What is your one top priorty for our Country today?

[ToUtahNow]

The President is spending the majority of his time trying to get support for his Health Plan. With so many important issues right know I was wondering what is most important to you?

Mark

[Frankiarmz]

In my opinion we are at a greater risk of self destructing than being attacked from outside forces. I'm not suggesting defense is a minor issue, and neither is health care, but rebuilding our economy in a sound way first seems to make the most sense. I think it's foolish to prop up banks and other lending institutions and encourage them to make loans when we have not addressed unemployment and stopped the loss of jobs. Where is the sense in government created jobs payed for with taxes? Fix our economy and don't think it can be done with bailouts and stimulus money, that's a shell game to nowhere good!

[drtyhands]

With a properly adjusted budget.The greatest nation would be able to address and provide the strongest possible military necessary as well as providing health care for it's legal tax paying citizens.

[BHD]

I voted for the economy, because with out the ability to make a living no one will be able to afford heath care or insurance.

but when it comes to health care,

I personally think that tort reform, would be a major place to start,
there are many many tests that are ran just to CYA,there are major expenditures by the medical establishments to pay for the there insurances, (I thought I read that the insurance in our small hospitals for the Dr's is more than the salary's they pay them). regardless I know it is very very expensive.

I do not want to remove the ability to sue or to receives compensation, in the event of a problem, but I do think that the issue should be based on neglect or intent misuse or desire to do wrong,
First of all most that go to a hospital or DR, there is all ready some thing wrong with one, and unless there is a intent or such an obvious mistake that was done, even DR and Nurses are human, yes things will go wrong.
(example local DR, was here 5 years, has lady come in pregnant, he does a examine and discovers the baby is severely deformed, says the baby most likely will not even make it to be born, and if lives to that point will die at birth or shortly after, (brains on the out side of the body), the parents want to try, he advises them against it, comes time to deliver, the baby, baby dies, they sue the DR, for the death, it took that DR, 5 years to get that case cleared up, fortunately in the end he was cleared of any wrong doing. ( even with a written statement by them that they made the decision and would not hold him liable in any way for the out come)
but should one be able to sue over ever thing, I do not think so,
I think some basic limits should be set as well, (I know that one can always come up with a exception to any case),
even your own business insurances would benefit greatly, nuisance cases should be thrown out before they even get the light of day, (such as the McDonald coffee spill)

not saying there maybe should not be changes to some of the regulations such as limits on policies, or preexisting conditions, but those can be addressed with regulatory changes not a take over of the entire system by the Federal government,

(charge Mexico for the costs incurred in caring for there citizens),

get medical costs in line with regular business,
I could afford insurance and health care if the costs were not blown totally out of proportion,

I do not know the cost, (a few months ago) but what did Rick pay for his cut finger, in the emergency room? I bet it was over $1000,
and how much time did they spend on it, probably less than 15 Min's total, and a packet of $2 suture thread, and one quick shot of some type of pain killer, (I know this has been a few years ago, last vet bottle of Lidocaine was under $12, and that was a 100cc bottle, enough for 30 or 40 cut fingers, a disposable syringe, a few cents, the suture pack $2, I know a few bandages and some disinfectant,
(my guess total out lay with labor would not have come to a realistic $200),
but I bet the bill was considerable more,
It does not cost no, $1000 or $2000 dollars to stitch up a finger,

but when things do get so far out of whack, how can some low income person come up with $1000 or $2000 for a ER visit, and pay for it out of pocket,

if they charge the actual cost the $100 or $200 (if that) of real cost, people could afford there general care, even there light surgeries and so on,


this was nearly 20 years ago, I jumped off my one truck and blew out my knee, when I went in for day surgery, they worked on the knee for about 5 hrs in surgery, they then took me to a room to recover, was in the hospital for less than 20 hrs, the bill was over 25 thousand dollars, they even padded the bill on some things, (as I caught some of it),

where else in society do we pay any one $25,0000 for less than a days worth of work, (and this was 20 years ago, and did not include the X ray or the MRI, or DR or the anesthetists, or other Dr visits or other),

yes there needs to be changes in health care, but I do not think there looking in the correct places or wanting to change the right things,

