So your answer is simply more taxes?

1. What would be percentage increase in payroll taxes be and are they after or before tax dollars?
2. What if you do not pay payroll taxes?
3. What about the one or two illegal aliens that reside in the US?
3. Who will determine the doctors fees for every one of the thousands of possible tests?
4. Will the doctors support those numbers handed to them by the government?
5. What about the tens and tens of thousands employed by the insurance industry in this country?
6. What about dental insurance?
7. Will I still be able to sue a govenment owned doctor for malpractice or will I just be suing myself (taxpayers)?

Answer these and we can move on to the next dozen.

There are things we should never have allowed to become a for profit enterprise. But, corrupt politicians know how to play with words and they know how to apeal to our baser instinct, so, they feed ideas into the public that are stupid and counter productive but, because the public's mind is so confused and full of fear, they don't see the lies for what they are and follow their piper even though the piper is ruinning them.

In any case, I though I might ask, solar and wind power are fine but might not be the best thing for big cities. How about thorium based nuclear plants? Supposedly they are clean, safe and their only waste product is useful and can be sold to NASA and medical companies, or so they say.

Just though you might talk about that a little.

Along with 2950-10K #13's method of financing the program, re-instatement of the STET tax would be a winner. A special tax on bullet and ammunition sales would be a bright idea to help finance the program further. There might be enough left over to also cover optical and dental health care. Who knew? Btw are there any taxes being collected on all of the military equipment and armaments being sold around the world?

Maybe none of this would be necessary if all of the churches and all of he false profits oops i mean Evangelical multi-millionaire gospel hour pastors would actually take up the cross and follow their savior; doing away with their worldly riches, spending their fortunes on real world health care for all.

Do not mistake small electrical producers for the need for a large grid. The grid is something that manufacturing and cities tap into for power. The grid is like a large battery that constantly needs to be charged. We need to keep the grid clean and readily available. It is a large part of our infrastructure and needs to be modern. The grid consists of 1000 MW power plants all the way to excess energy from home solar collectors. Utilities are currently trying to stop the home generator. CA has encouraged home electrical production and has actually created an excess under some conditions. This excess can easily be worked with by learning to store it. By converting our main transmission lines to DC we can afford to ship clean wind power from the mid-west to the east and west coast. We need to modernize our infrastructure. We are behind other major countries.

https://www.thomhartmann.com/bigpicture/john-fugelsang-trump-turning-us-...

trump is isolating America so his fascist takeover will not be interfered with by any outside nation as the French did during the Revolutionary war.

Thom, Do your individual part: Think grassroots and a small effort YOU CAN DO.

If they charge people to put electricity back into the grid. Keep it for yourself. Forget about them.

I can't blame "the grid" to charge you. The power grid is becoming more extremely complicated and intelligent, because electricity is brought in from further and further places and more and more sources. They don't need you complicating more sources..

Use the power you make to assist your house in running lights, fans, space heaters, computers, etc.. Small air conditioners CAN limit the use of large central air conditioning units that need the grid. Forget big battery storage, you will NEVER get your money back with current technology. Run what you can with what you've got - it adds up! AND, you are doing your part for the planet-regardless of what the idiot politicians believe. SOME Batteries will be needed to start items. For Example: A gas dryer uses roughly 30 amps for about a half a second to start up. LED bulbs are fantastic. They use very little amperage and the lighting spectrum has come very close to incandescent bulbs! Look around. They even have solar refrigerators.

The Koch Brothers, and all members of ALEC and all the other PAC's that the Kochs support must be declared enemy subversive organizations. Furthermore, all members and all republicans who are involved with these groups and the Koch Brothers need to be charged with racketeering, tried and hanged. I am sick of their utter disregard for decent Americans...

The very definition of Conservatism, states, afraid of the future, afraid of change, and feel most comfortable in the past. Note:this I'd not a direct quote from any dictionary. Seems a couple of oil companies see, live, change for the future.

The population of the earth may double in the near future, we will choke to death by the Trump model. And AI, will wipe out most jobs everywhere. Do we need to play this game, with bigger issue in site? Hell no !

Old power stations and models need to go....bye bye, yes? Upgrade our infrastructure now please?

I wanted to comment on Thoms second hour yesterday. It was about solar power and how the utilities are discouraging it. I am on a large COOP for electricity. It changed how it charges for electricity if you install solar, windpower or a new service. Now electricity is charged based on your peak demand during the month. It does not matter what your usage is, it is based on your peak deman during the month. So if you have solar your peak demand will be at night and thus it ruins any payback from the panels. There is one article that feels the utilites will only speed up the use of batteries and thus lower the cost of back up battery systems. Solar panels with a bank of batteries and a backup generator for rare emergencies could take you off of the grid. Solar is becoming the power of choice. Kauai recently went solar with battery banks at night. Tucson recently purchased low bid 20 MW and the winner was solar with batteries. Everyday there are advancements in renewables. And still the Republicans resist it.

