What do you think of Obama's health care an/or economy package(s)

I don't see why most countrys aren't taking this in, I'm english and I have never had to worry about health care.
Oh I don't feel well, so I make a doctors apointment and in a day or two I'm at the doctors.

 

So, who's gonna pay for it?

Psst: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_TjBNjc9Bo

 

I don't really think I know enough about it to say which side I support. (tax payer in me says no, the broke person in me says yes)

But what I will say is that with my current coverage I still get crappy service, have to wait forever.. blah blah.. Kaizer is shit. I don't think it can get any worse.

 

Single Payer Please.

I'm afraid they'll make a bipartisan fail-compromise and it'll just fail and hurt the democrats in the future.

 

yep we have it and it rocks but it was invented and called medicare

 

Interesting video, but all I really got out of it was that all our current problems started under Reagan.

Also, slow health care inflation (which is what is driving most of the problems with medicare/medicaid) and means-test social security, and the problem is basically solved.

 

Everything that is public but can be private is a flawed system. History proves this. I don't care that much to list you examples, I'm sorry.

There are 4 ways of spending money:
- your own money on yourself
- your own money on someone else
- someone else's money on yourself
- someone else's money on someone else

Now guess when you care the most about efficiency.

 

QFT - I pay enough taxes already. As for insurance...I don't worry about being covered. I have insurance from work....most places DO give you insurance when you work for them. You might have to haggle to get a prescription filled, but when you need surgery...you get it.

Obamacare will wreck this country.

As for his stimulus...it's done nothing. I drove on I-5 from Seattle to San Fran this past weekend. Obama's stimulus money just meant road work. Every 10 miles, there was "road work" where they took the highway (this is an interstate mind you!) and make it a 1 lane road. US-101 was closed for a few miles even. What was the road work they were doing? Nothing. They just had cones down. And signs saying "Putting america back to work" (ie, a campaign ad for Obama.)

All obama can do is make speaches. He is still in campaign mode. The most he's done is drive us further and further into debt. Oh, and the US gov't now owns GM. Isn't that just so fucking wonderful? The US president can't tell a CEO to step down....the founding fathers are probably rolling in their graves.

Obama is the worst president since Carter. I hope he loses reelection as bad as Carter did.

Late edit: Also, making construction work isn't helping unemployment....construction workers are seasonal workers. During the winter when they don't work, they aren't listed as unemployed.

 

Every private system will end up like france just before the revolution, it's just a matter of time.

 

Lets not forget to keep this all in perspective. Economic stimulus is a gradual process, taking years to heal. We really can't judge the effects of his plan until 2 or 3 years later. Also, I should mention that America has some of the lowest taxes of the industrialized countries. We also have one of the lowest standards of living of all those countries too.

As for construction workers, its not seasonal everywhere. In fact, some of the poorest parts of the country (down south, for example) are quite nice in winter.

You think Obama is a bad president for spending a lot of money on this country? Lets not forget about a former president who spent our money on other countries. This stimulus package is nothing compared to whats been spent on the wars.

 

That stimulus just kept the status quo. It's not a solution. It's just a quick workaround. It's like giving fish, not fishing pole. The problem still exist, and it was another stimulus, after another bubble, which, no wonder, get incrementally worse.

US is now in Chinas pocket - they can just stop financing your government and you are so screwed. And tossing retarded amounts of money through the window aint helping that.

Obama haven't done anything epic yet, hes just gloating around, being politician, making irresponsible moves just to look good.

About public healthcare: In Poland we got one. It's currently dying, we cannot even afford life saving actions sometimes, Getting nonessential things fixed is matter of months, sometimes even year.
Go ahead, public heathcare ftw! /irony

 

Come on CPUGeek, use your head - you're smarter than this. Zealoth has it dead on. We're knee deep in debt...and we're moving into the waist high section of the pool. Soon we'll drown. You can't just go further in debt to create a stimulus package...it's a house of cards at this point - and is going to go further down than before if Obama keeps it up.

