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To all liberals on this board:

Many of you pals and gals are so knee jerk, that you don’t even read things through. I posted 6 legitimate suggestions, 2 of which are rarely talked about (1) extending patent life and (2) creating mutual health care companies and yet I received a barrage of criticisms. At least Mike noted that fighting fraud was a good idea. Most people know that having tort reform is a good idea also. The drug and equipment companies would love to extend patents but the Dems are against that, despite the fact that Copyrights have been extended several times over the past century. The Republicans are generally against mutual companies as are some bought and paid for Dems like Schumer who is a complete captive of banking and insurance interests. As to mass deportations, millions of illegal aliens were sent back during three periods of high unemployment under the both Democrat and Republican President -- why not do it now? Obama promised that unemployment would top out at 8%; now it’s at 10% moving to 11% and that excludes all the discouraged workers.

Hjs -

That would be the rule now, but that was not the rule when he was born. The rules then were that the mother had to reside in the US for a certain number of years (I believe 5 of 10) after achieving the age of majority and she did not. There is also the question of Barry’s adoption in that even if he was a US Citizen, that may have been renounced when he was adopted by the step father and made an Indonesian citizen. America does not recognize dual citizenship the way other countries like Ireland and Israel do.

Moderator -

"thatgirlinnewyork" is committing a hate crime. She’s asking you to stifle my civil rights of free speech and assembly. If she doesn’t like to read my posts, then she can skip over them. She has also committed a hate crime against homosexuals as the phase “tea bagging” was originally a derogatory phrase hate-mongering straight people used to describe a specific sex act between two male homosexuals.

FYI, everything I say is true. In the case of Berg v. Obama, Obama a/k/a Barry Soetoro failed to respond to the interrogatories proffered by the Plaintiff. His failure to respond, made the facts asserted admitted, which means Obama has already admitted in Federal Court, under the detailed rules of procedure that he is not a US Citizen.

i don't know how it works in nj, mary (aside from the highway police and their fine record on racial profiling), but here are a few things to consider vis a vis "mutual respect": a neighbor calling the police should probably know she has a black neighbor, and might posit that when she reports a "break in"; and police need not approach someone assuming guilt until they've investigated the situation. from the globe (and other) reports, it's clear that they didn't ask for gates' i.d./proof of residence before making their suspicions known. again, overzealous policing by people who often don't know about the nuances of humanity.

Gates Issue: Let's go back to good old fashioned manners. Gates should have thanked the officers for investigating a possible burglary...instead of verbally abusing them. The officers should not have reacted to his defensive, self-righteous posture. They should have calmly reminded him they were there to protect his home and then asked for any further info they may have needed. Gates should have offered them some donuts and coffee. The officers should have thanked for the offer but refused then headed to Dunkin' Donuts. Both parties are guilty of poor social conduct. Imagine how race relations would improve if mutual respect had been demonstrated?

from the Boston Globe's initial story - Skip DID produce his license AND his Harvard ID!!!

In the report, Sergeant Crowley said a white female caller had notified the police around 12:45 p.m. of seeing two black men on the porch of the home, at 17 Ware Street. The caller, who met the police at the house, was suspicious after seeing one of the men “wedging his shoulder into the door as if he was trying to force entry,” according to the report.

A spokesman for the Police Department did not return a call seeking comment. But in the report, Sergeant Crowley said that as he told Professor Gates he was investigating a possible break-in, Professor Gates exclaimed, “Why, because I’m a black man in America?” and accused the sergeant of racism.

“While I was led to believe that Gates was lawfully in the residence,” Sergeant Crowley wrote in the report, “I was quite surprised and confused with the behavior he exhibited toward me.”

Professor Gates followed him outside, the report said, and yelled at him despite the sergeant’s warning “that he was becoming disorderly.” Sergeant Crowley then arrested and handcuffed him. Professor Gates was held at police headquarters for hours before being released on his recognizance.

I feel that a factor in this case may be as much (if not more) due to class, that is, tension due to town & gown relations. A Harvard professor overreacts and talks down to a police officer, and the police officer over-reacts. We all know that police routinely put people in their place for reasons like this, black or not.

would the moderator please edit "calls 'em" out of this forum, please? i respect opposing opinions, but now he's revealed himself as one of the tea-bagging (hah!) conspiracy theorists taking up space online and on the air.

langley--what a surprise!!

