>>>>I don't know what happened to you in the USA and why such a hatred. At least I give you credit for being true to your feelings and leaving the states and going back to your country. But to equate USSR and USA is ridiculous. Either you completely lost your memory or you (or your family) were part of the communist apparatchiks that still long for the good old days of jailing people for a political joke, for lines to buy milk; for special connections to buy books (not cars), for hospitals that had not even basic medical supplies; for the country smelling of piss and vodka; for system that rewarded only those who belonged to the communist party.
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>>>Same here. He seems not just disagreeable but actually angry the last few days... What's up Dragan?
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>>Back to my old self :). For a while I just got lazy, pretty much skimming over any Bill-quotes-faux-news thread, in some kind of lethargy. Just trying to make up for the lost time.
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>>BTW, last night I finally met with Srđan Đorđević (I'll probably put that in user groups :) and we agreed that we were extremely lucky to get the education we got (we went to the same gimnazija but not in the same years) - even on Cyprus he'd have to pay a lot to get an equivalent of that for his kids, and I was lucky to get our youngest into those magnet courses. Whereas in that jail of a SFRY we got that for free (taxes, you'd say - but then why don't taxes pay for the same quality nowadays?).
>
>Well, in that I will agree with you. This will spark a lot of anger but I've posted it before. I think taxes should go for what benefits the citizens most and really are basic needs - a military defense (within reason), roads, only the necessary government functions, police, fire, courts, roads and bridges, health care, and education, care of the physically and mentally handicapped....If you look at our taxes, this country pays more than enough to cover healthcare and education. It's the other stuff that drains it dry....

I'm really scratching my head here.

Total healthcare spending in the US was $2.34 trillion in 2008 and $2.47 trillion in 2009. Federal receipts were $2.5 trillion for fiscal 2008 and $2.1 trillion for fiscal 2009.

???