Where's the Great Society?

[mqbush]

If a presidential candidate spends fifty million dollars on his campaign, and a citizen pays five thousand dollars for health insurance premiums, that campaign could have paid those premiums for TEN THOUSAND YEARS! The imbalance here is staggering.

[nightrider767]

1. How about our war investments!

One week the President veto's the bipartisan child health care bill, the next week the Democratic COngress signs his war spending bill.

"Here you go sir, more money for foreign wars!"

[OneBlueSky]

4. the "defense" budget is an abomination, and an insult to humankind . . .

yet not one candidate is calling for massive reductions, even though we spend more on weaponry and war that all of the other nations of the planet combined . . . all while our infrastructure erodes, our citizens have to choose between tainted food and inadequate healthcare, a major American city lies in ruins, energy prices soar while oil company profits set new records, genetically modified crops are polluting the natural order, the oceans have become massive garbage dumps, global warming threatens our very survival as a species, rainforests are being decimated daily, the economy and the dollar are about to tank big time, our education system doesn't educate, our rights and liberties are systematically being eroded, and a criminal administration is allowed to violate the Constitution and U.S and international law on a daily basis . . .

all with no repercussions or oversight from Congress or the courts -- and all with no serious discussion by the candidates . . .

we are seeding our own destruction as a society, as a nation, and as a planet, and no one seems to give a damn . . . just as long as those short-term profits keep on rolling in . . . it's disgusting, it's sick, and it's criminally irresponsible on the part of the perpetrators -- which include the mega-corps, the Bush/Cheney administration, the Congress, the courts, and the remaining candidates for president . . .

[Selatius]

2. Our society is built on profit. Health insurance companies exist to make profit. Your health is...

consequently subordinate to that aim. If they want to hit an earnings mark of 5 percent but can't unless they deny your last claim, they will deny you to please the shareholders who want dividends.

[mqbush]

3. profits

"Health insurance companies exist to make profit."

That's neither here nor there as far as this point goes, that the ambition of some wealthy hack politician throws away an amount of money that could have such a monumental effect on the lives of people. It ain't fair, as they say.

[leftofthedial]

5. Eisenhower was prescient

[dflprincess]

6. And never quoted by today's Republicans

n/t