But none of that is as bad as the newspaper I saw once that misspelled ITS OWN NAME. At the very top of the front page.

jk lol XD

DUALITY!!!!!!!

|the kid|

Just two more things:
Yes, whenever a nation provides social and medical care there will be people who abuse that. The only chance to stop that completely is to not provide these services – but that would mean that people like Coyote or Gracie would get no help whatsoever. IMO every developed nation’s duty is to help and protect their citizens, and that outweighs the fact that some will always abuse such a system (again: if the number I recently read is correct, then more than five times the number of 9/11 victims die every year in your country due to the lack of universal health care).

And, yet again: There is NO NEED FOR ADDED TAXES! The USA has the MOST EXPENSIVE health care system IN THE WORLD! To insure every citizen must not mean that you pay more taxes; if done wisely it could mean you pay LESS.

Arthur, I appreciate what a thoughtful and educated person you are. I like talking with you. I remember from our last big serious discussion that you do not like people who think they have easy answers to complex problems. I, admittedly, do not know it all, and there are no easy answers to this problem. I even pointed to the fact that I am ignorant on how well Germany’s health care programs work. I appreciated your use of statistics.

I do think our health care system is horribly broken. I definitely blame corporate greed and corrupt influence. Reform is most definitely needed. However, the implementation of that reform and what form it should take is where I differ on the topic of government-run or so-called “universal healthcare.”

I’m glad I can tell you socialism wasn’t really on my mind. Fraud, waste, and abuse were on my mind. The bureaucratic inefficiency of our government was on my mind. Political corruption and incompetent leadership was on my mind.

Government oversight and regulation of these large corporations is sorely lacking and people are not adequately protected. People aren’t getting the kind of services they need with or without insurance.

If I thought that the legislation currently under consideration would be helpful to my country and all of its citizens, particularly the under-insured or uninsured, I might have a different opinion. I just don’t think it’s the right kind of reform.

In my initial posting, I was thinking of how people don’t realize that government services aren’t really free. This money doesn’t magically appear. It comes from hard-working Americans and struggling families like mine who can’t bear the added tax burden. Sometimes I see individuals exploiting the system when help should go to the people who really need it and it makes me angry.

Obviously my worldview and beliefs about the roles of the individual and the roles of government differ from others on Fail Blog who have chosen to speak up. I’m always glad to hear from thoughtful people even if we disagree.

While I would term myself conservative, I am quite disenchanted with both the Republicans and Democrats right now. I currently have a third party affiliation. I frankly find Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity nerve-gratingly arrogant and contentious. I really hope Glenn Beck is alarmist and incorrect but he asks interesting questions and comes up with provocative information. (But always check the facts and references used.)

I’m upset with a lot of things going on in the world and this country right now. A lot of the issues are inter-related and my expression of these ideas is hard to communicate in this forum. I’m sure I’ve left important things out and said some things wrong in this post, too. I sincerely did not want to hurt or offend anyone here; I love you guys!

Now, of course it would be your right to share those viewpoints. But what I seriously hate is people who have an easy answer to everything, an approach that makes any information and any argument fit into the pre-existing pattern. An example? I gave you the percentage of GDP spend on health care and the number of uninsured for your and for my country. All you got out of it was “government waste”. As far as I know, the thing that should ge gotten out of that is much more “big company’s greediness and influence”. Because that’s where the US taxpayers money ends – in the huuuuge pockets of the big companies. How can that be changed? Government regulations, of course.

Be honest: when I said that, did you hear something like “socialism”?

It’s just not that simple.

Think about Vietnam or Iraq – in both wars it was the USA who was the aggressor. Americans started these two illegal wars, killing far more civilians in both of them than enemy soldiers. Now, considering your previous statement: Who is the one who should have a world of hurt raining down on their head for killing the innocent?

Two numbers for you to think about:

In Vietnam about two million civilians were killed by US forces, many more were wounded or poisoned.

In Iraq the number of killed civilians is certainly over 100.000.

Here’s my pet peeve:
Medical care is something that ALL human beings should receive without question; the system administering it should not be funded voluntarily.

