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I hold no real party alliance........ sm
and had Obama been running on the Republican ticket, I still would not have voted for him. I see corruption in all of politics, that is just the nature of the beast. I cast my vote for the person, not the party, and it was the person of Obama who caused to me vote on the Republican side.
I find it rather interesting that our "run away train" didn't start gaining speed until after Obama was chosen over Hillary and has started picking up amazing speed after the Nov. 4 election. Sure, the economy was not at its best prior, but Obama's rise to "glory" seems to be the touchstone for the whole nasty mess.
The Real Face of Satann Coulter and Republican Party
http://satanncoulter666.cf.huffingtonpost.com/
Yup, the Real Republican Party will rise again....new blood is definitely needed, that's for sure party time..
You party for your reasons, I party for me..Fortunately, right now democrats and the like minded have many things to party for..YEEHHAAWW!! Bye bye Scooter, bye bye Rove, bye bye incompetent Bush, LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
Tea party time....(sm)
Where will this end up? How long will it stay there? How will it be used? Do I trust the guy presently in office? Congress? Will I trust the next crop of office holders? There is a reason why people are going *off the grid*
Do you approve of President Bush's handling of Katrina's aftermath? * 45140 responses
Yes 13%
No 85%
I don't know 2%
It's party time today!!
Guess we old-timers are living proof that we can agree to disagree without getting down and dirty, huh?
Government employee morale at an all-time high!
I work at the Department of Education headquarters in DC. Today completed our 2-day introduction to Arne Duncan. Yesterday he had lunch in our cafeteria (Edibles, ha ha), with his wife and children. His wife wore jeans and a sweater and Arne looked like an average Joe in khaki dress pants, white shirt and tie. They stood in all of the lines and talked to anyone who approached them. They probably stayed 90 minutes. It was definitely the highest cafeteria attendance ever.
Yesterday afternoon he visited every floor of our building and introduced himself to everyone. We all came out into the hall and he shook everyone's hand with a "Hi, I'm Arne."
By the end of the day yesterday, everyone was aglow, since this was already more attention than we'd received from Spellings or Paige. Today, however, was the all-staff meeting, and I can say that the morale in the building increased ten-fold by the end of it.
Our auditorium was beyond packed, with people standing in the aisles. I myself snagged a seat on the floor next to the stage kindergarten-style. Arne stood in front of a blue screen that read "Call me Arne!" in bright yellow letters. He insisted that we call him Arne, rather than Mr. Secretary or anything like that, saying his name was Arne before he got this job and it would be 8 years from now.
I know this isn't anything earth shattering, but the change in the atmosphere at the Department over the last week has been really astounding. In the past, we all knew that the Secretary had an agenda that she was going to follow, and that we were only there to affirm that her way was best. We really feel that Arne wants to know the truth, whether it fits with his agenda or not.
It is not real the last time I heard.
THERE IS an investigation going on RIGHT NOW with the FBI and CIA. Obama states he was born at one hospital in Hawaii while his sister states he was born at another hospital on the other side of Hawaii, yet no real evidence. Obama then stated he moved to Kenya when he was 4 months old.
You truly believe the LA Times? The newspaper who suppresses Obama and Khalidi tape? There are so many uncertainities with Obama. At least with McCain he is REAL and do not have to question about his motives and who he hangs around with.
For the first time in history? Get real and -
I'm so sick of the whining about 'for the first time in history...' And what, exactly was holding African-Americans back before, huh? Can you not think of any excellent Black role models? Cause I can think of heaps of them. There have been, and are currently, many, MANY high-successful, Black public figures. From the mega-successful music moguls to television icons to the halls of Congress and the President's Cabinet.
Just because there hasn't been a Black president before doesn't mean they were EXCLUDED from the race. There hasn't been a WOMAN president either. Or a BLIND president. Or a KOREAN-AMERICAN president. Or an openly GAY president.
Does that mean none of these other groups have had success? None of them have had a role model?
The whole Christian thing is myth #1; myth #2 is regarding 9/11. MINDBLOWING!!