Hopefully, the 2010 elections will shift the balance of power a little bit (I mean come on - a filibuster can't even be done now. All the checks and balances are gone.)

As for Chris, I'd venture to say this isn't a monarchy. Do you know why the french revolution happened?

 

The Goverment of Belgium uses tax payer's money to pay for healthcare, and it's a huge mess.
Pensions are really low, there's almost no room for error in the yearly budget, and people are paying tons of tax. It may work for now, but not forever.

Unless there's a magic hole where medical care comes out of for free, i don't think it'll work like that.

 

1. I was being ironic, the comment was meant to illustrate how easy it is to make sweeping generalisations from ignorance.

2. No I don't. Aside from 'poor people got annoyed at the rich people eating all the cake and chopped all their heads off and stole their cake'.

3. I would have said the point in time in england when there was more or less no governmental input into civic planning or sanitation or healthcare or policing, or anything really, an attitude which was called 'laissez faire' or something, but I cannot remember what time period that was or what it was called.

 

I think one important point that people don't understand is that debt in an international sense isn't really debt. As stupid as that sounds, since international politics is anarchy there isn't anyone to really enforce it. Basically, if China wants us to pay them back, they can really only politely pressure us or attack us to get the money back. Attacking another country because they owe money is a really shitty reason to go to war, so internationally the war would not gain much support for china. The worst they can do is stop sending us money.

Yes the government is spending a lot of money. But according to Keynesian economic theory if we don't, our economy will take a much longer time to recover, lowering the standard of living for the whole country by much more than necessary. Most economists agree that this is a good idea, its just the media that has made it sound doubtful (like global warming).

After WW2 we loaned europe tons of money and supplies that we still haven't gotten paid for. Don't think that the Marshall plan was just a nice gift from the US from the bottom of our hearts.

 

I read an article few months ago that was about public spending in Japan. They had such "stimulus" for 10-15 years. And now they're pretty sure they could have spent that money better. They're also in huge debt now. GDP growth per year was between 0% and 3%. I don't have the URL (it was long time ago).

Stimulus package is taking money from you, spending 10% or more on government and spending a rest on a project that will gain votes for president/prime minister/party. Why can't you spend your own money on yourself? In USA case it is borrowing money from Chinese. When I'm broke I get a job/work harder/start to save. Since when things that make sense in family budget don't make sense in macroeconomy?

Poland can't even afford (or is not trustworthy) to get into such debts and I'm happy with it.

 

I've read something different. GOOD economist say it's a waste of money. "Obama thinks that "00000" at the end doesn't mean anything."
Give everyone in USA 10$. Is it much for you?
Now look at it from other side: 10$*306 609 000.
It's a lot of dollars. And you've just thrown them through a window.

And you MUST RAISE interest rates, you have them NEGATIVE...

EDIT: @Cpugeek

 

I am totally against gov't run healthcare. There is NO WAY I want my health and life in the hands of the govt.

And the real interesting part is..the plan is sooo good(sarcasm) that the gov't officials are exempt for having to use the newly proposed govt run health care system. Gee, I wonder why?

They know it will not take the patients best interest in consideration, the bottom line will be whether it will be cost effective or not.

From everything I have read and heard gov't run healthcare systems do not work well at all especially for the very ill and elderly. In fact, when anyone from another country (who can afford it) who needs good healthcare, they usually come to the US to receive treatment.

Obama praised the Mayo Clinic for providing top quality health care at low cost, in turn the Mayo Clinic issued a statement, they are agaisnt Obamas healthcare reform. He should listen to those he praises.

I do think the US's health care system needs reforms so it is more affordable. BUT NO WAY should it be taken over by the gov't.

There are many ways to cut the cost of healthcare, such as pharamcutical companies lowering their prices, mal practice insurance raises the cost of healthcare, most of mal practice claims are unfounded and brought on my people trying to make a fast buck, which in turn puts a financial burden on the phyisican which is passed on to us.

Gov't run health care...scareee