dippin, both of your last two posts have been very good.

I suspect that you and your friend are against most of the health care reform proposals. I am genuinely curious to understand this position without any left or right name calling. If the estimates are somewhat true that at the present rate health insurance will cost the average family $30,000 per year by 2019, do you think this is sustainable? Is it the anti-reform protesters' position that the out of control health care cost will take care of itself and the government should leave things as they are?

Hmm... let's see... in following with the keen sense of logic, deductive reasoning, science, and sense of fairness applied here by you and others, you might as well call them witches.



The herd on this thread seems about as informed on the subject as the fine citizens portrayed in this clip.

the article dippin linked to above makes the obvious point, the one that's been made repeatedly by analysts from different areas of the political spectrum (populist conservatism aside of course)--which is that the movements themselves shaped by (depart from & refer back to) the situation of the republican party and, within that, to the particular situation of the coalition that the republicans stood to benefit from that pulled in the far right. this has a pretty definite history---it got underway in earnest during the clinton period, but it's origins extend well before that.

the aim of the movement is, as i've said before, dominating news cycles. the strategy is to generate a sense of loss of momentum for the image of obama.

so what matters is that the teabagtypes get television coverage, not so much what they say. what matters is that cameras turn to them. what this presupposes is that conservative actions get press exposure in ways that have no correlate for anything on the left such as it is.

for many years, a lynchpin of conservative political discourse has been projection: anything conservatives do is staged as a reaction to, or is legitimated with reference to, something that happens from it's mirror image in "the left". so it is with the astonishing amount of press coverage that's been lavished on a movement that seems to me entirely incoherent. to maintain the illusion of "the liberal press"---source of much of the right's misfortune in the land shaped by it's internal language---there has to be no particular difference in amounts of coverage between these actions and any other. that this is materially false is beside the point.

==============
conservative language is a funny thing. you can gather information and assemble a pretty good idea of how it's going to be used at any given point. the language is pretty compact and is predicated on generating a clear us/them distinction. this distinction repeats at most other registers.

it's not surprising that folk who mobilize around that language don't inhabit the cognitive space shaped by it at all times, and that talking as individuals there'd be considerable variation in how x or y thinks.

but we're talking about an organized political action here. we're talking about a collective action that relies on certain common assumptions. we're talking about an organized action that is strange because there's no agreement as to what the issue at hand really is. there's no particular problem with talking about the actions as actions.

but i think most of the tfp conservative folk know this full well---for example, even though roachboy and many folk argue about stuff on different grounds and sometimes in a kinda heated manner, i expect that any could have a beer one on one and things would be fine, and quite different than these discussions.

but this is obvious.
it's been obvious.
you can talk about how an action is organized and not make statements about the attitudes of every individual who supports that action.
but if we all know that, then what's the point of all the snippy posts here complaining about how misunderstood this or that individual conservative feels for apparently feeling lumped in with the teabaggers (an expression i like)?

Please, point out the points we're uninformed about. I'm dying to know.

Tea Party Handbook: Medicare Advantage is One Target

Also, a quick google search of teapartypatriots.org:

http://teapartypatriots.org/Group/Be...llwood_City_Pa.

"To bring public attention to what is in the HR 3200 Bill, how the government wants access to your checking account, large Medicare cut backs and how the impact of the bill will destroy small business by forcing health care on all employees! "

Of course, silence often speaks louder than words, and of all the things to protest and to cut, the 912dc.org site has no mention whatsoever of cutting medicare.

as far as military spending goes, a simple google of military budget tea parties:

Missile Defense - Tea Party

http://www.myheritage.org/assets/pdf...budget_4-3.pdf

"The Obama budget fails to fully fund the core defense needs of the United States. About $30 billion more is needed in the base defense budget."

Tea Party Talking Points: Obama's War on the American Dream

"Instead of cutting defense spending, the Administration should restore missile defense funding and maintain a minimum defense budget of 4% of GDP for the next 10 years, not including war funding."

[QUOTE=dksuddeth;2704152]This constitutional republic that was built was designed to protect the rights of the minority from the desires of the majority. I'm guessing that this was something pretty important to you from 2000-2008, but is probably less so currently. would that be about right?


and wanting to disregard the rights and fears of others to implement policy that YOU deem worthy makes you what? for a clue, look at the 3rd word of your last sentence above.[COLOR="DarkSlateGray"]

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I have no problem with standing up for the minority, as long as their arguments are based on reality and facts, not emotional nonsense and misinformation.

