Simply Because It Needs To Be In Your Face

From the previous discussion:

Andy Hammond: 

The government's job is to defend and protect us. That is what the military is for and I have no problem at with my taxes going towards our defense.

Andy Hammond (forced into being even remotely consistent): 

Government control of our military will drastically reduce the quality of our defense. Government is inefficient and wasteful.

Gosh, I couldn't agree with that sentiment more, Andy.

Comments

[Andy B. Hammond - The Deeply Stupid]

I have never said that the government should be eliminated. It is absolutely necessary to have a government. It just needs to be limited as spelled out in our Constitution.

There are things the government does do well - Military, interstate highway system, USPS, law enforcement, to name a few.

I just think it's not the government's place to provide health insurance - yes, Wulfgar, I know it does already but I'm against Universal Health Care.

Why are considered compassionate if you demand that government impose your preferences on others? - Talking point from John Stossel

[Matt Singer]

Good title, Andy. So is the government good or bad at national defense?

And why is it good at highways and law enforcement but bad at health insurance? Why is imposing defense and highways good, but imposing health insurance bad?

This is why libertarianism is a bit of a laugh. People scream bloody murder about the government being a) incompetent and b) immoral, but then allow exceptions with no theoretical underpinnings of what actually philosophically (the morals) and economically (the effectiveness) differentiates these exceptions from the bulk of government that they rabidly hate.

Where's the beef?

[The US Constitution is a child's fiction]

So, Matt, why doesn't the government run everything?

[Andy B. Hammond - Boy Geneous]

Read this as a classic example of how government run Universal Health Care works in Massachusetts. This is why I won't support Mit Romney.

Why do Canadians come to the US for important medical tests?

I don't see Americans flocking to Canada or Cuba for their health care (yes I know Americans can't because they aren't citizens of these countries) but I see Canadians and especially Cubans risking their lives to come to the US. If Cuba is such a paradise with it's great health care among other things, why do thousands of it's citizens defect to the US?

I also pose this question. Where do the vast majority of important medical breakthroughs come from? Countries with Universal Health Care or the US?

[moorcat]

Not to rain on Andy's parade (well, yes, it is to rain on his parade...), but the Government run health care system is the most efficent health care system available. To give you some examples (yes, I am aware that these numbers are four years old...)

Administrative overhead for -

Blue Cross/Blue Shield - 22%
Permahealth - 23.5%
The national average for local HMOs - 26%

and...

Medicare/Medicade - 4%

So, tell me please, why is the government "bad" at health care?

[drylander]

so Gotcha,lets get circular... why do we even have a government?

[The US Constitution is a child's fiction]

“Why do we even have a government?”

So the unemployment rate won’t hit 25 percent? So people who can’t manage their own lives can try managing other people’s lives instead? I don’t know. What’s your guess? You seem to know everything.

[Wulfgar]

I'll take a real easy stab at that, Gotcha:

The Government exists "in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice and ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty, to ourselves and our posterity". Does that sound about right?

[drylander]

Nice... so we should give Anarchy a try, huh Gotcha?

I don't know everything, but it was more fun to see your luke warm IQ inspired drivel come out.
Actually, this will be fun. Please try not to remind yourself how your government has positively effected your life this weekend. The roads you drive, the internet you have, the freedoms you enjoy... the food you can eat knowing it won't kill you.

I know I know! How silly of me to point out those good things - well, heck if you don't like it I hear there's a place called Iraq with a government that's barely functioning. You should try living there, it might be more comfortable for you.

OR, just buy some land in Eastern MT. Why not start your own non-government there? I hear it's never been tried ;)

[The US Constitution is a child's fiction]

Ah go on, Wulfgar. That stuff was written before the Civil War. Besides, this is not even the same country anymore. We’re an empire now. The Constitution is only for the entertainment of little children.

Drylander— Stop cribbing junk from other liberal sites. This is a CREATIVE liberal site.

[Wulfgar]

There, Troll. You have your answer.

[The US Constitution is a child's fiction]

Don't be chewing on those Crayons now, little Wulfgar

[Shane C. Mason]

I also pose this question. Where do the vast majority of important medical breakthroughs come from? Countries with Universal Health Care or the US?

I'll tell you EXACTLY where they come from Andy: NIH and DARPA funded research. The difference here is that they are allowed to take those government funded research breakthroughs and sell them to the American people at 5x the cost they sell them for overseas.

[The US Constitution is a child's fiction]

That was brilliant, Shane. You just gave the best possible argument for keeping government out of medicine.