what Obama has in store for service members wounded in battle

[StewiesSexyParties]

On another note, when in the flying fuck is Bush going to stop being the measuring stick for Obama? Way to set high standards for Mr. Messiah.

Totally dude.

 

[J-Man]

You didn't LIVE in any of those countries. You were stationed there. You did your shopping on base, went to base medical facilities, and commuted to base every day for work. Saying, "Buongiorno", "Guten Tag", or "Kamsahamnida" to a few locals doesn't mean you lived there. We lived in a bubble when we were in the military and to go around and say that you KNOW how things are done in all those countries is irresponsible and just plain false. We VISITED these countries...we didn't live there.

Wrong I did live there, it was during the time after I retired from the military and was in these countries as a civilian contractor, under NO SOFA agreement, and living with the locals, not on a military base, and no access to military facilities.

 

[PurpleCrayonWriter]

First of all, we don't have troops in Iran, unless you're speaking of the few clandestine operatives there.

Ha! That was a slip of the ol' tongue (or fingers), for sure.

Thanks for calling me on it.

I mean Afghanistan and wherever else they are.

A "debate" on health care is only possible when people are on the same page regarding the contents of the bill and its ramifications to America. It's not possible when people debate the theory of health care reform or discuss the philosophical/political aspects to it. That gets too far into the realm of personal opinion, which cannot be debated.

I'm always happy to discuss the contents of the bill and its devastating impact on health care in America should - God forbid! - it pass.

 

[Dead Winter]

Wrong I did live there, it was during the time after I retired from the military and was in these countries as a civilian contractor, under NO SOFA agreement, and living with the locals, not on a military base, and no access to military facilities.

Really? Did you work for their government? Who paid you? Did you pay American taxes or did you pay their taxes? I could be wrong, but my guess is that if you were a civilian contractor you were being paid out the yin-yang by the American government and didn't need to use base facilities.

Not trying to diminish your experience in the slightest, but rather just trying to understand where you're coming from. Living on the local economy means you pay a different country's taxes, are paid like the rest of the local area and must be fluent in their language since you are living in a different country. If you're making $3,000 dollars per week and working for an American company like some of the civilian contractors that I know, then it's not the same thing. That's like going into Dharfur but living in a palace. It's even better than being in the military because you make enough money to do whatever you want and don't even have to abide by the rules of the SOFA.

If I can say one thing that I truly miss about the US, it would be the business management aspect. Italians can't run shit. If it weren't such a beautiful country and if everything else weren't so awesome here, I'd probably move back. Life is good here, even when it sucks. In the US, life is good only when you have enough money to pay for it. But then again, I live in the north and things here are done waaaaaaaaaayyyy differently than in the south. Things actually work here.

 

[Dead Winter]

Ha! That was a slip of the ol' tongue (or fingers), for sure.

Thanks for calling me on it.

I mean Afghanistan and wherever else they are.

A "debate" on health care is only possible when people are on the same page regarding the contents of the bill and its ramifications to America. It's not possible when people debate the theory of health care reform or discuss the philosophical/political aspects to it. That gets too far into the realm of personal opinion, which cannot be debated.

I'm always happy to discuss the contents of the bill and its devastating impact on health care in America should - God forbid! - it pass.

I've got my fingers crossed just like you! I'm a bit more optimistic, maybe even idealistic in my hopes that it will work, but only time will tell.

I hope I am right only for your sakes. You'll not hear any "toldyaso!" from me if it works, but rather a sigh of relief. My entire family is in Texas, Louisiana, and Georgia and have also been hit hard by this crisis and health care problems.

 

[No-Mercy]

I hope the Reps succeed. I'd rather they get nothing done, then screw us even more. If Health Insurance reform was the clincher, then why are so many people against it?

well, alot of people are for it too. im not one that likes to throw around different polls by different people supposudly representing the majority.
i think what best represents the majority is who won on election day.
its not a clincher though...im not sure any one issue was or is a "clincher". but it is important.

but this is all because we differ on the view of whether of not a gov't run program would screw us. i dont think it will. the military has a gov't run health care and its mandatory- no option. yet, it is the best. and republicans, at least those speaking on the party's behalf, agree that is the best care. better than the private companies we have now.

why not extend the option of that care to the rest of the country?

and personally, im not for doing nothing because i dont think the status quo is acceptable. the amount of uninsured people is ridiculous for a country like ours.

i think people deserve to be actually taken care of when the time comes, and for an affordable price. in my eyes, that basic principle is a right.

