Newspaper columnists often seem to get to write what they want. So it’s interesting when two of them are writing about the same thing on the same day—and arriving at the opposite conclusion.
In the Washington Post (3/23/12) , conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote this about the Affordable Care Act’s costs, as tallied by the Congressional Budget Office:
Obamacare was carefully constructed to manipulate the standard 10-year cost projections of the CBO. Because benefits would not fully kick in for four years, President Obama could trumpet 10-year gross costs of less than $1 trillion—$938 billion to be exact.
But now that the near-costless years 2010 and 2011 have elapsed, the true 10-year price tag comes into focus. From 2013 through 2022, the CBO reports, the costs of Obamacare come to $1.76 trillion—almost twice the phony original number.
Wow—double.
But in the New York Times (3/23/12), Paul Krugman writes about
the way right-wing media create an alternate reality. For example, did you hear about how the cost of Obamacare just doubled? It didn’t, but millions of Fox-viewers and Rush-listeners believe that it did.
Krugman didn’t delve into the details on this one. In his defense, he was attempting in the space of one column to debunk an array of right-wing misinformation, so he had serious word-count constraints.
So did the price tag for the health law just double? As Factcheck.org puts it:
The law’s costs haven’t doubled, and CBO didn’t say they did. That claim results from an inappropriate apples-to-grapefruit comparison. The original gross cost estimate—at $938 billion over 10 years—was for 2010–2019. CBO’s latest $1.76 billion estimate is for 11 years, ending in 2022.
So Krauthammer—and others on the right—are comparing two entirely different time periods. What’s the real increase in costs associated with the health law? A little under 9 percent. Which is a lot less than double.
Even more important: The estimated net cost of the law—which factors in various penalties and cost-savings measures—has actually dropped slightly, according to the very same CBO report Krauthammer is using to tout a doubling of healthcare costs.
Krugman warned that “millions of Fox-viewers and Rush-listeners” were being misinformed on this topic. So are readers of the Washington Post, and all the other papers that will carry Krauthammer’s column.
Well, ain’t that nice? Here we have conservatives and their alleged opponents disagreeing over the real cost of PPACA, a.k.a. Obamacare. The truth is that neither side is right in the long run. The Obamacare solution will cost more — whether 9% or double, or any other statistic you can conjure up — than a simple, single-payer system.
The truth is, toward the end of the time periods (really, either one, pick the latter for instance), if PPACA is still in force at that time, the costs will be higher AND, more importantly, health outcomes will NOT be better, and there will still be millions upon millions of people without access to health care (“access” meaning affordability).
Check the facts out at PNHP.org — those folks have been looking into this matter for 40+ years now. Krugman? I like Krugman. Krauthhammer? Send him to the Moon with Gingrich. But it makes no difference what either of them have to say in defense of or in opposition to the health law. It is simply not the right solution.
I’m sympathetic to the view that Fox and Krauthammer distort realities, but the explanation offered here is incoherent. Apparently there is a huge “net cost” effect that is not explained. Let’s hear it.
Single-payer systems across the world have proven time and again to run cheaper, more efficiently and more effectively than *ANY* commercial-based system, but the Right-Wing Noise Machine desperately tries to obfuscate that fact for the sake of their Health-Scam-Profiteer Masters.
Nicely put, McBob. There are those that do not want an open, honest, discourse.
McBob: While I agree single-payer systems are almost universally better, I know of one exception. Holland privatized it’s national system a few years ago and it has been very successful. The reasons are that insurers must be honest about their programs and they have to compete for consumer dollars. Competition has improved the system for the betterment of the country.
No anonymous campaign donations, no monopolies, and no regulatory capture. Not like here at all.
Media has such power to influence populations. This is an example of how vital it is to state facts that are honest and well researched.
From your Factcheck quote “The original gross cost estimate”“at $938 billion over 10 years”“was for 2010-2019. CBO’s latest $1.76 billion estimate is for 11 years, ending in 2022.” (The $1.76 billion should be $1.76 trillion.) After this, you say that this is only a 9% increase, because of the different time periods. But 938/10=93.8 and 1760/11=160, which is a 70% increase. So I don’t understand where you got the 9%.
