OBAMA warns country will be Bankrupt soon

[Kansas1960]

A little sunshine in California

Liboton...Nice to see something good coming from California besides Avocados. I have to agree with you about our republic falling to the globalist. They took over our schools with the NEA and brainwashed the masses to believe in the government over the individual. Now it is the global government to save us from "big business" and global warming. It is written in the Bible that the path to destruction is wide and the masses are falling for it. I will pray some will wake up but I cannot control them. Peace in California from Kansas.

[JRScott]

I am for single payer. If you want to fix the system, single payer must be one of the items on the table. It's not. I want it all fixed, from Xanax to Billing!

Single Payer won't work without tort reform. It'll just put doctors and hospitals out of business, causing an even more critical shortage of services and ever increasing costs. It is why many Doctors and Hospitals refuse medicaid these days due to it only reimbursing them about 7-8 dollars above material costs, and they can't pay their staffs on that. Many doctors are paying 1/3rd to 1/2 of their income for medical malpractice insurance, and until you can lower that they can't survive on less wages which is needed to reduce costs. It also leads to a great deal of overtesting as they try to cover their you know what.

[JRScott]

But why only target healthcare? If things are that bad, we just all need to fend for ourselves. Immediately stop Social security, medicare, public education, police, fire, and the military.

At some point large cuts in all Federal programs will occure, they aren't to far from defaulting on their loans and once that happens it'll come.

The problem with Social Security and Medicare is that the age of eligibility is based on life expectancy of 1939 when Social Security was written. Full benefits were set to 3 years after you should die. However that age has not been moved nor was it codified in the law as based on life expectancy. Someone born this year has a life expectancy of 77.7 years compared to the 62 years of 1939. Social Security and Medicare could be restored to longterm health by changing the numbers and being honest that we can't afford for folks to spend as much as a third of their lives retired. Raising the age alone won't be enough though. Medicare today has 74 trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities not counting prescription drug benefit and Social Security has another 13 trillion in unfunded liabilities.Prescription drug benefit has a shortage of 18 trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities.

The reason our educational system is failing so badly now compared to a century ago is that we've tried a one shoe fits all approach. Remember a Federal Dept. of Education didn't exist prior to 1979 when it was spun off from the Dept of Health and Human Services which wasn't founded until 1953. It is why in Article I Section 8 of the constitution education is not listed as a right of the Federal Congress. The founding fathers realized that a one shoe mentality seldom works, introduces corruption and wastes. We'd be far better off to remove federal involvement in Education, have each state produce its on curriculum based on the needs of the state and its industries. No Child Left Behind is killing vocational training to the point the factories we have now still remaining will be gone in a generation if we don't start training more young people how to weld, carpentry and other vocational skills. Largely federal oversight of the US Educational system of the last 56 years is a failure and we should recognize it as such.

Police and Fire are largely state and local agencies not federal. Federal dollars that are used as grants to these are really unconstitutional and it would be far better to eliminate them from the Federal budget and make the local and state governments tax sufficiently to pay for them. (I'm against Federal Subsidies to anything, it just creates to much corruption.

[TooMuchCredit]

At some point large cuts in all Federal programs will occure, they aren't to far from defaulting on their loans and once that happens it'll come.

The problem with Social Security and Medicare is that the age of eligibility is based on life expectancy of 1939 when Social Security was written. Full benefits were set to 3 years after you should die. However that age has not been moved nor was it codified in the law as based on life expectancy. Someone born this year has a life expectancy of 77.7 years compared to the 62 years of 1939. Social Security and Medicare could be restored to longterm health by changing the numbers and being honest that we can't afford for folks to spend as much as a third of their lives retired. Raising the age alone won't be enough though. Medicare today has 74 trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities not counting prescription drug benefit and Social Security has another 13 trillion in unfunded liabilities.Prescription drug benefit has a shortage of 18 trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities.

I wouldn't want to pay into a program for 45 years that would only pay for my last 3 years of life. That said I wouldn't expect a program that would pay for 20 years at the same level of pay I had been receiving while working. It should be a safety net. Provide a minimum level of money necessary to get by. It should not be intended as the only means of retirement income. One should plan for retirement to maintain their level of lifestyle in addition to what they'd get from social security. I think that safety net is needed for those that don't plan ahead, those who's personal retirement investments go bad, etc. We can't rely on charity - their aren't enough charitable people to sustain that.

