Posted on 04/28/2008 4:02:31 PM PDT by The_Republican
Sen. John McCain on Monday rejected a "big government" takeover of the health care system, saying he wants to empower families to make more medical decisions.
"I've made it very clear that what I want is for families to make decisions about their health care, not government, and that's the fundamental difference between myself and Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton," McCain told reporters in Miami, Florida, referring to the two remaining Democratic presidential candidates, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
"They want the government to make the decisions, I want the families to make decisions," he said.
During a speech at the Miami Children's Hospital in Miami, Florida, McCain said he was ready to take on the "parochial interests" in health care and challenged doctors, hospitals, drug manufactures and insurance providers to do a better job of holding down costs.
"We must move away from a system that is fragmented and pays for expensive procedures, toward one where a family has a medical home, providers coordinate their efforts and take advantage of technology to do so cheaply, and where the focus is on affordable quality outcomes," McCain said during a speech at the Miami Children's Hospital in Miami, Florida. Watch McCain call for families to make decisions »
McCain said that health care in the U.S. was "too expensive" and called the more than $2 trillion the nation spends annually on health care "staggering."
"These costs are a threat to the ability of Americans to have health insurance, the gateway to better health care. These costs are a threat as well to the ability of American workers to build a better life," he said. "Rising costs of health care and health insurance have squeezed the wages that workers earn and consumed the budgets of their families."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Those who say the 2 parties are the same are cracked.
Working in their outer office there are between six and eight full-time paper-pushers. I'm sure most of them are there to deal with insurance company and government billing issues.
Dealing with this might be a way of "keeping costs down."
McCain was one of the few to vote NO on Bush’s prescription drug entitlement.
If the dems are so fired up about health care costs,they can start by making any medical costs,including insurance, fully tax deductable.
Not over 7 1/2 % of income.
I was going to suggest the same thing, adding that that was Rudy Giuliani’s health care plan.
In fact, both Clinton's and Obama's ideas for national health care are in outright contempt of the Constitution. This is because, given that the Constitution says absolutely zilch about public health care, the 10th A. automatically makes health care a state power issue.
10th Amendment: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.In fact, when Jefferson reflected on the Founder's division of federal and state government powers, he noted that the Founders had trusted the states, not the federal government, with the care of the people.
"Our citizens have wisely formed themselves into one nation as to others and several States as among themselves. To the united nation belong our external and mutual relations; to each State, severally, the care of our persons, (emphasized by Amendment10) our property, our reputation and religious freedom." --Thomas Jefferson: To Rhode Island Assembly, 1801. ME 10:262 http://tinyurl.com/onx4jThe truth of the matter is that constitutional flunkys Clinton and Obama are foolishly following in the footsteps of FDR who butchered the 10th A. protected powers of the states in order to start his constitutionally unauthorized New Deal programs.
This post (<-click), while addressing tax issues, provides more details as to how FDR, and now Clinton and "constitutional expert" Obama, with their vote-greedy ideas for national health care, are wrongly disregarding the Founder's requirement for constitutionally enumerated federal powers, particularly those powers that reasonably justify federal spending.
Note that the people can always exercise their Article V powers to amend the Constitution to properly authorize the feds to deal with health care. Until such a time, however, health care remains a state power issue.
The people need to reconnect with the intentions of the Founders as reflected in the Constitution, particularly where the Founder's division of federal and state powers is concerned. And most importantly, the people need to get a grip on the fact that the federal government is unlawfully operating outside the restraints of the federal Constitution, particularly where constitutionally unauthorized federal spending is concerned.
The bottom line is that constitutional flunkys Clinton and Obama are the last people that we want to try to send to the Oval Office with their constitutionally unjustifiable health care ideas. Indeed, the people need to demand that the next President upholds the oath to defend the Constitution by stopping constitutionally unauthorized federal spending and appropriately lowering federal taxes. And although there are problems with all the candidates, I find McCain the least problematic candidate for such a challenge.
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There was an article in the Wall Street Journal on Cindy McCain, John"s wife. All I ever saw was this attractive woman standing beside John. I was surprised how talented and involved with world problems she is. This is a summary of the article. She graduated from Southern Cal and was a special-needs teacher. After her Dad died she became involved with his beer distributing firm and is now the chairwoman. Sales have doubled since she has taken over from her father. They have a marriage prenuptial agreement, her assets remain separate. She is involved around the world clearing land mines - travels to these countries on a detonation team and service on their board. They have a 19 year old serving in Iraq, another son in the Naval Academy, a daughter recently graduated from Columbia Univ., an adopted daughter in high school, and a son who is the finance guy at the beer firm. Raised kids in Phoenix, Az rather than Washington DC.(better atmosphere) He commuted. In 1991, Mrs. McCain came across a girl in an orphanage in Bangladesh. Mother Teresa implored Mrs. McCain to take the baby with severe cleft palate. She did so without first telling her husband. The couple adopted the girl who has had a dozen operations to repair her cleft palate and other medical problems. They have a Family Foundation for children's causes. She's active with "Halo Trust" - to clear land mines, provide water and food in war ravaged and developing countries. She will join an overseas mission of "Operation Smile", a charity for corrective surgery on children's faces. She has had two back surgeries and became addicted to pain killers. She talks openly about it which she says is part of the recovery process. I'm surprised the media is so quiet about her attributes. She sounds more capable than Hillary or Obama. We would really get two for the price of one. A person with business and international experience. John did work for the firm for awhile when he left the Navy. She, however, has the real business experience. Very interesting
For this reason alone I’m happy McCain got the nod over Flip RomneyCare. I guarantee you Romney would have tried to foist the universal healthcare boondoggle on the federal level—and may have succeeded because there would have been on real opposition.
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