U.S. Politics megathread (merged)

[SwindonJambo]

Another bath for Wall Street today. SP500 slipping back towards 5,500 and the good old GBP within sight of $1.30. 

 

But tariffs...  😤

[Gundermann]

Another close Trump backer and right-wing Christian is a raving nonce.

 

https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/12/robert-morris-texas-megachurch-indicted-sexual-abuse/

[Gundermann]

3 hours ago, Victorian said:

To be fair,  the EU being hit with a 200% tariff on especially spirits will be a big opportunity for UK producers.   

 

UK right to sit,  wait and watch pro tem.

 

He said "whisky" meaning Scotch not whiskey... Surely he know's the difference?

[Gundermann]

3 hours ago, Lovecraft said:

So Champagne is a region in the US now?  Have they invaded there already?

 

 

 

Those French. Still don't have a word for entrepreneur and now covetting the famous Champagne Valley adjacent to Napa in California.

[All roads lead to Gorgie]

4 minutes ago, Gundermann said:

 

He said "whisky" meaning Scotch not whiskey... Surely he know's the difference?

Isn't he a tea totaler. He probably thinks Whisky is a tinned cat food.

A dangerous bunch those tea totalers.

[PortyJambo]

1 minute ago, All roads lead to Gorgie said:

Isn't he a tea totaler. He probably thinks Whisky is a tinned cat food.

A dangerous bunch those tea totalers.

And cat people, don't forget the deranged cat women...

[All roads lead to Gorgie]

2 minutes ago, PortyJambo said:

And cat people, don't forget the deranged cat women...

I thought the immigrants had eaten all the cats in the States...

[sadj]

35 minutes ago, Watt-Zeefuik said:

 

His approval rating with independents has plummeted but he's still popular with the GOP base (see our own local "spirt" for how this gets justified). Going against Trump right now is a guarantee to get a primary threat.

 

The GOP has made it clear they have no idea how to put him on a leash. Several have tried and he's managed to chase all of them out of the party. The first principle of being a Republican right now is complete and utter fealty to Trump.

 

It's only once they start getting truly routed at elections, losing a chunk of their "safe seats," that anything will change.

 

 

May be splitting hairs but I'd say Putin plays him more than controls him. I would say it's a near certainty that Putin has agents near but not in his inner circle, but close enough that they can get inside info on the White House and put whispers in key ears.

With the religious connection to a lot of the Southern Republican vote im not sure that will happen to a large percentage of them. Wether that minority who are less tied by the religious aspect would turn is another question imo

[sadj]

7 minutes ago, PortyJambo said:

And cat people, don't forget the deranged cat women...

Hot take : They are far more dangerous than Putin 

[Byyy The Light]

26 minutes ago, Gundermann said:

 

Those French. Still don't have a word for entrepreneur and now covetting the famous Champagne Valley adjacent to Napa in California.

He renamed the Gulf Of Mexico. He’s not doing to flinch at using the name Champagne for some fizzy wine 

[Captain Sausage]

I get paid in USD

[kila]

6 minutes ago, Captain Sausage said:

I get paid in USD

 

Soon to be crypto

[Gundermann]

The art of the deal continues. 

 

 

 

[The Real Maroonblood]

2 minutes ago, Gundermann said:

The art of the deal continues. 

 

 

 

Has he not changed the protocol to fire nuclear weapons yet?

[Tommy Brown]

A bit like Donald, I've not got a clue about tariffs.

 

I export say $1,000,000 of items pre-tariffs.

 

tariff is 25%.  Does that mean I only get paid $750,000.

Taxman pockets the $250,000

 

if that's right how does 200% work 

[Maple Leaf]

Judge orders some of the DOGE firings to be rolled back.  This Trump administration is riddled with incompetents.  They're the ones who should be fired.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/13/politics/judge-opm-probationary-employees-fired-hearing/index.html

[Maple Leaf]

7 minutes ago, Tommy Brown said:

A bit like Donald, I've not got a clue about tariffs.

