The year the world changed, and no one noticed
Mark Schmitt, in a piece in New Republic, takes note of Paul Ryan’s Medicare proposal to make 1956 the dividing line between two Americas: “Those over 55 will continue to benefit from one of the triumphs of social insurance in the Great Society, while the rest of us will be on our own, with a coupon for private health insurance.”
As a 1956 baby and member of the graduating class of 1974, I stand right on that dividing line. And I was particularly struck by Schmitt’s description of 1974 as a pivot point in American social and economic history:
“Look at almost any historical chart of the American economy, and you see two sharp breaks in the 1970s. First, in 1974, household incomes, which had been rising since World War II, flattened. Real wages started to stagnate. The poverty rate stopped falling. Health insurance coverage stopped rising. Those trends have continued ever since.
Second, a little later in the decade, around the time today’s 55-year-olds graduated from college (if they did—fewer than 30 percent have a four-year degree), inequality began its sharp rise, and the share of national income going to the bottom 40 percent began to fall. Productivity and wages, which had tended to keep pace, began to diverge, meaning that workers began seeing little of the benefits of their own productivity gains. The number of jobs in manufacturing peaked and began to drop sharply. Defined benefit pensions, which provide a secure base of income in retirement, began to give way to 401(k)s and similar schemes that depend on the worker to save and the stock market to perform….
The Ryan plan, in other words, delivers to the older generation exactly what they’ve had all their lives—secure and predictable benefits—and to the next generation, more of what they’ve known—insecurity and risk. “
Personally, I’d take that analysis several steps further. I’d argue that our cultural expectations of the American Dream, our image of the international role played by the United States, our comprehension of how the economy is supposed to work, our understanding of the proper interplay among government, business and individual citizens — they’re all still predicated on the world that existed prior to 1974. As a culture, we haven’t really come to grips with the fact that those expectations and understandings are no longer valid, and haven’t been for a long time. Even Americans too young to have experienced that earlier world firsthand have absorbed the expectations it created among their parents and grandparents.
In fact, that chasm between outdated expectation and modern reality is driving a lot of the political ferment we now see. People sense that things aren’t as they’ve been taught they should be; they just don’t know why. And it’s not about Obama, any more than it was about George W. Bush or Bill Clinton. (The later Clinton years, in fact, can be seen in retrospect as the last gasp of the pre-’74 America, a period in which the old economic order seemed to reassert itself, if all too briefly.)
The transition is bigger than any president or party. Nobody caused it; nobody can stop it. At most we can try to deal with and adjust to it. Unfortunately, I don’t think the Democrats have come to grips with that reality at all — not in their rhetoric, and not in their policy. I think the Republicans have done so only to the extent of blaming it all on government, when in fact much more powerful forces are at work. Both parties are still stuck trying to convince voters that they have the secret to making things as they used to be, and neither has any hope of doing so.
– Jay Bookman
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500 comments Add your comment
josef nix
May 23rd, 2011
4:44 pm
Bosch
@ 4:42
“…still a man hears what he wants to hear, and disregards the rest…”
MarkV
May 23rd, 2011
4:45 pm
The most pertinent sentence of the piece is the following: “As a culture, we haven’t really come to grips with the fact that those expectations and understandings are no longer valid, and haven’t been for a long time.”
People fail to understand that we have to pay for what we want, that in a democracy the people decide what they want, and in a democracy and republic they do it through the elected representatives. There is really no crisis of SS Security, Medicare, Medicaid, health care – there is only a crisis of our willingness to pay for the programs. People who oppose the programs are unwilling to accept that other people have the right to want them. It would be funny, if it were not so serious, to hear some conservatives are argue that the money spent on political campaigns is not too much – “we are a rich country” (George Will), and then turn around and argue that we cannot afford health care. Just look around and see how much money people are willing to pay for whatever they want – and then squeal that taxes are too high.
The argument people use for opposing what they do not like is “it is my money.” But tey make “their money” only because they live in a system, which is based on the idea of the power of the people.
AmVet
May 23rd, 2011
4:46 pm
CJ, I concur.
But not until a vast percentage of Americans realize that they cannot leave it up to somebody else any further. This Great Experiment of the bulk of the American people doing virtually nothing and expecting great results needs to end. Today.
When we get fully involved, and implement what Ralph Nader calls an empowered citizenry, the situation will improve.
