Prexisting Conditions & Insurance

[Mavric]

Hope you don't use public roads, have an education from a public school, have kids in public schools, use electricity from Nebraska's public power system, use a public library, receive mail, plan to have health care past the age of 65, visit a park, enjoy fire protection, police protection, armed services protection, want government help if a tornado / flood destroys your home / community...the list goes on. In fact, why are you even here, a fan of Nebraska football which represents a public land grant university!? You're one step removed from cheering for socialism. It doesn't make sense to me.

I don't think most of the items you listed would fit very many people's definition of "socialism". The key difference is education, roads, utilities, fire and police services, the military, etc. are available to/benefiting everyone (obviously some will benefit more than others but generally for the entire population). The social programs that are the main focus of the argument are, by and large, programs that one set of people is paying for while a totally different set of people are benefiting from. To ignore that distinction is either disingenuous or a total lack of understanding of the discussion.

[Sub-Husker]

There is only one Socialist in the United States Congress, and he is probably the best of the entire bunch.

[JJ Husker]

There is only one Socialist in the United States Congress, and he is probably the best of the entire bunch.

 

That's no different than saying the best guy in the prisonyard is the only child pornographer, and thus intimating child pornography isn't bad.

[carlfense]

There is only one Socialist in the United States Congress, and he is probably the best of the entire bunch.

 

That's no different than saying the best guy in the prisonyard is the only child pornographer, and thus intimating child pornography isn't bad.

What?

 

 

Interesting . . . analogy. That's bad even by message board standards.

[JJ Husker]

There is only one Socialist in the United States Congress, and he is probably the best of the entire bunch.

 

That's no different than saying the best guy in the prisonyard is the only child pornographer, and thus intimating child pornography isn't bad.

What?

 

 

Interesting . . . analogy. That's bad even by message board standards.

My point is, saying the only socialist in congress is one of the best congressmen, is no indication of socialism or, in the case of our current inept congress, any indication of the man himself. His original statement made no statement at all.

[carlfense]

There is only one Socialist in the United States Congress, and he is probably the best of the entire bunch.

 

That's no different than saying the best guy in the prisonyard is the only child pornographer, and thus intimating child pornography isn't bad.

What?

 

 

Interesting . . . analogy. That's bad even by message board standards.

My point is, saying the only socialist in congress is one of the best congressmen, is no indication of socialism or, in the case of our current inept congress, any indication of the man himself. His original statement made no statement at all.

Comparing an elected official to a child pornographer is an excellent way to foster a rational and productive discussion.

[Sub-Husker]

There is only one Socialist in the United States Congress, and he is probably the best of the entire bunch.

 

That's no different than saying the best guy in the prisonyard is the only child pornographer, and thus intimating child pornography isn't bad.

 

Seriously, are you equating socialism with child pornography?

[Sub-Husker]

My point is, saying the only socialist in congress is one of the best congressmen, is no indication of socialism or, in the case of our current inept congress, any indication of the man himself.

 

Bernie Sanders has been a socialist all of his political career.

 

Once he became the mayor of Burlington, he continued to be reelected because he was very good for local business interests.

 

He has spent his career fighting for small businesses, the middle ckass and the poor, and against the abuses of large corporations.

 

That make him the best congressperson in the entire US Congress.

 

And no socialist that I know of wants anything remotely close to Soviet central planning (corrupt and bastardized socialism). Our economic system has always been a mix of socialism and regulated capitalism. We have lost too much of the regulations on predatory capitalism, and our socialism has become corrupted by corporations serving as grossly inefficient middlemen.

 

His original statement made no statement at all.

 

Specifically, what did not make sense to you?

[Mavric]

And no socialist that I know of wants anything remotely close to Soviet central planning (corrupt and bastardized socialism). Our economic system has always been a mix of socialism and regulated capitalism. We have lost too much of the regulations on predatory capitalism, and our socialism has become corrupted by corporations serving as grossly inefficient middlemen.

Seems to me like all we ever do is add regulations? What regulations have we lost?

[carlfense]

And no socialist that I know of wants anything remotely close to Soviet central planning (corrupt and bastardized socialism). Our economic system has always been a mix of socialism and regulated capitalism. We have lost too much of the regulations on predatory capitalism, and our socialism has become corrupted by corporations serving as grossly inefficient middlemen.

Seems to me like all we ever do is add regulations? What regulations have we lost?

