Rob Woodall On Medicare: 'When Do I Decide I'm Going To Take Care Of Me?'

A Woodall constituent raised a practical obstacle to obtaining coverage in the private market within the confines of an employer-based health insurance system: What happens when you retire?

"The private corporation that I retired from does not give medical benefits to retirees," the woman told the congressman in video captured a local Patch reporter in Dacula, Ga.

"Hear yourself, ma'am. Hear yourself," Woodall told the woman. "You want the government to take care of you, because your employer decided not to take care of you. My question is, 'When do I decide I'm going to take care of me?'"

Link

Of course, he gets government provided healthcare when he retires regardless of what happens to medicare. He also neglected to mention that healthcare costs will rise faster than the voucher system is designedto and inflation is expected to.

Thoughts?

If that's his attitude, why should she pay tax? :| That's what i don't get about a lot of Republicans who seem to think the government owes you nothing. That individual has presumably paid taxes all of their working life seeing as they are now retired, no? Ninja-Hippo

[QUOTE="Ninja-Hippo"]If that's his attitude, why should she pay tax? :| That's what i don't get about a lot of Republicans who seem to think the government owes you nothing. That individual has presumably paid taxes all of their working life seeing as they are now retired, no? Nibroc420

Medicare primarily covers the elderly, whose medical costs are sufficiently high in the aggregate that it would be unprofitable for private insurance companies to cover them.

[QUOTE="Nibroc420"][QUOTE="Ninja-Hippo"]If that's his attitude, why should she pay tax? :| That's what i don't get about a lot of Republicans who seem to think the government owes you nothing. That individual has presumably paid taxes all of their working life seeing as they are now retired, no? GabuEx

Medicare primarily covers the elderly, whose medical costs are sufficiently high in the aggregate that it would be unprofitable for private insurance companies to cover them.

[QUOTE="Nibroc420"][QUOTE="Ninja-Hippo"]If that's his attitude, why should she pay tax? :| That's what i don't get about a lot of Republicans who seem to think the government owes you nothing. That individual has presumably paid taxes all of their working life seeing as they are now retired, no? GabuEx

Medicare primarily covers the elderly, whose medical costs are sufficiently high in the aggregate that it would be unprofitable for private insurance companies to cover them.

It's worth it to alot of people and changes lots of lives. I know veterans and old guys who have lived well past there expiration date.

They do take heavy amounts of pills received from VA, medicare, and medicaid: But atleast they're happy all the time and functioning :]

[QUOTE="GabuEx"]

[QUOTE="Nibroc420"] Yes, but those taxes have to go into other things. Do Americans not understand they have to be self-sufficient? Living off Welfare and Medicare dont exactly do anything for the country.CattiJack

Medicare primarily covers the elderly, whose medical costs are sufficiently high in the aggregate that it would be unprofitable for private insurance companies to cover them.

It's worth it to alot of people and changes lots of lives. I know veterans and old guys who have lived well past there expiration date.

They do take heavy amounts of pills received from VA, medicare, and medicaid: But atleast they're happy all the time and functioning :]

[QUOTE="CattiJack"]

[QUOTE="GabuEx"]

Medicare primarily covers the elderly, whose medical costs are sufficiently high in the aggregate that it would be unprofitable for private insurance companies to cover them.

Nibroc420

It's worth it to alot of people and changes lots of lives. I know veterans and old guys who have lived well past there expiration date.

They do take heavy amounts of pills received from VA, medicare, and medicaid: But atleast they're happy all the time and functioning :]

[QUOTE="Nibroc420"][QUOTE="CattiJack"]

It's worth it to alot of people and changes lots of lives. I know veterans and old guys who have lived well past there expiration date.

They do take heavy amounts of pills received from VA, medicare, and medicaid: But atleast they're happy all the time and functioning :]

DivergeUnify

[QUOTE="CattiJack"]

[QUOTE="GabuEx"]

Medicare primarily covers the elderly, whose medical costs are sufficiently high in the aggregate that it would be unprofitable for private insurance companies to cover them.

Nibroc420

It's worth it to alot of people and changes lots of lives. I know veterans and old guys who have lived well past there expiration date.

They do take heavy amounts of pills received from VA, medicare, and medicaid: But atleast they're happy all the time and functioning :]

You are very naive and quick to be bleak. It isn't like that at all, 70-110? Are we talking about World War 2 or something? You don't have to conform to anything. You're sitting at a computer stuffing your face at this moment why would you care about starvation?

