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Iraq/Afghanistan Deaths Since Obama Took Office 25, No Health Insurance 1,680
As President Obama plans to send more troops to Afghanistan, here are some statistics for comparison. It is time to discuss seriously what the government plans to spend in both money and lives for two wars that can't be won while it foregoes universal health insurance.
Military Deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan Since Obama Took Office
Iraq: Jan 20th to present 12
Afghanistan:Jan 20 to present. 13
Total 25
American Deaths Due to Lack of Health Insurance Since Obama took Office
Total 1680
Yes there are reasons. But at the very least we should be talking about the people who are dying. Rather than avoid these numbers, please make a good case for them.
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Well! Why the hell NOT compare the number of American deaths in Afghanistan with the yearly toll on our highways? The right and reverential GOP and Dem idiots never tired of offering up that parallel comparison back in the late Sixties.
What in the hello has gone wrong with Josh Marshall? Is he too involved in changing diapers? Five, six years ago, one could never get enough of his perspective regards the insanity or our descent in Iraq. Now, Afghanistan is off the radar and we are offerred such inane comparisons such as with health care.
Yes, war is a crime - "ASK THE INFANTRY AND ASK THE DEAD." Anyway, thanx for the ad on 'Taking Chance.' (I think).
February 16, 2009 8:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow, you are like a dog with a bone on the whole "death without insurance" topic...
Death is never prevented.
February 16, 2009 10:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
There was a time when President Bush prohibited us from seeing the coffins coming back from Iraq. The purpose was obvious. My intention is to have people see the numbers of coffins filled everyday from a lack of health insurance. My purpose is obvious.
It's not a topic. It's a number.
February 17, 2009 10:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
The number today is:
1,740
February 17, 2009 10:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
A disingenuous and ultimately meaningless number. People don't die because of lack of health insurance, they die because there is something seriously wrong with their bodies.
Sometimes, those things can be fixed by receipt of health care. This, presumably, is the number intended to be approximated by your ticker.
Health insurance is a different matter altogether. Health care services are not an obvious insurance business; catastrophic illness coverage, disability issues, perhaps. But the majority of health care is not really amenable to insurance treatment, which is why health insurance is so inefficient.
And blaming Obama for this (or Iraq and Afghanistan, for that matter) is silly. Dude can't get a stimulus package through Congress, let alone health care reform.
February 17, 2009 11:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
If you don't think that people die because they lack of health insurance you are simply uninformed on the issue. I'm not "blaming" Obama with these numbers. I'm just trying to keep the issue in the news. It wouldn't matter who was President.
February 17, 2009 11:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
I wish someone on this blog would take a stance on sending more troops to Afghanistan one way or the other. Like health insurance Afghanistan seems to have vanished from the topic list.
February 17, 2009 11:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
People die all the time for all sorts of reasons. You're not going to stop death. If death could be stopped, I'd say socialized health care would be a bargain at almost any price.
Assuming trends that have developed in countries after the nationalization of health care would hold true here, those scores you like to keep would be small fractions of the deaths we would experience 'due' to national health care.
February 17, 2009 12:05 PM | Reply | Permalink