Francis, your continued wailing about the deficit and national debt notwithstanding, until your recognize that:
In 2000 the US had a budget surplus which could be used to pay down the debt, and at the then current taxation rates would have paid down the entire debt in about 10 years. In 2001 a Republican Congress and President Bush decided that the debt was unimportant, and slashed tax rates, sending us into deficit spending again with no hope of retiring the debt. In 2003 a Republican Congress embarked an a staggeringly expensive, completely unnecessary war WITHOUT funding it, other than deficit spending. In 2003 a Republican Congress and President Bush passed the Medicare Part D bill with an attached amendment inserted (by a senator who promptly resigned the senate and became the president of the pharmaceutical industry lobbying organization PhRMA) that forbade the government with negotiating drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry. As a result, institutions (like the VA, and countries like Canada) which CAN use their purchasing power to negotiate lower prices pay 40-70% less for drugs than Medicare does. And that we cannot retire the debt by cutting domestic spending alone, you're simply unserious or deeply ignorant of the issue. There is no means by which the deficit and national debt can be dealt with by budget cuts alone; indeed, Both Romney's and Ryan's proposed plans INCREASE the deficit. Do you support letting the 2001 bush tax cuts expire? Do you support repealing that part of the Medicare Part D law that restricts medicare from negotiation drug prices? Do you support raising taxes to pay for foreign adventurism? If your answer is "No taxes ever" you're just not serious, a partisan hack who isn't worth arguing with. -- Bruce Johnson University of Arizona College of Pharmacy Information Technology Group Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "StrataList-OT" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/stratalist-ot?hl=en.
