[smoothy]

Lets be very clear, Republicans run nothing in congress they OBSTRUCT progress period.

Marriages without the financial burdens of rapidly rising health concerns/costs may be a good thing. Why isn't it?

Now how about those community centers? Not for profit community centers to get people enrolled in health insurance programs instead of you and me footing the bill?

Gee... nice and hypocritical of you to not call your own lefties obstructionists for not going along with what's good for the country.

[talaniman]

You don't know what's good for the country Smoothy, you only know what's good for YOU!

[smoothy]

You don't know what's good for the country Smoothy, you only know what's good for YOU!

I know what's good for this country... and it isn't Socialism. Its hurt every other country its ever been imposed in... EVER.

The left is insane... because the definition of insanity being trying the same thing over, and over, and over... expecting a different result.

[Wondergirl]

I know whats good for this country....and it isn't Socialism.

You won't claim your monthly SS check and Medicare coverage when you are in your 60s?

[smoothy]

You won't claim your monthly SS check and Medicare coverage when you are in your 60s?

That's not socialism.. because I've been paying into that expressedly for that since I started working.

There isn't a welfare or Medicaid deduction for your paychecks... there IS a SSI and Medicare deduction you pay your whole life to collect when you retire.

HUGE difference.

If they refund me everything I've paid into that fund since I started working... then I won't collect it. In fact I wish they would.

[Wondergirl]

Medicaid deduction

My husband, who had a great job for 30 years, had heart surgery several years ago. Medicare picked up the tab to the tune of over $80,000. I'm guessing that wiped out whatever he had paid into Medicare over the years. What if he has another surgery -- will Medicare pay or turn him down?

[talaniman]

WG the same crowd hollering about Medicare back in the 60's is the same crowd hollering now about ACA, same arguments, same actions.

On we roll toward common sense. The 21st century will NOT be repealed.

[tomder55]

That's true ;the weight of the nanny state on the backs of the people will collapse social democracies around the world .

[talaniman]

that's true ;the weight of the nanny state on the backs of the people will collapse social democracies around the world .

And exploiting poor people around the world for cheap labor in the name of capitalism is even worse.

[speechlesstx]

Yeah since most of the world lives on less than a couple bucks a day we'd hate to give 'em a better paying job.

[Wondergirl]

Yeah since most of the world lives on less than a couple bucks a day we'd hate to give 'em a better paying job.

So they don't.

[Wondergirl]

I know whats good for this country....and it isn't Socialism. Its hurt every other country its ever been imposed in.....EVER.

Jesus in Matthew 25:34-36, NKJV: Then the King will say to those on his right hand, “Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you looked after Me; I was in prison and you came to Me … Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.”

[tomder55]

Yet, the diagnostic today is severe: with age, the democratic welfare state as we know it suffers from morbid obesity, and while the remedy is not hard to conceive—rebalancing the relationship between the public to private sector—it seems impossible to administer.

The etiology of the crisis points at the very design of the regime: the patient will not take the cure, voting out any government trying to cut public spending. Foreign donors who bail out bankrupt governments are often slapped in the face by the citizens of those countries. The recent woes of Greece and Cyprus show how the people can lack responsibility and gratitude...

The economic viability of the model depended on continuous growth of the private sector, from which taxes would flow. When that was not enough—which would not be long—the prospect of future taxes served as collateral for public borrowing. GDP did grow, but spending and debt grew even faster: the average OECD ratios to GDP are now around 50 percent for public expenditures and 80 percent for public debt.

With growth structurally slowing down in the most developed countries, appropriations have become a zero-sum game between those who get and those who will have to pay. Yet, familiarity with gigantic deficits—the combined public debt of OECD countries exceeds 40 trillion dollars—gives confidence that the system still has some give in it. Many have come to imagine the state as the custodian of an infinite supply of money, and their democratic rights as a claim to financial entitlements...

Democracy

[Wondergirl]

Democracy

By Camille Pecastaing (Contributor to the Working Group on Islamism and the International Order)

Camille Pecastaing is a senior associate professor of Middle East studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. A student of behavioral sciences and historical sociology, his research focuses on the cognitive and emotive foundations of xenophobic political cultures and ethnoreligious violence, using the Muslim world and its European and Asian peripheries as a case study. He has written on political Islam, Islamist terrorism, social change, and globalization. Pecastaing’s latest publication is Jihad in the Arabian Sea.

And he's handsome! Faculty Directory | Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies - SAIS

[tomder55]

Lol I don't have an opinion about his looks... but most of the contributors to 'Defining Ideas ' are worth reading... my favorite is Richard Epstein .

[paraclete]

Jesus in Matthew 25:34-36, NKJV: Then the King will say to those on his right hand, “Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you looked after Me; I was in prison and you came to Me … Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.”

Smoothy doesn't understand he has no idea of an economy that doesn't have greed at its centre

[tomder55]

Again... was Jesus speaking to nations instead of individuals ? I gain nothing by compelling another human to be generous.

[Wondergirl]

again ... was Jesus speaking to nations instead of individuals ? I gain nothing by compelling another human to be generous.

Nations are made up of individuals.

[paraclete]

again ... was Jesus speaking to nations instead of individuals ? I gain nothing by compelling another human to be generous.

Interestingly It is not about you. Jesus example is good for nations just as it is for individuals and it isn't about compelling anyone, if you don't do it out of free will what is the point.

There are two economies Tom the hoarders and the givers eventually the economy based on hoarding falls apart

[tomder55]

interestingly It is not about you. Jesus example is good for nations just as it is for individuals and it isn't about compelling anyone, if you don't do it out of free will what is the point.

There are two economies Tom the hoarders and the givers eventually the economy based on hoarding falls apart

No the economy that taxes to bribe the people falls apart . I have no problem with helping the poor. But the western world has gone way beyond that subsidizing sloth.