I also don't think any program federal, state, or local should expand benefits without a way to pay for them.

The reason our educational system is failing so badly now compared to a century ago is that we've tried a one shoe fits all approach. Remember a Federal Dept. of Education didn't exist prior to 1979 when it was spun off from the Dept of Health and Human Services which wasn't founded until 1953. It is why in Article I Section 8 of the constitution education is not listed as a right of the Federal Congress. The founding fathers realized that a one shoe mentality seldom works, introduces corruption and wastes. We'd be far better off to remove federal involvement in Education, have each state produce its on curriculum based on the needs of the state and its industries. No Child Left Behind is killing vocational training to the point the factories we have now still remaining will be gone in a generation if we don't start training more young people how to weld, carpentry and other vocational skills. Largely federal oversight of the US Educational system of the last 56 years is a failure and we should recognize it as such.

I agree with that completely. NCLB is a disaster. People can transfer their kids to schools perceived to be better causing overcrowding. Move the teachers around (or get new ones), don't move the kids.
I think the lack of parental involvement though is a bigger factor though. There's the expectation that the school is to do all the work. Parents don't make their kids do homework, or just as worse, some do the homework for the kids.
They expect the school to discipline but the school can't in many areas.
Maybe if they put cameras in the classroom so the parents could see how their little angel who would never be disruptive, actually is. (Just like store security cameras, they would not be reviewed unless there was cause to do so.) But we all pay for education and all kids have access and it's indirectly on our ability to pay as it's via property taxes and or sales taxes at the local level - maybe other places it's different but everywhere I have lived it's been that way. I think we should treat healthcare the same - open to all, based on ability to pay (% of income regardless of source).

[Kansas1960]

And if we did not have government play the role that the family has done for thousands of years then maybe the kids would be better off. Grandma used to move in with the adult children when grandpa died. Grandma would help with raising children and house stuff. Both parents didn't used to work to pay for taxes. Mothers stayed home and kept the house a home, did cooking instead of going to restaurants. You keep saying that charities are too few. You are right since half of our money goes through the government where there is waste and fraud and the percetion that government will pay for daycare, elderly care, school care etc. Get government off our backs and you will see the good in people when they have money to give to charities. The role of the church will be bigger like it should be but the progressives want churches to have very little power so they can have it and keep God in the background.
Before insurance ruined health care the doctor would come to your house for a house call, like they did to me as a child.

[TooMuchCredit]

And if we did not have government play the role that the family has done for thousands of years then maybe the kids would be better off. Grandma used to move in with the adult children when grandpa died. Grandma would help with raising children and house stuff. Both parents didn't used to work to pay for taxes. Mothers stayed home and kept the house a home, did cooking instead of going to restaurants.

Totally agree with you there 100%. It's too easy to just shove grandma and grandpa into a nursing home. That said there are instances where that won't work - i.e. abusive children to the parents or vice versa or when it prevents the caregiving children from holding down a job. So there is still a need for nursing homes, and in home caregivers.

You keep saying that charities are too few. You are right since half of our money goes through the government where there is waste and fraud and the percetion that government will pay for daycare, elderly care, school care etc.

Just like you have a distrust of the government, I have a distrust of the generosity of a society where money is king. Cut taxes and people will just go buy more stuff or a bigger house. They'll move far from the problems and have the "out of sight, out of mind" attitude. They won't give their windfall to charity and what little pitance they would give would not be enough to cover the need. We can write off charitable donations now and the charities still have to beg for more.
I don't make quite 6 figures, am single, and have no dependents - i.e few tax deductions and even with sales and property taxes I do not pay anywhere close to 50% of my income in tax.

Get government off our backs and you will see the good in people when they have money to give to charities. The role of the church will be bigger like it should be but the progressives want churches to have very little power so they can have it and keep God in the background.

I think the church is great for teaching morals in most cases. But many also are preaching intolerance. I do not think that religious beliefs should be put into law or in control of providing services however. One of the reasons people came to America was to escape religious persecution. We are free to believe and worship as we want. I think we need to separate what we should and shouldn't do (morals) from what we can and cannot do (law).

