Mark’s Soap Box

In a desperate attempt to drive traffic to his site, Ezra Klein has demanded that Michelle Malkin debate him on Health care. The assumption being he is someone, and knows something, and we must convince him and his followers we are right.

Now that you have stopped laughing at this course arrogance; here is my response to him on his site:

Let me get this straight. You demand a debate, and then claim that someone else’s ideas are not legitimate if they decline? Huh? That makes no sense.

Who are you to demand anything? Since when did debating you become a benchmark? Oh wait, you are a liberal so whatever you decide is suddenly “the way it is”. O.K. I get it now.

More government is NEVER the answer. If government intervention is not the answer in Iraq, then it’s not the answer in Health Care, is it?

Oh and if Socialist medicine is so great, then why do Canadians come here for health care? Swedes, Danes, and the English as well? Hmm? Because the government run system is a failed system, that can never work.

This is not about Health care, it’s about “worker” control. It’s about controlling the proletariat (original meaning) by the Vanguard party (Democrats) who will demand that the Bourgeoisie pay for it all. Hasn’t worked yet. When that fails, you can be sure they will demand full on Communism. State control or else!

The current Democratic party is nothing but a bunch of 60’s Hippies desperate to feel the high of their halcyon days of the “summer of love”. So desperate they they will lie, cheat, steal, and abuse Children to achieve their ends. As we know, with liberals the ends justify the means; as there are no boundaries in their world view.

Troskyites all. Power is all they care about. Oh a few pine for the “good feeling” (read: proof of their superiority) of having helped all those poor un-enlightened proles. For most that is a by-product of their elitist arrogance. Disgusting.

On a side note, I do love watching the arrogant liberals flail around with their pretzel logic, and specious attacks. God help us if they ever run the country again.

~~ Mark

Michelle responds here.

Let’s face it, this is about him appearing to be someone of substance. This of course is more important that actually being substantive; in liberal circles.

Why Government Health Care Sucks

My response to those who think HillBill’s plan is so awesome.

So, Government Is Better At This?

The government currently controls pricing in the Health Care industry, and you want us to believe that more of the same will make it better? You must have some really good drugs, or you are just a Socialist masquerading as a “kind, caring, compassionate, lover of children.” Read: user of children to get their way; aka Democrats.

For those who don’t know how health care really works, it can be a very unsettling thing to find out the truth. Yes I know liberals don’t care about Truth.

Firstly; the government is the largest provider of Health insurance in the country. Secondly, The government is the largest Hospital provider in the country. Now let me think, wasn’t it Democrats (you know, liberals) who complain about the waste, fraud, and mis-appropriation of funds by the government?

Here is a little known factoid among several:

6. Hospital infection is a far deadlier problem than the number of uninsured. The Institute of Medicine estimates that as many as 18,000 people a year die prematurely because they don’t have health insurance. That’s tragic. But five times as many people die each year from hospital infections, and most of them are insured.

Firstly, only 18,000 die per year due to lack of Health insurance? No doubt that number is high, and most likely represents people who just didn’t go to the hospital because they didn’t understand that the government will pick up the tab.

Beyond that 5 times as many die from infection. Even if that is overstated, it points out the failings of government run hospitals and hospitals that run under government rules. Also, how many have to cut corners to make up for the money they lose due to the government paying cut-rates for procedures?

Now let me be clear I tend to distrust numbers by organizations that are looking for publicity, just like I don’t trust bogglers who attack the top blogger (eh-hem) to get traffic. However the CDC says that 90,000 people die each year due to infections in hospitals. Compare that to AIDS at 18,000 (another over-hyped liberal cause), and breast cancer at 40,000.

A WaPo article discussed this phenomenon.

Nearly 12,000 Pennsylvanians contracted infections during a hospital stay in 2004, costing an extra $2 billion in care and at least 1,500 preventable deaths, according to state figures released yesterday that officials say represent a conservative measure of one of the deadliest problems in modern medicine.

… and that is only in Pennsylvania.

“Pennsylvania is 4 percent of the population, which means you may have an additional 100 people dying per day” nationwide because of hospital-acquired infections, said Marc P. Volavka, executive director of the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, the agency that issued the report. “That comes to an additional $50 billion” in medical charges in the United States annually, he said.

Here is what I am thinking; Hillary, you and Bill do the Jimmy Carter thing and go scrub hospitals. This will save us Billions and we won’t need you meddling.

[Side note: who runs the government? Liberals and their hangers-on. Hmm, so liberals waste our money to keep their constituents (read "victims" and disciples of victim-hood, also Unions -- who can't compete in the economy --, and of course the tax collectors) dumb, fat, and happy; and we are supposed to believe this is about helping children or us?]

I’m From The Government and I Am Here To Help You.

Beyond that the government give tax breaks to companies to provide Health care which the company receives at reduced rates (due to grouping) compared to the general population. This leads to higher prices for those not in a pool, and for those not on government health care or insurance plans (out of pocket payers, aka “uninsured” which really means those getting pinched by taxation and bad government policy).

So the solution is MORE government control?

Also consider that the policies of government are driving up the cost of health care; which is then in turn used to justify MORE government control. Such as: Tobacco subsidies. Yes, we need to make it more profitable to grow a plant that caused billions of dollars of Health claims a year. Guess which states receive the most Tobacco money? Hint: lots of Democrats live there.

It’s My Healthcare and I’ll Do What I Want To

Even more bizarre is the attitude that Health care is a right, it’s not. An extension of that is the “free” visit mentality. Nothing is free, everything else you have to pay for. That includes: food, clothing, housing, health care/insurance, automobile, gasoline, cable, television, radios, and the list goes on. NONE OF WHICH ARE A RIGHT.

Yet you will hear people complain about the cost of: lung cancer after smoking for 40 years; of a hearing aid after playing Led Zeppelin at 11 for 25 years; of blood pressure medicine after eating every high salt, high fat, high whatever meal in sight for 50 years. It’s never their fault, but they should be “fixed” no matter the cost.

Liberals confuse privileges with Rights. They also ignore responsibility, and play up victim-hood. It makes it easier to sell Socialism.

Take a Number Please

So consider the school system, the DMV, and your local government. Is that how you want your Health care to be run? It’s bad enough the liberals have destroyed education to the point where they can convince people that they are victims and only the “wondrous” liberals can save them by defining their life and then directing it. Its’ arrogant, and yet they pass it off as a favor to us.

Take a look at their past efforts, and ask yourself is that is what you want for anything in your life. Gee thanks, but no thanks.

UPDATE

This from Newsnight BBC:

CLOSTRIDIUM DIFFICILE

The catalogue of failures over the pervasiveness of the Clostridium difficile bacterium in hospitals in the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust is so damning as to be, potentially, the subject of criminal charges. Appalling hygiene, patients left in their own excrement, food kept in clinical fridges, patients with c.difficle nursed alongside other patients - it’s therefore no surprise that the Healthcare Commission described events as a “tragedy.”

There were 1,176 cases of the bug between 2004 and 2006, and the report estimates that 90 had died as a result. We are also pursuing the story of Rose Gibb, the Trust’s former Chief Executive - in charge throughout this time. Does she accept responsibility and did she get a payoff when she left?

You just have to love that Socialized medicine.

Tags: Ezra Klein, Hillary, Obama, Hillary Clinton, Barrack Obama, Healthcare, Medicine, Election, Democrat, liberal, Michelle Malkin