The Best Reason Now To Be An Expat In Argentina...

[Dublin2BuenosAires]

From election in Argentina to healthcare in the US...again. Can we have a single discussion where the thread isn't hijacked by this sh1t.

 

[Arnebartelsman]

Tbh this topic was started as a discussion about Obamacare.

I also don't understand this argument about 'you shouldn't force someone to pay for something he doesn't need/want'. Isn't that what a government does? I pay taxes which pays for free education that I don't need, provide benefits to people with children which I don't have and builds roads for a car I don't own. Again I don't know exactly how Obamacare works but if that's the only argument against it, it seems weak

 

[camberiu]

Please tell me you're not stating or implying Obama is a dictator. I don't like most of his policies and ideas either but the man was democratically elected twice, or is he dictatorial if you don't agree with his policies?

Let's see....

-Kill lists and the self proclaimed authority to kill any American (or anyone) at his discretion at any time, anywhere. check.
-Maintaining the practice of torture, check.
-Tapping people's communication without warrant, check
-Keeping a gulag like prison in Guantanamo, check
-Using the IRS to harass political opponents, check.
-Supporting laws that would criminalize criticism of the secret courts and warrantless tappings, check.
- Seizing private records from the press without court orders, check.
-Maintaining a clandestine (and illegal) program for sending weapons to Mexican drug dealers. Check.
-Having his staff deliberately and knowingly lie to congress about the NSA tappings. Check.

Sounds like a dictator to me, irrelevant of being elected or not.

 

[EdRooney]

Camberiu, you don't understand the terminology.

The word 'dictator' is a highly technical term used to refer a leader that we don't like. Thus you will see in the NY York Times, Washington Post, NPR, Fox, etc, that leaders such as Qadafi, Hussein, Castro et al. are labled 'dictators', while our friends such as the Saudis, the Emir of Bahrain, Ali Abdullah Saleh, etc. are never awarded the title. Regardless of what they do in office or what human rights they trample.

So for example: Hugo Chavez elected three times in some of the cleanest elections on record? Dictator, don't like him.
Suharto, ruthless repressor and genocide? according to Clinton "Our kind of guy".

There are of course exceptions, for example, when asked if he thought Mubarak was a dictator, Obama said "I don't like to label people," but that was before his rule was obviously over, at which point we came out with joyful proclamations in support of 'democracy'. Same pattern as with former BFFs Saddam, Marcos, Somoza, Noriega...

So please, get your terminology straight.

 

[camberiu]

Camberiu, you don't understand the terminology.
(...)
The word 'dictator' is a highly technical term used to refer a leader that we don't like.
(...)
So please, get your terminology straight.

I don't like Obama, so I guess I used it right

 

[jeff1234]

I've seen lots of articles about the faults of the computer system but haven't seen anything recently about what its going to cost the country for Obamacare. The US already cant pay for Medicare or payback the money borrowed from Social Security so I dont know where the money will come from to pay for Obamacare.

Overall I have mixed feelings about the whole project. I don't think of health care as a 'right' but a 'nice to have if you can afford it'.

I dont think the government should force citizens to buy health insurance. But I'm fine with requiring car insurance and social security payroll deductions.

Many big government programs like food stamps are a great idea. But inevitably they are abused. Stores in New York City sell blue barrels of food in exchange for food stamps. These barrels are shipped to friends and relatives in other countries, at taxpayer expense.

I'm not just worried about fraud but also the likely creeping expansion of the benefits. I love the idea that everyone with a sick child or pre-exiting condition can have medical care. But I also remember when it was a great idea for everyone to own a home. Very soon that became everyone, even if they couldnt pay the mortgage and taxes. That quickly progressed into the right for people near me in Florida to get $600,000 mortgages on $500,000 homes even though they were unemployed and had no money to put down. And this was LEGAL during the conservative Bush administration.

I think I would have preferred to start with a federal law that each state has to provide reasonably priced catastrophic event coverage for its citizens.

 

[ajoknoblauch]

Testing

 

[ghost]

Testing

1,2,3

 

[ajoknoblauch]

And you a bastion of intelligence and foresight , Supporting dictators with ridiculous remarks .

Maximizing her sophisticated literacy skills, Sami explores the world:

http://i.imgur.com/cjOO7Yw.jpg

 

[fifs2]

Maximizing her sophisticated literacy skills, Sami explores the world:

http://i.imgur.com/cjOO7Yw.jpg

Would you two girls just ever kiss and make up... PS Ajoknoblauch personally gets my vote in any dog fight.