I could point out that it's a good thing for the stability of our society overall, and for its future prospects, if people can take their kids, and themselves, to the doctor before it becomes an emergency; if they can get a decent education at an affordable price; if they can live in safe and clean environments, so that their children can grow up healthy and hopeful; and if they can know that, should a catastrophe befall them, there are institutions in place to help them that are not determined on how much someone "feels like giving" this year, but on a sense of common good and common, yes, welfare.

Yes, these are all good things. Republicans think these are good things. Democrats think these are good things. Socialists think these are good things. Communists think these are good things. Libertarians think these are good things.

I have had it up to here with the binary assumption that you are either for funneling a huge portion of the wealth in the country through an all-powerful Federal bureaucracy, or that you must not want anything good for the citizens of America.

All of these goals have free-market solutions, or at the very least, solutions from local and state governments. The only thing is that the Federal government wants power, and there is no power in citizens solving their own problems.

What evidence do you have that massively-centralized solutions are the best solutions? The record of government programs for delivering bang for the buck stinks on ice. I can't even get a liberal to agree that maybe, just maybe, we could be backing off a little bit, or at least not adding to the burden any more.

Kerry is promoting nationalized health care. This in light of the fact that every single entitlement ever created has grossly exceeded cost expectations by almost orders of magnitude.*

Every single one.

And his estimate for his program is over $900 billion for the first ten years. Remember, that's the estimate.

Given our past experience with such programs, including Medicare which accounts for almost all of our nation's future indebtedness, what possible belief can anyone have that this time, for sure, it will work?

But I'm talking to myself, again, aren't I? Anyway, I can see the light of the approaching train, and there's damn little I can do about it. As long as those who see themselves on the receiving end of the goodies outnumber those who have to pay for it, the fix is in.

You were aware of how a small percentage of people in this country pay most of the taxes?

But I have discovered that trying to get this across to some people on the right is like trying to convince them that the poor and the working classes have merit and value even though they don't have money.

This kind of juvenile crack is beneath you.

.

*And yes, I haven't forgotten Bush and his stupid prescription drug coverage. I laughed my ass off when the Democrats complained about how the cost was higher than expected, when their own proposal's costs had been even higher than that.