You know whats funny, In another post someone talked about the cost of the Iraq invasion how much money it has cost the taxpayer. Now the same people who are talking about the cost of the invasion (the Dems) have spent $40 million dollars for an ad campagin to smear John McCain. Wouldn't that 40 million dollars fix the social security problem here in the U.S? Now the dems will argue how different it is

Record-high ratio of Americans in prison
By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer

For the first time in U.S. history, more than one of every 100 adults is in jail or prison, according to a new report documenting America's rank as the world's No. 1 incarcerator. It urges states to curtail corrections spending by placing fewer low-risk offenders behind bars.

Using state-by-state data, the report says 2,319,258 Americans were in jail or prison at the start of 2008 — one out of every 99.1 adults. Whether per capita or in raw numbers, it's more than any other nation.

The report, released Thursday by the Pew Center on the States, said the 50 states spent more than $49 billion on corrections last year, up from less than $11 billion 20 years earlier. The rate of increase for prison costs was six times greater than for higher education spending, the report said.

The steadily growing inmate population "is saddling cash-strapped states with soaring costs they can ill afford and failing to have a clear impact either on recidivism or overall crime," the report said.

Susan Urahn, managing director of the Pew Center on the States, said budget woes are pressuring many states to consider new, cost-saving corrections policies that might have been shunned in the recent past for fear of appearing soft on crime.

"We're seeing more and more states being creative because of tight budgets," she said in an interview. "They want to be tough on crime. They want to be a law-and-order state. But they also want to save money, and they want to be effective."

The report cited Kansas and Texas as states that have acted decisively to slow the growth of their inmate population. They are making greater use of community supervision for low-risk offenders and employing sanctions other than reimprisonment for offenders who commit technical violations of parole and probation rules.

"The new approach, born of bipartisan leadership, is allowing the two states to ensure they have enough prison beds for violent offenders while helping less dangerous lawbreakers become productive, taxpaying citizens," the report said.

While many state governments have shown bipartisan interest in curbing prison growth, there also are persistent calls to proceed cautiously.

"We need to be smarter," said David Muhlhausen, a criminal justice expert with the conservative Heritage Foundation. "We're not incarcerating all the people who commit serious crimes. But we're also probably incarcerating people who don't need to be."

According to the report, the inmate population increased last year in 36 states and the federal prison system.

The largest percentage increase — 12 percent — was in Kentucky, where Gov. Steve Beshear highlighted the cost of corrections in his budget speech last month. He noted that the state's crime rate had increased only about 3 percent in the past 30 years, while the state's inmate population has increased by 600 percent.

The report was compiled by the Pew Center's Public Safety Performance Project, which is working with 13 states on developing programs to divert offenders from prison without jeopardizing public safety.

"Getting tough on criminals has gotten tough on taxpayers," said the project's director, Adam Gelb.

According to the report, the average annual cost per prisoner was $23,876, with Rhode Island spending the most ($44,860) and Louisiana the least ($13,009). It said California — which faces a $16 billion budget shortfall — spent $8.8 billion on corrections last year, while Texas, which has slightly more inmates, was a distant second with spending of $3.3 billion.

On average, states spend 6.8 percent of their general fund dollars on corrections, the report said. Oregon had the highest spending rate, at 10.9 percent; Alabama the lowest at 2.6 percent.

Four states — Vermont, Michigan, Oregon and Connecticut — now spend more on corrections than they do on higher education, the report said.

"These sad facts reflect a very distorted set of national priorities," said Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, referring to the full report. "Perhaps, if we adequately invested in our children and in education, kids who now grow up to be criminals could become productive workers and taxpayers."

The report said prison growth and higher incarceration rates do not reflect an increase in the nation's overall population. Instead, it said, more people are behind bars mainly because of tough sentencing measures, such as "three-strikes" laws, that result in longer prison stays.

"For some groups, the incarceration numbers are especially startling," the report said. "While one in 30 men between the ages of 20 and 34 is behind bars, for black males in that age group the figure is one in nine."

The racial disparity for women also is stark. One of every 355 white women aged 35 to 39 is behind bars, compared with one of every 100 black women in that age group.

The nationwide figures, as of Jan. 1, include 1,596,127 people in state and federal prisons and 723,131 in local jails. That's out of almost 230 million American adults.

The report said the United States incarcerates more people than any other nation, far ahead of more populous China with 1.5 million people behind bars. It said the U.S. also is the leader in inmates per capita (750 per 100,000 people), ahead of Russia (628 per 100,000) and other former Soviet bloc nations which round out the Top 10.

The U.S. also is among the world leaders in capital punishment. According to Amnesty International, its 53 executions in 2006 were exceeded only by China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq and Sudan.

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On the Net:

http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org.

