I've just read that Gephardt has just unveiled his plan to make health care universal. He says that he "might need" to repeal Bush's tax cuts to "help" pay for it.... He projects that this will cost only 210 billion a year. But anyone who has any idea what he's talking about knows this; Universal health care plans turn into huge monsters of the ecomony, devouring billions daily. He will have to repeal all tax cuts, significantly raise taxs to help pay for it, and hugely increase taxes to pay for all of it. Governments in Europe have these plans and they end up eating up close to 2/3 of their budget.

But fear not. Gephardt is a master player in politics. This "plan" is only an ace for the democratic selection. He knows he'll look best to appear as left as possible without looking loony. If he gets the selection, he will back-pedal this so fast no one will have time to snipe at it. We hopefully won't be seeing any kind of these (socialist) programs for awhile.

I wouldn't be surprised if he gets quite a bit of support. Whether the people of this country want to acknowledge it or not, we're trending toward a socialist government. Even Republicans are afraid to challenge socialist institutions (Medicare and Medicaid) that are now entrenched in our government. In fact, most I've seen support plans to improve/expand these systems.

At this point, I can only dream of a candidate that would be willing to ween our addicted nation off of these socially-polluting programs.

Originally posted by TheGreyBaron
But anyone who has any idea what he's talking about knows this; Universal health care plans turn into huge monsters of the ecomony, devouring billions daily.

It's ideas like that that turned me conservative. They start with plans that seem reasonable (everyone should have health care, right?) and then the programs become giant money blackholes rife with corruption and government bureaucracies. Democrats have a few good ideas here and there (maybe) but I have no faith in their ability to do anything right at and at a reasonable cost.

So endeth my first post. :cool:

QUESTION; what is everyones idea of a good coverage plan, self, country, state, whatever?

Originally posted by mad dog
QUESTION; what is everyones idea of a good coverage plan, self, country, state, whatever?

I'm not sure what you mean by this question? If you mean, how does everyone propose we take care of our medical expenses, I would say that it needs to be completely privatized.

Basically for me, publicly-funded health care is reprehensible for two reasons: it would result in an unreasonable allocation of resources and encourages restrictions on personal freedom.

First, it discourages individuals from being concerned about their health since it completely removes economic reasoning from personal health decisions. Why not goto the chiropractor 5 times a week? Why not have your teeth cleaned once a month? I don't know about you, but I don't do these things since they are economically unreasonable. Now if the government completely funded these activities, I might actually behave in such a manner. Now imagine the cost of having the entire population behave in such a manner.

Second, it encourages government involvement in your personal life. The logic goes something like this: If government money is used to fund your health, then its the government's business to prevent you from becoming unhealthy. For instance, the reason the government forces people to wear seat belts is to save money spent in the form of medical expenses associated w/ car accidents. IMO, this is not government business. How is that precaution different from requiring people from wearing body armor when walking on a busy street? Logically, there is none and they are equally offensive.

What this guy is trying to do is embed communism within capitalism, it's a huge step beyond socialism. Universal healthcare, fooie! You can't have this "universal healthcare" without anarchy first. Without anarchy, it does what Leper said, removes personal freedom. With anarchy, you just go see your friend Doctor Wahoosit, and get a little checkup.(to understand, read up on the "permanant revolution")

*applause for Lionel*