“Young Americans too fat to fight” and Romney’s solution to health insurance problem.

[jody]

Young Americans too fat to fight

The Southern Governors' Association convention heard that obesity was creating the first generation of Americans who might not live as long as their parents. Dr William Rowley, who was a vascular surgeon for 30 years and now works at the Institute for Alternative Futures, said 61 per cent of US active-duty military personnel are overweight.
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"We keep talking about the war on terror - who's going to fight it if we don't have enough people who are healthy enough to show up and pick up a backpack?"
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On Friday, Mr Romney said the government had to help to ensure everyone was covered by health insurance.
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Instead of using federal money to reimburse hospitals for treating people without insurance, he said he wanted the money to be used to help low- income people buy insurance at a lower cost.

Is giving money to low-income people to buy health insurance the most effective government policy?

Would that make them easy marks for unscrupulous insurance salespeople?

[More Than A Feeling]

1. Peace through lunch!

Seriously though, this is just plain embarrassing.

[TwilightGardener]

9. Huckabee's not concerned with troops DYING FOR NOTHING, he's

concerned with their BMI's. He is such a fucking idiot. Tell you what, Huckster, throw them into the desert with a backpack and shitty MRE's, and they'll lose weight for ya. Goddamn, I can't believe there are people here who LIKE this jackass. Weight and fitness are "First Lady" issues, NOT a Presidential matter. But of course, Tubby lost weight and wants to remind everyone how great he is.

[More Than A Feeling]

12. Remember the "President's Fitness Challenge" in grade school?

Was that a First Lady initiative?

[TwilightGardener]

16. LOL! I barely remember that--that was a joke. I can't remember whose

idea it was. I'm all for encouraging fitness, but Huckster reminds me of one of those assholes who gets "converted" to something, and then can't fucking shut up about it. My husband's in the military, and he knows all about heavy troops. They are forced to undergo weight reduction before they deploy, or their careers suffer. I don't think it's the number-one challenge facing our military right now.

[PDJane]

2. Yes.

Which is, I am sure, the point.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

3. Romney's solution:

Direct government subsidies for insurance companies, allowing them to continue to rape the economy and then, begin to rape the treasury.

A fine repuke solution. As usual.

[HereSince1628]

8. Yes, instead of reducing middlemen, guarantee them a profit.

That's the Republican way.

[DBoon]

11. It was good enough for Enron and Halliburton

nt

[Swamp Rat]

4. Then how come Romney doesn't send his 'fit' sons to fight?

I saw they were all skinny - perfect for military service according to Romney.

[saigon68]

17. Pierce Bush Enlist ?

[rubberducky]

5. The poor would pay the highest rates.

[Deja Q]

6. It's a good thing all those jobs are being offshored...

We're a global marketplace. Amongst everything else that can be made "global", it is - or is in transition of becoming. Therefore why are we still divided into countries and bickering? When will all borders be erased, as ultimately it's got to be both or neither. In theory, but I was never a good chess player so don't ask me how to make sense of everything.

And are there countries whose peoples are not involved as much as America? We need to get jogging again, I won't argue that, but my point is this: In a global world, surely all the good people would want to look out and fight the bad ones? I only keep hearing how other countries are pulling out of Iraq, with D's and R's here at home mulling the same thing too. It doesn't add up.

[Rex]

7. Institute for Alternative Futures!?

WTF? I'm sure Mittens the Cat is all for altering the future! Mr. Double Gitmo is coo coo for craziness!

[DBoon]

10. It is effective at increasing insurance company revenue

at the taxpayer expense.

Writing blank checks for private industry is the republican way.

[TwilightGardener]

13. Honestly, I'm not sure what's wrong with Romney's approach--

maybe someone can explain it to me, but it seems preferable to have a long-term insurance solution into which a family contributes SOME money, rather than just picking up a hospital tab.

[lvx35]

15. Yeah, its good, that's why its bad.

If republicans grow a brain on lack of healthcare costing companies a fortune and hurting troops, it could really hurt us in the general election.

[lvx35]

14. I appreciate Romney's point, and its totally accurate. Lack of health care is hurting us.

Yes I am a dem and I surely won't vote for him, but as a moderate, I wish the media would stop spinning Guliani as the one that's supposed to appeal to me when many of the other republican Candidates would appeal much more. As a moderate Dem, if I were forced to vote republican, I can tell them that I would pick Romney, Huckabee, and Ron Paul over Guliani. Moderates are alarmed by the secretive mafioso style of the Bush administration, and Guliani seems a continuation of that.

[TwilightGardener]

18. Agree with you on Romney, but I don't think Rudy is all that nuts.

He's a little crazy on the Islamic terra thing, but he doesn't scare me. McCain is mostly rational, too. Huckabee and Paul are both nuts--Huckabee is a religious zealot and none too terribly bright (like CHIMPY!), and Paul would dismantle our government institutions, although he's right about the war. NONE of them are truly acceptable, however. Probably Hagel would be about the most acceptable, if he was running.

[lvx35]

19. I don't know much about Hagel.

But what bothers me most about Bush isn't his Christian stuff, its the secrecy, the sense that its not real and that something else entirely is going on. Both with Paul and Huckabee I get the sense they are real, they mean what they say. Paul for instance is a real conservative in that he believes in less government...With Bush on the other hand, he plays lip service to this while spending more than any other government in history, and creating incredibly intrusive agencies. I would most like good size, functional government that helps the people. But I would prefer no government over Bush's government, which both spends massive amounts of money like big government, but I get zero services.

[TwilightGardener]

20. Hagel's like a respected, mainstream, less-draconian Ron Paul. Huckabee strikes me as

a complete phony--he's always coming up with these stupid one-liners and "funny" comments that he pretends are spontaneous, but you can tell he's just been WAITING for an excuse to use them--AND he's a religious nutbag. Of all of the GOPers running, he reminds me the most of Bush, in religious fanaticism, in intelligence, and in dubious achievement as Governor. The Christian stuff bothers me, because the 30-percenters are really convinced that Christianity and Islam are heading towards a giant clash of civilizations--that's why they are so nuts about the War of Terra and Iraq/Iran. Huckster would just keep feeding into that, just the way Bush is doing.

[lvx35]

21. You're probably somewhat right about Huckabee.

My positive impressions come from his lack of screwing up fiscally as govener, and keeping social programs alive:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Huckabee#Fiscal_record
But if you read the paragraph right below, you can see him caving to pressure, and the pressure for him to act like ass would be greatly increased as president. I'm thinking that you may be right in that he would be like Bush, he is a big spender and that makes his chances for creating Bush like damage much higher, especially if he has that clash of civilizations trip going on.