It's funny how you think that they will end up nearly comatose when actually they do come back like that or dead.

The fact is it's better for someone to have their father come back, receive help, and start promoting a normal life again.

Instead of having them return a crazy recluse and thanking your country for eliminating that loved person from your life in any conventional sense.

[QUOTE="DivergeUnify"][QUOTE="Nibroc420"] If we didn't have to conform to this "I'm 70, but pay for my drugs so i can be nearly comatose (yet alive) until 110" There'd be so much less starvation in the world.Nibroc420

It's funny how you think that they will end up nearly comatose when actually they do come back like that or dead.

CattiJack

Stop twisting my words.

I'm saying in todays society people keep their loved ones alive in a near comatose state, consuming food/medicine simply to prolong the ineviatable.
If someone wants to be hooked up to medical equipment for the last 20 years of their life, from 90-110 or whatever, than they should pay for it.

Rather, everyone expects to government to pay them welfare checks, and for their healthcare, so they dont have to do anything with themselves except be consumers of food and medicine in a desperate attempt to maintain life. How about instead of paying into welfare, we force idiots to get jobs, and donate money to countries where jobs and food are not as readily availible as in the west?

Nope, Sitting on your ***, getting free $$$, and having the government pay all your medical bills is way easier.

[QUOTE="CattiJack"]

It's funny how you think that they will end up nearly comatose when actually they do come back like that or dead.

Nibroc420

Stop twisting my words.

I'm saying in todays society people keep their loved ones alive in a near comatose state, consuming food/medicine simply to prolong the ineviatable.
If someone wants to be hooked up to medical equipment for the last 20 years of their life, from 90-110 or whatever, than they should pay for it.

Rather, everyone expects to government to pay them welfare checks, and for their healthcare, so they dont have to do anything with themselves except be consumers of food and medicine in a desperate attempt to maintain life. How about instead of paying into welfare, we force idiots to get jobs, and donate money to countries where jobs and food are not as readily availible as in the west?

Nope, Sitting on your ***, getting free $$$, and having the government pay all your medical bills is way easier.

I do not know about you, but I value human life far over money. Medical costs are high in, especially for the elderly (which is a related albiet seperate topic of disccusion) and paying for them yourself would likely put a good portion of people into debt and make their lives more miserable without aid from programs like Medicare.

[QUOTE="CattiJack"]

It's funny how you think that they will end up nearly comatose when actually they do come back like that or dead.

Nibroc420

Stop twisting my words.

I'm saying in todays society people keep their loved ones alive in a near comatose state, consuming food/medicine simply to prolong the ineviatable.
If someone wants to be hooked up to medical equipment for the last 20 years of their life, from 90-110 or whatever, than they should pay for it.

Rather, everyone expects to government to pay them welfare checks, and for their healthcare, so they dont have to do anything with themselves except be consumers of food and medicine in a desperate attempt to maintain life. How about instead of paying into welfare, we force idiots to get jobs, and donate money to countries where jobs and food are not as readily availible as in the west?

Nope, Sitting on your ***, getting free $$$, and having the government pay all your medical bills is way easier.

[QUOTE="Nibroc420"]

[QUOTE="CattiJack"]

It's funny how you think that they will end up nearly comatose when actually they do come back like that or dead.

DarkGamer007

Stop twisting my words.

I'm saying in todays society people keep their loved ones alive in a near comatose state, consuming food/medicine simply to prolong the ineviatable.
If someone wants to be hooked up to medical equipment for the last 20 years of their life, from 90-110 or whatever, than they should pay for it.

Rather, everyone expects to government to pay them welfare checks, and for their healthcare, so they dont have to do anything with themselves except be consumers of food and medicine in a desperate attempt to maintain life. How about instead of paying into welfare, we force idiots to get jobs, and donate money to countries where jobs and food are not as readily availible as in the west?

Nope, Sitting on your ***, getting free $$$, and having the government pay all your medical bills is way easier.

I do not know about you, but I value human life far over money. Medical costs are high in, especially for the elderly (which is a related albiet seperate topic of disccusion) and paying for them yourself would likely put a good portion of people into debt and make their lives more miserable without aid from programs like Medicare.

Well thats his choice, but IMO a child > old man.

[QUOTE="DarkGamer007"]

[QUOTE="Nibroc420"]

Stop twisting my words.

