The question and answer segment was equally as pathetic. Both sides held tight to their talking points. The president danced around questions, and attempted to shed nearly all responsibility for anything that is not working.

You can read the transcript on TIME’s site (they also have an embed of MSNBC’s copy of the meeting).

It should be interesting to see how this effects the final vote for the health care initiative. If the Kennedy senate seat can go down, it has to make a lot of other congressman rather concerned about their fate.

One of the core tenants of the liberal platform is the redistribution of wealth. The basic idea here is that the wealthy should shoulder the burden of pretty much everything, because they can give more without feeling it as much as poorer people. Then why do they have a problem with the way things are working here in the United States?

Basically, the way the system works, is that the medical  community extract value any way they can, not only to recoup costs but to earn profits. However, not all countries can afford their products on a level playing field, but it would be fairly heartless to deny the third world treatment. So, companies offers medication, and procedures to poorer countries and they make it up by charging richer countries more.

The United States is, for the moment, the richest country in the world, therefore it follows that we would have to pay the bulk in this system. The system has been getting progressively worse, as other rich countries have been exerting upward pressure on the system, so we see health care systems in the UK, France, Canada that are using their bargaining power to bring down their costs, this puts more pressure on the United States, as we have to pay a larger share of the pie.

Granted, this is an over simplification of the health care system, as there are many other factors that contribute to high costs in the United States. It is just this one issue that consistently acts as a driving force, and I have never once heard a politician talk about how great is it that we pay the lions share for poor countries can receive much needed medical attention.

One of the core tenets of all the health reform plans is bring down the costs of domestic medical treatment. This would put downward pressure on the system, and would force providers to drive up costs in other markets. This would likely annoy the allies of the United States, as we would make their health care more expensive, and it would likely costs many lives in the third world as fewer people would be able to afford treatment.

Good times.

• You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
• You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
• You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
• You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
• You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
• You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
• You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
• You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
• You cannot build character and courage by destroying men’s initiative and independence.
• And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

The Ten Cannots was published by William J. H. Boetcker back in 1916.