By Staff
Despite all the chest beating and reflexive cries of "We're number one!" there are plenty of pesky facts that suggest we're coasting on our reputation.
Take health care. You know, the "world's best" system, as mouthed by Democrat John Kerry when he ran for president in 2004, by Republican Rudy Giuliani on the White House campaign trail this year and by President Bush frequently.
A prominent ethicist at the National Institutes of Health – he works for the federal government – begs to differ, writing in the May 16 Journal of the American Medical Association.
Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel sees a "dysfunctional mess," adding, "If a politician declares that the United States has the best health care system in the world today, he or she looks clueless rather than patriotic or authoritative."
Emanuel notes that the United States spends $6,000 per person per year on health care – more than 16 percent of the nation's gross domestic product and more than any other country.
What do we get for that bundle? American's average life expectancy of 78 ranks 45th in the world. Behind Bosnia!
The U.S. infant death rate of 6.37 per 1,000 live births is higher than that of most developed nations, and babies aren't yet gorging themselves on fast food.
Emanuel favors sweeping health reform: phasing out Medicaid, Medicare and employer-sponsored health insurance and giving all Americans a basic package of insurance, a choice of their carrier and an option to purchase upgraded coverage.
The program would be funded by a value-added tax of about 10 percent on businesses.
Paying for a program through taxes? That will never fly.
"The world's best dysfunctional mess" is fairly unbalanced enough for Fox Noise.
Conflict of interest: Almost two dozen officials who received performance bonuses last year at the Veterans Affairs department sat on the boards charged with recommending the payments.
The Associated Press reported that some of the bonuses went to senior officials responsible for crafting a 2005 budget that came up $1.3 billion short, jeopardizing veterans' health care. That's the American way!
The AP said the documents show that 21 of 32 officials who were members of VA performance review boards received more than half a million dollars in payments themselves.
Also rewarded was the deputy undersecretary of benefits, who manages a system with severe backlogs of veterans waiting for disability benefits.
Quips, quotes and qulunkers: "Preachers are not called to be politicians but to be soul winners."
– Rev. Jerry Falwell, 1965
"The idea that religion and politics don't' mix was invented by the devil to keep Christians from running their own country."
– Rev. Jerry Falwell, 1976. I met the Rev. Falwell, who died May 15 at 73, at Economic Club and he introduced himself as "Oral Roberts," so I know he had a sense of humor.
Germans feel tarnished by associating with the United States now that the marriage made in heaven of Chrysler Corp. and Daimler-Benz landed in divorce court.
Nine years after the $36 billion 1998 Chrysler takeover, the company is set to split in a $7.4 billion deal.
The Associated Press reported that German shareholders felt "that something pedestrian, unimpressive – indeed American – had dulled the lustrous sheen of one of their country's greatest carmakers."
More opportunities under the Bush administration: Used to be those living on fixed incomes had to decide between food and medication. Not anymore. The choice now is between eating, prescriptions and buying gas. That's progress!
And speaking of the Depression: A 1930s program that brought electricity to rural areas is today using taxpayer money to provide billions of dollars in low-interest loans to build coal plants even as Congress seeks ways to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
Why are we rushing to build coal plants which spew the carbon dioxide scientists blame for global warming?
The nation's rural electric cooperatives plan to spend $35 billion to build conventional coal plants over the next 10 years – enough to offset all state and federal efforts to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions over that time, according to The Washington Post.