Thoughts on the Viva Bush Speech
Published September 03, 2004
Those who suggest that medical liability doesn't increase the costs of healthcare are crazy. An OB/GYN clinic in Topeka, KS of all places was so saddled by the threat of liability that each of its members was forced to pay $100,000 / year in malpractice insurance, 10 years ago. It's probably double that now. If each of them takes home $400,000 a year, that's at least a 20% increase in the cost of medicine. I'm not saying that doctors shouldn't be liable for bad medicine, but we need to be reasonable here. It's not the doctor who gets punished, it's you and I, because we pay his malpractice insurance bill.
I got a little nervous when W started talking about IRS reform. I thought he might utter the words 'sales tax', but evidently focus group sessions indicated that simply hinting at IRS reform is a better tactic. No human alive could find their way out of the tax code if you dropped them into it, but a Sales Tax, as pretty as it sounds, still seems pretty scary to me at this point.
I know that many will disagree with me, but I did think that President Bush was legitimately and sincerely moved towards the end of his speech when he started getting misty. Bush addressed his own shortcomings, in what I thought was a wonderfully comedic way, saying,
"People sometimes have to correct my English — I knew I had a problem when Arnold Schwarzenegger started doing it. Some folks look at me and see a certain swagger, which in Texas is called 'walking.' Now and then I come across as a little too blunt — and for that we can all thank the white-haired lady sitting right up there."It was a good speech, a very good speech. Kerry may have been on the offensive a few hours later, but Bush won the day.
- Thoughts on the Viva Bush Speech
- Published: September 03, 2004
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- Section: Culture
- Writer: Jeremy Chrysler
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I thought it was a great speech overall. I agree with your comment about not addressing the deficit, and I was also wondering how we will pay for all these new medical clinics.
As to keeping America safe... IMO if we're not safe, nothing else matters very much. If I make 100K/year but have to worry about my daughter getting killed because some idiot straps a bomb to his chest and blows up at the mall, money doesn't mean squat.
Vic
Regarding Bush lies, there would be no question of his honesty if the evidence wasn't so readily available. Look up PNAC - this is the 'think tank' behind the current administration, founded by Cheney, Rumsfeld, and a bunch of very rich and powerful businessmen and military commanders. Within the PNAC website you can find downloadable documents which clearly state that the true policy of the Bush administration is to promote American affairs abroad - at the expense of the UN and the rest of the world. They openly support the idea that terrorism is just an 'opportunity' to wage 'total war' on any country which could be considered a threat to the future 'dominance' of the United States.
It also states that Iraq, and indeed, the whole of the middle east, has been a target of this 'new order' long before 9/11. PNAC doctrine calls for American leaders to attack any nation which could become a 'superpower' in the future. This probably means that Korea and China are already in their crosshairs.
To suggest that Mr Bush is not aware of the guiding hand behind his own administration would be naive, to say the least. If he is not telling the whole truth about his motives in Iraq and the rest of the world, that clearly makes him a lier.
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If President Bush intends to have a second term, he needs to do something more than present himself as the man who can keep America safe.