" snipped-for-privacy@optonline.net" wrote in news:38de0268- snipped-for-privacy@gr6g2000vbb.googlegroups.com:
I've watched some and parts of others. Pitiful, considering that what they are now doing is pandering (there is no other word) to the extreme right. Once they will have to appeal to all the voters, they'll have to do a 180 on many subjects. And then ...
The US economic recovery is about to be derailed by climbing gasoline costs. Once they get over 4 to 5 bucks per gallon we will be in a recession again.:(
As a small business man, I can feel no "recovery". It's as bad as it was for the last year or two.
Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus
Inflation happens when there are too many dollars chasing too few products. Right now people are too afraid to spend so there is no chasing. Watch out when that changes. Gasoline *will* be $10/gallon, like your boy wants.
" snipped-for-privacy@optonline.net" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@l14g2000vbe.googlegroups.com:
Birth control is one item. More than 50% of voters are women and more than 95% of even catholic women have used birth control. Having it covered by insurance is a good deal for women, insurance companies and the country. The "Obamacare" health insurance is going to save money, even taking the increases in Medicare costs into account. The economy is going to get better, despite increased gasoline costs. Even at $4/gal, it isn't more costly historically in inflation-adjusted dollars. I'm sorry some people haven't yet seen any pickup in the economy. It's there or it's right around the corner.
It's difficult for Obama or anyone to do what indeed should be done in Syria. You remember it took 10 years, many, many dead and injured Americans and many dollars to get even a semblance of a compliant country in Iraq. As one of the archest of archenemies of Israel, attacking the thus far "sort of legit" regime in Syria is a dubious act in my opinion, although arming the opposition in Syria and encouraging a coalition of opposition forces would be just wonderful to me. You do remember how we got bogged down in Iraq between all the different ethnic and religious factions. The same would hold for Syria. I know that for the moment Iraq seems sort of a success for American statebuilding, but it is still very fragile. With Iran, Russia and China all trying to get more influence (and oil, and weapons sales) in that neighborhood, it is a good thing to act in the background, as I am sure the US, Britain, France, and even Turkey are. The less I know about the details the better. But I am indeed afraid that the wrong guys will get an upper hand there, and I am even more afraid that the wrong people are getting the upper hand in Egypt. So I think you and I are sort of in agreement with regards to Syria, hypocritical as it may be not to get actively involved yet.
If so, it will be first time. Somewhere around here I have a fascinating study of all the cost containment attempts starting with Certificates of Need in the early 70s, through Diagnostic Related Groups in the 80s, followed by HMOs and all the various flavors of managed care in the 90s, the Medicare "Sustainable Growth Rate" formula in the late
90s, and now last week's CBO report that the Latest & Greatest Method, improved care coordination and disease management along with value-based purchasing, doesn't work. When we note that this week was also the latest vote to override the cuts in doc's pay (as has been done every year since the Med Sustain Act was enacted in 1997-- thus the rather draconian 30% cut called for this year), there seems to be little reason to think Obama will be any more successful than Richard Nixon and successors.The economy is
I don't think so quite yet. I note that we had 20 years or so of (relatively) uninterrupted economic expansion. I have long suggested that the stickiness of this downturn is related as much as returning to the mean as it is anything else.
Kurt Ullman wrote in news:We6dnXyiTahXFtrSnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.com:
I generally agree with both your points. The rise in mewdical costs is also related to people wanting the newest, greatestest, and bestestest treatment (I exagerate a bit), and those are generally the costliest. Doctors, insurance companies and patients will at some point need to do the "right thing" and (for instance) change lifestyle, use first the cheap waterpill, rather than eat 18 oz steaks and swallow statins and costly blood pressure meds. How to make people do that, I'm not sure. Doctors need to be rewarded for their efforts, but need to focus more on keeping people healthy (prevention) rather than on MRIs, dialysis and kidney transplants. Also difficult for doctors and loved ones.
