Balta1701

Any more of this and this thread ends.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 12:42 PM) So instead you are going to punish the hundreds of millions of people who have been doing things right. Wonderful plan. They're already being punished. I know I could certainly use the extra $3000 or so that we're paying a year in added health care costs for our current system compared with the rest of the world.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 12:28 PM) Jermaine's injury history is more of the unpreventable, bad luck kind of injury, versus a guy like Pods who just seems to be fragile. Of all things to worry about, I wouldn't not resign JD because of that. While that is true...you can't deny that his is a body that has taken more of a beating by this age than others'. I also wouldn't not re-up with JD based solely on that, but when looking at causes for his current slump I'm keeping it in mind.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 12:26 PM) The logic is we can't afford untold trillions of dollars that we are going to have in the future to pay for the ginorous social programs that weren't going to be too expensive when they were created. Now we are looking at increasing these outlays by even more untold trillions of dollars, and now for people who aren't even citizens of this country, and committed illegal acts just to get here. The 50% of this country that is paying taxes currently can't afford what we are doing now, yet the clamoring is for more. Its that kind of logic that would lead you to buy a new BMW after getting fired from a job. Then what exactly is your answer? You can't deport them all for reasons we've discussed. You can't not cover them for reasons I highlighted a page ago. You can't not fix the health care system and both punish the tens of millions of uninsured and the hundreds of millions who pay for them. The logical endpoint of your argument is that we shouldn't change anything because doing anything will be expensive. Damn right. Which is why a fairly great speaker said a few months ago that "our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions -- that time has surely passed." Sitting on our hands and doing nothing is not an option. Magically making the problem disappear is not an option. Fixing the problem we've allowed to grow is the only option.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 12:22 PM) You beat me to ot. I was listening on XM radio last night when he dropped that flyball. My thoughts were of Soxtalk I did add the obligatory "BA would've had it" to the gamethread based on this discussion.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 12:14 PM) It's funny how some people say there's no way you can bring Dye back, yet they immediately want to give a second chance to guys like Rios, Swisher, saying it was just an off year. Dye obviously is hurt. You know it. I know it. Bring him back. Age and injury history are clear differences between the 2 guys you cite and JD. JD is older and has a much longer injury history.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 12:08 PM) Guys it is pretty simple. They are exempting illegals because the administration knows in the near future there will be no illegals. They will all be citizens and therefore eligible. That's why there isn't even an effort to find out if someone is here illegally or not. The big problem IMO is in the chain of logic - the immigration system is broken - fixing the broken immigration system will cause former illegal immigrants to get health care coverage - therefore we shouldn't fix the health care system. You can use the same logic to go in circles forever. "The immigration system is broken, so we shouldn't fix the broken health care system." "The health care system is broken, so we shouldn't fix the broken immigration system".

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 10:58 AM) What happened to Paul Konerko in 2003? He was hurt for pretty much the whole year. Wasn't he playing on a fractured foot or something like that?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 11:56 AM) Also, as stated by others, insurance companies already do make triage-like decisions on care for the deathly ill. And as far as I can see, that isn't changing in any way. If you get rid of the lifetime coverage caps by law, then that is a huge change. Ditto if you automatically cover everyone and remove the "Recission" procedure

