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Talk show host uses Walter Reed Building 18 as a reason socialized medicine will fail

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Selatius Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-07-07 11:42 AM
Original message
Talk show host uses Walter Reed Building 18 as a reason socialized medicine will fail
Edited on Wed Mar-07-07 11:44 AM by Selatius
You probably haven't been following this story carefully. Perhaps you should. An investigative reporting team from The Washington Post investigated conditions at the Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington .. particularly the outpatient facilities. What they found was deplorable. There was mold, there were rats, and there was no small amount of grime and filth. Our injured soldiers were waiting interminable lengths of time for the most basic services. In short, the place was a mess. In the aftermath of the investigation the General in charge of Walter Reed resigned .... followed by the Secretary of the Army. Let's dispense with the PC language here. They didn't resign. They were fired. The American people won't tolerate this type of shabby treatment for our injured soldiers.

President Bush is going to appoint a commission to investigate all of this. Whoopee. Another government commission. Can't wait.

While they're cleaning up this mess at Walter Reed ... here's what you need to know. This treatment that was being delivered to our injured soldiers is the future of your health care. This is what you, if you're somewhat young, and most certainly your children have to deal with as the United States moves inexorably toward socialized medicine. Government health care.

A recent poll shows that three-fourths of all Americans want Universal Health Insurance. That's right .... the people conducting the poll actually capitalized Universal Health Insurance.

Let's dispel something right now. It's not insurance these people want, it's a medical payment plan. The purpose of insurance is to reimburse you for unexpected losses. The cost of regular health care, and this includes the normal costs associated with a pregnancy, are not unexpected. We should budget for these costs just as we would budget for the expenses of owning a home or a car.

http://boortz.com/nuze/200703/03052007.html#walterreed

Tell me, was health care in Building 18 privatized and given over to a third party company to administer? Am I mistaken here? Also, if we examine things like social security and medicare, isn't it true that those two entities are not under the control of the Bush White House but are considered separate from that? To the point where the budget for Medicare and Social Security are considered separate from the General Fund of the US Congress?

If it is true that health care at 18 was privatized, would the onus not be on those who favor for-profit institutions running health care to prove that they are, indeed, better able to handle health care than a non-profit government entity with the primary goal of delivering health care instead of generating a profit for the shareholders as the prime goal?
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flamin lib Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-07-07 11:44 AM
Response to Original message
1. The reason Walter Reed is a scandal is because the Bush
Bunch privitized the soldier's care. If anything WR is an excellent ecample of why we NEED single payer.
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enigmatic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-07-07 11:54 AM
Response to Reply #1
10. Exactly
:thumbsup:
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Monkeyman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-07-07 12:00 PM
Response to Reply #1
12. Kick for the truth
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ThoughtCriminal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-07-07 11:45 AM
Response to Original message
2. An associate of mine tried this talking point yesterday
He was totally unprepared when I informed him that Walter Reed had been privatized and that the decline in care was a direct result.
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GreenPartyVoter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-07-07 11:53 AM
Response to Reply #2
9. Heheh. How did that go over?
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ThoughtCriminal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-07-07 12:08 PM
Response to Reply #9
15. It got better
He complained that socialized medicine was inevitable in this country and that it was going to be disaster.

I suggested that he might consider leaving the country if that happened. But I could not think of a place he could go since every other industrialized country on the planet had national health care.

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GreenPartyVoter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-07-07 12:15 PM
Response to Reply #15
17. LOL Poor bebby
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Donnachaidh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-07-07 11:47 AM
Response to Original message
3. Neil Boortz -- that fascist gasbag?
Please.

Yet another douchebag that has more to say out of his nether region than his brain. And I mean that as a COMPLIMENT.

Boortz is a limbaugh wanna-be. He should buy a rug for the top of his head, he's definitely had WAY too much sun. :sarcasm:
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krispos42 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-07-07 11:57 AM
Response to Reply #3
11. Wasn't Boortz the guy who admitted to fucking livestock while growing up?
n/t
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Cerridwen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-07-07 11:48 AM
Response to Original message
4. Privatized and given to a Halliburton related corp.
There's a thread around here somewhere which names the corp and shows the Halliburton connection.

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Lex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-07-07 11:49 AM
Response to Original message
5. How UNinformed. Walter Reed has been privitized.

Walter Reed Hospital's condition actually makes the opposite argument.

Boortz is so stupid.

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The_Warmth Donating Member (241 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-07-07 11:49 AM
Response to Original message
6. Ask and you shall recieve!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=328133">Walter Reed was privatized by Halliburton subsidiary

HA, yeah, socialized medicine will run countries in to the ground! Just look at those chaotic Swedes! :sarcasm:

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redqueen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-07-07 11:49 AM
Response to Original message
7. "You probably haven't been following this story carefully"
Gee... now why would he assume that about his audience, huh?

Ugh, these people! :puke:
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RaleighNCDUer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-07-07 12:41 PM
Response to Reply #7
19. Assume it? He was counting on it.
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Selatius Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-07-07 01:14 PM
Response to Reply #19
20. That's one pillar from which the Repubs derive strength: Ignorance
Edited on Wed Mar-07-07 01:14 PM by Selatius
They can get a lot of votes simply by relying on the ignorance of people by giving them certain facts and omitting others to paint a factually inaccurate impression.
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liberal N proud Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-07-07 11:50 AM
Response to Original message
8. They spit on our troops after they have sacrificed so much
And then they use it to push their political agenda.
Sick people!
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unpossibles Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-07-07 12:03 PM
Response to Original message
13. jesus, I am sick of this tactic
they intentionally screw things up so the government will look bad and give strength to the anti-government crowd. I think it's the real reason Bush was selected; he's a natural for it.

What this really shows is that Republicans who hate government should stay out of government.
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yardwork Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-07-07 12:05 PM
Response to Original message
14. This is the same argument they used after Hurricane Katrina
The failure of this administration to do what they are funded and mandated to does not absolve them from the obligation to do it right. Incompetence is not proof that something is a bad idea. It's proof of incompetence and malfeasance.
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TahitiNut Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-07-07 12:12 PM
Response to Original message
16. Boortz has obviously never 'toured' the nursing homes in his area.
It's appalling ... these corporate warehouses for the elderly and ill are enough to make me consider suicide rather than getting older and risking ill health.

Not only do we have death tolls from avoidable errors at critical care facilities (i.e. hospitals), we have people being warehoused and suffering at 'skilled' care facilities all over the country.

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Donnachaidh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-07-07 12:39 PM
Response to Reply #16
18. Neil Boortz is exactly LIKE those people who toss their parents into homes
And then refuse to take the kiddies to see grandma because of all *the old people*.

Of course, they don't think ahead on this ploy. Wait 20 or 30 years. Dear ole Neil and wifey will be tossed off even faster by the kiddies.

Can't think of a better end for such *deserving* people. :sarcasm:
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