Who are you talking to? My elderly friends (my husband is almost 72 on Medicare Part A himself, so we have a few) see little good with Medicare. He can ride SEPTA (Philadelphia's transit system) for a discount. We are thankful that he retired from the State of DE and we have combined benefits. Otherwise with his aging, our medical bills would be out of site.

My elderly neighbor MUST pay for supplemental insurance and her Social Security Check is too much to get the Medicare "buy-in" and have Medicaid pay for her supplemental insurance, so she is paying twice for insurance (once for Medicare and again for the supplemental) and still has to use (Delaware) Medicaid for perscription assistance (that is how we spent out tobacco settlement money) for those drugs not covered well or at all by medicare or her supplemental insurance, and her income is too much for help from the drug companies, I have taken her to get the forms to try. All she has is Social Security and most of that goes to pay her room rent in her daughter's house.

medicare is better than nothing, but it is not the great medical expense savior that you make it sound to be, Mr. R.

It's not that he is too old. His thinking is trapped in the times from which he held his prime. Times have changed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62dO_pIrWoU

It is true that McCain is not for Nationalized health care. If you talk to people in some countries in Europe, many have private doctors that they have to pay completely out of pocket, because the system is so broken and the waits are so long.

When Obama does away with the Bush tax cuts, those of us with no children and are married will be hurting more once again. I have not seen much in either plan that would help us out tax wise. Eliminating the Marriage Penalty did help us see a little more $$ come back at the end of the year.

I resent the idea of working hard, and then have my tax money distributed to those who do not want to improve their lives...hey as a former welfare mom myself, I know the difference between a hand up and a hand out. I used the system to benefit me by going to school (Communitee College) to learn what has now propelled me into a decent career in State Government. This is the American dream, by going to school and working hard, we have everything but a charge card paid off, and that card I could pay off at anytime, the balance is low as is the FIXED RATE interest.

The economy could be strengthened and fixed by people truly wanting jobs and making the most of what they have, instead of sitting back, and waiting for a handout and big government subsidies. I know, I have been there and have gotten out.

Politicians are making promises that I will be suprised if either can keep (most of the promises). It is up to the individual.

I went to College on PELL Grants because I did not have money. So can some of these others out there. Sorry. I spent too many years on Welfare and was a Social WOrker trying to help ABLE BODIED clients reach self sufficency. The people who can and won't should not be supported on our dollars.

You REALLY think that keeping a taxes high on businesses (Not huge congomerates but smaller businesses) will create more jobs? Some how I do not follow that logic. Less taxes on business means more capital to expand. Which can mean more jobs. Where is my logic flawed?
Yes cut loop holes in the tax codes for huge corporations like Exxon...but for the neighborhood hardware store? They need incentive to stay open, and less taxes can help them out, and me out so I have more $$ to make home improvements...thus spending more money at the local mom and pop, so they can hire more people, creating more jobs.
I have seen this happen. It is more than trickle down economics, it works.

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. AP Saturday September 6 2008

“As governor, Palin originally supported earmarks for a controversial Alaska project dubbed the ``bridge to nowhere.'' But she dropped her support after the state's likely share of the cost rose. She hung onto $27 million to build the approach road to the bridge.”- By CHARLES BABINGTON -Associated Press Writer

So it seems that there is a 27 million dollar approach road being built to the “bridge to nowhere” that is not being built. Now that seems more than a little crazy

Rationalization on the right:

"I could hire one-half of the working class to kill the other half." -- Jay Gould, Wall Street financier, 1886

McCain is in the American grain.

Is Mc Cain abel?

McCain does not have a health care plan. He doesn't need one. His plan is the same barbaric system which is now in place which thinks that health care is another one of those individual privileges. His plan is a continuation of the present health care system which is driven solely by corporate greed and a lack of human compassion.
This left - right phenomenon that is so quickly used to define the reasons and analysis of political opinions is devoid of all common sense. It certainly has nothing to do with the reality that Congress has been controlled by the Republicans for the past 7 years.

Obama's tax and economic plans read like The Bad Ideas of European Socialists.

He ignores the transfer of tax burden in dollars and percent of revenue to the "rich" by the Bush tax cuts, and the utter failure of increasing marginal tax rates to stimulate anything but misery.

He clearly thinks he should be picking the winners and losers in the economy, a task he is singularly unfit to do, but every good socialist "progressive" thinks this way, despite the consistent failure of such collectivist models throughout history.

To keep repeating failure is not progressive, it is regressive.

To draw inspiration from Marx, whose best idea was to die, whose Manifesto was a rant against conditions that were disappearing through the spread of democracy and free markets as he wrote (making the book and its reasoning a fantasy), is singularly ludicrous when those marching to his tune killed more than 100 million souls in the 20th century.

Only people like Mugabe profit from Marxism and the kind of ideas Barry O has at his core.

And Michelle, who makes more money per year than 99% of any American, man or woman, who exhorts youth to follow her into community service, to ignore money-grubbing industry jobs...how does a progressive justify that kind of lying manure?

To be fair, Obama's ideas are not all that new either. Redistribution of wealth is neither new nor the "kind of change we can beleive in". The Democrat's offer the same old failed policies they have always promoted. The difference this year is that they are riding on the public's desire for "change". What they are offering is "change" of a sort, but is a throwback to FDR and LBJ.

The reason Republicans are so unpopular now is because they sold their souls and joined the Democrats in wasteful spending, as well as the war which though unpopular, remains the front on fighting Islamic extremism.

The real question about McCain is whether or not he will govern as a conservative. The maverick image is authentic, but he has too often cultivated that image for its own sake rather than the conservative principles that he admits the Republicans had abandoned.

"Historically higher taxes have caused the job market to shrink."

Perhaps, but the post conveniently ignores the observable data of the last few years. Taxes were cut and job losses seem to be on the rise. Corporate profits have sored during the current administration and jobs losses continue to increase. If one is going to make an argument, it helps to craft one that is not immediately refuted by reality.

The causal link between taxes and jobs is not direct. Except at the extremes, where and how taxes are applied probably has more to do with job loss/creation than the actual tax rate.

The suggestion that "Obama offers" a welfare state is, at best disingenuous . . . actually it's an outright falsehood. I am not aware of a single mainstream politician in any party who has suggested anything that could even come close to approximating a welfare state. (Curiously, given the amount of money AK gives its citizens each year it may come close to meeting your definition.)

What do you mean by afflicting the comfortable - taxing productive citizens? Re-distribution of wealth requires a huge cut for the government to enforce tax laws and collect taxes. So who really benefits? Certainly not the "needy" that have the pent up demand as you say. It's the bureaucrats that gain power. A viscious cycle is created whereupon the less fortunate become dependent on politicians for "hope." No, that's not what the American people want to hear! McCain has more economic sense than that.

The key issue for the voters is whether or not they want more jobs or fewer jobs. Historically higher taxes have caused the job market to shrink. This happened immediately prior to the Great Depression. It happened after LBJ jacked up taxes. Cutting taxes and making the incentive to invest in new industry is the fuel needed to create jobs. The only jobs that come from a welfare state are government jobs which are paid for by taxes. What will happen when half the country is on welfare and the other half works for the government? That's what Obama offers. I for one don't want that. Why do you?

Though it is narrowly accurate to say that McCain did not explain his health care proposal in the speech, he does have one. It involves eliminating the tax incentives that make employee benefits health plans possible, and compensating with a (hopefully adequate) tax credit so that people can buy individual insurance. I attribute the lack of discussion of this not very progressive proposal on the left to the fact that as long as Congress is controlled by the Democrats, it, like every other McCain legislative proposal, is meaningless.