Romney Picks VP

That was my initial knee jerk but no that I think about it. Maybe not. From the electoral stand point Romney was far behind. This is an exciting ticket of two you energetic executives who have demonstrated ability. This isn't no Bush/Cheney. In chess parlance this is called a gambit. A neat bit of strategy by Romney. It's a damned risky one though but what the hell, as is, he was loosing. It will be interesting to see how this works out.

The risk for Romney is that this is an all or nothing gambit. The next move is Obama's. Will he except the gambit or decline it? I'm thinking he'll accept the gambit but that's just common sense. The question I have is strategic. What does Romney have up his sleeve?

"Exciting" .. I don't see it brother.

Romney is still someone who few people like .. and now he is saddled with someone who more than 50% of Americans don't even know .. and who the democrats will be more than happy to introduce to voters.

It's a ticket of vulture-capitalists.

What Romney has up his sleeve is money .. and hope for change. :0)
 
Ouch. Think the Obama PAC's were ready for this one? Pals with Abramoff and DeLay? Attended college on Social Security? Really?

Meet Paul Ryan

From HuffPo:

One year before DeLay was indicted on conspiracy and money laundering charges, Ryan called the attacks "gutter politics at its worst," according to the Washington Post. And added: "You're going to see a big rallying around Tom."

For that remark, a columnist for the Wisconsin State Journal wrote that Ryan had "put his head in the sand." But Ryan only stepped up his defense of DeLay.

Six months before the indictment, Ryan called the investigation and ensuing public outcry over DeLay "an effort to 'lynch him politically,'" according to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Even after a Texas grand jury indicted DeLay on October 3, 2005, Ryan still refused to return $25,000 in donations from the then-former House Majority Leader. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Ryan said he would only return the cash if DeLay was convicted.

Soon thereafter, Ryan, like others in Congress, had to deal with fallout over his ties to Abramoff. In January 2006, the lobbyist pleaded guilty to charges that he committed fraud, tax evasion and engaged in a conspiracy to bribe public officials. Ryan donated close to $2,000 to charity -- the amount he received from a PAC for which Abramoff worked and from the lobbyist personally. Ryan said he wanted "to remove any shred of concern," the Journal Sentinel reported.
 
ekg...

So you support more obstructionism and the do nothing approach of the left? Maybe you think Obama should push single payer system like the ones they have in Europe? Good luck with getting people to believe that following Europe is still a good idea.

I think the voucher is a great idea. Cost controls never work and a market without good prices is dysfunctional and not remotely free. But it is only part of the solution. There are so many problems piled upon problems, due to years of statist fixers working their "magic" and rigging the system so that it's benefits are concentrated on a small group, that it will take many revisions and years of reform to restore a stable market.

Obama will be pushing a single payer system. That doesn't mean following Europe. There are many countries with a single payer system and every one of them spend at least 1/3 less than the US on medical care. No exception. There is no logical reason to object to a one payer system. The doubts and apprehension and resulting opposition are due to the lies and gross distortions the Repubs spread about it.

Equal or greater longevity, 1/3 less cost and everyone is covered. Also, not one country with a one payer system ever reverted to a "pay or suffer" system. Furthermore, there is not one prominent politician in any of those countries campaigning on eliminating their government system. And, finally, the citizens in those countries insist the government keep their one payer system.

The Repubs know that once the system has been in full operation the debate will be moot never to raise it's head again. The thieves and vultures who pick a dying person's wallet will finally be put out of business.
 
Ryan's budget is not popular among the left, that is for certain, Mott. But I think you misconstrue unpopularity with the left for unpopularity in general. On the right side of the aisle, Ryan's budget was VERY popular among fiscal conservatives. Mainly because it is a plan that is workable and doable, and not some waving of the magic wand (or invisible hand, as apple calls it). Rather than sticking his head in the sand and pretending we don't really have a spending problem, Ryan actually had the balls to submit a budget proposal which made real cuts and reigned in spending. I think ANY American who is seriously concerned about our debt and deficits, was REFRESHED by the Ryan plan, or at least given some hope that maybe someone in Washington cared about the problem.
Except it doesn't reduce the debt, and it gives a huge handout to the ultra wealthy.

Good luck with that. 25% top marginal rate is never going to fly.
 
ekg...

