Fiscal Cliff Predictions

My name is Lance wrote:

right. Bring on the death panels and there is now such a thing as "government money". I guess all money is govt money - they just let us keep some of it to play with..

The govt does such a damn fine job with the post office, DMV, Amtrak, education, budget mgmnt, etc., that I can definitely see how we'd want more govt involvement in health care decisions. Look how well the single payer system works in NK & Cuba, after all.

It works fantastic in Cuba, are you kidding? They spend less money with better results.

NK spends even less money than Cuba, and if it weren't for the famine would probably have better health statistics than us.

I can't believe that you picked Cuba. You have no idea what you're talking about.

great point. I apologize for causing the deficits of Amerika. Obviously it was me making big bucks as a junior officr & swimming upstream 20 years ago, attempting to question DOD spending in my little corner, that drove us over the cliff.

It surely wasn't barry spending $7M on his latest Hawaii vacation.

Keep the brilliance coming, bro' Good stuff.

By 'objective', I take it you mean someone with zero experience or knowledge of the topic at hand, yes? You're right - I'm not 'objective'.

Carry on..

OMG. killing me, man. You people are totally hopeless.

"The result is rampant corruption among those in the medical profession. Many doctors collect for their services under the table. On their part, many patients feign illnesses to hoard medicine for future use since pharmacies routinely run out of medication."

wait, doesn't north korea have "free" healthcare for all of its citizens too?

kinda strange how a poster here would praise a communist country's healthcare like cuba's and then say that america needs to do the same.

brownsmith89 wrote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2926410/posts

"The result is rampant corruption among those in the medical profession. Many doctors collect for their services under the table. On their part, many patients feign illnesses to hoard medicine for future use since pharmacies routinely run out of medication."

wait, doesn't north korea have "free" healthcare for all of its citizens too?

kinda strange how a poster here would praise a communist country's healthcare like cuba's and then say that america needs to do the same.

Are you saying NK and Cuba are the same?

I see that went right over your head. Why am I not surprised?

My name is Lance wrote:

great point. I apologize for causing the deficits of Amerika. Obviously it was me making big bucks as a junior officr & swimming upstream 20 years ago, attempting to question DOD spending in my little corner, that drove us over the cliff.

It surely wasn't barry spending $7M on his latest Hawaii vacation.

Keep the brilliance coming, bro' Good stuff.

By 'objective', I take it you mean someone with zero experience or knowledge of the topic at hand, yes? You're right - I'm not 'objective'.

Carry on..

My name is Lance wrote:

pretty sure nobody gives a sh&t where you're from, bro'. What is that, some sort of awkward homo pickup line?

You asked him where he was from. So it was a homo pickup line?

No Way wrote: Are you saying NK and Cuba are the same?

no, i'm not saying they're the same, but they're both communist.

which means that laziness, corruption, and apathy can lead to rationing if everything is "free" and there are no incentives and no opportunities to get ahead in life.

brownsmith89 wrote:

No Way wrote: Are you saying NK and Cuba are the same?

no, i'm not saying they're the same, but they're both communist.

which means that laziness, corruption, and apathy can lead to rationing if everything is "free" and there are no incentives and no opportunities to get ahead in life.

Well gee whiz, they have a similar form of government, they may as well be the same country.

Laziness, corruption, and apathy occur everywhere. You're making an observation about North Korea, applying it to Cuba, and then saying that we shouldn't do what Cuba does because it didn't work in North Korea.

Poitre wrote:

You asked him where he was from. So it was a homo pickup line?

yes, of course. Interested in a gay threesome?

3+ bedroom co-op apartment prices in Manhattan rose 33% in 2012, thanks to the expiration of the Bush tax cuts.

The average is now $4,973,107.

Go Obama!

(Just a shame I didn't sell!)

Randy Oldman wrote:

3+ bedroom co-op apartment prices in Manhattan rose 33% in 2012, thanks to the expiration of the Bush tax cuts.

But they didn't expire in 2012.

Randy Oldman wrote:

3+ bedroom co-op apartment prices in Manhattan rose 33% in 2012, thanks to the expiration of the Bush tax cuts.