 

I export say $1,000,000 of items pre-tariffs.

 

tariff is 25%.  Does that mean I only get paid $750,000.

Taxman pockets the $250,000

 

if that's right how does 200% work 

In your example, If you export $1 million of items to the US, you still get your $1 million.  The American who ordered those items from you pays you your $1 million, then has to pay the US government $250,000.  He then has to either 1) eat that $250k or 2) increase the cost of those items when he sells them to consumers.

 

Either way, it will be Americans who pay the tariffs.  That's why Trump is talking nonsense when he says that "billions of dollars are rolling into the US because of tariffs".  He's a moron.

[sadj]

8 minutes ago, Maple Leaf said:

Judge orders some of the DOGE firings to be rolled back.  This Trump administration is riddled with incompetents.  They're the ones who should be fired.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/13/politics/judge-opm-probationary-employees-fired-hearing/index.html

The supposed head of Doge i think its Amy something was unaware of it as she was on holiday in Mexico 🤣

[Mac_fae_Gillie]

1 minute ago, Maple Leaf said:

In your example, If you export $1 million of items to the US, you still get your $1 million.  The American who ordered those items from you pays you your $1 million, then has to pay the US government $250,000.  He then has to either 1) eat that $250k or 2) increase the cost of those items when he sells them to consumers.

 

Either way, it will be Americans who pay the tariffs.  That's why Trump is talking nonsense when he says that "billions of dollars are rolling into the US because of tariffs.  He's a moron.

Basically its to try and get customers to buy products produced in USA as they would be 25% cheaper than imported Tariffed items, but it mean American companies have to up production. It also screws over companies importing parts/minerals etc as part of thier finished product as they either increase the price or take a hit, it doesn't really work in short term which means the American people mainly those on low income are gonna feel the hit, but as most of them are Dems Trump really does not care.

[Footballfirst]

3 minutes ago, sadj said:

The supposed head of Doge i think its Amy something was unaware of it as she was on holiday in Mexico 🤣

Amy Gleason, although Trump keeps referring to Musk as the head.

[Maple Leaf]

6 minutes ago, Mac_fae_Gillie said:

 the American people mainly those on low income are gonna feel the hit, but as most of them are Dems Trump really does not care.

Trump got 77 million votes in the election, Harris got 75 million.  At a rough guess, I'd say that about half of those who will be affected by Trump's tariffs voted for him.  You're right though ... he doesn't care.

[sadj]

14 minutes ago, Footballfirst said:

Amy Gleason, although Trump keeps referring to Musk as the head.

Thats the lady, Have I got news for you US had great fun with it

[Cade]

44 minutes ago, kila said:

 

Soon to be crypto

[The Mighty Thor]

25 minutes ago, Footballfirst said:

Amy Gleason, although Trump keeps referring to Musk as the head.

I genuinely thought Space Karen was the head of DOGE 

[The Real Maroonblood]

1 hour ago, Footballfirst said:

Amy Gleason, although Trump keeps referring to Musk as the head.

Helmet head.

[RobboM]

5 hours ago, Footballfirst said:

I couldn't bring myself to watch his inauguration, because I knew it would be cringeworthy.

 

Nothing he says is a surprise. I'm just waiting from a senior GOP figure to come out and say "enough is enough". Perhaps they are all too chicken to face up to him.

 

The moment was missed by Mitch McConnell. Here's a piece shortly after Jan 6 insurrection. It was almost a free hit. Trump was finally exposed in front of the US public and McConnell can deliver a steel toe boot to the chuckies .....and he shat it. Shameful. Cowardly. Sleekit.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/04/21/politics/mitch-mcconnell-january-6-trump/index.html
 

Quote

 

“The Democrats are going to take care of the son of a bitch for us,” McConnell told two associates just days after the insurrection, referring to the effort to impeach Trump in the Democratic-led House, according to the Times’ reporters.

