Why are people so keen on gov't run healthcare again?

The universal health care program being talked about is not single-payer coverage. That's what got all those activists riled up and thrown out of the Congressional hearings. The insurance lobby simply has too much clout to allow such a sane solution to our problems. What makes it cost efficient on our end makes it unprofitable on behalf of the health insurance corporations. The difference between countries with universal health care and America is the profit margin. Any health care system (universal or otherwise) setup to protect the profit margin will not be cost efficient. Which isn't all that different then the current dysfunctional state of Medicare.

Help! I've been infected by socialism! Any moment now Gorbachev will come crashing through my window to take my capitalist virtue away from me by force.

Originally Posted by a lurker

Maybe the defense spending budget should be brought down to $500b. That'll be a ton of money left over to pay off all those IOUs we wrote for SS, and bulk back up our civil services so people ain't driving over crumbling bridges no more.

The Social Security fund doesn't hold IOUs. They hold US Treasury bonds that pay interest. Instead of getting put into the washing machine and being ruined because the government forgot to take it out of their pants. This is good for a variety of other reasons. It keeps interest rates and inflation low. It also creates a domestic market for government debt so foreigners can't use their financial position to strangle government policy. Oh, and there's that whole full faith and credit of the United States government backing them up.......

I've yet to see any evidence that Social Security is in any solvency crisis. It's just the usual Cato think-tank bullshit.

Jam it back in, in the dark.