http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,344190,00.html

Waiting in line 2 hours isn’t bad. Right now if I go to the emergency room I’ll probably wait 5-6 hours to see a doctor. If I had a gaping wound I’d still probably wait 2 hours, as long as I could stay conscious. It’s when something goes really wrong that you’ll be in trouble. Having chest pains? Get on a three-month waiting list to see a cardiologist. Think you might have a tumor? You might have to wait half a year to get an MRI. With socialized health care there are only so many dollars to go around, so no matter what you do, you just can’t speed up the process. Everyone has a budget, and you’re just a number. Take a hard look at other countries’ social health care plans and see how effective they are for people with LIFE THREATENING problems. I’m not worried about getting a common cold or a cut, I’m worried about getting cancer and dying before I can even get diagnosed.

Regarding education, I live in Georgia and we have the HOPE scholarship. It makes money off the lottery and sends anyone with a B average in high school to a public university for free, as long as they maintain a B average throughout their college education. I’m all in favor of creating a system where we reward those who are willing to do what it takes academically to receive a college education. I think you’d be surprised how many people just can’t or don’t want to cut it though. You can’t take a kid that’s a high-school drop out and throw him in college and expect him to survive. That wastes money and doesn’t solve any problems, because he’ll just end up where he started in the long run.

The better solution would be to FIX our primary and secondary education system first. There is a fundamental breakdown in how children are (or more importantly are NOT) being educated. The high school dropout rates have hit 50% in many metropolitan cities.

I think the first major hurdle against poverty is not a college education, but rather getting everyone* to graduate high school. Studies have shown that high school graduates make far more than dropouts… and it is above the poverty line.

Once we have a 95+% high school graduation rate and the public schools are teaching things like personal finances to young people, I think it’s more feasible to look at a nation-wide program to help them get into college.

* There are people who just are not capable of completing a high school education. Whether we like to admit it or not these people are there, and we have to find a place for them in society. There ARE jobs for these people, and they can make a contribution to society, but we can’t expect EVERYONE to be equal or be able to achieve the same goals academically or financially in life.