Let me spell it out so that you better understand my points. Again I will use a scenario to try to get your input.

Suppose Person A is a 25-year-old fresh out of college with an MBA who experiences a catastrophic event, say, a car wreck that is not their fault caused by an idiot driver with no car insurance. Supposed Person A is left with long term disabilities and chronic pain and injuries from the accident. Suppose in this hypothetical scenario that just prior to the wreck, Person A had gotten their first major job after graduating from college, which was paid for by scholarships received by person A. Suppose the job provided them with health care insurance. Suppose Person A also had long and short term disability and dismemberment insurance which they received via a bi-weekly pay deduction at work. Now suppose that Person A has no family who can help them out. Suppose, Person A’s father and mother are already deceased (they ironically were killed by drunk driver two years before). Suppose Person A is too young and too new to the workforce to have amassed much money in a 401K or IRA. Now suppose that after a few days in the hospital, Person A realizes that he is going to be out of commission for several months and will likely be in lifelong debilitating pain and crippled per his doctors’ evaluations and may not be able to return to work for couple of years. Even after 3 months of FMLA leave, Person A realizes that they will not be able to return to work and afford health insurance or to pay for his daily medical expenses on the paltry sum of disability insurance he has purchased through work on his paltry entry-level-job’s salary. Are you suggesting that this young hypothetical Person A with an MBA and just bad luck should just be discarded by society and left to die? Are his friends supposed be his health insurance plan in his time of need even though he has the due diligence of preparing for the storm? After all, you said “That is what family and friends are for.” Maybe Person A just needs to cowboy the F up, and just shoot himself and do society and you a favor, right? That’s life after all. Oh, did I forget to mention that Person A was your second cousin from Ohio. The good news is you haven’t seen him in 15 years since the last family reunion, so you don’t really have any emotional “attachments” to him. What would you recommend Person A do in this situation? My guess would be maybe Person A can get on Medicaid till they fully recover, but hey that’s one of those dirty socialist programs you Republicans are always whining about?

As to your question about the war, I supported the war in Afghanistan, but opposed the war in Iraq. I felt it would take the focus off Afganistan, where the terrorists were supposed to be. There simply wasn’t enough proof about WMDs IMO, either. Turned out I was right on that one. I guess I am one of the 20% who makes decisions on what the facts are and not on whimsy. Wars should never be entered into lightly.

BTW, Bush wasn’t the only Republican by the way who was screaming about the sky falling in 2008. He had plenty of support from most of his base.

I do agree with you about everyone having to buy insurance by law, just like car insurance. I think that is what you were saying when you said, “If everyone including younger healthy people was already buying insurance, there would not be a health care problem.”

The thing about insurance is that you have to buy it before you need it. Otherwise what fool would give you a policy that they know they would lose money on? People can buy insurance to cover medical costs. People can buy insurance to cover their homes in cases of catastrophes. People can buy disability insurance to supplement their income if they get sick or disabled. People can buy life insurance so their family can payoff all its bills if the person dies unexpectedly or prematurely. The free market already provides solutions to the problems you describe. The problem is not the market. The problem is that people like you won’t accept the blame for not preparing for unexpected catastrophes. The market already offers solutions. You have to plan for rainy days. It is called being responsible. That is why insurance companies exist. If you don’t have insurance, then you are taking a risk. You are taking it willingly as much as the person who risks driving to work every day. Chances are that nothing will happen. But, there is a small risk. Obama said it himself. If everyone including younger healthy people was already buying insurance, there would not be a health care problem.

Point 2 – Many republicans were against the bail outs. Bush was not a fiscal conservative. Nobody claims he was, not even Republicans. He spent too much money. Obama is taking spending to a new level. Republicans wanted to end TARP.

Point 3 – I wonder what your thoughts were about the war on 9/12/2001. If you say you were against it, then you disagreed with 80% of Americans. Hindsight is 20/20. If you look at every single war the United States has ever been involved in, there is no doubt that you can say we could have done it better. The truth is that we will never know whether we were better off or not for it. Reasonable arguments can be made on either side of that coin. We will never know what might have happened otherwise. At the time he went to war, Bush sided with 80% of Americans who agreed that it was the right thing to do.

I agree that with you somewhat. If someone chooses not to work or could get insurance through their spouse but doesn’t, then they should not be simply given any health insurance as a freebie.

Here’s where I disagree. Lately I keep hearing this same canned speech from lots of Republicans about how life is all about choices. Sure, I’ll agree that everybody has free will and we should all strive to make conscious choices and deal with the consequences of those conscious choices. However, the fact that is missing from your point about choices is that one person’s poor choices can affect another person’s situation.

