Possibly, but I think that the EU will go before the U.S. Thus giving us (both of us) customers as we pull them out of their depression again. Asia I think is in a much better position than we are to ride this out.
America Is Not Yet Lost
- Thread starter china
- Start date
Possibly, but I think that the EU will go before the U.S. Thus giving us (both of us) customers as we pull them out of their depression again. Asia I think is in a much better position than we are to ride this out.
One big thing you left out when you mentioned the Health bill, and that is the majority of Americans do not want it in the format Obama is trying to force down our throats. Big brother does not know best. There are some out there trying to be like Don Quixote de la Mancha, well intentioned but their ideals are not everybody's. If the Senate would give up their "Cadillac" health plan for a public option they may have better luck. The U.S. goverment usually works pretty smoothly and things do get done somehow. Were not ready for a absolute leader just yet, not many countries are.
It is unfortunate that you think a bill to lower US health care costs and extend services to those who do not have health care is forcing something down your throat. The US system is incredibly expensive, inequitable, and inefficient. The Obama health care bill was a first step in bringing the US into line with what people in other modern nations take for granted. Even simply copying the flawed Canadian health care system would have been an improvement. Sadly, corporate interests and the reactionary right wing media have created a sense of hysteria over what should have been a simple restructuring of a seriously flawed system.
Good luck enjoying paying your continually increasing health care premiums.
The system I admit has to be repaired, but to destroy the best medical system money can buy to give everyone something is like taking away their Cadillac's and giving them clunkers. The system can and must be fixed, make affordable health insurance available to everyone, but do not destroy what we already have that works. By the way, I never personally paid anything for my health plan, except what I paid into Medicare that the goverment squandered away paying for things having nothing to do with Medicare.
America isnt done yet they have a reserve fleet at the Puget Sound, the airforce reserve in Georgia and who knows how many else reserves they have for the army. Lots of fightin left
System must be fixed? Don't hold your breath. After two failed attempts, Democrats wouldn't touch health care with a ten meter pole. Republicans of course don't want to fix the system, they like the system just fine.
The recent election in Massachusetts has made sure that there won't be another attempt at health care reform for at least a generation.
So does the Illuminati, so were good here not to mention all the Uranium we have, oh ya all that &ucking oil, not to mention half the periodical table in our possession in copious quantities, 'sigh' Why is everything so complected?
We are the 51st state with full autonomy.
I'm Mc liking it.
The United States has always been polarized politically, this is not the first time this has happened and will not be the last. These different ideas is what makes us great, when push comes to shove we usually do the right thing. We do not have to do what the world or other countries may like or think, as long as were satisfied with the result. We still are a united country.
Two things surprised me when I joined this Canadian Content forum not long ago.
1. How many opinions there were about the U.S.
2. How many negative opinions there were about the U.S.
I guess a lot of people must feel the U.S. is important or they wouldn't take so much time to comment on it.
By the way, I agree with everything you said in your post, and most especially with your last sentence..."We are still a united country." Very true, in my opinion too.
I think we are still struggling with that issue in Canada, but it doesn't make the headlines as often as it used to. It wasn't that long ago when "Canadian Unity" was a big election issue. Other problems have since risen higher on the list of things to worry about here.
One thing is certain - every country has problems to deal with, no exceptions.
Not for another generation, as i explained in my previous post. Republicans like the present system just fine. Democrats would like to reform health care, but the recent election in Massachusetts really put the nail in the coffin of health care reform.
The vote in Massachusetts will be interpreted as a vote against health care reform, and rightly so.
It has never been so polarized, ironsides, at least not in recent memory. I have lived in USA in the 70s. at that time there was very much the spirit of bipartisanship in the Congress. Nixon got along well with the Democratic Congress and they were able to achieve a lot.
Nixon even supported health care reform (a Republican supporting health care reform is unheard of today). To Kennedy’s eternal regret, he did not accept the proposal offered by Nixon.
The bipartisanship pretty much continued with Reagan. At that time the Speaker of the House, Tip O’Neill, was a staunch liberal, but he got along with Reagan very well, they had a friendship.
I think bipartisanship started breaking down during Clinton’s period, when Republicans resorted to purely political (and purely partisan) impeachment. Their hope of making political capital out of impeachment never really materialized (they had a disastrous mid term election in 1998 and they lost two Speakers as a result, Livingston and Gingrich). But that poisoned the political atmosphere big time and that signaled the end of bipartisanship.
During Bush era, Democrats attacked him incessantly. Now the same thing is happening with Obama, anything Democrats propose, all the Republicans vote against it as a block. Now with them having 41 Senators, I expect no legislation will be passed between now and November.
But the country was never as polarized as it is now, political atmosphere never as poisoned as it is now.
