Politics in general.

"Why is history important? Without history, many people have no idea how many of today's half-baked ideas have been tried, again and again - and have repeatedly led to disaster. Most of these ideas are not new. They are just being recycled with re-treaded rhetoric." Thomas Sowell

"Politicians never accuse you of 'greed' for wanting other people's money -- only for wanting to keep your own money." Joseph Sobran

"There is no talent so ardently supported, nor generously rewarded, as the ability to convince parasites they are victims." Thomas Sowell

I read these quotes today and thought how meaningful they are to our U.S. society today. First of all, history has shown us time and time again that a single payer healthcare system does not work. In the second quote, it says that we aren't greedy if we want others to pay for something that we want, but we are greedy if we want to hold onto our own hard earned money. The leftist tendencies accuse those of us who are fiscal conservatives of this exact thing. We, the conservatives, are cruel because we don't want the "poor" or "needy" to get free healthcare. Why is it that I am cruel if I want to hold onto the money that I earned? If I can't afford to pay for my own healthcare, how can I afford to pay for yours?
Supposedly, under Obama's plan, only people making over a certain amount will have to pay for this plan. How is that going to work? I have a lot of questions about this. I don't see how that will work. Most of those poor people who can't afford healthcare are already on Medicaid. We know that Medicaid is already unable to sustain itself and will be in the red within the next 10 years. Everyone who has a job is already paying for this Medicaid system. If Medicaid, is unsustainable, how is it going to work when you add another 40 million people? We already can't pay for Medicaid, but there isn't going to be more taxes added to those of us who make less than a certain amount? How is that possible? The math doesn't add up to me.
The more that I see and read about this proposition on a public health insurance option, the more wary I grow of it. I am one of the common people. I probably would qualify for this healthcare option, but to me it doesn't seem like the best thing for the U.S.
I think that what we really need to do is focus on getting more tort reform for the already existing plans that we have. Make it much harder for patients and lawyers to sue a doctor for unnavoidable problems. I see people suing the doctors for the most idiotic things. Things that most of the time you are cautioned about before the issue arises. Make extremely difficult and non cost effective for people and their lawyers to go after doctors. This would, in essence, push cost back down to where people could afford healthcare again because the insurance companies as well as the doctors wouldn't have to pass those costs onto us the consumer.

Hat tip to American Elephant commenter to Michelle Malkin for this wonderful poster on ObamaCare.

Today is a new day.

"Politicians never accuse you of 'greed' for wanting other people's money -- only for wanting to keep your own money." Joseph Sobran

Today, I have found that this notion of ObamaCare, is completely unacceptable to me. I have read that there is a provision in this plan that allows the government access to my personal bank account if ObamaCare is passed. I will not allow this to happen, and follow like a sheep to the slaughter. The government needs to stay out of my business and my personal life. I have never really been an active political person. I am an average citizen of the U.S. I lost my job a year ago. I have a mortgage and bills just like everyone else. I do not have healthcare and I can not currently afford it. I do not, however, believe that the government owes me healthcare. I have not been to a doctor in 7 years. I am in my mid thirties, unemployed, and without healthcare. I am not on Medicaid, nor do I receive unemployment benefits. I work through a temp agency whenever they can find me a job. I do not think that getting something for nothing is the way to go. I firmly believe that hard work leads to a successful life. I have had a job since I was fifteen years old. I worked hard and paid for my first car with very little help from my parents. I paid for the things that I wanted with my own money from that time forward. Coming from a poor family, I was taught that if I worked hard I would be successful. Successful means different things to different people. To me, being a success means owning my own home, having a family who loves and supports me, as I do them. Success is not being rich and famous. What do the rich have that I don't. They usually do not have happy family lives or good marriages. Why would I want that? That doesn't mean though that I wouldn't be very happy to have a little extra money laying around, or a brand new car. It just means that I wouldn't want to have those things without the kind of family life that I do have.
President Obama says that he wants us all to be able to have healthcare, but mostly he means that he wants the poor to have healthcare. We already have a government program for that. It's called Medicaid, and it is failing miserably. When I was younger, I had a situation where I had to go on Medicaid for a short period of time. It was easily the most awful experience I could go through. I had to find a doctor first who was accepting new patients and who accepted Medicaid. The only one I could find was an hour away from me. Then, when I would get an appointment with him, I would specifically tell the nurse that I wanted to speak to the doctor and ask some questions. I would then get to his office, where I would usually wait for an hour or more, only to find out once I was taken to an exam room that the doctor wasn't available and I would be seeing only his nurse. She would do the tests required, leave me in the room for 15 to 20 minutes at a time, then come back to tell me to get dressed and I could leave. First of all, I believe that if you ask to speak to the doctor, then your appointment should be made when the doctor is in the office. I don't care if you're the poorest person ever or the richest person ever. You should be able to request a visit with the doctor, and have that request taken seriously. Second of all, when I actually did get to see the actual doctor, he didn't have time for me and treated me as if I was sub-human. I saw him one time in the six months that I was seeing that doctor, and that was for about 2 minutes. That is not my view of a great public health system at work.
Another point to make on a public health system. I was in the army. The military basically has this public health system that Obama and his fellow Democrats are trying to push. It is not a fun experience. You go to the doctor. You sit in the office all day waiting and hoping that they will be able to see you that day. Sometimes they can and sometimes you have to go back the next day and start the process all over again. Then when you tell the doctor what is wrong, they make an appointment with a specialist for you. This appointment can be up to six months down the road. If you are in pain, they hand you a prescription for the only drug approved for pain, 500 mg Motrin. If you are like me, Motrin doesn't help anything except for maybe a slight headache. Needless to say, these are two examples of completely ineffective public healthcare. Both are run by the government, and neither are very good at it.
Do you think that ObamaCare would be run any differently? What about the fact that you will only get "approved" drugs? Don't you think that the "approved" drugs will be the ones that are supporters of this healthcare system? These are some great things to think about. I am not above listening to arguments opposite of mine, and if they are able to be proved, then I may be convinced to coming around to a different way of thinking. For now though, my opinion is NO to ObamaCare.