And he has proposed concrete steps to attain this, but alas, it requires much work, and our work ethic has lost it’s mojo…
“Freedom is participation in power.” ~Marcus Cicero
Bosch
May 23rd, 2011
4:47 pm
josef,
And Dusty isn’t even a dude too! Where field, left or right, that came from, I’ll never know.
Kamchak
May 23rd, 2011
4:48 pm
Bosch
We finished second in the EPL so we’re in as far as next season is concerned.
We’re not in the Championship game which is this coming Sat. with Barça facing the much hated Man. U.
Bosch
May 23rd, 2011
4:48 pm
“This Great Experiment of the bulk of the American people doing virtually nothing and expecting great results needs to end.”
Hear, hear! (or is it ‘here, here’?)
josef nix
May 23rd, 2011
4:50 pm
BOSCH
“…I have (not) squandered my resistance for a pocketful of mumbles, such are promises, all lies and jest…”
Jay
May 23rd, 2011
4:51 pm
well put, Mark V
Southern Comfort
May 23rd, 2011
4:52 pm
Oh well, I guess it is true that Democrats really are the Party that lack Intelligent voters.
Care to explain the Nathan Deal victory in the GOP primary here in GA?
Themistocles (a.k.a. Left Wing Mgmt)
May 23rd, 2011
4:53 pm
Wealth envy! Wealth envy! Wealth envy!
What’s that? Kamchak beat me to it?
[Sheepish]
jm
May 23rd, 2011
4:53 pm
Jay. I like Democrats to America’s heart, and Republicans to America’s head. We need both. But the heart has been running the show for almost 70 years now. The heart needs a rest and the head needs to do some work.
It will come about one way or the other. We all know what happens if the heart is made to work too hard…. but I hope it doesn’t come to that.
USMC
May 23rd, 2011
4:54 pm
Bosch doesn’t ever sound very intelligent.
Oh well, I guess it is true that Democrats really are the Party that lack Intelligent voters.
It’s obvious.
Democrats are the Party of Welfare and Benefits; the ME, ME, ME, Party.
The Democratic Party is Synonymous with IRRESPONSIBILITY.
“The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money [to spend].”
–Margaret Thatcher
Bosch
May 23rd, 2011
4:54 pm
“well put, Mark V”
Indeed.
Kamchak,
I’m so far behind on soccer news, I’m almost not a fan anymore….
I kid!!
Themistocles (a.k.a. Left Wing Mgmt)
May 23rd, 2011
4:55 pm
USMC: ““The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money [to spend].”
Thatcher also said there’s no such thing as society. Meanwhile her lap dogs Blair and Cameron have been busy proving it ever since.
St Simons - we're on Island time
May 23rd, 2011
4:56 pm
Yes, MarkV. Yes, you have it. You are welcome on the island.
Bosch
May 23rd, 2011
4:56 pm
USMC,
I don’t SOUND anything — no one here does. We all write things — none of us actually hear each other (but if you do, then that’s okay and there is medication for that).
josef nix
May 23rd, 2011
4:56 pm
USMC
I don’t always agree with Bosch on any number of things, but he is quite intelligent and even when I disagree, it is at an intellectual level…he also has a moral compass…I like that in a man…
USMC
May 23rd, 2011
4:56 pm
MarkV @4:45
Bravo, Well Said for a Bolshevik!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEkHh-Y_Yms
AmVet
May 23rd, 2011
4:58 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9KlMWzKj4s&feature=player_embedded
USMC
May 23rd, 2011
4:59 pm
“I don’t SOUND anything — no one here does. We all write things — none of us actually hear each other (but if you do, then that’s okay and there is medication for that).”
Bosch, once again, proves my point!
josef nix
May 23rd, 2011
4:59 pm
USMC
When are you going to learn the difference between a Bloshevik and a Menschevij? Ten points off and see me after class…
Dusty
May 23rd, 2011
5:01 pm
Well, BOSCH, if you didn’t sound like you had just dropped out of Cuba , I could give you more credit. Having worked in the healthcare field most of my life and much of it in facilities that were geared to those with little or nothing, I am inclined to believe that America is not the “throw ‘e’m on the streets” you suggest.
Perhaps you can tell me why struggling people throughout the world want to get to Aemerica and its privilege? Why oh why do they want to come to a land throwing sick mamas on the street, starving poor children, poor education, etc. etc. etc.? Why do they walk across deserts, climb fences, die on packed trucks just to get to this land you proclaim as evil to the poor? They come because they know they WILL get care and have babies and always get food and jobs.. BUT YOU WANT TO CHANGE THE SYSTEM? You follow in the footsteps of Bookman who tells us how bad off we are.
