If Iraq is the standard, shouldn't we abandon all government programs that are failures after four years?

Question

The Democrats and increasing numbers of Republicans are saying enough's enough: four years of a failed policy is enough to determine that we cannot succeed. By that standard, shouldn't we reexamine other policies that have been around much longer with similar success records?

Including:

Government education (100+ years and almost no improvement in the nation's illiteracy rate)
Medicare and Medicaid (40+ years, costs out of control, draining the medical system of its assets and squeezing the middle class)
Social Security (70+ years and no one under 40 will ever see a dime of what we put into this Ponzi scheme)
War on Drugs (25+ years and we can't even keep drugs out of our own prisons, much less outside our borders)
War on Poverty (i.e., welfare, subsidies for poverty...after 75+ years, the poor are still poor)

Thoughts?

(Serious discussion only; please, no name calling or ad hominem.)

crushinator, that is a valid point. But I also think your standard would eliminate medicare and medicaid before eliminating Iraq. For example, the rationing of top-quality medical procedures and devices costs Medicare patients their lives. (See, for example, http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA525MedicareRationing.html.)

Also, this study reveals that medicare deaths are on the rise: http://www.healthgrades.com.

Here are some of the study's highlights:

> About 1.14 million patient-safety incidents occurred among the 37 million hospitalizations in the Medicare population in 2000-2002.

> Of the total 323,993 deaths among Medicare patients in those years who developed one or more patient-safety incidents, 81 percent of these deaths were directly attributable to the incident(s).

Patient-safety incidents cost an extra $19 billion, and more than 575,000 preventable deaths occurred from 2000 to 2002.

Answer 1

You are completely correct.

every program started by Dems is a complete and utter failure, and the only successes have been because of the economy.

But since the govt programs have good "intentions" they need to continue.

The Iraq war - which in fact freed women, removed a dictator, ended torture, convinced Libya to end nuclear development, got democratic elections in Lebanon (whose army is actually killing terrorists), and got democratic elections - has "bad intentions" mainly b/c it wasn't proposed by a Dem.

Answer 2

have been going to be in Iraq for many some years, We went into Germany, have been nonetheless there, we went into Korea, nonetheless there, Afghanistan, nonetheless there.. The checklist is going on and on...... i replaced into lively accountability military for 11 years, I basically ETSd, I spent 2 years in Iraq, we can continually have protection stress presence in that united states, I assure it, Im no political parent, I dont make the huge judgements, yet i recognize, properly continually be there, won't be those huge numbers yet weve geared up it up lots on account that we first went into the rustic, there'll come an afternoon while it is going to likely be like doing a excursion of Korea, it is going to likely be a much off places project..

Answer 3

You are exactly right about the govt. programs that are nothing but money pits!! Our government is so involved in every aspect of life in America, that is hard to call it a democracy anymore. Congress and the Presidents approval ratings are lower than I have ever seen, and rightfully so. Contempt for them is becoming commonplace.. my solution would be to reduce the size of the goverment ,

Answer 4

it is policies that has failed us in the recent decades for the ones who we voted in and said they would make change in our health care system. when it comes to dealing with health care
and human services. we had always believed on other ppl who promised us like the ones who we voted in to represent us in our districts that they would vote in a bill to make it better. ppl who are in the house and congress makes up for the rest when both parties voted in to wage a war against Iraq and then supported money 4the troops. then making improvements 2 improve on health care and with those families who are on Welfare who are under poverty level if all of the resources that was was budgeted out for health care and federal assistance with the very poor we would live a better place then having all it go to waste in places that don't have money for ppl needs food to eat and cloths to be warm

Answer 5

Government is never the solution and is always the problem.

I would not write off the education system. We turn out a lot of well educated people. Its more a question of personal work ethic. I did well in our system because I wanted to learn. You cannot make people learn.

Answer 6

It would be worth losing the War in Iraq, or even giving up on the War on Terror and just living with terrorist attacks for a few decades, to get rid of all that crap.... All our taxes could be cut by about 2/3rds!

Answer 7

Perhaps we could spend more resources re-examining these other issues. If only all our money wasn't being spent on this war in Iraq...darn it!

Answer 8

The government needs to be rebooted.

Answer 9

how about just the ones that are killing people.

Answer 10

good one