You can hardly blame others for taking umbrage with this, since you made no qualifiers or explanations until after you realized you’d offended people. You can back-pedal after the fact, but that doesn’t change the fact that you wrote this, and that this is a very common, very ignorant, and very bigoted statement–whether you meant it that way or not.

Just sayin’.

Dear Arthur, yeah I’m sick of my government’s waste and inefficiency. They really suck. I’m sure I’m not looking closely enough at Germany’s program to see what’s working and I’ll do that. Although my reply was to you, a German, I wasn’t specifically thinking of Germany.

I feel government has over-reached their delegated powers in some areas and not protected consumers in others. A failure to provide tort reform, for example, has made it almost impossible to practice obstetrics in some states because of the overwhelming burden of malpractice insurance. We need better legislation not necessarily a whole new government-run program.

I’m personally involved in my local charities that take care of our homeless/needy and women in crisis. My local congregation is involved in meeting people’s needs in many ways. We are looking at how to meet people’s healthcare needs in the community at this moment, actually. I always check my charities and make sure they are financially accountable. I don’t like seeing people hurt. People have been so good to me and helped me and I feel an affirmative obligation to give back. I’m very grateful.

There are many people on assistance who belong on assistance. There is nothing wrong with being helped if you are legitimately in need. As a disabled person myself who can’t work or attend school as much as she would like and has a motherlode of pre-existing conditions, reform of our medical care and insurance companies is very important and affects me directly. I actually can’t marry at the moment because I’d lose my health insurance! Don’t act like I said EVERYONE is lazy or irresponsible because I did not. I contribute as much as I can and make myself as useful as I can and I believe everyone should.

Just because I follow Jesus doesn’t make me better than anyone else. It means I have a definite obligation to serve others and love others. He was merciful and compassionate. He was particularly hard on holier-than-thou types and exhibited grace to the weak.

A lot of the knee-jerk reactions just make me know you don’t know me or understand my heart. And it also shows how very poor a job so-called “Christians” have done representing the Lord. I’ve personally been hurt by a lot of churchy-types and I’m committed to promoting change by living it. I feel so disappointed when I see a beautiful cathedral in an area clearly untouched by the love and care of God’s people.

I love each and every one of you dearly. I’m extremely opinionated and I know I’m probably full of it sometimes. Please, just don’t judge me by what you’re reading into my comments that isn’t there.

It is important that a people who see evil amongst them rise up in opposition to it.

Your argument makes it sound like I have endorsed horrible practices in war or bad policies of certain governments. You make a good point about WWII.

I am one of those who do not have any insurance, health or otherwise. I was the full time caregiver to my parents. A non-paying profession. My father died and I was diagnosed with cancer. I had to go on DSHS.

I am turned away from many doctors.

As for your charities, I AM NOT A CHARITY CASE. Take your God damned, self-righteous, false piety and shove it. Perhaps your insurance will cover proctologists costs.

But my point was something else: The cause for a war is extremely important (as is the way the war is fought). The German soldiers in WWII generally fought with a very high level of professionalism, sacrifice, and dedication. For an evil cause. The Holocaust continued as long as the soldiers kept fighting.

If you’re taxed to death and can’t choose how to spend your own money and have to carry lazy people who won’t work or buy their own health insurance with their own money you’ve paid.

(As a follower of Jesus, I do believe in my obligation to care for those less fortunate who are unable to care for themselves. I just prefer to give 10%+ of my income and time to worthy charities and not wasteful government programs.)

Taxed Enough Aleady!!!

As an American, I’m grateful to those who sacrifice(d) for my freedoms.

I didn’t understand the level of professionalism, sacrifice, and dedication of the USA’s troops (or even patriotism in general) until I lived on Kadena Air Base worrying about North Korean missles hitting Okinawa and experienced it for myself.

I’d prefer peace and security come through diplomacy and friendship. I hope our military strength functions as a deterrent. I agree with Abraham Lincoln who said, “. . .my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.”

That said, anyone who kills innocent people should have a world of hurt rain down on their heads with justice.

It’s just hard to fight the enemy when they aren’t wearing uniforms and are too cowardly and evil to have any compunction about using civilians, women, and children as human shields.

Perhaps we should hand out those “terrorist” t-shirts from that fail a few days ago?

He is quite a mouthful.