Well read it anyway you want the CBO report is clear.Obama care will not cost what we were told it would.Any misreading of the report that it is actually good news for Obama lunacy.And have you noticed what is inside the (Universal Healthcare)plan sounds worse and worse the more you delve into it.Nancy Ps statement that”you will have to pass it -to find out what is in it”was the best line I ever, heard or could imagine for a this mess. Dem’s in motion Baby.Trying to shove their swill down the throat of people before they even get to see it.
Bottom line is most Americans want it repealed.The next election will see a massive sweep of Democrats out of the Senate.A landslide in fact.That alone will put the death stamp on this .Even if somehow Obam pulls it off.If Romni wins(and I believe it is his to loose)It will be no more than an hour after he is sworn in that a stake will be driven into the heart of this socialist monstrosity.Good riddance.
Ps Lots of folks here are trumpeting single payer systems the world over.Well belly up to the bar and tell us the ones you especially love.Notice even Obama has serious qualms about saying that.Anyway prepare to defend your choices.Europe of course is running as fast as they can away from that cliff.But im sure you will illuminate me as to countries Ive missed.
“Obamacare was carefully constructed to manipulate the standard 10-year cost projections of the CBO.”
Woe, Moe! He probably had them with that fancy line of cacadooddle. he he he…
Having said that and while we’re on the topic of Obamacare, Ford knows I ain’t no Right Winger but I’m also not an Obamabot and for the life of me, I still can’t understand (nor can anyone explain it to me), how penalizing people who don’t have sick care insurance because they simply can’t afford it to begin with is going to do anything for anyone or fix the problem. I think that it’s time that POS purpurting to be “healthcare reform” is called what it is: the biggest sell out to the insurance industry in the history of mankind.
Poor michael-e, forgot to take his meds again today. Must be nice to live in a bubble in which you think that “The next election will see a massive sweep of Democrats out of the Senate.” just because he wants it and wishes it. Apparently, poor Michael hasn’t noticed how Republicans all over the place are not just being voted out but being RECALLED. Again, must be nice to be deaf, dumb and blind.
I am with you MK Ultra on the bit of Michele. The man has zero clue to real life. I guess it shows what happens when you only listen to Fux Snooze without any serious contemplation of the verbal trash that is spewed.
Unless I mistaken about the ‘penalizing’ it was not to penalize ‘people’ but to force the corporations that were refusing to provide any medical benefits to the common workers (Of course the Corporate Officers always got the best they could steal) because it cut into their precious “Profit Margin” and instead of getting several billion in obscene profits, they would only make a couple of billion. But with the requirement that “all people will have it”, then you can’t make the corporations pay up, because they can rightly say “It’s not mandatory”.
As always, the mono-winged parrots of Fux Snooze are about making sure it is impossible to have a fair and balanced discussion. They are willing to lie, obfuscate, and otherwise make sure the only voices heard are the ones they want to you to hear.
factcheck.org
Republican comments and news reports are saying that a new Congressional Budget Office report had found that the federal health care law would cost double the original estimate. But that’s not what CBO’s report said. Instead, the report shows that the gross yearly costs of the new health care law are likely to be 8.6 percent higher than originally estimated.
Let’s start with the truth. In a March 13 report, the CBO gave updated estimates for the cost of insurance coverage provisions of the law for the 2012-2021 period. It said the gross cost — not including revenue measures — would be slightly higher than it had estimated a year earlier, in March 2011. The latest estimate puts the cost at $1.496 trillion over that decade, up by about $50 billion, which is a 3.5 percent increase.
The latest estimate of year-by-year costs is also higher than what was originally estimated two years ago, when the bill was enacted. The latest estimate covers only eight of the years (2012 through 2019) that are in the original estimate. The total “gross” costs of that eight-year period are now estimated to be just over $1 trillion, or about 8.6 percent higher than originally projected.
But the CBO also projects that much of the new spending will be offset by penalties paid by employers who choose not to provide coverage to their workers, by penalties paid by individuals who opt not to obtain coverage, by taxing high-cost health plans and by other effects of the law’s coverage provisions.
After accounting for these offsets, the “net” cost of the coverage provisions are now expected to be somewhat lower than projected two years ago. Comparing the eight years that are common to both estimates, the net cost is now predicted to be $772 billion, or about half a percent lower than originally estimated.
It would be fair to say that CBO now estimates that the law is going to be more expensive than originally thought — about 9 percent. It has always been fair to say that the original $938 billion projection only covered the 10 years after enactment (the usual convention for such cost projections) and not the 10 years after the law becomes fully effective. But the notion that the new CBO report shows costs doubling is wrong.