Spend at least as much time on pub party rehab
What ails your party has next to noting to do with Obama. I don't suppose anyone should expect republicans to recognize the severity of their own party's schisms, especially since their leader thought the economy was "essentially sound" and barely addressed the subject during the campaign.
I heard a sobering statistic yesterday. Among republicans, only 18% of them support SP as a future party leader. I would not be pinning my hopes on her for 2012. Did you happen to notice how brilliant Obama's campaign organization was. That is what you will be up against in 4 years. I am suggesting that the party needs to figure out how to connect with voters between now and then. You have a wide split within your own ranks. Personally, I think they need to move their platform principles more to the center. You may have different ideas. You need to come up with some new blood, and it's not as though you do not have good candidates down ticket who deserve their party's attention in terms of lifting them up into the national spotlight. If you spend the bulk of your time focused on how much you hate Obama and think you can run a successful campaign based on smear, you will be stuck out again.
This in no way implies you should not question him, but if all you have is attacks and offer up no alternatives to policies you oppose, you are bound to repeat these election results in 2012. The party needs a makeover. For starters, a central theme might be nice. Here's a clue for you. Putting all you eggs in the right fringe basket and turning a blind eye to the electorate's desire for bipartisan cooperation and solution's oriented diaglog will lead you straight into the dead end you now find yourselves in.
No problem with checks and balances, but may I suggest you spend at least as much time checking your own party's out-of-control free fall?
I lost respect for the replican party a long time ago
When they ended up putting McCain in there that did it for me. I've lost all respect for both parties. Guess that's why I'm more into the Constitution party/Independent (depending on their viewpoints).
I can take an insult from people, and I can dish them out too, but sometimes I get just a little irrated.
I wish all parties would go away and people would vote on issues because of the issues and not because of which party suggested them. I wish people would accept blame when they are at fault and not blame it all on the other parties (both sides).
But one thing I am glad for is that if Obama is elected (in January after we hear how the electoral college voted), if he does become our next president then when he does give speeches he will have a nice strong voice and will not be saying "my friends" every 5 minutes.
Think I will take another sabatical from this board for awhile and focus on other things and get my mind off this nonsense.
What does that have to do with partisanship? We are to have partisanship with people like you?
Whatever. Feel sorry for you. Just wait in 6 months. I will be glad then to say, "I voted for the other guy." I was really hoping the O could make a change, but I wanted it for the good, not worse. Picking Emanuel proved I was right about him.
Rapid partisanship is destroying our
We could well be facing one of the worst set of crises in our nation's history and will all need to step outside our labels and biases to come together as a nation if we want to survive the next few years. It is not as entertaining as flaming and blaming, but it would be nice to see everyone rise above the pettiness and remember that we are all Americans.
Post-Partisanship: The Obama Way...sm
The President is revealing who he really is, day by day.
It appears to be "The Obama Way" only. Sounds very dictatorial to me. The GOP are now being told who they can and can't listen to on the radio, or "we won't get along."
====================
Post-Partisanship: The Obama Way
By Adam Graham
January 23, 2009
Barack Obama in a display of post-partisanship went to House Republicans and listened to their concerns and responded with a post-partisan/healing/bring us altogether response that we expect from our new President:
During his private meeting with congressional Democrats and Republicans on Friday, President Obama ended a philosophical debate over tax policy with the simple declaration that his opinion prevailed because "I won."
Democrats called it a light-hearted moment that drew laughs around the table. Republicans said there was laughter but couldn't recall if any of it came from their ranks.
Guys, could anyone imagine George W. Bush saying something like to Democrats in 2005? I can't. It's arrogance illustrated. And Keith Olbermann would name Bush "The Worst Person in the World" for it.
Also, Barack Obama had some interest in advising the GOP on their listening habits if they wanted good relations with the White House:
Washington -- President Obama warned Republicans on Capitol Hill today that they need to quit listening to radio king Rush Limbaugh if they want to get along with Democrats and the new administration.
"You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done," he told top GOP leaders, whom he had invited to the White House to discuss his nearly $1 trillion stimulus package.
