My best to you and your niece, James.

But, James post makes me want to make a point that I think gets lost in the health care debate. We have a pretty good health care system here in the States. Unfortunately it's not affordable to most people that do not have it throught their employer. That's a tragedy. When we have our politicians wasting billions on any little pet project they desire, to have people not be able to afford trips to the doctor is sickening. And make no mistake, that waste comes from Dems and Repubs. I was lucky to get my 5 year old into CHIP here in PA. But the waiting list for any adult help is years long. They told us that people that went on that list in 2007 are still waiting.

I would gladly pay for insurance, if I could afford it. But being a full-time student my funds are extremely limited. You know, pesky thing like food and shelter have to come first. And with most family plans running at around $800 a month, they are simply out of reach. I'm sure there are cheaper plans, but they just don't provide enough coverage or the copays are too high. I've been lucky to not have gotten sick this year,but luck can only hold out for so long. I think most people agree we need some kind of reform, and if our politicians would get their heads out of their asses and at least try to work together, something might actually get done.

It's extremely disheartening to see people at the CPAC going on about liberals, Dems, etc being their enemies, and I'm sure that any Dem convention is no better. Guess what, we're not enemies. We're all Americans. And they owe us better than what we're getting.

Best wishes to you James. However, volunteering alone won't change the system. The recent Toyota fiasco is a great example. The same people that are now chastising Toyota were taking campaign contributions from them for years. In other words you can literally get away with killing folks in this country if you have the money to buy access to politicians.

Thank you guys!

I has skin cancer when I was 22 (2002) and was cancer free in 2008. I turn 30 on Sunday... I am a lucky S.O.B.

My niece had leukemia at age 18 months (2001) and has been cancer free since 2005! She has all her hair back, and is a healthy normal kid!

The best thing is I am $3k away from paying off the Chase credit card i used to pay my 20%. They must have had a loop around the "out of pocket maximum" because my balance was close to $25k.

I have called the $350/month payment I have made to chase since 2003 my "Life Rent"...

 yeah, $25k was a lot, but I figure why complain, my life was certainly worth at least that much.

10 more payments and I have finally paid up the lien of my life, I guess!

Couldn't agree more, Lee. I personally think I'd rather try to affect as many individual lives as possible as the system just might be irreparably broken.

The bank CEOs must be incredulous behind closed doors.

Some of the same Senators who forced the CRA upon them are now chastizing them for the loans they made.

Irony or stupidity, its just too close to call!

James Malone wrote: Irony or stupidity, its just too close to call!

Well, since Americans aren't supposed to get irony, I'll have to go with stupidity for 200, Alex...

Anyone follow the Health Care Summit today?

Like most of us, I had to work, but thanks to the internet I was able to catch bits here and there.

First - SUDDENLY I'M AGAINST IT!  No, just kidding. 

Second - One of the parts I caught was on the lunch break - when CSPAN let people call in and chime in - I was happy to hear so many Republicans calling in and reporting how disgusted they were with their party.  According to the fat crying man on TV and all his co-horts, the American People are ready to rise up in armed revolution against the government over this - which rang false anyway, but more so after hearing those callers.

Third - I wish I could take credit for this, but it was written by some dude on FARK.  Here is one FARKers summation of the Summit:

Republicans: The American People want this bill gone because they hate it. Look at the polls.

Obama: Yes, but they love every individual thing in the bill when it isn't spun that there are going to be death panels and other lies you all made up. What they hate is the cost, but the reality is that bills cost money.

Republicans: But you are taking over the entire health care industry.

Obama: Alright, but you say that citing reasons which are actually Republican ideas that we included in the bill.

Republicans: Whatever, we want it all scrapped or we will continue to filibuster, and we don't want you to use reconciliation or anything else we used to ram our ideas down your throats for the first 6 years of Bush. These Senate rules that allow for a simple majority vote are un-American!

Obama: What don't you understand about how being in the minority works? If you want me to phrase it differently, we have a Democratic President and the 2nd largest majority ever, down from the largest majority ever by 1 vote, because the American people you are so fond of quoting voted your asses out after 8 years of you completely farking up our entire system. Know your place.

Republicans: Ok, fine, but the American people hate this bill because it costs too much money. We can't afford it.

Obama: Yeah, but the CBO states it will reduce our deficit in the long run compared to doing nothing. That's otherwise known as "not paying as much." It does cost money, and health care reform will cost a lot of money. It won't cost us more money than would otherwise be spent though.

Republicans: Fine, but we want it all done in small bills rather than a big, comprehensive one. That's how it should be done.

Obama: That's what we've done since you guys killed reform in the 90s. Now look where we are. If you go to fix one thing, you have to enforce it by fixing another thing, which leads to another thing, and not taking care of the side-effects each change has is the reason so many of our small bills in the past like the donut hole are now destroying us.

Republicans: But we want it all scrapped. We have to start over even though we agree on a majority of the things in the bill. We believe that suddenly all these issues will magically change and we will come up with brand new ideas tackling these problems that haven't been thought up in the past year. And we'll play fairly with you this time rather than completely abusing the filibuster process and demanding you do not use similar tactics that the majority gets to enjoy, we promise!

Obama: You already said you wanted it scrapped, I already said no.

Republicans: Ok well then we want the bill to consist mainly of our bill instead of yours. That way we can only cover 1/10th of all the uninsured people and basically do nothing useful to avert the impending disaster we are heading into at our current rate.

Obama: YOU ARE IN THE MINORITY. YOU DON'T GET TO CALL THE SHOTS. WHAT IS SO farkING DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND ABOUT THIS?

Republicans: But this bill costs too much money. We can't afford it and the American people don't want it.

Obama: ... ok now you're just farking with me, right?

Well played, FARKer, well played.