This morning I came across this story about a speech Dean made in Seattle. I've been waiting all day to have time to comment sufficiently and now I can. Woo Hoo - let's go!
Most of the story is pretty ho-hum no big deal. But nearing the end, 2 paragraphs caught my eye and once again I know exactly how annoying old Howie can be.
In his speech yesterday, Dean defended his idea to repeal all of the Bush tax cuts and use the money to reduce the deficit and provide universal health insurance. The tax cuts have come at the cost of higher health-insurance premiums, college tuition costs and property taxes, he argued, adding up to "the largest middle-class tax increase in the history of the United States of America," a claim largely difficult to verify.
Where to even begin with this one. So, he wants to repeal the tax cuts, something we all knew anyway. However, not to just pay off the deficit like many Dems want to do - but so he has a license to spend EVEN MORE MONEY. Ah yes, that Universal Health Insurance... does anyone out there actually believe that the government can do a better job at giving us health care? Go take a look at a VA hospital, those are run by the federal government. Go deal with the Social Security Administration, or the IRS, or any other major government facility. Ever try to get a record changed? Ever try to get them on the phone? Ever have to depend on any of them for a straight answer? Now think of your life being in the hands of this entity. It should scare the living daylights out of you.
Oh yes there's more...
College tuition costs... oh please give me a break. My husband and I have both paid our way through college, we've sent our daughter through college. At no time EVER, did tuition and fees remain the same. They go up each year - and it has NOTHING at all to do with our tax rate. So, is Howie trying to tell us that with all this extra tax money, he's going to be giving more to the colleges? I suppose it will be the amount left over after he pays off everyone's health insurance... sure...
And then there is the property tax issue... I don't know how the rest of the country works, but in Illinois, my property taxes are directly tied - for the most part - to the local school district. My property taxes this year are going to sky rocket. NOT because of the Bush tax cut, but because the local school district finally put enough of a guilt trip on the residents to get them to agree to a tax hike. You know the whine "oh the children will all be left behind the rest of the world if we don't spend another $5000 per pupil". Is Howie going to jump to our rescue - after he's paid the health insurance and shored up the colleges? He'll still have enough money to give to each local school district so my property taxes don't go up????
Wow, that's one hell of a tax cut I got, and I didn't even know it. But let's move on...
This is the paragraph that Tim Blair and Dana both made reference to in their writing.
Dean received one of his biggest ovations after a heckler asked what he'd do to reduce the abortion rate. He suggested universal health care for children, sex education that isn't just abstinence-based, and finally, "We're going to tell all those white boys who run the Republican Party to stay out of our bedrooms."
First of all - I guess asking a question like "how are you going to reduce the abortion rate?" automatically makes you a heckler. Interesting thought. The reply is quite astounding though.... Universal Health Care for children - um okay I guess I'm a little slow, but how does that drop the abortion rate? Do mothers abort their kids because they think... "hmm, ya know I'm not going to be able to afford health care". Or does he think children have abortions? (and no I don't consider teens to be "children" - they are young adults) I'm just trying to get a grasp of his logic in this instance and it eludes me.
Next we have "sex education that isn't just abstinence based". I don't know what country he's living in, but we've had non-abstinence based sex education for many years. It's only been in the last few years that parents have been starting to demand that abstinence be ADDED as an option to be considered. And they've been hounded mercilessly because of it I might add.
Last of all the remark about the "white boys who run the Republican Party" isn't that racial discrimination? After all if you changed the word "white" to "black" you'd have everyone and their brother howling about how unfair that remark is. Jesse Jackson would be all over the television talking about how the Rainbow Coalition was gonna take him to court. Also, I'm sure that Condi Rice and Colin Powell will be delighted to know they've become "white boys". (It should make clothes shopping so much easier for Condi) And for the record - I've never found anyone who runs the Republican party in my bedroom - white boy or otherwise.
Okay - I think I've gotten most of it out of my system. If you've read this far - congratulations you get a gold star! *G*
/RANT
Interesting recitation of RNC/Fox News talking points on the usual issues, but my gosh, when are we going to think beyond what we're spoonfed?
Take this old, tired saw that government=evil/private corporations=good. Here's the system that private insurance gives us: The Institute of Medicine found that 18,000 Americans die each year because they don't have health insurance. 43.6 million Americans don't have insurance. People without insurance go to expensive emergency rooms for treatment and when they can't pay, we, the community, do. As one IofM official said, "Entire communities are being destabilized. Their health care systems, their hospitals, their doctors' practices are being affected by the cost of providing a lot of care that doesn't get compensated due to un-insurance."
I'm no Howard Dean fan. But this issue must be talked about and solutions advanced from someone/somewhere. People are dying and we, the taxpayers, are paying through the nose for the uninsured. The market cares for nothing but profit, and the result will be ever-increasing prices and death rates and more money sucked from our wallets. Due to financial squeezes like this, the state of Oklahoma is down to one trauma center for the entire state now.
Have I visited a VA hospital? Yes, my father, with advanced emphysema, gets excellent care there. Have I called them? Sure, it's not fun, but please name ONE corporation in America which IS fun to call. Deal with Blue Cross or Tenet or Dr. Bill Frist's own HMO cash cow, HCA, and see how much fun you have.
Government may not be the solution, but it's not entirely the problem either. What IS the problem is, thanks to knee-jerk political ideologies (of right or left) good men sit on their asses and do nothing.
