Why do conservatives go against universal healthcare?
It is more complicated than just congress critters and money.It is a philosophy that underlies helping others, and having others help pay for other peoples care.Part of it goes back to the work ethic our nation has and how it was influenced by the reform theology they brought over with them.Pull yourself up by your boot straps. Be a man, Stand on your own two feet. These are all familiar phrases we have been raised with.It is the belief by many conservatives that poor people are poor because they do not make the effort to make themselves better. They don't have jobs that provide insurance and they don't make enough money to afford insurance because they don't work hard enough.According to many conservatives, if they had the gumption and the stamina they would be able to work themselves out of their poor position and have insurance and enough money to afford the decent life. Never mind they would have to work 80–100 hours a week to be able to just afford their housing , transportation etc.It is an unrealistic expectation that every can have if only they put forth the right effort. The great American Dream is attainable by all. Which is a fallacy.Most of these guys are white, have never known poverty (I mean poverty, living on AFDC and food stamps and living in a small walk up with three kids.) They are the privileged, and don't realize it.The reformed church in America has been infected by the prosperity Gospel. Work Hard and God will reward you, you don't have because you don't believe enough or have enough faith.Also the misuse of Bible Passages. Jesus says, You will always have the poor, or the Poor will always be with you. He is paraphrasing Deuteronomy 15:11 “For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, 'You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.'” Notice what they leave off. Yes you will always have the poor, but you are also responsible for taking care of them.I can go on but the upshot is, they do not feel it is their responsibility (i.e. Government) to take care of those who are in need, it is everyone else's responsibility.
Why do conservatives and libertarians think that private charity is better than welfare? Can they give an example of charity effectively replacing a welfare state?
You won’t find it because the government won’t let it happen. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on earth - Ronald ReaganI live in the Seattle area. Depending on the source(I used the Seattle Times number) the city spends just under $17,000 per homeless person per year on programs. And guess what, every year there are more homeless than the previous year. And that doesnt include the money the county, state, and federal government spends on those same people. (Food stamps , welfare checks, etc.) One journalist has an editorial (he’s not a conservative by any means) and he calculated the average annual expenditure to be around 45,000 per year. It would seem you could almost write a check to each one for that amount and be better off ( I don’t support that idea by the way) . And Seattle is trying to find a way to raise more money because they now have the 3rd largest homeless population and NEED TO SPEND MORE MONEY!!!! I’m not saying there’s an easy answer but there are people that are employed by the government to “solve” the problem. But if they did would they still have a job? Would the politicians still have the campaign issue? People have no shame taking benefits from the government and will abuse it. And the government will let them. The city just sold property to build nicer shelters cause they had empty beds at some and there solution was they must not be nice enough so let’s make em better.Private charities will help those that want help. But they value the money that people willingly gave to them to help. They are way more efficient and effective with the money. And a lot of it is it’s not their job, it’s their cause to help people. And drugs and alcohol are a huge problem that the city pretty much ignores but charities will make you be sober for help( they will help you get clean) I follow the issue closely and all the charities have people working there that were homeless and got out of it by getting a hand up. If the cities were having any success, you’d see all the people they are helping in every campaign ad they ran during reelection but instead all you hear is how the evil Buisiness community needs to stop being so greedy and accept higher taxes so they can fix the problem
Reagan said "I don't remember" 124 times at Iran Contra hearings. Was it lies or Alzheimer's?
Plausible deniability. As long as your name isn't on anything, the left hand can always claim no knowledge of what the right hand was doing. Bring cocaine up from south america, sell it, buy AK-47's from evil Iran then bring them back to america to send to nicaragua. Only to have some of them stolen off a train car which started the entire fiasco.
Do liberals realize that Obamacare was a failure?
I think that to those who now have medical coverage, and those who have ‘pre-existing’ conditions it is NOT a failure, but a life saver.And maybe we need to answer this question about CONSERVATIVES. Why are they so hell-bent on the average American not having health care, decent wages for their work, decent housing that is not at an outrageous price, and some hope for the future?IMHO, it is a national DISGRACE that wee, the best nation on earth, do not have NATIONAL HEALTH CARE for every single one of our citizens. How to pay for it? Get rid of some of the waste that many conservatives are perfectly happy with. Tax those with ALL THE MONEY at a fair rate. Maybe cut defense spending a little. Not so that wee ar in danger (why do people think we are in danger all the time? After all, we are the only people in the entire history of the WORLD to have ever used a nuclear weapon on our fellow HUMAN BEINGS!) (Of course, that might soon change, if Trump succeeds in goading the nut in North Korea to really launch a weapon!)But how about cutting some of the costs that are CLEARLY (and have been reported many times) totally out of control! Cut some of those costs, which serve nothing to make us safer, but only to line the pockets of the already very rich!And while we are at it, how about reining in some of the insurance companies, who are totally screwing the American People with their ‘negotiated’ prices for actual care, and with the huge amounts they CHARGE for the ‘insurance’ versus what is actually PAID to the providers! For Pete’s sake folks, look at you EOBs once in a while. Do some MATH and see what medical care REALLY costs. Take out the INSURANCE companies and we could save BILLIONS!
Do any Republicans support single-payer?
Real Republicans do. You can’t say you support a balanced budget, reducing Federal debt, effective and efficient government, free markets and capitalism and not support a total overhaul of our current HC system.You can’t say you want a strong America or want to MAGA or believe in individual freedom and want to reduce corruption and keep the American Dream alive and not support some type of single payer or nationalized HC system.You can’t want to reduce taxes and not understand that the most effective way to reduce financial burden on U.S. families and boost wages and economic opportunity is to blow up our current HC system.These are all what real Republicans want to accomplish. This is a conservative agenda. So true conservatives and real Republicans support intelligent, well thought out government policy to strengthen our country economically, socially and improve our ability to defend against all enemies foreign and domestic. This effort is greatly hobbled by our highly inefficient and exceedingly expensive HC system.Paying $3.4 Trillion or 18% of GDP or $11,000 per person for health care is unsustainable. It should cost us half of this amount to provide HC to every single citizen of the U.S. we should be able to shift $1.5T a year to pay for infrastructure, R&D, education, environmental issues and economic development. Instead that money is being siphoned off and wasted. It is providing a negative ROI for the country only to enrich a small group of people.This is not capitalism. In fact it undermines capitalism and weakens our economic system. Capitalism says that the price of goods will find an equilibrium with the value it delivers. The HC industry has used government regulation to protect and divorce itself from any type of free market dynamics.Republicans should be leading the charge for HC reform and more and more are starting to see and understand the truth.MAGA happens through HC reform!!