OBAMA warns country will be Bankrupt soon

[Michigan1951]

Yes, and don't get me wrong. I am not blind to the gospel of Jesus Christ Our Lord.
Just realistic to today's world and it's problems. You can take parts of the Bible and use it to suit and church doctrine or yourself as well. I love the documentaries that do not take sides, but show findings that really are eye opener's to questions that I already had. If I die, I surely want God in my heart, but the Bible was not written by Mark, John, and others as it says. The words are written by those that heard them tell the stories. That makes more sense to me anyways. It makes the Bible more real.

[Lajazz947]

I am a dyed in the wool capitalist and like Government out of my life as much as possible.

I do think though that the government has an obligation to curb abuses in every field, banking, legal and medical and help those in need.

I admit that I do not know enough about the medical problems that face this nation mainly because I have not had to face debilitating issues yet.

However..........I do know this.

1- I have a $12,000 out of pocket yearly deductible in order to keep my medical premiums at $786 a month. REDICULOUS.

2- When my wife had a baby in '08 she had a persistent cough during and after delivery.

They had to give her cough medicine due to the pain the cough caused.

When the bill came we asked for a breakdown of costs and noticed that EACH cough spoon was $25!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If I had known that I would have smuggled in my own cough medicine and gave it to her.

My fear with a government sponsored plan is that I will have to wait forever to get a Dr's appointment. In some cases it might be too late.

I have heard those horror stories before but maybe its all propaganda.

[Michigan1951]

Did you see the movie, "Sicko" by Michael Moore? You'll get a better answer to your questions on how it works and all in other countries that already have it. Put a whole new twist on my thinking..........

[mgmadara]

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?

This is so true and it's disheartening. I go to one of the more liberal Christian denominations (UCC) so I don't see a lot of this at my church but it does exist. However, I live in a very religiously conservative area and hear things like this on a daily basis. It makes me sad.

[Kansas1960]

Shop around for a new church

Sorry to hear some of you have had bad experiences. I would not attend a church pastored by Rev. Wright, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Jim Baker, Rick Warren (not sure if I like him or not) or Jimmy Swaggart. I also would not attend the church that publicly says listen to Rush or Rachael Maddow. I liked Billy Graham and still like James Dobson, Hank Hanegraaff, Charles Stanley are some on the national stage I enjoy listening to. I am not into the things that make you feel good like making sweaters for homeless or bake sales to save the earth. I like the basic study of the Bible. I also prefer to show up after the music is over which I don't particularly like that much.
If my church says abortion is wrong, homosexuality is wrong then that is doctrine, not hate. My church does not spend a lot of time on those issues. More time is spent on becoming a better person and understanding our faults. If a church becomes a fundraiser every week, I don't like that. Shop around for one that teaches the Bible.

[Michigan1951]

If my church says abortion is wrong, homosexuality is wrong then that is doctrine, not hate

Yicks, this is two topics that really bring people head to head. I don't understand homosexuality, and yet, just because others say it's wrong, doesn't mean we have to poke our noses in other people's personal lives and tell them who to love intimately.
And, I am against abortion, except if the mother's life is at stake. That is it. And, I am totally against partial abortion!! But, I think if you are going to take the fetus, mind you I said fetus, not baby, it should be taken BEFORE any limbs and inner organs are developed, and used for stemcell research. What a terrible thing to have to live with that even then. I would not want to be in the shoes of a mother to have no choice but to abort a fetus and/or unborn developed baby. The church has to be against abortion or they would really get into trouble as it goes against what they think they stand for. The church should not stick their noses into the lives of people that are faced with this either. It is a private thing. I would not try to tell them to abort or not as well. I have an opinion, but could not make the choice for someone else. Babies are precious, but they do not belong to the church or others outside of the parents. Yicks, again. I had better get off this topic.....

[BrokeMike]

Did you see the movie, "Sicko" by Michael Moore? You'll get a better answer to your questions on how it works and all in other countries that already have it. Put a whole new twist on my thinking..........

That was a really good movie.
People who don't believe in free healthcare system should watch it.

My fear with a government sponsored plan is that I will have to wait forever to get a Dr's appointment. In some cases it might be too late.

