Comments on: Medicare eligibility: 65 or fight.

By: Emma

Emma — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 00:27:30 +0000

“$23 trillion for bankers; peas and cat food for the rest of us: the Obama platform in a nutshell.”

Brilliant summation.

By: Nimue

Nimue — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:43:36 +0000

I’m not surprised. What else should we expect, electing a president with so little political experience. Too bad there aren’t any strong alternative candidates.

By: cgeye

cgeye — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 22:04:04 +0000

I think it’s not too soon to call him a genocidaire — just one who’s branched out from the now commonplace non-US murders to killing the old and vulnerable at home, deliberately and with criminal intent (considering to whom all that saved cash will go).

By: dandelion

dandelion — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 21:18:53 +0000

I didn’t vote for him in 2008 and I’ll even more enthusiastically not vote for him in 2012.

I’ve been seething since he told us we’d have to “eat our peas.” I think we should award him a Nobel Peas Prize for that one.

$23 trillion for bankers; peas and cat food for the rest of us: the Obama platform in a nutshell.

By: joellecid

joellecid — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 15:39:55 +0000

I know, mine neither. We’ll see when the election comes around. I have just been seething for weeks now. I might just write in Bernie Sanders, who seems to be alone in making sense in the Senate.

By: Historiann

Historiann — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 15:37:20 +0000

He doesn’t have my vote, joellecid!

By: joellecid

joellecid — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 14:52:14 +0000

Obama knows he’ll get our vote in 2012, so he believes he needs to cater to “independent voters”, whoever they are. But where is the impetus to educate those voters about the reality of the option that is being served to us in cuts to programs that keep people from starving, dying and general misery?

As a historian, I find it incredible that people are so totally ignorant of the time when public health was fully unregulated and “in the private sector”. And does anyone remember a time before envirmonmental reglatiom? Acid rain, anyone? What is with this collective amnesia?

I think my Western Civ class next semester might have a focus on what it really means when government onky concers itself with the priveleged and with war…

By: thefrogprincess

thefrogprincess — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 19:17:53 +0000

Is it that the so-called left will settle for little, or is it that the alternatives are truly concerning? I wouldn’t call Obama a progressive, but that’s not the same thing as wanting whoever the Republican primary season throws out. Mitt Romney, fine. Anybody else? Not fine.

By: Historiann

Historiann — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 18:29:28 +0000

FA is exactly right. It’s really pathetic how little the so-called left in this country will settle for. (“But he ended DADT and now we have gay marriage ZOMG!!!!111!!!!! Plus Bill Clinton was waaaaay worse.” Wash, rinse, repeat.)

By: Erica

Erica — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 18:16:53 +0000

My aunt, although divorced from her husband for almost 10 years, was still on his health plan. When he retires from teaching after 40 years in August, they will both lose the coverage.

It took me a while to realize why she was complaining so vociferously about this, since she is nearly 66 and completely eligible for Medicare. Turns out his particular coverage was essentially 100%, so she has personally paid nothing at all for health care for years. (Frankly, I was speechless to learn that any public school teacher still had such a sweet plan.) Medicare’s coverage would be a step down, and she was desperately searching for an alternative — and confused, because she knew it couldn’t be free, but she would have to pay HOW MUCH?!?

Listening to my cousin (who has more patience than I could have mustered!) trying to walk her through the options was interesting. It was even more interesting when later that day she segued into a conversation about “entitlement” programs, which she generally opposes. I don’t have a lot of acquaintances who simultaneously proclaim themselves to be entitled to a massive privilege (e.g. full health care that she doesn’t work or pay for), while declaring that nobody should get “something for nothing.”

~~~~~

That cognitive dissonance aside, I’ve been in favor of “socialized medicine” for years. And given recent trends, I’m seriously considering a move to Canada.