Medicare is going to change significantly, no matter what. Both SS and medicare will be required by law to drastically reduce benefits in the ever rapidly approaching future. Change is coming that much is certain.
Bush's unfunded handout to Big Ins via Medicare D is definitely gone.

Medicare will improve when we get a public option, which will alter the demand by the demographic for the better.
 
Except it doesn't reduce the debt, and it gives a huge handout to the ultra wealthy.

Good luck with that. 25% top marginal rate is never going to fly.

I'm sorry, I am just having a hard time wrapping my mind around the Democrat message here... So Mitt "Romneycare" Romney is too right-wing conservative on health care, killing people's wives and such... but Paul "Ryan Budget" Ryan is not conservative enough fiscally? ...Got it!

No... YOU are the one who needs luck selling something.
 
I didn't say Biden would win! I said I can't wait to see them debate. I mean that it should be interesting at worst and very entertaining at best. I could care less who wins/loses a debate. I just want to see how Ryan will get Biden to shut up long enough to get a word in edge wise. Like most politicians they're both attention whores so I like the match up. :)

Let's just say this: A Biden-Bush debate would essentially be the Special Olympics of politics. :D
 
ekg...

So you support more obstructionism and the do nothing approach of the left?

I don't believe I said that..

Maybe you think Obama should push single payer system like the ones they have in Europe? Good luck with getting people to believe that following Europe is still a good idea.

no, I don't think Obama will.. It will be another president a cpl years down the road.. and when presented as "medicare for all" ppl will like it...just like the people on medicare love it... it's getting time to stop letting people die because they don't have insurance. Romney's own spokeswoman said if ppl lived in Mass where there was uni healthcare, ppl wouldn't die because they couldn't see a doctor. This issue is exactly the danger of a propagandist mogul like Newscorp spreading it's own agenda for it's own benefit.. a single-payer will not make this country socialist.. because it's not socialism.. besides, we already have that, it's called the VA... and we haven't turned into a pumpkin yet.. ;)

single payer means just want it says.. instead of 5000 different 'payers' i.e insurance companies(because that's what a payer is)' paying your bill, a 'single-payer', a single entity.. one company instead of hundreds,does it.. a gov't run agency would collect all the fees and pay all the bills.. that alone, in admin costs and bullshit costs would save massive amounts of money... and the best part, there wouldn't be a law requiring that agency to make a profit like there is now with what we have..

tell me, how does an insurance company today make a profit? They charge insane amounts and then deny your claim.. and by law, they have to make that profit to their shareholders... really nice until it's you they deny..

a single payer is one giant insurance agency being a central collection pot for everyone's fees and the sending them directly to doctor/hospital.. instead of 1000 separate agencies collecting it and dolling it out as they feel like it, when they feel like it and after you've put in the right DX and filled out the correct paper work..and then keeping some for their own profits....single payer= less paper,less hassle,less cost.. not socialism.

90% of this country would pay less for healthcare with a single-payer and everyone would have coverage.. Congress enjoys it, postal workers too.. what? are they more important than you and your family? so much so that you're happy to give them awesome gold coverage while you figure out how you're going to get that lump under your mother's arm biopsied?

But while the benefits would be publicly financed, the health care providers would, for the most part, be private. Indeed, profit-making medical practices, laboratories, hospitals and other institutions would continue. They would simply bill the single-payer agency, as they do now with Medicare.

The Congressional Research Service says Conyers’ bill, which has dozens of co-sponsors, would cover and provide free “all medically necessary care, such as primary care and prevention, prescription drugs, emergency care and mental health services.”

It also would eliminate the need, the spending and the administrative costs for myriad federal and state health programs such as Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. The act also “provides for the eventual integration of the health programs” of the VA and Indian Health Services. And it could replace Medicaid to cover long-term nursing care. The act is opposed by the insurance lobby as well as most free-market Republicans, because it would be government-run and prohibit insurance companies from selling health insurance that duplicates the law’s benefits.

It is supported by most labor unions and thousands of health professionals, including Dr. Quentin Young, the Rev. Martin Luther King’s physician when he lived in Chicago and Obama’s longtime friend. But Young, an organizer of the physicians group, is disappointed that Obama, once an advocate of single-payer, has changed his position and had not even invited Young to the White House meeting on health care.
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/april/singlepayer_health_.php

I think the voucher is a great idea.

