Do you agree with Huckabee that the reason the country is in debt is because we spend too much on health care?

Question

The US spends less on health care for our people than any other country.

Thompson just said the same thing.

Answer 1

Actually, the US spends MORE on health care than any country that has Universal Health Care and those countries cover EVERY citizen. How do we reduce our debt? UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE to cover EVERY American! We spend $300 billion on Medicare and Medicaid on giveaways to big pharmaceutical companies. Universal Health Care could cover EVERY American for $100 billion per year. That leaves $200 billion for other expenses I'll address below. If we ended Corporate welfare that comes from US tax payers pockets and goes into pockets with millions and billions of dollars in PROFITS, we'd save another $92 Billion per year. That's $292 BILLION dollars and that extra money could go to pay off our debt , fix our schools K-12, Headstart programs, address the issue of world hunger, research and development of clean, renewable energy resources, and then into tax cuts for the American people!

Answer 2

No, I don't agree with his statement.

Of course, it isn't the federal government's duty to spend money on health care, so any that it currently spends is unjustifiable and thuse contributes to the debt.

That and all the other "entitlement" programs.

Let's face the facts:

Under the Bush administration, national debt has increased by some $4-5 trillion. Even with the most egregiously slanted reasoning, the Democrats can't pin more than $1.2 trillion on the war (that includes costs of money not being invested elsewhere - a real stretch). The rest of it was spent on government programs.

If you want to talk about the cost of health care, that has risen, too, as government has gotten more involved. They mandate minimum coverages for health insurance, and throw in things most people might not want, driving up the price. They don't give individuals any tax breaks or tax credits for privately paying for insurance, but they give those to businesses.

And the health care providers soak the privately insured people in order to make up for the lost revenue from the government insured patients.

Answer 3

All you have presented are supposed facts (no source given) about foreign aid which certainly does contribute to exacerbating debt for a country already in debt; you have, however, not even made an attempt to vindicate this part of the claim "was the main reason". I certainly agree that foreign aid has to stop at this point but we should deliberate policy by taking into account national interests as well as the recipient country's needs. On national interest: the Islamic world is (largely due to support for Israel I might add) generally the unfriendliest region vis-a-vis America and aid certainly does mitigate hostility whereas Israel is supposedly a committed ally. On the recipient country's needs: Israel is, of the countries receiving aid, the most developed and least in need of aid.

Answer 4

No. Just a typical conservative Republican. Don't spend any more money on American citizens because we have to spend it on blowing up other people and other countries then make sure they get our tax money. I haven't heard one conservative complain about the billions and billions of dollars we are spending on Iraquis or the building up of their country. They just like to complain when we spend our tax money on our people in our country. Huckabee is truly a big huckabee.

Answer 5

We have debt because we're spending too much money. All they're doing is pandering to their base by singling out a welfare program (and also attacking Dems who are advocating new health care programs) that adds up to our spending deficit.

Answer 6

One more reason NOT to vote for either of them. I suppose throwing billions a day into Iraq is better? Good grief! And to think I actually was considering those two at one point. Now I know why I will not vote Republican.

Answer 7

We spend too much on health care and not on health... we spend too much on fixing a problem rather then preventing it!

Answer 8

NO! And I believe Mr. Huckabee is a bad Candidate!

Answer 9

no its because of the war not health care , it never was a problem at the time of Clinton

Answer 10

Partially, well over half the federal budget goes to programs like social security, medicare and welfare. We spend far more on them than on the Iraq war.