Sorry Marge but your uninformed bigotry showed up very strong in the last half of what you said.

Marge, as she tries to turn my comments into an opportunity to slam the president when reading an article about congress, sounds like a typical follower of Rush Lamebrain. I have to agree with the first half of what she said:

"I have to agree with JimL1, 100%.  The senate and congress need to be realistic about healthcare, and use what they dictate for the people.  They should have to pay for healthcare, just as we all do.  No raises either, as our raises are non existent, non for the past 5 years."

Unfortunately in the rest of what she had to say, she had to try to tie it to Obama, just like Rush Lamebrain would. Also, her claim that Obama: "thinks only black/or Hispanic people need help..they are getting all the loans, assistance, etc." is just plain wrong. I am caucasian, as are many of my friends who are receiving loans, assistance, etc." Please get your facts right before posting.

Countries that have had healthcare for all for years have not gone as broke as we are. They have prospered, in many cases better than we here in the USA. Many have better life expectancy. Stop listening to Rush Lamebrain's rabble rousing drivel and do some real research.

Has anyone who posts here ever lived in a country where everyone is covered by a healthcare plan? Based upon the comments, I think not. I have! Removing the stress caused by fear of not being able to obtain the care that one requires alone improves health. Making preventative healthcare available to everyone also improves health. These thngs reduce the lifecycle cost of healthcare. Unfortunately, Rush Lamebrain never speaks about these advantages. I also suspect that the Bluie Dog Democrats have and will continue to receive large campaign contributions from insurance backed sources. The real rub though is that when it comes to healthcare, Congress has taken excellent care of itself. It is in no way dependent upon any insurance company plan--It receives fantastic healthcare at the expense of the people who cannot get healthcare for themselves. We are all equal, however, Congress members are more  equal than the rest of us. My solution is that until Congress gives up its own healthcare system that it created for itself at our expense, every citizen in the USA receives that same healthcare system. Congress members have to get back in touch with the reality that us average everyday citizens have to live with and try it for themselves for a while.

Somehow my previous comment became garbled and full of errors. Can anyone tell me how to edit it and correct the errors?

godsdog nailed it by exposing the exaggerations that BATRON131313, CharlieSanders, and Marge have copied from Ruwsh Lamebrain. I am one of those who is well beyond retirement age. I have kept my original Medicare and not sined up for one of the insurance company plans. All those I know of who have signed up for what the insurance companies have offered to replace the original healthcare are crying about the rotten deal that they are getting from those insurance companies.

Also, learn about what "End-of-Life" counseling is -- and what it is not. End-of-Life counseling is about making choices while I can. I can make up a living will. A living will allows me to state now, while I am still healthy and can communicate, what care I want in the event that I cannot be restored to health and cannot communicate for myself. It allows me to appoint a Medical-Power-of Attorney, to speak for me when I cannot speak for myself. It allows me to stop resusitation from being done to me, by completing a form, that will stop well meaning persons from bringing me  DNR (Do-Not-Resussitate)back to a horrible existence, perhaps where I have to live by artificial means (that is living?), with feeding tubes, unable to communicate, or think.

As for Obama being a racist. Some people do not have any idea of what a racist is. Stop trying to hang Jeremiah Wright on Obama. Look at what Obama has done over the years, not just a single comment made based on what he pointed out before he said it was based upon incomplete inrformation. Racist hide behind masks--never apologise-nor retract, burn crosses on people lawns, etc. Obama has and will continue to make mistakes, just like the rest of us. He has and will continue to sometimes miss-speak, just like the rest of us. He never claimed to be superhuman-nor did he pretend that he was God.

In case you are interested, I am not a bleeding heart liberal. I am an educated, thinking, analyzing, caucasian, whose ancestors and descendants, have fought on the side of the USA in most every war including the Revolutionary War--up to and including both of the the Iraq fiascos. I have studied how USA political leaders acquired Mexican land, seperating families, then passed laws that made it almost impossible for them to re-unite, yet welcomed those from other countries. People who want to imigrate from other countries, but cannot do so from their own country, establish themselves in Canada, from where they can immigrate to the USA. They do not go to Mexico and try to legally immigrate into the USA. Why is that? Think about it. It is because USA politicians have made it very difficult to come to the USA from Mexico and much easier from Canada. Is that reasonable? I think not.

Read the book "Animal Farm" by George Orwell. In it the leaders say that "All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others." Until congress has to live with the same healthcare plans that the rest of us do, there will be no healthcare plan that will not break the backs of the American public.

                          Compare and Contrast Parental vs. Public Entity Responsibilities

Parents who have been laid off are not relieved of their responsibilities. They still have to feed, clothe, and house their families. Those parents cannot say to their children you are going to have to pay for the privileges that you previously enjoyed at our expense. Public entities should be no different. The concept that public entities should be able to further burden those parents who have been laid off and are desperately trying to make ends meet due to the current economic problems of this nation is insane. This statement applies to public utilities, and to our governmental elements at all levels, city, county, and federal.

That SRP's application for a rate increase application at this time is pure insanity. SRP should be advised to do as all of us who are in the same situation of trying to make ends meet. Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without. Do not lay people off and make the situation worse either. Instead, tell SRP and the government bodies to "live within your means." One example would be to cut the wages of all those still making more than the poverty level by a percentage large enough to eliminate that portion of whatever the entity's shortfall is that cannot be eliminated by other means.

The concept of instituting new fees for services not previously charged for or increasing the fees or charges for services, at this time is equally insane. Just because some poor sucker's head is under the guillotine is not sufficient reason to drop the blade because you have the power to do so. The more money that is required of those who are in danger of having their houses foreclosed, the more foreclosures will occur. The more foreclosures occur, the more the prices of property will drop. Does not anyone get it? Anytime you increase prices or allow prices to increase, in an economic depression the worse, you make the depression.

While we are at it, tell those senators and congress members to eliminate those special medical benefits that they deny all others. Tell them to give back all raises that they gave themselves in the period of this economic crisis. Why is it that it is acceptable to grant all senators and members of congress unlimited health care at the expense of the state but it is socialism to grant any health care to citizens of the state? I am not so much in favor of universal healthcare as I am against the concepts described in the book "Animal Farm" by George Orwell, where "all are equal but some are more equal than others." This is especially true when those who can most afford health care receive it free at the expense of those who cannot afford healthcare.