“Bottom line is most Americans want it repealed.”
not quite
Quinnipiac University Poll 2/14-20/12
52% percent said “should repeal it.”Â
39% percent said “should let it stand.”Â
10% “don’t know/no answer”
———
Gallup Poll 2/ 20-21/12
26% “strongly favor repeal.”Â
21% “favor repeal.”Â
24% “oppose repeal.”Â
20% “strongly oppose repeal.”Â
9% “no opinion/don’t know”
———–
Bloomberg Poll 3/8 – 3/11/12
37% agreed with the statement, “It should be repealed.”Â
46% agreed, “It may need small modifications, but we should see how it works.”Â
11% percent said, “It should be left alone.”Â
6% were not sure.
———–
Pew 3/14/12
47% approve of the law, while 45% disapprove. The 47% approval represents an uptick in support since January 2011 (41% approve vs. 48% disapprove). Since the bill became law on March 23, 2010, disapproval of the legislation has been fairly steady, ranging from 44% in April 2010 to 48% in January 2011. Approval has shown somewhat more movement, from a low of 35% in July 2010, to a high of 47% in the current survey.
An addition to that Pew poll
“What should congress do with the Health Care law?”
33% “expand it”
20% “leave it as is”
38% “repeal it”
9% “don’t know”
“The next election will see a massive sweep of Democrats out of the Senate.A landslide in fact.”
According to Larry Sabato, control of the Senate will come down to 8 races:
MT, NM, FL, MA, MO, WI, VA, NV.
He adds “We suspect the contest to control the Senate will stay close for the rest of the campaign year.”
http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/tilting-the-toss-ups-the-eight-races-that-will-decide-the-senate/
I love to make Dems squeal by laying it out there.Read Dick Morris state by state breakdown of the up coming senate races and start to weep weep weep.I said you would loose the Congress and I was mocked as out of my mind.Not one apology.Nothing.I will say it again.Three things…..You will loose the Senate.You will loose the presidency.You will loose this healthcare insanity.Write it down.Remember it.Hold me to it.And apologize this time when I am proven right.
Dick Morris? The toe-suckin’, barely-breathing, Fox sycophant and liar? You keep readin’ him, troll. Thanks for the info, Mr. Ness.
Good God. Do the conservatives believe that the only good health care plan is the pay go plan that India has? Read TR Reid if you want to be enlightened on that one.
(Cheap in India – expensive here – it’s all relative) The Canadian model really does work and we should adopt it in maybe a modified form. No one should be denied health care – ever.
The problem with all the surveys is that they ask the wrong questions and the people are currently so confused about what is actually in the health care plan that the answers are meaningless. Their information comes from too many confused sources and few have bothered to read the act itself. I know a lot of parents who are relieved to have their student offspring still covered by the family plan. I know a lot of single or otherwise non-group covered people who decry the enormous cost for major medical covereage, but pay over $1,000 per month in premiums for the priviledge as well as enormous co-pays and deductibles. Krauthammer is a sophist and an ideologue. I rest my case.
Elizabeth.Im in healthcare.No one is denied .Walk into any hospital emergency room.If this goes through you will see a massive loss of your rights as a patient.I don’t want the government dictating anything as to how when and why a doctor treats/sees his patient.Once you give gov ultimate power- they use it love.Abortion may be available under one admin, and not under the next.Once they have destroyed private insurance and corralled doctors what is left to stop them dictating your healthcare?
Tim do you notice that anyone-and I do mean anyone that is not in line with liberal talking points is painted as an idiot by the left?
Oh, michael e. You work in health care? I have questions!
I just read today that Mr. Cheney had a heart transplant and as he is a senior citizen, I have a question. If Mr. Chreney hadn’t been vp for 8 years, and was a typical American worker, I am wondering how far Mr. Cheney’s heart operation would have gotten with Mr. Ryan’s idea of that $8000.00 a year voucher.
Since you are in health care, what does $8000 get a person? How far into his operation would 8 grand take him? Would he still be filling out the paperwork; would he be finished with all the tests, would he have gotten to the surgery room with 8 grand? How much of the drugs needed for life ( re heart transplants) would be paid for with that voucher plan?
I am really serious about this and I hope you give a serious response. I would like to see the supporters of this voucher thingy try it out first, because why pass a voucher law if it could kill a lot of people? I think looking at the 71 year old Cheney’s operation would be a good way to explain costs and how this voucher idea could be a very creepy and sick idea.
