There's an old joke about a guy who gets a bill from {lawyer, consultant, doctor, whatever} and in addition to the charges he was expecting, there appears near the bottom, after the subtotal:
MNC ............................ $ 200
MNY ............................ $ 1,500
The guy asks: what are these charges here? The reply is "Oh, that's for My New Car; and My New Yacht" ... to which the customer replies: "I'm not paying for those!"
The punch line: "Well, *someone* has to!"
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In the case of health care, the additional charges are there because everyone else has a lobbyist and was able to get out of paying for them. Someone has to pay for them, so it's left to you. I think that's a pretty clear picture of what's wrong in this country. It's also what's wrong with right-populism that breeds monikers like "irresponsible people who bought houses they couldn't afford" -- you hear these people on Rush saying "I don't want to pay for them!" but alas, they will pay for them anyway because a recession doesn't divide by party lines: it divides by class lines.
This is why we need all of it to go on the general obligation budget and it needs to get paid for with progressive taxes. But I digress :-)
/jordan