Ron Paul, speaking at tonight’s Republican presidential debate, just made the following argument about health care reform:
1. Doctors and patients alike are being abused by corporations such as the huge pharmaceutical companies.
2. Therefore, the solution is to “get the government out of the way”.
As for myself, I’m not in favor of Ron Paul’s plan to let the pharmaceutical corporations abuse me without the government getting in the way.
Oh, so I see you want the government AND the pharmaceutical corporations abuse you.
How nice.
Don’t tread on my freedom to get government out of medicine.
No, Mr. Intentionally Misunderstand. I want the government to get MORE in the way between me and the pharmaceutical corporations, and do its duty to protect me.
There is no constitutional “freedom to get government out of medicine”.
People are being abused by corporations in most every case BECAUSE they are in league with government. It wouldn’t be a systematic problem otherwise. If you look back at the history of regulation in this country, 99% of it was advanced by corporations seeking to gain competitive advantage over their smaller or weaker rivals. Nowhere was this more true than in the food and drug industry.
Government is politics. If you believe the federal government is dutifully protecting you from all manner of capitalistic beasts that would be otherwise preying upon you, you are living in a fairy tale.
As far as I know, it wasn’t until the HMO Act of 1973 that big Pharma really had its hand in abusing the patients.
What I also see is numerous people using pharmaceuticals because they live unhealthy lives. I see no reason why I should be subsidizing unhealthy lifestyles. Obese? Lose weight, don’t hit me with your diabetes pills after 40 years of overeating junk food.
Ron Paul is right — we need to get government out of our pockets and out of our lives. When doctors are in control, along with patients, prices will come way down.
Those disgusting sick people. Why don’t they just die.
This is amazing, though I’m not surprised that the defend-anything-that-Ron-Paul-says crowd is coming in. Ron Paul is acting as if the only abuse against people from big medicine is high prices.
Ron Paul actually mentioned doing away with FDA regulation, which is the only thing that keeps us from getting poisons and snake oils marketed to us as “medicine”.
Ron Paul’s anti-government ideology is so thick and stubborn that he cannot recognize the extreme harm to the American people that would come with completely unregulated medicine.
Market forces cannot contend with gigantic corporations that are more powerful than the dwindled government that Ron Paul proposes.
This is the kind of rhetoric that gets people to vote against their own best interests. People THINK Ron Paul means well, but he’s deeply in the pockets of corporate world and is actually advocating for them. People are complete idiots, which is why the U.S. government no longer works for them and why the environment is in such bad shape. It isn’t going to matter who gets elected, we’re going down as a nation and a species due to our blatant disregard for nature and each other. If you think the next president is going to help, enjoy the dream while it lasts (and try to remember it when cold reality knocks you upside the head after the election). The government doesn’t care about you unless you’re filthy rich and nature doesn’t care at all.
Well now you went and did it, Clifford. You said the name of You-Know-Who (Ron Paul) so now you’ve attracted a hoard of of his rabid fanboys.
You know, any time you want a post to get a load of readers all you have to do is mention Ron Paul and they’re all over it like flies to a corpse.
As for Ron Paul’s Yes Men, if you think having less governmental control over things like the pharmaceutical companies will somehow make prices come down you’re sadly mistaken. What was it like the last time the government had little control over various companies and industry?
Well…here’s a couple minks that might help you understand why Ron Paul’s “No-Government-In-Industry” position is a dangerous one:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v477/JohnDamen/child_labor_big.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v477/JohnDamen/10.htm6.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v477/JohnDamen/Child20Labor.jpg