And of Trump’s guilt, McConnell was equally clear-eyed: “If this isn’t impeachable, I don’t know what is,” he said. There was even talk that McConnell himself might vote to convict Trump in a Senate impeachment trial.

But as the days passed, McConnell’s position on Trump changed – to the point that when the Senate voted on whether to convict Trump in mid-February 2021, McConnell voted “no.”

 

 

[Sooperstar]

3 hours ago, spirt of 98 said:

Pathetic 

Surprised he forgot that from his list one but well done for pointing it out.

[Dagger Is Back]

2 hours ago, Maple Leaf said:

In your example, If you export $1 million of items to the US, you still get your $1 million.  The American who ordered those items from you pays you your $1 million, then has to pay the US government $250,000.  He then has to either 1) eat that $250k or 2) increase the cost of those items when he sells them to consumers.

 

Either way, it will be Americans who pay the tariffs.  That's why Trump is talking nonsense when he says that "billions of dollars are rolling into the US because of tariffs".  He's a moron.

 

2 hours ago, Mac_fae_Gillie said:

Basically its to try and get customers to buy products produced in USA as they would be 25% cheaper than imported Tariffed items, but it mean American companies have to up production. It also screws over companies importing parts/minerals etc as part of thier finished product as they either increase the price or take a hit, it doesn't really work in short term which means the American people mainly those on low income are gonna feel the hit, but as most of them are Dems Trump really does not care.

Thanks fellas for the clear explanation. Utterly bizarre behaviour.

 

The US aren’t in a position to buy American any more than we are but British.

 

You’d have to be an utter fool to fail to realise the impact that this would have on the economy and markets unless…….

[Watt-Zeefuik]

34 minutes ago, RobboM said:

The moment was missed by Mitch McConnell. Here's a piece shortly after Jan 6 insurrection. It was almost a free hit. Trump was finally exposed in front of the US public and McConnell can deliver a steel toe boot to the chuckies .....and he shat it. Shameful. Cowardly. Sleekit.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/04/21/politics/mitch-mcconnell-january-6-trump/index.html
 

 

 

Yep, the Democrats served the GOP his head on a platter and they stitched it back onto his body. All they had to do was mumble things about "the strength of the Republic" and "rule of law" and vote to impeach and none of this happens, and they'd be in the catbird seat now. Instead they're jumping to Donnie's whim all over again.

[Ulysses]

[JFK-1]

1 minute ago, Ulysses said:

 

I just got a $350 bill for merely visiting a hospital with covid like symptoms. How much for an overnight stay who knows. And incidentally that bill is despite the fact I have insurance.

[Footballfirst]

Back on the case of Greenland in his discussions with NATO's Mark Rutte.

 

Donald Trump repeated on Thursday that the United States will annex Greenland, while cheering the Arctic island’s election result.

“I think it will happen,” said the U.S. president, when asked about his vision for the potential annexation of Greenland during an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.

“We need that [Greenland] for international security,” Trump said, adding that he’s confident Rutte would play an “instrumental” role.

[Don DaniEL]

Trump is deranged and losing whatever marbles he had left. America needs to find a cast iron reason to remove him and lock him up preferably in a nut house. 

[Ulysses]

50 minutes ago, JFK-1 said:

 

I just got a $350 bill for merely visiting a hospital with covid like symptoms. How much for an overnight stay who knows. And incidentally that bill is despite the fact I have insurance.

 

I met a woman from the US who had a serious accident in Ireland about 10 years ago.  She was cycling in the west of Ireland and was hit by a car, came off the bike and her face took a lot of the impact.  She was in A&E, followed by a couple of weeks on wards in two hospitals and emergency plastic surgery on her face and nose, all provided by the public hospital system in Galway and Dublin. 

