Disco takes the bait . . .

My current personal situation makes me feel indifferent to the legislation, honestly . . . I don't feel it will affect me personally, at least for some 20 years from now . . . Then I can say if it was a good decision or not . . .

I morally agree it's the right thing to do in concept and I support it and think it's good . . .

I have not reviewed the entire bill but I 'feel' it may contain up to 25% pork . . . FYI, I think there was a LOT of stuff in there about Pell grants and the like . . . Yeah, doesn't have a thing to do with healthcare . . .

Other things that throw me are things like it'll cost $960B, and it'll save 1.3T - TEN YEARS FROM NOW . . . It occurs to me that our government is wasting our good money on things like wars where billions of dollars are headed out the door WEEKLY . . . So, um when we can send Iraq we freaking invoice for that one? Is that money ever headed back to us?

The whole money thing doesn't make sense at all, it's as if the government is a pimp and decides how and when we're gonna get paid . . . Guess what my fellow Ho's, PIMP KEEPS ALL THE MONEY!

Back to the matter at hand . . .

The whole states suing the fed is kind of odd to me as it still feels like a GOP move BUT I will say this . . . Yes, I do think when 2014 comes around and it's time for everybody to pay up, I agree states will be unable to cover the costs. In part because I'm pretty sure there are some snappy accountants already figuring out how to get big companies out of paying these costs so it may be a non-issue in 4 years from now . . .

The think I see locally is that state money is missing . . . GONE . . .

We seem to be running a constant deficit, are unable to balance the state budget, public education seems to be always running a negative balance sheet, nobody has cash to pass a referendum, and overall all anybody is able to do is 'observe' this phenomena . . .

Yes, I get REALLY concerned when I hear field trips are nixed, art and music programs are nixed, old shitty teachers who suck get to stay because they intend to stop working after 50 while new ones can't find work.

So, will this bill fix our debt problems? Gee, I sure hope it might, but ultimately I don't have much faith that the money I send in every April is ever making it's way towards helping my country . . .

Disco :D

First of all, it's not even "government take over of health care", which, if you like Medicare and Medicaid, might be preferable -- it's *insurance company* takeover of health care.

Sanctioned by the government, sure. The Dems wanted insurance companies to play fair with consumers (no denial on pre-existing conditions, no dropping the super sick/super expensive to cover) but the third leg on the stool is that insurance companies want to keep making money, so they need a whole bunch of healthy people to pay for insurance they won't use to pay for all the sick ones they're now forced to take on & keep.

Clever, eh? But it oughta work, just so long as the three-legged stool keeps all three legs I guess.

The folks who call Obama a Socialist clearly have no understanding of history before the Berlin Wall. Obama is a raving, rapacious capitalist of the first order. The fact that he even hints at throwing a bone to people that aren't already multi-millionaires I guess makes him look like Eugene V. Debs to some, but that's a real stretch. Is he "more socialist" than Dick Cheney? Sure. But on a scale where Anarcho-Syndacalism is a 10 and Unhinged, Unregulated Free-Market Captalism is a 1, Obama is about a 2.5, no worse than a 3. Ask Larry Summers and Timmy Geithner.

The state lawsuits are kind of silly -- really, they should be suing insurance company lobbyists, not the Federal government, and half those Republican-run states are already totally dependent on Federal money anyway. The whole "violating the Constitution" thing is a waste of time; this is partisan politics & bluster. Where was all this Repub whining about "the burden of future generations" when W was running up massive deficits? Other than Ron Paul, of course.

If this is their battle cry, they better keep looking. Kerry tried to get the public wound up about deficit spending back in '04 and it ultimately didn't work. No less an august Repub icon than Reagan once said that people don't care about it. It'll rile up the respective base, maybe, but the independents, the undecideds? Give 'em something more tangible.

I could go on, but I have to get back to work. For the record, I have & pay for my own health insurance already, and I don't mind.

J. Ryan