re: #389 PT Barnum

Except that socialized medicine is not what he’s ever suggested. Socialized medicine would be the government employing all the doctors and owning all the hospitals. Not going to happen, hasn’t been proposed, to my knowledge.

The bank bailouts were begun in the Bush Administration, the stimulus bill has been given credit by most economists as preventing a second great depression, and although the government was involved in taking over GM and Chrysler to a certain extent, I don’t see any compelling evidence that they intend to keep ownership any longer than necessary.

Socialized medicine does not mean you have to directly employ the workers. In the soviet union—not intending to compare the health care plan to anything under that system—employees were hired by company managers who took orders from the central government. The House plan would entail the government setting prices and dictating the particulars of the products sold. So not fully socialist—we’ll call it socialist-light then.