Some people already suggested that Cheney was too old, which of course also brings up the question of too young; if there’s an old age cut off, then there must be a too young cutoff, or are we as a society just going to reserve health care for a certain age and income level?
Well Gloriana the way this works is this.He was on a list for several years.Healthcare the way it is now, or the way it would be under Obama care is the one industry that has no relation to anyones ability to pay.Hopefully some day we can adjust costs so that the majority of healthcare is reasonably priced.Of course a heart transplant is …..
Ryans Voucher system would not come into play at all in this case.We can talk all day about how to bring cost down.But an operation of this sort is a horse of a different color.No one relatively speaking can afford it.Yet they are done everyday.To rich and poor alike.Under Ryan i see no change to that.Under Obama care I could foresee that in the future The Vp would be seen as too old.Obama said as much.He was asked by a woman if her 100 year old(now 104)grandmother could get pacemaker.Obama said she may have to simply take a pain pill.That decision should be up to me as her doctor and me alone if i was her doctor.The government can not determine that.And should not.
Thank you michael e, but…..if no one can afford it now, ( i.e. a heart transplant)then what does that mean?
I know that Congress is under a different health plan than most of the nation, but what Mr. Ryan is proposing, is only a voucher for $8000.00. What would a patient be able to buy for that 8 grand, and would the BK courts be able to handle all the people that had no access to more money to pay for it. It seems a strange time, with all of the unemployment and rise in food stamps to start cutting health care money.
Does this mean that after the $8000.00 voucher is used up in one year, that the patient would pay the remainder, and what is the cost of Mr. Cheney’s heart transplant? What costs the most? is it the surgeon’s time, the use of the hospital space, the salaries of the team, the cost of the medical device, or the cost of the transplant drugs? Could the average American be able to have this operation at all, if some people had no access to any health care, as it stands now? Can people now actually go into an ER, find out that they need a heart transplant, and get one? Or, is it really coming now to income? WHY does health care cost so much?
Do people in Congress have a lifetime cap too? I saw a video on a little boy who has hemophlia and he reached his lifetime cap at 7 years old; so age doesn’t seem to be a factor, although I know heath care companies seem to want to know about pre-existing conditions, but isn’t LIFE, itself a pre-exisiting condition? No single person knows what will become of himself from one day to the next.
If lifetime caps apply for some citizens, but not for others, ( i.e. John Doe that worked as a car mechanic all his life as compared to a Mr. Cheney who worked for Mr. Cheney all his life : ) …how is that different than saying that a human life is worth so much, and when the money is gone, so is the patient?
I am also concerned when I hear Congress wanting to cut health care service for the soldiers in the military. Wouldn’t it be better to take more money from the military contractors and put it back to the citizens of the country, and especially those that go overseas for whatever military action, and then come back with broken bodies and broken minds?
Because of these questions, I do see a need for national insurance for all, where in Canada’s case , it does seem to be able to even out the cost and still give good care.
The problem being, that if costs make health insurance too expensive for most, then there would be fewer doctors and hospitals needed because so many could not afford to pay for anything. Should a pandemic strike, then even those with excellent health care coverage are not immune. Reading about the plagues in the Middle Ages, the plague seemed to hit all classes of people. It does seem to me that health care for all should be factored under National Security, because pandemics are not a respector of class nor of income.
It also seems to me that unless all are given equal access to the same health care, then all the people of a nation are at risk. The current health X factor that keeps civilizations afloat…or not, seems to be a very nebulous thing.
Thank you for any extra input.
@Tim N
I checked out the Morris piece and it’s shallow and sloppy. ÂThe obvious tell: in all but one race Morris Âonly cites one pollster…and no gold star for guessing that it’s Rasmussen.
Writing about Florida, for example, Morris cites a Rasmussen poll from March that has Mack-(R) up 7, all the other polls, from January, have Nelson-(D) leading.
In Wisconsin, Rasmussen has Thompson-(R) up 14, PPP has Baldwin-(D) up 1. ÂThere’s no way to handicap a race with any confidence where the polls are so divergent.
Morris is also “assuming they [the GOP] hold onto seats in Nevada, Massachusetts, and Maine.” That’s far from a sure thing, they could just as easily lose all three of those races.