I also feel only things that cause physical or financial harm (murder, theft) should be made into law. It irks me going to the grocery store on Sunday and I can't buy a bottle of wine. If you dont believe in drinking on Sunday, don't do it. If you don't believe in gay marriage, don't marry some one of the same sex.

Now if we were given a breakdown each year of where our taxes went. I.E. instead of just paying a sum to the government, we'd get a breakdown - I.E. 20% to military, 10% to roads, etc. I would not see a problem if a church had a list of certain services that they would provide if some of that money was given to them, instead of that particular line item to taxes. They would have to provide the same level of service or greater than what the government would provide. If the provided service is less, then they would only get a portion of the line item amount. People in that church would then opt to get those services from the church instead of the government agency. If for some reason you had a falling out with the church, depending on the service, you could take the unused portion of your contributions to them and transfer it to a different church or the government if you did not want to be affliated with the church. That might be a nightmare to administer though.

Before insurance ruined health care the doctor would come to your house for a house call, like they did to me as a child.

Milk used to be delivered door to door too. It makes more logistical and cost sense for patients to come to a central location to the doctor (or milk). HOWEVER, from contagious disease perspective, it would seem better for folks to stay home and get checked out. Of course, then the doctor exposes himself/herself when she comes into the house. But everyone in the waiting room isn't exposed. I guess if we want to pay more we could have that again or find a way to cut other costs to be able to hire someone that can come and check people before they go to the office/hospital. But since a doctor's patients can come from far and wide and aren't limited to a small geographic area, logistics are still a factor and the wait might be more than sitting in a waiting room.

[Tom_Mi]

Hard to improve on TooMuchCredit's stuff...

The Church: Everyone at my church (Baptist, been there 20yrs) seems less and less like me. They say loudly whatever Rush and FoxNews (the news channel for white Christians) tell them. There is no regard for the older or poor people who would be helped by fixes to our healthcare system -- None. Rather than think about disabled people or people who are poor simply because they weren't blessed with a huge IQ, we choose to talk about "welfare baby machines". We Christians oppose healthcare because we want laws to represent our values...until it costs us money. If a law representing our values costs us one penny of our precious cash, we get to call it 'socialism', and Jesus will give us a free pass. Most of my friends at church think they can save the world with some coat donations and bake sales. We wouldn't ever consider the benefit of pooling our tax money to help the poor because, well, they're all "welfare baby machines". See how it works?

So this Christmas eve, we'll all get dressed up for the quiet candlelit service, and the men will wait in the hallway, slapping each other's backs and smirking about how they're gonna crush the welfare mothers and liberals ...for Jesus. What a grand bunch of human beings I get to hang around with.

************************************************

The reason our standard of living is going down is because of spreading the wealth.

Correct. The reason your brother/cousin etc, is losing his house is because his job went to CHINA. It's never coming back. I suppose we can just tell our brothers to suck it up and change careers, but how do they go to college or something with 3 kids in high school, and a mortgage? And what shall they do, can we all be lawyers? Can we all be managers? Who will we manage...China?
As recently as the 1920's many Americans lived under bridges and in tar shacks. The industrial revolution created the middle class...and helped them. The genius of conservative "free trade anarchy" has sent the entire middle class overseas, with no real plan to replace the work. But it's not a big deal, really. All those people who have lost their jobs are probably welfare mothers. Baby machines.

[LimpDisc]

Hard to improve on TooMuchCredit's stuff...

The Church: Everyone at my church (Baptist, been there 20yrs) seems less and less like me. They say loudly whatever Rush and FoxNews (the news channel for white Christians) tell them. There is no regard for the older or poor people who would be helped by fixes to our healthcare system -- None. Rather than think about disabled people or people who are poor simply because they weren't blessed with a huge IQ, we choose to talk about "welfare baby machines". We Christians oppose healthcare because we want laws to represent our values...until it costs us money. If a law representing our values costs us one penny of our precious cash, we get to call it 'socialism', and Jesus will give us a free pass. Most of my friends at church think they can save the world with some coat donations and bake sales. We wouldn't ever consider the benefit of pooling our tax money to help the poor because, well, they're all "welfare baby machines". See how it works?

