The Tea Party keynote speaker Angela McGlowan states that we should elect individuals who are great motivational speakers. George Bush was one of the best and look what he left us. Two wars, if you put them back to back, it would be a total of 16 years. The cost of these wars would have paid for the health care bill several times over.
Bush also left us with a recession/depression, that has wiped out several pension funds and people”s life savings. Standard and Poor”s states that this past decade was the worst ever for investors, including the ”30s. The Republicans were in office on both occasions. All three of these were left for someone else to solve.
When George Bush ran for president the first time, Ralph Nader said he was a corporation running for president. Corporate greed was the cause of our financial collapse. From the lessons we have learned from the past, it would be better to pay less attention to what a politician is saying and put more emphasis on what they are doing.
Dr. Ley (Phillip Ley, a Jackson oncologist who spoke, ed.), on health care reform, uses the word criticism or criticize four times in one paragraph. He criticized President Obama for not being more transparent. They were not being transparent at the meeting themselves because of written questions instead of people being selected at random by show of hands. With the written questions, they could choose the ones that suited them. But it was a little different when Nikita Gandy spoke out of turn to ask Gregg Harper if he would accept the same health care as the rest of the country. McGlowan told Gandy to submit the question in writing. She did, but it was never delivered to the panel.
Dr. Ley agreed the country”s health care system is flawed, but suggested allowing citizens to cross state lines to seek treatment or promoting health savings accounts rather than passing the current bill. The 40 million this bill is designed to cover can”t afford to pay for treatment anywhere, much less to buy gas, pay for meals, and possibly lodging expenses to cross state lines. I doubt that treatment in Alabama or Arkansas or Louisiana or Tennessee would be any cheaper. It makes no sense to me. And for health savings account that he recommends, it would be good if he would explain how it works. Maybe it is like if you get sick, don”t go to a doctor, the government will send you a check.
James E. Hodges, Steens
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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