"How is it that other countries manage on much smaller military budgets?" That's easy not every country has emperialistic ambitions

The goal of government agencies is simply to get the job done. The goal of insurance companies is to make as much profit as possible and give back as little as possible. If insurance companies had to compete with an agency like Medicare, they would have to deliver more service and accept a smaller profit. That would benefit us, the customers.

Nobody wanted to discuss that idiocy the first time you posted it. Do you honestly think anyone's going to do it now?

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For those who have fought to defend it, freedom has a taste the protected will never know...



If it wasn't for double standards, liberals would have no standards at all...

Oh no, there can be just as much corruption in government agencies too.

Sweden learnt that and now has one of the best welfare systems in the world for education, healthcare, employment, etc. etc. etc.

They pay high taxes, and the government spends much on the system, but, surprise, surprise, most of their system is privatised and compete for governmetn funds depending on where the patient chooses to go. Many of their clinics are privately run. Many of their schools are private and just collect a school voucher.

Often the best system is a mixture of public and private, with not too much power in either hand, thus providing checks and measures.

Singapore's is similar, with public oversight of the health sytem, but otherwise mostly private. And even when government funded, private clinics can compete for those funds.

It couldn't have ANYTHING to do with the fact that we are much larger than most other nations now could it? I mean, i realize that doesnt fit with your fantasy, but it may be a factor.

The US is not an empire, no matter how much you want to pretend it is.

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In case you were wondering, yes, there really ARE more idiots these days....technology has made natural selection obsolete.

Silence is golden...Duct tape is silver.

Of course you are right, we can never avoid corruption. But an insurance company that is privately owned, secretive about its books, and devoted to achieving the highest possible profit margin, is not in the public interest.

I find this health care plan a dissappointment and really wish there was somethin alot better than this. Its stupid and yes it doesnt make sense the gov't is charging retired people to pay for people who dont have jobs and are illegal immigrants too.

Where did you get that morsel of disinformation?

First off.

Maybe the government would run a hell of a lot better if you dumb people stopped voting into office conservatives who's idea it is to make government run worse? Idea maybe???

And there is a few who run well. Veteran Care is known as a very good system. NASA seems to be another. Lets see. NSA? DA? FAA? State Department? FBI? US Mint? FCC? (with the limited assets they have) FRA? We could go on forever about services you haven't even heard of who probably do their job very well day in and day out.

Many of their clinics and hospitals are not privately run. A few are. Most of those private hospitals are non profit organizations which do a very admirable humanitarian work. To claim that Sweden is some grand hybrid of equal government and private for profit care is absurd. Personally I think the education system needs some work. Because when you have a few private schools who get their funding from the state as well. You take out the access money from the public schools which could be used to increase quality instead. Now, if 5 children in a public school area goes to a private school instead, the public school might have to fire 1 or 2 teachers. It undermines the entire public system that some children are in a private school.

Lets see.
Bush: Iraq Invasion, Afghanistan Invasion, Air campaigns in Tribal areas in Somalia.
Clinton: Peacekeeping in Somalia, Air campaigns in Kosovo, Bosnia and Iraq

Which one of those operations dwarfs all the others in cost?

Name one state which has done that.

Let's see....

Iowa.

Iowa stimulus money use source 1
Source 2

Any other states you would like to claim for your own fiscal conservatism?

Not sure what your link had to do with anything. Iowa turned down federal funding related to Bush's "abstinence only" sex education mandate. There are other examples, but you seem to be more hung up on the liberal/conservative/coke/pepsi/great-taste/less-filling nonsense. Huzzah.

My links where to show that Iowa indeed takes federal stimulus money an turns down very little. I may have over focused on the stimulus money however, you'll have to excuse that, old habit of late. In a general view though, I'm sure there is a lot of programs the states turn down. But some of these provisions they may not chose to opt out of. Like taxing those companies who don't provide insurance for their employees. Which will happen any which way the state objects. The natural consequence of that is that these states then must provide a government alternative to these uninsured people anyway. And the hole state rights thing cooks down into semantics.

Why do you think providing for the common defense and general welfare is idiocy, if you don't have that much of a problem paying for crime, drug, poverty, and terror wars; which only provide for the common offense, the general badfare, or the general warfare?

Aren't retired people by definition people who don't have jobs?

We're already taxing workers to pay the unlimited, government run health care for those without jobs. The current program is a luxury - it doesn't improve future productivity. However, as a luxury program founded on the idea that there's a minimum standard of care we want to and can afford to provide... why is that standard higher for a 90 year old than a 2 year old? Shouldn't the same standard cover all citizens, be it all, nothing or somewhere in between?