My wife was looking at a Lincoln-around $40K. A friend’s retail hip
replacement price was $60K

@8 To reinforce that- When you are in the hospital,you are a patient,
not a customer! In other words,you are sick. And you may get a lot
sicker with all those bugs floating around. To grasp these retail
prices an equivalency such as : an expensive car costs 2/3 of a hip
replacment, may be helpful.

With each small fix, more cuts are imposed on the poor and ultimately the
middle class in order ta maintain the total. Since these groups don’t
have rich patrons they won’t get fixes.

Obama should change HIS registration to Republican. That would improve Dem
chances in 2014 and 2016.

what is COLA-E (COLA for seniors) predicting? It is the difference between
that and what BO is proposing that represents the true difference in
the cuts that will be imposed. Presenting that difference in a graph form
and getting that circulated could be useful.

An excuse for passing such a law is that unions use dues in ways that an
employee doesn’t approve. But in fairness-corporations-which are partly
OWNED by us (through our retirement accounts for example) are spending $$
to harm people in ways we object to. We should put pressure on them not
to do this. This could start by asking our retirement program to set
up accounts (like some do for “green” businesses) which contain only
“well behaved” businesses. Then we could choose to invest in just those
accounts. Let’s be FAIR here!

Reply to newcarguy #7 Or as Bogart (in Key Largo) answers the question put to
Rocco the gangster (Edward G.Robinson) “what does Rocco want?” Answer
“More”

Decades ago some said William F.Buckley was the last living (US) Tory.
Clearly this is not true- a good number of the 1% fall into that category.

Add to the tax list: sales taxes,state taxes (where present),city taxes….
People should be judged economically on how much disposable income they
have and what their total assets are.

A true measure of incompetence (unless Obama was planning from the first to
be a one term president) is his failure to set the Department of Justice onto these
injustices- This should have been done starting in 2009. Secondly, when
I got a Drivers license in PA (decades ago),it was much faster to PAY someone
to go to Harrisburg and “stand in line” for me.Assuming this is still a
in place in PA,just how many poor people or blue collar workers have the $
to get their IDs this way?.And even if it can be done by computer,I raise the
same objection (these groups have less access and knowledge of computers)

The way the Repugs act, we could save some $ (plus a lot of consultant’s $$)
by only sending one of them to Congress. He/She could have the full # of
votes (300 or whatever it is). This would also save on travel costs etc.
Or even better,we could have a PC represent the whole party,which could
be programmed by the Koch brothers,Sheldon A..,etc.

Layoffs in the “red” states only. Also,cut the Supreme Court budget (if
possible). Etc.

Jpn Walker (#9)
Please make it clear just which set (prop #?) need to be corrected and how.
Thanks

I suspect this analysis (and others that followed) is too subtle for the
likely audience. My 9 1/2 yr old grandson wanted to see it for example.
I don’t think letting people see made up life like horrors is
a good practice. It can lead to imitations. The US seems to be only
concerned about dirty words and sex showing up in movies and not violence.
It is not difficult to believe that has a strong connection to our
2nd amendment/ militaristic society.

Viewing by the 1% is not going to turn a profit for this movie. If that happens,it is
the rest of us. So why are “we” going to see it? All you need is a 1-2 sentence
description to know you and your family shouldn’t be viewing this depravity.
It is not that dissimilar to what happened at Penn State-where all those
“good” people let young lives be destroyed. How dare we do this? This is
a comment on the sickness of our society.

Just to be clear= with SCOTUS having the power to appointment presidents,as well

The Wisconsin vote has already had impact in Michigan- in something like 24 hours each,the House
had passed an extreme anti-abortion bill and followed that up with a drug testing bill for welfare
recipients,where they must pay for the test even if they come up clean [an amendment to have MI pay
for clean tests failed). It;s a total failure of the national Democratic establishment that they didn’t
come into Wisconsin with $ and people at the very beginning of the recall effort (and a stronger
candidate put up as well)c

I’m not as optimistic about AARP’s survey changes. They just called me 2 days ago and posed the
question that as Medicare was only fully funded for 10 years,how would I suggest that it be fully
funded: by increased premiums? by decreasing benefits> or charging it to the general budget.
I chose the last,as it was least worst. But no where did I see mentioned-reducinng costs by
drug importation,by letting Medicare negotiate on pill prices (and development of many drugs began,
I’m sure with NIH funding),or by having a single payer system. In other words,AARP had no “offensive”
position. They gave me a phone number to call and add comments if I wanted. But nothing like the contact
information you supply here. They also didn’t ask me how many in our household were Medicare eligible
(there are 2 of us,and we agree on what should be done).

Yes, end them all. I agree with you. Why- because you can’t get a deal
with the Repugs that cuts out just the 1%. If I remember right,this would
raise $4 trillion (over 10 years) which would basically “solve” our deficit
problem. Also it is how to “hard-a.s” bargain. Not that Obama,the CAVER,
would do this. And while maintaining this position,all other financial
issues to be solved-including raising the debt ceiling,not touching
SS and Medicare,and the like.

Let’s see how we might cut that 40% you claim: 1) Raise taxes on the 1% (back to
Ronnie Ray Gun levels,say), (2) allow Medicare to negotiate pill and other
medical costs (3) have a single payer medical system (4) stop these ceaseless wars,
(5) put some constraints on manufacturers moving jobs abroad,etc

Get it ?

You can always define a problem so that is has only the solution you advocate. Like
doing none of the above.

I’d change one point- “nationalistic” = I think we have been,and are being,
pushed into simply accepting authority- the 1%,Wall Street,Courts,etc.
If an invader presents us with an authority figure,many people will just
accept that. This is a consequence of being ill informed,failing to check
factual content of statements,etc