Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature currently requires accessing the site using the built-in Safari browser.
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Calling it the biggest disappointment of his career, Gov. Peter Shumlinsaid Wednesday he was abandoning plans to makeVermont the first state in the country with a universal, publicly funded health caresystem.
Going forward with a project four years in the making would require tax increases too big for the state to absorb, Shumlin said. The measure had been the centerpiece of the Democratic governor's agenda and was watched and rooted for by single-payer health care supporters around the country.
"I am not going (to) undermine the hope of achieving critically important health care reforms for this state by pushing prematurely for single payer when it is not the right time for Vermont," Shumlin said to reporters and two boards advising him on health care changes.
Legislation Shumlin signed in 2011 put the state on a path to move beyond the federal Affordable Care Act by 2017 to a health care system more similar to that in neighboring Canada. Shumlin adopted the mantra that access to quality health care should be "a right and not a privilege."
The legislation called for the administration to produce a plan for financing the Green Mountain Care system by 2013 but it wasn't completed until the last several days. Shumlin said it showed the plan would require an 11.5 percent payroll tax on businesses and an income tax separate from the one the state already has of up to 9.5 percent.
I said four years ago when they passed this shit it would never get implemented. If Vermont can't afford it how the hell are we supposed to do it nationwide?
Governor has delayed not abandoned the plan.
Personally, I say go through with it. Implement the additional taxes Shumlin has cited and let Vermonters get exactly what they asked for and maybe they'll finally come to an understanding of how badly the far left wants to ruin their lives. They're one of the most Democratic states in the country so why shield them from their poor voting decisions.
Personally, I say go through with it. Implement the additional taxes Shumlin has cited and let Vermonters get exactly what they asked for and maybe they'll finally come to an understanding of how badly the far left wants to ruin their lives. They're one of the most Democratic states in the country so why shield them from their poor voting decisions.
Seems like a heavily biased argument, donut?
Has Canada ruined its citizens' lives? Or for that matter has most of the rest of the world?
Kinda speaks volumes when one's reaction to a new idea boils down to "will never work". Sorry, I think I prefer construction and tweaking to destruction and gainsaying.
Vermont is the most rural state we have. In that sense it would have been more a challenge for them than a more urbanized and populated state, and certainly for the nation as a whole.
In other words if Vermont could find a way to do it, anybody could.
The Canadian system grew out of a provincial plan. Saskatchewan IIRC.
Vermont is the most rural state we have. In that sense it would have been more a challenge for them than a more urbanized and populated state, and certainly for the nation as a whole.
In other words if Vermont could find a way to do it, anybody could.
The Canadian system grew out of a provincial plan. Saskatchewan IIRC.
More than North Dakota? Or Montana? Vermont? I seriously doubt that for some reason.
Personally, I say go through with it. Implement the additional taxes Shumlin has cited and let Vermonters get exactly what they asked for and maybe they'll finally come to an understanding of how badly the far left wants to ruin their lives. They're one of the most Democratic states in the country so why shield them from their poor voting decisions.
Seems like a heavily biased argument, donut?
Has Canada ruined its citizens' lives? Or for that matter has most of the rest of the world?
Kinda speaks volumes when one's reaction to a new idea boils down to "will never work". Sorry, I think I prefer construction and tweaking to destruction and gainsaying.
I think the argument is....let them go forward.
If it costs a bunch...it costs them a bunch......
It's the price you pay to live in a rural refrigerator.
I prefer the GOP plan of "Let him die".
Governor has delayed not abandoned the plan.
It's not happening, Jake.
Personally, I say go through with it. Implement the additional taxes Shumlin has cited and let Vermonters get exactly what they asked for and maybe they'll finally come to an understanding of how badly the far left wants to ruin their lives. They're one of the most Democratic states in the country so why shield them from their poor voting decisions.
Seems like a heavily biased argument, donut?
Has Canada ruined its citizens' lives? Or for that matter has most of the rest of the world?
Kinda speaks volumes when one's reaction to a new idea boils down to "will never work". Sorry, I think I prefer construction and tweaking to destruction and gainsaying.
I think the argument is....let them go forward.
If it costs a bunch...it costs them a bunch......
It's the price you pay to live in a rural refrigerator.
Seems to me they've decided for now not to go forward -- at least under the existing scheme. Seems to me also you're teetering on forcing them to go forward regardless. Finally it seems to me if the goal is desirable and the road to it doesn't work, then the next step is to find a new road. Plugging ahead on a road you already know won't work would be irresponsible.
And btw it's not a "refrigerator". Vermont has a summer. Middle two weeks of July.
It's a high cost of living. I'd still be there but for that, and (at the time, pre-internet) dearth of local resources. But it's nice living if you can get it.
Fun Fact: before it joined the US, Vermont was a republic. 14 years IIRC.
Governor has delayed not abandoned the plan.
It's not happening, Jake.
The governor says "delay", but you are entitled to your opinion, sure
