If we got out of Iraq and Afghanistan NOW, we'd have PLENTY of money for healthcare.

THAT is the angle we need to take, because we need to solve BOTH issues.

And- this is NOT our generation's "Vietnam"...

this is EVERY generation's healthcare and insane wars of empire. we need to get ANGRY. we need to get MOBILIZED.
and we need a HUGE HUGH march on Washington DC.

since Obama's roots are in community organizing- it almost makes me feel like some of his actions and words have been chosen specifically to GET us Angry, and Organized.

so- who do we see about this? I've got a van that can carry 6 people from the chicago area.

It's a vicious cycle

as a people- we have the power to change our government's policies a lot faster than changing the infrastructure that fuels our vehicles.

If everyone who lived close enough to do that, chose to do it.

Well, that would be change that would get someone's attention.

that's why we have cars.

but that's where the grocery and other shopping is.
my wife has a 45-minute drive, each of our neighbors have similar commutes in different directions.
the elderly woman across the street works at a retail store 10 miles away.

we all have cars, always will, and enjoy them immensely. :hi:

The U.S. has around 750 existing military bases on foreign countries. Now Obama is signing an agreement with Colombia to add 7 U.S. bases in that country. We already have bases in Curacao and Aruba, as well as a recently recommissioned 4th fleet in the Caribbean. Why all the military forces in and around the Caribbean?

Because Venezuela has lots of oil, as does Brazil and Ecuador. The neo-conservative march, as set out by the Project for the New American Century's neoconservative plan for total world dominance is still on the march, now adding Venezuela and Latin America as oil-plentiful targets.

We need to halve our military budget. That will provide health care for the 50 million Americans who don't have access to health care. We would still have a larger military budget than every other country in the world and all Americans would have health care.

... how much does that cost?

Face it, we spend at least a TRILLION dollars every year on the military (add up the Pentagon budget, the Energy Department's nuclear weapons spending, the Veteran's Administration and all the "intelligence" agencies).

I wish Pres. Obama had presented it to the country that finally we need to make some choices and set some long term national priorities.

If we stopped being the policeman of the world and lived within our means, we could pay for health care AND cut the deficit substantially.

Alas, the American people live in a state of denial that we ever have to make any difficult decisions and they are also easily manipulated by the Repug fear machine.

Indeed, it is time for some liberal/progressive unarmed shouting at Congress members ...

our President Obama that the military, and not the president is in charge of this country.
And that if he doesn't believe it, his 'security' is in jeopardy.
dc

you come up with enough money to fully fund universal healthcare AND do some other badly needed stuff, too . . .

like initiating a national energy conservation and weatherization program . . . and/or creating a decentralized energy program where the goal is for every residential and commercial building to ultimately have it's own solar panels and/or windmill . . . and/or underwriting the development of truly innovation automobiles and trucks that use minimal gas and oil . . . and/or a whole raft of new hemp-based industries . . . etc., etc., etc. . .

our problem isn't that we don't have the money . . . it's that we're spending it in all the wrong places and on all the wrong things . . . at some point, someone is going to have to stand up to the corporations and say "ENOUGH!" and inform them that they will henceforth be subject to strict regulation and control of what they do and how they do it . . . then, and only then, might we actually make progress solving the seemingly intractable problems that face us in the 21st century (beginning with global warming and environmental destruction) . . .