 

She had to pay a bit over $300 for the privilege.  She had an A&E admission bill of €100, which was a little over $100.  The rest of her bill - for all of her treatment - was about €1,000, of which about $200 wasn't covered by her travel insurance.

 

When she returned to the US she was referred to a plastic surgeon who said there was no need for him to do any further work because the quality of the cosmetic surgery she'd received on an emergency basis in Dublin.  Her consultation with him cost more than her surgery and hospital stay bill in Ireland.

[Watt-Zeefuik]

10 minutes ago, Ulysses said:

 

I met a woman from the US who had a serious accident in Ireland about 10 years ago.  She was cycling in the west of Ireland and was hit by a car, came off the bike and her face took a lot of the impact.  She was in A&E, followed by a couple of weeks on wards in two hospitals and emergency plastic surgery on her face and nose, all provided by the public hospital system in Galway and Dublin. 

 

She had to pay a bit over $300 for the privilege.  She had an A&E admission bill of €100, which was a little over $100.  The rest of her bill - for all of her treatment - was about €1,000, of which about $200 wasn't covered by her travel insurance.

 

When she returned to the US she was referred to a plastic surgeon who said there was no need for him to do any further work because the quality of the cosmetic surgery she'd received on an emergency basis in Dublin.  Her consultation with him cost more than her surgery and hospital stay bill in Ireland.

 

Our first kid's arrival cost us over $6k out of pocket because the hospital stay spanned the new year, meaning that we had two years of deductibles to cover. That was with "good" insurance.

 

Had we been uninsured, we likely would have been on the hook for $30k.

[Ulysses]

7 minutes ago, Watt-Zeefuik said:

 

Our first kid's arrival cost us over $6k out of pocket because the hospital stay spanned the new year, meaning that we had two years of deductibles to cover. That was with "good" insurance.

 

Had we been uninsured, we likely would have been on the hook for $30k.

 

Ah here, that's taking the piss.

 

My wife had a combination of public and private cover when our fella was born - way back in 1996.  The hospital was public, but the obstetrician was private.  This odd arrangement worked for the most bizarre reason.  As it happened, our son was born the night of the hospital's staff Christmas party   

 

Total bill?  An insurance excess of IR£50, which at the time was something like $70.  1996 prices, but still not too bad.#

 

Having said that, the most expensive medical malpractice cases in Ireland all relate to obstetrics.  Apparently, gynaecologists and obstetricians have outrageously expensive medical liability insurance premiums.  The biggest payout I've heard of in a case was about $38 million.

[Canscot]

15 minutes ago, Watt-Zeefuik said:

 

Our first kid's arrival cost us over $6k out of pocket because the hospital stay spanned the new year, meaning that we had two years of deductibles to cover. That was with "good" insurance.

 

Had we been uninsured, we likely would have been on the hook for $30k.

That’s ok. When The Trumpet takes over Canada we will just absorb all 400,000,000 of you Yanks into our “Free for All” health care. 

[JFK-1]

19 minutes ago, Ulysses said:

 

I met a woman from the US who had a serious accident in Ireland about 10 years ago.  She was cycling in the west of Ireland and was hit by a car, came off the bike and her face took a lot of the impact.  She was in A&E, followed by a couple of weeks on wards in two hospitals and emergency plastic surgery on her face and nose, all provided by the public hospital system in Galway and Dublin. 

 

She had to pay a bit over $300 for the privilege.  She had an A&E admission bill of €100, which was a little over $100.  The rest of her bill - for all of her treatment - was about €1,000, of which about $200 wasn't covered by her travel insurance.

 

When she returned to the US she was referred to a plastic surgeon who said there was no need for him to do any further work because the quality of the cosmetic surgery she'd received on an emergency basis in Dublin.  Her consultation with him cost more than her surgery and hospital stay bill in Ireland.

 

Did she tell you the US has the best healthcare in the world? Which incidentally the WHO disagree with, they rank US around 37th in the world. I have good insurance and though i'm rarely sick I don't see what I get for the money i'm paying.