Thus we're beginning to see Barack Obama's big problem when it comes to bi-partisanship. He doesn't know where to begin. He has never worked with Republicans on substantive matters. During the year Republicans controlled the Illinois legislature, Obama was an irrelevant backbencher. In the Senate, the one issue he worked a Republican on was relatively minor (earmark transparency.) Comments like today's won't help. If Obama can't get serious Republican support for his stimulus plan, it could get it delayed, while vulnerable Democrats seek cover. If it doesn't work, Democrats could left holding the bag if it goes wrong.
Plus, what a difference a day makes. Or at least President Obama seems to think so. He was widely expected to lift the Mexico City Policy of funding International organizations that support abortions, yesterday on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Instead, he demurred and issued a tepid statement about the need to reduce abortions. It looked like he was saving his political capital and avoiding too quickly dwindling the good will he had from most Americans, so he waits one day, but still does it:
WASHINGTON, Jan 23 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Friday lifted restrictions on U.S. government funding for groups that provide abortion services or counseling abroad, reversing a policy of his Republican predecessor George W. Bush.
The Democratic president's decision was a victory for advocates of abortion rights on an issue that in recent years has become a tit-for-tat policy change each time the White House shifts from one party to the other.
When the ban was in place, no U.S. government funding for family planning services could be given to clinics or groups that offered abortion services or counseling in other countries, even if the funds for those activities came from non-U.S. government sources.
Ah, it's so good to know that my tax dollars now go to organizations that are sending abortion missionaries overseas to spread abortion around the world.
Did waiting until January 23rd help Obama any? Slightly. Obama did it at 5 PM ET, buried on a Friday which is good for limiting media coverage, but the folks who were going to learn about this decision and understand it were never going to hear about it from the mainstream press. Plus, not doing it on January 22nd means not being engaged with a fight on the same day as the March for Life, but Obama's still fighting the culture war on the left side of the equation.
However, realistically, this is a decision that could have waited much longer-at least until after the stimulus was passed. Most of these dollars have already been designated as to where they're going. Obama spent political capital that he could have saved for a few more weeks which makes the move a mis-step.
Obama had no choice to do it eventually. He had to pay off his supporters in the abortion rights movement, who like many other industries are looking for a bailout. However, they could have waited a little longer.
http://culture11.com/diary/36633
It is true partisanship at work. I'm a Democrat, always have been...sm
and post here on this board as a democrat, BUT it wouldn't matter to me if an African American Democrat made these comments I would not agree and be ticked. I'm sorry but I have zero tolerance for the people who are defending these comments. It's OK to say, I like Bennett but I think he was wrong on this one. But again, some people are true partisans and can see no wrong in the likes of Bennett, Rush, Bush...
I don't feel the need to make the choice. It's a child, not a choice. n/t
.
No, goofy. Republicans are REAL people, real
nm
If the real folks, with real hope, faith, and
and for our country's future who participate here on this forum were just a tad as healthy, wealthy and wise as this poster considers herself, we probably wouldn't be sitting in front of these silly computers trying to make a living!! Can't figure why she is here other than tell us how healthy, wealthy and wise she is and we are not!
I am an independent....neither party is "my" party.
THis election cycle I believe the best man is a Republican. Do your research. John McCain warned about this in 2005, named Fannie and freddie by name, co-sponsored legislation to control them. Blocked by Democrats, led by Chris Dodd..same guy now trying to fix what he and the Dems broke. Chris Dodd, #1 on contributions list from fannie/freddie, followed closely by #2, your shining knight Mr. Obama. The chickens have come home to roost all right...or should I say the donkeys. :)
Yes, it does, as well as the VA system. (sm)
The VA system used to be pretty decent, but during the Bush regime, it became a terrible place for our brave veterans to go for healthcare. If one president can destroy it, maybe another can restore it.
VA system..
was not pretty decent pre-Bush. My husband is a vet. We had used VA services on a couple of occasions way before Bush. He is a Vietnam era vet and we used those services when he got home in 1973. It was AWFUL. Just AWFUL. We chose to pay for his care at other hospitals rather than subject him to horrors of the VA system. Sorry, but you can't blame Bush for everything.