So, using Republican illogic, if I drive to the store and get t-boned by a another car in an accident that is not my fault and then I lose my job and my health insurance due to injuries I got in the accident, then it was totally my fault for CHOOSING to drive to the store at that point and time. In reality, as much as you Republicans would like to think that individual choice is the only factor controlling our destinies, a person’s life is driven by more than just their own choices. Our lives are a mix of our own free will, unexpected events and accidents, and the choices and free will of other people affecting each of our lives. Most people don’t choose to get in a car accident or get shot by robber or get brain cancer or loose their home in a hurricane or be in the top floor of the world trade center on 911. That is why we call them ‘accidents’ or simply events that are beyond are control. BTW, I still haven’t heard any Republicans like yourself offer up any details on how you are going to fix the health insurance problems facing our country or create jobs. What’s your solution to provide affordable and decent health care to those who work but can’t get insurance because of previous conditions or who have become too sick to work and get insurance?

BTW, I just set my stopwatch. You have a year and 9 months (the time you gave our president and democratic congress) to fix everything that bushy left us in the 8 years before Obama like over a trillion dollar war and deficit, no WMD’s, a lot of killed or mangled American GIs, and a host of bailouts like AIG, fannie and freddie, bears & sterns, etc. If the republicans are for less government why did bushy insist on bailing out all these rich jerks when they were tanking in 2008? He should have just let them fail like a good republican. Shouldn’t he have wanted less government? I guess ‘less government’ doesn’t apply to Bushy and his rich buddies.

One other thing. Just like you and all your GOP buddies don’t want your tax dollars being spent on health care, I’m a taxpayer to and I don’t want a dime of my tax dollars being spent on these wars we are in. No matter what we do over in the middle east, it will still be full of a bunch of crazy muslims who will blow themselves and others up because it is part of their crazy religion. Sure, I hope Obama keeps his promise and gets us totally out of these costly wars. But, I also wish bushy never put us in these messes in the first place.

I said it was downright absurd for a person who does not pay for any insurance or health coverage whatsoever to expect the same level of medical treatment
as a person who has been contributing thousands of dollars for years into his insurance plan so that he would be able to afford the treatment when the time came.

I did not say that people should get none. People do get medical care in emergency situations regardless of their ability to pay for it. That has been the case for many years. I don’t want to change that.

Just because you worked for 15 years and now decide to stay home to have kids entitles you to nothing. Those are choices that you made, just as I have decided not to have children to this point because I feel I am not in the best position to raise them at the moment. Should our government take care of me if I decide to quit working and start raising a family? Get serious.

How does this become a thing about stay at home moms? I for one am in favor of it and applaud you for doing it. However, your choice does not entitle you to anything. Your decision to leave work and become a full time mom was between you and your husband. You are the ones who have made the decision to start a family. Every decision has consequences both good and bad. You made your choice. You traded extra financial security so that you could enjoy raising a family. That is great. But you certainly cannot expect the taxpayer to subsidize your financial security because you chose to leave the workforce. That is your husband’s job and your job, not my job.

The mentality you are displaying is that you feel somehow entitled to something just because you had a job previously. This entitlement mentality is how millions of people think and why the Democratic party exists as it does today. You are entitled to an opportunity to make something of yourself in this country. You are not entitled to free benefits that everyone else has to pay for.

It was your job and your responsibility to take your future health care coverage into consideration when you and your husband decided to start a family. Nobody owes that to you and certainly not the American taxpayer.

Mr. Common Sense Republican, in your last paragraph above, you say that those who do not pay for health insurance coverage should not get any? So for someone like me, who once was gainfully employed as an accountant, but now I’m a housewife/stay-at-home mom, should not be getting any coverage? Never mind I worked for 15+ years outside the home, never mind that I’m now contributing to society by raising two wonderful, religious, smart boys. Not juvenile delinquents. I guess its the attitude that still prevails that you’re not worth anything unless you earn an income. My Mother and friends’ moms were all stay-at-home moms back in the 1970s. Can you imagine if our fathers had the attitude that they don’t deserve anything because they are not earning a dime?

Your conclusions are obviously derived from your own personal experiences with health and from your own personal beliefs in God. I can respect that.

I don’t think you are going to have an easy time convincing people that they should agree to government run health care out of the goodness of their hearts though. If one thing is truly lacking in our country these days, it is a lack of spiritual connectedness. We are very much disconnected from God and becoming ever more so with each passing day. Look around you.

Plus if you try to connect the issue of health care with God, I can assure you that the Democrats who are already on your side will start running away. As soon as they hear the word God, they run. They don’t want to be associated with any religious kooks!

Even leaving God out of the picture, it can be argued that we should care about what is happening with our health care system. I think we all do care. We just disagree as to the means by which to improve it.

Democrats want to give it away regardless of cost. Republicans want to make it cheap enough so that every man can earn it for himself and his family. Either means would be exceptionally challenging to make a reality.

It is downright absurd for a person who does not pay for any insurance or health coverage whatsoever to expect the same level of medical treatment as a person who has been contributing thousands of dollars for years into his insurance plan so that he would be able to afford the treatment when the time came. There must be consequences for actions or lack thereof.

- Jesus Christ is God Almighty who came in the flesh and died to carry the burden of all mankind’s sin and who rose from the dead so that we might turn to Him as the only way to eternal life and for the forgiveness of our sins before God’s perfect morality.

- Apart from God, nothing is more important to me than my family.