 

[Dead Winter]

I think once people understand that health care shouldn't be a privilege but a right is when you'll see real progress. Until then it's gonna be push and pull. We're so hard-wired into believing that the only way to succeed in life is to have a good job so you can afford decent health care and a nice house, when good health care shouldn't have anything to do with the sort of job you have.

It's like saying, "I make more money than you so I deserve to live longer." That's so crazy to me.

 

[freakchylde]

but this is all because we differ on the view of whether of not a gov't run program would screw us. i dont think it will. the military has a gov't run health care and its mandatory- no option. yet, it is the best. and republicans, at least those speaking on the party's behalf, agree that is the best care. better than the private companies we have now.

It's the best care that the gov't can pay for. Have you looked at the insurance plan that the Sen's and Rep's have? Much better than what they're proposing and much better than the military. That said, the military system (and I do mean system) is good, but it's not great, least, not for anything outside of rehab and injury from war wounds and small things like colds. Everyone hears about the successes, but there is a huge number difference between the failures and the lack of care, due to funding issues.

why not extend the option of that care to the rest of the country?

Because we can't afford it, too many people abuse the concept of insurance for it to be monetarily feasible.

and personally, im not for doing nothing because i dont think the status quo is acceptable. the amount of uninsured people is ridiculous for a country like ours.

Honestly, I got better health care (and cheaper too) when I wasn't insured. I didn't get charged over the top, and for things I didn't need. I got what the Doc thought I needed (thank gods he was right) and had more pin-pointed treatment instead of "here, let's test for everything." The fact is, our health insurance system, which congress put into place, is one of the main contributing factors to the high cost of care and treatment, not the lack of insurance.

i think people deserve to be actually taken care of when the time comes, and for an affordable price. in my eyes, that basic principle is a right.

Then take insurance out of the equation. The point of insurance is for "if something catastrophic happens." That's why I will be getting supplemental insurance for cancer treatment. It's why I have a catastrophic insurance plan (which, under both the House and Senate bills, I will be fined for not increasing or changing my policy to an "approved" plan). I pay out of pocket for all my Dr visits, excluding my annual physical and, at most, $150 of my ER visits. This year, I didn't have to go to the ER and my premium still went up $30 - which, if I don't find a cheaper plan, I have to ditch my insurance because I can't afford it now. Most hospitals, if you actually ask, have pay plans for the care you receive.

Basic gist, one's ignorance is not my responsibility to pay for, people need to become educated and quit being led around by a Congress who won't even submit themselves to the same medical plans they expect us to submit to.

 

[J-Man]

Really? Did you work for their government? Who paid you? Did you pay American taxes or did you pay their taxes? I could be wrong, but my guess is that if you were a civilian contractor you were being paid out the yin-yang by the American government and didn't need to use base facilities.

Not trying to diminish your experience in the slightest, but rather just trying to understand where you're coming from. Living on the local economy means you pay a different country's taxes, are paid like the rest of the local area and must be fluent in their language since you are living in a different country. If you're making $3,000 dollars per week and working for an American company like some of the civilian contractors that I know, then it's not the same thing. That's like going into Dharfur but living in a palace. It's even better than being in the military because you make enough money to do whatever you want and don't even have to abide by the rules of the SOFA.

If I can say one thing that I truly miss about the US, it would be the business management aspect. Italians can't run shit. If it weren't such a beautiful country and if everything else weren't so awesome here, I'd probably move back. Life is good here, even when it sucks. In the US, life is good only when you have enough money to pay for it. But then again, I live in the north and things here are done waaaaaaaaaayyyy differently than in the south. Things actually work here.

Worked for their government, paid their taxes, and still had to pay some US taxes. US government had nothing to do with what we were doing, we were under their rules, and our Boss was in most cases their Minister of defense or some general.

 

[freakchylde]

I think once people understand that health care shouldn't be a privilege but a right is when you'll see real progress.

Health care, yes. Health insurance, no. That said, the public health system set-up ensures that care is given, regardless ability to pay.

 

[Dead Winter]

Worked for their government, paid their taxes, and still had to pay some US taxes. US government had nothing to do with what we were doing, we were under their rules, and our Boss was in most cases their Minister of defense or some general.

Sounds like some secret squirrel stuff!

 

[J-Man]

Sounds like some secret squirrel stuff!

Not really, the secret squirrel stuff was the last 5 years I was with the company, hehehehehehe what is the fastest aircraft made today? and was it reversed engineered?

