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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Katelew who wrote (60088)	4/19/2008 5:09:11 PM
From: Bearcatbob	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 543112

We will do what Europe has done and radically reduce military spending. It is inevitable. The challenge is to get out of the middle east in a responsible fashion - and I do not know what that is. Ultimately, Bagdad is closer to Rome, Paris, Berlin and London than New York. I am very isolationist in my current thinking - especially when I do not think the Europeans do not appreciate us. The solutions are radical - and will only be possible after some severe financial shock. The give away welfare state is impossible. The overseas America is impossible. The energy idiocy of our country is unsustainable. The survival of the fittest free enterprise mentality is also impossible. A harsh reality is coming. Each party will have to give up its sacred special interest groups to solve our problems. I fear it will not be pretty.

To: Katelew who wrote (60088)	4/19/2008 5:39:17 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 543112

I have, however, seen some really interesting projections on how much could be done by tackling Medicare fraud, tax evasion and military procurements. Speaking of Medicare, I have a friend who was just diagnosed as pre-diabetic. His doctor wrote a script for blood sugar monitoring gear and he called Liberty, the provider with Wilford Brimley that we see so much on TV. towards the end of the call, the operator asked the privacy question. She wanted to contact the doctor for a script for a device for erectile disfunction. As she described it, and he said she described the device in great, clinical detail, ED is common in those with diabetes so providers just line up the whole package in anticipation. It reminded me of my Dad's hospice care. They carted in boxes of stuff and if I mentioned anything else, I got a carton of that, too. My friend's experience and mine with my father's peers is that if you have diabetes, Medicare all but begs you to take stuff. It's a disease with an entirely different set of rules.