So true Archer, the problem is complex and multi-faceted. Years ago I met a woman and her family stranded on the freeway in Bellevue Wa, car broke down, it was raining and they were standing outside a smoking car. I stopped and told them to get in my car so they wouldn't get hit. (Cop came along and got mad at me for stopping to help, "in the way". As I drove them to a small town where they had friends, she told me she had leukemia, had two bone marrow transplants, neither took and had been put on massive steroids, etc. which gave her a moon face and made her feel terrible.. She learned of a root grown in Mexico and they had come to town to get more. She looked the picture of health, and was beautiful and radiant. I had the feeling I was looking at the Madonna. There are remedies which the medical profession will not acknowledge. Darn that I did not write down what it was. Many times I had wanted to give the specifics to others. The medical industry is designed to make money, for doctors, administrators, stock holders, medical supply companies, ad nauseum. Myself, I got peripheral neuropathy from statin medications and must take seizure medications for the pain which makes me forgetful and seem daffy at times and affects my mobility. It has put a kabash on my retirement year and my doctor told me to keep taking the drug, denying that I was having an adverse effect. When I stopped on my own, the wrist pain disappeared, but feet pain has stayed with me, now four years. If I had no insurance I likely would not have peripheral neuropathy now. So there you go.

I am sure none of you approved of the way health insurance was administered, and priced beyond peoples means. What do you propose is a better remedy? At least years ago one could purchase major medical insurance if young and healthy. What we had was not working. Do you believe people should then just die or/and lose all their belongings to get treatment if insurance canceled when they lost their job? Your value system seems very cruel to me. Thankfully, with this bill my mid-aged son will now purchase health insurance which I have been coaxing him to get. Problem is the policies may not be any better even with this bill. I am awake Archer and am not a child. I am a medical professional who believes it is a sham this country ranks 37th in health care and is the only developed (so-called) country that does not see that everyone has some medical coverage. To be denied treatment for a disease and given minimal care because one cannot afford insurance is just not humane.

Was not the law yesterday intended to be laws controlling the health care insurance industry? (Although I heard the $100 a day fine is little incentive to force them reverse their denial of coverage.) That would seem a judicious law since whenever it was needed for the reasons it was marketed, it seemed that the coverage has changed and no longer available to the subscriber. Does anyone understand the thing, it is so long and wordy? But, indeed, what kind of society are we if health care is denied at the eleventh hour. People losing jobs, and then family members losing insurance just as a serious disease is diagnosed. Again, I would rather be taxed to see that another American gets the health care they need than to build and sell phosphorous bombs, illegal in the Geneva Convention, to drop on defenseless people in Gaza, AND give Israel 30 billion a year in aid in our approval and support of such insanity and barbarism. We are deciding the fate of the peoples upon whom genocide is being applied. What is the difference between this and health care? I'll put my money on health care any day.

Anon, I like your quote as well as the one of Jefferson's. Now the law is constructed that one can be prosecuted for "intent", with no crime committed and no injury to another, in other words prosecuted for what you think. Many incarcerated for victimless crimes, crimes on self. The 6th item of John Leyland's quote is violated all the time in that many laws are not given the test of constitutionality, and have no basis for legislators to pass. Seems legislators are now concerned about constitutionality of laws over the health care bill. and plan to test it but why not earlier? Is there not a law that requires a constitutional test before it is finalized? Seems I heard a group was trying to get such a law enacted. Senators Lieberman and McCain trying to pass one for "belligerence" where an American citizen can be held without legal council with belligerence being implied terrorist activity, belligerence having no legal definition. Both good quotes. Thanks.

As far as spending our money, which would you prefer to support: Imperialism and constant wars, or socialist supports which is actually a give back our tax money? Specifically I speak of health care, but this bill does not take out of your pocket but does put controls on the insurance industry so that subscribers are not thrown into the river when they get sick. Perhaps the insurance companies stocks will suffer a bit, or maybe they could wean the CEO's off from their gold drip they have gotten accustomed to over the years.