I'm saying in todays society people keep their loved ones alive in a near comatose state, consuming food/medicine simply to prolong the ineviatable.
If someone wants to be hooked up to medical equipment for the last 20 years of their life, from 90-110 or whatever, than they should pay for it.

Rather, everyone expects to government to pay them welfare checks, and for their healthcare, so they dont have to do anything with themselves except be consumers of food and medicine in a desperate attempt to maintain life. How about instead of paying into welfare, we force idiots to get jobs, and donate money to countries where jobs and food are not as readily availible as in the west?

Nope, Sitting on your ***, getting free $$$, and having the government pay all your medical bills is way easier.

Nibroc420

I do not know about you, but I value human life far over money. Medical costs are high in, especially for the elderly (which is a related albiet seperate topic of disccusion) and paying for them yourself would likely put a good portion of people into debt and make their lives more miserable without aid from programs like Medicare.

Well thats his choice, but IMO a child > old man.

Then donate to a charity if you want to save a child. You imply as if we cannot have programs like Medicare and care for the elderly and help children that are starving elsewhere. :|

[QUOTE="Nibroc420"]

[QUOTE="DarkGamer007"]

I do not know about you, but I value human life far over money. Medical costs are high in, especially for the elderly (which is a related albiet seperate topic of disccusion) and paying for them yourself would likely put a good portion of people into debt and make their lives more miserable without aid from programs like Medicare.

DarkGamer007

Well thats his choice, but IMO a child > old man.

Then donate to a charity if you want to save a child. You imply as if we cannot have programs like Medicare and care for the elderly and help children that are starving elsewhere. :|

[QUOTE="DarkGamer007"]

[QUOTE="Nibroc420"] I'd rather save a starving child, than a 70 year old man who's already lived his life. If that 70 year old man wants to live another 20 years hooked up to a resperator, feeding tubes, and bed pans...

Well thats his choice, but IMO a child > old man.

Nibroc420

Then donate to a charity if you want to save a child. You imply as if we cannot have programs like Medicare and care for the elderly and help children that are starving elsewhere. :|

[QUOTE="GabuEx"]

[QUOTE="Nibroc420"] Yes, but those taxes have to go into other things. Do Americans not understand they have to be self-sufficient? Living off Welfare and Medicare dont exactly do anything for the country.CattiJack

Medicare primarily covers the elderly, whose medical costs are sufficiently high in the aggregate that it would be unprofitable for private insurance companies to cover them.

It's worth it to alot of people and changes lots of lives. I know veterans and old guys who have lived well past there expiration date.

They do take heavy amounts of pills received from VA, medicare, and medicaid: But atleast they're happy all the time and functioning :]

I'm not arguing that it's not worth it; I'm saying that it would be impossible for the elderly to get medical coverage without Medicare. I'm agreeing with you. :P

[QUOTE="DarkGamer007"]

[QUOTE="Nibroc420"] I'd rather save a starving child, than a 70 year old man who's already lived his life. If that 70 year old man wants to live another 20 years hooked up to a resperator, feeding tubes, and bed pans...

Well thats his choice, but IMO a child > old man.

Nibroc420

Then donate to a charity if you want to save a child. You imply as if we cannot have programs like Medicare and care for the elderly and help children that are starving elsewhere. :|

There may be "more" important things to focus on as a society, but human life is still important and programs like Medicare are not just for people who are 112 years old that are comatose, they go to people who are 65, 70, 80 that are still working, retired, or ill to try and keep them health for as long as possible. Maybe someday you will see what I am talking about, when you are 75 and in need of a heart transplant that will add many health years to your life expectancy but will cost some $10,000 which you cannot pay for yourself because you are retired.

[QUOTE="CattiJack"]

It's funny how you think that they will end up nearly comatose when actually they do come back like that or dead.

Nibroc420

If someone wants to be hooked up to medical equipment for the last 20 years of their life, from 90-110 or whatever, than they should pay for it.

Nope, Sitting on your ***, getting free $$$, and having the government pay all your medical bills is way easier.

Thank you for informing us that you absolutely know nothing. And we now know you would pull your 110 yearold's grandpas plug at any chance you had all just because he's costing you big time. His long life and hard work raising your parent and basically responsible for your genes and very existance and placement in this world earns no respect from you! Just a quick "thanks for sitting on your bum, and enjoying the free ride" with a sharp flat line from the heart monitor. *rolls eyes in dramatic fanshion*

Oh well.