Now we'll see if the justice system REALLY ..
That is what your state is supposed to be responsible for.....not our government.
We have a geothermal system
and it saves us so much money. We have a decent sized home too. We used to live in an old farm house that was half the size and we used natural gas to heat the place....holy crap.....I truly don't think we could afford to live in that old farm house now because of the price of gas and how much it took to heat that old place. Our new home is twice as big and our geothermal is a heck of a lot cheaper. Definitely worth it if you ask me. Honestly, as our system is now, there is no
reason for anyone to be homeless. Before you tell me, I understand about mental illness and all, and, perhaps, those people are not making a choice, but anyone without enough money to afford a home can get one through our current welfare system--they must only ask.
I would think that with a punch system you
wouldn't have front and back pages, but separate pages. If they are front and back, they would have to be spaced so that could not happen IF punched correctly.
If we can restructure the tax system, you would have your wish..............sm
The corporate giants right now have so many legal tax loopholes, which their pricey lawyers handle so efficiently for them, that if they shouldered most of the tax burden, instead of the middle class, then they WOULD be giving billions to the government, and we would not be in such a mess, although there are many other factors and that is much too simplistic. But honestly, no one wants to tackle this subject, becaue where do the politicians get most of their $$$ for campaigning????? You know!
First of all, I never implied that there should be only one system s/m
this is just another example of you guys taking words and twisting them into something sinister. Obviously you didn't listen to the President's speech last night. He made it very clear he wants to get rid of the the banks' dependence on the government and allow them to run once again independently. YOU DON'T LISTEN! And did I say I did not want democracy? NO!! What I am talking about that the way the GOP is now is going down the toilet. They need to update their philosophies to correlate with the 21st century instead of the 19th century. A poster on here a couple of days ago made a statement about the Republicans allowing the Evangelicals run the party -- that is what is killing it and will continue a slow demise if that is allowed to continue to happen. You people are in total denial about what is really happening to your own party, except for the few people who don't have their heads up their behinds and are trying to distance themselves from that extremist faction, which unfortunately, seems to be very prevalent on this board..
I do not follow the 'party' system. sm
Consider myself true conservative (not Republican or a religious zealot), libertarian. Colbert shoved the truth in the face of power, media & government. Somebody needs to do it. The mainstream media does not have the guts to really put the truth in Bush's face. They are afraid of him, just like the rest of the world and America. Definitely something wrong with that.
Draft System To Be Tested...sm
Military Draft System to be Tested
Body: Associated Press | December 22, 2006
WASHINGTON - The Selective Service System is planning a comprehensive test of the military draft machinery, which hasn't been run since 1998.
The agency is not gearing up for a draft, an agency official said Thursday. The test itself would not likely occur until 2009.
Meanwhile, the secretary for Veterans Affairs said that society would benefit if the U.S. were to bring back the draft and that it shouldn't have any loopholes for anyone who is called to serve. VA Secretary Jim Nicholson later issued a statement saying he does not support reinstituting a draft.
The Selective Service readiness exercise would test the system that randomly chooses draftees by birth date and the network of appeals boards that decide how to deal with conscientious objectors and others who want to delay reporting for duty, said Scott Campbell, Selective Service director for operations and chief information officer.
We're kind of like a fire extinguisher. We sit on a shelf until needed, Campbell said. Everyone fears our machine for some reason. Our machine, unless the president and Congress get together and say, 'Turn the machine on' ... we're still on the shelf.
The administration has for years forcefully opposed bringing back the draft, and the White House said Thursday that its position had not changed.
A day earlier, President Bush said he is considering sending more troops to Iraq and has asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates to look into adding more troops to the nearly 1.4 million uniformed personnel on active duty.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, increasing the Army by 40,000 troops would cost as much as $2.6 billion the first year and $4 billion after that. Service officials have said the Army wants to increase its force by 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers and the Marine Corps would like 5,000 more troops.
