clevelandchick's Comments (3459)

“Oh freaking grow up. Car are freedom? Yeah..being stuck in rush hour traffic is soooo freeing. You're in a small box and you're at the whim of how other people drive (normally not so good). I used to put 60k miles on my car for a living as a multi-state territory manager. The freedom of cars is waaaay over-rated. Half the time I felt like a lemming in a metal box.”

“I used to manage a three state territory. Sometimes I could batch calls over sections of the territory to make the travel highly productive, but other times? No. In fact, many times I couldn't. People do not manage their business in a manner that is always convenient or manageable for their vendors. Your customers do not have your schedule in mind when planning their business or making decisions.

I'd often get calls from clients to be somewhere I wasn't planning ASAP. If I was needed in Cinci for a big project the next day and I didn't have time to make any appointments en route or the way back to make the trip by car worthwhile? I would drive from Cleveland to Cinci and back in one day. That's 9 hours of driving to make one sales call. At least if I were on a train I could be working instead of driving during that time.

Rail would be a Godsend to business and tourism within any state. As someone who has put over 60k miles on her car a year for business? I say hallelujah for trains! If I did not have to drive hours through cornfields and carnage just to get to one sales appointment and could relax and spend that time catching up with other work duties on my laptop? I would love it. So would any person the least bit serious about their business and developing the economy in their state.”

“My prediction:

All consumer protections such as pre-existing conditions and lifetime caps will be wiped from this bill during this transparent closed session. Because, that's what the insurance companies who donate money to both parties will work for. They need that to keep making obscene profits off of the American people and they will get what they want because they will threaten every incumbent up for election with their gobs of money i.e.: 'We'll give the money we'd normally give to you to the other guy/gal'.

And the Obama apologists will still promise the rest of us who are upset about that turn of events (while calling us lefty/hippy/ideolgical purists): "Someday" it will all magically get fixed in subsequent bills even though the quid pro quo Congressional sytem hasn't changed one iota. And there will be a free unicorn with every prescription drug purchased at 1000% of the cost they could have gotten it from Canada.

I'm willing to put up $100 dollars that my prediction comes true. Any takers?”

“More people die from lack of adequate insurance...not just lack of insurance at all. 2/3 of people declaring bankruptcy for medical reasons have health insurance!

If you pay a premium in additon to high deductibles, the average person is not going to go to the doctor until that health issue outweighs the cost. Because they can't afford to and many times that's when it's too late.

Ho hum yourself. This isn't just about those who die from lack of insurance, it's about breaking the middle-class even further by burdening them with premiums and deductibles they can't afford. Talk about ideological purity, it seems you only care about those who die from lack of insurance and not those who die from lack of ADEQUATE AFFORDABLE insurance.

Show me where this bill makes insurance affordable for the average middle-class American who has no access to employer paid health insurance if you are so damn confident this bill is so great.”

“Exactly. The concept of an SSI program would never go insolvent if the money that is supposed to paid into such a social program were only used for that program. Set aside in the oft-mocked "lock box" Al Gore talked about. The SSI trustees and think tanks use extremely inflated criteria. Like every single Boomer will live to be 100 and draw from the program. That's not going to happen.

What we're seeing is the "drowning" of the entitlement programs in Grover Norquists' bathtub. The Republicans and Neocons with the help of the New Democrats grew government spending in other sectors and fought wars off budget by borrowing in an effort to destroy FDR's New Deal. Well...that, and to make some money for themselves and their buddies. We've been waging wars off budget since Vietnam. And like Vietnam, none of these wars have done anything but drain resources. We pay private contractors to drive trucks in Iraq 12 times what it would cost for a soldier to do the same work. We gave billions to the financial institutions who refuse to lend Main Street money to get the economy going again.

The money that we could be using to shore up our obligations to the citizens who pay taxes isn't going up in the clouds...it's going to politcally connected private industry.”

“If the average age for a Boomer is 90 I'll eat my shoe.”

“Were the Canadians forced to pay private insurance companies that have been making a killing (literally) on the deaths of citizens?

In Canada, did the private insurance companies enjoy anti-trust immunity? Because they do here and that isn't changing.

The thing is, in Canada....they tested a Universal HC program first and then it spread. That's not what is happening here.

This is a bailout of the insurance industry that didn't need bailing out, it needed to be regulated and the system needed to become affordable for it's citizens. This bill does not address affordability for the majority of the population in any realistic terms.”

“But if the first bill is written by the lobbyists, what makes you think the consequent "amendments" to it won't be?”

“Nah....just won't bother giving money or voting. No point. RNC/DNC....potato..potahto.

40% of those who voted Dem in the last election aren't going to bother next time around. That's a heckuva lot of "purists" you're going to be missing when you need them most. But by all means, keep calling them that....it's soooo gonna do you good in 2010.”

“My "research" includes the published Senate Bill in discussion. Try reading it yourself and not using Politifact as your only resource.”

“Yep. No automatic loyalty. Make them spend that money the lobbyists gave them.”

“So? That doesn't make it automatically good. Republicans are going to be against any perceived success...whether it's good for us or not.”