 

Still costs me at least $30 just to see my own doctor. I sat in a hospital waiting room for 7 hours and was billed $350 for taking up that waiting room space. This why people become sick, they wait to see if it will clear up before visiting a doctor/hospital because they don't want to spend the money. Maybe can't afford it.

 

About 15 minutes after I arrived in the waiting room they took me to a side room and stuck some needles into me then left me back in the waiting room for hours like that. This is what my arm looked like afterwards.

 

  

[Ulysses]

7 minutes ago, JFK-1 said:

 

Did she tell you the US has the best healthcare in the world? Which incidentally the WHO disagree with, they rank US around 37th in the world. I have good insurance and though i'm rarely sick I don't see what I get for the money i'm paying.

 

Still costs me at least $30 just to see my own doctor. I sat in a hospital waiting room for 7 hours and was billed $350 for taking up that waiting room space. This why people become sick, they wait to see if it will clear up before visiting a doctor/hospital because they don't want to spend the money. Maybe can't afford it.

 

About 15 minutes after I arrived in the waiting room they took me to a side room and stuck some needles into me then left me back in the waiting room for hours like that. This is what my arm looked like afterwards.

 

  

 

This woman (from Phoenix, AZ) raves about the Irish healthcare system to this day - and we spend half our time moaning about it.

 

When you say $30 just to see your own doctor, what do you mean?  My local GP (Dublin southside) charges €70.  Half the population get her services for nothing, but that's what it costs me, although I'll get half that back from my medical insurers.

[JFK-1]

7 minutes ago, Ulysses said:

 

This woman (from Phoenix, AZ) raves about the Irish healthcare system to this day - and we spend half our time moaning about it.

 

When you say $30 just to see your own doctor, what do you mean?  My local GP (Dublin southside) charges €70.  Half the population get her services for nothing, but that's what it costs me, although I'll get half that back from my medical insurers.

 

If I book an appointment to see my doctor for any reason they will charge me a minimum $30 for it.

 

In Scotland I never payed to see a doctor or for a hospital visit of which I had many. I had more hospital visits than doctor visits. I'm not sickly but I did used to get a lot of injuries. Operated on for a broken jaw for just one and it was all free. Here that could bankrupt you. In fact the most common cause of bankruptcy in the US is medical bills. 
 

People don't want to call an ambulance here becasue if they do the bill could be thousands. A guy told me of getting a $7,000 bill when he called an ambulance for his injured child.  

[Lone Striker]

5 hours ago, Maple Leaf said:

In your example, If you export $1 million of items to the US, you still get your $1 million.  The American who ordered those items from you pays you your $1 million, then has to pay the US government $250,000.  He then has to either 1) eat that $250k or 2) increase the cost of those items when he sells them to consumers.

 

Either way, it will be Americans who pay the tariffs.  That's why Trump is talking nonsense when he says that "billions of dollars are rolling into the US because of tariffs".  He's a moron.

Your 1st paragraph is correct. 

 

 However, Trump (who only cares about Government agencies like the Treasury) is technically correct   in his claim that billions are "flowing in to the U.S."  as a result of the tariffs - the American importer is paying the $250k in your example to the U.S. Customs. Trump won't care (and may not even understand) who  the importer tries to recover his additional costs from.

 

[Ulysses]

13 minutes ago, JFK-1 said:

 

If I book an appointment to see my doctor for any reason they will charge me a minimum $30 for it.

 

That seems incredibly cheap for the US, although I get that the $30 is only a minimum.

[JFK-1]

Just now, Ulysses said:

 

That seems incredibly cheap for the US, although I get that the $30 is only a minimum.

 

Minimum $100 if I didn't have insurance.

[Lone Striker]

1 hour ago, Footballfirst said:

Back on the case of Greenland in his discussions with NATO's Mark Rutte.

 

Donald Trump repeated on Thursday that the United States will annex Greenland, while cheering the Arctic island’s election result.

