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themiddle

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  • I’m going to wait until one of your commenters tries to tie all conservatives to these Lyndon LaRoushe wackos that keep infiltrating these things. I have to hand it to Barney though, the guy is a great insult comic, even though he should be tried in court for his involvement in the mortgage collapse, but I digress.

  • Wait for what? This is the result of the nature of the campaign being conducted against health care reform, primarily by people who offer no alternative. These are also the same people who criticize the efforts to help the economy and anything else on the Democrats’ agenda.

    The bottom line is that instead of an opposition party, what we appear to have is a hate party that will do and say anything to ensure that Obama and the Democrats fail. If it takes down the economy or the health care system or the country, they/you don’t really seem to care too much because then they/you may get more people elected to office.

    But this Nazi business is a logical extension of the hateful campaign being run by Republicans, whether or not this woman is or isn’t a Republican voter. Isn’t it amazing how your party spent 8 years attacking Clinton and are now doing a repeat with the new Democratic President? It’s shameful and it will cost us all. It actually already has because the Stimulus Plan ended up with 250 billion less cash being pumped into the economy because the party that controlled the Presidency and the House during the build up to our current economic crisis decided that more tax breaks were needed instead of a bigger cash infusion as the Democrats wanted. Now that it appears the infusion was too small, your party will turn around and blame it on Obama.

    Oh sorry, Hussein Obama.

  • The Larouchies are all crazy, but it was “Chimpy McBushilter” for 8 years, so, hey, sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.

    I think that “reducto ad Hitlerum” pretty much shows that the position of whoever uses it is essentially bankrupt, and I stop listening the minute anyone pulls it out, Democrat or Republican. But it is pretty hard not to smirk when the people who looked the other way as Bush was depicted as Hitler, a monkey, or a vampire for 8 years get all bent out of shape when the shoe is on the other foot.

    And now we have the added frisson of pretty much any and all criticism of Obama as being a priori proof of racism.

    A pox on both their houses.

  • Middle, the statute of limitations has expired on blaming Republicans for the country’s problems. The Democrats hold all the cards and can do what they want in Washington. You want a scapegoat for the impending demise of Obama’s health-care bill? Try blaming Obama. Or the CBO, which exposed this fiscally-irresponsible monstrosity for what it is.

    After spending the last few years whipping up mass protest against the privatization of Social Security, the Iraq War, etc., the Democrats are on the receiving end– and can’t deal with it. Look at the tone-deaf petulance of Nancy Pelosi, for example.

    Let’s move on from Republican-bashing, OK?

  • When Medicare gets fixed.
    When the Social Security Trust Fund gets stablized and replenished after the retirement of the baby boomers.

    When the US has no debt (yes going back to Andrew Jackson here).

    When the US has a balanced budget.

    THEN come and talk to me about the US adopting ANOTHER entitlement.

  • Middle apparently thinks the Republicans should just roll over, and any manifestation of opposition is “hatred”– shades of the odious Pelosi’s characterization of conservative protesters as “anti-American.” Middle, the Republicans don’t matter. Not only do the Democrats dominate Congress, Obama’s popular enough for now to readily pick off Republicans like Snowe and Collins– effectively, he has 62 votes in the Senate.

    And Republicans are to blame for the allegedly undersized stimulus bill? Middle, the money that was appropriated can’t get spent fast enough to make its way into the economy– very little has made it out of Washington. So more money wouldn’t matter at the moment.

    He’s your guy, Middle. You voted for him. The president who thinks Israel is nothing more than an unforeseen consequence of the Holocaust. Who promised to review the Federal budget line by line and make hundreds of millions in savings, but who’s saddled us with deficits that would’ve made Reagan blush. Who promised us that unemployment would stay south of 10 per cent, when it will soar well beyond that. Who promised to close Guantanamo and end rendition and indefinite detention. Who’s abandoned our bipartisan commitment to democracy and human rights from Egypt to Iran to China… The list goes on and on.

    Of course, anathemizing the opposition usefully changes the subject, doesn’t it?

  • the statute of limitations has expired on blaming Republicans for the country’s problems. The Democrats hold all the cards and can do what they want in Washington.

