Despite differences, Obama, GOP eye Medicare limit

WASHINGTON – Unlikely as it may seem, President Barack Obama and Republicans in Congress actually share some common ground on the need to curb Medicare costs to fight the spiraling federal debt.

Although the House GOP plan to replace Medicare with a voucher-like system got shunted aside last week, that may not be the end of the story. Embedded in both the Republican plan and in Obama's counter-proposal is the idea of putting limits on the growth of the half-trillion-dollar-a-year program — and then enforcing them.

High-level deficit negotiations resume on Tuesday under the stewardship of Vice President Joe Biden, and tackling health care spending is critical to what could become the year's most important legislation.

The two sides differ sharply on how that should be done. Obama says the GOP would leave frail seniors at the mercy of profit-driven insurance companies. Republicans say the president would empower unaccountable bureaucrats to ration care.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_health_care_common_ground

As opposed to Corporate fascists who would ration care?

Elected public servants are advocates for society. Held accountable by the electorate.

Shareholders are advocates for those with the most shares of stock.



If they are not accountable, fix the information systems, and election systems. That is the correction, not giving up on the people.

elected official's salaries.

Control the causes of disease. The main causes, according to some doctor from the Cleveland Clinic I heard speak at the City Club on NPR, are:

1. Over eating and eating crap.

2. Not exercising. I have heard recently that just sitting all day is a major health risk.

3. Stress.

4. Smoking (still)

As much as I hate the idea of the govt. managing our personal lives, rising health care costs are now a greater threat to personal freedom than regulation is. We need to discourage the bad behaviors. In part that means preventing companies from encouraging them and working at cross purposes to the national interest. No misleading ads. No ads that don't really say anything. All representations must have a factual basis stated in the ad. Warnings like on drug ads. It means requiring that decent food be available in inner cities and in the sticks. It means no more subsidies. A Big Mac should not be cheaper than a salad. It also means national health insurance to mitigate disease. It means further restrictions on smoking if not an outright prohibition. And it means ending out split-personality relationship with alcohol. As with junk food, we can't encourage and discourage it at the same time. It means regulating the workplace more to prevent excessive levels of stress.