Bush Wants Universal Healthcare Too
Written by Sam on September 18th, 2007Leavitt told the USA TODAY editorial board that Bush will veto a Democratic plan emerging from Congress that would add $35 billion in taxpayer subsidies to the Children’s Health Insurance Program over five years. In doing so, Leavitt said, Bush will urge Congress to join him in seeking coverage for all Americans.
“He’d like to see the larger debate begin,” Leavitt said. “The very best opportunity we have may well be in the next 15 months.”
I guess everyone better warm up to the idea that this is coming, like it or not. The American people are too dependent on government in the 21st Century to live without the nanny anymore. The plan Clinton unveiled will cost $110 billion a year, which means it will really be closer to 200 to 300. This is fiscally abhorrent considering that we are nearing a national debt of $9 trillion dollars.
Now, Bush is evidently jumping on the bandwagon, no doubt in part to thinking that this is a way to pull people back to the GOP. I’m sure his idea is that if they can pass this during a Republican administration people will credit his party for “delivering health care to all Americans.” Of course, it’s just the opposite that will be true as the Republican base will be alienated even further than they already are and the fiscally conservative Libertarians and independents will be mortified.
Yes, welcome to yet another unsustainable entitlement, courtesy of Washington. Enjoy the waiting lists you’ll all be on to see your doctor. Hopefully, you don’t need an MRI. You’ll be waiting six months like they do in England. If you’re lucky, Grandma won’t need a hip replacement because she’ll be sticking it out, suffering for over a year like they do in Canada. Oh, and ladies, hopefully you won’t be in the situation that Karen Jepp was. She had to drive from her home in Calgary down to Montana to deliver her quadruplets because the hospitals in Calgary were short neonatal beds. At least she had the U.S. to drive to, though. Where will you go?
You only have to look at every other nation that has a socialist system to see the failure that it is, but facts have never mattered much to the pro entitlement lobby. We need only look at the fiscal mess that Social Security and Medicare have become to know what the future of nanny state health care will hold.
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The GOP has to have a conversation on this; we don’t have to come out for universal coverage but we do have to have a position on this. There is a substantial group of people, in the millions, who are not covered by health insurance simply because they don’t need it.
However, it is worth noting that these same people are costing federal and state governments money everytime they magically pop into the emergency room.
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To the readers –
All of Sam’s examples are taken without citation from a John Stossel hit piece on Michael Moore’s movie. Even if the posters here plagiarize, one would think that they would do it from a source more reputable than a sensationalist tabloid television program.
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No, Publius, my examples are not taken from a John Stossel hit piece on Michael Moore’s movie. They are from an LA Times article from April
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-tanner5apr05,0,2227144.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail
and the Halifax News
http://www.hfxnews.ca/index.cfm?sid=59172&sc=89
I don’t plagiarize and I do not appreciate being publicly accused of such dishonesty. I’ll patiently await your apology.
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Here’s a video of John Stossel’s piece:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/18/wife-of-victim-from-michael-moores-sicko-responds-to-stossel-hit-piece/
It’s pretty convenient that all these examples from obscure papers that you dug up just *happened* to be indexed in his television piece. Do you regularly read the Halifax news?
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No, I don’t normally read the Halifax News. It’s called doing a Google search. All of my examples are credible and true and that is the bottom line. Unless you have a crystal ball that allows you to see into the thoughts of others this conversation if over. You are nothing more than an annoying parasite who trolls our site on a daily basis because you have nothing better to do with your time and as a general rule, I don’t waste my time on such people.
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ALL your examples come from Stossel’s piece. To claim that you found them all independently, and that Stossel just happened to find the same pieces is completely ludicrous.
Your examples are credible, but plagiarized without citation. I’ll let the readers watch the video and make up their own minds.
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If you had a class write a term paper on examples of Christian imagery in Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, or on proof that this or that character in some other book is the “tragic hero,” every essay written by a competent reader would cite exactly the same passages in the book. Is that proof that the students all copied off each other?
People are too quick to accuse each other of plagiarism. Sometimes the best examples to illustrate a point are the ones that are so obvious that everyone uses them.
Publius, if you were in my toilet bowl I wouldn’t bother flushing it. (And that, incidentally, is a plagiarized line. Suck it up and walk it off.)
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By the way, I’ve never even heard of the Halifax News, and virtually no conservatives read the L.A. Times.
Moron.
