2004 Presidential Election Issues

This should probably bring about some interesting discussion. Please vote in the poll and feel free to discuss below.

The war on terror is the only issue.

The economy can wait.
Health care reform can wait.
The environment can wait.
A World Series ring for the Sox can wait (and it will)
We can not solve any of our domestice problems if we don't destroy our enemies first.

p.s. The Viet Nam War ia OLD NEWS, people. Let's get back to reality.

Agreed!

I think there are too many "chiefs" too. My system has several "quasi" administrators that they fought very hard to keep, yet the music teacher is only there for 1 period a day (grades 8-12) and the 8th grade students do not have access to a music program (they also do not have access to an art or foreign language program. These positions have been "cut" from their program due to budjet issues. The Math Coach, Literacy Specialist, Behavior Specialist, etc. all of whom do not work directly with student, were maintained. The Behacior Specialist's office is next to my room...I always see her just sitting in her room (on the computer many times) when I am in the hall to monitor transitions between periods. There is one student with a severe behavior in 8th grade (I work with 8th grade) but she has not consulted on him once.

Too many chiefs!

Jim W said:

The war on terror is the only issue.
The economy can wait.
Health care reform can wait.
The environment can wait.
.

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There all important and the war on terror is here to stay.

Also energy research technology is a separate issue from the environment. I agree in this election the enrionment is not as important as other issues.

For the most part corporations do not pay taxes, hard working Americans pay taxes. The more outsourcing of jobs the less money Washington has to pay for war against terrorism. The less money Washington has the more the national deficit, which federal government loans itself from the Social Security reserve that will probably run out sometime in the next 30 years when the baby boomers retire. A healthy economy and good health care system makes for a STRONG United States of America. An America that has a HUGE dependency on foreign OIL is not a STRONG America. World OIL reserves will NOT last forever. An excellent education system can not wait because we don’t want to graduate children over the next 10 years that can not compete with other countries.

Health care can not wait. Example, the National Guardsman now fighting in Iraq receives a letter from his wife that their 2 year old child is very sick. The problem is National Guardsman don’t have health care for their families. So here is a letter from his wife asking what should she do when their child needs extremely expensive medical help and they don’t have any medical insurance. Do we really think the Guardsman is going to be able to be 100% affective in the fight on terror in Iraq. Why hasn’t the president taken action and supported the Democrats that are trying to make America strong by getting Guardsman health care?

This is not about Democrats versus Republicans. The Democrats are not the enemy and the Republican are not the enemy.

This is about America being strong and working together. This is about choices and how to solve important issues facing America. The question is does Bush have the better answers or does Kerry have the better answers?

I agree this is not about what happen 30 years ago.

Need to add the War in Iraq. It has no direct connection to the War on Terrorism.

I'm the loner that voted "OTHER". I think whoever is in office the next term has to really look at increasing military funding back to where it was during the Reagan years. Sure it was excessive and mnay thought it was not necessary, but all of the cuts during the Clinton admin. has left us with lack of manpower in Iraq. I'm not going to get into the right/wrong of fighting on two fronts or even the Iraq war, but I think we would have been better prepared and better staffed to fight two wars had our military muscle not been trimmed so much.

Byond that I would say healthcare and the war on terror.

uphillklimber said:

I think the healthcare BILLING SYSTEM should be overhauled and simplified. The clerical work involved is incredible.

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Two years ago my wife was going through some severe "morning sickness" early in her pregnancy. She couldn't keep anything down, got dehydrated, and went to the emergency room. When we got there, we told them she was 12 weeks along. They saw us in good fashion, did a blood and urine sample, pumped in 3 bags of fluids, and sent us home. I get the statement from the hospital in the mail about 6 weeks later and I noticed they did a pregnancy test! :blink: Hello! We already knew about that! I called Blue Cross to tell them not to pay the $95 for a $10 test that we already knew the answer to 6 weeks prior. The kind lady on the phone said: "We've already paid it, don't worry about it." :blink: :blink: I noticed they kindly increased my insurance premium the following spring. Something needs to be done.

Write your Congressman and Senators. The more correspondence they respond too, the more documentation they are forced to live by.

You'll be amazed at their responses…

Wow. Some real dimwits here. "The only issue is the War on Terrorism." My thought on that: it's scary that people actually think in such a way. Plants grow from seeds. This, my friends, is terrifying. Please, please people, read and educate yourselves and, for Christ's sake, stop watching Fox News.

mryan said:

Some real dimwits here.

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Watch the insults here, mryan.

Another thing: here we are on a site based on outdoor(environmental)activities and no one, or at least, very few people think the environment is an important issue. Wow. Seems to me your ideology is a bit warped. Don't you think?

mryan said:

Another thing: here we are on a site based on outdoor(environmental)activities and no one, or at least, very few people think the environment is an important issue. Wow. Seems to me your ideology is a bit warped. Don't you think?