But my favorite parts were these:
“Michigan. In my own poll of February 15, 2012, Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow was clinging to a narrow 46-43 lead over former Republican Congressman Pete Hoekstra.”
Unfortunately for Morris, two real pollsters, PPP and Marist surveyed that race in the same time frame… and they had Stabenow up 14 and 21 points respectively. Not surprisingly, Morris didn’t tell his readers about those.
This is the best part:
“Ohio. Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, the most liberal member of that body, is trailing conservative Republican Josh Mandel by 44-40 in Rasmussen’s February 8, 2012 poll. Any incumbent Senator who can only amass 40% of the vote needs to look for a new job.”
Two problems.
Morris again ignorned a concurrent poll, from Quinnipiac, that had Brown up 13, and that the Rasmussen poll had BROWN up over Mandel 44-40.
Yes, that’s right…Morris got the result of the poll he was citing backwards.
This isn’t political anazyisis, it’s partisan hackerey; solely designed to fool low information rubes that read conservative media.
Gloriana what i was saying is that no one could ever afford it.Or ever will be able to afford it.We don’t give people necessary radical expensive life sustaining healthcare now based on anyones ability to pay.That will not change under Ryans plan.Or under Obama care per say.I see more and more of these procedures happening in the future under any plan.Under Obama care rationing would someday come into it,but would be fought tooth and nail.I think trying to frame this as under Ryans plan only 8 grand is covered is misreading his plan.Their are catastrophic clauses as in any health care plan.Who pays for that?We all do
michael e.:
I’m not sure about what we have as health care now! Isn’t health care already being rationed? I read stories of people where the state just cuts people off. I see news about free health and dental care offerings and thousands of people show up.
I read about parents who distain childhood immunizations and put whole commmunities at risk. I think people aren’t aware of how many children used to die from diseases that we don’t think about much anymore, and these childhood diseases seem to be coming back!
I just read that drug resistant TB is thriving in India. People can’t afford the drugs or have no access to them, or even worse, counterfit drugs are being sold , even in this country.
I also read that in India, since Bayer’s patent is expiring, that India is making a drug for $250.00, although Bayer charges $5600.00. Who could afford that?
WHY do drugs cost so much? I am very concerned that many drug makers are no longer interested in making certain vacines because they aren’t money makers!
Add to that, what some in congress are promoting, such as a doctor or a pharmacist, being able to take a personal and individual moral stance re: lying to patients or even refusing drugs based on that person’s personal philosophy as to whether they agree ( for example in women’s health .) WHAT has happened to “Prinum non nocare,” ( First do no harm)?
I do believe that heath care is a universal right, and because this nation has had good health care for so long, many, including some elected officials, think that is still the case. The idea of cost is overriding sanity when balancing a budget( and when was that ever balanced ?) becomes more important than a healthy population. As it stands now, sick peole go to work because they are paid hourly or have no health insurance at all! That puts ALL people at risk for so much. What kind of a nation does that?
Once again, I do have to say that keeping a healthy nation is a national security issue. People keep forgetting that germs and disease are better organized, adapt more quickly, work for” their” common cause, and are much smarter than we humans are. : )
Gloriana I see so many things wrong with our healthcare system -that it is hard to begin.I think my argument is simply that obamas plan stinks.Single payer stinks.We can do better, and I think we will.It will be based on market principles of competition.
Lasic eye’s early work refused insurance.People screamed it was against the poor.Soon massive competition begat a price war.Now it is far far cheaper.Insurance coverage would of made the price 3X what it is today.Some things simply don’t work.Paper money falling from trees (Insurance) makes all cost spiral upward.And healthcare becomes what it is.The only industry without any reality to cost and “patient abilities to pay reality”.You say health care is a right.Be specific.What healthcare?To what extent?And how do we pay for it?And please don’t say the rich can pay for it.You know those jerks who already bay 87% of all taxes.There is not enough money in the pot.Not if they pay 99% of all taxes.
Oh Im sorry I forgot the pharm companies and cost of drugs.Well again open it to competition.Real competition.They will have to hold on to their asses with both hands.Stop their monopoly over night.End the governments collusion with keeping them in business.The governments hand is deep in their pocket.And visa versa.Sink or swim.Allow worldwide competition.And get government and Insurance companies out of the Doctor patient relationship as much as possible.