“Look...I'm a liberal but the Republicans aren't going to vote for anything Obama does. If Obama declared 'Kittens Are Cute' Republicans would say...."but they have teeth and claws, we should torture them for scratching at our ankles".

But that doesn't mean just because Republicans are against it that it's automatically a good bill. They are against everything because they are out of power....good or not. It's how they fundraise for the upcoming elections.

The bill is not good, regardless of what Republicans say.”

“I'm excited for the Three-C rail project here in Ohio.....but please...we need a decent route to Chicago!
Get Indiana on board! No pun intended.”

“Your money is being spent in Iraq and Afghanistan. And, on the interest on the debt the US pays China to fund these conflicts. That would be why you won't get your money.”

“Exactly. Your retirement is being spent in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

“It's simple math....more people in the work force than those retiring should cover the SSI benefit of those leaving the workforce, especially because not every retiree lives long enough to realize the entire benefit of the money they put in.

The problem is not with the SSI entitlement program itself but how the government has been handling the money that should have been set aside for said entitlement. Like I said, Al Gore was right. If that money was put in a 'lock box', we would not have a problem.”

“Retirement age is 65, if you're in your 40's it's actually 67. Few Americans retire at 55. Not every person makes it to retirement age or even lives long enough past retirement to use all of their SSI benefits.

The criteria the resources you cite base their projections on unrealistic outcomes...like if every single person of the Boomer generation makes it to retirement and lives to be 100 years old. Not gonna happen.

So what is the projected overall population in 2020? That figure is not going to remain stagnant for the next 10 years. Population increases, the number of Boomers working or retiring is not more than or equal to the number of workers in the force.

Surprise! Your government is lying to you! Think Tanks are partisan entities funded by various political parties and they're lying too.

Both sides of the aisle can manipulate these reports depending on their agenda. Both sides do so in order to get their base riled up and into the voting booth.

If the fund was left alone for it's intended use instead of constantly raided by Congress and other agencies, it would remain solvent indefinitely.”

“Congress didn't need to pass huge industry giveaway bill to regulate the insurance companies' heinous practice of recission, pre-existing condition denial and lifetime limits. They could have just passed a bill making those practices illegal. They could have passed (and should have a long time ago) a bill to close the Medicare Part D loophole.

Minimum benefits exist now. Pay a premium you can afford and related higher deductibles, only go to the doctor until the deductible cost is outweighed by your health needs. That still doesn't help anyone from going bankrupt because 2/3 of those who declare bankruptcy for medical reasons have health insurance. How does this bill address that issue?

The lobbyists and legislators who benefit from their largesse wrote this bill. Why hasn't Congress or The President addressed the public's fears related to it? The only defense of this bill put forth has been political and not based on it's substance.

Show me where the bill makes health care more affordable for the vast majority of Americans and I'll shut up.”

“This bill does not address affordability which is the problem with our system. I've been trying to read the Senate bill, which will be the one that goes to vote since the House is not going to have a conference with the Senate on the bill. Nothing in it addresses affordability in any realistic sense.”

“Isn't the IRS going to be the entity that polices the mandate? Aren't they going to be the entity that levies and collects the fine if you don't purchase the mandated insurance?

How are these 'caps' determined? I read the Senate bill. There is a provision that says an insurance company cannot charge more than 2 to 1 based on age. So a 50 year old is supposedly protected by not having to pay more than twice as much as a 30 year old? Is that the wonderful 'cap' you are talking about?

Junk insurance is the same concept "minimum benefits" represent. Here in Ohio the only way some can afford auto insurance is to purchase low cost plans with extremely high deductibles. So the effect is: can't afford to pay the deductible, drive around with a smashed in bumper.

Don't you think the same situation will occur with this reform? If someone can't afford a decent plan with a manageable deductible, they'll buy the minimum plan with the highest deductible. Sure they're covered for a health emergency but not for health care. They won't go to the doctor because they cannot afford the deductible.

This bill does NOT address affordability which is the big problem with our health care system to begin with. Yes, some lower income people will be covered but it does not address the issue of affordability for 90% of the American public.”

“All I know is that the day the Senate Bill was passed, insurance company stocks went through the roof. That tells me the legislation is good for them and bad for me.

Having the IRS act as a bag man for the insurance industry so they can force citizens to buy their woefully inadequate products is the wrong way to go about it.

Millionaires in Congress deciding how much a family can afford in premiums to health insurance companies with no mechanism to protect them from price gouging is the wrong way to go about it.

This insurance mandate will be exactly what state mandated auto insurance will be. Those who can't afford a decent plan (make too much money to be considered poor) will be forced to buy junk plans that cover squat.”

“There are still more employees in the workforce paying in than retiring even with the Boomers. Our population has increased every year since the Boomers were born. So it is completely illogical that the Boomers retiring would bankrupt the fund.”

“WaPo is a Neocon rag, a far cry from the days of Katherine Graham.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/031509.html”

“Thank you! If the fund was left alone it would last indefinitely because as people retire, more people enter the workforce.

Al Gore was right and I'm tired of both parties dangling this issue as bait. The Democrats should have the cojones to protect SSI and call the GOP out on their b.s. But then again, that would probably mean less pork for their districts.”