Really? You don't know about the deregulation of Wall Street over the last 30 years and how it greatly contributed to the stock market crashing?

[Mavric]

And no socialist that I know of wants anything remotely close to Soviet central planning (corrupt and bastardized socialism). Our economic system has always been a mix of socialism and regulated capitalism. We have lost too much of the regulations on predatory capitalism, and our socialism has become corrupted by corporations serving as grossly inefficient middlemen.

Seems to me like all we ever do is add regulations? What regulations have we lost?

Really? You don't know about the deregulation of Wall Street over the last 30 years and how it greatly contributed to the stock market crashing?

1. So one industry losing some regulations qualifies as "too much"?

 

2. I believe the crash of the subprime mortgage business was one major cause of the crash. Why was there so much investment in subprime mortgages? Because the government mandated it. That sounds like an increase in regulation to me.

[JJ Husker]

There is only one Socialist in the United States Congress, and he is probably the best of the entire bunch.

 

That's no different than saying the best guy in the prisonyard is the only child pornographer, and thus intimating child pornography isn't bad.

What?

 

 

Interesting . . . analogy. That's bad even by message board standards.

My point is, saying the only socialist in congress is one of the best congressmen, is no indication of socialism or, in the case of our current inept congress, any indication of the man himself. His original statement made no statement at all.

Comparing an elected official to a child pornographer is an excellent way to foster a rational and productive discussion.

I wasn't attempting to foster any discussion. I was simply taking a drive by cheapshot, on what is generally accepted as the immoral and legal problem riddled body that is our US legislative branch. In hindsight, child pornographer was probably not the best choice of criminal I could have used and it was overly inflammatory. For that I am sorry. But using a thrice convicted drunk driver in my analogy just takes a little punch out of it. I didn't know things had to stay so serious in here. If taking a few rhetoric laced cheapshots at politicians is off limits, then I think you guys really need to lighten up a little. Come on, politicians have been taking that kind of abuse throughout our history. I think between all of the scandals, affairs, lawsuits, and litany of criminal behavior, they have earned more than their fair share of the public's mistrust and disdain. You might be impressed with our elected officials, personally I think we can do much, much better. If they are our best and brightest, that sure would explain a lot of things.

[HSKR]

There is only one Socialist in the United States Congress, and he is probably the best of the entire bunch.

No he is not.

[JJ Husker]

My point is, saying the only socialist in congress is one of the best congressmen, is no indication of socialism or, in the case of our current inept congress, any indication of the man himself.

 

Bernie Sanders has been a socialist all of his political career.

 

Once he became the mayor of Burlington, he continued to be reelected because he was very good for local business interests.

 

He has spent his career fighting for small businesses, the middle ckass and the poor, and against the abuses of large corporations.

 

That make him the best congressperson in the entire US Congress.

 

And no socialist that I know of wants anything remotely close to Soviet central planning (corrupt and bastardized socialism). Our economic system has always been a mix of socialism and regulated capitalism. We have lost too much of the regulations on predatory capitalism, and our socialism has become corrupted by corporations serving as grossly inefficient middlemen.

 

His original statement made no statement at all.

 

Specifically, what did not make sense to you?

As I tried to expain to carl, I was not commenting on "the socialist" per se but on our congress and senate as a whole. Now that I know about whom you were commenting, Bernie may very well be one of the best of the bunch, personally I don't know. It may have been unfair to lump him in with the other degenerates and wastes of space. So, to answer your question, the part I didn't understand was; basically saying being the best rotten apple of all the rotten apples is not much of a glowing reference in my book. Sorry that you guys didn't get it or are too serious to see how it was intended.

[Sub-Husker]

And no socialist that I know of wants anything remotely close to Soviet central planning (corrupt and bastardized socialism). Our economic system has always been a mix of socialism and regulated capitalism. We have lost too much of the regulations on predatory capitalism, and our socialism has become corrupted by corporations serving as grossly inefficient middlemen.

 

Seems to me like all we ever do is add regulations? What regulations have we lost?

 

The trend in regulations is that they are being written more frequently by industry insiders who have a conflict of interest, and funding for enforcement/oversight has been decreased.

 

Banking: Repeal of Glass Staegle (cause of banking crisis).

 

Energy: Revolving door at MME (cause of gulf spill).

 

Despite CFTC report, there is still rampant speculation in oil markets.

 

Securities fraud, and the inability of the SEC to do anything.

 

This is such a broad topic that it would take a considerable amount of research by people dedicated to honest debate.