Name:   copperline - Subject:   Trump the birther Date:   9/18/2016 11:57:55 AM

When the economy was on the verge of crashing and we elected Obama, I really expected it would take 15 years to get back on track again.  After all, it was a world-wide economic event... and domestically, there was way too many people carrying debt they couldn't afford, home values dropped like a rock, etc.   So 7 years later, we are continuing to see evidence of improvement.  I'm not complaining.   If all the other countries in the world are struggling to produce growth, why should we be dramatically different?  

Regarding Obamacare, it's true my deductibles have gone up.  I would point out that the deductibles are set by the insurance companies, not the government.   ACA left the insurance companies very much in play to provide us with medical coverage, although it does give them guidelines they now have to follow.   For instance, up to now insurance companies designed their products to gradually eliminate people who needed expensive medical care.  Over time, they kept their business plan going by focusing on insuring the healthiest people they could sign up.   The leading cause of bankruptcy in this country became medical expenses.

Some people don't seem to remember that premiums & deductible have been going up for years now.   Many didn't get to feel the immediate impact on this because it was being absorbed by their employers, but over time these employers were transferring the burden of insuring their workers to its employees by increasing payroll premiums, or downgrading their policies each time they came up for renewal.   

Meanwhile the pre-Obamacare cost of uninsured medical care was threatening your local hospital that was struggling to keep their doors open because we were forcing them to provide free medical care to uninsured people.   

The ACA isn't perfect and needs continued management to work well for us.  Problem is, conservative forces have been focused on eliminating it instead of creating an alternative policy to replace or improve it.

I don't think it's naive to think about the Iran situation in this way.   It is far better not to have to fight two nuclear threat fronts at the same time.  Obama's efforts weren't just ours alone, it was what our allies wanted, too.   Now ... for a while at least... we don't have to worry about Israel launching a preemptive strike.  We will have to deal with Iran in the future, but remember we were on the verge of going to war with them... and now we are not.   All told, I think that is a good thing.

North Korea scares me more than ISIS ever could.   They appear to be irrational actors and that makes them very dangerous.  Even a missle with a poor guidance system could vaporize Seoul or Tokyo.   They will be the first hot trigger issue that a President Trump has to deal with.