So do you agree that we should disband all standing armies? After all, they benefit from tax dollars.
Yes. Your words. More effective. That’s consequentialism. What’s *your *moral philosophy?
Y’know, Jesus’ statement was ambiguous at best. This certainly is not indicative of Jesus’ opinion about taxes. In fact, wasn’t He accused of tax resistance?
Reread Jesus’s teachings on wealth. I don’t think he had any discernible belief in personal property. He was of the monarchist school; tax the wealthy to bestow *largesse *on the common man.
Anyway, taxes are not theft any more than imprisonment is kidnapping or capital punishment is murder.
Wait…are you saying that this is okay with you? The government taking YOUR stuff and giving it to someone in more need? Why not just give all your stuff away now? How dare you have a computer while some kid is going hungry!
not a good start to proposing legislation.
Maybe it can’t. What about a plan that brings prices down, so what was $100k is now $15K?
I was raised a fundamentalist Christian. Of course it’s OK with me. This is word of God to me, deep as instinct.
How can my luxury outweigh someone else’s needs?
Now, it’s still hard to make that choice on one’s own, even if one knows it is right. But if someone’s making that decision for me, well, I’m not going to fight very hard for my selfishness if I believe that the government’s taxes make the world better off.
Don’t start with that shit. I’m not talking about NOT paying any taxes. And you know exactly what I’m talking about. Some people have no problem giving freely to charities or directly to individuals but DO have a problem with the government forcing them to help the poor or anyone else.
Well God bless you brother. I hope that the state takes your property and the property of everyone who agrees with you first. Maybe then they won’t have to take all of my stuff.
First, let me, as a person who doesn’t have health-insurance, emphasize that I don’t think its wise or helpful for people who have insurance to have anything changed. I hope (and would pray, if I were religious) that if UHC passes that (1) I’ll finally be able to go into a doctor’s office without having to pay $180 / hour (That’s how much Henry Ford Hospital charges me for office visits to my Psych) and (2) nothing will change with your coverage. I think (2) is the biggest sticking point. I’d like to see the public option so escapsulated that people who do have health insurance won’t even know it’s there. Sort of like Medicare to a 17 year old - Mediwhat?
Second, I don’t think we should delay health care any longer. From what I understand, health care isn’t a movement that started in Iowa 2008, but it’s something that has been brought up over and over again. I think we’ve had over 50 years to discuss the problems. Enough discussing and get it done.
To partially answer the OP. These are mostly gripes:
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Find the real cost of health care. My hospital charges me nearly $200 an hour to see a psychiatrist. I’d like to know why is it so expensive for me to get a prescription for Klonopin, when my interaction with my psychiatrist consist of “Rate your mood 1-10” and “Do you plan to kill others or yourself?” before shuffling me out the door.
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For people who’ve been getting medication for X amount of years, allow them to get their prescription without having to pay to see a doctor. Getting a a refill script that should be free or at a sharply reduced cost if there are no tests to run.
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Stop collecting racial info at the hospitals, I thought we’re supposed to be “post-racial”. Prohibit doctors from classifying ethnicity in my medical file. If a hospital wants my ethnicity, make them ask me for it. If there doubt on a genetic disorder, do the wise and safe thing - run a test - and not use my skin color as a metric for health.
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Make a federal pharmaceutical company that can research and patent new drugs under the U.S government. If a startup company can slap together a novel antibiotic and charge a ridiculous sum of money for it, the government should be able to play in the pool, too. Fair is fair.
You have received your reward in full, Dives.
Haha, suggesting that the government will offer any competition to the private industry on the same playing field? Hahaha! Does anyone remember the Trabant? USPS sure is cutting into FedEx/UPS profit margins lately!
Get a clue - the government will never, ever be able to compete with the private industry and you’re foolish to think any differently.
Then why is private insurance so worried that they will be run out of business by a public option health care plan? I’m sick of the right wanting to have it both ways on this issue.
Look in the absence of a free market (which health care most certainly is not) there is NO particular efficiency that accrues to private industry over public other than the profit motive. In the absence of real competition (true for some 90%+ of the country as regards health care, the profit motive ceases to drive efficiency since prices can simply be raised to any necessary level to ensure profit.
The fact is that Medicare is one of the most efficient health care systems in this country and private health care insurance companies are rightly terrified that it’ll be expanded.
Ah, the awesome negative magic of government. Nothing to do with people, its this metaphysical principle of government. Take any bunch of people who are intelligent, dedicated and efficiently performing some function. Make them a part of the government and presto! they are instantly feckless, aimless, and ineffective.
Don’t ask why, don’t ask what magical principle is involved here. It Is Written. Everyone Knows.
Let’s be clear what you were talking about. You weren’t talking about "some people,’ but people who consider themselves to be followers of that Jesus guy that you can read about in the Gospels, who believe his every word is literal truth, and aren’t shy about trying to use the power of the state to compel obedience to other dictates they regard as Biblical when they get in the mood.
Now someone else is using the power of the state to make them do what they should, as Christians, be doing anyway, and they’re upset. I just don’t see where they have grounds to object.
Wouldn’t you be worried if the one entity that could control your destiny was proposing legislation to do just that?
Please, elaborate.
Just a skoshi bit dramatic, don’t you think? A little? Health insurance isn’t Normandy Beach, right?
Seem to have 'em beat in the military and space sectors.
It is fairly simple…no magic involved. Two reasons why the private sector functions more effectively come to mind immediately:
- Profit motive
- The fear of having your ass fired because your work is subpar.
Yes, of course! Such paragons of efficiency as Enron, Halliburton, and AIG make your point irrefutable.