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I go in to our local hospital and it was built in the 1960's and there was a place for offices and records built in the front of the building, but over the years they have removed care rooms, and made into offices, they took janitorial closets and made into offices, there are more office and book workers there than there are medial people now, I am guessing to keep up with a on-slot of governmental regulations,

[PlumbingSkool]

well I guess if I had to pick I would say "Economy"

But the REAL issue here in America comes down to one single word:

Manufacturing

If we don't start making stuff here will all be working for $7 an hour soon, anyone notice how more and more people are "loosing their trade" and being forced to work for lower wages or simply have no work......

[CWSmith]

I voted health care, as I don't think you can fix the economy without fixing the health care issue. Right now, the biggest cost of almost any company is health care. It's one of the major factors contributing to out sourcing, off shoring, or whatever you want to call it.

Looking at the largest growing cost factor in the last three decades, we can easily see that health care has out grown almost every other factor. It's well above material and power costs!

If we look around amost any community, the only business that seems to be in major growth is "health care". It's extremely profitable and unbridled in its every increasing costs.

When I was growing up in the Binghamton area, there were three hospitals, and probably less than a dozen pharmacies. When you went to the doctor's, his office was usually in a converted house. Health Centers were unheard of. Health benefits in area business were almost a minor issue, and any company of worth, provided fairly good health benefits as they were fairly inexpensive.

When I moved to the Corning area over thirty years ago, it was a decent reflection of the Binghamton area. One hospital, about four pharmacies, one small medical center with about eight doctors and probably about a dozen other doctors/specialists in the general area. Most with offices in converted homes.

Today, Binghamton's population is about 60% of what it was in the 60's. The surrounding area has almost doubled in population. But those three hospitals have more than doubled in size. Medical centers are practically everywhere you look. Pharmacies are practically on every other block. While manufacturing has shrunk dramatically, the health industry has grown like weed, cropping up everywhere. Today, you can drive from one end of the triple cities area to the other and never loose sight of some health-related business.

In this area, if you go for physical therapy, the cost is close to $400 an hour. What you get for that is five minutes with the therapist, a hot towel and maybe 20 minutes on a machine. Cost to me for those 25 minutes is $328 !

When I made my first doctor's visit here in Corning in 1973, I saw him for 20 minutes, the charge was $8 and my insurance paid for it all. Today I see the doctory for 10 minutes at best (after waiting for over an hour), he quickly reads my blood test results, pats me on the back, and tells me to come back in six months. Cost is $143, my insurance pays 60% and I pay $320 a month for that retirement benefit. (The blood test charge is separate and I don't know that cost at this moment.) He's like to spend more time, but the waiting room is full of people, most of which are pharmaceutical sales-types.

Used to be if you hurt your leg or had an ache or banged your head, the Doc would poke you here or there, check your eyes and ears, feel the hurt spot and maybe have you get and x-ray. Today, they insist you get an MRI and every medical center wants to get their own, as it's a money-maker!

Our industry cannot afford that, neither can our government. You hire an employee and you take on an unbelievable burden for their health care. It is one which cannot be sustained for long, and when employees start to age, they face layoffs... as it's simply a matter of economics.

So, until this gets fixed, how can we find employers willing to hire. How can we find anyone willing to invest, when the cost of health care is uncontrolled?

With lower cost health care, business will once again be interested in investing in the American worker. With more jobs, the economy will straighten out and taxes from those jobs will fatten the government and the government will be better able to provide for the defence.

All three choices are tightly woven together I think and my feelings are that you can't fix the economy without getting one of the biggest economical drains taken care of first.

CWS

[darius]

While the US is not my country, I hope dear colleagues will allow me to offer some modest, and inexpensive, solutions, as seen by a "damn liberal" from Canada.

