Fun With Politics, Part 3

Another boring night at home, another set of wonderful social/political issues to talk about (this is where it gets fun):

7) Absolute Right to Gun Ownership

My View: Guns are okay; they keep people safe and they are a major part of my part-time job. However, the Second Amendment does not give you the right to own an automatic weapon or other guns purchased illegally. The government should be allowed to maintain its monopoly on force to protect us, and it is very difficult for them to do so when the citizens are armed with more powerful weapons then they are.

Obama’s View: Believes that we should respect the 2nd Amendment, but local gun bans are okay. Provide some common-sense enforcement on gun licensing. In 2000, he co-sponsored a bill to limit purchases to 1 gun per month. He feels that concealed carry is okay for retired police officers. He feels that Bush erred in failing to renew assault weapons ban, and that we should ban semi-automatics with more possession restrictions. He also voted no on prohibiting lawsuits against gun manufacturers.

McCain’s View: Believes we should prosecute criminals, not citizens, for owning guns and repeal existing gun restrictions. He also feels that we shouldn’t hold gun manufacturers liable for crimes. He opposes restrictions on assault weapons and ammunition types, and he voted against the Brady Bill & assault weapon ban. We should ban cheap guns and require safety locks for all guns sold. Plus, we need to allow firearms in National Parks, just in case a grizzly bear charges you while you are at Yellowstone or something. Plus, we should loosen license & background checks at gun shows, because every yayhoo needs to get their guns easier.

Match: Gee, I wonder…me thinks that Obama is the better fit here too.

8) More Federal Funding For Healthcare

My View: Why the hell not? We should just allow everybody to walk around sick because they chose to buy food for their family instead of going to the doctor. Real forward thinking on this one America. Most of our other industrialized compatriots in the world (France, Canada, Sweden, Germany, etc) have some sort of socialized medicine. Oh wait, I shouldn’t call it that because people will think I am a Socialist or something. Oops. Watch the movie Sicko by Michael Moore to get a good education on this. However, if someone has been making bad choices in their life (smoking, excessive drinking, drug use, obesity, etc), we should not give them “full coverage” until they rectify their situation.

Obama’s View: While a Senator in Illinois, he added 20,000 children to Illinois healthcare. We should increase competition in the insurance and drug markets, thus driving down prices and making some sort of universal healthcare affordable to taxpayers. Gotta love supply and demand! Will expand health coverage & allow meds to be re-imported, also lowering costs. We should also have a national insurance pool & catastrophic insurance coverage to ensure that anybody can be treated for what ails them. Crises happen in our lives and healthcare is necessary. If left to itself, the market will not solve our health-care woes, with insurance companies and drug manufacturers seeking to make as much money as possible. He believes health care is a right for all citizens, not a privilege for the few.

McCain’s View: Wants to harness market competition for comprehensive reform and include a health savings account in healthcare reform. In 1993, he felt that “To socialize healthcare would be to ruin it,” since a lot of his campaign donors would stop making an ass load of money on their drugs or lack of insurance coverage, though he thinks that we should provide matching funds for seniors citizens’ prescription drugs. Also, we should expand health insurance to 11 million uninsured children, but not any of the uninsured adults or elderly. We should have more tax-deductible health costs, and limit the amounts that can be one in malpractice suits. Instead of giving them health insurance, we can simply give them tax credits if they don’t have employee health insurance. Finally, he was rated 25% by APHA, indicating a anti-public health voting record.

Match: It is amazing sometimes how I am not conservative in the least. While I don’t think Obama goes far enough with his plans for healthcare, he is WAY better then McCain.

9) Privatize Social Security

My View: Social security is good, great even, but it is a broken system, and they have not really tried to fix it. Instead of shoring up the social security accounts over the years, they have instead borrowed against it. Some day, someone will be expecting their social security check and instead get an IOU from Uncle Sam:

Dear Taxpayer,

While we know that you have been paying faithfully into the system for the past 40 years or so, we just do not have the funds to pay you you’re full benefit at this time. You should have worked to age 83 like we suggested, instead of trying to retire like a normal person at 75. So please accept this IOU. Once we get some money from the lower class to help cover the shortages, we will pay you what you are owed. Until then, please accept our apologies, but don’t forget that we did tell you to invest in the stock market on your own as well.

Your Friend,
The US Government

I do not think that the government should provide a welfare state from birth to death, just help out its citizens when it can. One way to do this would be to allow people to take a portion of the OASDI taxes taken out of their checks every couple of weeks and re-invest it on their own, with some sort of government protection, much like a bank account is insured. You can’t cover all losses but you can protect some amount of the portion invested outside of the Social Security trust fund. They choose what funds and which investment house, within reason. Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun are not investment houses. Plus, the government can also raise the cap on income that OASDI is taken out of. How many people really make over $350k a year? Why not tax the first $500k of income per person. I’m sure that would cover some of the shortages. Hell, you might even start making money that way.

Obama’s View: We should stop any efforts to privatize Social Security, since privatization puts retirement at whim of stock market, but consider raising the earning cap to over $97,500.

McCain’s View: We need personal savings accounts. Give taxpayers the option to invest up to 20% of payroll taxes in private accounts. Blah blah blah.

Match: Uh oh, I suddnely became a Republican for a minute there. There has to be a way to do this. I match McCain, but only because he wants to make all his political supporters rich with private accounts. His intentions are not pure. (My opinion only)

So, that is all. For tonight. I might do some more some other time, but I don’t know. Hope you enjoyed reading this one.