"Dave" wrote

Bush recognizes that social security is the kind of Ponzi scheme .....

True - question is how to get out of it. Remember, it's not just
retirement. It was intended to open jobs for younger workers by encouraging
us geezers to quit.

On the subject of medical costs, Bush recognizes that so long as everyone
thinks the other guy is paying his doctor bill he's gonna overuse the
health
care system and push costs of care up. He wants to reform the system to
reduce health care cost inflation by bringing market forces to bear.

Wrong. Neither one wants to bring market forces to bear, altho that is what
we need. On the medical side, the AMA makes the Teamsters look like punks
when it comes to limiting the number of MDs and thus driving up saleries and
costs. A PhD Biologist, et cetera, might make $125K/yr but an MD thinks
he's killed if he makes 10X that. Moreover, one could argue that we'd have
fewer MDs getting thru med school and internship, where they work 16 hour
days, were it not for that income. Trouble is working somebody half to death
doesn't make better MDs it simply reduces the number of grad's. Solution?
Prosecute AMA under the RICO laws.

On the drug side, we need to first allow reimportation of US drugs - Kerry
will, Bush Won't. Next, we need to get all the non-narcotic drugs like
antibiotics off the prescription drug list and make them available over the
counter. That alone would save each/every diabetic 3 or 4 $hundred/year -
what are we going to do, abuse our Amaryl?

Kerry, on the other hand, wants to simply add more people to a failed
Medicare
program, adding to the number who think somebody else is paying the bills
......

Medicares PRIMARY beneficiaries are the MDs and drug companies who get to
overcharge patients who'd otherwise do without care and possibly die.
Breaking the back of AMA will do more for everybody than Medicare. Last
time I went for an uninsured MD visit I paid $100 for maybe 15 minutes of
his time. I think $25 would be fair but his union (AMA) disagrees.


Similarly, on taxes Kerry wants to keep them high in order to throw more
money to his constituents in the government employees' unions, increasing
their ranks. Bush wants people to keep more of what they earn rather than
handing it over to the bureaucrats.

Gee, my bride and I make just under $200K/yr. We didn't even notice Bush's
tax cut and folks making less noticed even less. AFAIK the only
beneficiaries were the idle rich and MDs making 1-10+ million/year.

I might agree had Bush cut spending - but no, like Reagan he borrowed
trillions on our kids credit and threw a party for his buddies.