@ Calls'em - Your suggested "solutions" to healthcare are a mixed bag with some being very untenable and out of the mainstream.

Tort reform, for instance, may be a good idea to reduce cost, but that would have to be coupled with incentives to discourage doctors from ordering unnecessary and extremely costly procedures and tests that cause many cases of medical malpractice in the first place. (See Dr. Atul Gawande's New Yorker article 7/1/09)

As for the statement that "[t]he use of expensive ERs for primary care can be corrected in many ways including deportation ala the mass deportations in the 20th century," that is virtually impossible (10 million productive people) and seems to be a Stalinistic fantasy.

The American healthcare system is inordinately expensive and doesn't provide the best service in the world: it ranks at about 30 internationally. Shameful.

Getting elected officials to change the status quo will be incredibly difficult but is vital to our society.

Robert from NYC
you know that Calls'em is our current right wing ranter. every few months he changes his name and starts again. i think he's here for comic relief

Don't pay any attention to that person from Va. This is a bitter Obama hating individual who probably is calling to see the official birth certificate of President Obama. This is someone who is lucky with their insurance plan but many--most?--are not and also too many are NOT insured. We need change as well as status quo so that this person and everyone else as well is covered. We were told if you like what you have you can keep it. Did you hear that person from Va.? Did you also hear that there is a legitimate birth certificate for the President, if you question it? Open your ears, eyes and mind not only your mouth.

Call em -

You may have a point in that last remark.

Call em - illegal immigrants would save 15%? That's a phony statistic. Clearly you're getting your information from phony right wing lobbyists.

If you want to get them out of emergency rooms, offer them a choice!

Fighting fraud is always a good idea, but that's not going to save that much either. There are far more costs in inefficiencies in the system than are lost in fraud.

There was a great article in the New Yorker recently, that I'm surprised Brian has not referenced regarding healthcare.

Basically, with Medicare, doctors are reimbursed by the number of tests and procedures they do. There are whole doctor/patient communities that order as many tests and procedures as possible to make as much money as possible. When this is the norm, it becomes the culture and this is not correlated with quality.

Our healthcare policy should develop best practices, ie the Mayo clinic, that pays doctors on salaries and has health care professionals develop practices and procedures that actually improve quality. This framework save costs and is correlated with high quality healthcare.

I think Obama would follow the Mayo clinic paradigm with the committee that he wants to develop.

Calls'em
"the greatest health care system in the history of world"
we die earlier than people in the rest of the industrial word and we pay more. guess it's the greatest if you're nsurance company executive.they get paid to say NO.

There's actually a real natural reason why our health care costs are going through the roof, and the present reform plan ignores it.

People should learn about how natural systems work, because it never seems to get brought into these discussions. The real reason we have a healthcare crisis is that 1) we are mortal organisms, prone to injury and disease, and 2) it is worth more to us than anything else to have ways to delay the unavoidable consequences. That is what created what you could call the "healthcare-industrial complex", and powers its growth. It will continue to grow because 3) it is the best money investment bet on earth now. Not only are people willing to pay almost anything for their health, but 4) investment is very productive in getting scientists to invent new expensive and highly profitable ways of giving us better health.

That combination of forces is what we clearly find unsustainable now, however. There's a solution, but, as you'd guess, it' requires addressing the moral quandaries of the true problem. The healthcare system has various inefficiencies and inequities, etc. but reducing waste is never going to pay for endlessly multiplying demand (period), and we have natural endless multiplying demand the way our economy now works.

The real solution, and I've thought through a lot of what it would really take, is to ensure that we have continually improving healthcare quality (rather than growing quantity), *for a fixed budget*. It’s really the only way that can work given the major conflicting interests.

Rationing high quality care sounds mysterious, but it can definitely do the job. There are some hints of it in the present discussion and you should advocate support for them.

It is not congress that sets individual reimbursement rates. Congress deals with bigger and broader issues.

Congress passes laws. Agencies and departments set up regulations. And experts (of some sort or another) set up practices. Do people really think that congress sets individual medicare reimbursement rates?

Why would your guest say that they do?

Anybody who thinks that the current healthcare works, I hate to say this, but must be some sort of an idiot.