I don't disregard the rights and fears of others, once those fears have been effectively proven to be irrational, and people still fear them anyway, that is willfull ignorance on their part and they can't be helped. I wish it weren't so but you can't help someone who refuses to see reality.

First, it's not just the health care reform. I don't think the government should be bailing out the economy in any way, shape or form. And I don't care what Bush and his predecessors did or didn't do. They aren't in office now. Obama is and he needs to assume responsibility for what he's done. And he's gone over the top and not even paused to look back.

Second, I don't think the government has any business running a for profit company or making profits by loaning them money, etc. It's just too easy for the government to pass laws and regulations benefiting the companies they run or do business with and harm competitors. I had the impression there were laws preventing that for exactly taht reason.

Third, I think the government trying to stimulate the economy is a tremendous waste of taxpayer money with a good chance of not being repaid. I think part of the crash is a readjustment of the size of the economy since borrowed money isn't so available to finance people's lifestyles and drive up demand/prices for products.

As far as the health care, I watched Obama's speech to Congress and have the following objections

Obama wants no restrictions on insurance because of prior conditions. That sounds nice, but what happens when insurance companies start losing money because they have to hold their premiums down but their costs go up because of more treatment? What about people with self-inflicted prior conditions? Why shouldn't they assume responsibility for the consequences of their actions?

Obama wants no cap on insurance coverage. That also sounds nice, but again, what happens to the insurance companies because their premiums can't rise but their costs go up because people now have unlimited money for medical treatment?

Why should insurance companies not be allowed to make a profit when other essential businesses like farmers are allowed to make profits? I'm pretty sure insurance companies are part of my 401K funds, and I'd like to make money off my investments.

Obama says he wants to at least in part fund health care by savings in Medicare. I saw one figure where the plan is to find $500B in savings in Medicare in 10 years. One website I found puts the Medicare budget somewhere around $400B/year. So somehow Obama has found 8% savings in Medicare. That seems like an awful lot of inefficiency/fraud to me. Why should I trust the government to fund another major program when they can't run Medicare efficiently, and have similar problems with controlling expenses for agencies like the Post Office and Conrail?

Obama wants to provide tax credits or reimbursement to people who can't afford to buy insurance. If someone is disabled, I don't have a problem with that. If someone is not disabled, I do have a problem. I work to support myself. I've never gotten a tax credit for anything. Why should someone else who is capable of working get a handout?

Another way Obama wants to pay for health care is to raise taxes, such as this idea, under the pretense of preventing obesity. Yeah, it's a small tax, somewhere around 8%, but it's still another tax.

Can A Soda Tax Really Curb Obesity? - Forbes.com

The momentum for federal taxes on soda is growing. President Barack Obama recently said he thought Congress "should be exploring" the idea of a tax on sugared drinks as a way of tackling the nation's ever-expanding waistline. Thomas Frieden, the president's nominee for director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, argued in an article for the New England Journal of Medicine last April that "a penny-per-ounce excise tax could reduce consumption of sugared sodas by more than 10%."

Lastly, I think his plan still comes down to rationing of medical care. This article backs me up on that. It's going to take a few years to come up withe the additional doctors and other medical staff to support the demand.

50 million new patients? Expect doc shortages - Health care- msnbc.com

Among the many hurdles facing President Barack Obama's plan to revamp the nation's health care system is a shortage of primary care physicians — those legions of overworked doctors who provide the front line of medical care for both the sick and those hoping to stay healthy.

As Massachusetts' experience shows, extending health care to 50 million uninsured Americans will only further stress the system and could force many of those newly insured back into costly emergency rooms for routine care if they can't find a primary care doctor, health care observers said.

Massachusetts, home of the nation's most ambitious health care law, has seen the need for primary care doctors shoot up with the addition of 428,000 people to the ranks of the insured under a 2006 law that mandates health care for nearly all residents.

The racism and race baiting behind the tea parties and the 9/12 project.

yes will. Glenn Beck speaks for the entire population of conservative people and we're all racists. We hate black people.