A slower growth might be a good thing? rather than boom and bust. It is easy for me to say that people need to adjust their talents to profit from changing opportunities. Nowadays a good plumber can earn a good living, but he needs to be aware not only of plumbing, but also rules and regulations, environment, some math etc, etc. And some people skills.
snipped-for-privacy@l14g2000vbe.googlegroups.com:
Most people like cars and pork chops too. Doesn't mean that they think the govt should be handing those out, forcing people to buy them, or making religous institutions hand them out and pay for them. Polls have shown most people don't like Obamacare, the Republicans are all committed to repealing it, and that is the only involvement with birth control that is making it an issue.
Can you show us a single govt program that cost less than was forecasted? Medicare today is costing many times the highest projections at the time it was passed. As for increased costs of Medicare, don't you know that Obamacare was passed partly on the basis that if was going to be funded partly by CUTTING Medicare by $500bil? That was allegedly going to come from getting rid of waste and fraud. That's right, Obama justified a new govt program by pointing to the waste and fraud that's out of control in an existing program. Strange how liberal minds work.
This chart says you're wrong:
They would have seen a pickup a long time ago had Obama done just a few things right. And the recovery and growth will be slower until the correct policies are put into place.
Why is it difficult for Obama to do in Syria exactly what he did less than a year ago in Libya? I can tell you. In the case of Libya, he had Europe telling him what to do and taking the lead. And Europe only gave a damn because of their oil interests in Libya. He was even proud of it at the time, calling it "Leading from behind...."
You miss the whole point. The wrong guy already has the upper hand in Syria. Unlike Khadafi, he currently IS a sponsor of state terrorism. Syria is on the list of state sponsors of terror. We don't know for sure that what follows will be any better any more so than in Libya. We do know though that Syria's behavior has been far worse than Libya. And being right next to Iran, toppling that SOB could lead to an uprising in Iran solving that problem before it results in a real war.
and I am
Obviously you didn't read what I posted. I would be taking the approach Obama took with Libya with Syria right now. That means arming the opposition, getting a coalition to take out Assad, the govt, and military with air strikes. I would be speaking out to the rebels and the world, championing freedom and encouraging them. I would not send ground troops.
Funny how liberals claim to be all for human rights. Yet when a dictator in Syria is committing terrorism they instead recognize them by opening an embassy there and refuse to act while they massacre 10,000 people who are just protesting in the streets.
This is the biggest problem I have with the system. You are making physician's their patient's keepers. I would reward the physicans for trying, documenting their attempts to get their patients do what they need to. But given the large component of not being able to make the horse drink that has consistently shown up in the literature, I don't think it is fair or even possible to hold the doc responsible for someone else's behavior. There is ample evidence that docs will just toss many of their of the less than complaint patients overboard if the financial pain becomes too acute. Unless you have all the docs working for the government, you will ALWAYS have that problem.
As do the docs. But you aren't going to cut the plumber's pay if their customer's kids insist in putting nasty things in the toilet, or (as in my case) falling hair plugs up the sink.
" snipped-for-privacy@optonline.net" wrote in news:1690212f- snipped-for-privacy@l14g2000vbe.googlegroups.com:
Lies have made people think they don't like Obamacare. Now try to take away what is already in effect and liked.
" snipped-for-privacy@optonline.net" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@l14g2000vbe.googlegroups.com:
I'm glad that you agree there is waste and fraud. Now let's get rid of it.
Seems a non-sequitur. You are not a liberal. Hence you want to keep fraud and waste????
" snipped-for-privacy@optonline.net" wrote in news:1690212f- snipped-for-privacy@l14g2000vbe.googlegroups.com:
That's a different chart than I remembered from when gas was last in the $4/gal range. Question: Has the chart also been adjusted for gas and sales taxes?? In some locales, gas prices go up exponentially because the tax is at least partially a sales tax, i.e. a % of the net cost. That would distort things, right? Anyway, here around the corner from the train station, Gulf regular is $3.559/gal, cash or charge.
" snipped-for-privacy@optonline.net" wrote in news:1690212f- snipped-for-privacy@l14g2000vbe.googlegroups.com:
Obama could/should have done some things differently and sooner. Perhaps the efforts of the not so loyal opposition has something to do with that, since the Boehner and Teaparty "people" seem just intent of deranging the economy to gain an election advantage. And that will backfire on them.
