Indefensible.

No one's talking about buying health insurance for everybody. It's about providing health insurance -- through private companies, paid by the states (not the federal government, but the state) -- for about 9 million uninsured children.

No one has made an argument for universal health care.

 

You're so right. Britain has been in state of decline since the days of Oliver Cromwell.

How can you be this dense?

 

You know what, America does have a great economic system. The person who has advocated the largest deviation from that system in this thread is.....wait for it....old_tony! That's right, you're the only one who has described our system as unconstitutional. No one else. You can't paint the world as strictly black-and-white but try to go gray when it benefits your case.

 

Until very recently, our system was a mixed system -- neither western European social-democracy nor free-market wilderness. It worked very, very well that way -- GI Bill anyone? Interstate highways? -- but it has been hijacked by "conservatives" who have developed an economic program dedicated to redistributing wealth upwards while scaring the daylights out of the people whose pockets are being picked. However, everybody knows that the US health-care system is seriously out of whack, and seriously out of step with the rest of the world. NOBODY likes their insurance companies, and more and more, people are realizing how thoroughly the medical profession has sold its soul to them. There is a building political tidal wave behind this issue and somebody's going to get forced to bring the debacle under control.
That said, this veto was pure, unadulterated meanness. Bill Kristol, who should be making birdhouses in Spandau, said as much. It was done to rile up the 29 percenters.

 

I'm going to just throw in one more point for Old Tony, then I think I'm probably done with this debate.

OT, do you understand this bill was NOT primarily meant to cover the children of the welfare folks you despise? And it was NOT meant to cover the children of the folks who don't hold a job or won't work that you despise?

Instead, it was meant to cover the children of the folks who fall between the cracks: the people who DO have jobs, and ARE hard working, that DO make enough money that they don't qualify for medicaid, but because of the flaws of our system, can't get affordable health insurance for their children through their employer or on their own.

Without this law, it gives an incentive for those people to become the very folks you despise: they'd be better off quitting their job, going on welfare, so at least they MIGHT be able to get medicaid assistance for their children.

And, given that this could've been funded for a small fraction of what the Bush Admin and Congress has wasted the last 7 years on Iraq private contractors, pork, and their various other corruptions, I'm hard-pressed to see how you can in good conscience oppose it. Are you just plain dumber than dog shit?

 

Old_Tony should really let us know when he's given up on an argument so we can move on to other things in a timely fashion...

 

President Bush,

Why do you hate America?

 

I remember us bailing them out in WWII not them bailing us out. And if you're trying to tell me that Britian is a socialist state, I'm going to have to tell you that you using the word "dense" is the height of irony.

 

President Bush, why? Why are you taking our health care, why?

 

What it really is is a matter of family priorities. Of course, you're talking about households that have two cars and three televisions with DVD/VCR players. But they can't afford health insurance. And one of the reasons health insurance is so expensive to begin with is all the government regulations in the health care system. Nothing a little tort reform wouldn't take care of, but then you want to ignore the fact that by far the major cost of doctors and hospitals is malpractice insurance.

Tell you what: As long as you want the government to be in the business of buying insurance, how about the government spring for all the malpractice insurance policies, too? That would drive down the cost of health care drastically and make it affordable for everyone.

 

Because I'm the Grinch, that's why...