A pox on all you well-to-do people who sit smugly by and tell others how bad they are and how this country is an evil den for the poor. Do something about it yourself. GO!! The place to start helping is with you, not the government.
USMC
May 23rd, 2011
5:01 pm
“When are you going to learn the difference between a Bloshevik and a Menschevij? Ten points off and see me after class…”– THE Headmaster
Once again, only Josef…
jm
May 23rd, 2011
5:02 pm
On a related note
IBM’s Watson Makes the Move From Answering Trivia Questions to Making Medical Diagnoses
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-05/ibms-watson-makes-move-trivia-medicine
Doggone/GA
May 23rd, 2011
5:05 pm
“It’s simple, we produce more and feed more than any other nation on the planet.”
He asked HOW, not WHY
1811/1801 - 0311/0317
May 23rd, 2011
5:05 pm
Saw this in a restaurant today:
“Please keep your children under control and at your table or we will give them an expresso and a free puppy.”
1811/1801 - 0311/0317
May 23rd, 2011
5:07 pm
“Supreme Court orders California to release tens of thousands of prison inmates”
“The 5-4 decision represents one of the largest prison release orders in U.S. history. The court majority says overcrowding has caused ’suffering and death.’ In a sharp dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia warns ‘terrible things are sure to happen.”
Well, well, well …………… I heard our troops in Afghanistan were in “suffering and death” also. Has anyone else heard that?
By the way, I wish California had the guts to transport every prisoner (say 100 at a time) and deposit them en masse in front of the residence of each of those five justices. It’s a free country isn’t it?
By the way, we all know what the Sheriff in Arizona has posted in his jail don’t we?
“If you don’t like it here, don’t come back !”
Thulsa Doom
May 23rd, 2011
5:08 pm
Jay,
I have a question for both the libs and the cons. How does Congressman Ryan’s Medicare plan work? Is he trying to structure it so that the vouchers will go towards purchasing a private plan similar to the part D drug plan where private part D drug plans compete for the Medicare beneficiary’s business?
pogo
May 23rd, 2011
5:09 pm
My God Jay, I knew there was a real journalist in there somewhere. Kudos. You have at last hit the nail on the perverbial head. We are truly the lost generation. And to a greater degree, unfortunately so are those that come after us. And we have only ourselves to blame. Promises by people posing as our “leaders” got us here and we bought it into it. Oh yea, we bought into it bigtime.
jm
May 23rd, 2011
5:13 pm
LWM 5:14 – if the Medicare board does its job, the only difference will be that they are admitted to the hospital and then allowed to die if it is too expensive to fix them.
Themistocles (a.k.a. Left Wing Mgmt)
May 23rd, 2011
5:14 pm
jm: “the taxpayers and government cannot afford unlimited funds to take care of everyone. Blank checks make one broke.”
Then the only consistent thing to do is eliminate the law by which it’s illegal to leave a person to bleed to death on the street or to deny someone with life-threatening injuries care in an emergency room. It makes no sense to have such laws and not have universal coverage. And it’s peskily inefficient, too.
jm
May 23rd, 2011
5:15 pm
says it all right here
RE Biden talks
“One participant, Republican Senator Jon Kyl, says the seven-member panel has so far identified about $150 billion in savings. That still falls far short of what is needed.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/23/us-usa-debt-biden-idUSTRE74L31620110523
USMC
May 23rd, 2011
5:15 pm
“I have a question for both the libs and the cons. How does Congressman Ryan’s Medicare plan work? Is he trying to structure it so that the vouchers will go towards purchasing a private plan similar to the part D drug plan where private part D drug plans compete for the Medicare beneficiary’s business?”
Come on Thulsa, that was a DUMB question.
Everyone knows we have to PASS the bill before we know what’s IN IT; just like Nancy Pelosi said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV-05TLiiLU
josef nix
May 23rd, 2011
5:18 pm
left wing
And the last episodes of Seinfeld come to mind….
jm
May 23rd, 2011
5:20 pm
Thulsa 5:08- in a word, yes.
josef nix
May 23rd, 2011
5:20 pm
USMC
@ 5:15
Beat me to it!