The average is now $4,973,107.

Go Obama!

(Just a shame I didn't sell!)

Not only did the tax cuts not expire in 2012, if you own, you should be glad you didn't sell. The price is rising, you want to sell at a higher price.

My name is Lance wrote:

great point. I apologize for causing the deficits of Amerika.

Carry on..

why do you spell things with k's instead of c's? what is the significance of saying "Amerika"?

And if we were in 6 wars in 2001 (or 2002 if you insist on changing years for no apparent reason), how many wars are we in now?

Those most upset with the conclusion of the cliff negotiations continue to point out that no cuts were made on the spending side. Maybe I missed all this, but were any cuts ever proposed? Specifically I mean. Changing the retirement age for social security may have been the only cut I heard being discussed. Why was there an expectation of hundreds of billions of $$ of cuts when nobody put forth the cuts to be made?

No Way wrote:You're making an observation about North Korea, applying it to Cuba, and then saying that we shouldn't do what Cuba does because it didn't work in North Korea.

you didn't read the article.

"A Cuban medical specialist earns an average of $25 a month and Cuban patients often bring their own bed sheets, hypodermic needles, food and water."

"Many doctors collect for their services under the table. On their part, many patients feign illnesses to hoard medicine for future use since pharmacies routinely run out of medication."

good luck defending communist cuba's health care. you believe that corruption exists "everywhere". last time i checked, american doctors weren't asking you to bring your own needles. last time i checked, medical graduates in america were working hard and competing to provide proper treatment for medical emergencies.

"As a result many doctors end up defecting, due to the poor pay, conditions, and treatment in the developing countries to which they are sent. As for work in Cuba itself, the conditions (as previously outlined) and pay are often not much better. On average Cuban doctors are paid $15 a month of which is barely enough to support them."

"'Cuban doctors are not permitted to talk to foreign journalists or diplomats.'"

lack of freedom. bad pay. substandard working conditions.

the american system is not perfect because of greed and middlemen, but if you want to replace it with the cuban system, then that's your opinion.

meeze wrote:

Those most upset with the conclusion of the cliff negotiations continue to point out that no cuts were made on the spending side. Maybe I missed all this, but were any cuts ever proposed? Specifically I mean. Changing the retirement age for social security may have been the only cut I heard being discussed. Why was there an expectation of hundreds of billions of $$ of cuts when nobody put forth the cuts to be made?

I did not see any specific spending cuts being proposed.

I, too just saw complaints being made about a lack of spending cuts.

The House could have taken any of the deals offered them and made a counter offer that asked to put in specific cuts.

Now they are presumed to require spending cuts to raise the debt ceiling.

But they never seem to write them up in a proposed bill.

They mention what they would like and complain when the other side doesn't put them in writing.

Maybe I just have to learn this system a little better, but I think a bill has to be written with specific language on what is to happen before it can be voted on to become law.

(I got that from School House Rock)

Cuba has by far the best health care of any third world country. There is an actual lack of resources there that causes problems. The doctors can't supply needles if they don't have them. What does greed have to do with that? You're still comparing completely different countries. We're not implementing the Cuban system. We're implementing the American system which is based on the systems of most of the first world countries who are decades ahead of us in healthcare. You're picking out how the system isn't perfect in a small poor country, when most countries with universal healthcare are wealthy and successful. By your logic, we shouldn't use capitalism or democracy because it has failed elsewhere.

brownsmith89 wrote:

http://www.global-politics.co.uk/issue9/hanna/

"As a result many doctors end up defecting, due to the poor pay, conditions, and treatment in the developing countries to which they are sent. As for work in Cuba itself, the conditions (as previously outlined) and pay are often not much better. On average Cuban doctors are paid $15 a month of which is barely enough to support them."

"'Cuban doctors are not permitted to talk to foreign journalists or diplomats.'"

lack of freedom. bad pay. substandard working conditions.

the american system is not perfect because of greed and middlemen, but if you want to replace it with the cuban system, then that's your opinion.