B-Large

Aliens is one of my very favorite movies- nothing to do with this thread, just thought I'd share

When I am at Home Depot, i practically get raped by the Solar Energy company reps who tell me that Xcel is picking my pocket- They ask why would you not do Solar Panel, they are no cost to you!!! I once stopped and argued, they are not of no cost to me- they cost me tax dollars from my bi-weekly withholdings on my income taxes, or some other tax levied by the government, and then that money is funneled into pet energy projects by politicians. So people get free solar panels, then think they will not pay for it somewhere down the line... lol... also, how many of these people are off the grid- very few, they still depend on Xcel and their reliable NG or Coal fired plants to get them energy when the we have a streak of cloudy days, etc. there is no free lunch- never will be, never was

That is a good example of situational irony.

Happy Easter to all you !@#$ers... Pretty important day for a Christian, hopefully you all have a safe one with family. Orthodox Easter falls on the same day... I have to go to the Greek families house tonight.... Half Greek, half English.... Great Baklava.

Depends on what Independents think in the end. It will have been 8 years since his brother signed off, not exactly the most stellar 8 years.... Ironically, Obama, the anti-Bush, will probably provide the best constrast for him- since GWB and BHO were earily similar with regards to expansion of power and spying. People have short memories, don't be suprised.

the media arm of the EPA

We kind of knew she, like many politicians, are shamelesss. This is just another example.

How do you have a healthcare system, one acceptable to the morals of this US populace, without redistribution of citizen's funds? Health insurance prior to the ACA was built upon redistribution- private insurance coverage is the very definition of it. So what is the non-redistributive solution? I guess some people would say if you can't pay, then die... but i think you'd be hard pressed to build consesus around that concept, since Americans are for the most part empathetic. I assume much of the anger young paying in an getting little out- but that will not remain the case, the young will get old and will get sick- I still can't come to grips why that is such a difficult concept for people to grasp. If guess if I were young, I'd be more concerned about SS, paying in my whole life, wating until what will be 75 to get it, and likely to get 75 cents on the dollar, if anything at all.

I mentioned the decoupling of banks and investment firms, that happened under the Clinton adminstration. I thought you would make that connection. I went back and read my post, I should have been clear about that the above did not happen under Bush, but in my post could be contrued as such- my bad. In you look back, I was reponding to 3rd's post #134 about Bush single handidly causing the worst recession since the laste 20's. My point was it was not only Bush, but a variety of people and interests, but simple chose to illustrate how Bush added to the heap.

The US homeownership rate reached a record 69.2 percent in the second quarter of 2004. The number of homeowners in the United States reached 73.4 million, the most ever. And for the first time, the majority of minority Americans own their own homes. The President set a goal to increase the number of minority homeowners by 5.5 million families by the end of the decade. Through his homeownership challenge, the President called on the private sector to help in this effort. More than two dozen companies and organizations have made commitments to increase minority homeownership - including pledges to provide more than $1.1 trillion in mortgage purchases for minority homebuyers this decade. President Bush signed the $200 million-per-year American Dream Downpayment Act which will help approximately 40,000 families each year with their downpayment and closing costs. The Administration proposed the Zero-Downpayment Initiative to allow the Federal Housing Administration to insure mortgages for first-time homebuyers without a downpayment. Projections indicate this could generate over 150,000 new homeowners in the first year alone. President Bush proposed a new Single Family Affordable Housing Tax Credit to increase the supply of affordable homes. The President has proposed to more than double funding for the Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program (SHOP), where government and non-profit organizations work closely together to increase homeownership opportunities. The President proposed $2.7 billion in USDA home loan guarantees to support rural homeownership and $1.1 billion in direct loans for low-income borrowers unable to secure a mortgage through a conventional lender. These loans are expected to provide 42,800 homeownership opportunities to rural families across America. Did you read my post? I didn't say it was Bush's pet project, but fuel to the fire.... ya know... the items above are tactical embellishments to fury. Well intentioned, but again, we all know what happens when Government gets good intentions. I see effort by the sitting president to bail out people who made bad decision just an extension of the bad policy-

Caused it single handed, no. Aware of the issues, yes. Promoted the acquistion and ownership of property by all Americans and encouraged it for minority or underrepresented demographics, yes. Different than any other president who would have kinda looked the other way as the housing sector boomed and economy was bustling, no http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/infocus/achievement/chap7.html I remember the ownership society push very clearly- in theory, I did not disgree, in fact as property owners many times over, I agree that having assets and building a next egg is a good move. But this was not a one way job, it was laws regarding seperation of investment versus traditional borrowing/ banking, changing requirements on holding a mortgage a bank initiated, Greenspan creating froth with too much cheap access to cash for too long, Frreddie and Fannie, investments first sellign tranches of risks that were hard to rate, and on and on and on and on.... not too mention practices among realtors, appraisers, processors, etc. In the end, Americans need to be reponsible to determine if buying a 300K home on a 3/1 ARM with 40K annual income is a good idea. They also need to read and UNDERSTAND a contract they are about to sign that ties them to a highly illiquid asset. As much as the banks and politicos were dishonest, not too many Americans were reisiting urge to buy a house and sell it for a qucik profit- it was intoxicating for so many.

your understanding of the healthcare challenges and realities prior to and after HCR is impressively bad. I'd be fine with that notion if people who didn't want insurance never sought more care than they were able to pay for. Unfortuantly those big talkers rarely stuck to their principles and stopped showing up if they could not pay. It amazing how threats to mortality skews principle. edit- as far as homeowners, you are forced to pay for howeowners- I take into account when I rent property that the tenant pays the cost of insurance- so not directly, but everybody pays for homeowners when their is a mortgage on the property at least- even then, why woud someone be without. Theorectially, by bus fare pays for the city liability coverage- life insurance, no, and it many cases its pointless.