I dont want those taxes going to pay for someone's comatose 112 year old grandmother because they want to keep her alive.Nibroc420

Fortunately, each individual taxpayer does not get to earmark his tax dollars, or else nothing would ever get done.

[QUOTE="Nibroc420"][QUOTE="DarkGamer007"]

Then donate to a charity if you want to save a child. You imply as if we cannot have programs like Medicare and care for the elderly and help children that are starving elsewhere. :|

DarkGamer007

There may be "more" important things to focus on as a society, but human life is still important and programs like Medicare are not just for people who are 112 years old that are comatose, they go to people who are 65, 70, 80 that are still working, retired, or ill to try and keep them health for as long as possible. Maybe someday you will see what I am talking about, when you are 75 and in need of a heart transplant that will add many health years to your life expectancy but will cost some $10,000 which you cannot pay for yourself because you are retired.

[QUOTE="DarkGamer007"]

[QUOTE="Nibroc420"] I'm saying people should stop QQing about the Government not paying their medical bills if they want to prolong their life past reasonable expectations. I pay taxes, those taxes pay for health care. I dont want those taxes going to pay for someone's comatose 112 year old grandmother because they want to keep her alive. There's more important things to focus on as a society.Nibroc420

There may be "more" important things to focus on as a society, but human life is still important and programs like Medicare are not just for people who are 112 years old that are comatose, they go to people who are 65, 70, 80 that are still working, retired, or ill to try and keep them health for as long as possible. Maybe someday you will see what I am talking about, when you are 75 and in need of a heart transplant that will add many health years to your life expectancy but will cost some $10,000 which you cannot pay for yourself because you are retired.

I don't know about you but not every operation, even a heart transplant, means you become a vegetable. Operations are expensive and costly but people do come out still able to live and function on there own after a healing peroid.

[QUOTE="Nibroc420"]

[QUOTE="CattiJack"]

It's funny how you think that they will end up nearly comatose when actually they do come back like that or dead.

CattiJack

If someone wants to be hooked up to medical equipment for the last 20 years of their life, from 90-110 or whatever, than they should pay for it.

Nope, Sitting on your ***, getting free $$$, and having the government pay all your medical bills is way easier.

Thank you for informing us that you absolutely know nothing. And we now know you would pull your 110 yearold's grandpas plug at any chance you had all just because he's costing you big time. His long life and hard work raising your parent and basically responsible for your genes and very existance and placement in this world earns no respect from you! Just a quick "thanks for sitting on your bum, and enjoying the free ride" with a sharp flat line from the heart monitor. *rolls eyes in dramatic fanshion*

Oh well.

I say we just go to a single-payer system like ever other country in the modern world. We should ban all private health insurance companies. Their nothing more than vultures.

[QUOTE="Nibroc420"]I dont want those taxes going to pay for someone's comatose 112 year old grandmother because they want to keep her alive.GabuEx

Fortunately, each individual taxpayer does not get to earmark his tax dollars, or else nothing would ever get done.

When i'm 75, and my heart fails (as you have foretold) I'm sure i'll be happy that my life has been great, and i'll understand that everyone has an end. I'd rather die in my sleep, than in a hospital bed hooked up to 8-12 different machines to help me breathe, eat, and perform basic bodily functions. Maybe it's just me?Nibroc420

What a tremendous end to an epic life! I can see it now so vividly in my mind, one day at 4:20 you will be inspired to leave your computer and go on an epic quest to pull the plugs of as many vegetables as you can endure to save the glorious money!

This journey is long and hard, infact so long that you'll be 110 by the time its over. Then as you sit in your inextricable state your beloved children will pull your plug.

Because they possessed the math wrath perk, they deduced if you had X more years to live then they would gladly cut it short for 100,000$ they most definitely would receive.

[QUOTE="Nibroc420"]When i'm 75, and my heart fails (as you have foretold) I'm sure i'll be happy that my life has been great, and i'll understand that everyone has an end. I'd rather die in my sleep, than in a hospital bed hooked up to 8-12 different machines to help me breathe, eat, and perform basic bodily functions. Maybe it's just me?CattiJack

What a tremendous end to an epic life! I can see it now so vividly in my mind, one day at 4:20 you will be inspired to leave your computer and go on an epic quest to pull the plugs of as many vegetables as you can endure to save the glorious money!

This journey is long and hard, infact so long that you'll be 110 by the time its over. Then as you sit in your inextricable state your beloved children will pull your plug.

