wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Comments

• [1] eCAHNomics from nyc August 06, 2007 - 09:19AM

  You call that a debate?

  But here's a real Q. A real Ron Paul cult has developed among polically aware Rs, mainly over disgust with the war. It shows up on the blogosphere & on C-SPAN's Washington Journal callers (Paul supporters are about half of all R callers). How far is he going? And take the Q seriously. The war is only going to get worse (the whole electrical grid in Iraq is about to collapse; the U.S. has provided 190,000 weapons to its enemies to shoot at U.S. troops are two recent news stories), and already more than half the Rs disapprove of the war. Furthermore, watching the other R candidates is like a freak show.

  
  
• [2] Trevor from LIC August 06, 2007 - 10:10AM

  Although I probably would not want the man to be president, I think Ron Paul is by far the most compelling Republican candidate with *some* very good ideas and, mark my words, represents a rising faction of Republican thinking we will see more of in 2010 and 2012.

  
  
• [3] hjs from NYC August 06, 2007 - 10:23AM

  dear rudy,

  western europeans have a longer lifespan than do americans. i would take that result.

  
  
• [4] Mary August 06, 2007 - 10:30AM

  What was the audience composition? I was perplexed by the enthusiastic cheering for almost any position.

  If Romney gets the nomination, will the Democrats use the "flip-flop" accusation, which the Republicans used so effectively to slander Kerry?

  
  
• [5] Dan from NJ August 06, 2007 - 10:39AM

  Are they saying we should be sending newborn babies to Iraq? What would that help???

  
  
• [6] anonymousbrooklynperson from Brooklyn August 06, 2007 - 10:40AM

  Health insurance is not like car insurance. If someone cannot afford car insurance, they can use public transportation, move closer to where they work, or buy a bicycle or moped.

  Health insurance companies pick and choose who they are willing to insure based on health status, age, pre-existing conditions. Not everyone is able to find insurance, even if they want to buy it. Some people are offered insurance plans that exclude coverage of a specific chronic condition because of "pre-existing condition clauses". Will uninsured persons be forced to purchase this kind of worthless yet expensive individual plan just to conform to some law requiring that everyone buy insurance?

  Also, large and small companies are struggling under the burden of paying for the increasing costs of health insurance for their employees. Eventually, even the big corporations that own the government will be lobbying for single-payer insurance in order to stay competitive in the world.

  
  
• [7] Erin from Brooklyn August 06, 2007 - 10:40AM

  We lose more babies to abortion than to war. Hmm. These "babies" whose parents can't take of them?

  All I want to say is men have no place to comment on abortion. There are too many of them that don't even take care of the ones their semen spawn.

  Read Freakonomics.

  
  
• [8] Brian from Manhattan August 06, 2007 - 10:41AM

  I would like to know where each candidate (Republican, Democrat, and Independent) stands on the philosophy that adequate health care should be a right of every tax-paying U.S. citizen?

  When your health care becomes a question of profitability as it is in a "free market" model, you are assured to encounter resistance to providing the best care required.

  Clean water, safe food, clean air, and a public education are all taxpayer rights. I don't hear anyone proposing to privatize the FDA, EPA, or U.S. Dept. of Education. Why should health care be any different?

  
  
• [9] hjs from NYC August 06, 2007 - 10:43AM

  if these right wingers care so much about the unborn, why do they put more money into prenatal care to lower the infant mortality rate to west European levels?

  
  
• [10] chestine from NY August 06, 2007 - 10:46AM

  I agree with erin and just get so riled when I hear ANY male presuming to define the issue as that caller did - no woman wants to have an abortion but every woman deserves the right to make that agonizing choice.

  
  
• [11] Joe Corrao from Brooklyn August 06, 2007 - 10:58AM

  BL

  Yet again the MSM ignores the Ron Paul people...and you focus on the hipster NYC blog people...pathetic

  
  
• [12] Noah Osnos from 17th Street between Irving & Park (Union Square) August 06, 2007 - 11:30AM

  I remain amazed at the logical inconsistencies in each of the Republican candidate's positions; only Ron Paul seems to have any consistency at all.

  I missed the complete debate; is there a podcast of it available online?

  
  
• [13] Dan from NJ August 06, 2007 - 12:10PM

  Noah, there are links at the top of this page.

  
  
• [14] eCAHNomics from nyc August 06, 2007 - 12:57PM

  Hey Trevor

  Love your snark.

  
  
• [15] Trevor from LIC August 06, 2007 - 01:51PM

  Although it was deleted, it was an obvious reference to Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal".

  I guess the moderator didn't catch it.

  
  
• [16] Steve McL from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada August 08, 2007 - 10:28PM

  I had to laugh at the rhetorical question put by Sen Brownback, "Do we really want a publicly run health care system like what they have in England, or France, or Canada or Cuba or do we want to leave it to the private sector?" I don't know about England's or France's but I'm pretty sure that Canada's is not really comparable to Cuba's. But I can tell you that if the question were put to Canadians (who have had publicly funded universal medicare since 1967) our answer would be an overwhelming "Yes" to public health care and "No" to leaving it to the private sector. The debate sounded like it was from another planet, not the country next door. For all its woes, universal single payer publicly funded health care is vastly superior to leaving huge chunks of the population without health care coverage. Our system is the choice of virtually everybody in the industrialized world, except for the US. Maybe we're all wrong and you folks in America are right. ... But I honestly don't think so, in this case. At least Brownback framed the issue clearly for your voters this time. I hope you will have a true debate this time, .. and that you will make the right choice.