Billybob
May 23rd, 2011
5:22 pm
The liberal policies given to and pushed on america by the far left starting decades ago are being proven as failures for any and all to see bookman………… and the far left democrat party’s….chickens, are coming home, to roost!!
During this election cycle as you and the lib media focus on the negatives of all republicans, the republicans will be focusing on hussein and who he actually is and what his policies are actually doing to this country and they will cement a drastic difference and choice for the future of this country. Enjoy…..
Dusty
May 23rd, 2011
5:22 pm
Themistocles,
Where in the world have you been? Emergency rooms treat anyone sick who comes in their door. EVERY ONE! That is the law.
If you are bleeding on the street, EMTs will come and treat you and carry you to a hopital if necessary.. Don’t you know that?
No wonder you want universal healthcare. You don’t even know what we have NOW.
Kamchak
May 23rd, 2011
5:23 pm
You have at last hit the nail on the perverbial head.
What’s a “perverbial head,” and does it involve someone named Fester the molester?
Themistocles (a.k.a. Left Wing Mgmt)
May 23rd, 2011
5:26 pm
jm: “if the Medicare board does its job, the only difference will be that they are admitted to the hospital and then allowed to die if it is too expensive to fix them”
Well said.
And just a tip so we’re on the same page. When our bleeding heart friends cry “inhumane!”, just remind them that we can’t have bureaucrats deciding life or death matters like this when privately vetted workers will do just fine. And if they keep jumping up and down just mention something about “American Exceptionalism” or something like that. That usually shuts em up.
@@
May 23rd, 2011
5:28 pm
Tim Pawlenty’s “truth” campaign for president not a winner for Minnesotans
That’s because the truth is a hard pill to swallow. Everybody wants someone else to experience the pain so they don’t have to.
Share the love? Share the pain!
It’s all in the collective.
Themistocles (a.k.a. Left Wing Mgmt)
May 23rd, 2011
5:30 pm
Dusty: “If you are bleeding on the street, EMTs will come and treat you and carry you to a hopital if necessary.. Don’t you know that?”
Oh, yeah, of course. I was just trying to make a few modest proposals to keep from having such an efficient back and forth. Just think of all the money that can be saved on highway utility and emergency vehicles but cutting to the chase – no pun intended – and eliminating all the fuss. Just let the folks die on the spot and pressure wash all the mess away. So much more efficient than messing up a good clean vehicle and hauling these people to the emergency rooms where someone actually has to save them. Don’t these people realize if they don’t have more sense than to avoid getting injured or sick in the first place, our fine professionals in the medical profession have better things to do with their training than fix up their little ‘disasters’?
Just trying to be helpful here.
jm
May 23rd, 2011
5:31 pm
LWM 5:26 – I don’t think the “board” is going to be effective. The lobbying has already begun and will be very political. I wouldn’t be thrilled, but I’d be satisfied, if the bureaucrats did their job effectively. It just won’t happen…..
Billybob
May 23rd, 2011
5:33 pm
@@,
Le Monde’ opinion perhaps……no thanks!
Dusty
May 23rd, 2011
5:33 pm
Themistocles, 5:30
Get thee to the hospital. I think they treat “loose screws” also.
Jay
May 23rd, 2011
5:34 pm
Thulsa, the vouchers would be used to purchase private insurance through exchanges much like those in ObamaCare, and Medicare as we now know it would not be an option to them.
In 2030, the voucher would be equivalent to 32 percent of the cost of replacing Medicare, meaning the senior citizen would be required to cover the remaining 68 percent out of pocket. (Low-income seniors would get some additional assistance.)
josef nix
May 23rd, 2011
5:35 pm
left wing
@ 5:26
That wouldn’t be Senorito Satisfecho you’re talking about, would it?
Doggone/GA
May 23rd, 2011
5:36 pm
All this talk of “ending Medicare as we know it” and whether the Ryan plan does or doesn’t…reminds me of the story about the knife that was used to cut down Jesus. I’ll sell it for the give-away price of only $20, free shipping.
Of course, it’s had 3 new handles and 5 new blades since them – but it’s a STEAL for only $20!
jm
May 23rd, 2011
5:39 pm
Just reading up on Tim Pawlenty. He’s fine. No business experience though.
jm
May 23rd, 2011
5:41 pm
“meaning the senior citizen would be required to cover the remaining 68 percent out of pocket”. . .
assuming…. that…. costs continued on their current trajectory even though that would not likely be the case using the voucher / premium support system…
jm
May 23rd, 2011
5:42 pm
Jay, in a way, you’d think Dems would be all in favor of lifetime spending caps. What could be more “democratic”? Everyone’s life is worth the same (under that model). The janitor gets the same cap as the middle office manager as does the rich guy (though the rich guy will probably use his own $ to supplement care, but that’s always the case).
