www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Obama: Men Should 'Stop Acting Like Boys'

Carson,

I only vaguely remember the whole Dan Rather fiasco. I didn't realize (or I had forgotten) that it had involved his national guard service. My point, by the way, wasn't to focus on racism, but on what kinds of jobs are available to black men living in the inner city. And while it is true that there are plenty of african americans who racism as a trump card to make excuses and try to get ahead without earning it, it is also true that that race and social class still play a significant role in what opportunities are available to a person.

Also, I would point out that there are more poor, white people on welfare and more poor, working white people than black people in our country. So, it is an economic issue and not simply a race issue.

Joe

Dear Joe,

You can thank the Democrats for that. They are against small business' you know. Whenever they pass a law for the environment to protect some snail or something, it hurts business owners. Also, high inheritance taxes are what led to all the farms being owned by large corporations rather than individual farmers. The children simply could not pay the taxes.

Pres. Bush has been doing everything to help people open business' by removing many of the regulations that are hindering them from prospering. Also, the Republicans is not the party that supports the lawyers lobby, and it that lobby that has made our medical insurance rates go sky high. That is why most people cannot afford it.

What the Democrats probably want, is to have medical insurance taken over by the government without tort reform, that way we the taxpayers will end up paying the lawyers their high fees with their frivolous millions dollar lawsuits. I say that as one, who could have sued a doctor for millions, yet refused to because all it would have done in the end, was raise the fees for everyone.

What you are suggesting will lead to a recession, and it is always the poorer classes that suffer during a recession. If though you want the wealthy to pay for their luxury products, then I suggest what some countries are doing, and put in a luxury tax that will be higher for more expensive items. In other words, if someone buys a cheap car, they will pay ten percent. If they buy a Rolls Royce, then they will pay a hundred percent tax. Hey! Let the movie stars, rock stars, and sports stars, pay more for what they own.

The only problem with that, is that it might cut production, and that again will lead to less productivity. Some luxury tax though, with a flat tax with duductions only for charities and mortgages, might work.

God Bless,

Zenovia

Dear Father Serge,

The only way I can answer that, is by comparing Paris Hilton's sentence to the sentence of others. A comparison over the past ten years in California showed, that the only people that had a sentence equal to hers in time, were those that committed violent crimes.

Also, I believe there was a thread on this forum about the terrorists in Guatanamo, and I also believe there was a link on one of them that said that solitary confinement is considered torture. You know that Paris Hilton is in solitary confinement? If she is held above 28 days, it would be against the Geneva convention. Uhhh! She is not black.

God Bless,

Zenovia

Zenovia:

In my opinion, you greatly exaggerate the extent to which lawsuits are driving up the costs of healthcare, and I believe Dr. Eric, who is a physician would agree with me, based on a post of his concerning this very topic in the past. No doubt, there are frivolous malpractice suit. I would also say that there are many instances in which malpractice has occurred and no suit was ever filed-I have witnessed such instances in my own family. In my opinion, the greed of the the health insurance industry, the pharmaceutial companies, and the big retail pharmacy chains has far more to do with the soaring costs of health care than malpractice suits.

Ryan

From what I have been told by my mother who worked for decades in utilization review, the high cost of health care is also driven by the high cost of government regulation...that's one of those costs few discuss, I think.

God bless,

Gordo

Gordo:

In the short run, I think there's no doubt that regulation increases costs in health care, but I fear that the cost of failing to regulate this industry would be even greater. If there were not government regulations concerning who can and cannot offer themselves to the public as health care providers, which drugs can and cannot be sold, safety procedures, and the like, imagine the consequences-both personal and financial. Of course, the government doesn't always do such a great job in terms of regulation. I think a good case in point is the recent news about problems associated with the diabetes drug Avandia. That came as no surprise to me, given the fact that a number of years ago Rezulin, a drug in the same class as Avadia-was pulled from the market due to several deaths related to liver failure caused by Rezulin. In my opinion, the FDA has become to lax in its oversight, at least with respect to some products. Nevertheless, if it weren't for the regulatory power of the government, Rezulin could have remained on the market longer and caused even more deaths. So, in spite of its shortcomings, I'll still take government regulation of health care.

Ryan

I have read from international sources that the US unemployment numbers are always artificially kept at a low rate (this year at about "4.5%") because the numbers are fudged, just like every other number that our government comes up with.

From a website called 10cm:

Government regulation has had great benefits to consumers at large. With no regulations our prescription drugs could be coming from China and I could start concocting some medicine tomorrow if I wanted to. Both of those situations are very scary, if we are to be concerned about our well being.