% of GDP on healthcare. Singapor? 4%. They require health savings accounts rather than mandatory insurance. People can spend like $30 on a doctor visit INCLUDING pharmaceuticals, some of the lowest costs in the world. It beats the USA system and any socialized/single-payer system in the world. So much so, that Europeans frequently go to Singapore for "healthcare tourism". Supplemental insurance is legal there, as well.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7QMCEa7hVk"]YouTube- Broadcast Yourself.[/ame]
Sounds like it could be a good model for America, but no politician could sell the idea of actually paying when you visit a doctor here, and you could bet that while they might promise to cut taxes accordingly they'd find new ways of spending it. I'd much rather my taxes spent on public healthcare than on an excessive military or on propping up failed banks any day.
Do you think lower wages will be bad for public in general?
Well someone has to get less in order to lower the spending in healthcare.Ideally,it should be insurance companies rather than healthcare professionals!
If you think the situation is ok see this pic here
USA Inc. - Where We Are, How We Got Here, What May Be Next - YouTube
Yeah, if you've noticed the last decade or so, auto insurance advertising is on par with beer advertising. They're buying naming rights to stadiums, bowl games, got geckos and cavemen running around. Because people choose who they want to use. It's highly profitable, and highly competitive.
Whenever a bunch of small medical practices get run out by HMOs, or they have to testify in a Congressional hearing, occasionally they'll throw a couple PSAs out there, or give a couple local kids some scholarships.
Whenever a bunch of small medical practices get run out by HMOs, or they have to testify in a Congressional hearing, occasionally they'll throw a couple PSAs out there, or give a couple local kids some scholarships.
Mandatory insurance was actually at the request of the insurance companies. If they have to insure everybody, then they need everybody to buy insurance. Otherwise - of course - many people will only buy health insurance after they are already very ill - which won't work. The risk has to be spread between a large pool of people - mostly healthy wtih a few sick. Otherwise insurers will have to keep cherry picking like they do now.
Not to break up the libertarian party - but mandatory insurance is not truly a conspiracy .