Themistocles (a.k.a. Left Wing Mgmt)
May 23rd, 2011
5:43 pm
josef nix: Senorito Satisfecho?
Ah, yes! Indeed. Sometimes his voice just starts speaking out of me with no warning. Not sure what it means.
Btw what was the bit about Seinfeld? Didn’t catch that.
Thulsa Doom
May 23rd, 2011
5:43 pm
Jay,
So you’re saying that there is no inflation adjusted provision to adjust the voucher amount upwards as costs rise over the years? No offense but I find that rather difficult to believe.
The reason is that for every medicare beneficiary in Medicare advantage plans for example the federal govt pays a health plan roughly $1,000 a month to manage that senior’s health care in 2011- I don’t know the exact amount but its around 1k per month.
Obviously if seniors had to pay this cost themselves very few of them could afford it. Only the wealthy few would. And Ryan and Repubs as well as Dems know that in 2030 if the voucher amount does not rise in tandem with inflation and allow for colas in the voucher amount then very few of the senior population would be able to afford a health care policy in 2030.
So if for example we instituted Ryans voucher plan today and gave every senior a $1,000 voucher to buy their own policy and left it at 1k then obviously in 2030 that 1k would cover very little. Is this what you’re saying?
Bosch
May 23rd, 2011
5:45 pm
USMC says I’m dumb, but knowingly misquotes people.
Dusty
May 23rd, 2011
5:46 pm
Bookman 5:34
“Low income seniors will get additional help.” And soon the cost for medical care will not decrease because most seniors will soon be “low income” quite legally. Their funds will decrease in a very short time.i.e. transferred to family members & friends. That loophole is well known and already used in similar requirements. .
josef nix
May 23rd, 2011
5:46 pm
Let me see if I’ve got this right…socialized medicine is not a good idea when the patient can go to the Grady ER and get treated….who’s picking up the tab?
Jay
May 23rd, 2011
5:47 pm
And WHY would that not be the case, jm, given what private health-insurance rates have been doing for the last 20 years or so (i.e., long before ObamaCare passed, so don’t even try to go there)?
Jerome
May 23rd, 2011
5:47 pm
There, unfortunately more and more industries that unfortunately can’t stay out of there own way. We know front and center auto makers and airlines consistently need “help”. Unfortunately the financial markets proved to be poor stewards of all types of capital including taxpayer money through the FDIC. When a bright line shines on the healthcare industry it does appear that some gov’t institution- whether it be state or federal- needs to kick it in the arse. Maybe that is the lifecycle of commodity businesses that are a “necessity”- they eventually have to go to the utility form of quasi gov’t model.
Jefferson
May 23rd, 2011
5:47 pm
Follow the money, you shouldn’t get rich off of medicare.
Jefferson
May 23rd, 2011
5:48 pm
No use talking about the dead Ryan bill, the only thing it is good for is to prove the GOP cares nothing about the people who pay.
pogo
May 23rd, 2011
5:48 pm
Markv’s comments are not well-put Jay. They are an over-simplification and in many ways a down-right lie. The bottom line is there is no way to generate enough tax revenue, even you tax the evil rich in this country at 80%, to pay for the outlays of these programs in the future with the Baby-Boomers coming of retirement age. The other part of your piece should be that we as Americans must face the fact that our country cannot sustain what is being spent by our government. We simply do not have enough PRIVATE SECTOR generated revenue, which is the source of all dollars spent by the Government, to pay for what the PUBLIC SECTOR is consuming.
As I will be eligible for retirement in a couple of years I was going to put it off and continue to work and pay taxes but now I see that you are better off to retire, lower your taxable income and to draw from those programs such as Medicare and SSN as soon as possible because that seems to be what our government wants us to do. I know quite a few right now that take full advantage of these programs that are millionaires. Florida is full of people like this. I used to despise them for it but now I am starting to realize that they were really only taking advantage of what our government created and what they wanted them to do. Several told me that they were actually sent notices in the mail notifying them that they were now eligible! And if the government sends you notice saying you are eligible, then hey, what is one to do? Join up!
