PlayerUp wrote:dice wrote:[in part the reason that our health care system sucks is that the federal government is not negotiating prices on behalf of a pool of well over 300,000,000 americans. leaving health care to the states ensures that the gouging continues, ensures that millions of americans (including children) will not have access to health care, ensures that millions of unwanted children will be born, etc.
Federal government is doing nothing. Obamacare did not resolve this. Trump said he has a plan for health care reform, nothing. Nanci said house focus was fixing drug prescription prices, nothing. Both parties are to blame. 
we've been over this already.  the US debt is very manageable right now.  as evidenced by our high credit rating.  of course it's better to have a lower debt, and we should be keeping an eye on it, but no radical changes are needed
I couldn't respond to your quote was busy but I saw it. Yes I am aware that some other nations are in much worse shape than us mostly being EU countries. You posted general data but here is the real list - 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_external_debt. Select % of GDP. This is the true stat you should look at. US ranks #32 but that isn't something to be proud of. The other nations are in for major problems ahead as well. That % is only increasing.
My issue isn't just debt, it's the federal government getting next to nothing done. What has been done over the last 2 years? Anything major? All I can think of is impeachment in the house. Senate all they did was focus at reforming the judicial system in their favor. Federal government is broken and overspending. Eventually a federal government reform/cut will happen.
 
There are pros and cons to the US federal gov. Changing domestic policies is a very hard and slow process due to 2-party checks.
Lost in the mix, while I’m all for changing status quo things like racism and economic policies that encourage huge income disparity, truth is usually Federal reform takes about 10 years to show its true effect. That’s not always the worst thing, as stability is actually greater than radical policy change in most cases (obv not racism, but in regards to economic, public service and immigration policy). See Venezuela for a tragic example of how fast a middle class country declined to the point of former engineers and skilled workers digging in garbage cans for food. It’s not because of communism; it’s because of one-party dictatorship and huge political unrest. Any country with stable checks and balances, it prevents one mad individual from spiraling into chaos and military oppression.
The dangerous thing about Trump and McConnell have been their ultra aggressive moves (in Congress until 2018 and all across the aboard in Judicial and Executive branches). That’s just an ethical danger for anybody who has studied law and ethics, social policy, and history.
You want to go ahead and simplify the matter to “they both suck”, then fine. But that is your loss. It’s a simplistic way of looking at choices.
If there’s a 7-11 pizza with maggots on it and a protein bar, sure I’m aware that protein bars aren’t chicken and vegetables, but I’m making the choice to not eat the maggot pizza.
I don’t know how you can fall asleep while Trump lies every day. I tell you as someone whose parents immigrated from a dictatorship regime, his method of governing is very similar to sociopathic egomaniacs like Maduro, Kim and Duterte. There are so many checks and balances to prevent him from literally having the military raid and kill citizens, but the complete detachment from reality and emotional swings and complete bias against intellectuals With a penchant for TV fame and his cult, it’s Exactly what Stalin and Castro did. The dude has made his own propaganda media sources which boost his BS accomplishments and call everybody else liars.
If you don’t see the long-term danger in that, then I have to ask — have you studied history, or ever been to other countries? Where the air quality is unregulated, where the income disparity is greater? 
Lastly — oh look surprise surprise, Florida is having a covid crisis after months of patting their backs at handling it better with a Republican governor who fires his medical officers.
So is the NBA in Orlando in jeopardy due to FL being the hot bed? Are these guys going to eat, see women and do everything on site in the bubble for 2 months straight? They made this schedule way longer than the Olympics, and there aren’t women in the camp. Meanwhile the big cities in FL are quickly spreading the virus.