"Maybe we shouldn't have such a bloated defense budget, invade countries just because we want to, and give huge tax breaks to the rich. I wonder how much money we could've put towards health care, hmmm."

Ah me, I saw this happen during the 1990s after Desert Storm...and I, and many others, screamed we were cutting back FAR too much...and were summarily ignored. Then 9/11 hit and suddenly everyone wanted Saddam...and we had an extremely weak military to go find him. Want to know WHY it cost so much to build up the military then? Because we didn't pay the upkeep during the 1990s and had to essentially start from scratch!

And of course NOW the people in DC want to do it AGAIN. Well this time, I'm not saying squat except to call them Dumb@sses! They don't listen to us in the trenches anyway...and apparently neither do civilians who want to trade our security for their heath care, or something else they want today. I'll just be around to pick up the pieces (like the rest of us) when it all goes to crap again.

"Also, I'd like to see a show of hands of people who rallied against the massive wastes of money I've noted above."

Hell no, and I would spend the money again, if I had won the Presidency in 2000 myself!

"I don't see these as mutually exclusive. Are European societies, which for the most part more socialistic than us, not free? If so, can you tell me what effect this lack of freedom has on European society?"

Sure. You can only earn as much as the government allows you to. Which in turn makes you less productive as the law of diminshing returns says that there is a point at which you won't work any more because you won't get any more incentive (money) and in point of fact may make less. That means you AREN'T as free to do the best you can...you're limited in your freedom.

"No, I don't think so. Why should I see the "free market" and charitable contributions as equivalent in some way? Also, why are taxes unable to help those who are locally in need?"

The equivalence is that free market allows you freedom to do what you will with your wealth and to earn as much as you can. Charitable contributions are just that charity. If the government takes your money in order to do what charity is supposed to, then it's not really chartiy but more enforced giving without the intend in the head or the heart of the person who has their money taken.

"Given that we're sitting on more than $11 trillion in debt and running a near $2 trillion shortfall this year alone, I'm really wondering how we're going to pay for all of this?"

THANK you! This is the Mastodon in the room that everyone wants to ignore or throw platitudes at.

Right NOW, we CANNOT AFFORD healthcare reform. But that's not going to stop the extreme left now...because they're afraid that if they don't make it look like an emergency (as they have for almost EVERY bill that's come up) they won't get it thru and they will lose their golden opportunity to pass it.

Problem is, if it's passed right now, as weakened as our economy is, we could seriously bankrupt the American government!

"It's higher in Europe. By pretty much every metric."

Really? I actually have a few questions here:

1. Have you even been to Europe?

2. Do you really believe it is so much better there?

3. If it IS so much better there, why do so many people there come here as legal immigrant each year?

4. Finally, if you really believe it is so wonderful there, why haven't you moved there yourself?

"Yes, if that is the way you want to look at it then that is correct. If such a great disparity of wealth is allowed in a free society then the only people really free are the rich. Everyone else is beholden to them."

AH but if you take money away from the rich in order to correct a great disparity of wealth, then you really aren't in a free society per se and are in fact in a socialistic society.

Further, since any one of the people you suggest need the correction can in fact do a self-correction by working hard and earning the fruits of their labors and becoming rich themselves, is it not this manner in which a society is in fact free? Everyone is free to work for their own betterment - or not.

"Charities are not a reasonable option because they rely on the good graces those of us with expendable income, both of which are a too fragile as commodities to be a reliable foundation for our country's health."

But you are saying charities rely on wealthy people to function. Isn't that an unfair redistribution as well? Shouldn't the government tax them in order to properly redistribute the wealth in a fair and reasonable fashion, rather than the haphazard method of giving to those who are locally in need?

once the pull the sword out of their necks.

But frankly, I don't care which leader gets in. No really, I don't. Why? Because BOTH hate the US and would just as soon attack us.

So I say, let them fight it out and let's just stay out of it. We can always talk to the winner...the loser, of course, would be in a hole 6 feet down.

Um...public education perhaps?

Yet in Afghanistan and in Iraq they have Man Love Thursdays, in which the men sleep with a young boy for sexual release. As explained to me by a translator after I asked an Afgan why not just sleep with your wife:

"Women are for procreation and boys are for recreation."

Apparently Iran is much different than Iraq and Afghanistan.