It doesn’t seem like a classic libertarian position to require everybody to have to do something. But someone coming across a catastrophic financial loss-that hurts me as a member of the community.
Plus having everyone in a universal risk pool is going to lower the cost for everyone who already DOES have insurance. You’re going to bring in millions of health people who are substantially less likely to make a claim.
Also it would allow us to cover people who are too risky to cover. We can bring in everybody with a universal mandatory healthcare system similar to what we have for liability insurance for automobiles.
How we’re going to pay for this is slowly begin to roll back payroll taxes so individual people can make their own healthcare decisions.
JAMESON: The entitlements, such as Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid, are not actually legal obligations. Those are things that are given out at the discretion of the government. Last year they brought in $800 billion in Social Security taxes, and they paid out $500 billion. The other $300 billion disappeared. That kind of misappropriation of funds is why we’re told it’s going bankrupt. The Social Security system is not sustainable and I think we should look at market alternatives. The average Texan makes $40,000. If they invested their money in the market at 4.8%, they would be able to retire with $6,600 a month instead of $1,100 a month.
RADNOFSKY: Privatization is a terrible idea. It would cost trillions if we do privatize. We must protect the Social Security fund from raiding.
HUTCHISON: We do need to reform Social Security and we do need to make sure we are taking out the waste & fraud.
RADNOFSKY: We are destabilizing Iraq by our presence. The NIE indicates as such, and British generals indicate as such. By withdrawing, we will allow international immediate withdrawal from Iraq. As far as I can tell, we still do have a role there.
HUTCHISON: I can’t think of anything worse than America cutting-and-running because times are tough. I think it would hurt our troops. We need to support them, and make sure they have the cover they need. We must never cut-and-run. That would shred the credibility of America. The NIE says we are destabilizing the al-Qaeda leadership. The worst thing we could do is appear to leave and give terrorists a victory.
HUTCHISON: It is clear it is not going well in Iraq, and we should come up with ideas. One of the things we should put on the table as an option is semi-autonomous regions. This is provided for in the constitution of Iraq, and the parliament of Iraq has set out a process. The Sunnis reject that idea, because they’re worried about not having the oil revenue, but that can be handled as well.
JAMESON: I am upset for the way the Iraq war is funded. It is inappropriate to fund a war on a constant emergency basis, because Congressmen can add in extra appropriations and pork barrel spending that they know will get passed.