Question: Is you auto policy a rip off when you go 10 years paying and not claiming... I guess it is until you slide on ice into an intersection, total 3 cars including your own, kill someone accidently and end up in the ICU yourself for 2 weeks... all of the sudden, pretty valuable. Question: if you howewoners a rip off when you have paid 30 year worht of premium, no claims? It is until you house gets hit by lighting, burns to the ground and you insurer rebuilds it to current code. Question- If you 20 Year Term Life policy a rip off when you have paid 19 years and haven't died?- I guess until you are in the ICU after the accident, perhaps you passed, and you wife or man lover now have the money to replace your income? Question- is disability insurance a rip off? Perhaps, until that car accident leaves you disbaled for a few years and replaces 60% of your income so you don;t end up on the streets. Health insurance is no different. I paid 15 years of premiums, in that time had 4-5 PCP exams, 3 lipid panels.- that is nothing, nothing as far as usuage, and I never made my deductible. on that 15th year, I had 3 biopsies for 9K, $6,500 for tissue genome testing and a thyroidectomy, 35K- sure it was a rip off, until that $50,500 bill came a rollign along- pretty ddarn happy that risk pool had my name ojn it, and I had claim to a piece of it. I am lucky I didn't need radiation therapy and further treatment, but should I have needed it, by plan kicked in. truth is, everybody need coverage- you haven't been sick yet, you will be at some point, its almost an absolute. Healthcare is expensive in theis country, that is why premiums are high and dedictibkles are high. there is not free lunch, you don;t get to have great care on not pay for it- even though I think many peopel think that they should.

Like gential warts.

Would Hillary, or even GWB, benefit from hiring a Defense Attorney here, to protect them from these shoes? Maybe they can use that Defense Attorney Christie used?

All I know it, when I go wheres poltician are speaking, I wear my thick rawhide steel toed workboots... and I put a dead-blow mallet in each one.

that they very issue with Unions- all or nothing, IMHO. They can't see, or really care most likely, that their financial and operational burdens on compaines like GM and Chrysler make them less competitive in markets, thereby almost insuring the company will run into toruble, ie shed jobs etc. I still dislike the fact that GM and Chrylser were bailed out- I know it would have kicked the economy in the nads when it needed it the least, but it only continues to perpetuate the underlying issue with those companies... were lessons learned, my guess, not likely.

There is a list that OIG has, if you are deliquent in any sort of Federal Commitment, ie Student Loans, you cannot get hired at a business that does any work with the Federal Goverment- so if I were deliquent in paying my student debt, I could be denied hire at this hospital because they accept Medicare... its !@#$ed up.

Why do you hate Trade Show Booth Decorators and want to steal their very important jobs?? Job Banks at GM, Booth Decorators, Brick Carryig Limits... its all retarded, but then again, is there any wonder why Union are falling out of favor, even with even the more pragmatic of Democrats? Also, my aunt bought this really nice custom built trade show booth for her company, and I am pretty sure she was allowed to ship it to the venue, but could not physcially set it up. Maybe that a liability thing, but sounds Union to me.

When I was in College I worked for a lanscaping company- one summer, we did a joint job on some public project with a Union outfit. One day the backhoe operator from the Union didn't show up to work- the guy stood around smoking an drinking coffee and I asked when they would start the backhoe, since out progress depended on their progress. They said no one else could tough that machine, even though all of them knew how to run it.... also on that job, we had brick clamps to caryy pavers from pallets to the patio being built- they carried 9 bricks- we were told we coud not use them because Union rules said we could only carry 7 bricks at a time. That was my first interaction with Union labor, I hope it will be my last. I can't wait until their Unionize nursing here at the hospital, that will be wonderful.

But higher deductibles does if you subscribe to the consumer driven competition model. If people need to cover the first 5k, do you think they are willy billy about going in unless the have to? It funny, some of the rubbing nickel together Americans see premiums and deductibles as outrageous, for your health, but don't think twice alloting 2500 a year for TV service. I wonder about people's priorities sometimes.

Beefing up risk pools is my guess. More payouts, more premiums and bigger out of pockets. Yet we still want this private thIrd party boondoggle.... I was thinking today our hospital has 50 FTE to deal with denials and authorizations... A whole dept just to figure of if we will be paid or not. What a wasteful mess of a delivery system... But it's what we got, best make the best of it I guess. I was thinking of your redistribution comment recently. The single biggest redistribution is how company in the US sell products cheaply abroad, and rape us domestically. Lipitor 10 bucks in Canada, 70 here.... Our own government and insurers are siphoning dollars from our pockets... It's a darn shame 3.

Isn't individuals spending a lot of their own money first the premise behind high deductible plans and HSA's? Isn't that the premise for driving prices down as consumers choose where to spend their money? So are you advocating that once you pay your monthly, every penny is covered?

In the end, in places that have commited to making it work, its delivering. In places that fight it tooth and nail, its failing to meet people needs and expectations. There just isn't that much chatter in Colorado about the program good or bad- our employement situation is good, so most people get coverage through work- we already had Cover Colorado, so people simple migrated from that program to the ConnectforHealthColo and founds plans. Out hospital has taken a proactive stance ot making it work- there ahve been classes tha have sorted out reality versus fallacy about the law itself, and traing classes on the new exchange plans. It really isn't that big of news here.

no ****- that probably hurt her professionally and credibility more than anyone is willing to admit.