From Wikipedia:
“On January 21, 2009, the Chinese government announced that a total of 850 billion yuan will be provided between 2009 and 2011 in order to improve the existing health care system.”

A yuan is about $0.15 on the dollar, so ~130 billion U.S.D. over 2 years – pitifully small compared to what our plan would cost.

Social security paid out $612 billion alone in 2008. $682 billion for Medicare in Medicaid in the same time period. And you want to add a public plan, which will rival these costs AT LEAST.

To answer your question: Yes, unfortunately I do have a sense of reality, which makes your denialism that much more unstomachable.

Seriously? About 650 million Chinese belong to the New Rural Co-operative Medical Care System, which is heavily subzidized by the Chinese government.

Have you no sense of reality?

Ah, the Obama recovery!

Had we done that in late 2008 as a response to the economic collapse, we’d be sitting around with a 25% unemployment rate by now.

And yes, you are right, the health insurance execs will make off like bandits. For that we can largely thank Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln, and the entire Republican caucus. They served their constituency very well.

you’re exactly right – we have not paid for 2 wars, and were under the false illusion of prosperity created by a credit boom that forced us to eat out savings. we’re in that pit now.

instead of creating the mother of all entitlement programs – obamacare – when clearly the rest we’ve created are already going broke – we should be SLASHING government spending, reducing taxes, and leaving the damn money supply alone.

clearly, we are not only getting some of it wrong, but literally all of it. i would recommend reading a book on the 1930s, because that’s how we’re positioning ourselves. the only saving grace is the 22nd amendment.

and, as predictable as ever, the corporate interests do get their way after being coerced by government – health insurance execs will make off like bandits.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/health-industry-execs-poised-to-make-a-bundle-2009-12-29

sometimes i wish i were wrong more often!

I don’t understand the bar chart, however – our national debt hit 11 trillion in March 2009. The numbers for 2008 look wildly low.

Granted, it’s a serious problem – but it has resulted from our overstripping during the last decade the ability of domestic capital sources to primarily fund the debt

which happened in no small part thanks to two things – the Bush tax cuts, and the Middle Eastern wars.

that said – do you remember this?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/411973.stm