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Steve,

First of all, I think you did a very good job of presenting your opinion respectfully. I hope to do the same in this reply. To answer some of your points:

1. About the 47 million: if you go to FactCheck.org and search for "uninsured U.S. citizens" you will find the real number. It is very close to 47 million.

2. In my opinion, saying that we have the best health care system in the world is similar to rooting for your favorite baseball team, no matter how they are doing. The U.S. ranks at number 37 in health care among all countries in the world, according the the World Health Organization. A Reuters article from this January reports that we rank 19 out of the 19 leading industrialized countries in the world when it comes to preventing preventable deaths, and the reasoning is that care in the U.S. is pretty good if you have access to it, but since 40-some million don't, that lowers our rank.

3. About the illegal aliens and companies being penalized for using other than the "government-proposed plan," if you go the FactCheck.org and search for "seven falsehoods" you will find an article that explains why both those things are not true. You may have to scroll down a while to get to your claims.

4. About how health care reform (that's what it is, I believe, not "government-run health care") will raise taxes -- if it does, what would you rather pay taxes for? Would you rather not pay taxes for health care for your fellow citizens and perhaps wind up walking over their dead bodies in the street some day as the situation worsens over the years? If you wind up uninsured, will you be happy to go it alone and not have your fellow citizens pay taxes to help you? I realize your answer may be "yes." That's where we differ, and differ respectfully.

5. On fascism in our government: again, we differ in our viewpoint. I saw fascism in the Bush administration's handpicking of people to attend his speeches, so that opposing views would not be heard. I saw fascism in Dick Cheney's handling of terror suspects -- people not accused of any crime being ripped away from their lives and imprisoned and tortured.

I do not think the Obama administration is suppressing the opposition at all! As for some people in government calling the opposition racist, well, according to my Webster's, a racist is one who believes that a particular race is inherently superior to another race. I don't think it's off-the-wall to think that people holding signs depicting Obama as a witch-doctor or as Curious George (a monkey) are subtly implying that he is inferior to them by virtue of his skin color.

As for the "belligerent nationalism," that is coming from the anti-Obama people, the people who preferred Bush and McCain -- not from those who support Obama, so I don't think your argument for the Obama administration being fascist holds up.

In closing, thank you for your comments. I agree with you about how government programs can spin out of control. I just still think we need them sometimes, especially for the marginalized who cannot access the free market.

And, I feel I must say that the health care reform bill has only one piece that would be "government-run" -- the public option that would be open to only the uninsured and that would function in a manner similar to Medicare. I don't get why that's such a threat to people.

Susan


Susan Gaissert, Democratic Party Editor
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Two separate issues. I'm not sure how you make that assumption based on what was written ?
Universal health care and fascism have nothing to do with one another and I clearly separated the two in my response.

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I'm sorry, what assumption are you referring to?


Susan Gaissert, Democratic Party Editor
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Susan I agree with the need for healthcare reform, what troubles me is, the focus in regard to Preventive Care is exclusively Pills and regular checkups: 66% of americans are obese or diabetic- including some Doctors and Nurses! What's needed is more incentives for Healthy lifestyles- and a decent, reasonable tax on Soda; which, hopefully, would be used to boost proven nutrition programs, such as Meals on Wheels and Government Commodities: The latest proposals out on Healthcare reform doesn't even mention this!


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I agree, Cindy. But, I'm not seeing hope for the idea of true "health" in our "health care" system going anywhere. I was stunned to see that our new Surgeon General, Dr. Regina Benjamin is working part time as scientific advisor for *Burger King* of all places. While she is promoting lower salt in the food, working with them financially links her to this fast food corportation - an icon to grease, corn syrup and the American addiction to way too much meat consumption.

I voted for Obama, but I feel he's taking a turn in a bad direction on this.

Shannon

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Shannon and Cindy, you bring up good points. I also think sometimes that President Obama is trying too hard to please everyone, as in, "You can have your Burger King; we'll lower the salt." I hope to have an article on taxing soda for next week.



Susan Gaissert, Democratic Party Editor
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Lots of great discussion here - as you all bring up such good points I hope you are sharing them with your representatives as well - we are the government - none of us should ever forget that!


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Susan,

FactCheck.org doesn't claim to dispense the truth. They're an internet-based service that supposedly analyzes the accuracy of political advertising. They're funded by the liberal Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, a group that the was Barack Obama�s employer from 1995-99 so I don't put much stock into what they report. There are also millions of people that choose not to pay for health care. They are usually the young and rich. I don't know if there is a way to be able to count the number of people in this group but it's not incidental.

Again, the number of illegals and others that do not have health care (other than the free health care they receive at emergency rooms) can't be considered in rating a country's health care. One can make a general statement that US health care is awful because these groups of people do not participate, but for those that pay for it and receive it, I believe it's still the best.

I never heard that President Bush hand-picked people to attend speeches. I have heard that Obama has done this but, it doesn't surprise me that all political candidates would do that and it doesn't bother me.
I would certainly identify President Obama not speaking with Republican members of Congress about alternatives health care plans after clearly stating that he would opposition and suppression.
Ramming a 1,000 + page health care plan through the Senate without giving its members a chance to fully read and understand it is certainly suppression. These are just a few simple examples.
Is imprisoning and "torturing" terror suspects that most likely saved thousands of American lives a bad thing ? The military thwarted a planned attack in LA similar in scope to 9/11 last year. I'll trade imprisoning even innocent people (until tried) for possible attacks on the US. It's no coincidence that we were not attacked again for the past 8 years. I'm not at all confident that we will continue to be safe here in America.

I don't think there is anything belligerent about the Tea Party demonstrations that some of the democratic pundents have vulgarly called tea ba**ing. Also, it's not a matter of being pro-Bush or anti-Obama. It's the policies that are being proposed that people are against. The color of Obama's skin has nothing to do with the policies being proposed.

Steve

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How could anyone in their right mind be pro-Bush? I think he's the most idiotic, vile creature ever since his father. I also think his attack on terror was planned from the start, and I don't believe it was for the greater good either.

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Steve Casey - come on don't be shy - say what you really mean.

You have expressed my feelings exactly.

That said a great deal of what people are worried and complaining about with their own health care concerns are left over from the last administration's complete lack of concern for any person on the planet. Much of what is now in dispute is left over fear-mongering and divisive engineering - tactics that won Bush a second term when he never should have had a first. Fear is a powerful driver.



Susan Hopf
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