State of the Union

A couple of things:

In the Bush plan, it isn't so much the ideas as the inevitable corruption and graft that occurs.

I have a HSA and I think it is a good idea for someone like me. I am mostly healthy but (I am prone to accidents just ask Stew )for someone who has a chronic illness like type I diabetes or psoariosis it will be very difficult to realise any savings.

These HSA's need to be set up at birth.

Bush could stop the bombs, cut off the oil companies, eliminate farm subsidies, and cut the millitary industrial complex down to something like, well, whatever the budget is for art. We would have the money to start every child off with a little fund that can grow and be used to teach finincal skills at an early age.
The problems are going to be that the HSAs are populated with the young and healthy but the traditional plans will be filled with high risk patients. Something that is not the case now as the risk is shared. I can't claim to understand all the nuance in capitation but I get the idea that the problem is not with the sick patients but ridiculous profits.
We have seen Health South and what can happen in a managed health care system.

Then there is the single payer system that is currently in use. MEDICARE and MEDICAID serve the nation quite well. Don't try whining about big government either you wingnuts have no credibility. Trying to pretend that you are the party of smaller government will just not hold water anymore.

The Danish use an open-source, electronic medical record system that could be used to deliver the goods at very low cost.
The point I'm trying to make is that HSAs can work but Bush will more than likely appoint the director to be some ballet dancer or a lumberjack with whom he went to school. That dude will suck up the cushy job for a few years and then start lobbying.

Same ole thing

We are going to be at war for years and years. Hopefully forever I'm sure. One thing that could make America safe would be to stop pointing to WWII and excusing our behavior on that good deed. Bush wants to invade more countries. He said America was never stronger than when freedom was on the march.
When I run that through the realspeak analyser it means: "America is going to be seen as weak if we don't invade Iran. We gotta do it soon since they're gettin the bomb. I made sure that we lost all intelligence when my administration outed that CIA operative."

Here we have a chance to stoke American pride and show what has been accomplished in the past year. How it came off was a desperate attempt to excuse his illegal domestic spying. I guess he hasn't accomplished much at all. More people living below the poverty line. Dirty air. Dirty water. No progress on who sent that anthrax or where Sadam's W'sMD are. No progress on Bin Laden but we have gotten 98% of the number 2 leaders. Pretty soon we can start working our way through the number three's. That should last for a few decades huh?