Thank you for that about big pharma, but, I am concerned about worldwide competition in one way, which is the environmental system in which drugs are made. Is it possible to make a drug without water? I was a little amazed that the State Dept. just figured out that the war after oil, will be the water war.
I also am concerned about countries that don’t have an FDA, even though ours seems kind of fey and useless, at times. : )
China, makes me nervous with its past history of antifreeze in toothpaste, mold growing in housing materials and that tainted killer milk is another. I have read that China might be making those vaccines that the drug companies here won’t make because the profit margin is too small. If water is reflective of its environment, then shouldn’t those drugs be labled as country of origination too? If someone decides that Haiti is a good low wage market, would we have cholera in medications? Does what starts in the water stay in the water? I also can’t understand why drug companies have so much power, because health care is a universal right! WHY, do I think that? I agree with Emerson, ” Give me health and a day and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous.”
How do we pay for this? The best way I can think of is to cut Bush’s tax relief for the rich, because if trickle down was going to work, it would have trickled by now! I would also like the GAO to be able to see where the military money goes, because the military doesn’t seem to keep records. I would like to see the military account for the money they have before they get any more. There really is a lot of money available for the People , although the military has seemed to have morphed into that “untouchable third rail” which used to belong to the citizens.
This does seem to come down to a question of money, and lack of motivation on the part of lawmakers. Any nation can survive a lot of man made or natural disasters, but when a great majority of a
nation is left without any health access, then it does seem like a judgment is being made that money= human life. People say that an army moves on its stomach, but I really think that all societies move and survive with health care for all. The Pandemic of 1918 certainly shows that, even back then, we were one big global village, and with people traveling all over, and bringing contraband in pets, plants, viruses, and disease, then that is the reason that a society must protect all its members. So, regarding national health care, I think that”United we stand , divided we fall,” is the best way to sum up why a nation needs to have health care for all. : )
Well ……….Cutting the tax cuts will hurt business,and the overall financial picture(even Obama seems to see that).It WILL NOT pay for this healthcare.The mechanism of funding is the clause that EVERYONE must buy healthcare.Even at that, the funding is illusionary(as well as unconstitutional).We will print money and borrow money.Ration and restrict.Nothing will be enough.The plan is the classic liberal axium that the road to hell is paved with Liberal good intentions.As far as taking it from the military and the growing power of China -well there is a connected conundrum.China is increasing its military expenditures exponentially.Building a massive nuclear sub fleet for attack and blockade.They are building aircraft carriers and challenging the Pacific as a US pond.Payed for….BY US!!Now Obama is preparing to eviscerate our military, and nuclear missile strike capability.Leaving us with 300 missiles(down from a pre Reagan era high of 20 thousand….Russia with 1500 and China about 400.This cutting our protective shield to pay for new massive unconstitutional social entitlement programs might be a dangerous move at this time.And your idea for a dream of healthcare for all ignores what has happened to our society…especially our Afro American society’s in regards to these entitlement programs.Massive fraud.A plantation society.A user mentality.Everyone on the doll to the “masser”.Take care of us oh great government.Over 50% are now receiving gov assistance.!100% is not the goal gloriana.It is the nightmare.
Well ……….Cutting the tax cuts will hurt business,and the overall financial picture(even Obama seems to see that).It WILL NOT pay for this healthcare.The mechanism of funding is the clause that EVERYONE must buy healthcare.Even at that, the funding is illusionary(as well as unconstitutional).We will print money and borrow money.Ration and restrict.Nothing will be enough.The plan is the classic liberal axium that the road to hell is paved with Liberal good intentions.As far as taking it from the military and the growing power of China -well there is a connected conundrum.China is increasing its military expenditures exponentially.Building a massive nuclear sub fleet for attack and blockade.They are building aircraft carriers and challenging the Pacific as a US pond.Payed for….BY US!!Now Obama is preparing to eviscerate our military, and nuclear missile strike capability.Leaving us with 300 missiles(down from a pre Reagan era high of 20 thousand….Russia with 1500 and China about 400.This cutting our protective shield to pay for new massive unconstitutional social entitlement programs might be a dangerous move at this time.And your idea for a dream of healthcare for all ignores what has happened to our society…especially our Afro American society’s in regards to these entitlement programs.Massive fraud.A plantation society.A user mentality.Everyone on the doll to the “masser”.Take care of us oh great government.Over 50% are now receiving gov. assistance.!100% is not the goal gloriana.It is the nightmare.