So this Christmas eve, we'll all get dressed up for the quiet candlelit service, and the men will wait in the hallway, slapping each other's backs and smirking about how they're gonna crush the welfare mothers and liberals ...for Jesus. What a grand bunch of human beings I get to hang around with.

.

I quit going to church years ago. Don't even know who these people are anymore. They preach their message of intolerance & hate.

The church today is nothing more than a business and should be taxed as one!

[Tom_Mi]

I quit going to church years ago. Don't even know who these people are anymore. They preach their message of intolerance & hate.
The church today is nothing more than a business and should be taxed as one!

I go because because I like my faith more than the machine the church has become. Frank Schaeffer was on NPR yesterday...I like a lot of what he says.

[Michigan1951]

I don't go because it is a machine nowadays. I am a Baptist at heart from my younger years, but there is a sour taste in my mouth when it comes to the church doctrines that they draw up for people to follow. And guess what? I beleive in GOD for sure. But, the Bible is not the truth. The books of Matthew, Mark, John, were not written by them at all. It was from the listeners of these men. There are many more parts of the Bible that is not true. But, HE is true in my heart.

[Kansas1960]

I don't see any hate coming from the church I attend. People can feel less guilty about not going to church if they can justify it by finding fault, real or percieved to hang their hat on. Jesus did not hate those who sin He loved them. Just because you throw the liberal buzz words of Rush, white people, Fox News acutually show your hate. You can't have two masters, if you love the world you will hate God. Case closed. BTW, I love all the sinners, including myself, Rush, Obama, Cheaney, Bush, Monica Lewinski, Jesse Jackson, Megan Kelly, Keith Oberman, Chris Matthews, Toomuchcredit, Michigan1951, Kansas1960....

[Michigan1951]

Guess if we get into religion this belongs in another thread.

My church suppresses you to the point of being turned off is what I am talking about. I'm going to heaven with YOU, and I will pray for you too. No one is perfect ever, I know that. You can be a Christian and not go to church and be open minded as well. I have seen churchgoers (and know them), that have their head so far in the sand that they can't relate at all or are afraid of reading about things that have been discovered about the Bible (such as, Is it really what happened back then?) In my heart I know Jesus, and God is real. We are the same here. Yes, you need faith to beleive that the Bible is all true. But I have a hard time beleiving some of it actually happened the way it did. Doesn't change me beleiving that there is a God though.

[momisery]

When I worked in GA I spoke with a young man there that felt that healthcare and public assistance was a handout. Yet, his child was a special needs child and he was so upset when the program could not continue and wanted people to antie up for it. It depends on the shoes you are wearing, or the shoes you have seen on others as to what you support. Myself, I lost a child and never had any of my own and yet I pay for the things children need. Like the parks, the schools, librarys, play grounds .. and so on. I have never dismissed these as things I should NOT have to pay for. It is for the better of our society, exactly the whole reason we decided to educate ALL citizens to begin with for free. It put the USA ahead of other nations because we were SMART compared to other countries. The top 10 states in education, only 1 of them is a right to work state. The reason is of course higher taxes. IF we provided better education and paid better for those who are wiling to work, or can work our nation would be on FIRE again! We can not ignore the needs of 47 million people and decide they are okay and if they need care they can go to ER .. we can not DREAM that they can get a better paying job when college people are working as teller where I work. Healthcare costs TOOOO much.. TOOOO many people are TOOO greedy about what they are worth and what they deserve. In the end, a society like that will end up being robbed from, beaten for a car, we can not go down that road without losing our freedoms. And that is what will happen if we do not make business and government accountable.. they MUST tell the TRUTH they MUST stop taking all the wealth, they must be human.

[Kansas1960]

Nice post Michigan. Sometimes I have a hard time believing everything as well. I just have faith that if it is not is all exactly as it was written then it will still be ok. If some of the details don't pan out to be true when I get to heaven then we can laugh about it up there. I am not going to let a few details be the crack that lets doubt turn into disbelief. If I die believing and there is no God what have I lost? What I will have gained is a peace of being a believer and the closer I followed the Bible the better I left the world.

[Michigan1951]

sorry, duplicate.