Didn't you know, all along, that the goal of U.S. policy in Iraq was about accessing oil?
Not oil as in those production levels at the onset of the Bush era incursion in March, 2003. But newer, stronger, American-style production levels. American oil companies had been forbidden from exploring and developing new oil fields since the nationalization of Iraq's reserves in 1972 and those American oil companies have long contended that Iraqi estimates of their potential reserves are grossly underestimated, by perhaps as much as a couple of hundred billion barrels.
Likewise, didn't you know all along that Republican opposition to current health care reform is about maintaining the unconscionable monopoly that insurance companies have in the American economy. Why? For the same reason Bush went to war in Iraq, spent money we didn't have, pushed the country into financial ruin and did more to threaten our long term national security than any modern president. The GOP needs contributions. I would never contend that the GOP is alone in this practice. When an administration awards contracts to some supporter, they anticipate more support. But no group, in the history of this country, has ever done this to such an extent. Remember, I am always careful to separate the leadership of any party from its rank and file. So when I level such a charge against "Republicans", I am referring to their leadership on Capitol Hill. But, I think it's safe to say now that the war in Iraq was started to provide U.S. oil companies with the opportunity to develop new oil fields there in return for the massive campaign contributions those oil companies will make to the Republicans in 2010 and, especially, 2012 in their effort to unseat President Obama.
The same is true for the health care industry, and insurance companies in particular. They don't want reform. The current system works quite well for them. If an excess of Americans die due to insufficient health care, so what. Republican leaders argue that health care reform will lead to a big, fat, incompetent bureaucracy that will gobble up billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars and provide little accountability. But wait. Isn't the Pentagon a big, fat, incompetent bureaucracy that gobbles up...? Well, you get it.
The Pentagon wastes more money on more crap that you and I don't need and gets it wrong, on a policy level, more often than not since 1960 (I'll give them a pass on Korea, due to all the Cold War anxiety at the time). Republicans never flinch. Spending on the military, and subsequent sales of those weapons systems around the world, help the U.S. economy, in their mind. Those companies, in turn, contribute to the campaigns of men like George W. Bush. This is especially so now that the Pentagon, in the ultimate sign of their stupidity, abdication of their responsibilities and tacit compliance with GOP fundraising goals, have privatized the U.S. military to the tune of one million dollars per soldier in Afghanistan.
Think about that. Recruitment is down. This Pentagon has a shortage of willing and competent soldiers who can run our military machinery. So what do they do? Do they improve recruitment, training and pay for soldiers? No. They privatize as much of these duties as they can (with no bid contracts for staggering sums of money) and create new businesses that, in turn, will contribute to those that helped them
The health care industry wastes untold billions, then passes those costs on to insurance companies who then exploit your fear and pass them on to you. Fear of Al Qaeda. Fear of getting sick without insurance and, therefore, access to effective medical care. Keep everything the way it is, out of fear. Fear that it could get worse. That's the Republican way. These guys have this country coming and going.
Health care reform means less money for insurance companies. Thus less money for the GOP. We should pass this bill for that reason alone.
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The policies are purposely confusing so no one will push back. And we are so concerned about possibly losing our coverage that we don't really want to protest how they are written. But some questions could create a stir....and demonstrate how dysfunctional the current system is.
I'd just like to point out that the GOP isn't the only party who gets money from Big Oil.
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/obamas_oil_spill.html
"Two of Obama's bundlers are top executives at oil companies and are listed on his Web site as raising between $50,000 and $100,000 for the presidential hopeful." You stated that the oil companies would want to unseat President Obama. Hence why I posted the link and excerpt.
"I would never contend that the GOP is alone in this practice."
Politics differs from horse racing in that you'll never make a profit from betting on all horses, but in politics you'll always see bigger returns from betting on all parties.
There are two health care problems. Cost and availability.
1.Cost: The ONLY way to reduce costs is to increase supply or reduce demand and since we're increasing demand, only the former is possible. The government should focus on reducing the cost of providing services. Universities get a lot of $ from the government that could be leveraged to lower the cost of medical degrees and other training.
Then tort reform must be addressed. Maybe the first form of single payer should be for malpractice insurance. If juries knew the public was directly paying big lawsuit awards, the amounts might come down from the stratosphere. Either way, doctors could afford to stay in practice.
2.Availability: This is the tougher of the two because our natural inclination is that everyone should have the best possible care. The truth is if varying levels of care were available, and patients bore some of the cost, market forces would work as they always do and more health care would become available to more patients. Not everyone would get the same quality of care, but more individuals that have no care today would gain access. This is a case of the perfect being the enemy of the good.
It is for the two reasons above, that the current bill should not become law.
months later they relented. What a nightmare. I do realize I am luckier than others, but if it had been my Mom who was weak from a bad heart at the time, she couldn't fight..just die, as they want. then it's the life insurance fight
Once I briefly met an old war-film maker who'd been in Iraq, Vietnam, and other countries during "Wars" to make films. He said the same thing as you did. It was nothing else but "OIL" that made US to get into Vietnam and Iraq, no matter whatever excuses were made to justify those wars.
There should be more exposures of behind scene, hidden stories / truth, like this.
Now, how many people are doing that today? If anything, Fox news is the dinner table discussion. Most of the news is bogus and the papers are as well. This is a roundtable of profit making in this country and they are all singing the same song. How many of the general population is aware of this? How many even know how to ask the hard/insightful questions?
I for one keep beating my drum in my own personal circles, but many are simply uninterested. They have more important matters to attend, shopping, church, ball- games, etc.
I fear things will need to get a lot worse before we capture the attention of enough people to demand change and actually rouse themselves to vote it in.
The so called "Teabaggers" like the attention so much they don't realize they are being used as pawns to fight for big Health Insurance Industry, BigPharma and Big Oil who by the way are financing and organizing thier "grassroots" events from behind the scenes. What a laugh. These people just point fingers at every boogie man Fox News has inveneted when in fact thier biggest enemies are themselves and thier pride of being uninformed idiots who call thierselves "teabaggers" and "rogue" without knowing the common definitions of either word..
So let's not restrict this to Fox News, let's go after ALL the news, and while we're at it, let's go after ALL channels we don't want to have to pay for to tget the ones we want. Isn't that (ahem) ..fair?
The trend of privatization across the board is one which appears to be gaining popularity with governments who have failed in their fiscal policy. The easiest option is to sell everything off. The State government where I live is attempting to engage in the process of mass liquidating public assets like roads, shipping ports and railways. For goodness sake, what is government there for, if not to maintain essential public infrastructure and services?