I don't care about left vs. right, liberal vs. conservative, Dem vs. Repub., Dean vs. Bush, red state vs. blue. I care that Americans are dying and we're doing nothing about it.
Posted by: Steve | February 04, 2004 at 12:13 AM
No my point was not that nothing should be done. I'm not really sure what would fix the problems in health care. What I am saying is that the government should NOT take over the running of the health care system. It's bad enough as it is now, government will only make it thousands of times worse.
In every country where it's been tried, it has been a failure. Oh you might be able to get good emergency room care, but try getting follow-up. Or if you need "elective" surgery you'll wait months and months.
As for your experience with VA hospitals - glad your dad is in a good one - there are some out there. Many many more veterans will tell you other stories. Any place you look, there will be some things that operate well while the rest of the system is barely functional.
Basically my point is that Dean thinks it's a good idea to take away the tax cut and then do all these other things with it. But it's like saying - okay I'm going to tax you an extra ten dollars and I'm going to use it to remodel the house. The disparity of the money he wants and what he wants to do with it is ludicrous.
Posted by: Teresa | February 04, 2004 at 09:17 AM
Teresa - this is SO not fair! Blogging 3 weeks & you already have a troll! I've been looking for one for MONTHS, but have yet to have one of their bulgy, warty heads pop by place to spew rudeness.
Some girls have all the luck.
And nice response, too.
Posted by: Harvey | February 04, 2004 at 10:56 AM
Sorry Harvey, I can't consider him a troll - he's too polite. Trolls are only able to spew forth in 4 letter words. Steve is trying to make his point. I don't agree, but he isn't being vulgar and he does have a vocabulary. *G*
Posted by: Teresa | February 04, 2004 at 11:04 AM
Teresa,
Harvey, and other political extremists like him, both on the left and the right, define "troll" as "anyone who disagrees with them" not as someone who spews forth in four-letter words, vulgarities and poor grammar, spelling and vocabulary. Harvey considers me a troll because I think the moral, just and right thing to do is the nation should get off its ass and do something about people dying at the hands of private corporations, which doesn't fit with the mantra government always evil, corporations always good.
My point was simple: People are dying. The private system isn't working. Something has to be done. I don't care what the solution is; somebody just try something.
If private corporations aren't working, and government is evil then, Teresa, what would you have us do? And that's a serious question, not a troll snark.
I'll read your response and then leave you alone. Your readers are obviously not interested in conversation. But thanks for listening!
Posted by: Steve | February 04, 2004 at 03:00 PM
Ah, Ah be nice to Harvey - he's my friend *G*.
Okay now we're way off the point of the original post - remember I was talking about taxes and how they are being spent.
But I will say there are a couple of things right off the bat that can reduce costs. They may not sound very "moral" to you, but here they are.
1. Any illegal immigrant who comes in for health care to any hospital (notice I said "illegal") gets deported back to their own country. As it stands we are paying through the nose for people to be treated who shouldn't even be in this country. Not only that, but one of the Carolinas just had a court ruling saying that medicare had to pick up the tab for chemo for an illegal alien. The guy had emergency surgery, they found it was cancer, did the chemo, they charged him,he took them to court - WE PAY! This means prices go up for those of us who are stuck paying the bill. It's not just the single person effected here - it's all the illegals. Precedent is now set. For that matter - hospitals MUST treat everyone in the ER - which I don't begrudge - but they can't then get them sent back to their own country for further treatment - nope - WE get to foot the bill.
2. Stop the outrageous lawsuits of drug companies and doctors and hospitals. This drives up prices astronomically. But everytime someone says - cut it out and put a cap on it - the liberals start screaming about how it's not fair. The big bad drug companies are winning at the expense of poor little consumer, the fat cat doctors and hospitals are sticking it to the poor patient.
Does bad treatment happen - yes. If it's definitely negligent behavior from doctor or hospital it should be compensated. But we've got people suing just to make money. Doctors are leaving practice because they can't afford the malpractice. Drug companies are told - get those drugs out there to help the people who are dying - what's taking so long why can't we use it now??? Then they're sued mercilessly when it's found that the drug has side effects that show up later. All this adds HUGELY to our medical bills.
If the bills are larger - the insurance companies charge more... and the cycle goes on.
But as bad as our system is purported to be - this is the country people head for when they want access to the best treatment. We have the new drugs coming out. We've got the procedures available. We're generally orders of magnitude "safer" in many procedures because we're slower to approve new things. Lots of hoops aren't always bad. And - callous as it is to say - there will always be people who drop through the cracks - who don't get the care. We haven't managed in all this time to eliminate the poor. But our poor here at least have some chance of help - unlike many other countries. They also have the chance for help in a reasonable period of time.
The illegal immigrant who needed the chemo - that we now pay for - he didn't have to wait a year to get it. He got it right away, when it would work. Don't just look at the bad - look at the good too.
Posted by: Teresa | February 04, 2004 at 04:14 PM
I had nationalized health care when I lived in Taiwan. It was fine.
Anyway, we pay more for health care than any country in the world. The only country that comes close to what we pay per capita is Switzerland and they pay like 2/3 of what we do per capita.
So I guess I'm on Steve's side.
Posted by: Evan | February 08, 2004 at 07:14 PM