Because they possessed the math wrath perk, they deduced if you had X more years to live then they would gladly cut it short for 100,000$ they most definitely would receive.

I like how he insists that a person can decide how long another person should live. :|

[QUOTE="CattiJack"]

[QUOTE="Nibroc420"]When i'm 75, and my heart fails (as you have foretold) I'm sure i'll be happy that my life has been great, and i'll understand that everyone has an end. I'd rather die in my sleep, than in a hospital bed hooked up to 8-12 different machines to help me breathe, eat, and perform basic bodily functions. Maybe it's just me?DarkGamer007

What a tremendous end to an epic life! I can see it now so vividly in my mind, one day at 4:20 you will be inspired to leave your computer and go on an epic quest to pull the plugs of as many vegetables as you can endure to save the glorious money!

This journey is long and hard, infact so long that you'll be 110 by the time its over. Then as you sit in your inextricable state your beloved children will pull your plug.

Because they possessed the math wrath perk, they deduced if you had X more years to live then they would gladly cut it short for 100,000$ they most definitely would receive.

I like how he insists that a person can decide how long another person should live. :|

[QUOTE="DarkGamer007"]

[QUOTE="CattiJack"]

What a tremendous end to an epic life! I can see it now so vividly in my mind, one day at 4:20 you will be inspired to leave your computer and go on an epic quest to pull the plugs of as many vegetables as you can endure to save the glorious money!

This journey is long and hard, infact so long that you'll be 110 by the time its over. Then as you sit in your inextricable state your beloved children will pull your plug.

Because they possessed the math wrath perk, they deduced if you had X more years to live then they would gladly cut it short for 100,000$ they most definitely would receive.

Nibroc420

I like how he insists that a person can decide how long another person should live. :|

I don't think you get it that every retired person isn't in a coma and/or a vegetable and that just normal health costs for the elderly who still function fine can be costly because they need medication or therapy to function properly.

[QUOTE="Nibroc420"][QUOTE="DarkGamer007"]

I like how he insists that a person can decide how long another person should live. :|

DarkGamer007

I don't think you get it that every retired person isn't in a coma and/or a vegetable and that just normal health costs for the elderly who still function fine can be costly because they need medication or therapy to function properly.

[QUOTE="DarkGamer007"]

[QUOTE="Nibroc420"] How long SOCIETY should foot the bill for people who're in comas, or Munchhausen syndrome You just dont get it.Nibroc420

I don't think you get it that every retired person isn't in a coma and/or a vegetable and that just normal health costs for the elderly who still function fine can be costly because they need medication or therapy to function properly.

Elderly people have been paying payroll taxes their entire lives, and that all goes towards Social Security and Medicare. They are, in effect, doing exactly what you are suggesting they do, that being putting money aside so they will have it when they are old, except now you are saying, hold on a second there, they shouldn't be able to make use of that money they've been paying into the system because they're old.

It's not "free healthcare"; it's the healthcare they've been paying for their entire life so they'd have it when they retire.

[QUOTE="Nibroc420"][QUOTE="DarkGamer007"]

I don't think you get it that every retired person isn't in a coma and/or a vegetable and that just normal health costs for the elderly who still function fine can be costly because they need medication or therapy to function properly.

GabuEx

Elderly people have been paying payroll taxes their entire lives, and that all goes towards Social Security and Medicare. They are, in effect, doing exactly what you are suggesting they do, that being putting money aside so they will have it when they are old, except now you are saying, hold on a second there, they shouldn't be able to make use of that money they've been paying into the system because they're old.

[QUOTE="Nibroc420"][QUOTE="DarkGamer007"]

I don't think you get it that every retired person isn't in a coma and/or a vegetable and that just normal health costs for the elderly who still function fine can be costly because they need medication or therapy to function properly.

GabuEx

Elderly people have been paying payroll taxes their entire lives, and that all goes towards Social Security and Medicare. They are, in effect, doing exactly what you are suggesting they do, that being putting money aside so they will have it when they are old, except now you are saying, hold on a second there, they shouldn't be able to make use of that money they've been paying into the system because they're old.

It's not "free healthcare"; it's the healthcare they've been paying for their entire life so they'd have it when they retire.

Thank you GabuEx for proving how much he really understands. Not sure where he's getting the vegetable bed stricken thing from. Maybe he just read Johnny got his gun.