- Abortion is wrong. It is the taking of a life, and that is murder. Unfortunately, this has become an issue that many politicians use just as a tool to get elected and then forget about after the election is over. We should not let ourselves be manipulated by these wolves in sheep’s clothing.

- Wars are morally wrong. I defy any Christian to show me one spot in the New Testament where Jesus himself advocates our killing others. Not only that, massive federal armies and wars are big government and socialism at it’s worst.

- We are a government of, by and for the people. In a democracy or a constitutional republic, if you reduce the government too much and we are the government (after all, it’s a government “of the people”), then don’t we then reduce our own support for ourselves? Wanting less government does not mean that government should get out of every aspect of our lives. It means that we should have laws and regulations and constitutions that protect the best interest of the citizenry. Corporations should not have the same lobbying power as private citizens.

- Everything you have in life is there because God either directly or indirectly enabled you to have it, including your money. “But you earned that money with your own effort entirely,” you say. Wrong. You were blessed with the mind and initiative and family environment and circumstances that put you in that situation to succeed. If your love of money is keeping you from getting close to God, then Jesus is talking directly to your heart when he said, “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, then it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven” and “Give up everything you own and come follow me.” God gave you that brain and those circumstances and that will power and that drive and that job to earn that money to help others. Yes, those “others” start with your family. But, if you have enough money left over to buy a big boat or a brand new Mercedes and you don’t truly need expensive items like this, then you are willfully choosing to turn your back on helping others in lieu of your own personal gratifications. Rest assured, you will die and face your creator, just as I will have to do. How will you justify your treatment of others and your turning your back on the poor to God?

- Not helping others who don’t have access to affordable health care is a sin and it’s wrong. Jesus said, “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.” To me, this one biblical verse among many that is a moral imperative from the creator Himself to care for those who are poor and sick and in need of help. Now, I have heard some hard-hearted folks say that Jesus meant that we each have a personal responsibility (not a government obligation) to take care of the poor and those who cannot afford, say, health care. While we each do have a personal obligation to care for and help others, I would ask you, what is the most efficient and appropriate way for me to help out, say, a neighbor who has cancer and who has lost her job she is now too sick to work? In addressing her financial and medical needs, is it the best and most efficient solution for me to personally go door-to-door asking for cash to help my neighbor pay for her medical costs? Or, is it more efficient and truly helpful for my neighbor and the vast group of others like her to receive healthcare assistance from me indirectly through a government-based health care program that can manage health care on a large scale. Health care is the right of every human being. And yes, there will be those who take advantage of any medical system, private or public. But not every human being without health insurance is a “deadbeat”. Many are people who have pre-existing conditions and have lost jobs in a tough economy and cannot afford to pay expensive COBRA rates to continue their health insurance policies. Many are people working multiple part-time jobs that don’t offer coverage due to their part-time status. Many are people who work but simply don’t make enough money to afford a good health insurance policy. Many are like me, those who have illnesses or been in chronic-injury-causing-accidents that were truly beyond their control, and who still go to work every single day and have paid health insurance premiums for the last 22 years (thanks to God) but who have weak HMO private insurance polices (Aetna) offered through work that have very limited coverage and high premiums and high deductibles. I pay about $600 per month for a family of four, just for the premium alone. I would like to be able to shop for my own private policy but I can’t due to the fact that I have pre-existing conditions and the federal health care reform that might allow me to get my own private health insurance policy apart from my job in 2014 now stands a good chance of getting repealed by our congress.

- Caring for the environment is caring for God’s creation, the world that God has given us. It is our moral obligation and just good common sense to protect our natural resources and our food and water supplies, isn’t it?

-Doing most of our business with a communist country like China, all in the interest of “free trade”, is morally wrong. In our current trade relationship with China, the United States is supporting the largest violator of human rights in the world with every import of Chinese goods that lands on the shelves of our Walmarts and other stores, all in the name of “free trade” and unregulated capitalism. Isn’t it ironic that we can blast some of our leaders for being “socialists” for wanting to help out our own countrymen, but we support full-blown communism by participating in unregulated free-trade and business ventures with the largest communist country in the world?

The bottom line is that we need a better sense of community and solidarity and a culture where helping each other out is supported and not mocked. Christians and our citizenry have the obligation to put politics aside and work together for the good of all, for whatsoever we do (or do not do) for the least of our brothers, we do (or do not do) for God Himself. (Matthew 25:31-46)

When people like you come on here and try to start an argument, it just reaffirms my own beliefs that my line of thinking is dead on. I can assure you that the vast majority of people who read your comment will come to the same conclusions that I have.

Normally I delete comments with that many obvious grammatical and general spelling errors. In this case I decided to let it slide because you seemed passionate.

It is statements like yours that make me worry for the future of our country. If our high schools are turning out people like you, (and I know that they are) we are in serious trouble indeed. Stop getting your politics from television. Read a little more of the history that you claim to know and you will begin to see the light. Once you understand history a little more, the lefty politicians won’t be able to pull the wool over your eyes like they have obviously already done.

Don’t take my word for it. Ask your grandfather. See what wisdom he has acquired over the years.