The unpopular war in Iraq, where more than 2,950 American troops have already died, complicates the task of finding more recruits and retaining current troops - to meet its recruitment goals in recent years, the Army has accepted recruits with lower aptitude test scores.
In remarks to reporters in New York, Nicholson recalled his own experience as a company commander in an infantry unit that brought together soldiers of different backgrounds and education levels. He said the draft does bring people from all quarters of our society together in the common purpose of serving.
Rep. Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat who has said minorities and the poor share an unfair burden of the war, plans to introduce a bill next year to reinstate the draft.
House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi has said that reinstating the draft would not be high on the Democratic-led Congress' priority list, and the White House said Thursday that no draft proposal is being considered.
Planning for the Selective Service exercise, called the Area Office Mobilization Prototype Exercise, is slated to begin in June or July of next year for a 2009 test. Campbell said budget cuts could force the agency to cancel the test, which he said should take place every three years but hasn't because of funding constraints.
Hearst Newspapers first reported the planned test for a story sent to its subscribers for weekend use.
The military drafted people during the Civil War and both world wars and between 1948 and 1973. An agency independent of the Defense Department, the Selective Service System was reincorporated in 1980 to maintain a registry of 18-year-old men, but call-ups have not occurred since the Vietnam War.
What do you think?
OMG! (lol!) In the public school system,
Thanks for a good laugh!
The local hospital uses a system like this
but it's just a matter of time until they will invest in the additional equipment so they no longer need any MTs. I forgot about all the file clerks, etc. in medical records whose jobs have already been cut. Lordy!!! What on earth are we all gonna do when they "save money" by taking away ALL our jobs.
I work on an EMR system for a hospital.
It has an interface where the physicians dictate and we transcribe. The report is then uploaded for physician review and signature. After being signed, the report is electronically filed in the patient's record. The patient records are stored electronically and are easily accessed by staff from any the hospitals within our healthcare system. At least in an acute care setting, the system has not replaced MT's but rather reduced the staffing in the in Medical Records.
Yes, there are people who abuse the system, but...
you can't apply that to everyone on welfare. There are a lot of good people who don't abuse the system who have to be on welfare.
That's not how the voucher system works.
You don't send your kid to a "voucher school." You get a tax credit to help offset the cost of private school. Because, guess what, THEY'RE BETTER! They're actually held accountable. In high schools here in Florida, you don't even need a teaching degree! You just have to have gotten a BA in something. Anything. That's effing pathetic. My daughter's BIOLOGY teacher was a TAX ACCOUNTANT, who did little more than pop video tapes into the TV set so the kids would leave her alone so she could eat her box of Slim Fast bars and read Soap Opera Digest. THAT'S the public school system, and it stinks to high heaven.
People who protest against vouchers do so because it suits their political agenda, NOT because they are thinking about what's best for the kids.
"Voucher programs have also inspired enormous opposition, primarily from the education establishment and on the political Left. Union officials and public educators tend to see vouchers as a threat because they empower parents rather than school boards to decide where a child goes to school. The Left views vouchers as the conservatives’ way of introducing competition into public education as a whole, and as a means of promoting the privatization such programs as Social Security and replacing many others with free market initiatives. In addition, since most (85 percent) of the private voucher schools serving low-income students are religious (and mostly Catholic), vouchers inspire stiff resistance from those who believe in a strict separation of church and state. " ~ from http://stats.org/stories/2008/tes_scores_vouchers_oct20_08.html
Posts like these are what is wrong with the system
All through the election we were encouraged to be color blind and, judging by the numbers at the polls, that is exactly what people were.
However, NOW that Obama is president, ANY hint of opposition to any of his policies is immediately attacked as being racist. When the dems on these boards shredded Bush constantly for anything he said or did, no one immediately jumped to his defense saying you were picking on him because he was white.
C'mon. Practice what you preach. If this is to be a discussion of politics, stop attacking every anti-Obama post as being racist. He is our president. ALL of us. And criticism comes with the job. Just because he's black, he's not going to get a free ride. Nah, just cleaning out my closet and getting it out of my system.