[QUOTE="GabuEx"]

[QUOTE="Nibroc420"] So in order to function properly, elderly people need X,Y,Z things and they're unable to pay for them themselves. Yet they receive regular retirement cheques, and if they were intelligent, they would have put money away for retirement. I'm saying that at what point does the "Free healthcare" end? Average life expectancy is like 80, so when someone's 90, should we be paying for weekly/monthly medical bills to maintain their life? Or should they let nature take it's course?Nibroc420

Elderly people have been paying payroll taxes their entire lives, and that all goes towards Social Security and Medicare. They are, in effect, doing exactly what you are suggesting they do, that being putting money aside so they will have it when they are old, except now you are saying, hold on a second there, they shouldn't be able to make use of that money they've been paying into the system because they're old.

And you base this on...

[QUOTE="Nibroc420"][QUOTE="GabuEx"]

Elderly people have been paying payroll taxes their entire lives, and that all goes towards Social Security and Medicare. They are, in effect, doing exactly what you are suggesting they do, that being putting money aside so they will have it when they are old, except now you are saying, hold on a second there, they shouldn't be able to make use of that money they've been paying into the system because they're old.

GabuEx

And you base this on...

That is a somewhat arrogant thing to say given the incredible medical coverage that any member of congress gets. Take that away from them and give them the standard medicare i say.

[QUOTE="GabuEx"]

[QUOTE="Nibroc420"] They only put in so much, and i really doubt they only make back as much as they put in. Especially if you add on medicare.Nibroc420

And you base this on...

"I base this on facts."

Thank you for this elucidation; I never would have thought you based it on facts. I'm convinced.

Regardless, that's exactly how insurance works, anyway - the people who don't need it subsidize the people who do in the assumption that those in the former group could or will at one point transition into the latter group, and in doing so the people who do need it do not need to pay exorbitant amounts of money for it. You are effectively arguing against insurance as a whole.

And if you want to put up the straw man that I have a moral objection to people paying their own way, then I get to put up the straw man that you hate old people. I won't do so, however, as I prefer to argue against people's actual positions.

My attitude on this is, everyone is responsible for their own health. However, medical insurance should be there to cover the unexpected medical problems in life. You can be in perfect health and still get hit by a car, or have cancer.

[QUOTE="Ninja-Hippo"]If that's his attitude, why should she pay tax? :| That's what i don't get about a lot of Republicans who seem to think the government owes you nothing. That individual has presumably paid taxes all of their working life seeing as they are now retired, no? Nibroc420

That is a somewhat arrogant thing to say given the incredible medical coverage that any member of congress gets. Take that away from them and give them the standard medicare i say.

sonicare

Still waiting on a Democratic solution to fixing the rising costs of medicare.

Still waiting on a Democratic solution to fixing the rising costs of medicare.

airshocker

Still waiting on a Democratic solution to fixing the rising costs of medicare.

airshocker

Still waiting on a Democratic solution to fixing the rising costs of medicare.

airshocker

We can stop repeating the intellectually devoid mantra of "TAXES BAD", for starters. The American public wants taxes raised; the only people who still don't get it are Republicans. Increased revenue would go a long way to addressing our problems.

You mean actually funding the programs we want? I believe it involves a sensible tax structure. Let's start by letting the Bush tax cuts expire and ending all subsidies. Republicans should at least like the subsidies part as they're all for a free market.... I wonder why they voted against ending oil subsidies?mattbbpl

Your idea of a sensible tax structure isn't the same as mine, though I was speaking more towards the fact that medicare is costing us more and more every year. What do the Democrats suggest we do about that?

[QUOTE="mattbbpl"]You mean actually funding the programs we want? I believe it involves a sensible tax structure. Let's start by letting the Bush tax cuts expire and ending all subsidies. Republicans should at least like the subsidies part as they're all for a free market.... I wonder why they voted against ending oil subsidies?airshocker

Your idea of a sensible tax structure isn't the same as mine, though I was speaking more towards the fact that medicare is costing us more and more every year. What do the Democrats suggest we do about that?

We can stop repeating the intellectually devoid mantra of "TAXES BAD", for starters. The American public wants taxes raised; the only people who still don't get it are Republicans. Increased revenue would go a long way to addressing our problems.

GabuEx

Really? The American people want taxes raised? I'm pretty sure we want the econony fixed, and jobs to come back to this country. Higher taxes don't really compute with that goal.

I'm still waiting on a viable Republican proposal as well. Shifting the rising costs onto fixed income seniors IS NOT a solution.mattbbpl

Shifting the costs to anybody isn't a solution.