Well, I suppose doing next to nothing to control costs is slightly more than doing nothing, which is what all previous presidents have done.

But what is Obama's proposal actually doing to control costs? The only thing I've seen is cutting Medicare benefits. So, it's pretty disingenuous to describe as compassionate a move to take benefits away from one group in order to give them to another group.

It may be that this has to be part of the solution, and I'd be among the first to agree that the senior citizens' lobby has been way too strong in fighting any cuts to Medicare. But still, call it what it is- pragmatic redistribution of benefits due to the fact that demographic changes no longer make it possible for a large pool of young workers to pay into a program which can pay for sweeping health benefits for older, retired citizens.

But, I have been toying with the idea, contra Krugman, that one might specifically use cuts in health care costs to fund expanding coverage. This won't work across the board, because it depends upon how the savings are found. However, if one can fund with savings as much as possible, it mitigates many of the debt issues with expanding first.

Just because many dumb Americans forced you to pay for an idiotic war that may have killed a million Iraqis, doesn't mean you can now make them tag along on a bad reform (not that I believe that stalling reform is good, on the contrary, I think the Blue Dogs are pretty useless and selfish).

(“More than Mere Mutuality”)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/st…

Let's try and be honest here, those decisions are made for us all the time. I had no control over my tax dollars going to an idiotic and unnecessary war that most of the so-called (faux) “conservatives” supported up until it became painfully dishonests to continue cheerleading it. A war in which tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands were killed. Dead. Ended. Murdered. Now we have all this self-righteous posturing about increasing healthcare coverage. Truly this hypocrisy is a joke no? As for your comment about “liberalism” (a term whose present day usage is about as useful as the term, “conservative”) insulting “capable people”, it's hardly deserving of a serious response.

JSpencer, while you never use the incendiary language that Stickings and Kattenburg use to try to advance the agenda of collectivism, you nonetheless adhere to its tenets with equal rigidity and show the same disdain for individual freedoms that they do albeit in a less ostensibly hostile manner.

Bottom line…you have no right to make any value decision for another human being. I am doing just fine with managing my health, my healthcare and my status as my own payor. I consider my payor system to be the apex of efficiency.

If other people are not as capable as I, feel free to go out and help them with your expertise and money. I suspect they would appreciate you actually doing something for them instead of simply telling me what I should do in my best interest.

Your post does have a redeeming value to it in that it crystallizes something clearly as the principal problem with liberalism. It actually insults capable people.

http://docs.house.gov/gopleader/House-Democrats…

Republicans DO believe in charity, giving and compassion, way more than Democrats for that matter. The difference is Republicans see it as an individual moral obligation to society, and Democrats see it as governments role to take the wealth and distribute it as they see fit.

http://blog.fortiusone.com/2009/01/07/dataset-o…

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/…

http://richiericher.wordpress.com/2008/02/01/ar…

(This merits being posted on multiple threads. I waited first to see if anyone else would note it already.)

Did you note the irony of what Obama said in the press conference? Was it unintended, I wonder?

“We also know that health care inflation on the curve that it's on, we're guaranteed to see Medicare and Medicaid basically break the federal budget. And we know that we're spending — on average we, here in the United States, are spending about $6,000 more than other advanced countries where they're just as healthy.

And I've said this before, if you found out that your neighbor had gotten the same car for $6,000 less, you'd want to figure out how to get that deal. And that's what reform is all about. How can we make sure that we are getting the best bang for our health care dollar.”

Note that again:

“And I've said this before, if you found out that your neighbor had gotten the same car for $6,000 less, you'd want to figure out how to get that deal.”

Ironically, Mr. Obama, that is a fine analogy for the crowding-out of private health insurance that you and the other Dems know will happen if you enact your incrementalist “public option” for health insurance.

We are a Capitalist society. Capitalists and Republicans are Social Darwinists. Compassion? LOL, you mean you really thought that Republicans meant anything more than token contributions rather than real problem solving when they said that they were compassionate conservatives? Why then they would actually have to sacrifice for our country. Very few have actually done that.

Kathy this naiveté cannot continue.

And no, we don't need to impeach Bush and Cheney for not having given health care to everyone.