Watch the clip here.

http://progressnotcongress.org/?p=1971

Your ‘problem’ is it makes way too much sense and therefore will never happen.

Interesting twist on how to sell single payer, however.

And thanks for your kind words re: my Gov. Sanford post.

Looks like your time in Ohio smartened you right up, didn’t it?

The snark writes itself.

Americans know all this, and they are way ahead of the Congress, particularly the odious US Senate, and the President. So in light of all this, let me suggest some food for thought. We spend 17% of our GDP on health care expenditures from all private and public sources, and that’s about $4.2 trillion annually. If we can implement a single payer high quality universal health care system at a cost of $2 trillion annually, then we would have $2 trillion to apply against the principal of the national debt, which I think is about $14 trillion right now, and we would have another $200 billion to make available for low cost or no cost funding for higher education.

This would not increase the total amount that the American economy is already spending on health care alone. But by extracting the same amount in taxes, you would reconfigure American health care so that it was truly accessible and efficient with no reduction in a patient’s choice of his or her primary care physician or access to specialist care, and you would spend the rest in two ways that would make this country more competitive. More competitive in the short term because after 7 years the national debt would be paid in full, or maybe it will be 8-10 years since deficit spending isn’t going to go away until the recession ends and a robust recovery is underway. More competitive in the long term because we will be educating the next generation of engineers, scientists, mathematicians, accountants, physicians, lawyers, artists, musicians, film makers, computer programmers, et cetera.

Some individuals on another forum have suggested that a high quality universal national health care system would cost closer to $2.5 or even $3 trillion annually. So what? That still leaves $1 to $1.5 trillion per year to pay off the national debt, and would then vanish over 14-20 years, depending on our future operating deficits, and $200 billion annually to finance higher education, which is the life blood of our economy and society.

The positive effects of high quality universal health care system and a credible plan to pay off a national debt that will otherwise weigh on the backs of a generation of younger Americans while finding the money to finance their higher education would be enormous. Every year that the national debt is reduced, that frees up private capital to finance all kinds of individual, business and government consumption worldwide. That’s a good thing that will help to grow all economies. Every 4 years that we turn out more highly educated Americans, and every 6 or 8 or 10 years that we graduate highly skilled specialist, we are ensuring the future of our very complex society. And every year that we meet the health care needs of all Americans in a timely and human fashion we ensure a greater quality of life for all Americans and we create a more cohesive society, both of which reduces costs and increases quality of life into the future.

I apologize for running so far with this post. But my basic point is that the average American wants and needs something more than their leaders in D.C. want and need. They are failing to respond to what Americans want and need because they do not see the public welfare as their primary obligation. There is a way to deliver what America needs and wants in such a way that makes this country stronger for the short and long runs, and the key is a single payer universal health insurance system, and there’s the irony. By nationalizing health care we can solve all our immediate and long-term health and financial problems. That’s the point that needs to be articulated for the benefit of the average American and hen it needs to be pressed hard upon the politicians in DC who love to talk about our major problems but haven’t the spine to solve any of our major problems.

By the way, this paves the way to saving Social Security too. You might still increase the age of retirement 2-3 years in 3 month per year increments, but eventually this approach would lead to an economy that will expand to beyond full employment, thereby solving our illegal immigration problem if we want to solve it, and attract more and more private capital which permits the private economy to sustain itself.

Again, I apologize for the length of this reply (I’m sure an economist could reply more briefly and elegantly) but not for it’s content and passion.

p.s., anyone else have toobz problems a bit earlier? All of a sudden, both FDL and Huffpo wouldn’t load right, even when I tried to sneak in thru Marcy’s back door. Dang.

My helpful hubby suggested mebbe the wingers were trying to swamp our craft at the Lake. Anyway. All’s well that ends well. It’s fine now.

Picked up a local rag here yestidie, and some wang-noodle was seriously blaming Obama for wrecking our whole economy – presumably at light-speed.
My dawgness, who’s hatching out these idgits?!

On t’other side, a nice fella last week, while working on levelling our concrete walk, had Rush blaring away from his truck radio the whole dang day as he drilled his holes and pumped in the slurry-goop (with amazingly successful results, I might add! ;->). We helped a little, but mostly watched him work, handed him tools and a tall cool glass of water periodically. All the time chatting about “stuff”. He’s furious at the current situation the country’s in, and made a comment about taxes, so I gently picked up on it, explained how the schools were on a fixed income, no matter WHAT the nay-sayers brayed, how the schools’ funding system had been found unconstitutional twice in a row, and then the OH supremes simply declared they didn’t feel like dealing with the matter any more, so they haven’t. Our own “kids” are in their mid to late 30’s, & the same situation exists now that did when they started kindergarten.

Pretty soon, the guy’s jaw was slack and he was muttering, “No Kidding!” Why those…. […]. So I expressed my exasperation with those who would summarily blame Obama for all these dreadful education, health, environmental, economy… ALL problems, because it’s been a few months here, and he hasn’t fixed any of these messes. By then, the guy’s yammering right back at me in agreement with everything I said. Late in the day, Rush was still babbling from the truck, and the concrete craftsman dropped his trowel, marched resolutely over to the truck and slapped the knob to OFF with a barely suppressed epithet.

Be careful who you label a redneck, folks. We’re all in this together.