raker's Comments (455)

“This guy couldn't have telegraphed his intentions more plainly if he'd sent a letter to Janet Napolitano herself. He paid cash for his ticket; someones ears should have pick up. He had no luggage to check; someone's eyes should have widened. He was on a "watch" list; alarm bells should have been ringing. This thing has all the earmarks of a "Pink Panther" movie. We'd be better served to fix what we have so that it works, and keep our big mouths shut about what we're doing, than we would be by buying very expensive glorified x-ray machines so the TSA can see what we have in our pockets. It would make better sense to buy coveralls without pockets for every passenger to wear during the flight.”

“Excellent points!!!”

“Sorry you seem to think that rationing is a buzzword. For me it's simply a statement of experience - that's real experience with two universal healthcare systems, as opposed to the "what I heard" experience of many here. It's the experience of having a loved one die after being on a waiting list for 9 months for an MRI to determine whether a tumour was operable, of having a hip replacement to ease a loved one's constant pain denied, because she was 75 yrs of age, of > 3 month waiting lists to see specialists for an answer to debilitating health problems.

As far as your comment on wishing to deny access to quality healthcare to all - I said no such thing, and support dramatic changes to healthcare to allow just that. Changes implemented in a well thought out, measured and paced manner.

Problem of course is - just like the article above cites - the government track record on providing solutions to difficult problems is - to say the least - not very impressive, and leads to lots of knee-jerk, poorly thought out responses with all sorts of unintended consequences.

Republicans hatred for mankind? Perhaps remind me of the statistics of charitable giving for Republicans vs Democrats. I seem to recall that our POTUS had a pretty lean track record on that one. The true test on giving is how much of your own money you're willing to give to help others, not how much of someone else's”

“You seem to be having your own "Napolitano moment" here. If a system that is expected to be bankrupt in just a few years, has an outrageous track record for fraud and abuse, has a higher claim denial rate than the private health insurance providers who are constantly vilified at this website - sometimes rightly so - and will increasingly be shunned in future by medical providers since their solution to reducing costs is to reimburse HC providers at less than cost, then you (and LeftRight) are spot on. The government-run healthcare system is outstanding! Except for the parts that don't work, that is.

As for your other comments about elsewhere in the industrialized world that it works - having lived in Canada for 32 years and the UK for 7 I can say if the rationing approach practiced elsewhere is your idea of a great system - you're right again.

On your insurance industry profits comment - perhaps you need to quit drinking the Kool-Aid and actually do a bit of research yourself. The "facts" do not bear up your assertion of doing great - unless of course ROI's of less than 5% are your idea of doing great.”

“The only reason that people think Medicare has a "good track record" is because the private insurance and private investment have been subsidizing Medicare for 40 years. Most health care providers lose money when they deal with Medicare. They make up for it thanks to the rest of us. Medicare as an operating institution is just as incompetence-prone as any other government agency, but the effects have been mediated by private investment.

Once we have Medicare-for-most, we will see this change quickly. The quality and availability of services will plummet and the research and innovation will slow to a trickle. Only the very rich will get the level of care that we take for granted today. This has already happened in those lauded European countries that the Dems hope to emulate.

Just read the article above and replace the names of the agencies and you have a perfect picture of the future of health care in America.”

“Good one!”

“Good point, clearly someone else is pulling their strings.”

“Wow raker! You said it.”

“that is true, especially for vegetarians just starting out; or "starchatarians" They usually stick to carbs like potatoes, pasts and end up gaining weight.”

“I'm not sure he was suggesting that what is going on with Wood's right now is "racism". He was simply pointing out that to tie Woods and Obama to the say, Lay's and Maddoff's of the world, is a little weird. The first two haven't done anything criminal.”

“Eastern Orthodox celebrate the Epiphany (means the appearance in Greek) and other Catholic countries (latin america) do as well.

In the Dominican Republic we didn't receive gifts from SC on Dec. 25th but rather from the Three Wise Men on January 6th (the Epiphany) . It's called Día de los Reyes Magos or Día de los Santos Reyes.

As children we left hay for the camels (yeah camels in the Caribbean, go figure) ,cigars and rum for the Three Wise Men (my Dad) and in the morning we would open the gifts left by the nativity scene.

Seriously never warmed up to that whole Santa story when we moved here. Too weird.lol”

“Oh, believe me, I can't stomach much more than a few minutes of it; after the above mentioned silliness, I turned it off.”

“I agree; this morning on "Morning Joe" some AA talking head was spouting off about how the US government is bogged down by influence by the "Far Left."

What's more disturbing is that millions will accept that absurd comment as a fact.”

“I agree with you raker, I don't think most of the Dems. really want to antagonize their bosses in Corporate America. The 60% rule gives them cover and they want to keep it that way. They reward the egotistical jerks who are willing to be the scapegoats, and they know their paymasters will be happy with the end results. In politics there are always loopholes and ways around everything just as there are in dealing with tax laws. If the Dems. really wanted to get around the 60% rule they could do it in a number of different ways. They can change any procedural rule they want to at the beginning of each session with a simple majority. I wish every member of the house would have a primary challenger next year. That might help some of them remember who they represent.”