Man, keep it to a novella, Xantar
I won't quote you but I will answer some of you points, many of which I agree with to a degree.
1) Unfortuantely, all people seem to care about is test scores in public schools. All the attention is placed on them, and not on actual achievement.
2) I agree that the healthcare system should support both private and public support. But I think that we should try and make private healthcare more affordable because private healthcare will always be better than public. By putting pain and suffering caps on malpractice settlements you will do a lot to lower insurance rates, which are out of control, and that will significantly lower the cost of healthcare. More people will get private healthcare, and so the costs of public healthcare will fall also. Its a win-win.
As for Sweden and other nations where public healthcare systems work, try and repeat the succes in a country that is 50-75 times their size. Things change when you have thoudands more miles and millions more people to support.
3) The Economy - The journey of 1,000 miles begins with one step. The deficit is starting to lower, revenues are rising, don't know much about trade deficits. As for the baby boomers, if we don't revamp social security we're screwed. There are billions in unfunded debts out there because of the current system.
4) The media - I wasn't trying to paint you as a liberal who wanted to have the media just report back-slapping propoganda. I was just a little surprised that you seemed to want the media to say one thing or another about the news. I'm a traditionalist and have taken several journalism courses. The current state of journalism in America, on both sides, is sickening. Yellow journalism is the rule, and it bothers the hell out of me. I also think upside down Christmas trees are pagan blasphemy, so maybe I'm just a crotchety old man.
5) Social Programs - Your putting words in my mouth a little bit. My post was aimed at stating that when we make wide social laws, we tend not to examine what negative reprocussions there could be. I think we need to help out our poor and disenfranchised, but we also need to continually evaluate those programs and change them to make sure they do as little damage as possible.
Look at Social Security. Its the "third rail" of politics. Everyone is scared to death to touch it because we've become depedent on a money-losing "investment" (ponzie scheme). I think social programs should be used as a crutch, and not a fake leg. You use the crutch until the leg is better, you don't chop off the leg and replace it.