BREAKING NEWS: REPUBL- wait, seriously...? *sigh*... REPUBLICANS VOTE TO SUE OBAMA OVER OBAMACARE.

Listening to Americans talk about healthcare is the most hilariously depressing thing.

Yeah, the NHS in the UK may be absolutely sh*t a lot of the time (particularly with transitioning. HEY. EDINBURGH GENDER CLINIC. STILL WAITING ON A SECOND APPOINTMENT) but I at least know if I get in a car crash, or get some rare contagious virus, I'm not gonna have to pay out the nose.

The entire rationale of having to pay someone to be sick is stupid. You don't pay the police when you've been robbed/stabbed, you don't pay the fire dept. when your house explodes.

http://thinkprogress.org/health/201...oregon-man-robs-bank-dollar-health-care-jail/

Says it all.

If Obama didn't have the power to do it, he wouldn't have done it. If he did it, he therefore has the power to do it. Simple logic.

The buy-in was the key point of Obamacare. Arguably the reason why it is doing so badly (in comparison to estimates) is because a) the Republicans gutted it not once, but twice (I think), before the bill was passed/forced through, b) gave it a terrible public rep. by basically slandering it (and Obama, a popular US political tactic that I'm depressingly seeing in the UK of late and c) therefore putting people off from the buy-in, thus reducing it's effectiveness because the cost then had to rise to accommodate the lack of backing.

It was a decent idea. Politics ruined it. Citizens are now suffering, and the same inane Republican supporters prattle that this was obviously how it was going to end all along (note: I read that you're not a Repub.). No, it's because said party actively opposed it, shut down government, caused hundreds of thousands of dollars of reparations in job fees and somehow tries to paint themselves as the good guys.

Is it just me, or does this sound like EA?

This is why I don't understand how US politics doesn't implode. I never hear anything good come out of the Republicans, it's always bullshit like trying to sabotage every attempt to fix the damn country, and put white straight Christian middle-class men on top of the world at everyone's expense

It is literally impossible to become US president if you don't at least pretend you're christian. That's not a good thing.

If you're referring to Early Access, I love it.

Electronic Arts.

Oh ok. I saw how it could kinda fit for early access too in a way

This is... well, as others have said before me, very wrong. The Canadian perspective on U.S. healthcare issues is a good example here. Canada's universal health insurance system works very well in comparison, as do many other more socialized health care systems:

The whole 'socialized = bad' thing has always confused me, since so many public services are obviously beneficial. 'Free' market isn't always the best choice for every sector.

I love the yellow line of Freedom in that graph, @aevs.

Also, @brianpurkiss, if you're going to throw around quotes from Benjamin Franklin, please quote them correctly.

I mean, I'm not American and I know the line better than you.

Again yeah. The Police and Fire Departments in the US are "socialized", you don't pay them if you get mugged or house set on fire. Access to free and sufficient healthcare isn't exactly some communist plot or whatever repubs are scared of.

@tehtrekd I can't find that exchange we had a couple of months ago where I essentially showed you (with ease I might add) that American politics are way more complex than your idiotic simplifications, but I guess you don't remember anyway. Really this goes for a lot of you. Those republicans aren't dumb zealots and democrats aren't commie sleeper agents, they're both members of a broken system, with no fixing in sight.

Ah, yes. The thread where you brought up a bunch of issues that most of the first world is dealing with to prove that one country was complex.

Good times.

I think you'll be glad to know that I no longer think that a country breaking its constitution many, many times instantly makes it simple, (doesn't make it any less hilarious, mind) but if you were trying to prove the U.S. is complex, why not bring up issues that are more U.S.-only.

Like the fact that they spent billions of dollars on their military and are now in a crisis of stone-age level infrastructure, however despite this they still spend a majority of their income on their military.

Or, you know, this whole health-care thing, considering it was an issue before Boehner stopped taking his meds.

I dunno, just a thought.

Number of first world issues: 3 (4 if you count the power shift as equally relevant to the U.S. and other first world nations)
Number of U.S.-only issues: 5/6

Huh.

Seriously mate, as I said before, your attitude is just as bad for the world as any other form of ignorance-based conviction.

Only 4? Really?
I'm assuming the other 3 are racism, classism and drug problems.

If that's the case, first off, the U.S. isn't the only country with a 2-party system, they're actually quite common and almost never work perfectly, and honestly I don't know why anyone would expect otherwise. The problem with the U.S. one is that one part is liberal, the other is conservative, which causes even more tensity. But once again, what could you expect? If voters are so down the middle like they are in the U.S. then your only option is to either use the false majority method where the guy with 51% of the votes wins, or give one side a slight bit more power. The one that doesn't piss off half the country is the better one for the most part.

Second, richness in a politician practically being a prerequisite is as old as democracy itself. Corporations having all this power is more of an American thing, I'll admit that (although influence does trickle beyond that) but there's nothing you can do to stop that short of voting in an anarchic party, and North Korea will nuke China before the U.S. (or any first OR second world country) votes in anarchism.

Dependence on energy resource imports? A problem for only the U.S.? How so?
The entire first world imports most of its oil from third and second world countries, most uranium comes from Africa, and hell, doesn't the U.S. have Alaska? Isn't that an enormous oil producer?

Disinterest in the diplomatic process, I can only speak for Canada, but people here really don't give a ****. It's kind of terrible.
Not much of this country votes, similar to the U.S. and our current prime minister currently on his eighth year did extremely bad on his first term and was re-voted in anyway.
And when I say "extremely bad" I mean practically nothing has happened. His entire run as prime minister has been as uneventful as they go. I think the most eventful thing that's happened since he was voted in was that he said some empty threats to Russia after the sanctions kicked in.

And yeah, national debt I'll give you that one.
Every country has debt but considering... you know...

That.
Yeah...

By the same margin, USA is a correspondingly larger country than any other (apart from Russia, or China, but their economical issues are somewhat different (and inter-reliant to an extent)).

Ergo, the debt is going to be correspondingly larger than any other country.

Not really paying attention to the argument much anymore, buuuut...

No matter what metric you're scaling it by, the U.S. has lots of debt.
Now, how good or bad that really is I'm not going to argue about, I'm just sayin' that it's still a lot if you compare it to GDP or total population. It's not only because the U.S. is 'bigger'.

the color for greece is too light, it should be much darker with holy sh*t written on it.

I feel like people really circle jerk the whole "America is getting worse thing".

I don't see it getting worse, just changing.

The whole list of things between government control/ state control, private and national owned and yadda yadda yadda has been at the heart of debate since the country was founded.

Frankly, the country in my eyes has only improved, but as you would expect, has growing pains.

Same as the rest of the world really.