 

[caex]

Good man. Glenn Beck should be killed.

Sure, kill one of the few people in the media that tells the truth.

 

[Pellaz]

Rammed through? Much like all the bills rammed through during the Bush Administration? Republicans are getting a taste of their own medicine and I for one am all for it. What's the other option they've brought to the table? Have they mentioned ANYTHING remotely resembling reform? No.

Wrong.

HR 3400.

Go look it up.

Unlike the Democrats' unwieldy, 2,700-page plan to exert more control over Americans' choices for health care, the GOP's plan, HR 3400, weighs in at a mere 70 pages.

Tort reform -- since medical malpractice insurance is the single most expensive aspect of health care today -- is a part of it.

So is the removal of interstate barriers to providing health care, so not only could health insurers reduce our costs by expanding the pool of applicants, but organizations -- such as, say, a musicians' federation -- could band together across state lines to obtain reduced-cost coverage by getting group rates.

Both tort reform and interstate insuring were actively blocked out of the Dems' bills in the House and Senate. You needn't be an Einstein to understand why.

Really? Just about every other foreign car company has done it and done it well. There's a reason why no one imports American cars, yet America imports so many foreign cars.

Actually, some American manufacturers do quite well overseas, notably Ford, whose Escort was one of the world's bestselling cars.
But you're right, they don't make the cars here and export them...because the labor costs are so high.

The American auto industry is just another example of how wasteful, archaic, and inefficient industries are becoming in the US...and that ties directly in with American health care.

This will not improve under ObamaCare, since employers will be under stricter mandates to provide health coverage. As payroll costs go up, manufacturing shrinks. Or the payroll will.

As for the Big Evil Health Insurers -- who earn only 2% profit margin, far less than nearly any other class of large business in the country -- you'll be happy to know that they will begin to die off within 4 or 5 years, and the Democrats will achieve their sacred single-payer public-option by default.
Why?
Because ObamaCare requires those insurers to cover all patients, regardless of pre-existing medical conditions, and without assessing any type of surcharge.
Sounds wonderful, right? It is...until you realize that this will raise everyone's insurance premiums by a huge amount. So, the costs of healthcare will go up, not down, and the insurers will falter, one by one.

How can you say to focus on what's happening right now and not the past when what's happening right now is a direct result of the last 8 years? You can't just say, "Why you gotta bring up old shit?" and then move on.

Blaming Bush for the economic collapse is just silly. After all, it was Bush who tried to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, not once, but twice. Both attempts were blocked by Congressional Democrats, and it was the failure of those two quasi-governmental mortgage giants that put the economy in a tailspin.
Furthermore, it was Democratically-pushed, "feel-good" legislation like the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) that caused the mortgage lenders to build up so much "bad paper" in the first place. Of course they were lending to people who had no business trying to cover a mortgage! But in the name of community or diversity, they were required to lend or face stiff penalties.

There was a Republican Administration along with a Republican-controlled Congress that just rammed shit through just like what the Dems are doing now.

Abject hogwash. The GOP never had a filibuster-proof majority, not even in 2002.

 

[Dead Winter]

Interesting points. Definitely something to think about.

Also, Ford cars aren't imported from the US because they're made in Germany. Great cars, though. Actually better here than in the US...I've got one. Consequently, Ford is the only one who didn't take a handout and is not sinking, if I'm not mistaken.

It should be noted that I don't belong to any party...not Dem or Rep or even Libertarian. I'm just giving my take on things.

Yes, the insurance companies only make a 2% profit margin, but that amount is already so high that it becomes a moot point. You make it sound like they're almost a charity and they're not making any money off of this and are doing it out of the goodness of their heart. Come on, man. Wake up. Do you work for an insurance company or something?

It's going to be interesting to say the least. I don't know how they're going to make this work without raising taxes. The entire reason the European system works is because of taxes, so they can afford to pay for it. To try and do this in the states without raising taxes definitely raises an eyebrow. You can make it work just like here, even if the US has 300 million people...just as long as the taxes are raised with it. The size of the population doesn't matter as long as each individual is taxed enough to pay for it. A country with 60 million people is the same as one with 300 million if they are all taxed. The problem is when they try to do the same thing without raising taxes, which is what's going on. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

Also, I really don't like this business about being forced to have health insurance or pay a fine. That's one thing that really irks me. If you don't want to get health insurance and you can't pay for medical treatment, then that's your problem. I don't like the government telling you "YOU HAVE TO HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE OR PAY A FINE!". That makes no sense to me. If someone dies because they refuse health insurance, that's their problem. One less mouth to feed, I guess. They should just raise taxes instead.

