""I, myself, referred to Mr.Firth a 'despot', but not for his political views one way or another, but for the content of his comment, that his Medicare plan worked for him, and he didn't seem too concerned about other people who had no medical coverage.""

Point by point then. Don Firth's comment didn't indicate a lack of concern about others. We have a saying on Mudcat that we use when giving an opinion on something by which we are not directly affected. "I don't have a dog in this fight!". That is what Don Firth meant, that he isn't directly affected, but has strong opinions on the subject.

""I tend to agree with your assessment of the monopolistic nature of insurance companies and am personally persuaded that a realistic reform bill in regards to that would have been a better solution in dealing with that issue.""

""In your closing statement you say, "Then why sub standard healthcare, or no healthcare? Both perfectly O.K. with the Republican Party!"""

These are best answered together!

Thanks to the ridiculous idea in US politics that a majority is sixty, rather than fifty percent, the Republican Senators and Congressmen in Washington have, by using stonewall tactics to block any and all initiatives by Obama, succeeded in producing the healthcare system piloted originally by Republican Mitt Romney when he was a state governor, almost unaltered, and it bears little resemblance to his original single payer plan.

Calling it Obamacare is a misnomer!

It was passed with great reluctance on the Republican side, and since it has almost halved the 47 million US citizens who were abandoned without healthcare by the Republicans under G.W.Bush, I stand by the above statement. When I speak of the Republican Party I am not referring to their voters, but to the Repulican Senators and Congressmen, who really don't give a toss about the health of poor people (or "losers", which is how they refer to them).

""I do not and cannot support a leader of a country with out and out lying to its populace, just in order to foster his pet project or programmes. Just tell the people the truth and let them decide.""

Could you support one who believed that the insurance companies would exhibit sufficient self interest to comply, and was mistaken?

That is the true situation here.

Don T.