I have a cheeseburger. I worked, earned money and paid for my cheeseburger with said money. In the spirit of us all playing by the same rules, and an eye on the bill from China, I sent 40 percent of my cheeseburger to the land of the rising sun.
Of the 60 percent remaining, let’s be conservative and say I had to give only 20 percent to someone who had no cheeseburger, either by choice or chance. Suppose this person is a vegetarian and says “no thanks” to the cheeseburger. That’s cool, but he/she will need to pay a tax for foregoing that cheeseburger. I now may eat the remaining 40 percent of my cheeseburger. That’s our choice in November.
Under Mitt Romney, I will still have to send 40 percent of my cheeseburger to China to pay down that debt. But I won’t be forced to give up another percentage of it to someone who doesn’t want it, who won’t in turn be taxed for saying no.
Just keeping things right in my mind.
Amy Lidster
Chandler
Arizona Willie posted at 8:59 am on Mon, Jul 9, 2012.
Amy, we appreciate your trying to keep things right in your mind --- but it appears you took it out to play with it and dropped it and it rolled under the couch.
Cerulean posted at 10:30 am on Mon, Jul 9, 2012.
As opposed to dividing a cheeseburger, I prefer to spin the comparison for not purchasing health insurance to Mesa’s seat-belt surtax.
Way, way back on January 1, 1991 Arizona’s legislature passed a seat belt law. The original law was classified as ‘secondary enforcement’, meaning that you could not be pulled over for not wearing a seat belt but you could be charged $5 if it was discovered that you were not strapped in after you were pulled over for another offense.
Today, not only does the city of Mesa announce that you will be pulled over for a seat-belt violation, but the city has added surtaxes that amount to more than $99.00 if you are pulled over for not wearing a seat-belt. The city likes to tell us that it is for our own good; read http://www.mesaaz.gov/police/MediaReleases/2012/BuckleUpArizona051612.aspx.
The Affordable Care Act is not as draconian as Mesa’s seat-belt enforcement!
Leon Ceniceros posted at 10:54 am on Mon, Jul 9, 2012.
"Little willie" as....'inadequate'...as usual.....lol.
Cerulean (what happened to your ..."American-Chicken Peace Footprint Icon".....it was ..........soooooooo you.
Bad example, "Chicken"...by the way.........only people in cars are affected by the "seat belt" laws....same goes for the "chopper rider's helmet law"......but.....OBAMA-CARE AFFECTS EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THE 313,000,000 MILLION AMERICANS WITH.........."TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION"...............oh, that's right.....LIBERAL-SOCIALIST-COMMIE WANNA BE, DEMOCRATS.....have never read the Constitution of the United States....the Communist Manefesto and China's Chairman Mao's "Little Red Book"....is their...............reading matter of choice.
Dale Whiting posted at 1:17 pm on Mon, Jul 9, 2012.
Amy,
Funny you would pick cheezeburgers. When I go to Sonic [they only have cheezeburgers] I have to tell them to hold the cheeze on my wife's and have to order chille-cheeze tater tots for myself. I can't have wheat.
But when I do go to Sonic, I don't have to pay extra for either tater tots or burgers because someone with out money got in line before me and could not pay. If you don't pay at the first window, your meal order is dropped.
Not so with healthcare. Hospitals have to charge more for emergency room services because they cannot turn patients needing emergency services away. And the definition of emergency services often means that relatively menial problems get addressed by much more expensive means.
No Amy, your example is way off base. Looks like it's back to the drawing board for you. The US healthcare system is second to none. It's the most expensive, least effective system in the modern world. We spend money on things ineffectively. The modern price/market based system just does not work as well in medicine as it does at Walmart. Where foreign governments have gotten involved in medical programs, costs have gone down and quality has gone up. And longevity has been improved.
Now, I think it's high time I had a chille-cheese with onions tater tot order. Care to joint me? I use catsup, too!
Abstract01 posted at 10:28 pm on Mon, Jul 9, 2012.
I am still trying to figure out when Japan took over China (land of the rising sun???)
wdgnas posted at 6:12 am on Tue, Jul 10, 2012.
dale, there is a another way to pay the doctors and hospitals. livestock (chickens) or produce from your garden...
sockratties posted at 1:40 pm on Tue, Jul 10, 2012.
Amy… Sticking with the cheeseburger concept our current high costs are based on two distinctly different things… both because of government (congressional) fumbling. One is that the hamburger joint has to serve at least a minimum burger to anyone who stops by and declares themselves hungry. Same as when someone stops by the ER with a medical problem. The other is because the government has declared how much they will pay for a burger and all the trimmings. This has inflated the cost of burgers the way Medicare removing the right of insurance (and individuals) to negotiate the best price for services and drugs has caused the price of medical care to quadruple in the past 15 years. China didn’t cook your burger or set your medical care costs. Your meddling congress did. Luckily the burger part is only an analogy. Unfortunately the medical part is real. Blame the U.S. Congress for the cost of medical care and while you’re at it, blame the lawyers, too for driving private practice doctors into HMOs and cooperative institutions.
The ONLY way to get the burger beggars out of our pocket is to make them pay in advance, just like at your burger joint. Since we don’t know when they’ll be hungry, we’ll ask them to pay in advance just in case they’re broke when they get hungry.
As for China, walk around your house and throw everything made in China in the trash. That will include everything electronic, most things plastic, all fabrics and most things used in the kitchen. Don’t forget more than half your car, too. You wanted low prices, you got low prices. You just didn’t pay enough for Americans to make your stuff. Now who do you blame for jobs moving to China?
Dale Whiting posted at 8:52 pm on Tue, Jul 10, 2012.
And, Amy
As I recall, it was Ronald Reagan who pressed for and signed into law the measure which makes hospital emergency rooms [your local burger joint] take in and treat [feed] all who are hungry. Now, do you blame both Reagon and Obama for our healthcare mess? You should!
The question is "What to do about this mess? Do we make marginal changes [Obamacare]? Do we start fresh [Ron Paul]? Or do we just complain [Amycare]?"
VofReason posted at 12:56 pm on Wed, Jul 11, 2012.
"Do we make marginal changes [Obamacare]?" I think Dale may be the only one who thinks that Obamacare is a marginal change. Maybe that is why he doesn't think it is a problem- like the other 70% of America.
Dale Whiting posted at 10:16 am on Thu, Jul 12, 2012.
"I think?" you say!
Care to give us your plan for making changes? Or is your thinking limited to casting stones?
sockratties posted at 6:22 pm on Sat, Jul 14, 2012.
Wdgnas… Good idea. Of course there are a few problems you have to solve. If you live in the city you will need some kind of special permit, perhaps a tag like a dog so a vet will have to give them their shots and send a form to the authorities. The vet will cost at least ten chickens. Then they will have to be inspected and certified before you can use them for barter. There will be a fee for that probably about 10 chickens per 100. When you go to the doctor you can negotiate how many chickens the visit costs. That’s usually about $60 to start with plus any other procedures. Chickens are about $5 each unless on sale so at this point you owe the doc a dozen chickens. If you need an X-ray you go to the X-ray specialist who never lets you get out of there for under a hundred bucks, so there’s another 20 birds. Now you go back to the doc who needs another 12 birds and finds you need a specialist because it’s all caused by an allergy. You go to the allergy specialist who needs 100 chickens up front just to run a battery of tests, the results of which will be sent to your primary doctor. When you meet with the doctor again you give him another dozen birds so you can find out that you’re allergic to chickens.
JayRay posted at 2:48 am on Tue, Oct 16, 2012.
That'sa great way to make your point[smile]