I am a recent graduate who works in a very small office, My boss can not afford to give me healthcare, I can not afford to pay to pay for it out of my own pocket. They are probably millions of people in the same situation. I have no problem paying for doctor's visits if I could afford them, but I can't.

Obama sounds good while he is saying we need to reform the system, but he and the congress will not do enough. The whole system starting from the quality of healthcare to the overlapping waste that occurs needs to be reform. We have better technology, but we do not have better healthcare than other countries, who pay less for healthcare. Lets not kid ourselves.

PS --

If 58 Senators are willing to vote for national concealed carry, and 44 Democrat Congress-people voted against the disastrous "cap and tax" bill, then Obama will NEVER get the votes he needs to get this health plan passed.

Call em - you're crazy. It costs my family over 12 thousand a year to pay for health insurance. I freelance, and I can't afford it anymore.

But besides me, why should businesses have to pay that money for every employee? No one wants to hire anyone and a big reason is that they can't afford these costs.

What great American institution are you talking about destroying? The insurance institution? I can't find a violin small enough. They are a disaster. And even they can't afford these costs!

meh! the obama administration has made a great effort to be more broad and inclusive in calling on people at its press conferences, as evidenced by the woman who was startled when the president called on her.

"you look surprised," he said.

Part II -- Everyone who has studied these issues know that there are much cheaper and better ways to improve health care, cover more people and lower costs without racing to a system that is hastily thrown together. We can significantly reduce health care costs by (1) tort reform that reduces exposure to law suits. A reasonable verdict ceiling would reduce insurance and defensive medicine costs and would bring at least a 10-15% reduction in overall health care costs; (2) address the issue of giving benefits to illegal aliens. This could reduce costs by another 10-15%. The use of expensive ERs for primary care can be corrected in many ways including deportation ala the mass deportations in the 20th century to creating incentives for the creation of “Doc in the Box” clinics for poor people of all backgrounds. (3) Extend patent life to allow drug and medical equipment companies to lower prices because they will recover their development costs over a longer period of time. This probably saves 5-10%. (4) Create incentives to have “mutual” not-for profit insurance companies instead of “stock” for profit companies. This would save at least another 10-15%. (5) More incentives for preventative medicine. (6) Do more to fight fraud. Medicare and Medicaid (as with Fannie and Freddie) are Democrat creations that are the biggest repositories of fraud by both patients and medical providers. This would yield another 5-10%.

Call your Congress person and Senators and tell them you like your employer provided tax free health insurance; you like not waiting for tests and care; you like the freedom to pick your own doctors; you don’t want senior citizens cut off from critical care at the age of 70 like in many socialist countries; you don’t want all your private medical info in a government computer and you don’t want to pay taxes to support millions of illegal aliens.

again i ask how much insurance company executives take home. how much do shareholders pocket? my death and illness is their profit.

Part I -- The current president is the biggest fake, phony and fraud in the history of this country. As his approval ratings fall, The Obama a/k/a Barry Soetoro is racing to destroy the greatest health care system in the history of world because we are spending a mere $6,000 more per person than other western countries. LOL. We demand and have more and better health care then they do. This is not a perfect world and the Obama is making it worse. With all the current problems that exist we are still delivering great care to vast preponderance of our fellow citizens and legal residents. A vast majority of people are covered by some form of insurance. The Obama sounds good, with his sonorous voice, but he says nothing. He’s best examples of why we need to destroy the old system, supposedly from letters that “he read,” were flimsy at best; especially given the potential to wreck the health care system and the economy. He is ignorant at best, but is probably doing this because he hates America. This is just a power grab that destroys another American institution and furthers the goal of these “statists” to reshape America into a socialist country.

Re: Health Care Reform. I am writing this as I won't be near a phone when you discuss this issue. I have had Medicare as my primary insurance for almost two years now after having a very good retiree program with my company. While it does provide good basic coverage the admistration of it can be a nightmare. I have come to the following conclusion: If we want to really, really want to reform health care in this country we simply must mandate that Congress be on the same exact plan that they vote to put all of us on. I can almost guarantee that most if not all of the coverage and administrative problems would go away once all those hundreds of our representatives would have to deal with the mess that their own legislation creates for the rest of us.