Of course you did. All your citizens paid for it.
True, I've been paying for approximately 5 years, but you know that is not what I meant. When I arrived in the ambulance, the level of my care was not determined by the PHI card I produced, just my ID proving Canadian citizenship; I also would not have been discarded or given a choice of care based on what I could afford.
Actually, I think you are with government mandates...but thats "in my eyes". I would rather have a choice..but thats just me.
That is fine. As I said, it reduces to a philosophical difference, not a pragmatic one. Personally, I would rather pay comparable taxes and know that at no time will a Doctor deliberately not treat me because I am on MediCaid, cut my treatment short because I cannot afford it, or will any insurance company rebuke a necessary treatment because it's deemed 'experimental'.
It doesnt need to be the extremes. The US simply has a larger middle and upper middle class that pays more of the load. Given the way the tax brackets are set up and the number of write offs available, the average middle class citizen pays around 15-18% tax rate...about 6-8% less than you. Canadians are coming here for work for the most part...not the other way around.
And Americans are crossing the border for their prescription drugs in record numbers; so which side is the grass greener on?
Approximately 25,000 Canadians cross that lateral line to work. Compare that to the approximately 9 million mail-orders place in Canada, from the US, mostly by Seniors, and the grass begins to seem not so bad under my feet. So many Americans rely on reasonable Canadian prescription drugs, that your government actually passed a bill increasing the supply of prescriptions an American citizen can legally import.
As to the point of migrant workers, the most recent job data (January-March) implies an opposite trend. With the Canadian dollar hovering consistently above, or slightly below, the American dollar, the incentive to work in the US has decreased recently. However, your point is still valid.
Sound like a Democrat that is severely mistaken.
1. My taxes haven't gone up at all since the war started...in fact they have gone down.
2. The funds for the war would have never been allocated to the public to begin with...no matter who was in office.
3. The funds for the war (which is something that will end) is mostly borrowed money. Comparing that to a system that would require that same amount of money year after year until this government was no more is a bit...dramatic. Its borrowed because then the governments actually has more control over that debt (by deflating the dollar). Ask China how happy they are about the debt we have with them right now.... We will never pay that debt nor be taxed on it. Its basically a large slush fund that is a revolving door. It gets passed on and passed on with very little, if at any, effect on the general public. The government is not a cash business nor does it operate like one. There is a reason my taxes we're high in the 90's yet we still has a surplus. Those funds will never see the light of day to the general public....ever.
4. This war doesn't even come close to the unpopularity of the Korean and/or Vietnam war. Its not even in the same ballpark.
True, those are all valid and well constructed points. However, I didn't make any of them aside from the last.
My comparison was not a practical "if the funds were not spend on 'x' they
would be spent on 'y'" but a hypothetical "they
could". Which is a point you furthered by bringing up the lack of financial detriment the Iraq Conflict has caused you. And that to the ever-increasing trend of de-industrialization which keeps premium on National Defense products high, but real-jobs making them low, and a diversion of that funds into a Universal Health Care program which would create far more real-jobs does not seem all that bad.
Actually, it is more unpopular. Gallup data from the Vietnam War and the Iraq War shows that the Iraq Conflict became more unpopular, much quicker. In fact, 40% of the citizens in your nation disapproved by the first year, a level which was not reached until well into the second year with Vietnam. Add to that the increased government support for the Vietnam war over Iraq, and the very quick disapproval by foreign nations, and Iraq is your most unpopular war, believe or not. There are no domestic riots or Mamma and Papas singing songs because this is an uncritical generation, and the effectual tie with government has been lost. However, as I've shown, it is vastly more unpopular.
Which in my view looks more positively on us since we are a nation of 300 million compared to one of 30 million. Technically, you should be kicking our ass
We're still better in Hockey.