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There are some of us who can enjoy nature without losing our perspective on life completely.

My thoughts, FWIW:

Terrorism:
-First Afghanistan, Next Iraq, next, the largest threat to our national security.
-Iraq is to Terrorism as Germany was to WWII. That is, Germany never attacked us, why did we get involved there?
-Exit strategy: We'll worry about that once we figure out the exit strategy for Germany and Japan. (Point is, it takes time, not going to happen overnight!)

Environment:
-We're fools to think we can control nature, either for the good or bad. We can have small effects, but we aren't powerful enough to destroy it. Chernobyl, the site of the worst nuclear disaster, is starting to become habitable in places. Animals and plants thrive. Mt. St. Helen's is still a wreck.
-Does that absolve us from being slobs? By no means. We do our part, but I'll never support sacrificing lives for a dung beetle.

Economy:
-Single income family of 5 with no savings and a low (580) FICO score is approved for a no-money down mortgage buying a three unit near $300K house. This wouldn't have happened 3 years ago. Yes I was laid off a year ago. A year later, my income is back up to where it was.
-All economic indicators show things are up. Unemployment is lower than in the phenom Bill Clinton years. We're supposed to think it's bad? The only thing that makes it "bad" for Democrats is that they can't claim credit for it.

Education:
-Ok, not thrilled about this. Bush tried to make a deal with the devil (Kennedy) and now Kennedy/Kerry are critisizing Bush for the bill THEY PASSED! Bush got suckered into agreeing to another unfunded mandate. Hopefully he won't make that mistake again.

Healthcare:
-To the extent that the companies can be shown to have departed from the free market (ie, anti-trust/monopoly) then they should be reigned in. However, I've torn an ACL, had three kids (well, my wife did), and have paid less than $100 in co-pays for it all. I'm getting a great deal, as are all my coworkers, family, etc. You can get into a management position at McDonald's and get health insurance...
-Bush has spent more money on health care than any other president, and it hasn't helped. Throwing money at it isn't the answer.
-When was the last time you knew someone to come down with smallpox (other than terror-related)? Polio? We've got better healthcare than any other country on the planet (including Canada).
-So what's the answer? Limited liability for the doctors and nurses who we don't want to pay to take care of us. Cut the frivolous lawsuits (Edwards has made his money on this), so that the cost of malpractice insurance goes down, so that health care costs go down.

Other: Limited government, balanced judges with tight (or no) interpretations of the constitution, elimination of government programs that encourage laziness, overpopulation, and substance abuse (welfare), relentless prosecution of lawbreakers, including deportation of ILLEGAL aliens. Strict restrictions on our borders. (You don't let unknown "guests" wander your house, do you?)

I may not be popular... but you know where I stand. :argue: :roll:
-Stephen

We can't destroy the environment? That's simply naive greg. And germany, greg, was blatantly(by that i mean using it's own military) to attack and invade countries. iraq, save for kuwait, has done no such thing. you're logic is severely flawed.

environment: of course we can't control nature. but we can, and should, control ourselves. subscribing to the notion that nature is impenetrable is ridiculous. let's take all of our nuclear bombs and drop them. do you think 'nature' will survive. we won't but maybe plants will grow again in a couple thousand years.

economy: show me the indicators things are looking up. numbers. give me numbers. from what i've read(the economist) mr. bush is at a net loss of 2.5 million jobs during the course of his presidency. and his tax cuts? what did it get you greg? you, like me, am a middle class guy. you know what they got me: a couple hundred bucks. call up your millionaire buddies and ask them what they got back. you've been decieved. also, right now we have the largest deficit ever. go tell your kids(you have three) that they'll be paying for that. and that the reason there are such deficits are the willingness of the government to fight an expensive war while coincidentally cutting taxes. but, hey, we got out 400 bucks. what a joke.

i'm worried about this country. but, hey, survival of the fittest right. it's not the government's responsibility to ensure an educated and healthy population. piss on 'em. let's cut all social programs....wait, if i'm become unemployed, i may need that. wait, my kids' schools are falling apart. you're blinded by ideology my friend. ideology has, sadly, replaced reason in this country.

health care:

greg, how do we have better health care than any other country on the planet when 40 million americans are uninsured. 100% of swedes are fully insured. but that takes the willlingness to pay taxes and selflessness, two things wholly unattributable to conservatives.

mryan said:

That's simply naive greg.

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Uh....Stephen posted all that, not me... :blink:

sorry. stephen, i mean.

but let's stop treating each issue as if it were independent on each of the others. they are all interelated and interconnected. without natural resources, there are no cities, without cities there are no jobs, without jobs there are no taxes to pay for the war, without the war we are unsafe....maybe. also: nature is, in fact, controllable. agriculture...the mass production of food. dams....we stop rivers. controlling nature is requisite for the creation of modern civilization.

I think it was P.J O'Rourke who said, "If you think healthcare costs a lot now, just wait till you see what it costs when it's free......."