“I think it will happen,” said the U.S. president, when asked about his vision for the potential annexation of Greenland during an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.

“We need that [Greenland] for international security,” Trump said, adding that he’s confident Rutte would play an “instrumental” role.

Its almost as if Putin's illegal land grab in Ukraine has emboldened  Trump to prepare to do likewise with Greenland. 

 

The song "Anything you can do, I can do better" from the musical Annie Get Your Gun springs to mind.  😃

[Watt-Zeefuik]

3 hours ago, Canscot said:

That’s ok. When The Trumpet takes over Canada we will just absorb all 400,000,000 of you Yanks into our “Free for All” health care. 

 

Would bit your hand off for Canadian health care.

[Watt-Zeefuik]

From the Washington Post's economic columnist, Caroline Rampell, appropriately scornful of Wall Street's shock:

 

Quote

If only someone had warned them.

Wall Street is apparently shocked that President Donald Trump is destroying the robust economy he inherited. All those self-defeating tariffs! Those arbitrary federal layoffs! Stripping work permits from legal immigrants! The self-dealing! The dismantling of the rule of law!

These are among the reasons recession risks are rising and markets are in correction territory (at least 10 percent below their recent peak). Investors and businesses apparently spent last year wish-casting about Trump’s agenda, assuming he’d implement all the policies they want (tax cuts, deregulation) and none of the ones they don’t (see above).

“With hindsight, we did not appreciate the nature of what the administration was going to be like,” a remorseful banker told the Financial Times, to cite just one representative quote. “I do believe they are hurting their stated objectives of peace and prosperity.”

Trump’s close allies and advisers are similarly “rattled,” “spooked” and “unnerved” by the president’s destructive decisions, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Were any of these people watching the same campaign the rest of the country saw?

Trump’s self-sabotaging agenda was not subtext; it was explicit text, often delivered in all caps. He devoted much more time in his rally speeches to trade wars and fantasies of retaliation against personal enemies than to corporate tax breaks. And some commentators (ahem) tried to convey that even if those precious tax cuts passed, there’s a lot more to capitalism than low taxes.

Maybe investors thought Trump was sufficiently transactional that they’d be able to control him. Or that market losses would temper him. Perhaps they assumed his senior aides would curb his worst impulses — as in Trump’s first term, when his top economic adviser secretly swiped anti-trade documents off the Oval Office desk.

This time around, however, Trump’s personnel choices have prioritized personal loyalty over sound judgment or respect for the law. The few “adults in the room” — the Cabinet appointees whom markets might have once trusted — have proved spineless, powerless or both. Recall that one of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s first official acts was allowing Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service to infiltrate the sensitive federal payments system. Bessent also repeatedly misrepresented how much access the DOGE bros had.

Meanwhile, the yes-men advisers who do have influence are either rationalizing or encouraging Trump’s dumbest ideas.

Trade adviser Peter Navarro once explained that his “function, really, as an economist is to try to provide the underlying analytics that confirm [Trump’s] intuition. And his intuition is always right in these matters.” Needless to say, economic analysis is not supposed to reverse engineer evidence to support a predetermined conclusion.

Coincidentally, Navarro is also one of several senior Trump officials who were previously paid by the U.S. steel industry — and who are now urging Trump to wage destructive trade wars benefiting (you guessed it) the U.S. steel industry.

This was all a matter of public record well before Trump took office. Markets are only figuring it out now?

To be clear, I do not blame regular, everyday voters for not fully anticipating these outcomes. News organizations have profiled regretful Trump voters who (wrongly) believed he’d lower prices, make fertility care free or crack down on migrant gangbangers — and who are only now realizing just how much they or their families have to lose. Social media greets these stories with schadenfreude and leopards-eating-faces memes.

