The reality of health care

Liberals love to complain about the high price of private health care, while demanding that the government provide it for the people. Well, when are people going to realize that programs such as Medicare and Medicaid eliminate the incentive for competitive pricing?

50% of Americans receive some sort of government health care. So, why would patients, doctors or hospitals practice restraint in medical billing? If you're not paying out of your own pocket, why care how high your bills are? And if the bill will be paid by Big Daddy Government, why should doctors or hospitals care how much they charge?

If the free market were allowed to work, health care would become affordable, just like all other private products and services. Of course there would be different levels; more money would buy higher quality insurance. But government run health care isn't exactly top notch anyway. Why would the better doctors choose to work for the government when they can make more money running a private practice? And of course, there would still be those who choose to spend their money on other things rather than health care, but in general the price would come down. Why should it be different than anything else?

Gaffe-ing all the way to the bank.

I'm already a little sick of hearing about this story, but it does still make me chuckle when I think about it.

Joe, just keep at it. We need to see more of you, man! Get out there!

I'm not really sure why SNL hasn't picked up on the comedic value of Biden yet, but he sure is gold....sweet, Botox'd, liquid gold.

I'm sure his gaffe's will have little to no impact on the election, but I do appreciate that special way he has of bringing a smile to my face.

Let's please move on.

A Gallup poll shows:

While 6% of voters say they are less likely to vote for Barack Obama because of his race, 9% say they are more likely to vote for him, making the impact of his race a neutral to slightly positive factor when all voters' self-reported attitudes are taken into account.

So, can we please, please, please, please stop saying that the evil white racist is going to cost Obama the election?

Thanks.

Oh, and p.s., I'm not going to point out the percentage of people who will vote Obama because of his race.

Palin vs. Obama

Record Vs. Rhetoric
by Thomas Sowell

Apparently there is something about Sarah Palin that causes some people to think of her as either the best of candidates or the worst of candidates. She draws enthusiastic crowds and provokes visceral hostility in the media.

The issue that is raised most often is her relative lack of experience and the fact that she would be "a heartbeat away from the presidency" if Senator John McCain were elected. But Barack Obama has even less experience-- none in an executive capacity-- and his would itself be the heartbeat of the presidency if he were elected.

Sarah Palin's record is on the record, while whole years of Barack Obama's life are engulfed in fog, and he has had to explain away one after another of the astounding and vile people he has not merely "associated" with but has had political alliances with, and to whom he has directed the taxpayers' money and other money.

Sarah Palin has had executive experience-- and the White House is the executive branch of government. We don't have to judge her by her rhetoric because she has a record.

We don't know what Barack Obama will actually do because he has actually done very little for which he was personally accountable. Even as a state legislator, he voted "present" innumerable times instead of taking a stand one way or the other on tough issues.

"Clean up the mess in Washington"? He was part of the mess in Chicago and lined up with the Daley machine against reformers.

He is also part of the mess in Washington, not only with numerous earmarks, but also as the Senate's second largest recipient of money from Fannie Mae, and someone whose campaign has this year sought the advice of disgraced former Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines, who was at the heart of the subprime crisis.

Why then the enthusiasm for Obama and the hostility to Sarah Palin in the media?

One reason of course is that Senator Obama is ideologically much closer to the views of the media than is Governor Palin. But there is more than that. There are other conservative politicians who do not evoke such anger, spite and hate.

Sarah Palin is the one real outsider among the four candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency on the Republican and Democratic tickets. Her whole career has been spent outside the Washington Beltway.

More than that, her whole life has been outside the realm familiar to the intelligentsia of the media. She didn't go to the big-name colleges and imbibe the heady atmosphere that leaves so many feeling that they are special folks. She doesn't talk the way they talk or think the way they think.

Worse yet, from the media's perspective, Sarah Palin does not seek their Good Housekeeping seal of approval.

Much is made of Senator Joe Biden's "experience." But Frederick the Great said that experience matters only when valid conclusions are drawn from it.

Senator Biden's "experience" has been a long history of being on the wrong side of issue after issue in foreign policy. He was one of those Senators who voted to pull the plug on financial aid to South Vietnam, which was still defending itself from Communist invaders after the pullout of American troops.

Biden opposed Ronald Reagan's military buildup that helped win the Cold War. He opposed the surge in Iraq last year.

Sarah Palin will not be ready to become President of the United States on the first day that she and John McCain take office. Nobody is.

But being Vice President is a job that can allow a lot of time for studying, and everything about Governor Palin's career says that she is a bright gal with her head on straight. The country needs that far more than it needs people with glib answers to media "gotcha" questions.

Whatever the shortcomings of John McCain and Sarah Palin, they are people whose values are the values of this nation, whose loyalty and dedication to this country's fundamental institutions are beyond question because they have not spent decades working with people who hate America. Nor are they people whose judgments have been proved wrong consistently during decades of Beltway "experience."

Finally, McCain brings it.

Good job, McCain!

He finally pulled through, doing a great job at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Dinner, getting loud belly laughs from all.



Obama was pretty entertaining, as well:

McCain then followed up the dinner with a great showing on Letterma, where Dave managed to keep his bitterness to a minimum. McCain finally elucidated some of the concepts that he's been struggling for the last few months to communicate.

I just hope that people were watching, because they certainly weren't watching the third debate.

Freedom of Choice?

I don't feel very free when my choice is: Obama, a big smelly socialist or McCain, a big smelly socialist.

Why prioritize when you can get it all for free?

Nick Gillespie's take on health insurance.