In case you've been living under a rock for the past decade or so, there's been a sharp increase in public demand for a universal, single-payer health program in the United States.

In a sense, you were right on concept but wrong on details when you wrote: "As a matter of politics it can take years -- even decades -- for a government-run system to deteriorate to the point where the costs outweigh the benefits to such a degree that the voters demand sudden and radical change."

This is happening right now here in America. It has taken decades for the vast majority of Americans to realize that the American healthcare system, driven by greedy private insurance companies, is an atrocity. We are demanding "radical change" because we realize that the thousands upon thousands of dollars we pay into health insurance (if we even HAVE it) is a giant boondoggle. Insurance companies will cut every corner, and try every dirty trick in the book to deny coverage. It was probably too soon for this change 1993, but in 2009 it can't come soon enough.

I assume that since you were a former Bush official, that you received a generous and comprehensive heathcare package- courtesy of us taxpayers. I love how our elected officials always bitch and moan when the topic of universal healthcare comes up- yet they are blind to their own hypocrisy because they benefit from the most generous "socialized" healthcare in our nation.

"As long as the United States exists as a safety value for those in need of urgent, critical or innovative care and therapies, the pressure that could be applied on politicians to reform their non-market based, government controlled systems will never materialize."

Sorry, Wingnut. You GOP'ers have tried with all of your might to privatize every single industry in the United States- with disastrous results. Healthcare is a human right. And I am disgusted and enraged that in the United States, we treat healthcare as a perk for the wealthy, while the middle class are left to die or declare bankruptcy.

Our current healthcare system is fucked beyond repair. Time for a change.

when you vote in a cadre of mindless ideologues and fuck-ups.

Is anyone else as dismayed and disturbed as I am to see these DOD reports plastered with Bible verses?

The idea of a Crusade aside (which I find repugnant and careless) the military of this country is not supposed to serve a single religion or ideology beyond the protection of the United States and the defense of our Constitution.

We, as citizens of this country, must have the assurance that our military and government will serve ALL of us, not just those who are Fundamentalist Christian.

This is one more revolting example among many from the Bush administration at how close we came to becoming a Theocracy.

Bravo.

Exactly!

http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html

37th in the world for a nation that always touts itself as "The Best" and "#1" at everything?

This is a disgrace. We must do better.

Doesn't President Obama realize that he was handed a sweeping mandate by the majority of the citizens of this country? Doesn't he realize that one of the bedrock issues for many of us who voted for him was a SOLUTION to the healthcare crisis in this country, once and for all?

Doesn't our President realize that the American people have woken up to what a horrible and costly boondoggle it is to have our healthcare run and operated by greedy, for-profit organizations?

I voted for Obama because I wanted a real change to the way healthcare is managed in this country. I want us to kick out the leeches who deny coverage again and again and jack up premiums through the roof. I'm tired of being one of the 46 MILLION Americans who are uninsured, despite being productive members of this society. I'm sick of the wealthy getting preferential treatment, while the middle class and poor are left to die or go bankrupt.

President Obama needs to step up and solve this perennial issue once and for all. He needs to make good on his promises to the millions of us who voted for real change, and not just window dressing followed by the same old cronyism.

Mr. President, where is your spine?!?

I voted for genuine and substantial change in the way that this country conducts itself in regard to the rule of law.

And this is how we start off. I'd like to hope that Obama will reverse these policies, or make substantial changes, but this does not bode well. The country is behind him, he's just been handed a sweeping mandate for real change, and we get an extension of the same atrocious, law-breaking policies that we voted him into office to remove.

What was I voting for, again?

A lot of posters here today wonder why anyone should care what Meghan McCain thinks. Well, she and others like her are the future of her political party. After all, in 15-20 years most of the current old-man leadership of the GOP will have bitten the dust. Then what?

I'm happy to hear about her stances on gays and gay marriage, and believe that this reflects the broader acceptance of gays and lesbians by people under thirty. However, the rest of her party's platform- the jingoism, reckless militarism, and gluttony for greed...that I have a problem with.

We are talking about people (Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, etc.) who BROKE THE LAW by advocating torture.

And yet, the PRESIDENT has allowed one of the lawbreakers to frame the debate, frame the discussion, and undermine his authority.

Seems like President Obama needs a spine transplant, pronto.

And as for me, I still think Dick Cheney is a loathsome piece of shit, and will forever.

Choke on that, Dick.