Franken vouches for veterans on Owatonna

By: NoteTaker on 8/8/08

I applaud the conversation regarding veterans' benefits. Those that have served our country in this way deserve our full attention and care.

And multiple tours of duty ought not to be. The toll on both the soldiers and their families must be incredible.

Beyond that, I don't understand this talk about the "need for universal health care." Do those who support such rhetoric have any kind of understanding of the wrongness, on so many fronts, of such a plan?

First, there is the U.S. Constitution which provides for no such role for the federal government. Not that that has stopped Congress and the President, present company included, from disregarding the mandate in the 10th Amendment (and elsewhere): "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Second, where is all this money going to come from to fund "universal health care"?

The United States is IN DEBT. We're talking in the TRILLIONS of dollars. We simply don't have the money.

(We could, however, keep going on with the printing of worth less and less Federal Reserve Notes and loaning them, at interest, to the government, something that Ron Paul has rightly stated numerous times is an "inflation tax," not to mention unConstitutional.)

Is this the kind of "change" about which the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, Barak Obama, speaks? And does he speak for the Democratic party?

And what of the Republicans? Are they offering anything better? McCain appears to have a less-unConstitutional view of the Feds' role in health care but he doesn't get it either.

As far as I can tell, Ron Paul is the only candidate who understands the Feds' role in our Republic and, consequently, that "universal health care" is a violation of that role. Even if the Constitution allowed for "universal health care," the present model for how Congress handles our money (borrowing money, at interest, from private banks, among other things) spells financial disaster for us as a nation and as citizens.

Who wants that?

By: hubris.check on 8/12/08
My father is a vet and does not get health care. He cannot join the VFW because he served in a 'support' capacity - he joined up instead of being drafted and was sent to Thailand. He cannot be buried in a vet cemetary. Guess that's what you get for joining up instead of being forced.

I have a friend who served in the first Gulf War who has struggled for years to get the appropriate medical attention for knee injuries he got while there - our country is not properly taking care of our vets! Folks can say they support our troops and vets all day long, but the truth of the matter is that when they get home, they are not getting appropriate attention. My brother-in-law is suffering from deep depression since he returned from Iraq and has been turned away from the vet hospital. PTSD is real, it affects soldiers, and needs to be addressed by our failing government.