I don't see where he implied that.

strawman much?

dogzilla,
I understand you have objections to President Obama's health care proposals. Specifically his attempt to deal with pre-conditions, caps and affordability. Do you even see these things as problems that need to be addressed? Do you think the non-competitive system we now have with out of control costs and denial of insurance is sustainable?

it only makes sense that a system which provides access to basic health care would have a system interest in preventative treatment--in helping people keep themselves healthier for longer.
it is self-evident that obesity is a serious health problem in the united states: if raising the price of sugar and/or hfcs based sodas would contribute toward a reduction in obesity, where's the problem?
even if it doesn't mean that instantly everyone looses a bunch of weight, you cannot seriously believe that such sodas are not problematic, particularly if consumed regularly.
that these things would be advertised as they are, without regard for the health consequences of their consumption, is one indicator amongst thousands (many) that capitalism is NOT rational that regulations ARE required. profit motive does not coincide with anything but itself: if "enlightened self-interest" is not enough to extend, say, the sense of interests of a coca-cola corporation beyond generating revenues for itself and into consideration of the health consequences for it's own market, then they have to be forced to. a tax is a relatively benign way to do this. regulation outright would be better.

If health care costs continue to rise faster than inflation rates or rates of increase in individual income, probably not. However, I don't see how allowing either coverage of preconditions or eliminating caps, which I think ends up increasing costs to insurance companies helps control costs.

I don't know what the answer to the health care issue is, but I don't think solutions which increase demand without some way to ensure supply increases equivalently are going to solve anything.

Nor do I believe that any solution that tries to cap profitability of a company will be a satisfactory long term solution either.
Maybe more interest in preventive care helps.

dogzilla do you realize that medicare is already much more efficient than the private industry? Medicare has about a 2% overhead and private insurance has about a 30% overhead. That is a huge difference.

The mean cost of basic health coverage for a family is estimated to be $30,000 a year by 2019. I'm sorry but most people don't make $30,000 a year. We have a health care crises and doing nothing will not solve the problem.

Look at it this way, if you are driving a car where the steering is out and you are approaching the grand canyon do you hit the breaks? Or do you say I don't want to stop because hitting the breaks might ruin my breaks.

Personally I think the best system would be to go to a single payer system with very little overhead that covers every citizen and tax paying legal resident. This would be a copay system in which people's copays would be determined by a sliding scale and income. If people wanted additional coverage they could then get it from private insurance.

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I also don't think adding those protections will lower costs, no one does. Those are protections for the people. The cost lowering must come from elsewhere in the bill. My personal favorite ways to lower cost would be to 1) provide a public option to compete with private industry forcing them to lower their costs, 2) Malpractice reform/elimination of defensive medicine, 3) educating people on better lifestyle habbits (no more chocolate covered bacon or fried coke...)

I'll agree with you about promotion of preventive care, as well as promotion of healthy lifestyle choices by education.

I don't agree about taxation or regulation though. I happen to drink non-diet soda on a regular basis. Maybe too much, maybe not. Any diet soda I've tried tastes awful and Aspertame seems to give me headaches.

My weight is not out of control, in part due to a sometimes intense workout routine. I understand the hazards of obestity. So I'm being penalized because somebody else lets their weight get out of control.

What's next? A pizza tax?

[QUOTE=Rekna;2704783]dogzilla do you realize that medicare is already much more efficient than the private industry? Medicare has about a 2% overhead and private insurance has about a 30% overhead. That is a huge difference.

Medicaid is not as efficient as health insurance. A very small percentage of doctors will accept it because they don't pay proportionally to health carriers. It has a lower overhead because it only covers a tiny fraction of the population.

[quote=rahl;2704787]that is not the reason it has a lower overhead. Every public system in the world that we have data on has lower overhead.

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So unless it can be proven that every single member of a movement believes something, they cannot be criticized?

[quote=rahl;2704787]I aplogize for this post. I thought we were talking about MEDICAID. You were talking about MEDICARE. I'm not as familiar with medicare.

Sure you were; I recall Glenn Beck doing a speech on it every night, crying for Americans being bled dry, losing their jobs while the government bailed the big boys out. Tea parties were rampant, and Bush was called a Nazi by the entire republican party. Right?