James Wrote:So the fix to the health system is if you don't have insurance and don't have the cash, you should be refused medical help. I believe if we got rid of the frivolous lawsuits not only in medical care, which is why doctor's malpractice insurance is so high, but in all the differant trades and bussinesses. Wining a lawsuit against mac donalds cause someone is stupid enough to put the hot coffee they just bought between their legs while driving a car is just plain nuts. There is a time for attorney's but if you look at court dockets at each case it becomes insane, James
No, here any medical facility that receives any public funding is already required to treat you, regardless of your ability to pay, we have social services that will help you pay for medical care you cannot afford and, private charities that offer further help. That's enough, we don't need some politician telling us we MUST have insurance we don't want.
We certainly don't need a president that wants the government to take care of us so the government can control us. I will do everything I can to keep that from happening. If the government takes care of us, they control us, it's as simple as "do as we say or you will not have your home, your medicine, your food, etc..." and, that is not what the USA is or should be but, it is what Obama wants.
As blue points out we are part of a Two Party system.
Personally I'm what is called 'third party' - A centrist Moderate who's vote, if applied to a third party candidate is useless and meaningless since the media and the System will never actually run a Third party against the Ass and Elephant.
Americans are deluded into believing a few myth-truths (mis-truths which are myths) .
1. America is a Democracy. Its not. It is a republic, a representative republic where beyond your local government (county, city, sometimes state) you really don't get much a say in what takes place. You elect Representatives, Governors, Senators and Presidents who in theory have your interest in mind (Rarely they are fixated on selfish, personal gain).
2. The President has ultimate Powers. No the president actually has very little 'real' power. Take Obama Care. While the White house did promote this bill, it was vastly different than the law that was passed after going through House and Senate. Both parties had their dirty paws over it, both parties amended, and rewrote the bill (most likely adding lots of personal pork to it as well).
3. Government controls the economy. Um not really. The Government can regulate and enforce laws to guide the economy, but by and large the economy is in control of our real Masters - Large Corporations. They can buy votes, throw millions, billions, perhaps trillions at the representatives and senators and make many behind closed door deals in order to sway the vote of the House and Senate.
Even if we managed to swing a third party president, and manged to get a whole new third party House and Senate, the rules and the greed will be the same. The Corporations and Banks will be buying votes in their favor.
Sure a few things may be different, but the basic real problems we here in America face will remain the same.
The illusion of freedom, the illusion of 'We the People' is just that - illusion.
It isn't going to change with simply voting new people into old offices. It will require retooling and changing the fundamentals of how bills turn into laws and who gets the majority say in those votes by how much they spend.
I fear that is only going to happen with lots of blood shed and an uprising... Revolutions change governments.
That and, when we vote for a president, we are not directly voting for him or her, we are actually voting for whom we think our Representative in the electoral college should vote for. Granted votes ca be recounted and there are safeguards to supposedly insure those representatives do in fact vote for whom they are supposed to but, in this country, big money talks so, who's to say some source of that money didn't buy the vote of your representative, thus he/she voted for the candidate the majority did NOT vote for?
One vote matters, my rainbow covered backside it does. 1 million dollars counts for far more in our political system.
Like you Bowyn, I'm the oddball third party, conservative here, liberal there, center elsewhere but, our system dose not allow me to vote based on all of that, to have any hope of anyone I even remotely approve of winning I am forced to decide if I want more of the liberal or more of the conservative platform. A third party candidate has no chance of winning in this country, despite such being permitted, it will never happen under our current system.
James Wrote:So the fix to the health system is if you don't have insurance and don't have the cash, you should be refused medical help. I believe if we got rid of the frivolous lawsuits not only in medical care, which is why doctor's malpractice insurance is so high, but in all the differant trades and bussinesses. Wining a lawsuit against mac donalds cause someone is stupid enough to put the hot coffee they just bought between their legs while driving a car is just plain nuts. There is a time for attorney's but if you look at court dockets at each case it becomes insane, James
There are actually several states where limits on lawsuits were imposed by Republicans and it didn't lower rates.
Also, the elderly lady who was burned by the McD. coffee nearly died from the burns, and she got the settlement because it came out in the lawsuit that McD. had been told over a hundred times that they kept their coffee at dangerously hot levels (180-200F) but did not do anything about it. So, McD. received high punitive damages because the judge felt they had not listened to courts in the past about coffee temperature. Also, most of the awarded money went to paying for the expensive skin grafts.
The myth of frivolous lawsuits has been spread by corporate interests.
As to the healthcare stuff, Americans always look ridiculous from an international perspective on this. You already spend more per capita on sub-par medical care, so clearly you're fucking something up. Switzerland and Germany manage to make a functional private system work. Most of the rest of the developed world makes public systems work. The Americans just need to commit to working model and carry it through properly instead of waffling around in their semi-private overpriced monstrosity of a system.
Capitalism is the culprit...shareholders need more and more profits because greed rules this country. The subsequent lies that are spread and repeated are intended to keep the very wealthy corporations wealthy.
Coincidentally the exact same people who cry and whine about big government are often the biggest recipients of the "handouts" they decry. Greed and deceit...lovely combination.
Our Obamacare is actually a Republican Plan and Romney was the original architect...so much for the fake outrage displayed by his ardent fans.
Blue, Worse yet to our Third party vote, if we do vote third party, there is a change that that vote will result in the 'worst man' for the job taking the office as the count of the two party system gets muddled up.
While no one holds a gun to our head literally when we step into the voting booth, the system forces our hand to vote for a person who really don't represent us. It amounts to having a gun at your temple.
Loveontherocks;
There have been two or three presidents who have been third party. Three if you include Mr Lincoln who was running the the then new Republican Party, at the time it was I believe Whiggs and Democrats (I'm a bit fuzzy on that, I don't clearly recall the election nor the war that followed:tongue.
The other two were George Washington (Yes the nation was new and the whole two party system hadn't really kicked in) the other Was Andrew Johnson (Everybody remembers him right?) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Johnson
And if you look closely at the last two (Lincoln and Johnson) you find that their 'third party ticket' had more to do with major changes in the politics of the USA (That civil war had some side effects) .
And Mr. Johnson wasn't elected into office as president, he took over after Mr. Lincoln was assassinated.
Given all of that, the technical truth is that a third party member hasn't ever been elected into the oval office. Yes a few got in, but only owning to the times in which they ran for office.
I mostly agree with him, though I don't see the big deal over needing ID to vote. You don't have to drive or get a passport to get a state ID card issued by the DMV in the USA.
Too many go too far right or too far left, we, as a nation have forgotten a sensible middle ground can exist. Not that it does exist today, but it could if the majority of our officials and politicians would get their heads out of their respective elephant and donkey arses.
I remember watching this video where Jeff Daniels answers about the US allegedly being the "greatest" nation in the world.
Strong thinking and strong stuff.
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