As the media focuses on bush's funeral, I can't help wondering how much all this pomp and circumstance is costing the american public. His body's being ferried around on planes and trains, guarded, displayed, etc. How much is this costing the government, the same one that says healthcare for the living is something ti can't do?
We bury a President once a decade or so, and we're spending a few million to do it.
Providing "free" health care (nothing the government provides is free, we ALL wind up paying one way or another) for 320 million Americans is a wholly different order of expense. We're talking TRILLIONS.
I don't mind giving any President a proper and respectful send-off; Democrat or Republican; they all were heads of state and the face of America to the entire world for their time in office. It's right to show that they were respected and, yes, loved by millions.
As to whether or not it is the government's fiscal responsibility to absorb the health care costs for every single citizen in this country when we are already $21 trillion in debt - well, that's a policy debate Congress can have. I see the pitfalls in BOTH systems, private and public, and both have lots of shortcomings.
