The Hill Commenters Take On Health Care

Wow. What are they smoking over at the The Hill site today? Perhaps you missed the provision for euthanasia counseling for instance? Check out this excellent sampling of commenters on what a farce the health care "debate" is (Read More to continue):

13: Perhaps JoeP doesn't know about the provision requiring counseling the aged on euthanasia at least every 5 years (more frequently if they are sick) and therefore doesn't get Linda's reference to President Kevorkian.

Maybe a few of O's defenders are unaware that O openly lied when he said you could keep your plan and your doctor (refer to page 16).

And yes, Pelosi, Reid and O constantly lie to the American people. When the government creates 31+ agencies to control health care, can anyone believe this would be deficit neutral?

When a government can only get $0.35 of every dollar spent for welfare to the actual intended recipients, can anyone believe the government can efficiently administer health care control?

Can a government who has stolen from the social security fund for years to the point of bankrupting it, manage your health care?

Look at any and every government program you know. Is it run well? Does it serve Americans well? Or is it ripe with fraud, inefficiency, bureaucracy, and surly "customer service"?

Lastly - time is not the problem with Congress actually reading bills. I submit they can't stand the stench within these bills and therefore delegate their sworn duties to their underlings. In addition, they want to ram a lot of things through that they will later claim they knew nothing about.

Time is only an issue because they want to make sure the American people don't have long enough to digest the legislation and organize dissent.

Comment by katablog.com — July 19, 2009 @ 9:32 am

18. We should all oppose ANY health care legislation that does not also cover members of Congress and ALL public sector employees, federal, state and local! "OBAMACARE, If It Ain't Good Enough For My Congressman, It Ain't Good Enough For Me!"

Comment by NCBob — July 19, 2009 @ 10:39 am

20: This raises a question in my mind about one of the premises of the whole effort — the need to cover the uninsured. The Census Bureau's raw number of 47 million uninsured is thrown around a lot, but a surprisingly large proportion of these are not too badly off — only 25% are below the poverty line, and fully 47% are at 200% of the poverty line or better. (21% are not citizens, but that is a different issue.) 63% are under age 34.

So, given that dependent children can be covered by Medicaid, there seems to be a strong implication that many of the uninsured are healthy young adults who have made the rational decision not to pay for insurance. And it is rational — in the event of a health catastrophe, the system will not let them die in the street, and health premiums are designed to make them pay for the more intensive older users.

So here is my question — is this whole thing a scam directed at getting the young and healthy into the system to force them to subsidize: (1) Geezers, and (2) Every treatment that can lobby legislatures for mandatory inclusion?

Health care is not my area, except for an interest in innovation, but why wouldn't the whole problem be solved by equalizing the tax treatment of employer and private insurance plans, ensuring the availability of catastrophe insurance, encouraging innovation and the free market, and sending Congress home?

Comment by JVDeLong — July 19, 2009 @ 10:50 am

21. Washington is basically out of it's collective mind. Rep or Dem, no matter. They scurry around, a mass of frenetic energy, while exacerbating the problems that we face.

The biggest favour that they could do for the American people is dismantle a large part of themselves. We don't need new programs, we need them to get out of our lives.

Everything that they touch, goes south, costs insane amounts of money, produces nothing positive and erodes the quality of our lives.

I have never been more unimpressed in my entire adult life than with the bunch that is currently in office.

Comment by JR — July 19, 2009 @ 11:09 am

22. If the administration and Congress are so certain this is the best plan for all us peasants out here (4 out of 5 whom can and have been figuring out how to insure ourselves without government intervention), let them all be required to go on the plan they're proposing.

They won't. It's garbage, and they know it. Obama has said that he wouldn't put his own kids on ObamaCare.

Hypocrites - every last one. Throw the bums out in 2010.

Comment by Good Lt. — July 19, 2009 @ 11:24 am

26. Reform health care ? Why ? The always expanding list of "rights" of Americans is unmatched by responsibility. Reforming the legal profession would be money better spent, since much of the health care cost of this country goes to trial lawyers. Government is less efficient than the private sector. Period. Most Americans can't name any government run programs which they are happy with - or very few anyway.

Americans trust of Congress is at an all time low - so we're going to turn to them for the answers ? And every single time the words "rush" or "hurry" are used to describe the legislative process, you can bet that the legislation is filled with something the politicians don't want us to know about(if they even bothered to read the bill before they voted on it).

Comment by DaveinPhoenix — July 19, 2009 @ 12:05 pm