- Defense - can't be solved no matter how much money you throw at it until they plug the huge hole called "the border with Mexico". This could be achieved by mining a 1/2 mile strip of land along the border. Jumping mines are the most effective against personnel and they would give the best bang (no pun intended) for the buck.

- Economy - manufacturing has to come back to the US of A. People could start with simple things at first. Like cooking a dinner at home.

- Health care - stop all medical procedures for 12 months. Every single one of them. Ban over the counter medication, health food and sports facilities. This would a allow most of the weaklings to die off and only the best of the best would survive. It would cost much less to provide health care for the healthy than it is for the sick. Survival of the fittest (or was it fattest?)

[Woussko]

Mark and Josh best block me from posting what I really think and feel regarding this serious issue. I will say this. I really dream of the day when we line up every lawyer and politician so we can all OPEN FIRE on them. You can figure the rest. I have to get out of here fast now.

[cactusman]

my priority is "getting laid" as us drones are are simply screwed!

I don't understand how all the "experts" on the various news stations know the answers, but never get to Washington DC??? I guess they never heard of map-quest to get the address!!!!

I see fixing our countries woes a simple exercise as follows:

1. Eliminate all government programs specific to government employees. I'll explain....
Remove the medical coverage and retirement plans our so called elected officials have.
Those outrageous programs alone are costing us a fortune.
Once those self appointed gods realize ya can't live a $1000.00 a month from SSI
they will fix it!
Once they realize medicare and other medical coverages are not working they will fix
it, as the gods won't be able to see a specialist for a band aid

Once the government yahoos are put on "our" programs and can't vote themselves a raise they may return to the reality of being an American citizen today and make it right!

2. Eliminate "political correctness" NAACP national association for the advancement of colored people......I have not seen a colored person since the early 1970's!!! I have seen blacks but they too are not within our population any longer..however we do have a lot of African Americans all of a sudden.

A friend of mine from India was unable to fill out a job application....one question asked
" race? black, white, native American?" He is "brown" and he put down "white" and was not hired as he lied on his application.....

RACE should no longer be a concern I was taught we are all Americans! Now for the record I have no issues with culture! and someone maintaining their ethnic identity!

We should have three classes here.... American Citizen, Citizenship pending, Illegal Alien and waiting deportation or proof of temporary permission to be here!

Congress and Senate need to return to government issues, not the size of a football, if a baseball player is taking drugs, butting into State agendas and blackmailing them with stupid laws and dirty money, or other benign meaningless issues to improve our country!

Regarding the recent police incident! The black guy is the raciest as the president and they owe that police officer an apology for doing his job correctly.. None of any of that event should have ever been nationally newsworthy....A local cop investigates possible break in, detains person for disorderly conduct, once all the facts were determined the person was released, end of story!!!!! next news event or go to commercial......


Cactus Man

[Frankiarmz]

Some great comments. Good questions raised. If we have these concerns and ideas, why can't our legislators act on them? Why do our borders remain open? Why are we spending so much to care for sick illegals rather than stabilizing them if it is urgent care and returning them to their country of origin? Why don't our leaders realize we need to produce what we consume? Bad things happened under the republicans and most of us will agree the democrats are not headed in the right direction, so what if anything will the next administration be able to do? How much longer can we survive losing jobs and buying most of consume from communist china and the rest of the world?

[canucksartech]

From the Canadian perspective:

Economy - we're tied to the American economy, so as your ship sinks, so does ours. And as your ship sails smoothly, so does ours (somewhat). But our fresh water and wood are ours - stay the hell on your side of the line, buckaroos.
Health care - we have universal healthcare. No, it's not as perfect as the U.S. proponents make it out to be, but at the same time, it is nowhere as bad as the opponents make it out to be either. There's pros and cons to everything. But I'd rather wait 2 months for a surgery (non-urgent/non-lifethreatening) and get it free, than have to mortgage my kid's future and pay $100K for getting that surgery done within a week.
Defense/Military - excuse me? Yes, we have a strong and proud military even though it is smaller and limited in it's capabilities (which I have ties to, and am looking at going in for an MP contract this time). However, we are no where as good on this side of the border for GDP percentage spending on our military as you are in the 'States. Now, that's not necessarily a good or a bad thing - I'd rather make sure that healthcare and education are funded to a better/higher percentage level than military. But, I also say that knowing that we Canadians have a strong partner and neighbour in the U.S. If we were enemies, we'd be screwed. But, since we're longtime friends and allies, what's wrong with us mooching some of your military might from you?? Who hasn't had a mooch for a friend? We're the most lovable bunches! I mean, come on, the West Edmonton Mall used to have more submarines than our Navy! :eek: :rolleyes: :cool:

[plumberscrack]

From the Canadian perspective:

Economy - we're tied to the American economy, so as your ship sinks, so does ours. And as your ship sails smoothly, so does ours (somewhat). But our fresh water and wood are ours - stay the hell on your side of the line, buckaroos.
Health care - we have universal healthcare. No, it's not as perfect as the U.S. proponents make it out to be, but at the same time, it is nowhere as bad as the opponents make it out to be either. There's pros and cons to everything. But I'd rather wait 2 months for a surgery (non-urgent/non-lifethreatening) and get it free, than have to mortgage my kid's future and pay $100K for getting that surgery done within a week.
Defense/Military - excuse me? Yes, we have a strong and proud military even though it is smaller and limited in it's capabilities (which I have ties to, and am looking at going in for an MP contract this time). However, we are no where as good on this side of the border for GDP percentage spending on our military as you are in the 'States. Now, that's not necessarily a good or a bad thing - I'd rather make sure that healthcare and education are funded to a better/higher percentage level than military. But, I also say that knowing that we Canadians have a strong partner and neighbour in the U.S. If we were enemies, we'd be screwed. But, since we're longtime friends and allies, what's wrong with us mooching some of your military might from you?? Who hasn't had a mooch for a friend? We're the most lovable bunches! I mean, come on, the West Edmonton Mall used to have more submarines than our Navy! :eek: :rolleyes: :cool:


What I don't quite understand is, if I want to become a Canadian citizen, I need to swear an oathe to Queen Elizabeth II??...WTH? :scratchhead:

If you could enlighten me Canuck that would be much appreciated

[canucksartech]

What I don't quite understand is, if I want to become a Canadian citizen, I need to swear an oathe to Queen Elizabeth II??...WTH? :scratchhead:

If you could enlighten me Canuck that would be much appreciated

Yes, and no. Yes, it is the traditional swear-in. Not that I know all too much about the process for citizenship, as I am born-'n-bred Canadian. But the Queen is our "traditional" head of state, and even anyone wanting to fulfill a government, military, police role, etc., needs to swear by it also. This is because we USED to be a member country within the Commonwealth of Britain. Think EU, for example. But the Commonwealth was from centuries before, when it was royalty rather than representatives. This is the same situation from Austrailia, India, Scotland, etc., etc. However, we are an independant country now, same as most of the others, but we still keep the "traditional" ties, as a reminder of our rich history and traditions. A similar example for you guys might be with U.S. protectorates, such as Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, etc. That's how it used to be for us with Britain - connected, but sort-of not. But now we're purely solo.

Here's a bit of a background on it, in more detail: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oath_of_Allegiance_(Canada

Besides, it's easier for us to have a connection to the rich history of the lineage of the English royals, even if it is symbolic in nature. That kind of history makes you feel culturally rich and emotionally powerful for your country. Can you imagine if we set up a Canadian royalty??? "And playing the role of Henry the VIII, we have Jean Chretien!!" :smack-head:

[Bogart]

I think we should have a United States of North America. Mexico, Canada and the US. Under the US constitution, think about it. The illegals wouldn't get preference just for being illegal. We would have a lot more defensible borders, because we would be in charge of all of them. All the natural resources just waiting for us. Healthcare for all. Yeah!

[canucksartech]

I think we should have a United States of North America. Mexico, Canada and the US. Under the US constitution, think about it. The illegals wouldn't get preference just for being illegal. We would have a lot more defensible borders, because we would be in charge of all of them. All the natural resources just waiting for us. Healthcare for all. Yeah!

