Political Hippo Circle Jerk - America, farg YEAH!

[rjs246]

Administration's student loan proposal.

The argument against is that it's a government takeover of education loans. The argue for is farg that, how the farg are we supposed to pay back $120,000 in loans for a decent undergrad education only to find out that employers are increasingly expecting graduate degrees? The population's perpetual debt cycle needs to stop and education is a major culprit.

[rjs246]

Paul Krugman obliterates Republicans in the aftermath of yesterday's healthcare summit.

Nobody really expected anything different. But what was nonetheless revealing about the meeting was the fact that Republicans — who had weeks to prepare for this particular event, and have been campaigning against reform for a year — didn’t bother making a case that could withstand even minimal fact-checking.

It was obvious how things would go as soon as the first Republican speaker, Senator Lamar Alexander, delivered his remarks. He was presumably chosen because he's folksy and likable and could make his party's position sound reasonable. But right off the bat he delivered a whopper, asserting that under the Democratic plan, "for millions of Americans, premiums will go up."

Wow. I guess you could say that he wasn't technically lying, since the Congressional Budget Office analysis of the Senate Democrats' plan does say that average payments for insurance would go up. But it also makes it clear that this would happen only because people would buy more and better coverage. The "price of a given amount of insurance coverage" would fall, not rise — and the actual cost to many Americans would fall sharply thanks to federal aid.

His fib on premiums was quickly followed by a fib on process. Democrats, having already passed a health bill with 60 votes in the Senate, now plan to use a simple majority vote to modify some of the numbers, a process known as reconciliation. Mr. Alexander declared that reconciliation has "never been used for something like this." Well, I don't know what "like this" means, but reconciliation has, in fact, been used for previous health reforms — and was used to push through both of the Bush tax cuts at a budget cost of $1.8 trillion, twice the bill for health reform.

What really struck me about the meeting, however, was the inability of Republicans to explain how they propose dealing with the issue that, rightly, is at the emotional center of much health care debate: the plight of Americans who suffer from pre-existing medical conditions. In other advanced countries, everyone gets essential care whatever their medical history. But in America, a bout of cancer, an inherited genetic disorder, or even, in some states, having been a victim of domestic violence can make you uninsurable, and thus make adequate health care unaffordable.

One of the great virtues of the Democratic plan is that it would finally put an end to this unacceptable case of American exceptionalism. But what's the Republican answer? Mr. Alexander was strangely inarticulate on the matter, saying only that "House Republicans have some ideas about how my friend in Tullahoma can continue to afford insurance for his wife who has had breast cancer." He offered no clue about what those ideas might be.

[smeags]

neither gives a farg about helping this country, rather just promoting their own careers by keeping us in this continous merry-go-round of shtein.

oh and munson, your parents related by chance ?

[Diomedes]

shut up

[Eagaholic]

It's true though.

[Rome]

so you've met mrs. sean_sec227 too, huh, dio?

[Diomedes]

While I'm increasingly tired of the too-cool-for-school "both sides suck" argument, my comment is a response to the sycophantic Munson attack.  I'm sick of it.  I'll admit that from time to time it's kinda cute how hard vigy and his sidekick get over hating Munson, but for farg sake enough is enough. 

[ice grillin you]

SICK!

until there is an ignore feature it will never stop

[smeags]

While I'm increasingly tired of the too-cool-for-school "both sides suck" argument, my comment is a response to the sycophantic Munson attack.  I'm sick of it.  I'll admit that from time to time it's kinda cute how hard vigy and his sidekick get over hating Munson, but for farg sake enough is enough.  

awwwwww, did someone's wittle feelings get hurt ? sorry but if you can't handle the blantantly obvious truth about american politics or the fact that someone takes a pop shot at a little twit. maybe a different site would better suit you ? i hear oprah's site is pretty rad.

[Susquehanna Birder]

SICK!

until there is an ignore feature it will never stop

If there was an ignore feature, nobody would see new posts.

[Munson]

You're all idiots. Rusty posts two good links and idiot Sean who has no idea about anything to do with politics tries to somehow bust on me.


Eventually you'll realize that I couldn't give two shteins what some fat slob with tunnel vision or crazy bastich sean. In the meantime, keep spoiling good conversation starters and destroying the very little good content on this MB with horribly unfunny "haha go kill yourself MA" etc and so on. Bunch of idiots.

[MMH]

Maybe the last 6 posts or so is why most of the interesting people have stopped coming to this site.

[Sgt PSN]

i'm still here.  i'm an active member of the military who prefers diplomacy over war, doesn't approve of torture, hates dubya and jesus and i lick bourbon off the ground at tailgates.  if that ain't interesting, then i don't know what is. 

but really though, what do you expect from a political thread?  if our elected "leaders" can't hold civilized, grown up conversations about fixing the problems with this country, then you're probably aiming way too high if you expect the people who put them in power to be any different.  if you quickly scan random pages, i'm actually surprised that it didn't get locked down a long time ago.  there was once a time when gf and co locked/deleted threads with far less flamming that what goes on in this one. 

and if you sift through the rubbish, you actually can find some legit commentary in here from both sides.....although sometimes it's even harder to find than the asian porn.   

[MDS]

on what planet is mmh interesting

[ice grillin you]

SICK!

until there is an ignore feature it will never stop

If there was an ignore feature, nobody would see new posts.

hmmm....excellent observation

on what planet is mmh interesting

the planet with six really interesting people who dont post here anymore