The GOP didn't have a filibuster-proof majority but they did have the majority and that didn't stop them from ramming everything through anyway. They wanted something done and they asked for support and if they didn't get it, they had the majority anyway so it almost always passed. Democrats don't have the spine to put up a fight. It wasn't filibuster-proof but they never got to the point where they would need it to be. You make it sound like they actually cared what the other side of the aisle thought. That entire administration was a self-serving travesty that is a stain on the history of the United States. Not having a filibuster-proof majority is completely moot. They didn't need it. Enough moderate Democrats like Liebermann could always be swayed. Hell, he's practically a Republican now.

I was always a conservative until the Bush administration. But now the GOP is such a corrupt party that I don't want anything to do with it. The mere fact that there are people who would like to see Sarah Palin in Washington speaks volumes to the fact that they've lost the plot. Not that the Democrats are any less corrupt, however. It's just a lesser evil, I guess. Ron Paul is the only one who has a clue and he's written off as being on the lunatic fringe of politics. Sure, he has some ideas that are pretty out there but he also has some great ideas as well. Yet, he's shunned by his own party.

The GOP is now a party of Ann Coulters, Sean Hannitys and Glenn Becks. Reagan-esque politics are long gone.

 

[Dead Winter]

Sure, kill one of the few people in the media that tells the truth.

Yeah, let's listen to a guy who isn't a journalist, has ADD, got into Yale only with the help of a certain Senator Liebermann only to drop out after completing a single course, whines and cries on air, and is an obnoxious conspiracy theorist who claims that the Rockefeller Building is a commie plot.

Yeah. What a role model.

 

[Dead Winter]

Not really, the secret squirrel stuff was the last 5 years I was with the company, hehehehehehe what is the fastest aircraft made today? and was it reversed engineered?

Fastest aircraft currently in production or made? We're either talking about the SR-71 or the MiG-25. I'm not sure if the Blackbird is still being used by NASA, but it was retired from the AF years ago. Satellites rendered it obsolete. The Foxbat was built solely for intercepting the Blackbird but I don't think it's nearly as fast and it's become obsolete as well.

Hmmm...tell me more!

 

[esa]

-- since medical malpractice insurance is the single most expensive aspect of health care today --

http://www.factcheck.org/2009/10/malpractice-savings-reconsidered/

(I'm NOT participating in the debate, just sniping from the sidelines. )

 

[booB]

http://www.factcheck.org/2009/10/malpractice-savings-reconsidered/

(I'm NOT participating in the debate, just sniping from the sidelines. )

This article doesn't address the exorbitant amount of money that doctors and institutions have to spend on malpractice insurance. It only cites the amount of money spent on actual payouts. The malpractice insurance premiums are where tort reform really comes into play as far as reducing health care costs. The cost of these premiums are passed on to the patient.

However, I think tort reform is overrated. There are other, much more significant ways to reduce health care costs. Google "Obama" and "Cleveland Clinic". The fact is that this shitty, shitty, shitty health care "reform" bill does absolutely nothing to reform health care. It just changes who has to pay for it.

 

[J-Man]

Fastest aircraft currently in production or made? We're either talking about the SR-71 or the MiG-25. I'm not sure if the Blackbird is still being used by NASA, but it was retired from the AF years ago. Satellites rendered it obsolete. The Foxbat was built solely for intercepting the Blackbird but I don't think it's nearly as fast and it's become obsolete as well.

Hmmm...tell me more!

The SR-71 fleet has been mothballed except for 3 of them used for testing. The MIG-25 thought stated to be the fastest Jet fighter could only maintain the speed for a minute or two and then the engines overheated, and quit plus fully armed it could only go 1600 mph. Not good for a fighter, the F-15has had test in which a striped down version flew 2,002 miles an hour. But the fastest today is one clouded in so much secrecy no one will even say it exsists, but there have been reprots but ATC in various cities and a strange satellite photo that shows somwthing moving across the US from West to east and on across the Atlantic ocean, and seems to be traveling in excess of 5,200mph what it is no one will say, but a US ARMY Air defense unit using the latest in phased array radar tracked it for 6 minutes until it was out of range(range of radar, in excess of 2500 miles) and were told, by higher ups,"you didn't see anything".