No thank you. :eek: We'll keep our natural resources under our own control (somewhat). Also, I'll keep my access to Cuban cigars and rum, thank you very much. And I like having english as one of my official languages, as well as having our other little Canadian quirks (such as waaay less guns - I like to generally be the only one shooting, thank you. We don't need little old ladies with handguns.)

Let's just stay close friends and neighbours. We don't want you moving into our house and putting your muddy feet up on our nice clean couch. :welcome:

;)

[Bob D.]

where else in society do we pay any one $25,0000 for less than a days worth of work.


The Super Bowl? Oh wait, that's a game so that doesn't count. Still they are paid
a lot of money for what they do, only to get caught up in dog fighting, drugs,
illegal gambling, what have you.



But I'd rather wait 2 months for a surgery (non-urgent/non-lifethreatening) and get it free,...


You are paying for it somewhere, either directly or indirectly, but you pay.

What's yours is mine and what's mine is mine seems to be what you are saying (quotes below) to the USA.

what's wrong with us mooching some of your military might from you??

But our fresh water and wood are ours - stay the hell on your side of the line, buckaroos.

But now we're purely solo. except for that mooching thing ya got going on. :)

[canucksartech]

except for that mooching thing ya got going on. :)

:shrug: :clapping: :cool: :rolleyes:

LOL, yup. We've almost got it down to an art form. :D

[Bogart]

Usually, it's not the little old ladies with handguns doing drivebys or wiping out a family over a drug debt. I'm a generous soul, we can have 3 official languages, English, French, and Spanish.

[ToUtahNow]

I fly-fish with a trout outfitter in Calgary (Bow River) who hires a father and son out of Virginia. The father and son showed up at the border with two drift boats on a trailer. Because only the father had his work permit with them the son had to leave his boat at a storage yard in the US until he produced his work permit. In addition, they both had to show they had medical insurance so they would not be a burden on the Canadian system should something happen. They also had to show they had the financial where with all to take care of themselves and credit-cards did not count. I think we could learn a lot from the Canadians about how to handle a border.

Mark

[KevinCorr]

It is not up to me.

[Frankiarmz]

I fly-fish with a trout outfitter in Calgary (Bow River) who hires a father and son out of Virginia. The father and son showed up at the border with two drift boats on a trailer. Because only the father had his work permit with them the son had to leave his boat at a storage yard in the US until he produced his work permit. In addition, they both had to show they had medical insurance so they would not be a burden on the Canadian system should something happen. They also had to show they had the financial where with all to take care of themselves and credit-cards did not count. I think we could learn a lot from the Canadians about how to handle a border.

Mark

Mark, I'm not up on all the different country policies, but I doubt they are much different. My daughter is going to spend a semister in France and we have to show proof of health insurance and submit a notarized document that we would be giving her a certain amount of money each month. We have immigration laws, they are just not enforced. Why?The excuse of looking the other way so that cheap illegal labor will do what lazy Americans will not does not work for me. Figure in the cost of education, health care, law enforcement and all the other local, state and federal costs for this so called cheap labor and we would be better off paying Americans a living wage to do the same jobs. I'm off on a rant again, sorry. I figured Obama's campaign promise not to raise tax on the middle class was a lie, but it's still upsetting. We are paying for the bailouts, bonuses, and clunkers, healthcare will be next.:scratchhead:

[NHMaster3015]

It's very hard for me to even know where to begin because all of these issues are intimately entwined with each other.
The boarder situation effects the economy and defense situation. Defense spending effects the economy and so on. What disturbs me more than anything is the overall level of corruption and disregard those in congress have for the people that elected them. I am tired of being lied to, mis directed, kept in the dark, spin and just plain BS. These politicians need a harsh reminder of just exactly what their job is. The lobbyists need to go.

[NHMaster3015]

BHD, very nice and thoughtfull post. If we could nominate a post within a thread I would certainly give that one the two thumbs up.