Single-payer just means LINES. Choices means not having to wait on lines.

I do agree that we need insurance reform and for insurance to be made affordable to the low-income and the poor. I even agree that non-profit insurance companies are better than for profit. However I DO NOT agree that insurance premiums should be collected via taxes nor that there should only be one tier.

Single-payer doesn't work well in Canada. I sure don't want it here. In 10 years even Canada won't be single payer.

If you lump them all together, excluding FOX, then according to George Mason University, the majority of news watchers are getting tainted information deceptively labeled as "news".

Americans express broad, and in some cases growing, discontent with the U.S. health care system, based on its costs, structure and direction alike — fueling cautious support for a government-run, taxpayer-funded universal health system modeled on Medicare...

In an extensive ABCNEWS/Washington Post poll, Americans by a 2-1 margin, 62-32 percent, prefer a universal health insurance program over the current employer-based system...

Public Preference:
Current System or Universal Coverage?

Current system: 32%
Universal coverage: 62%
Universal, with waiting lists for non-emergency treatment: 39%
Universal, with limited choice of doctors: 35%

Source: ABC News

(CBS) Americans think the U.S. health care system is in need of major repairs, according to a CBS News/New York Times poll.

Nine out of 10 say the system needs at least fundamental changes, including 36 percent who favor a complete overhaul.

Although most Americans say they are generally satisfied with the quality of their own health care, including 41 percent who say they are very satisfied, it's a different story when it comes to the cost of care.

Just one in five are very satisfied with what they pay for health care, while a majority (52 percent) are dissatisfied, including a third who are very dissatisfied...

Most Americans believe government can play a role in fixing the health care system. Two-thirds say the federal government should guarantee that all Americans have health insurance — and a similar number says providing health insurance for all is a more serious problem than keeping health care costs down...

More Americans do think the government can do a better job than private companies at helping hold down health care costs.

Health care promises to be a crucial issue in the 2008 presidential campaign. In a CBS News poll conducted last month, health care tied with jobs and the economy as the second-most important issue facing the country, following the war in Iraq. It was even more important to Democratic primary voters, ranking ahead of the economy and jobs.

In the new poll, the public gives the Democrats a big edge over the Republicans on handling health care issues. Asked which party they believe will best improve the health care system, 62 percent said the Democrats, while just 19 percent said the Republicans.

Source: CBS News

Poll shows many Republicans favor universal healthcare, gays in military
By Aaron Blake
June 28, 2007

A large nationwide poll of Republican voters shows that an increasing number consider themselves conservative, that about half favor universal healthcare and allowing gays in the military, and that the vast majority say spreading democracy shouldn’t be the United States’ top foreign policy goal...

The survey of 2,000 self-described Republican voters, titled “The Elephant Looks in the Mirror 10 Years Later,” showed that 71 percent consider themselves conservative, a 16 percent increase over the 1997 numbers.

Fifty-one percent of the GOPers said universal healthcare coverage should be a right of every American...

Most People Think Health Care Costs Are "Unreasonably High" and Favor Price Controls, According to Harris Poll
For many people health care costs stand out compared to other goods and services as being exceptionally expensive. Majorities of the public think that the cost of prescription drugs, hospitals and doctors’ services are unreasonably high, whereas relatively few people think this is true for the cost of packaged goods, clothes and automobiles. As a result, majorities favor federal government price controls of prescription drugs and hospitals, and a plurality favor price controls for doctors’ bills.

Associated Press-Yahoo Poll
Interview dates: December 14 - 20, 2007

14. Which comes closest to your view?

34% - The United States should continue the current health insurance system in which most people get their health insurance from private employers, but some people have no insurance

65% - The United States should adopt a universal health insurance program in which everyone is covered under a program like Medicare that is run by the government and financed by taxpayers

2% - Refused / Not Answered

15. Do you consider yourself a supporter of a single-payer health care system, that is a national health plan financed by taxpayers in which all Americans would get their insurance from a single government plan, or not?

54% - Yes

44% - No

2% - Refused / Not Answered

And I do resent those millionares and billionares who hold most of the offices in the U.S. who live very comfortable lives and always have, who have health care and loooong paid vacations, who have never had to choose between buying groceries or fixing the car so they can get to work - who vote tehmselves raises in teh tens of thousands of dollars while fighting raising the minimum wage - who think that the rest of the nation doesn't deserve the same. Trust me, the rest of us work much, much harder than they do.

As if societies that have attempted to marganalize faith in the lives of its people to a repressive extent have such great track records?

Communist Russia
Nazi Germany
Communist China to put out a few

A lot of women reject what they say they really don't know what they want. They think they want the bad boy, but they don't want to get burned, so they say they want the good guy, and then reject him when he comes around!