As far as utilities go, it is a mess. You have a thousand electric companies producing and selling electricity into an old grid that is regulated (except in TX) by FERC. Currently 2 nuclear reactors in GA and 2 in SC are being built by companies that really are not capable of such large projects. The grid is antiquated and should be upgraded to High voltage DC which can move electricity large distances with minimal line loss. We have a large country with large resources of wind in the midwest and know way to get it back east economically. CA is building wind power in Wyoming and will lose a lot getting it to CA without DC lines. I have worked in Brazil where most of the hydro electricity is in the far west and the cities are in the far east. They have DC transmission. Lots of it in Europe also. China has a large line under construction. As far as I know we have none.

https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/7/7/15927250/utilities-r...

ChristopehrCurrie,

Good job! You have summarized the legal and principled case for impeachment precisely and without equivocation. All concerned citizens should keep up the pressure to expose the moral outrages that are the unjustifiable actions of the Trump Administration and the Republican party -- and any Democrat who plays along.

Unfortunately, impeachment proceedings have little or no chance to even begin let alone succeed as long as Republicans control Congress. That is just political reality, as explained by Dylan Matthews in the link below.

Nevertheless, it is critical that the American people stay focused and do not let the corporate media normalize Republicans' "high crimes and misdemeanors" -- their lying, cheating, appalling disregard for the interests of the middle class and the less-advantaged, and undying allegiance to the moneyed interests of their filthy rich masters, who seek uncontestable power at all costs.

Elections have consequences, and with the next ones rapidly approaching, it is absolutely imperative to keep the deliberate dismantling of our people's democracy and society fresh in the minds of every voter.

https://www.vox.com/2017/7/11/15953472/trump-presidency-over-ryan-mcconnell-impeachment-scandal

jibaro01,

Although you have laid out the problems of our failing democracy quite well (your vocal cynicism is more than justified), it is still historically inaccurate to lump all politicians and/or their respective parties into one cesspool of corruption. There are yuuuge differences!!!

For instance, which party and politicians right now are trying their damnedest to price tens of millions of human beings a year out of healthcare, condemning them to a life of needless uncertainty, and tens of thousands a year to suffer miserable deaths???

The trick is to figure out who is who, vote for the good ones, and hold their feet to the fire. After all, it is our government, not the government. I'm genuinely curious, though, what do you propose we do that would not be a waste of time?

Oldskoold,

Always good to hear from you. Excellent point! Greed is at the heart of the matter, as it is in most matters with negative consequences to society.

Diane,

Sooo, the purpose of healthcare is to provide jobs for clerks and profits for investors. Uh-huh.

2950-10k (just now), Legend (just now), myself, and so many others on this blog, including Thom, have over a long period of time explained how a single-payer system should be financed --graduated tax to a non-profitized fund with our government, as opposed to predatory premiums to profitized investment vehicles controlled exclusively by unaccountable insurance monopolies. Not to mention that virtually every other developed country finances their single-payer systems at approximately half the cost per individual than our privately-run nightmare, and with better coverage and results. Gee, how do they do that? Simply amazing, folks! Plus, there are uncountable resources on the internet to answer any question you throw up.

Hey, here's a thought: Why don't you do the research, instead of just endlessly complaining and hurling the same old, overly repetitive insults. Then come back and explain to us how it should or should not be financed -- at least to your satisfaction, since it would be impossible to satisfy the interests of all the entities you have listed in your various posts. For that matter, what public policy in the history of civilization has ever satisfied everyone involved? Please get back to us on that strange mystery too, would you?

The truth is that no amount of explanations or mind-boggling actuarial graphs and mathematics will ever satisfy you, since, by your own words, you are stubbornly predisposed to a free-market (read unchecked corporate power), partisan political viewpoint regardless of any evidence to the contrary. Be honest and admit it.

In fact, to illustrate contrast, why don't you explain to the satisfaction of everyone here exactly -- in excruciating detail -- how the private, for-profit healthcare system is now financed in the good ol' USA. Be sure not to leave anything out.

Not to change the subject, but I wanted to comment on Thoms second hour yesterday. It was about solar power and how the utilities are discouraging it. I am on a large COOP for electricity. It changed how it charges for electricity if you install solar, windpower or a new service. Now electricity is charged based on your peak demand during the month. It does not matter what yuour usage is, it is based on your peak deman during the month. So if you have solar your peak demand will be at night and thus it ruins any payback from the panels. There is one article that feels the utilites will only speed up the use of batteries and thus lower the cost of back up battery systems. Solar panels with a bank of batteries and a backup generator for rare emergencies could take you off of the grid. Solar is becoming the power of choice. Kauai recently went solar with battery banks at night. Tucson recently purchased low bid 20 MW and the winner was solar with batteries. Everyday there are advancements in renewables. And still the Republicans resist it.

https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/7/7/15927250/utilities-r...