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

To: i-node who wrote (17169)	4/21/2010 7:16:24 AM
From: Lane3	1 Recommendation Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 42652

Do you know that half of Americans are, by your definition, "very poor"? That some folks continue to define poverty up is a clear problem and big source of discord. What used to be luxuries are now perceived by some as necessities. There's no limit to the level that could be consider deprived if one were predisposed to escalate it. Imagine the poor families that can't afford a summer home in the mountains or at the beach. How sad! This is a problem for a couple of reasons. One is that we can't afford to take care of everyone living short of the lap of luxury and we're borrowing as we try. The other is the hostility generated over the disconnect. The escalators consider the prudent to be heartless and selfish, which sure doesn't help the dynamics of the dialog. The prudent consider the escalators to be bleeding hearts and airheads, which doesn't help the dynamics of the dialog, either. I brought up a point recently about what levels are considered rich and poor. With this new legislation we are subsidizing the health insurance of folks earning as much as $80K while means testing Medicare benefits at that same level. So is $80K poor enough to not have to pay taxes? Or is it rich enough to have to pay a premium for health care? There needs to be a serious gap between the income level we subsidize and the income level we soak. The notion that $80K is either poor or rich is risible. That people are looking at the same income and perceiving two very different conditions needs to be addressed directly, seems to me.