An Afterthought

And yes, I'd rather have a government bureaucratic boob in charge of my health care than an insurance company with a vested interest in not extending coverage to me and my family.

Asleep on the Job

Well it looks like health care is too important to figure out before congress goes on vacation.

I found this chart of health care systems in industrial countries.

http://www.codebluenow.org/vital-signs/Health%20System%20Comparison%20Charts%205.30.2008.pdf

Whenever you hear someone use the word socialism you are being manipulated. Someone is trying to scare you with images of Stalin’s oppressive authoritarian rule.

Socialism is alive and well in the world today and it doesn’t mean communism.

In the United States we live in a roughly 30% tax bracket. The Scandinavian countries live in the 50% tax bracket. They are the real socialists.

This level of taxation might sound scary but they have totally universal health care and everyone’s college is paid for. Imagine what universal education would do for our economy.

We end up paying twice what the most expensive single payer country does anyway.

For details check out my health care article in Associated Content.

For me the most important part of this is something I heard on NPR the other day. Quality of life is tremendously improved without the stress of the financial burden of health care and education.

If I get sick I just suffer through it. I can’t afford health care. If can’t afford to send my kids to college are they doomed to live like I do, trying to survive week to week?

On the other hand

That being said, QUESTION AUTHORITY!!!!!!!

Trust

It occurred to me that the there really is a danger of society crumbling. We’ve become so polarized that the illusion that holds us all together is evaporating.

The illusion is trust. We have to be willing to trust strangers. We have to will it.

Checking Facts

A Roanoke, Va. TV station refused to run an attack ad directed at Democratic Rep. Tom Perriello. The ad blasts Perriello's vote in favor of the climate change bill.
The National Republican Congressional Committee claims energy costs could go up nearly $1,800 a year per household. This number came from an estimate from the conservative Heritage Foundation. It had been proven to be false but the statistics were used anyway. The Congressional Budget Office puts the increase at closer to $175 per annum by 2020. Kinda reminds me of Bush's yellowcake speach.
Southern Regional Press Secretary, Jessica Santillo states "The NRCC has a track record of running ads so deceptive and misleading that local TV stations refuse to air them or have to remove from the airwaves,” “Clearly, Washington Republicans realize that the truth is not on their side so they resort to deceptive and false attack ads. Virginians deserve to hear the facts about how this bill will reduce our dependence on foreign oil, not be subject to scare tactics.”
Are we entering a new era of fact checking? I'm encouraged by the fact that more and more of these lies are being exposed.We are fed false facts from both sides and the public generally doesn’t go to the trouble to check them out. It seems like more and more political statements have been followed by a fact check afterwards. Maybe the truth will pevail in spite of our apathy.
The internet has the ability to feed us even more lies because a lot of opinions aren't well researched. The truth is in there too. We need to sift through it all. We have to be willing to look a little deeper even when the facts don’t say what we want them to. I am constantly humbled by my ignorance but I really don’t think it’s impossible to discern the truth.