Quote:So we're agreed on most things. 10 week cut off. Getting back to affordable college. Healthcare for all.


We just disagree on the way to implement these things.


The college debt crisis was a result of the liberal mindset that everyone should go to college, along with the federal government backstopping student loans which meant that anyone could get a loan no matter what classes they attended and colleges could raise prices over and over since the payment was always in the distant future. Supply and demand worked here as well. Because of government interference the supply of college-bound teens increased a lot faster than the number of available seats.


Single payer health care in the US is a proven failure as seen by the VA scandal, but there are other ways to fix healthcare. We could eliminate insurance for all but the catastrophic illnesses, and let the free market decide the rates. We could save a huge amount of money just by not requiring prescriptions for most medicine.


Or we could use the abortionist model our <del>nine</del> eight rulers just mandated and allow anyone to practice medicine, no credentials necessary.

So first off, it's good to know that at least we can agree on the big picture stuff. Which I think most of us agree on the big picture stuff. What happens is we get caught up in this "Us" v. "Them" thing that it get's personal and attacks are made instead of talking about the policies.


As for the policies, when it comes to School costs, I've heard this theory that the increase in costs is because of "guaranteed" loans. IE student loans. I did some research on it, and while there is some merit to this arguement, it isn't the silver bullet the fixes the problem. The student tuition thing is a complex one. While I agree that curtailing loans is important, it's not a single solution thing. Other solutions are needed. If you are willing to look at other solutions, I'm willing to go along with curtailing student loans and access to them. (This could be a whole other thread)


As for single payer... Bear in mind, that VA isn't single payer, it's more Socialized medicine--- The difference being that the government is implementing the program. Single payer would allow for the private industry to deliver/administer the healthcare, but the Government is the Single or only payer for the entire population. Medicare is single payer. I'm not on Medicare, but my dad is. He seems to be doing pretty good.


I think single payer medicare would be something that we could slowly move towards, it allows the private sector to maintain some administrative control, but the government (we the people) is a powerful enough entity that none of us will get bilked. It's worked for seniors, why can't it work for the entire nation? (also a whole other thread)


So that's that... I think, these are issues that republicans and democrats can still work on... I think Repbulicans and Democrats could probably also figure out the whole 8/10 week cut-off thing too... The "life begins at conception" crowd I think is a small minority of the republican party. Most conservatives I think are more sensible than that. I could be wrong, but I think it's only the "Religious Right" that are trying to speak for the entire GOP with that arguement. And, as we've seen the religious right isn't as powerful a faction as it was once believed to be within the GOP.

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