But normal people — who are not professionally obligated to follow the news or read white papers — are busy with their jobs, families and other stressors. Many feel disconnected from our bitter politics or lack the bandwidth to digest dense policy proposals. What will or won’t help reduce prices is not always intuitive, and America’s archaic political procedures often obscure what it takes to get even sound policy passed. (Byrd rule? Blue slips? What?) One of my core beliefs, as a journalist and a citizen, is that government complexity always rewards demagogues.

But C-suite executives and market analysts have no excuses for getting Trump’s economic agenda wrong. They are paid to make accurate predictions and to follow incremental regulatory and legislative developments. They were supposed to know that the “Tariff Man” might raise tariffs, and that the guardrails were being dismantled. They went into this eyes-wide-open.

Everyone makes mistakes, I suppose.

Even I once naively assumed the private sector would be a firewall against (at least some of) Trump’s excesses and erratic behavior, because companies know that property rights and the rule of law are critical for a stable business environment. But as a recent straw poll of CEOs conducted by Yale shows, executives are staying quiet. Most said market losses would need to double or even triple before they’d be willing to publicly criticize Trump’s policies.

Even the bottom line, it seems, is sometimes an insufficient motivator for mustering courage.

 

[Maple Leaf]

23 minutes ago, Watt-Zeefuik said:

 

Would bit your hand off for Canadian health care.

In the last year of her life my wife had 13 trips to the hospital, 7 admissions to the hospital, 60 days as an in-patient, 10 X-rays or MRIs, 55 doctor appointments out of the hospital. 

 

We don't have private health insurance.

 

Out of pocket costs to me?  $0

[JFK-1]

49 minutes ago, Watt-Zeefuik said:

From the Washington Post's economic columnist, Caroline Rampell, appropriately scornful of Wall Street's shock:

 

 

 

I'm appropriately scornful. I'm no financial expert but even I knew this is what would happen back before they elected him. It cannot be genuine surprise, surely.

[JFK-1]

37 minutes ago, Maple Leaf said:

In the last year of her life my wife had 13 trips to the hospital, 7 admissions to the hospital, 60 days as an in-patient, 10 X-rays or MRIs, 55 doctor appointments out of the hospital. 

 

We don't have private health insurance.

 

Out of pocket costs to me?  $0

 

Sorry to hear about your wife. A year after I came here I got word from home that my sister had breast cancer which devastated me. She's my only sister the baby of the family and the only previous experience i had with any cancer in the family was an aunt with breast cancer and she died. They had ultimately performed a mastectomy on my aunt but not my sister.

 

My aunt had died about 20 years earlier, I expect the treatments had improved in that time my sister was given chemotherapy over some months then about 6 months after diagnosis she was declared cancer free and still is. My wife said if that had happened to here we would be bankrupted in no time.  You get cancer here you might not want to survive it.

 

As an aside my sister was an ash blonde before her chemo, it made all her hair fall out. But once the treatment stopped it came back but she wasn't an ash blonde anymore she had brown hair like me. Darker than mine even. Seems the chemo completely kills off the hair then when the treatment stops and it can recover the body dips back into the gene pool and pulls out another colour.

 

It was weird to see her like that after a lifetime of having a blonde sister, but infinitely better than the alternative. And all of that both aunt and sister, £0

Edited Friday at 03:29 by JFK-1

[JFK-1]

In addition all the bitching I see going on about the NHS I find naïve. Do people think privatised healthcare like here in  the US is some sort of luxury super fast experience? Well it isn't. My own recent experience I was in a hospital waiting room for 7 feckin hours with no open cafeteria and the vending machines they had didn't even work. No food or drinks available.

 

That's twice I have been in a hospital waiting room here the first time with my father in law and it was the same then. In fact that time it was 8 hours. I never waited that long in Scotland and I was in casualty departments a bunch of times. Think the longest I waited might have been like 2 hours. And I wasn't robbed for the privilege.

 

Complaining about the NHS in comparison to what the US has is a bit like saying this Rolls Royce is going too slow for my liking.