Congressman Ron Paul on Healthcare

WorldTravelDude Says:

Nov 20, 2009 - I wish your donation to charities could pay for 47 million and millions more under-insured on regular basis.

WorldTravelDude Says:

Nov 20, 2009 - Why would you wanna mix your "true capitalism" with police, military and judicial system. Police, military, judicial system etc are inherently socialist scheme...arent they ? Why would you want to infringe upon "total freedom" of people by forcing everyone to pay for police, military and judicial system. Like you said cant people voluntarily "donate" to run police, military, judicial system etc ?

wohs145 Says:

Nov 21, 2009 - Yes. You really ought to read some of Murray Rothbard's essays. I feel like anarchocapitalism could work, but not for long. Government is unnecessary but inevitable, Im afraid.

bobjman Says:

Nov 22, 2009 - There is a VERY BIG difference between anarchy and libertarianism that people on the new left seem to miss all too frequently. The primacy of rule of law compels that we have a legal system that guarantees everyone access to representation. The police are part of local and state governments and do not belong in a discussion about the role of federal government. I've never met a libertarian who thinks we don't need a national military. The need for a common defense should be obvious to all.

bobjman Says:

Nov 22, 2009 - Demtards, Republicunts, Socialists, Nazis...... (Ring, Ring) Ok that was the bell, recess is over; it's time to have your juicebox and take a nap with all the other kindergartners.

bobjman Says:

Nov 22, 2009 - We're been working to inject sense into the massive and thoughtless subsidies to the interstate highways. Why do you think rail transportation is so underutilized and auto transportation is so over utilized in the US. (Hint, they're not on a level playing field.) It's not necessary to convince Seniors to drop Medicare, when it begins to run deficits our creditors (China, Russia, etc.) will refuse to fund it. Implementation of single-payer will bring about that inevitability sooner.

bobjman Says:

Nov 22, 2009 - You make a common error that those on the left often do: namely assuming that we're rich. You cite the GDP per capita or even worse just the GDP. GDP figures have an illusion of completeness and comparability, but the reality is they miss fundamental components of the only nation whose domestic currency is the world reserve.

bobjman Says:

Nov 22, 2009 - You buy an HDTV with credit extended to you by bank who obtained that credit from the Fed for $500. USA's GDP (C) rises $500. A Japanese manufacturer exports a finished HDTV for $500 dollars more than the cost of the imported raw materials used in production. Japans GDP (NX) rises $500. Do you think those situations equally contribute to wealth of a nation? The US is NOT a rich country, just the beneficiary of having the world reserve currency. Germany, etc. are FAR richer than the US.

WorldTravelDude Says:

Nov 22, 2009 - You wrote, "You cite the GDP per capita or even worse just the GDP. GDP figures have an illusion of completeness..." Does that mean there should be no way to measure productive capacity of people of different nations and keep everyone in the dark ? US currency is the world reserve: No nation forced the US to maintain ties with Gold Standard decades past the Great Depression. Every major economy got out of Gold Standard as soon as Great Depression hit hard.

WorldTravelDude Says:

Nov 22, 2009 - So you are basically slamming the govt for taking care of the most expensive demographic. It costs as much as 4 times more to give medical care to senior citizens when compared with rest or the demographics in any nation (not just he US). Lets see which private insurance company will be willing to insure the most expensive and the riskiest demographic of the entire population under your "free market". I had no clue China was funding the single payer system of the entire industrialized world.

bobjman Says:

Nov 22, 2009 - There certainly are ways to measure wealth of a nation, you could look at at number of things, real assets, long term savings rate trends, manufacturing capacity, net savings etc. none are inclusive but they at least give an indication of economic health. By all those measures, the US is quite poor. The USD is the de facto reserve and has been since the end of Bretton Woods, but those days are coming to end. You should read real news; you should try Al-Jazeera. It's better than 99% of US media

WorldTravelDude Says:

Nov 22, 2009 - Why the US Dollar became the reserve currency of the entire world. It's pretty simple. The US was the last major economy to get out Gold Standard and to have it's currency tied to gold to some level far later than every major economy severed all the ties between their currencies and gold .

bobjman Says:

Nov 22, 2009 - I'm sorry that you don't understand the creditor/debtor of the relationship of China to the US and large parts of the Western world. They fund a major part of the US deficits and they've publicly complained that they do not wish to fund US health reform as they would have to along with our other creditors like they are the exists 1.5 Trillion USD deficit. The economy is too structurally weak to make up the difference by increased taxes alone.

bobjman Says:

Nov 22, 2009 - There's much more to it than that. The world didn't have to accept the dollar, but it needed the backing of an economy large enough to support world trade. The US econ. was the only one large enough at the time. The world didn't have much of a choice then, that's changing now though. With the advent of SDR's/ the BRICs/China making the RMB more convertible, the world now has viable substitutes. You're right about the confidence the world once had in the US's history of price stability, though.

bobjman Says:

Nov 22, 2009 - No, I'm specifically criticizing the US gov. for legitimizing the current price controls created by the American Medical Association and supported by the American Hospital Association. The major component of the high costs of health care result from the oligopic price fixing from the AMA, AHA, and insuance co. Cartel. It's sad that the left can only see the weakest head of the 3-headed monster that is US healthcare. The AMA and AHA are out of bounds because their lobbies rival the Wall St. lobby

WorldTravelDude Says:

Nov 22, 2009 - It was pretty natural that if some currency were to be tied to gold the currency was going to become a reserve currency for the rest of the world. If 100 $ were to equal to 100 gram of gold and give a govt backing it was pretty natural for govts around the world to see US $ as gold and start using it as reserve.

bobjman Says:

Nov 22, 2009 - That's not the relevant issue though. The important issue is "why did the world keep the US as reserve after the Gold Standard was completely removed.?" The answer what I said below, at that time only the US had enough productive capacity and real wealth to support a world reserve through implicit taxation. After nearly 40's of squandering our highly privileged position we have nothing to show for it, except huge SUV's and IPODs. We're only just beginning to feel the ill effects.

WorldTravelDude Says:

Nov 22, 2009 - I get pretty disgusted to see people slam interest groups like AARP, AMA , AHA , AHIP and so forth. These interest groups (lobby) need politicians to make laws that favor their specific industry or profession and politicians need these interest groups to fund their election campaigns. It is pretty mutually beneficial relationship.

WorldTravelDude Says:

Nov 22, 2009 - The US had a pretty good position as long as it had a strong and a large middle-class. Tax for the middle class has not changed much for more than 4 decades however the level of pay they get from jobs has changed for worse and most of the jobs that paid good wages has been shipped abroad. While at the same time the tax for the highest income earners is at the lowest level since FDR.

WorldTravelDude Says:

Nov 22, 2009 - So basically it is a double whammy for the US. There is smaller tax base because the size of middle class has shrunk considerably on the other hand the tax rate for wealthiest has dropped to lowest level in nearly 70 years.

tonybonez Says:

Nov 22, 2009 - Why should health care be treated as different from any other good or service??????

tonybonez Says:

Nov 22, 2009 - Yeah so we can hear Osama bin Laden's deep economic views right?? He is after all an expert on economics, and we should model our economy off of what he says!!!!NOT!!!! The USA is the wealthiest most powerful country in the history of the planet!

Bonecrkr Says:

Nov 23, 2009 - The absolute bottom line on healthcare costs is corruption. Only $1 out of every $12 (and that is a conservative estimate) goes towards care. The rest goes to pushing paper. Why? Because the government put an ocean of paperwork and managed care between doctors and patients in order to redistribute wealth via healthcare from those that earn wealth to those that do not. Various greedy individuals take a slice at every step until you have today's ridiculous situation.

Bonecrkr Says:

Nov 23, 2009 - The solution is almost commically simple. Outlaw all forms of insurance except major medical. You MUST pay out of pocket for routine medical care. If you can't, you do without. The poor should have the government pay their premiums but they should have to pay for routine care out of pocket. ER visits for routine care should be forbidden. Care given to illegals should be forbidden. Legal immigrants should not be eligible for ANY welfare the first generation they are here.

oddcoupple Says:

Nov 23, 2009 - Rep,Teapartiers,Beck,Ron Paul are CEOcommunists...They want you pay your bloody rates to the CEOs gains and private health care bureaucracy! 40 milions US uninsured citizens and US bailed out economy really need a National Health Care (Single Payer) founded by progressive tax (not flat tax) on the capital gains. Single Payer Now!