Kamchak
May 23rd, 2011
5:49 pm
When Jeremy Geifer was charged with 11 counts of sexual misconduct November 18th, Tim Pawlenty might have envisioned his presidential ambitions going up in smoke.
Just over three years ago, the Minnesota governor granted Giefer a pardon extraordinary, voting with the two other members of the Board of Pardons to wipe clean his previous criminal sexual record.
Willie Horton?
Themistocles (a.k.a. Left Wing Mgmt)
May 23rd, 2011
5:49 pm
Dusty: “Get thee to the hospital. I think they treat “loose screws” also.”
Believe me, I tried. But they wouldn’t treat me. Said something about ‘pre-existing conditions’.
USMC
May 23rd, 2011
5:50 pm
“Just reading up on Tim Pawlenty. He’s fine. No business experience though.”–jm
At least he has experience as a Governor where he has to pass budgets and make tough decisions, etc.
I think we have seen the disaster of having an UNQUALIFIED President with absolutely NO business sense, CEO experience, or understanding of basic of principles like:
‘”when you LOWER Taxes, government revenue actually INCREASES
ex: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpSDBu35K-8
josef nix
May 23rd, 2011
5:51 pm
left wing…
I’m reading “Las meditaciones de don Quijote…” L-rd! The things I’m finding that I missed earlier!
Seinfeld? Did you see the last episodes? They’re brought to trial for their “standing by and doing nothing…”
jm
May 23rd, 2011
5:51 pm
Jay 5:47 – Medicare pushes inflation out into the private market because part of the market is engaged in price fixing.
Ie, private health insurance inflation wouldn’t be as high if Medicare payed market prices. (That said, I’m not blaming Medicare for all of the balloon / cost shifting occurring.)
Other drivers of rapid cost increases: low deductibles, tax structure supporting low deducs, medical innovation, and gaming of the market to push unneeded services onto the system.
Dusty
May 23rd, 2011
5:52 pm
But but Themistocles,
I bet they put you in a pretty new straight jacket for free. That WAS your treatment.
jm
May 23rd, 2011
5:52 pm
Boy I have been cursed by a ton of typos today.
I’m going to blame it on the beer from the Paul Simon concert at Chastain this weekend.
USMC
May 23rd, 2011
5:53 pm
“Believe me, I tried. But they wouldn’t treat me. Said something about ‘pre-existing conditions’.”
Hey “Rocket Scientist”!
Just tell them “No Speaky Ingles” and it’s free!
Thulsa Doom
May 23rd, 2011
5:55 pm
LWM,
You really think if you have a heart attack that the hospital isn’t going to treat you because of a “pre-existing condition” if you say had a previous heart attack. Surely you jest.
josef nix
May 23rd, 2011
5:57 pm
USMC
If you’re going to do it, do it right…
“No es-speek-o ingles,,,”
Jay
May 23rd, 2011
5:58 pm
Actually, pogo, MarkV is right. As others here have pointed out, other, less affluent nations manage to pay for it, but we can’t?
An absence of will should not be confused with an absence of ability.
And if millionaires chose to retire early, it’s not because SS is so generous. It’s because they’re millionaires. Since SS benefits max out at around $27 k, most people can’t retire comfortably on it.
jm
May 23rd, 2011
5:58 pm
USMC yes, Tim Pawlenty has plenty of advantages to Obama…. no doubt. Obama still has some forbidding strengths, but he’s beatable. The economy, etc.
Dusty
May 23rd, 2011
5:59 pm
Grady Hospital is a public funded facility. Anyone wishing to see the list of thousands of donors who also give to that facility can do so by using Google. It is all there.
Keep Up the Good Fight!
May 23rd, 2011
5:59 pm
Whats all this talk about an unqualified President? Why in 2012 the Dems will be running a candidate who has 4 actual years of governing as President. And yet the silly talking point will be trotted out as somehow even more relevant than 4 years ago.
But then I dont expect much from someone who unqualifiedly believes that lowering taxes increases government revenue.
jm
May 23rd, 2011
5:59 pm
Jay 5:58 – we can more than afford to pay for it (given we pay 2-3x as much). Just an issue of how….
Given the excessive waste and spending thus far, it is difficult to believe the US government is going to do a good job all of a sudden (see agency problem). And, the US government doesn’t work like European governments. Top tier people in the US go into business. French elites go to work for the government. Apples-oranges.