QUOTE (mreye @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 10:42 AM) I'm alive! I think the concern is that there are not enough checks in the bill to stop illegals from accessing healthcare. They won't have it officially, but will easily gain access. I covered this a few pages ago also, but here's another summary. The bill specifically says that illegal immigrants are excluded from that program. But...at some point, we're going to have a comprehensive immigration solution created, and that solution is not going to involve sending them all back home, whether the anti-immigrant forces like it or not. There is going to be some mechanism to bring them in to the country and put them on a path to citizenship, because otherwise it's indentured servitude. Thus, at some point, they are going to be eligible for any program that is set up. If you try to deliberately exclude them, then there's a catch-22 because suddenly you've given a huge advantage to an employer to hire a former illegal immigrant compared to a naturalized worker, because if you can hire a former immigrant, you don't have to pay the fines if you don't provide them health care. You can't keep them illegal forever, but you also can't exclude them from the system once you find a way to legalize them. Either method hurts the American worker.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 10:46 AM) It allows plans meeting lower standards in other states to undermine the higher-standard plans that meet state regulations. That's the only thing I can think of, but I don't have a problem with it. I'm sort of surprised to see states-rights libertarians and republicans advocating removing individual states' powers to regulate. Here's how it breaks the system, and I think it's fairly easy to understand. Put yourself in the position of an insurance company. If your job is to turn a profit for yourself and your shareholders, you are going to look to maximize profits at minimal expenditures. Now, 50 different states are suddenly places where you can set up your main market. Which state are you going to go to? You're immediately going to go to the one where you can make the most money. We've seen beautiful examples of this in the past; think about why your credit cards all come from either North Dakota or Delaware. The companies will rush to the place where the state's regulations allow them to cover the least while earning the most. To do otherwise would be a betrayal of shareholders. Now, put yourself in the position of a state. Do you want a large insurance company running itself out of your state? Of course you do. If their main offices are in your state, that's a fortune in tax revenue and additional jobs. Thus, it's to your benefit to try to set up a system that provides the biggest benefit to the insurers. You literally set up a race to the bottom. Any state that has any sort of minimum requirements for what insurance may cover or mandates that specific things are covered is disadvantaged. It's a huge, huge, huge win for the insurers. It's the credit card industry all over again; the credit card industry is a disaster for consumers; you're hit with enormous fees, usurious interest rates, so many offers you have no idea how to make sense of what is a good one and what is a bad one, and a totally unaccountable industry with enormous control over your life. Pretty much every insurance policy would get downgraded to a joke really fast in that case as states try to one-up each other by covering less so that the insurer will run itself out of that state. You could get that to work, maybe, if you mandated minimum national requirements for coverage instead, but then that ruins the whole game that the insurers are trying to set up.

$200k already raised for Rep. Wilson's opponent next year. Going in to yesterday, the cash-on-hand was about $250k for Wilson and $50k for his opponent. No idea how much Wilson has raised off of his statement yet. That was a competitive district last time out, Wilson only won 53% of the vote, so that money bomb is certainly hitting a competitive seat.

Frankly I hope the court denies this. Becaus eI just don't wanna know.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 09:16 AM) Honestly, neither of them is true. I find it disturbing that you all now find it OK for the President to use whatever number he feels like at the time, but don't seem to want to question anything else he is telling you. The real issue to most of us is...if the number of uninsured is 20 million, 30 million, 40 million, 80 million...no matter what exact number it is, it is a key part of the disaster that is our system. It kills people. It raises prices across the board. You pay what, at least a couple hundred a year in extra taxes to fund ER care for that group?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 09:19 AM) The Cubs aren't going to have any money. The Yankees are another story. Make em pay through the teeth.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 09:12 AM) Actually it is pretty important. People are running around just making up numbers and using that as the basis for why we should destroy our current health care system. It is the center of the whole damned debate. The thing that makes this difficult is that in the Census data, the Census Dept. only refers to "naturalized citizens" and "Not a citizen" when it discusses the foreign-born population. Looking through their data, it's really hard to decipher to what level they're counting illegal residents in that last category.

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 09:06 AM) Right. We cannot pay for either number without increasing the deficit. We can't not do it without increasing the deficit either.

Link

QUOTE (qwerty @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 08:54 AM) Konerko - 134 games played. Ramirez - 129 games played. Dye - 126 games played. Pierzynski - 122 games played. Podsednik 113 games played. Think i am missing something in regards to the bold. The italicized part is hogwash, playing time did not lead to his injuries, being prone to injury is what led to his injuries. Games played by Pods the previous 2 years combined: 155. Doesn't necessarily mean anything, but it's been a while since he's had this kind of heavy use.

Even in early 2005 when JD was coming off of his leg injury and was just totally out of it, he didn't look this bad for this long.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 08:49 AM) Not sure where you're going with this. It's a Bush comparison, and it's not entirely inaccurate. In either case, you're saying people will die if you don't agree with the policy of the President. One case, it's an Iraqi Mushroom cloud, in the other it's a form saying that your cancer treatment is denied. One of those 2 of course...didn't exist.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 08:34 AM) If you are using different numbers to different audiences, that is pretty telling... If he'd said the higher number you'd have complained about that too.

He has to be hurt.

From the official House of Representative floor rules:

Go AJ! Someone find an appropriate punishment for Pena for those last 4 innings.