[Vision2020] Gary Johnson, Libertarian Party Presidential Candidate

[Paul Rumelhart]

I'm not as staunchly against ObamaCare as some of the Republicans and 
Libertarians are.  I do like the idea of tort reform and working to stop 
frivolous lawsuits, though.  I remember hearing years ago that 
malpractice insurance was driving up the cost of treatment a significant 
amount.

Myself, I've spent too many days sitting as a guest in a hospital room 
while one family member or other was recovering from something (or not) 
not to avoid the health care industry as much as I can possibly get away 
with.  I came down with a bad case of pneumonia and it still took days 
before I decided I needed to go to Quick Care.  That's not to say that 
they don't do great work and save lives, but I choose not to participate 
as much as I can. I take vitamin D-3 and melatonin every night, and I'll 
occasionally take a couple of aspirin when I have a headache that is bad 
enough or some NyQuil when I have a bad enough cold.  To me, health care 
is something you make use of when you're dying or otherwise in bad need 
of help.  I've been lucky enough that I can get away with such a 
philosophy.  I also understand that I'm nowhere near the norm, so I'm 
probably the wrong person to ask about this.

But, for what it's worth, I wish we'd treat medicine as something we 
only take when we absolutely have to, rather than having people 
pressuring their doctors to give them a particular prescription because 
the saw an advert for it on TV, or having doctors prescribe certain 
drugs because the company that sells them is pressuring them to do so.  
If you have trouble with allergies, try other things before you take the 
allergy medicine.  If you can't sleep, do what you can before you take 
the cool-sounding drug with the horrible list of side effects.

I would like to see emergency treatment available to everyone, but the 
flip side of that is that everyone doesn't get any prescription they 
think they might need at the drop of a hat.

Anyway, it's not his position on health care I'm interested in. It's his 
position on torture, due process, Guantanimo, the Patriot act, 
assassination-by-drone, warrant-less wiretaps, and a host of other 
similar issues that I'm really interested in.

Paul

On 09/11/2012 09:07 PM, Joe Campbell wrote:
> I'm not sure what this all means. If I knew I wasn't going to be
> elected, I'd promise you the moon.
>
> Let's stick to one issue. Why is he against Obama care? What does
> "Obama care" mean to you, for starters? Is it equivalent to
> "socialized medicine" or "universal healthcare," for instance? Are you
> against universal healthcare? I think that caring for everyone --
> apart from the right thing to do -- is economically sensible since we
> already have universal healthcare in the form of emergency rooms,
> which are costly. And preventive medicine is a good investment. What
> do you think?
>
> Joe
>
> On Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 6:59 PM, Paul Rumelhart <godshatter at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> Not happy with our current President or with Mitt Romney, I decided to look
>> into the other candidates.
>>
>> Here is what I found out about the Libertarian Party candidate, Gary
>> Johnson.  He is a former Governor of New Mexico and is currently a business
>> man.
>>
>> Where he stands on some of the issues, condensed (from
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Gary_Johnson):
>>
>> For:
>> - balanced budget
>> - vetoing any bills with expenditures in excess of revenues
>> - replacing income, corporate, and estate taxes with the FairTax proposal (a
>> high sales tax with an "up-to-poverty" monthly "prebate")
>> - building new coal-fired and nuclear power plants
>> - clean air, clean water, conservationism
>> - auditing the Federal Reserve
>> - free trade
>> - tort reform and control of frivolous lawsuits in health care
>> - trade unions, except that he supports merit-based wages
>> - continuing Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, but would enact
>> "responsible entitlement reform"
>> - raising the retirement age
>> - cutting the military budget by 43% (back to 2003 levels)
>> - military intervention only as the last option
>> - humanitarian interventions in other countries, if emergencies
>> - 100% campaign finance transparency
>> - amendment to reverse Citizens United
>> - States' rights
>> - continued legalisation of abortion
>> - legalisation of marijuana
>> - school voucher system
>> - simplified legal immigration
>> - work visas for illegal immigrants rather than amnesty
>> - marriage equality for same-sex couples
>>
>>
>> Against:
>> - earmarks
>> - TARP
>> - bailouts
>> - American Jobs Act
>> - "quantitative easing" (printing more money)
>> - government subsidies to businesses
>> - tariffs
>> - "ObamaCare"
>> - medicare prescription drug plan
>> - continued US involvement in Afghanistan
>> - renewing the Patriot Act
>> - physical or psychological torture
>> - due process for Guantanimo detainees
>> - "Americans giving up their civil rights in the name of fear"
>> - War on Drugs
>> - death penalty
>> - Department of Education, would abolish it at Federal level
>> - Federal involvement in student loans
>> - gun control
>> - fence along border with Mexico
>> - internet neutrality
>> - government regulation of marriage at all
>> - public funding of stem cell research
>> - sin taxes on cigarettes
>>
>>
>> Lots of things I personally agree with, some I don't.  What do others think?
>>
>> Paul
>>
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