Showing posts with label Health Care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Health Care. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Three Tax Time Tips For "Tea Baggers"
Here are some tips for the attendees to these events,, most never having committed an illegal act more serious than a traffic violation in their lives:
Something else the 'teabaggers' might want to know, because they live in fear of the word, no less the potential for it's enactment in American society (fat chance in the current mileau):
Nine Myths About Socialism in the US
Monday 12 April 2010
by: Bill Quigley, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed
Glenn Beck and other far right multi-millionaires are claiming that the US is hot on the path toward socialism. Part of their claim is that the US is much more generous and supportive of our working and poor people than other countries. People may wish it was so, but it is not.
As Sen. Patrick Moynihan used to say "Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. But everyone is not entitled to their own facts."
The fact is that the US is not really all that generous to our working and poor people compared to other countries.
Consider the US in comparison to the rest of the 30 countries that join the US in making up the OECD - the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. These 30 countries include Canada and most comparable European countries, but also include some struggling countries like Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Korea, Mexico, Poland, Slovak Republic and Turkey.
When you look at how the US compares to these 30 countries, the hot air myths about the US government going all out toward socialism sort of disappear into thin air. Here are some examples of myths that do not hold up.
Myth No. 1: The US Government Is Involved in Class Warfare, Attacking the Rich to Lift Up the Poor.
There is a class war going on all right. But it is the rich against the rest of us and the rich are winning. The gap between the rich and everyone else is wider in the US than any of the 30 other countries surveyed. In fact, the top 10 percent in the US have a higher annual income than any other country. And the poorest 10 percent in the US are below the average of the other OECD countries. The rich in the US have been rapidly leaving the middle class and poor behind since the 1980s.
Myth No. 2: The US Already Has the Greatest Health Care System in the World.
Infant mortality in the US is fourth worst among OECD countries - better only than Mexico, Turkey and the Slovak Republic.
Myth No. 3: There Is Less Poverty in the US Than Anywhere.
Child poverty in the US, at over 20 percent or one out of every five kids, is double the average of the 30 OECD countries.
Myth No. 4: The US Is Generous in Its Treatment of Families With Children.
The US ranks in the bottom half of countries in terms of financial benefits for families with children. Over half of the 30 OECD countries pay families with children cash benefits regardless of the income of the family. Some among those countries (e.g. Austria, France and Germany) pay additional benefits if the family is low income or one of the parents is unemployed.
Myth No. 5: The US Is Very Supportive of Its Workers... Read On
One more thing for the mostly middle class Americans who make up the Tea Bag societal cohort to think about... Your days of mindless "Happy Motoring" are just about over:
In Other Words: Say goodbye to a culture based on 'plastic crap' folks!
The last few drops of 'black blood' will be used to power the Pentagon's military machine defending us from a world of enemies we've created for ourselves, NOT to run your car on your last long drive down to the store for a sixxer and some cigs. Did you ever think otherwise?
Even the food we eat is grown in an artificial environment based on petroleum derived fertilizers, and the pills you take to stay calm... petroleum-based production facilities and ingredients... poised to be unavailable as American society collapses. In Full
Also see: "Listen Teabagger!", title loosely adapted from Wilhelm Reich's anti-Fascist pamphlet "Listen, Little Man!"
Labels:
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US History
Friday, March 26, 2010
Health Care "Reform" - The Democrats Lower The Bar... About Two Inches From The Ground
[OK, so 16 million more Americans may receive MediCare. That's all well-and-good for those millions of 'Baby Boomers' retiring, or soon to retire (like myself). But that's insignificant compared to the number of people in the US who will still go without any health insurance, no less any preventative health services. // Razer]
Stan Goff, Feral Scholar. Short, Sweet... Punchy Summation.
Pig in a poke. The original word was poche, French for ‘pocket.’ Or bag. The old trick was to sell someone a suckling pig, which was wriggling inside a sack. When the buyer gets home and unties the sack to inspect the family holiday supper, voila!, it’s a stray cat. Gotcha!
Obama’s health care bill is a pig in a poke.
The expansion of Medicare to 16 million people is, on balance, a good thing… for now, and smart politics. That’s a lot of votes. Couple of other sops.
But overall, this is the pig in the poke. We can spice that cat up someway…
This bill legally compels people to purchase insurance. From private insurance companies. I hope this proves to be unenforceable. This is theft.
No caps on premiums.
No standardization of benefits.
No restrictions on benefit denials by insurance companies.
Taxing of health benefits.
Obama’s rejection of his pro-choice constituency with his executive order.
The list is very long, and the way it’s now set up, the states will be engaged by a race to the bottom, officiated by Big Insurance.
Bad news all round, but hey, the Dems lowered the bar until they could make the specious claim that they changed history. The leap over this bar was about two inches off the ground.
War and theft.
Vote.
Nothing changes that isn’t changed within arms reach.
Those people don’t care about you. They care about their positions and power, and they’ll eat shovels full of shit to keep their positions and power. That’s their secret. [Source]
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
"The nation’s defense budget is about to tangle with a really dangerous adversary." - Health Reform Scares The Defense Industry
Let it be duly noted that, in America, health care reform (especially any hope for 'Medicare For All') depends on the whims of the defense industry, and they ARE putting the pressure on:Crooks and Liars:
"I've been seeing a number of op-eds in recent defense journals that have a slightly hysterical, paranoid perspective on the "dangers" of health care reform. the authors of these articles are terrified that mounting costs of health care are going to impinge on the defense budget. democrat attempts to give all americans insurance may increase overall health care costs. as a result, a weakened america will be just wide-open to attack by terrorists and china and who knows what else.
Think i'm exaggerating? here's harvey sapolsky, a defense academic out of mit, talking in the national defense journal:
More @ Crooks and Liars"....The revenue for more health care exists in the form of defense expenditures, which have doubled since 9/11. The billions needed for reforming health will likely come, in one way or another, from cuts in defense spending. Personnel reductions will be hard to make because of the burdens that Iraq and Afghanistan deployments place on U.S. forces. Fewer and fewer aircraft and ships will be bought. There will also be less training and more restrictions on operations with and for allies. America has a powerful military that will take a while to unravel, but unravel it will. The nation’s defense budget is about to tangle with a really dangerous adversary."
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