I lived in Europe for many years and I never had to make an appointment to see a doctor. Just went to the clinic and waited for couple people in front of me.
If it is an emergency then you go to ER.

[Michigan1951]

Michael Moore lives not too far from where I live. He supports the film festival in Traverse City. He rubs some people the wrong way because he actually puts the issues right in front of them. Like it or not. "Sicko" educated me that universal healthcare does and can work. Any time there is a big change coming, my dad says there are always people kicking and fighting to stay the same, but it will come, and they will adjust. We will survive, like we always have.

[JRScott]

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.



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).

Social Security was intended to be a safety net. However it has now become the major 'retirement' plan of many Americans. After Social Security came about companies started cutting back on pensions and other such retirement programs, and American citizens as you point out did not adjust their own savings to take that into account. It is one reason that the baby boomers are as a group far less prepared for extended retirement than their parents were and why we'll have tremendous trouble in the coming decade as they retire.

[LimpDisc]

And, I am against abortion, except if the mother's life is at stake. That is it.

So you believe a woman should carry the baby to term if raped or if incest in involved?

I can understand the different beliefs on when or if abortion should be allowed, but not when rape or incest is involved.

[Tom_Mi]

So you believe a woman should carry the baby to term if raped or if incest in involved?
I can understand the different beliefs on when or if abortion should be allowed, but not when rape or incest is involved.

I think everybody's got it wrong. It's obvious that we all have strong feelings on both sides of the issue. Therefore there doesn't need to be a federal opinion one way or the other. Unless we're all in agreement on an issue, states should be able to make the determination themselves by ballot measure.

That's why you can do some things in Nevada that you can't do in Kansas.

[momisery]

The reason boomers are less able to support themselves in retirement are many. For one, our incomes dropped and have since the 60's per the dept of labor. In the meantime our costs went up in healthcare, and we lost pensions. While that was happening prices kept going up as if labor was tooooo expensive. In other words big business got greedy, sell more stocks to more people means more people are wanting returns on you profits, so they have to increase to keep stock sales going strong. Sad, but true.

[Kansas1960]

Momisery, you just kill me how every post you mention "Big Business". You really hate big business. Big business is owned by the american people, your pension, your city's investments, univeristies endowments. Big business employs millions of people and pay tons of taxes. The profits of big business go to shareholders which are all of our 401Ks. Yes, there are some big salaries which I agree are too high for many and maybe the board should reduce them. Quit it with the big business hate. How about big government? A dollar going through the government is inefficient. I know I know police, military, roads I get it but big government is just as bad and I think worse than big business. There will always be the super rich and the dirt poor, when we die we are all equal in the ground. Happiness has nothing to do with being rich or poor (at least once you get your basic needs met).

[JRScott]

Momisery, you just kill me how every post you mention "Big Business". You really hate big business. Big business is owned by the american people, your pension, your city's investments, univeristies endowments. Big business employs millions of people and pay tons of taxes. The profits of big business go to shareholders which are all of our 401Ks. Yes, there are some big salaries which I agree are too high for many and maybe the board should reduce them. Quit it with the big business hate. How about big government? A dollar going through the government is inefficient. I know I know police, military, roads I get it but big government is just as bad and I think worse than big business. There will always be the super rich and the dirt poor, when we die we are all equal in the ground. Happiness has nothing to do with being rich or poor (at least once you get your basic needs met).

Government is big business, its amazing folks don't see that.

[JRScott]

The reason boomers are less able to support themselves in retirement are many. For one, our incomes dropped and have since the 60's per the dept of labor. In the meantime our costs went up in healthcare, and we lost pensions. While that was happening prices kept going up as if labor was tooooo expensive. In other words big business got greedy, sell more stocks to more people means more people are wanting returns on you profits, so they have to increase to keep stock sales going strong. Sad, but true.

Incomes have dropped that's true and taxes have increased at five times the rate of income in that time......so perhaps you should look to government.

Can't just blame one group. We as Americans became to greedy. We have lived a lifestyle that we could never sustain for about the last generation. Unfortunately hard times are coming to remind us of the importance of needs over wants.