" snipped-for-privacy@optonline.net" wrote in news:1690212f- snipped-for-privacy@l14g2000vbe.googlegroups.com:
I wish we could always be the high-minded altruistic people we should be. Syria is a different country than Libya, AFAIK. While there may be similarities, the differences are important. Also, the "war" in Libya didn't go by far as smoothly as originally anticipated (my interpretation of events, and how long they took). Getting bogged down in a much bigger country with many more and very highly populated cities is not where you'd want to fight a war. Whether Libya was just about the oil for Europe, I'm not sure, but there is definitely that aspect. And slogans are just that. In any case, I am glad that this war in Libya was a proxy war, and also that the US could supply the air power and control that made it possible for the ragtag army of the "rebels" to win.
" snipped-for-privacy@optonline.net" wrote in news:1690212f- snipped-for-privacy@l14g2000vbe.googlegroups.com:
I could easily be convinced that Assad is a bad guy. No problem. He probably feeds Hamas and Hezbollah. Case closed. But Khadafi wasn't a real darling either. I seem to remember an "accident" with a PanAm plane over Scotland. Regarding an uprising in Iran, that'll come after the current crop of insane mullahs die off. Analogy with Soviet Union and Red China, who both are still dictatorial, but in essence capitalist nowadays.
" snipped-for-privacy@optonline.net" wrote in news:1690212f- snipped-for-privacy@l14g2000vbe.googlegroups.com:
I have the distinct impression that is occurring perhaps a bit more behind the scenes than you (and I) would have hoped. No ground troops, indeed.
" snipped-for-privacy@optonline.net" wrote in news:1690212f- snipped-for-privacy@l14g2000vbe.googlegroups.com:
Now you're just throwing words around. Maybe that embassy in Syria has helped foment the current revolt. But let's not pound our breasts for that, or we might be attacked by real fascist leftists (Assad and Russia).
This is particularly true since any system will reach whatever equilibrium you tell it to. In this case, doctors will simply refuse to see at-risk patients, which will have the opposite of the desired effect. Lefties don't understand dynamic systems and refuse to acknowledge unintended consequences.
No, in a free market, they're paid *more* for taking the difficult jobs. Not in the left's universe, though.
The Dems had control of both houses of Congress for two years and a filibuster proof Senate for most of that time. He obviously could get bills passed that the opposition was deadset against. Obamacare is proof of that. He also got his $800bil stimulus bill passed. So, sorry, but you can't blame the Republicans for what he did or didn't do with the economy.
You need convincing? Just look at the US list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Case closed. =A0But Khadafi wasn't a
That is true. But Kadafi in more recent years renounced terrorism. He had cooperated with the international community regarding WMDs and dismantled his atomic program. The uranium was shipped to the USA. As a result, Libya was removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. Does that make up for his past? No. But given that he was behaving exactly as the West wanted him to, it's particularly ironic that Obama sought to take him out while refusing to do the same with Assad. In other words, we have no consistent or rational foreign policy.
You can see that in our approach to Iran. A couple weeks ago Leon Panetta gave CBS an interview where he said Iran is further along in developing a bomb than we previously thought and that if they decided to assemble a bomb they could probably have one in a year. He said if we knew they decided to do that, the US would unilateraly take action to eliminate the threat.
At the same time, we're running around trying to round up more world support to take varying actions against Iran, mostly sanctions, because of the threat they pose.
Now just a couple of weeks later you have ImaNutJob, president of Iran, giving a press tour of their newest enrichment facility. That night on the news you have the state dept and other administration experts pooh pooing the whole thing, saying it's really nothing new, they aren't all that far along, etc.
So, which is it? It's time Obama and his administration make up their mind.
I see no evidence that one crazy mullah won't be replaced by the next. And unless something changes, the current ones will have the bomb before long. I've been waiting for the Obama speech to the nation:
"As you all know, despite the best efforts of the US and our allies, last night Iran tested a nuclear weapon....."
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