[NeroASERCH]

Thats gotta be the Hebrew in you OB. We're contrarians by nature

Socialism is the opiate of the masses. You force feed the masses they grow fat and lazy. Then you can control them, ask Takeo the Russian Nationalist Socialist, he knows hows it's done. It's game plan with very few rules. Number one, is to do it slowly. Number two, is to do it selectively while making laws to do it in every case. Number three, is find a scapegoat for any acrimony. As a soviet born Jew I'm familiar with it intimately.

[NeroASERCH]

One major correction though. It's regulations which are the problem. Obama openly plans to enforce regulations which will put companies out of business, or force them to take government subsidy to survive, unless they already are of favor.

This works both ways. They push through regulations to cause a situation, and then offer more regulations as the solution.

The idea will be to enforce regulations on health insurance companies requiring them to operate in a manner which will put them out of business. Obama continues to say "if you like your plan, you can keep it" but he doesn't mention that .....

1) you won't be able to afford private insurance when the rates skyrocket thanks to Obama's new regulations, which will put them all out of business and force us on to a single pay system.

2) you won't be able to shop for a new plan, or a new insurer, because when he say's "if you like what you have, you can keep it" he literally means that. what you have now. we'll be granted godfathered plans but the new regulations will change your coverage, deductables, cost, everything.

3) when you can't afford private insurance or even Obamacare, and you make 40,000 a yr., expect to get taxed. either you pay Obama for his insurance, or you pay his pimp tax for making him look bad. if you're too broke for insurance, Obama will just break you some more.

He's going to do all this through regulation. The same exact thing is happening with housing and lending. There's now only one major. lender who isn't relying on Government controlled Fannie/Freddie. Everything is being manipulated from the inside.

Don't worry though.

You summed it up nicely right there.
May I add that no matter how great a plan, it is to fail if the underlying causes for the brake down of a system aren't addressed. Regulating a plan or a business into utter failure is no substitute for identifying and fixing what does not work in the first place.

[9mm_fan]

I wonder if Americans will ever use VAT?

[Beerinkol]

He will destroy the economy.

[doctorzlo]

Is this president really sane? Calling a Police department "stupid"? If anything this is unprofessional and simply stupid for our leader to say this. Does he think before he says things?

God Help us - who the hell did we elect?!!!!!!

[Fegasderty]

I don't care about some college professor what bothers me that our PRESIDENT made a very public statement against the police department accusing them of racism - without knowing the facts (as he admitted later)!!!!! He probably got very many police departments really pissed off right now... I am sure they will soon start on damage control at taxpayer expense.

But what bothers me that our beloved leader bought into this race thing.... is he f***ng smart?

[Drugmachine]

Obama's commenting on a local police affair was one of the dumbest things he could've done. Especially since he admitted that he didn't know the facts.

[S.T.D.]

I enjoy Israels socialized medicine.

For a small country it is ok. And even we have abuses and significant abusers. On top of that it's very inconvenient. The drakonian uber HMOish stuff we put up with is a little idiotic. Need to go to the Hospital? well get your doctor to refer you... or pay out of pocket. Or call an ambulance which is a relatively huge expense.

That said, Israel has w/o doubt the best doctors in the world. From trauma to cancer to heart disease I dont think any place has as a consistent a record than Israel. And given that so many Olim from so many places are involved in medicine, it is also incredibly multi-approach unlike many other Western countries.