Themistocles (a.k.a. Left Wing Mgmt)
May 23rd, 2011
6:00 pm
jo nix: “I’m reading “Las meditaciones de don Quijote…” L-rd! The things I’m finding that I missed earlier!”
Ah yes. I hear you. I think I read that one once, but I need to re-read those books. His other texts are just as interesting as Revolt of Masses.
USMC
May 23rd, 2011
6:00 pm
Boy, I miss School:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0XLKcMoXRE
jm
May 23rd, 2011
6:00 pm
“in 2012 the Dems will be running a candidate who has 4 actual years of governing as President”
debatable. most people don’t call “leading from behind” (aka following) as “governing”
@@
May 23rd, 2011
6:01 pm
Kamchak:
Just over three years ago, the Minnesota governor granted Giefer a pardon extraordinary, voting with the two other members of the Board of Pardons to wipe clean his previous criminal sexual record.
Giefer’s first offense was at the age of 19. He had consensual sex with a fourteen year old girl.
I thought you libs were all about teen sex…everybody’s doin’ it, right?
jm
May 23rd, 2011
6:02 pm
Jay 6:03 – Ryan has said he’s open to compromise (MTP). Where’s the democratic plan that saves just as much (or even 1/2 as much)?
Jay
May 23rd, 2011
6:03 pm
Thulsa, there is an annual adjustment to the voucher amount. It would rise each year by the increase in the consumer price index, but medical inflation is generally considerably higher than the CPI.
The net effect is that with each passing year, the voucher would cover less and less of medical coverage.
USMC
May 23rd, 2011
6:05 pm
“Actually, pogo, MarkV is right. As others here have pointed out, other, less affluent nations manage to pay for it, but we can’t? An absence of will should not be confused with an absence of ability.”
–Jay Bookman
BUY YOUR OWN F’ING HEALTH INSURANCE, JAY
Why do you advocate for someone else to always pay your way. Unbelievable.
“If you can’t feed them, Don’t Breed Them!”
Themistocles (a.k.a. Left Wing Mgmt)
May 23rd, 2011
6:05 pm
I think Tim Pawlenty bears a striking resemblance to the Wicked Witch of the West.
USMC: “Why do you advocate for someone else to always pay your way. Unbelievable.”
Because that’s the kind of society we want to live in, USMC.
josef nix
May 23rd, 2011
6:06 pm
Left wing…
Of course Revolt is the magnum opus, but I’ve always been much more intrigued by reading the other works of people like O y G to follow the line(s) of thought distilled…
Thulsa Doom
May 23rd, 2011
6:07 pm
Jay,
Other less affluent nations have managed to pay for it and we can’t? Um. No. Not quite sir.
Other nations have national health care systems and its a disaster. In Canada someone posted a link the other day showing that its now an 18 week delay for a doctor appointment. Not sure about that but I do know that on MRI exams its a crazy, ridiculous wait. Canada has very few MRI machines. And our cancer oncologists in border cities such as Buffalo routinely treat Canadians who would otherwise die waiting for treatment. You can google all sorts of horror stories about wait times, cancer survival rates in Britain and Canada, rationed care, etc. It doesn’t work.
Same with Britain which is actually looking at reforming the NHS and going toward a private, market force oriented system.
A couple of the Scandinavian nation’s have decent nationalized health care- but they also have 50-70% tax rates also- they are also smaller, more homogenous nations like Sweden, Switzerland and that also factors into health care.
jm
May 23rd, 2011
6:07 pm
I don’t think I need to add anymore to this:
“We know the House of Representatives met [its] deadline” to produce a budget, Sessions said. “They passed an historic budget. But the United States Senate has not done so. All we’ve seen from Majority Leader Reid really are political games, cynical games… distractions and gimmicks to avoid confronting the fiscal nightmare we’re facing now. How else can you explain why, in the middle of a crisis, Democratic leaders have not even produced a budget, have not even allowed the committee to work on one?”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55532.html#ixzz1NDSiGplR
josef nix
May 23rd, 2011
6:08 pm
USMC
“BUY YOUR OWN F’ING HEALTH INSURANCE, JAY”
Why should he do that when Cox will do it for him?
independent and depressed
May 23rd, 2011
6:09 pm
So how many of those scooters are we going to deprive the elderly and overweight of if this trend continues? No more gym memberships? What about all those wonderful drugs continuously advertised on TV? No more?