Think about it. There's no way the government can deliver healthcare (or anything else for that matter) cheaper than the private sector. I don't have a solution for spiraling healthcare costs, but I know the present system is better than a new huge DC bureaucracy........


I'm going to leave the other issues alone, but I largely agree with Stephen's views.........

ChileMass said:

I think it was P.J O'Rourke who said, "If you think healthcare costs a lot now, just wait till you see what it costs when it's free......."


Think about it. There's no way the government can deliver healthcare (or anything else for that matter) cheaper than the private sector. I don't have a solution for spiraling healthcare costs, but I know the present system is better than a new huge DC bureaucracy........


I'm going to leave the other issues alone, but I largely agree with Stephen's views.........

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One of the problems with the current system is that instead of having a huge DC bureaucracy we have a bunch of smaller insurance company bureaucracies. I'll bet that those bureaucracies have more of an effect on the overall cost of healthcare than a handful of frivolous lawsuits.

Another problem is that I think that too many Americans don't have a clue as to how much their overall health care costs are and what their options are for reducing those costs. In other words, when it comes to health care, we're a bunch of lousy consumers.

As far as the current administration is concerned, however, I haven't seen any real efforts to reduce the overall cost of healthcare. I agree with Stephen that throwing more money at the system doesn't work, but where are the real efforts to get the costs down?

Sure, I agree that cutting out the lawsuits will help, but there are a lot of other feeders at the healthcare "trough" (like drug companies, for example) that need to go on a diet.

Not expecting to influence anyone here just a couple qiuick points:
mryan: "but that takes the willlingness to pay taxes and selflessness, two things wholly unattributable to conservatives." I think that some would consider that we are taxed enough. By the time you add up ALL the taxes you pay each day you would be surprised. My newest tax is on internet service 3.29 a month now goes to schools that cannot afford internet service. Everyone knows that we have to pay taxes. Some of us would rather just see the system adjust itself and cut some of that PORK spending be cut, not just all Social programs.

hammer: "drug companies, for example) that need to go on a diet"
Not that I disagree but look at how many manufacturers are investing money into vaccines? In the past we have seen many new vaccines come out. In the past number of years however I am aware of only one drug manufacturer out of Canada that has worked on any new vaccines. Hmmm, come to think of it we ran out of that flue vaccine too last winter. The reason or one reason? Government regulations on the profit of vaccines. If they cant make any money at it why bother with the R & D. (Yes the govt does contribute to R&D).

Hopefully one day soon we can start making some progress as it is a big issue. Hundreds of points can be made for either side, but someone needs to do something about it and not just talk about it during a campaign. Democrats had 8 years with Clinton in office and the problems are still here. We had 4 yrs with W and the problems are still here. Great campaign talks and little actions on either side.

It is amazing at how divided the country is and that people seem to be polar opposites on opinions and comments. I hope that people can start to come to terms and not just see party lines.

An Independent

LiveFreeorDie NH said:

hammer: "drug companies, for example) that need to go on a diet"
Not that I disagree but look at how many manufacturers are investing money into vaccines? In the past we have seen many new vaccines come out. In the past number of years however I am aware of only one drug manufacturer out of Canada that has worked on any new vaccines. Hmmm, come to think of it we ran out of that flue vaccine too last winter. The reason or one reason? Government regulations on the profit of vaccines. If they cant make any money at it why bother with the R & D. (Yes the govt does contribute to R&D).

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IMO, we should have the Gov't fund more R&D, retain the patents on the new discoveries, and then allow any manufacturer to (safely!) make the medications.

People might not get filthy rich using this approach, but I'd guess that we have enough talented people out there that care more about improving people's lives than making their shareholders happy.

I can't quote sources, but I've read and/or heard that a lot of the money invested by drug companies is in marketing and not in R&D anyway. Has anyone seen the amount of "free samples" that are available at a Dr's office for a new medication?

LiveFreeorDie NH said:

Hopefully one day soon we can start making some progress as it is a big issue. Hundreds of points can be made for either side, but someone needs to do something about it and not just talk about it during a campaign. Democrats had 8 years with Clinton in office and the problems are still here. We had 4 yrs with W and the problems are still here. Great campaign talks and little actions on either side.

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Agree...in a way, the Clinton administration was worse because they actually studied the problem (who was in charge of that?) and came up with a bad solution.

LiveFreeorDie NH said:

It is amazing at how divided the country is and that people seem to be polar opposites on opinions and comments. I hope that people can start to come to terms and not just see party lines.

An Independent

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Here Here :beer:

President Bush's tax cuts are really working.

There are now 313 billionaires in the country, the largest number ever and a huge jump over last year's 262 members, according to Forbes magazine (search), which Thursday released its annual ranking of the 400 richest Americans.

The combined net worth of the 400 rose $45 billion, reaching $1 trillion this year for the first time since 2000, before the dot-com bust.

See http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,133383,00.html