Let's hope vouchers will never happen..


Cost controls never work and a market without good prices is dysfunctional and not remotely free.

a market where a 4 year old whose mom works 2 part-time jobs because no one is hiring full-time which means no insurance, who makes too much for medicaid but not enough to buy private health insurance so she can't afford his dental or his check up because health care is based on the profit margin of an insurance company, should never happen in the United States of America in 2012

But it is only part of the solution. There are so many problems piled upon problems, due to years of statist fixers working their "magic" and rigging the system so that it's benefits are concentrated on a small group, that it will take many revisions and years of reform to restore a stable market.

the only way to stabilize healthcare is to take it out of the hands of the insurance companies who's only goal is to make money off the fees you pay them to see your doctor.

I mean, it's crazy when you boil it down isn't it? You can't pay the doctor yourself because insurance has forced it's way into the market driving costs out of this world.. then, insurance takes a god-like position deciding if the money you gave them month after month, for years, gives you the right to see your doctor..and if they deem your claim 'nah I don't think so', then you just wasted all those years of your money.. and your plan is to keep it that way?

I like single-payer better.. lower fees->one agency=doctor visits=doctors paid... easy peasy..
 
I'm sorry, I am just having a hard time wrapping my mind around the Democrat message here... So Mitt "Romneycare" Romney is too right-wing conservative on health care, killing people's wives and such... but Paul "Ryan Budget" Ryan is not conservative enough fiscally? ...Got it!

No... YOU are the one who needs luck selling something.
This might mean something to those who got a 4.0 in the 'Bammy' school system, but for the rest of us, it's nothing but gibberish.

If you want to post something that addresses my post, you can resubmit, and I'll think about reading it.
 
Obama will be pushing a single payer system. That doesn't mean following Europe. There are many countries with a single payer system and every one of them...

Are pursuing market reforms after their systems have developed the very sort of problems they were told they would.
 
Are pursuing market reforms after their systems have developed the very sort of problems they were told they would.

And (I notice there's no supporting evidence in your screed) this alleged pursuit of market reforms is...?
 
Bush's unfunded handout to Big Ins via Medicare D is definitely gone.

Medicare will improve when we get a public option, which will alter the demand by the demographic for the better.

? Are you unaware of what will happen when the “trust” fund is exhausted?

http://www.ssa.gov/oact/trsum/index.html

The Trustees project that Medicare costs (including both HI and SMI expenditures) will grow substantially from approximately 3.7 percent of GDP in 2011 to 5.7 percent of GDP by 2035, and will increase gradually thereafter to about 6.7 percent of GDP by 2086.

The projected 75-year actuarial deficit in the HI Trust Fund is 1.35 percent of taxable payroll, up from 0.79 percent projected in last year’s report. The HI fund again fails the test of short-range financial adequacy, as projected assets are already below one year's projected expenditures and are expected to continue declining. The fund also continues to fail the long-range test of close actuarial balance. The Trustees project that the HI Trust Fund will pay out more in hospital benefits and other expenditures than it receives in income in all future years, as it has since 2008. The projected date of HI Trust Fund exhaustion is 2024, the same date projected in last year's report, at which time dedicated revenues would be sufficient to pay 87 percent of HI costs. The Trustees project that the share of HI expenditures that can be financed with HI dedicated revenues will decline slowly to 67 percent in 2045, and then rise slowly until it reaches 69 percent in 2086. The HI 75-year actuarial imbalance amounts to 36 percent of tax receipts or 26 percent of program cost.
In other words, Medicare benefits WILL be reduced by 13% and the strain on the budget will increase dramatically.

Medicare is already drawing from the treasury SS is paying out more than revenues the revenues coming (it still has a cushion of interst income on the ious, but that means the general fund is now subsidizing SS). ahead of schedule and the dates for trust fund exhaustion keep moving closer and closer. In order to meet the shortfalls we will have to make deep cuts in other programs or raise taxes to a suffocating level.

Democrats are lying about the economic realities. As are Republicans like Mitt, who claim we can increase defense spending without any real cuts in anything else. The longer we wait the more painful it is going to be.
 
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