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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Koligman who wrote (6145)	2/16/2009 11:28:40 PM
From: i-node	2 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

>> Wow, sounds like you think Bush was really on the ball! <ggg> I have very few problems with the Bush presidency. I believe he will be remembered as one of our better presidents once the emotions of the moment have dissolved, as they do over time. SS can be pretty easily fixed for many more years with some tweaking if done soon Nonsense. Even with the massive tax increases in 1981, the SS system is broke again already in 2010. 30 years is NOTHING when you're talking about pension/retirement plans. A plan is actuarily sound or it isn't; if it is for only 50 years, then it isn't. IMO, SS cannot be fixed. and that medicare is the tougher problem from a fiscal point of view. They are both very, very large problems. And MC cannot be fixed either. You seem pretty worried about a large stimulus bill, but just look at the amount of national debt piled up under Shrub. The increase in debt under Bush is immaterial when compared to the debt we have incurred as a result of failed liberal social programs (SS, MC, Unemployment Insurance, and I would add, labor unions out of control). My problem with the stimulus bill is not so much about the Trillion we're spending now, but more about piling on another entitlement (you know, the "health care is a 'right'" BS) that takes an already difficult situation and makes it insurmountable. What I don't get about you liberals is how you focus on the small stuff and totally miss the big picture.

To: John Koligman who wrote (6145)	2/17/2009 1:46:04 PM
From: TimF	3 Recommendations Respond to of 42652

From what I have also read, SS can be pretty easily fixed for many more years with some tweaking if done soon The big problem is that future spending from the program will be too expensive. There is no way to easily fix that by just tweaking a few things. You can increase SS taxes, and the "trust fund", will have a positive balance for longer, perhaps even indefinitely, but that isn't really fixing the problem. Your right that Medicare is an even tougher problem. You seem pretty worried about a large stimulus bill, but just look at the amount of national debt piled up under Shrub. To the extent that Bush has done a poor job in terms of fiscal management (and whether or not we agree on the exact extent, it seems we agree on the basic idea that he has done a poor job in this area), that makes the stimulus bill more of a problem not less of one. Its not "its OK for me to do this because he did it first". Its "he spent the money, now we can't afford to be similarly spendthrift".