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Originally Posted by revstriker
I don't think you have to rely on any assumptions to understand Obama's position. He has already indicated that he thinks certain people get paid too much. He's on record multiple times saying exactly that. He has proposed moderating that through regulation and taxes.
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Find that record of quotes, and post up the proposed regulation and taxes to fix what people are being paid. Sounds like it shouldn't be too hard.
Quote:
Originally Posted by revstriker
I don't disagree about the costs of healthcare. But the answer is not having the government come in for the rescue. They have already had a negative effect on healthcare costs, and will most likely have a negative effect on overall healthcare.
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I'm in healthcare. I understand the industry pretty well. It's one of the most challenging to do business in for a variety of unique reasons, and regulation is never going to be too far away from making it work. Mixing profit motives with activities where people die when things aren't done well, coupled with the inherent conflicts between payers, payees, and the consumers of healthcare, well, it's complicated. It's so far removed from any simple "I build something at x price and sell it at y, and the market will decide my success", that government is always going to be involved. There are any number of business models to try and flip the profit motive to improve the cost and quality motives (one example is
accountable care organizations, another is the growth of
Health Insurance Exchanges). None of these can or will exist without government regulation spelling out how these can and should work.
Quote:
Originally Posted by revstriker
Yes. It also doesn't really have anything to do with CSDP. I agree with Gates that the burden of European security needs to be transferred more to the Europeans. There was already a plan in place under NATO to achieve that goal. The CSDP is designed to replace NATO, and at the same time, limit US influence in Europe. Even former Sec. of State Madeleine Albright (and I'm certainly not a fan of hers) sees this as a bad deal for the US, warning that it would discriminate against non-EU members of NATO.
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You're dragging up 9 year old quotes from Albright to support a position that at this point in time is out of date.
Quote:
Originally Posted by revstriker
But aside from the CSDP, I believe, as many do, that the United States is viewed as a much weaker nation than it was prior to Obama taking office. His tour of apologies, his bowing down to other nation's leaders, these and other things have helped weaken the image of the US, and has hurt US interests.
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This is a farce. How America is viewed from the outside was more profoundly changed during the prior administration's, let's say "challenges", with dealing with the world, than any other portion of modern times. It would be interesting to try and list what a leader of this country could have in fact done taking over from GWB to further lower our image and standing. And no, Obama wasn't able to thread that needle.