Deleting old links, etc. It's going to be a long four years. I'm sure I'll have more to criticize, but for now I feel like taking a deep cleansing breath and bracing myself.
Under the socialized medicine system........sm
which is basically what Obama is pushing for, you might get some health care, but I sure hope you don't need a hip replacement or other specialized care. Just ask our neighbors to the north how long they have to wait for a hip replacement.
Brian Day, former president of the Canadian Medical Association, remarked that Canada "is a country in which dogs can get a hip replacement in under a week and in which humans can wait two to three years."
Medicines will be rationed and forget about getting treatment for pesky things like cancer if you are over a certain age or have other comorbid conditions.
It's not being "rushed." It's not even on the table. If you like your insurance, you should have a right to keep it. Others of us would like the option of a single-payer program.
HR676 has been in Congress collecting dust for a very long time now. It's not being rushed. It's being ignored.
WASHINGTON - Nearly 7 million adults were in U.S. prisons or on probation or parole at the end of last year, 30 percent more than in 1995, the Justice Department said Wednesday.
That was about one in every 31 adults under correctional supervision at the end of 2004, compared with about 1 in 36 adults in 1995 and about 1 adult in every 88 in 1980, said Allan J. Beck, who oversaw the preparation of the department’s annual report on probation and parole populations.
Beck attributed the overall rise in the number of people under correctional supervision to sentencing reforms of the 1990s. The nation’s incarcerated population has been increasing for more than 30 years, with sharp growth in the last decade.He said crime rates have fallen in recent years, which helps account for slower growth among people on probation — those allowed to live in the community with some restrictions rather than being incarcerated.
The number of people on probation in 2004 grew by 6,343 to about 4.2 million in 2004, the report said.
Nearly 50 percent of all probationers at the end of last year were convicted of a felony. Twenty-six percent were on probation for a drug-law violation, and 15 percent for driving while intoxicated, said the annual Justice Department report.
Racial imbalance persists in probation Whites made up 56 percent of the probation population and only 34 percent of the prison population, according to Wednesday’s report and another Justice Department report released last month.
“White people — for whatever reason — seem to have more access to community supervision than African Americans and Hispanics,” said Jason Ziedenberg, executive director of the Justice Policy Institute, which promotes alternatives to incarceration. He called probation a cheaper and more effective form of rehabilitation.
Blacks, he noted, comprised 30 percent of probationers and 41 percent of prisoners at the end of 2004. Hispanics made up 12 percent of the probation population and 19 percent of the prison population
Parolees grew fastest among those under correctional supervision. They are criminal offenders who rejoin society with restrictions for a time after they complete a prison term.
Number of parolees grows The adult parole population grew 20,230, or 2.7 percent, during the year, more than twice the average annual increase of 1.3 percent since 1995, the report said. The total number of parolees at the end of 2004 was 765,355.
Beck said a late 1990s spike in prison populations is now showing up in the number of parolees, as the number of prisoners released rises.
The parole population grew during 2004 in 39 states, with double-digit growth in 10 states, led by Nebraska’s 24 percent increase. The number of people on parole decreased in nine states and didn’t change in Maine.
About 187,000, or 39 percent of discharged parolees went back to prison or jail in 2005. While the number has grown, the rate has held relatively stable since 1995, when 160,000, or 39 percent of discharged parolees returned to incarceration.
The total number of people incarcerated in the United States grew 1.9 percent in 2004 to 2,267,787 people, according to the report released last month.
When I was watching Hillary say *I will fight the drug companies and insurance companies* I responded *You took $800,000 in donations from those people! And you are going to fight them?!*
Remember that Punjab article we saw months ago about her? Well, here it is below but remember it is in ADOBE PDF format (very easy to read that way though)....
be VERY CAREFUL if you're thinking about Hillary......please....
I'm very pro-woman (am one myself) but just because it has the same body parts doesn't mean I'm voting for them.........loved Bill but truly have had enough of the Clintons to last a couple of lifetimes....
Plans for spending cuts have drawn protests from health workers
France must make big changes to its health system in order to cut waste and increase efficiency, a government-commissioned report is warning.
