The conclusion makes sense, but the history is nonsense. The Republicans showed no signs of comprimise when Clinton pushed for healthcare reform. They aimed their attack machine at Hilary and shot rhetoric and BS nondiscriminately. They soured their one-dimensional right wing base to any thoughts of healthcare reform. Now that it is obvious that reform is needed, they have a problem. Somehow they have to blame Clinton for their own efforts to scuttle realistic reform before they can claim credit for fixing the problem.youbet said:Excellent, balanced article. Thanks HA.
sgeeeee said:The conclusion makes sense, but the history is nonsense.
lets-retire said:Interesting article. All I can add is I used the VA, but now I wouldn't go there unless Jack Kevorkian was busy. The VA hospital near me is not good, some, me included, would even say bad. Socialized medicine is not a good answer to the problems.
brewer12345 said:I get the impression with the VA that the problem is more around not spending enough on veterans' care at the same time we are creating more veterans with expensive, long term health issues. That sounds like a funding issue, not a "socialism" issue.
youbet said:Agreed, except that ole Bubba should have been able to push healthcare reform through. Yep, the darn GOP was yelping and whining, but the means to get the job done was there for Bill, he just didn't execute. A lesson learned I guess. I was pulling for him and that's one area where he let me down.
lets-retire said:I find it interesting that the Democrats will complain that the government is spending too much money, but turn around and want it to spend more on social programs. In times when there are budget deficits I think a strict reading of the Constitution should be mandated. Meaning any spending not expressly authorized by the constitution must be cut, or not given the typical annual budget increases.
MasterBlaster said:Rather than that maybe we should invade Canada and put all the Canuks in a slave camp mining gold.
That would surely pay for universal health care for everyone in the US.
No they wouldn't. They'd have you fill out the financial means-test form and tell you that you don't have a high enough priority to merit any VA assistance.lets-retire said:That could be true. I know the VA always seems to be under funded. The last time I used them was before the Iraq war and I won't go back for anything. I could receive free medication from them for an injury I received in the military, but I won't. With my luck they would goof up the script and give me cyanide.
Perhaps, but as a condition of their enlistment we'd accelerate the processing of their citizenship applications. So we'd actually simultaneously solve the problems of illegal immigration across both the north & south borders.brewer12345 said:Well, the US military is stretched a little thin these days, so we would probably have to draft a lot of illegal Mexican immigrants to get the job done.
Nords said:Although when the new veteran citizens were discharged they probably wouldn't qualify for VA services.
Cut-Throat said:Right, it was Bill Clinton's fault
Cut-Throat said:the American masses that cannot figure out issues for themselves.
Maximillion said:LT, "provide for the common defence", right, you are surrounded on two sides, so you need a Navy, but what the hell Common defence are you providing outside your own Borders??
We don't spend massive amounts of money,we don't feel threatened, the era of big armies is gone, so has Cavalry charges, today's warfare is not fought by grand land battles with Armies lined up on either side
A few maniacs on a mission got by your common defence.
Imagine, a foreign entity jams all your computer systems, a laptop can bring the US to its' knees.
Remember the movie War Games, that is close to reality.
lets-retire said:at Martha
Max--something I forgot. Your right large armies rarely stand toe-to-toe, but you must have ground troops to take territory. Large armies are still required to control large areas.