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tazzygirl -> Boehner's health delusion (11/9/2010 10:23:30 PM)
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Out of curiosity, what is he smoking?
With a John Boehner speakership fast approaching, I dutifully read up on the man. I learned he is a Midwestern fellow, born (like us all) into the virtuous lower middle class, one of 12 siblings and a man whose early career, in an unironic homage to "The Graduate," was in plastics. What I did not know - what was missing entirely from my reading - is that he might be French.
Or Japanese. Or Finnish or British or even German. Whatever the case, this much is clear: No American, certainly not one about to occupy a leadership position in our government, could possibly call the American health-care system "the best health care system in the world." Boehner did just that last week. He was having an out-of-country experience.
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BOEHNER: Bret, in our Pledge to America, we made clear that we believe that all the current tax rates should be extended for all Americans and permanently. And the American people spoke on election night. They elected Republicans in droves. And what we're going to fight for is -- is for all the current rates to be extended. We don't want to increase taxes on any Americans.
BOEHNER: We do not want to raise taxes on any American.
BOEHNER: No, the American people want us to find common ground. And I'm hoping that the president heard what the American people had to say the other night...
BOEHNER: This health care bill will ruin the best health care system in the world and it will bankrupt our country.
BOEHNER: First and foremost, this is about the greatest health care system in the world. And secondly, let's not forget, this is also about jobs. And if you look at all of the requirements on employers, you can understand why they're not hiring new employees, because we've raised the cost of employment.
BOEHNER: Well, there's a lot of tricks up our sleeves in terms of how we can dent this, kick it, slow it down to make sure it never happens.
And trust me, I'm going to make sure this health care bill never ever, ever is implemented.
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/special-report/transcript/john-boehner-talks-taxes-health-care-and-gop-agenda?page=1
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The first article references back to the second one. As i read it, i realized that someone's mouth is writing a whole lot of checks his ass cannot possibly cash. I decided to post this for prosperity... will make an interesting debate later...[:D]
Now, we could all go on and on about how screwed up the health care system is in this country, yet here is this man preaching about how its the best in the world.
But lets look at some facts....
The United States is 49th in life expectancy. Our proud nation bests the Libyans in this category but not Japan, France, Spain, Britain or, of course, Italy. You not only live about two years longer in Italy, but you eat better, too.
The same doleful situation applies to infant mortality. ........Cuba does better than the United States and so do Italy, Hungary, Greece, Canada, Portugal, Britain, Australia and Israel, among others. This should be an embarrassment to us all - but, clearly, it is not. To Boehner, these figures - infants dying before they can get a cupcake with a single candle - don't exist. Rather than improve the situation, he might want to cut the CIA's appropriation.
Among the richest nations, the United States is 19th of 19. America is awful at treating asthma, diabetes and kidney disease. If you have any of these, it's just your bad luck that you're not Japanese or French . . . or, really, anything other than American. The United States does do well with breast and prostate cancer, but these are represented by politically potent lobbies. See, we can do better when we want to.
Boehner's Panglossian sentiment is shared by Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader who has vowed to roll back the Obama health-care program. If McConnell thinks America has the best of all health systems, who can blame him? When in 2003 he underwent heart bypass surgery, it was at the Bethesda Naval Hospital. This is a government facility staffed by government employees - what is sometimes called socialized medicine. His heart did fine, but he left the hospital untreated for Rampant Endemic Hypocrisy, a communicable disease that has swept the GOP and left it vulnerable to irrationality. Michele Bachmann, who peddled the absurdity that President Obama's overseas trip was costing $200 million a day, stands in mortal peril of succumbing to it.
(have to admit, that part made me laugh)
Almost 51 million Americans lack health insurance. They postpone treatment, seeking it at the last minute from emergency rooms - never a pleasant experience, never a cheap experience and often too late. Obama's health-care bill was meant to address this problem, among others. It was not a perfect bill and it may turn out to be the wrong way to go. But a difference in approach, even a difference in ideology, cannot change the need for reform. The United States spends upward of 17 percent of its gross domestic product on health care. European nations spend about 8 percent - and their citizens are actually healthier. Republicans oppose Obamacare. Fine. But where is their plan? Not the lauded status quo. As we can see, that's a terminal disease.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/08/AR2010110804894.html
On what level are those results to be considered associated with the "best health care in the world"?
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