The report says citizens must pay more and doctors must alter their behaviour.
Failure to do so could add 66 billion euros a year to France's public budget deficit by 2020, it adds.
The warning comes after thousands of health workers protested on Thursday over staff shortages and the "creeping privatisation" of the health system.
'Badly regulated'
The report was written by the High Council for the Future of Health Insurance, an advisory body set up by the government as it prepares to introduce healthcare reform legislation in June.
PRESCRIPTION BILL
Average French GP prescribes drugs worth 260,000 euros a year
The French use three times as many antibiotics as Germans
They use twice as many anti-cholestorol drugs as Britons
A fifth of health spending goes on pharmaceuticals
It includes representatives from the health insurance industry, trade unions and medical professionals.
The report was given to the Health Ministry on Friday, but details were leaked by the Reuters news agency which saw a copy.
The standard of care provided by French doctors is ranked among the best in the world, but the report says the system is "badly regulated and badly governed".
"The High Council believes that general confusion over who is in charge of what partly explains the excesses," it says.
"Everyone - institutions, healthcare professionals and social security contributors - will have to change their behaviour."
Higher insurance payments?
The report says French general practitioners prescribe on average 260,000 euros' worth of drugs a year.
BUDGET STRAINS
Health spending nearing 9% of GDP
Projected healthcare deficit this year - 10.9 billion euros
Deficit in 2010 if nothing is done - 29 billion euros
Healthcare deficit to account for 20% of total public deficit this year
It says the French consume three times as many antibiotics as the Germans, and more than twice as many anti-cholesterol drugs as the British.
The council also highlights the CSG welfare levy - a charge paid by workers, the unemployed and pensioners - as an area for possible reform.
"The High Council is unanimous in its refusal to turn to massive indebtedness to cover the growth in health insurance expenditure," the report said.
"The CSG, with its large base and the principle of proportionality that underpins it, could seem like a possible answer," it said.
The council said even a structural shake-up of the system would not necessarily rule out the need to raise further revenues.
Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, which set up the council last October to advise the government on healthcare reform, said last week the government had not been planning a rise in the CSG as part of the healthcare reforms.
Growing deficit
The report says an ageing population and the high cost of advanced treatments will help push health spending past 9% of gross domestic product - one of the highest levels in the world.
Number of doctors per 1,000 people
Italy - 4.1
France - 3.3
Germany - 3.3
UK - 2.0
Japan - 1.9
Source: British Medical Association. Figures for 2000
Experts have already warned that a projected healthcare deficit of 10.9 billion euros this year could rise to 29 billion euros by 2010, unless action is taken.
Looking further ahead, the report says the deficit could rise to 66 billion euros by 2020.
Health Minister Jean-Francois Mattei has already put forward a plan known as "Hospital 2007" proposing management reforms and a new emphasis on cost assessment.
Problems in the French health system were exposed last year, when a heat wave killed around 15,000 mostly elderly people.
There was also a bed shortage in hospitals in December, when a nationwide flu and bronchitis epidemic broke out.
The rate at which infants die in the United States has dropped substantially over the past half-century, but broad disparities remain among racial groups, and the country stacks up poorly next to other industrialized nations.
In 2004, the most recent year for which statistics are available, roughly seven babies died for every 1,000 live births before reaching their first birthday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. That was down from about 26 in 1960.
Babies born to black mothers died at two and a half times the rate of those born to white mothers, according to the CDC figures.
The United States ranks near the bottom for infant survival rates among modernized nations. A Save the Children report last year placed the United States ahead of only Latvia, and tied with Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia.
The same report noted the United States had more neonatologists and newborn intensive care beds per person than Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom — but still had a higher rate of infant mortality than any of those nations.
Doctors and analysts blame broad disparities in access to health care among racial and income groups in the United States.
Not surprisingly, the picture is far bleaker in poorer countries, particularly in Africa. A 2005 World Health Organization report found infant mortality rates as high as 144 per 1,000 births — more than 20 times the U.S. rate — in Liberia.
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