Remove the pundits, polls and media from the discussion

[Guest]

Let's get radically conservative and conservatively radical and eliminate the opinions, claims and assertions of media pundits, columnists and talk-show hosts - and everybody else who doesn't live in The Villages -- and not refer to them to support a point of view. State your opinion and convince us why your view is better than anyone else's.

May I suggest that the major national issues facing us are:
1) Unemployment (do we just ride it out or do additional stimulus or tax cuts -- be specific;

2) Health care (do we make no changes, do Medicare for everyone, require everyone to purchase health insurance (a la' Massachusetts), force insurance companies to stop eliminating coverage for people with 'pre-existing conditions' or something else;

3) Afghanistan -- walk away and deal with Al Queda with Predator drones or stay and put the Afghan government on notice for 1 or 2 years to produce or leave it open-ended and stay until whenever under what conditions; and

4) climate warming -- is the climate warming, is it part of a natural cycle or is mankind exacerbating it -- and if so, what should be done?
Put forth your opinions and why you -- not some pundit -- think that is the way to do it.

This could be fun and enlightening for all of us! Thanks for participating.

[Guest]

Let's get radically conservative and conservatively radical and eliminate the opinions, claims and assertions of media pundits, columnists and talk-show hosts - and everybody who doesn't live in The Villages -- and not refer to them to support a point of view. State your opinion and convince us why it is better than anything else.
May I suggest that the major national issues facing us are: 1) Unemployment (do we just ride it out or do additional stimulus or tax cuts -- be specific; 2) Health care (do we make no changes, do Medicare for everyone, require everyone to purchase health insurance (a la' Massachusetts), force insurance companies to stop eliminating coverage for people with 'pre-existing conditions' ; and 3) Afghanistan -- walk away and deal with Al Queda with Predator drones or stay and put their government on notice for 1 or 2 years to produce or leave it open-ended and stay until whenever under what conditions?
Put forth your opinions and why you -- not some pundit -- think that is the way to do it.
This could be fun and enlightening for all of us! Thanks for participating.

1) Unemployment. Provide tax cuts to stimulate the economy. Historicaly, tax cuts work. Massive government spending has not.

2) We need to eliminate fraud first. You cannot stop insurance companies from eliminating pre-exisHistoricallyting conditions. Very few would purchase insurance until they needed it. (That's human nature) That would defeat the whole principle nature of insurance: "To share the risk." The premiums would be greatly higher. You would be prepaying medical costs, not sharing the risk. There are people who pay into the insurance pool all their lives and never collect. This helps to offset those who collect more.

3) Afghanistan? Give it another year of action run by the military not politicians. Develope a plan B.

These are my answers based on my experience and education and I live in the villages. These are my answers to the questions asked only.

Yoda

[Guest]

Let's get radically conservative and conservatively radical and eliminate the opinions, claims and assertions of media pundits, columnists and talk-show hosts - and everybody else who doesn't live in The Villages -- and not refer to them to support a point of view. State your opinion and convince us why your view is better than anyone else's.

May I suggest that the major national issues facing us are:
1) Unemployment (do we just ride it out or do additional stimulus or tax cuts -- be specific;

2) Health care (do we make no changes, do Medicare for everyone, require everyone to purchase health insurance (a la' Massachusetts), force insurance companies to stop eliminating coverage for people with 'pre-existing conditions' or something else;

3) Afghanistan -- walk away and deal with Al Queda with Predator drones or stay and put the Afghan government on notice for 1 or 2 years to produce or leave it open-ended and stay until whenever under what conditions; and

4) climate warming -- is the climate warming, is it part of a natural cycle or is mankind exacerbating it -- and if so, what should be done?
Put forth your opinions and why you -- not some pundit -- think that is the way to do it.

This could be fun and enlightening for all of us! Thanks for participating.

1. I would lean to tax cuts to allow expansion of all sizes of business and any other tax cutting tools to help business at this juncture.

2. Allow insurance companies to cross state lines to sell insurance....address tort reform immediately !

3, Afghanastan is a problem for me. So many other countries have failed there in the past. I sort of liked Joe Biden's idea of using the drones and counterterroist troops in smaller numbers.

4. Mankind surely does not HELP the climate, but this was grabbed as a political issues years ago and I find it impossible to find any reading on it that is not bias one way or another.

Now, I also would add to your list....IRAN which is very serious !

I also want to add that these issues are very complicated..,..each one....and none of us have the "solution" in a few sentences and for that reason I do in fact have great understanding for those who must address them.

[Guest]

Unemployment? That's hard to say. We may well finally be bottoming out in that department. As far as further tax cuts, I'd have to say "no" because of all the pollution of the special interests. What I *would* say is that this would be a good time to OVERHAUL the tax code. We should put all the options on the table. Maybe we want to move to more consumption taxes and fewer income taxes - to stimulate savings and help uncover the "underground economy". I'd certainly like FLATTER taxes.

Health care. Having worked in this industry, I can tell you there are SO many things wrong that you almost get a feeling of "where do I start?" and it seems like 'too much'. But we need more competition and we need transparency. In another thread I suggested mandating all companies to give their employees a raise commensurate to the employer contribution to their health care premiums and then making the employee write the check. Again - we pay the most and aren't even in the Top 30 countries for what we get. We have to make people more aware of how much is really being paid - what THEY ARE PAYING even when they don't "see" it. That should get some righteous outrage going.

Afghanistan? They've had 8 years to get their act together. It took us from 1775 to 1781 to gain our independence and until 1787 to get our Constitution in order. The time limit shouldn't be phrased in a way of saying "We're leaving by [date]..". It should be phrased as "If you can't get your act together by [date], we're not going spill more of our blood for you..."