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Alan —
That’s EXACTLY the point. For Sam to claim that he just ran across these articles by chance is ludicrous. If he took the stories from Stossel’s piece, he should just say so.
Watch the video clip. Stossel covers exactly the same anecdotes Sam coincidentally cites, even in the same order:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/18/wife-of-victim-from-michael-moores-sicko-responds-to-stossel-hit-piece/
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Here are my solution to the health care/insurance situation.
1. Increase the availability of over the counter (OTC) products. If the product is not a narcotic, steroid, or antibiotic the product should be OTC legal. This will significantly lower the costs of many medications.
2. Tort Reform: damage caps and a loser pays system will lower health care costs be a few percentage points.
3. Remove legal restrictions that impede the creation of “Docboxes” such as Wall-Mart’s Independent in Store Clinics and Walgreen’s Convenient Care Clinics. These clinics provide cheap diagnosis and treatment of common medical problems.
4. Allow individuals to purchase what ever type of medical insurance that they want. Currently many states require consumers of health insurance to purchase many additional products under their health insurance plans (mental health coverage, birth control coverage, etc.) these requirements significantly increase the costs of those plans.
5. Expand the availability of HSAs.
6. Allow Physician Assistants and Nurse Practitioners to sell their services as primary care providers.
7. Increase transparency of medical prices.
8 Deregulation of the insurance market in order to establish interstate competition.
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Only in a leftist reality is an extreme leftist blog like Crooks and Liars considered more credible than ABC News.
Come on Publius argue the points. At least make an effort to defend Socialized Medicine instead of attacking the messenger. Wow us with your incredible intellect.
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I did not cite anything from crooksandliars.com itself. I only linked to it because they archived the video from ABC, which clearly shows the material that Sam blatantly plagiarized.
Do you think that crooksandliars.com concocted the video just to make Sam out to be a plagiarizer?
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I believe in an earlier thread Publius scoffed, “I don’t put up links to DailyKos, so I’m not reading your Heritage link.” (paraphrased)
Really? The Heritage Foundation, a respected think tank, is the same as DailyKos? … but wait… Crooks and Liars is completely justified?
Where’s your consistency? Hell, if there’s something that has actual credibility on Kos, I’m happy to read it. Same with Brookings or other liberal sources (and unlike you I’m not placing Brookings, a respected institution, in the same vein as Kos, fyi). But according to you, a conservative think tank that is well respected is just like DailyKos. Yet Crooks and Liars is OK. Awesome!
Do you ever, ever just debate the issues or are you always mired in meaningless sniping?
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Langley — Read the post above
I only linked to crooksandliars because they archived the video! Had it been archived on ABC, I would have linked there.
Do you think crooksandliars concocted the video with a John Stossel look-alike in their editing studio just to make Sam look like a plagiarizer?
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This is outrageous. Don’t the administrators of this blog other than Sam have anything to say about this?
Watch the Stossel clip — on ABC, crooksandliars or wherever you want to watch it. Sam blatantly plagiarized his examples. He then lied and made up a ridiculous story about how he coincidentally came across exactly the same anecdotes on his own (from sources like the Halifax news) and in the same order as Stossel covered them.
If the owners of this blog don’t condemn such flagrant dishonesty, you have lost any rigts to claim yourselves credible commentators. I’m sure next time one of you runs for some sort of election, your opponent will be happy to inform the voters about what you consider to be a normal and acceptable level of integrity.
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The only thing that is outrageous (well, maybe just funny) is your daily hyperventilating written out on this blog because apparently you have nothing better to do.
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Going back and counting, you’ve typed far more lines in response to my posts than I’ve typed to you or anyone else. I visit this blog because there are occasionally posts that demonstrate principled conservatism rather than angry Rush Limbaugh ranting (Sam) or idiotic partisan badmitton games (Sean). Also, I don’t frequently have an opportunity to interact with the hoi polloi. It’s a nice diversion sometimes.
I still can’t believe nobody else on this blog cares about such blatant dishonesty. Eh, maybe the culture of corruption applies more broadly…
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Publius, the contributors of this blog like to debate points not sniping.
So how is Dubai?
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Pointing out plagiarism and lying is sniping?
Dubai is great — Rather than whining about the income tax rate, do something about it and move over here where the first 85K of your income is tax-free. I’m sure it wouldn’t mean much for you guys to get the first 85K tax free, but for a little guy like me it makes a big difference.