Surprising title eh? 2 things and 2 things only I can respect about him.. 1) I agree with him on the issue of health, or atleast what it's goal is. In one of the debates he got in an argument with Romney over pharmaceutical companies I did agree with everything McCain said, health care, if at all, should be about health, not pills. Mitt Subsidizer was in favor of big-pharma. But then again I don't think government should be involved with health at all, so maybe 1/2 brownie point to McCain. 2) He admits he knows nothing about economics. Real straight-forward guy, I like that. What do you like about McCain if anything?
I think he is more or less (please don't take this religiously - I do mean more or less, as politicians go) a straight shooter, who endured hell for what he believed was in his country's interest. I honor him as a wounded vet.
McCain is pro 2nd Admendment The Healthcare issue is easy to solve. Stop the American Medical Association from using it's power to set 'medical school standards' to restrict the supply of physicians and reform medical malpractice tort law.
Haha it shouldn't be that easy, but we do have a shortage of people wanting to become doctors. Medical college ends up being 8-9 years and the average student ends up with $200,000 in debt. Then the new doctor has to buy expensive insurance and be ready to deal with multi-million dollar lawsuits because sick people die sometimes.
That is actually his best asset. I'm not a big fan of McCain, but I am less of a fan of Hillary and Obama. The more I listen to Obama, the scarier he sounds, plus his past record does not match his current rhetoric. Obama has a long history of accomplishing nothing, but he is a good talker. I still think you will see McCain choose Joe Lieberman as a running mate. That will probably pull a lot of votes from moderates or moderate wannabees. This will never happen if Hillary or Obama get elected. The Dems are strongly supported by the Trial Lawyers Association. Special interest groups pull the strings for both parties. If you talk to a doctor in the US, you will find that their medical malpractice insurance frequently amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. Yeah, we need to weed out the bad doctors, but class action law suits and a legal system run amok is strangling a lot of businesses and discouraging potentially good doctors from enduring a grueling medical education. It's killing the medical industry and driving up the cost of pharmaceuticals.
I agree in regards to Obama - the rhetoric doesn't match the record. They both sound pretty bad to me, so I'm only undecided which is worse: if his policy is like his past, or if its like his promises. Unfortunately, the more I hear about McCain the scarier he sounds, too. We know his record on the bill of rights, 1st amendment? McCain had no problem using congress to limit the free expression of speech. 2nd? 4th? 9th? 10th? A pretty bad record to say the least. And now he wants to jump on the global warming boat? He can not win with this strategy, but if he does by attracting the racist left and hawkish moderates, the Democrats are likely to pick up huge gains in Congress because it won't be the conservative base who goes out to vote for him. Lawyers aren't just popular on the left. In fact, lawyers are the #1 represented profession in Senate, with legal professionals occupying about 60 of the 100 seats. Obama, Clinton, Edwards, Giuliani, Romney, etc... all lawyers. Heck, if McCain does pick Lieberman he'll have his own lawyer on the ticket. Promises of legal reform before real political reform are doomed to fail. Doctors will have to be placated with subsidies and guarantees on prices.
There is no shortage of Americans trying to become doctors. There's only 129 US medical schools and AMA limits class sizes. Rather than building bridges to nowhere and giving out tax rebates the US government could build more medical schools. Also rather than having people study basket weaving on government grants we could educate thousands of new doctors. The law of supply and demand then will help lower medical costs.
Well if there were no artificial shortage there would be even higher demand at the lower price. If there is a deadweight loss at the number of qualified applicants denied admission, then there is an additional deadweight loss at the number of qualified students who never bother to apply. But yeah, the bottom line is price floors and shortages created by subsidies to things like basket-weaving, AMA monopoly, lawyers, and a really distorted fundamental notion of what 'medicine' is.
All one has to do, is say what people want to hear then once elected do whatever the fuck you want...you know kind of like Bush?
As will a change in the insurance paradigm - insurance companies have long rewarded billables over physician care. It's a spiralling dilemma - doctors are providing a lower and lower standard of care as they are, in order to be part of an insurance practice, forced to turn and burn patients. Which exacerbates the med mal problem, higher premiums (for docs), higher turn and burn...ad infinitum.
You like the fact that a potential President of the US admits that he knows nothing about economics?! Come on... where does this pride in dumbness in US politics come from... "He's just like an ordinary guy in the bar"... you don't want an oridinary guy in the bar to be President... you need somebody with a powerhouse intellect... somebody who is going to represent US interests abroad...
Wouldn't less restrictions just mean crappier doctors? I'm already not too impressed with some of the ones that make it through med school.
No. Less restrictions means more choices. Try to remember this idea... "Regulation limits choices and creates monopolies that don't provide the best service for the best price" A lousy doctor will go out of business, will not be able to get mal-practice insurance etc. Before all of this regulation, you could actually get house calls. Imagine that...
But he/she could kill people in the meantime. I'm mostly for a hands-off market but I think there's some times when regulation in moderation is not only good but essential. Am I a commie? Back on topic, I used to respect McCain but he's just become an uber panderer in his bid for the white house. I still respect his war record.