FallbrockFarmer_please read my post more carefully - I am quite aware of the setup of Congress. I demonstrated how 1 large state's 2 votes in the senate can be nullified by 15 (red) states 30 votes in the Senate though the large state has population equal to the 15 states. It seems to me that the intent of the Constitution for Senate passage of a Bill in most cases is a simple majority. In my opinion, the misuse of the filibuster (used or threatened more in the past year than ever in history) is now requiring 60% of the members to even get a vote on a bill. This could allow and in this congress has allowed Senators representing about 30% of the population to block what 70% of the population desires.
With the way the Senate is made up the the small state is on equal footing but the use of the filibuster has gone beyond the intent. (Obviously this is an opinion)
I didn't tell you that I am a history teacher though I have spent considerable time working with history students and I can read and think.
Concerning your other question - I stated that by the research I did (the table) it appears that China is the #1 contributor of CO2 and so my conclusion is China is the #1 contributor to Climate change - of course they have many times our population. I didn't figure I'd have to explain this but if I consider them #1 then it can't be the US. Now concerning the person you seem to be determined to make me agree with, it looks like I disagree. So looks like we agree on something.
Now for your information I am a Mathematician with a Master's Degree, but more importantly I was raised on a farm and ran a dairy farm and had no degree past HS until I was 40. I also had no health insurance for a good number of years because there was no way I could pay my feed bill, mortgage, etc and afford it. I was just lucky that we stayed relatively healthy. Now at 60 I am retired from teaching (20 years at school with 15 as a teacher) - my health insurance costs about $12000/yr - I pay a little over $6000 and the school district pays the balance. (i just paid $75 co-pay for 3 month supply of a medicine I need). Now lets suppose that in your perfect world that the government was out of health care business. My rates would go up significantly as I got into my 70s and clearly without regulations of any sort I would be dropped as soon as I was a poor enough risk. Very soon in this scenario my insurance premium would exceed my school pension. Of course in what I think your perfect world is there would also be no Social Security.
One note - I have always been very conservative in the way I spend money and have lived within my means. We have been debt free for 25 years but have very modest savings. The only way we would not be broke and on the street in the above scenario is if we went without insurance and both died quickly without much time in a hospital.
The good news is that in that world the top 50 oil and healthcare CEOs could make 2 or 3 billion between them instead of the mere 1 billion they made last year. (sources post a couple days back)
Loren
Paragragh 1.
I think that your own statement "In my opinion" says it all. Not to get snotty, but I think I will trust Washington, Jefferson, Adams "opinion" over yours. As I told you in a earlier post, The constitution was set up with a series of checks and balances, I think what you and a number of other posters are suggesting is that we should modify/change to Constitution to fit a particular set of circumstances. I would not.
I would be particularly wary of anybody offering me anything for "free". It usually turns out to be the most expensive of all.
2. That you were a teacher does not surprise me.
3. I understand that to be older(actually I am older than you) is sometimes rough. But are you willing to throw out your freedoms for some "free" government cheese/health care. You may not think that will be losing anything by gaining some access to health insurance, but I gurantee that you will.
4. As you have the ability to do research, I would suggest that you go to some British websites and get a glimpse of what will happen here if we adopt a single payer system(Please don't tell me that after 10-20 years the government will not take over, history proves other wise.)
5. My HMO was much more expensive than yours.
Again if the government would allow more competition into the field, I will also guarantee that costs will drop.
Simple example . Remember gas was $4.25 here in California about a year ago, the press was going nuts, We were looking at $5 a gal gas for sure, but something happened.
People started using less, and the price dropped,the market works. But to look at it further and possibly bring it back to AGW if the gov continues to subsidized ethanol it will continue to distort the market. Also the law of unintended consequences, Food stuff prices rose sharply in price because we were mandating an outcome and not letting the market work.
reconceived judgement or opinion.