How WE can help Single Payer in Vermont:

[salib]

8. I still have quite an issue with your response.

It is not hostility. It is (again) incredulity.

I am living in Vermont now. Bought this house about a year ago. I am in what is supposedly a high tax town. However, there is no way that taxes are more than the mortgage on a 30 year note, unless one paid much much less than the property is worth, and even then one just challenges the evaluation, as a property is only worth what it can sell for.

I moved from Texas and after all the taxes added on (all sorts of taxing districts down there) and twice the sales tax rate there, it almost makes the difference in the fact that there is no income tax in Texas.

Now, I point all this out because oftentimes the tax argument is the first and last argument from the right (including the third way right), and is definitely believed to be the "trump card" for those same people. I am really sick and tired of that.

You get what you pay for, if you manage it well. Vermont is a rather frugal place. Just look at the (obvious lack of) opulence of the state offfice buildings. Compare that with Texas. Then see where the money goes. Vermont spends on education and has marvelous outcomes, in spite of the fact that it is very tricky to do so cost effectively when there are so few students for many relatively large and scarcely populated geographical areas.

Vermont is one of the few states where the unemployment rate is higher than the poverty rate, and has a respectable unemployment rate. I.e., in general if you are working in Vermont, you are actually not in poverty.

Single payer in Vermont has always been based upon the premise that we would be doing it alone. Yes, we will try to take advantage of the Medicare dollars already coming in. However, if healthcare is a right, we must make it happen. It IS cheaper and will save money. The forces arrayed against it are ALL wrong-headed at best, and most likely nefarious in their self-interest. They like the current, much more expensive system, as the alternative means less money floating around to be snatched up.

So, please, stop with the taxes talk. I know, it is the hot button issue that will really motivate the conservatives, the republicans in Vermont. It is likely the only really strong rallying factor for them, as Vermont is otherwise surprisingly tolerant on social issues, and finding a mega church is almost as difficult as finding a Target in the state, so the religion angle is not there.

So, (no hostility intended) why are you going straight for the taxes boogeyman? That argument only feeds the nay Sayers and more importantly those that selfishly want the current broken, inequitable, crazy quilt system that the can suck some dollars from. The point in the OP, among others, is to remind us that we have a good chance here in Vermont. A chance that disturbs those nefarious selfish types, because success in one state could easily domino across the country, just as with Canada.

Now, I am glad to hear that you are working for healthcare for everyone and not just Vermont. Excellent. However, that does not explain why you are nay saying Vermont's initiative, let along the request for help in contacting those who have a say in making it happen. Also, is it that you insisted on blaming Obamacare's lack of a public option as to why we cannot make this happen in Vermont. I wish we had a public option also. We do not.

We have a chance here in Vermont. Help us make this happen if you are interested. Please do not help the opposition.