Ye Olde Republican Safe House (5)

[neverforsaken]

Whoo! 26 and conservative

 

[Panzerkamfwagen]

24 and conservative...

 

[dia_liom]

How can we expect private health insurance to ever compete with the government option, when an insurance company has an obligation to its shareholders to make a profit (I know- evil word) and the government can just raise taxes a bit more to cover any losses?

The biggest problem, IMHO, is that too many people have the attitude that health insurance, unlike car or homeowners insurance, should pay 100% of all their health expenses, instead of being limited to catastrophic situations.

If my car insurance covered broken fan belts, tune ups, and new tires, it'd be far more expensive, too.

Lets let health insurance cover the situations which DO cause financial catastrophe for a family. Cancer. ALS. Parkinson's. Accidents.

Let's let individuals & small business form pools, and even buy insurance across state lines. Let's expand HSA savings plans, where a high deductible plan is purchased, the savings go into an account for you, and you can roll that savings over from year to year to cover basics. I've got that at work and LOVE it!

Complaints about the cost of drugs? Do you really know how many millions are spent developing those drugs, and how short a time pharmaceutical companies have to recoup that cost? Let companies keep the patent on drugs another 3-5 years and prices would go down, since there's more time (and more prescriptions written) to recover the investment.

And let's look at some serious tort reform. Doctors often pay tens of thousands in liability insurance because of ludicrous lawsuits. Nobody's arguing that a mistake should be without financial loss for the doctor involved, but there are too many cases that just go way over the top. Not to mention any names, but there's a certain former VP candidate who supposedly 'channeled' the spirit of a baby who'd died, allegedly due to medical malpractice.

 

[QuiltAngel]

Have you seen this, dia liom?

John Mackey: The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare - WSJ.com

 

[dia_liom]

Good article!

 

[QuiltAngel]

Yeah, if they want to overhaul insurance, why not start small with simple solutions instead of overhauling the whole system.

 

[Scribbler]

Have you seen this, dia liom?

John Mackey: The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare - WSJ.com

Well, there goes the price of arugula.

 

[Panzerkamfwagen]

"White supremacist who threatened Obama really wasn't

 

[QuiltAngel]

Interesting story today:
Senator to Obama: Without votes, push for reform is futile - CNN.com

 

[RealDealNeverstop]

Political or Social?

24 and conservative...

 

[Pepperoni]

Yes, the Ted Kennedy Death Watch is over. I lost. I gave him til mid-September.

Fox News had a timeline of his life on their website. Mary Jo Kopechne did not get a mention, although the Chappaquiddick incident itself was referred to in a vague sort of way.

 

[rosenherman]

How do you define conservatism? What are it's characteristics?

 

[RealDealNeverstop]

There are two branches with minor overlaps. Political and Social Conservatism. The latter is easily in the camp of political liberalism which is why a new thread for that group was needed and provided. However, it is a very different kind of agenda from the Obama camp. Political conservatism isn't simply about quantity but also quality. A fundamental question remains: should the government be involved in X area of our lives. It is determined and defined by principles more than positions.

How do you define conservatism? What are it's characteristics?

 

[dia_liom]

I'd break Conservatism down into 'economic' and 'social'.

Social conservatives are concerned with moral issues like abortion, gay marriage & the teaching of creationism.

Economic conservatives look at issues like lower taxes & regulation- small government vs big government, and want to enable as many people as possible to provide for themselves, rather than relying on the government for their every need.

 

[rosenherman]

So, if I understand y'all correctly, Social Conservatives can find themselves at loggerheads with Economic conservatives. Social conservatives want government to have a bigger say in teaching and health care (abortions, family planning) and Economic conservatives want smaller government and less government intervention into our lives.

 

[KarrieTex]

As a social conservative, I do NOT want the gov't to have a bigger say. It's about maintaining values

 

[Larry Michael]

As a lifelong Republican, I have become frustrated with those in the party who take Christians for granted. Working under a "para political" banner is the answer. I am still a Republican but I can be more effective. See what I mean at TeaPartyNextStep (dotcom) and join thousands of other men and women of faith in political action.

 

[DaisyDay]

oops, sorry...forgot where I was.

 

[rosenherman]

As a social conservative, I do NOT want the gov't to have a bigger say. It's about maintaining values

Whose and/or which values?

 

[DieHappy]

So, if I understand y'all correctly, Social Conservatives can find themselves at loggerheads with Economic conservatives. Social conservatives want government to have a bigger say in teaching and health care (abortions, family planning) and Economic conservatives want smaller government and less government intervention into our lives.

Saying someone who wants abortion to be illegal is for bigger government is exactly like saying someone who wants lynching black men to be illegal is for bigger government. It's maddening to see people who are bright enough to figure out which button is the power button still confuse this.

"Conservative" used colloquially means "for liberty." To have liberty you need a rule of law and to have that law enforced equally and blindly. You need to be protected from people who would break that law to harm you, foreign or domestic.

To want the government to intrude in personal lives is not conservative. The government has co-opted marriage and made it a government institution, so an expansion of marriage is not conservative, it expands the government. Protectionism and isolationism could be conservative in most cases, but reaching out and smacking the tar out of a would-be invader is also conservative given that the proper role of government is to protect us.

There's no difference between social and economic conservatives. There's conservatives and there's confused.

I have spoken.