Who will help with my taxes?

[evmori]

The problem with health care is it's run by accountants & bean counters instead of health care providers.

 

Ed Mori

1 Peter 4:10

A blessed Christmas to all

[Merlyn_LeRoy]

I'd like to see the writ of habeas corpus return, and for the US to live up to the Geneva convention and stop torturing people. But it's still a few days until the official Airing of Grievances...

[OldGreyEagle]

Well then Merlyn, let me wish you a Happy Festivus now, once the holiday goings on start going on I may forget.

 

Ed, I think you remember back to when Health Care Providers ran medicine. Then Kaiser started HMO's and having business people in charge of Health Care was all the rage. I remember politicians saying that while physicians were good at caring for people, they didnt know how to run a business and business people should take care of the business of Health Care. So, now we don't understand why physicians arent in charge of Health Care when it was the public who took control of Health Care away from providers. Somewhere along the line, Health Care stopped being a commodity or a service and became a "right", an entitlement due you whether you could pay for it or not. And Health Care costs skyrocketed. Because of Physicians and Hospitals overcharging? No, trying to stay in business when 1 of 3-4 people dont pay for the care a hospital is legally required to provide. So, have the goverment take over Healthcare, call it by its proper name, socialized medicine and when you think of the countries who have socialized medicine tell you how great it is, ask how many have Private Hospitals and how many people go there.

 

How much would a car cost, if every 5th person who came into a car dealer was entitled to get any car he "needed" whether or not it could be paid for. The unfortunate alternative is to walk over the dead and dying bodies in the Emergency Room parking lot next time you need stitches, unless of course you can't pay for it either in which case its better not to go to the hospital, people are sick there. I dont have an answer, but havign the goverment run it does not seem to be the best option, what do they run well anyway?(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

[evmori]

Requiring referrals is nothing more than bean counters trying to lower costs when all it does is keep them the same or higher.

[OldGreyEagle]

Ed, I know we both use english, but sometimes I have no idea what you are talking about. I was agreeing with you, I agree with you. Where did the referral comment come from?

[evmori]

Just venting OGE in the spirit of the occasion.

[dan]

The CC of the troop is from Sweden you should hear what he has to say about socialized medicine. It is nothing good and most of it could/should not be typed in this forum.

 

OakTree

Are you going to share some of that Bug Juice that is making you so happy. Only kidding love your attitude.

 

Does it really matter which party a candidate is from? It usually just a vote for the worst of 2 evils.

[OldGreyEagle]

well then, right you are Ed !

[packsaddle]

Regarding the national debt, this graph supports Beavah's message:

http://zfacts.com/p/318.html

When I think back to the disclosures that David Stockman made regarding the Reagan budget policy and the analysis that Alan Greenspan recently revealed in his book, I am disappointed at the fiscal irresponsibility of the Republicans and not very optimistic about our future.

But we, the people, did it to ourselves. We elected these guys and we demanded goods and services today, promising to pay for them long after we're gone. The Republicans have only mirrored what we as a nation have demanded. And we as a nation (at least our children, anyway) will get what we deserve for it.

 

[TheScout]

The 18th Century Scottish legalist, Sir Alex Tyler wrote something which I think is again relevant,

 

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess of the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.... The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from great courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependency back again to bondage." -- Sir Alex Fraser Tyler

[BrentAllen]

pack,

Surely, you are educated enough to see through those simple numbers on that page. (I know, and don't call you Shirley). We could go back to the Carter years with double digit unemployment, inflation and interest rates, right? What that simple graph doesn't show is tax revenues took off when Reagan cut taxes, but guess who was in charge of the budget and spending? The Democratic Congress - who actually sets and votes on the budget, not the president. The graph would appear to show Clinton getting credit for turning the tide on the debt, but remember what happened in 1994, when the the line changed from red to blue? That's right, the Republican Revolution. Newt and company took over the Congress, and things changed. Now, look at when the line changed color again - when the Democrats took the Congress back. So, yes, it is a pretty graph, but it is short on substance - unless you are a Democrat who likes living in a fictional world where Republicans are evil.

 

I have relatives in Norway, with universal health care. They will quickly tell you - don't get hurt and don't get sick!

[Eamonn]

funscout

I'm not willing to help you pay your taxes.

I am however willing to swap tax bills with you.

You pay mine and I'll pay your's.

To be very honest, I don't spend a lot of time worrying about taxes. I'm happy to trust that my accountants do their job and ensure that I'm not paying more than I should and that I don't end up in the big house.

As a resident alien, I don't vote.

I'm very grateful to the USA for the opportunities that have been given to me to not only make a living, but make a very good living.

Along the way I have managed to save a few bucks and invest a few dollars in different areas that interest me.

The cash I have put into the market and different funds is there for the long term, I have to be really bored before I even bother to see how its doing.

Like most people I don't like to see or hear that the money I pay in taxes is being wasted or not being spent wisely.

I do however hold the opinion that we as a civilized society do need to do what we can to look after the less fortunate and the needy.

How we look after needy people says a lot about how civilized we really are.

If my paying a little extra in taxes will help better educate our young people, look after our elderly, prevent people from becoming homeless and get people who can't afford the medicines that they need. I have no problem paying the tax-man.

I really don't know but it seems to me that I was better off in the years that Bill Clinton was president!

Not just because of my tax bill, but the cost of living seemed to be more stable and even allowing for adjustments I wasn't spending as much on necessities.

Milk wasn't four dollars a gal.

Heating oil wasn't $2.90 a gal.

Even dog food was about half what it now costs!!

At some stage the government is going to have to face the fact that there just isn't enough money coming in to pay all the Baby Boomers who are retiring and find a way of making up for the shortfall.

So far I haven't heard much from the candidates running for President about what they intend doing about this?

Seems to me that right now they are all hoping that if they say nothing about this it will fix itself. Sadly as we all know it isn't going to go away.

Eamonn.

[John-in-KC]

funscout,

 

I have to agree with Beavah and Lisa here; the rhetoric from the incumbents at times approaches "stupidly strident."

 

That said, a pox on both houses candidates. The leading Democrat didn't have the good sense to know she was being cuckolded by the numbers by her husband. The leading Republican can't walk a political straight line if you paid him to.

 

... and folks want me to entrust the future of our Nation to folks such as these?

 

I'll write in Condoleeza Rice as a protest vote first.

[Lisabob]

Oh John, dollars to donuts she knew.

[John-in-KC]

Yeah, the Tammy Wynette cookie moment...

 

Of course, they keep handing me reasons on a platter. NPR Morning Edition today said that neither Hillary nor Obama came back for the vote on the Iraq supplemental.

 

The Dems have a majority (I can't say Reds yet, it still has a different connotation) in the Congress, and they cannot even muster the ability to block a little $70B supplemental. They want us out, but they're not willing to stand on their political convictions come what may.

 

Makes me wonder if Democrats have political convictions. The role of a majority is to get legislation through. I'll stop now, before I go into full fledged RANT mode.