No, I don't think so, your making it sound to simplistic. Voting against health care was not the main reason people voted the Democrats out and a Republican in. They lost because of the arrogant manner they are trying to tell us what and how to change everything from banking to how we should live. Health care being one part. I have no idea what health plan eventually will emerge, but it better not be one that increases the work load doctors already have without increasing the amount of doctors available. It is not only Republicans who may or may not like the present system. Don't hold me to these numbers, but approx. 150 million are satisfied with what they now have, 60-70 million would like more choices and 40 million do need some form of low cost insurance. President Obama should never had said " The example he gives? Whether his ailing grandmother should have been allowed a hip replacement in the final months of her life.
"End-of-life care" he said, is an area where "you just get into some very
difficult moral issues. But that's also a huge driver of cost, right? I mean,
the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for
potentially 80 percent of the total health care bill out here."
So who is going to make the decisions about grandma's cancer treatment and hip replacement surgery?
Just what right does a goverment entity to tell someone it would be better to die and save the others some money. I say work with "Medicare" and make it work more efficiently, include those who cannot afford insurance under its umbrella. Set up a dedicated fund for Medicaid and Social Security that Congress won't be able to touch for other projects.
But it was during the sixties into early 70's, the it was the Vietnam war, Watergate, Mayflower Hotel, the inception of Medicade. These item polarized the nation back then. We were at each other throats about all of them. Medicare did not pass easily thru Congress. It was not always polarized, we always weren't fighting over this and that. Obama is to Ambitious, he has to slow down or the next step would be to render his Presidency impotent. The way I look at it, President Obama has one shot to get this right,
I'm not sure if the problem with Obama is simply ambition. I think it could be more a matter of his style along with a lack of experience. He might have made the mistake of thinking that a fine, stirring speech would trump all the realities that get in the way of implementing a huge and expensive change like his health care vision. In my opinion, that is because - from the start - he lacked experience in a job that has more than its share of accountability attached to it.
I think he's trying to learn on the job, but it's been a year and much time and effort has been spent on a lot of elaborate plans and visions, but there are no results forthcoming.
It appears that he is between a rock and a hard place now. He has succeeded in creating rifts within the Democratic party on health care, made sure the Republicans are against it more than ever, and turned a great number of the general electorate against the health care "monster" at the same time. Had he been more experienced at "getting big things done" (as any former governor would have been), he would likely have worked a bit more closely with both sides of Congress before the damage was done, not after. He might then have discovered that a "simpler" health care plan would stand a chance of succeeding.
For a guy who promised a big load of positive change, I don't see any of it happening. In fact, he may have gotten so many backs in the air over health care that any future "big change" will be viewed with a great deal of suspicion. By both sides of the political spectrum.
He now appears to be trying to find some middle ground within the Democratic party and with the Republicans, but some of his people will have their eye on the "big change" campaign speeches he made, while he is "watering down the whiskey" with the politicians.
Like I said, he may have painted himself into a corner in Year 1, and it's going to be a hell of a challenge to get out of it without losing a tremendous amount of credibility. This has a lot of potential to become a one-term presidency.
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In spite of all these issues, there was a spirit of bipartisanship in the Congress. Civil Rights legislation passed with bipartisan support, with many Republicans supporting it. In those days, there was the spirit of working together, of coming to some compromise.
These days compromise is a dirty word, it is either my way or the highway. There is no desire to compromise, no willingness to find a mutually acceptable solution.
The Republican strategy is to oppose everything Democrats propose, vote against it as a block and stall it in the Senate. And this strategy may yield them success in the next election.
But Democrats will probably adopt the same strategy when they are a minority party, and prevent Republicans from passing anything.
The problem is that US political parties are behaving like Canadian political parties, one party instinctively opposes anything the other party proposes, opposes it uncompromisingly. Now, that works in Canada or Britain, our system is designed to handle that. Yours isn’t.
You're starting to sound like a CBC reporter. Most of them also have difficulty assessing a situation objectively.
I actually starting to wonder if these rifts being started are not part of his grand plan to get voters riled up for primary elections which usually have low turnouts. Obama won because his people managed to get out and get the vote. Sometimes multiple times using ACORN which is under investigation now. He wants votes, he has got to stop being so arrogant and not talk down to the people as he does. Maybe working on one thing at a time that the people may want would help him also. We have had quite a few of one term Presidents, so he won't be the first.
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Well now, that is only your opinion, isn't it (that your assessment of the situation is objective and mine isn't)?
So does the Illuminati, so were good here not to mention all the Uranium we have, oh ya all that &ucking oil, not to mention half the periodical table in our possession in copious quantities, 'sigh' Why is everything so complected?
We are the 51st state with full autonomy.
I'm Mc liking it.
Would you like that Super Sized? ;-)