How about $700 billion for socialized medicine instead?

[Fire Walk With Me]

If they can conjur that amount so quickly, so easily, then it should be just as easy to say "and $700 billion for national health care as well".

Obviously, if they can throw around that kind of money on an instant's notice, they can creat any social program they wish, at any moment.

[2Design]

1. I vote for that n/t

[greenvpi]

2. Then more people could work and pay more taxes!

But Repukes don't actually want the poor, unwashed massess healthy.

[scarletwoman]

3. Oh don't be silly! Spend $700 billion on useless eaters? Are you nuts?

Why, if people got the crazy idea that the government should spend their tax money on their needs, there'd never be an end to it!

sw

[Fire Walk With Me]

5. I know! It's crazy talk!

[leftofcool]

4. works for me

[Trillo]

6. Why, that would cut into the elite's "profits", and as you know, financing debt

requires more profit, or subsidy, not less. So, Congress sits for months and years on H.R. 676, while bailouts for the already wealthy are considered "immediately".

1) COST: The United States has by far the most expensive health care system in the world, based
on health expenditures per capita (per person), and on total expenditures as a percentage of gross domestic
product (GDP). As shown in Figure One and Table One, the United States spent $4,178 per capita on health
care in 1998, more than twice the OECD median of $1,783, and far more than its closest competitor,
Switzerland ($2,794).6 U.S. health spending as a percentage of GDP, 13.6 percent in 1998, also
outdistanced the next most expensive health systems, in Germany (10.6 percent) and Switzerland (10.4
percent).
http://dll.umaine.edu/ble/U.S.%20HCweb.pdf#search=%22rankings%20nations%20healthcare%22

But hey, look at the bright side, if you're not uber rich, or even in the top 1%, wouldn't you want to die sooner rather than later? /sarcasm

[avaistheone1]

7. We don't need nearly that much. Maybe about $65 billion for universal health care.

[Fire Walk With Me]

8. Then the rest goes for soup kitchens and homeless/addict programs...

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. Lost wars and bailing out the rich they can afford. Health care? Perish the thought.

[Fire Walk With Me]

10. Sunday kick for radical thought.

[Fire Walk With Me]

11. Last kick for radical thought.

[Kitty Herder]

12. It would probably provide a greater boost to the economy in the long run, as well.

There would be far fewer bankruptcies. And we'd have healthier, more productive workers taking fewer sick days.

[Solly Mack]

13. Hush now. You're talking silly.

You crazy person you :P

[Fire Walk With Me]

14. I know! It's just nuts, isn't it!

:)

[BelgianMadCow]

15. I once calculated that 500 Billion / year would give all of you health coverage like here in Belgium

which is pretty, no very, good.

[Fire Walk With Me]

16. I don't even know if any Americans have calculated the possible cost-

someone must have, I'm simply not aware of it. Thank you for figuring it out and posting it..this of course would leave nearly one quarter of a billion dollars for programs and resources for the homeless, poverty-striken, abused, small business loan/incentive, etc.

All things good for the economy and for the country. This would be the country that I believe in, the one that is possible, the one that I would love to live in. America, for the people, by the people.