    Hunh? We’re not even finished with Year 1 of Obama and already the crisis isn’t the Republicans’ fault? We disagree. And it were Snowe and Collins who pushed the stimulus package to contain the idiotic tax breaks that ensured a lot of money wouldn’t filter into the economy.

    But it’s not the failure or success of Obama that I was speaking about, it’s the extremist tone taken by the vast majority of Republicans on the Hill. It is the shrill tones of opposition that cause people to refer to supporters of these plans or this government as “Nazis.”

    As for,

    The president who thinks Israel is nothing more than an unforeseen consequence of the Holocaust. Who promised to review the Federal budget line by line and make hundreds of millions in savings, but who’s saddled us with deficits that would’ve made Reagan blush. Who promised us that unemployment would stay south of 10 per cent, when it will soar well beyond that. Who promised to close Guantanamo and end rendition and indefinite detention. Who’s abandoned our bipartisan commitment to democracy and human rights from Egypt to Iran to China… The list goes on and on.

    What can I say, I wanted Hillary. So far Obama has been a disappointment, maybe even a great disappointment.

  • Robert! I can’t wait till you move to Israel!! We have socialized health care here ya know. And we’re still around! Seriously, let us know when you get here. I will buy you a beer.

  • I already know ck. And, I will let you know when my aliyah is nailed down. (have to sell my house). Thanks! 🙂

  • Im always amused when people say country A & B have socialized healthcare and think that because a country of under 8 million can be a rule of thumb for a country of 330 million.

    I am all for a socialized medical option but it shouldnt be the only option and should NOT use the same structure as a European country of under 80 million Israel under 8 million or Canada under 40 million.

    But what about China!!! They have over 1 Billion you say!!
    Can someone please show me the successful Chinese socialized medical program? I cant find it anywhere. I an only find children dying in hospital from Lead Poisoning because of a complete lack of environmental and safety standards. http://tinyurl.com/nnybfa

    I dont want America to fail or Obama. I want to say wow Obama, I didnt vote for you, I seriously doubted and criticized you, but you did something right and I respect you for that. I was wrong. I want to be wrong. I wont be most likely.

    We are F’ed.

    • Rigorously socialised healthcare, like in Britain, has shown to be a disaster (basic treatments only, substandardly educated staff not uncommon, long waiting lists for urgent medical procedures). In China, it may exist on paper, but in practice, people don’t get the healthcare they need (watched a documentary about it a while back; being poor in China appears to be worse than being poor in any capitalist nation I can think of). In Germany, there’s mandatory health insurance, and as soon as you make more than 400 Euros per month, you have to pay for insurance (approx. 15% of your income before taxes); the result is a subsidiary system in which those that make less than 400 Euros per month get health insurance paid for (people on welfare get their flats, food, clothes, special occasion clothes, children’s summer camps, school material etc. paid for, so the almost 400 Euros they get are on top of the expenses for all basic needs). People that earn little often opt out of insurance by staying behind on the payments; then they get kicked out and cannot get re-insured with that insurance, so the system works as an incentive to rather be unemployed than to work and not earn much. Socialised quality healthcare (as people here add to hospital stays, medication etc.) would cost the US trillions it doesn’t have and only marginally improve the quality of workforce if at all.

      The stimulus plans have backfired; they have made governments susceptible to industrial blackmail and have the tax payers cover for the mistakes of the decision makers in neglecting to regulate business or failing to invest in research.

  • As a Canadian, I’m really not to interested in the details of heath care reform in the States, but I need to ask, since when has it become okay for anyone to make such casual comparisons to Hitler and the Nazis? It’s an offensive, intellectually bankrupt, pathetic comparison.
    Also, on another note, did you know these Larouchie guys campaign in Canada as well? I’ve seen them both at McGill university and at the University of Montreal–a French University. Why are they wasting their effort talking to Canadians?

  • By not creating some sort of public option for health care we are just going to end up with more and more overcrowding in the hospitals that should be dealing with critical cases and not someone that is uninsured with a cold.

    Also Barney Frank may be a bit coarse but at least he says it like it is unlike most of the republicans and democrats.