Hey I am old enough to remeber what life was like without medicare- Doctors made house visits and did not drive big flashy cars not did they have fancy offices. You did not have big expensive heart surgeries if you were too old and could not afford it and the elderly lived with their children and were not shoved of into assisted living or a nursing home unless they had no relatives.
Yeah by 1974 the welfare state was in full bloom and we got our ass kicked in Vietnam and our President and Vice President were proven to be crooks and both resigned. – quite a time!
USMC
May 23rd, 2011
6:10 pm
Looks like “Keep Up the Good Fight!” didn’t listen to DEMOCRATIC President John F. Kennedy:
Please take two minutes and listen to COMMON SENSE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AAEp0J_hzU
(This is one of Mick’s favorites)
USMC
May 23rd, 2011
6:10 pm
“Why should he do that when Cox will do it for him?”–josef Nix
Thank You, Josef. The point is GET your own or BUY your own Health Insurance. Great Point!
Kamchak
May 23rd, 2011
6:11 pm
I thought you libs were all about teen sex…everybody’s doin’ it, right?
“All about teen sex”?
I’ll give Giefer kudos for marrying that fourteen year old.
What was/is despicable is that he began sexually abusing the daughter that he fathered.
Pawlenty and the board granted the Giefer’s request, citing the fact that Giefer was still married to the woman he had statutorily raped, and was raising their children together.
It’s an odd rationale–that statutory rape is more acceptable if you marry your victim–but Pawlenty bought it hook, line and sinker and pardoned the sex offender.
Flash forward to this month, when Giefer was charged with another sex crime, this time for allegedly molesting the daughter he conceived with the underage girl he statutory raped and married.
In fact, the complaint alleges, Giefer had been raping his daughter for about six years when Pawlenty granted him his extraordinary pardon.
According to the complaint filed in Blue Earth County Court, the girl, identified only as C.G., told Blue Earth detectives the sexual abuse started when she was nine years old.
josef nix
May 23rd, 2011
6:11 pm
THULSA
Well, we were talking about Costa Rica the other day…one of the most outstanding medical systems in the world and free and universal,..now, question: how do they pay for it? Hint: don Pepe Figueres and common sense a la tica…
Themistocles (a.k.a. Left Wing Mgmt)
May 23rd, 2011
6:13 pm
Thulsa: “Other nations have national health care systems and its a disaster.”
You just try getting your buddy Cameron over in the UK to dare lay a finger on the NHS. That will be the last you see of him in politics, I can assure you that.
I agree, josef nix. The secondary works really allow the full range of thought to come into full view.
Jay
May 23rd, 2011
6:13 pm
And Cox can get it much cheaper for me, because with thousands of employees they can self-insure and have a lot more market power in the medical marketplace than I do.
USMC
May 23rd, 2011
6:14 pm
“And Cox can get it much cheaper for me, because with thousands of employees they can self-insure and have a lot more market power in the medical marketplace than I do.”–Jay Bookman
And that’s great for you Jay, but other people can go buy affordable Health Insurance RIGHT NOW.
jm
May 23rd, 2011
6:14 pm
I think we’re headed to a government shutdown of sorts and partial government default. The actions of Democrats such as Reid is going to make it next to impossible for Republicans to compromise. He’s acting in such bad faith, and playing so much politics, that they’re just going to say screw it.
Dems, government default, at your feet.
Tracy
May 23rd, 2011
6:14 pm
Painful Fact : This country’s golden era is over and it’s not coming back.
Your jobs will continue to head overseas, machines will replace you at home and your government will be too busy with war to help. Soon we’ll be a nation of 100 million starving and homeless who’ll probably finish it off.
Twas a nice run America, but seriously folks, get out while you can.
Keep Up the Good Fight!
May 23rd, 2011
6:14 pm
If you can’t feed them, Don’t Breed Them
Life and politics are so much simplier when you can reduce it to the bumper sticker of moronality. It matters not the facts or the circumstances. Whether a family whose husband dies in a tragic mining accident caused because the greeedy rich owner decides to cut safety to the family who has both parents employed by the same man that demands the wife have sex with him and she fears for feeding them. Nuances and details just dont have the moronic impact of a bumper sticker.
jm
May 23rd, 2011
6:15 pm
Reid is bringing up the minority party’s budget bill. What a joke. Reid is leading from the back row.