In general terms, we are all slaves to our upbringing and environmental influence and must spend a lifetime unraveling that which is beneficial and that which is non productive or destructive. The programmed dictate to respect authority is often taken to mean to not question the process, or those making the decisions. Examining the motives and validity of information fed persons daily is examined a process of responsibility evolves that compels each of us to begin exposing deviations from the fact and expose the fraud. What is amazing is that few care about the fraud and prefer to continue the lie, undisturbed. Is this just the American way?

By the way Bette, I do not have to agree with you to be eligible to vote, thank God. Don't personalize your comments to me or I will be obligated to do the same with you. Got it!

Why no outcry at the outrageous imperial warring expenses that are imposed on us for killing? I do not believe I should have to pay for those games Why do I never see any complaints by the regulars here about the money going to the military complex that pays such good earnings on the stock market Why is it that most complaints are about helping people with medical bills, food assistance, Medicare which most all have been required to contribute, and other social programs. No complaints about our 70 military bases throughout the world, and now more than 300 billion now on the wars in Iraqi, Afganistan, and Pakistan (denied by our gvmt), and likely Iran. Where in the constitution provides for this posture to police the world on our terms? We all do not inherit money, nor have the blessings of parents who inspire,encourage or pay for higher education or training. We will always have those who have less, and someone to exploit them, cheating them out of what they do have, and use them as donkeys (slaves) for profit. You feel society owes them nothing and they can has a life of Les Miserables, imprison them for stealing a loaf of bread. What selfishness, and hoarding by those who are born into advantage I certainly was not and overcame much disadvantage and hardship, but I am thankful I am white wasable to rise above it. Yet I do not look down upon those who have not done the same, and need government help or have life crises that place them in a position of impoverishment if no life line is available by our society Give them medical insurance, unemployment when the corporations outsource their jobs, and compassion. There are more reasons than you can guess why they are in the position they are in but until you walk in their shoes, you are leading a selfish life to denigrate them. You will suffocate in your own smugness.

I am siding with Anonymous of Reston, Va., it is an uncivil society that will not consider the needs of people who are unable to provide for all their needs. While the wealthy are money grabbing high rents, high profits on investments in market especially food commodities, utilizing the labor of underpaid workers and cutting their benefits so they can increase profits and under educating them in the school system on the real things of life the poor will become a weight on the "'libertarians" because they will rise up and knock you off your thrones. For God's sake, where is your humanity. That is not the premise of our republic nor the Bible, but I guess all Libertarians are all athiests or Jews.

Sure Jim, Corporate welfare is much more deserving, and ramming it down our throats is the undoing of this country. Don't you just love banks with credit cards have no limits on interest they can charge. Think it is called usury. Better to borrow from the mafia. Let us send all our tax money to WA DC to feed the machine and to heck with the people.!! Guess the mainstream press isn't televising the revolution, and doubt they ever would. The internet is monitored by the NSA, so it must be a thought revolution. Could we be prosecuted for a thought revolution? Maybe if there were enough of us we could accomplish something.

Nice quote, but from a slave owner.

Money and greed have consumed our country from the top down, at the Federal level, to State, County and City. Even neighbors will cheat each other for a buck. It is hard to find someone who will give an honest days work. Our jobs have been given to third world peoples who can barely make it on the few cents an hour that they make. We are falling in comparison with other countries in education, health and standard of living. We now have an imperialist government that violates international laws with impunity. Our news is controlled by very few corporations on public air waves and is editorialized propaganda intended to placate the masses. Yet, there is squabbling between left and right and the middle; divided we fall. Looks to me that we have been conquered since the police and military are at the ready to jail any who peacefully protest. Weapons to ward off demonstrators will cook your skin. Prisons are ready with rail tracks that go up to the entrance, and gas connections in place. We have been made docile and fearful to speak out. Other countries are becoming less tolerant of protest and using the Chinese model. We are not free but are ignorant. Go against the powerful and you stand to lose everything.

To withhhold the truth or the answer because someone has not asked the right question is indeed cruel. Prosecutorial misconduct is one example of this.

The key word is "character", not intellect or abilities. Character is controllable and within everyone's own will to change.