22 replies to this topic

[Humble Dew]

The day is nearly here. Here's your chance to say goodbye to George any way you want.

Edited by Jangler, 09 January 2009 - 07:40 AM.

[cookinwithgas]

I'm gonna miss Barney, he was pretty cool.

[Fiz]

Slate has made a nice and handy goodbye article that tells you the price tag of bush's presidency!

Cost of implementing Medicare Part D: $534 billion

Difference in price of brand-name drugs, U.S. and Canada, in 2004: 70 percent more expensive in the U.S.

Increase in average prescription drug price between 1997 and 2007: From $35.72 to $69.91

While buying drugs for seniors, Bush denied healthcare to kids. In 2007, he vetoed an expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, which gives federal money to the states to help provide health insurance for families with children.

Number of children kept off of SCHIP because of Bush's veto: 4 million

Meanwhile, the nation's underlying healthcare problems remain unaddressed. Healthcare grows more expensive, and the number of uninsured Americans, as a percentage of the population, is not decreasing.

Number of uninsured Americans: 46 million, or 18 percent of the population under 65. Says Roger Hickey, founder and co-director of the progressive political organization Campaign for America's Future, "That's about 16 percent of the population. A larger and larger percentage of the public is losing their employer-sponsored healthcare because it's become so expensive for employers to insure their people. And that's the backbone of our system."

Increase in the amount that the average employee pays toward employer-provided healthcare since 2000: 120 percent

According to Hickey, the number of uninsured has fluctuated over the past eight years, but the figure is deceiving. "I can't say that it's gotten dramatically worse. [B]ut there was an analysis when the latest numbers came out about three months ago that showed the only thing that kept it from getting worse is that more and more people are signing up for public programs like Medicaid." Hickey expects the number to spike upward very soon. "People are losing their jobs -- there's about to be a huge leap in the uninsured as the recession hits."

Hickey characterizes Bush's expansion of Medicare as "a wasted opportunity," because of corporate influence on drug pricing. "The legislation was written by drug company lobbyists and lobbyists-to-be like Billy Tauzin of Louisiana, who wrote the bill and then took a job as the head of PHRMA, the pharmaceutical lobbying organization ... There are actually provisions in that law that protect drug companies from competitive pricing."

Harvard Business School professor Regina E. Herzlinger, author of the book "Who Killed Health Care?," says that the scariest American healthcare stat is probably how much we spend on it as a percentage of our economy.

Cost of healthcare as a percentage of GDP: 16 percent

Ratio of cost of healthcare to cost of national defense: 4.3-1

"As an economist," says Herzlinger, "I am tremendously concerned about the ever increasing fraction of our GDP that's taken up with health care. Most of the countries that we compete with average 9 to 10 percent of their GDP on health care. We spend about 70 percent more and I cannot honestly say that we're getting 70 percent better health care in the U.S."

"I put this squarely at the foot of the Bush Administration. They were purportedly people who were interested in helping consumers but they didn't do a lot of the things that could have helped the consumer."

[pstall]

Thanks for the easiest money we ever made.

Signed,
Comedians

[Fiz]

I'm gonna miss Barney, he was pretty cool.

this really is the best picture from the bush presidency

[Speed]

Goodbye Mr. President. Hello high taxes!

[Humble Dew]

[Fiz]

Ever look at polls like this...



...and wonder who the 19% of people are that, for example, think Bush helped the economy?

Goodbye Mr. President. Hello high taxes!

[Speed]

Ever look at polls like this...



...and wonder who the 19% of people are that, for example, think Bush helped the economy?

Lots of women in my town slidin' up and down polls.

[Humble Dew]

With a budding recession, Obama is not stupid enough to raise taxes.........yet.

[Speed]

With a budding recession, Obama is not stupid enough to raise taxes.........yet.

Let's get up a pool. I will take between Jan. '09 and the end of 2011. I'll kick in $50. Any takers?

[Htar]

You people that think Bush is soley responsible for the economy need to grow a brain...Really...In actuality, Bush did very little to tinker with the economy. Most of the garbage that led to the meltdown are obvious to all but those who want to blame BUSH.

Biggest screw ups for Bush: Expansion of fed government and not wrapping the Iraq war up fast enough.

[mmmbeans]

You people that think Bush is soley responsible for the economy need to grow a brain...Really...In actuality, Bush did very little to tinker with the economy. Most of the garbage that led to the meltdown are obvious to all but those who want to blame BUSH.

Biggest screw ups for Bush: Expansion of fed government and not wrapping the Iraq war up fast enough.

I don't think he's solely responsible for what happened to the economy, but he certainly ignored it for as long as he could and has provided absolutely 0 leadership or guidance for the last six months during one of the most severe economic downturns we've ever seen. Oh yea, and fighting two wars and increasing spending while cutting taxes is beyond stupid.

[Htar]

I don't think he's solely responsible for what happened to the economy, but he certainly ignored it for as long as he could and has provided absolutely 0 leadership or guidance for the last six months during one of the most severe economic downturns we've ever seen. Oh yea, and fighting two wars and increasing spending while cutting taxes is beyond stupid.

Cutting taxes is good, but spending cuts should accompany...See, Bush went lib on us and expanded government and spent money like mad to boot.

And the thought that BUSH ignored it as though he were the PARAGON of knowledge (when according to every lib he can't walk and breathe at the same time) as if he knew it a possiblility? Hell, it shocked eveybody! Oome on libs, can't have it both ways.

[mmmbeans]

Cutting taxes is good, but spending cuts should accompany...See, Bush went lib on us and expanded government and spent money like mad to boot.

And the thought that BUSH ignored it as though he were the PARAGON of knowledge (when according to every lib he can't walk and breathe at the same time) as if he knew it a possiblility? Hell, it shocked eveybody! Oome on libs, can't have it both ways.

i don't think he's an idiot, do you?