are you a republican?

[aphar]

RNC released a list of "republican principles", i.e., 10 positions, disagreeing with 7 of which disqualifies a candidate from the party support. Let's see...

(1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s “stimulus” bill
Check. Note the order: lower taxes after reducing debt and deficit.

(2) We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run health care
What is "market-based health care reform"?
Providing health care to employees is the biggest problem for small businesses, so a single-payer system is a must.

(3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation
The "cap and trade" imbecility indeed does not work.
We need a carbon tax from which the utilities will not be able to weasel out, like they now do with "cap and trade" with the grandfathering provisions.

(4) We support workers’ right to secret ballot by opposing card check;
Check.

(5) We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;
Check. Especially the "assimilation" part. I would also give a visa to anyone with at least a Master's degree in a technical field from a good school.

(6) We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;
Year, right. Fighting in a way our opponents understand (i.e., mass-murdering civilians) is against our core beliefs, so no surges will do us any good. We should either get out of there altogether or finance a side which would further our goals - ignoring the methods that side might employ. Disgusting? Yes! Can't live with it? Then learn that you cannot explain the notions of liberal democracy to people who practice female genital mutilations and honor killings and get out of those countries!

(7) We support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat;
Dream on. The only thing which works on this planet is force (or a credible threat thereof). We cannot (for internal reasons) threaten these nations with nukes, so we have absolutely no leverage with them.

(8) We support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;
Check. We need to put a stop somewhere, e.g., a "menage a troi" or "human-dog" relationships are obviously (at least for now) not kinds of marriage. Restricting marriage to what it has meant for millennia seems reasonable.

(9) We support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion;
Huh? So we are supposed to keep vegetables on the ventilator forever?
Seriously, "health care rationing" is inevitable and is already happening.

(10) We support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership.
Check!!! Make gun ownership mandatory!

Hmm, I guess I am not republican enough.
Тигры не любят чертополоха

Comments

[ymarkov.livejournal.com]

Providing health care to employees is the biggest problem for small businesses, so a single-payer system is a must.
Doesn't follow. Mandate catastrophic insurance, if you must (with subsidies for the indigent), but a single-payer system is a recipe for stagnation.

We need a carbon tax
Whatever for?

so no surges will do us any good.
Seemed to work in Iraq...

The only thing which works on this planet is force (or a credible threat thereof).
Right, and what kind of president/Congress is more likely to deploy that? BTW, I can see the American public being sold on tactical bunker-buster nukes, after a good PR campaign.

"health care rationing" is inevitable and is already happening.
Right. The only question is - who will exercise it? I want to ration my care myself, based on what I can pay.

Тигры не любят чертополоха
И желудей!

[aphar.livejournal.com]

Doesn't follow.
insuring employees is much more expensive for a small business than for a large one.
how do you suppose to level the playing field?

Mandate catastrophic insurance, if you must (with subsidies for the indigent)
we already have that - the indigent can go to emergency rooms.

a single-payer system is a recipe for stagnation.
single payer is not ideal, but the current situation is a disaster.
among other things, it stifles innovation by preventing people without a spouse with an insurance from joining startups.

carbon tax
is necessary to put a cost on a public resource - clean environment.
just like we require chemical plants to cleanup their runoff or pay for it, we should require coal plants to be either stop polluting or pay up.

[surges] Seemed to work in Iraq...
nope. what worked was the switch from search&destroy to population security, provided by the local thugs payed for by us.

what kind of president/Congress is more likely to deploy [force]?
Reagan, Bush v1, Clinton, Bush v2 - all deployed our forces.
Reagan: Grenada (good)
Bush1: Panama (good), Kuwait (he sold out Israel for that, so I am not sure)
Clinton: Yugoslavia (created 2 new Muslim states in Europe), Somalia (failure), Sudan (good), Iraq (no effect)
Bush2: Iraq (overall - bad execution), Afghanistan (ditto)
summary: they all mostly suck.

I want to ration my care myself, based on what I can pay.
You are not rationing it yourself.
your insurance company is.
there are things it will pay for, and you can get them.
there are things it will not pay for, and you cannot get them unless you go broke - and even then...
part of the reason the insurance companies are relatively generous is that there are quite a few people who carry no insurance at all, and since this group is disproportionally sick, this makes it cheaper for the rest of us.

on the other hand, the main cost of the health care is caring for the elderly for the last 2 years of their lives. reigning in this cost would go a long way towards saving the system.

[ymarkov.livejournal.com]

insuring employees is much more expensive for a small business
Uncouple insurance from employment. That's the biggest needed reform.

the indigent can go to emergency rooms
That's not where the largest expenses are, and the indigent are not the ones threatened here - it's the middle class family that might face a $250,000 cancer bill, for example.

current situation is a disaster
Right, but single-payer is a cure worse than the disease, especially long-term.

require coal plants to be either stop polluting
CO2 is not a pollutant (the EPA notwithstanding). SO2, NOX, and the like are - and are already controlled.

they all mostly suck
OK. How about "who is a more credible threat to thugs?"

You are not rationing it yourself.
I know, but I want to.

As for the last two years, that's mostly Medicare. The current proposed "reform" will do nothing about that.

[aphar.livejournal.com]

Uncouple insurance from employment. That's the biggest needed reform.
how? forbid corporation providing med.ins. to employees?

single-payer is a cure worse than the disease, especially long-term.
I have heard the opposite opinion too.
Not being an expert, I cannot decide.

CO2 is not a pollutant
why?

who is a more credible threat to thugs?
Sometimes it is cheaper to use non-violent options.
I don't want to expend the future of my country on fixing up some garbage dump 10,000 km away.

As for the last two years, that's mostly Medicare. The current proposed "reform" will do nothing about that.
this sucks.