Moderator, can we please keep the posts focused on how we can improve healthcare and help each other build the systems and policies that help patients and staff. Can you remove any posts that try to hi-jack this thread to make overt political statements. There are plenty of other blogs and sites where finger pointing and anger can be vented.

Thanks in advance.

Ah the war. There is nothing that could be said that will add to the intelligent discourse of the war. Regretfully though some of the expenditures of the war that are being reported, and actually items paid for and produced years ago, so the cash outlay is over exaggerated. Most of these items would not be replaced but simply put out to rust and devalue. Also, most military R&D expenditures have lead the way to some great developments in the private sector, so this might not be the best idea. I am not defending the war, by any means just trying to show another side.

If you want something to get upset about lets talk about the financial inequity in America. The top 400 (based on volume is only 20% of the daily readers to this fine website) people in American account for over $70,000,000,000 in pre-tax income annually. That averages out close to $168,000,000 in income person. Lets be extraordinarily aggressive and say the average personal income is $50,000. That means the average American only earns .03% of the top 400 people. Frame of reference if you make $50k, .03% is only $15 dollars, or what you would pay to go out to eat.

Also, the wealthy rich have been getting serious tax cuts year over year. In fact their average tax rate is not much higher then what someone at 50K would make. I think the uber-wealthy can afford a bit more then 30% tax rate. Really how many golden toilets and diamond studded cell phones does one person need. Or for that fact how many houses do you really need. Because 20 households might not be enough this day and age. There is a common problem in businesses where a company makes too much cash and has excess cash flows. People are no different. Excess cash flow just creates waste. Higher tax rates prevent waste.

In fact if we charge them 10% of their annual income for 10 years, guess what we get…..We get $700B. There is a a simple way to pay for the bailout. Or hell for the next 30 years, we could pay the national debt down by 30%. Keep in mind these people would never have had a chance to earn this money without America. It time to give back, to what help gave you the opportunity for success.

Besides if you make $168M and are taxed at 50% that leaves you with $84,000,000 to go play around with, so you can still get your golden toilets in all your restrooms just might take 5 years instead of one to out lay your all the restrooms in your 20 mansions with them.

And to think their children not getting feed or educated, people walking around homeless, people with out health insurance.

Some points ( not necessarily healthcare)
A barrel of oil changes hands 25 times before someone takes delivery of the physical crude. So 24 times it was merely speculted upon with not intention to actually buy the crude. If all futures trading in crude is banned ( only buy if you intend to take delivery of the crude), i bet we’ll see $2.5 to $2.75 gas. Why on earth are investment banks allowed to trade in crude. I don’t know any investment bank with crude refining facilities or retail gas pumps!!
If crude comes down, we all ( including healthcare) benefit.

Second, we need to curtail our defense and war budgets. America has a war history like no other contry on the planet. Thats not the way to deal with problems today. The country’s popularity rating nosedive, people start hating and it’s god damn expensive. US spends over 100 biilion annually in Iraq. This is waste. Lets build our own country first before we help others build theirs.
( And now the Bush administration has the nerve to think war in Iran?????)
If Bush diverted 1/100 of his defense budget on alternate energy R&D, it would have been a totally different picture.

American citizens should really really take all these events seriously. In a Democracy, the real power lies with the people and it seems everyone is just too complacent to use it.

Can your leaders take you to war if you don’t want to??? Can you leaders promote future’s trading in crude if you don’t want to?? They can’t !!!!

The truth is that the big players will get bigger and the little and many of the medium players will disappear, regardless of what is done next.