…not true at all. Go Google “single-payer”. You’ll find a lot of the liberals with integrity never approved of PPACA, certainly not of the mandates or propping up the private insurance companies (though it had some good stuff thrown in as “sweeteners”).

As for Radley, he really should ditch his corporate-whore buddies; he’d be happier as an independent. He’s really showing the Team Red behavior which JOR describes on every issue except civil liberties (where thank goodness he gets it).

I don’t expect a reversal like that but it’s possible. Pro-abortion ideological seeds are already pretty deep in many segments of what we call The Right, even if they’re buried under the surface at the moment (obsession with parental authority and familial sovereignty being the biggest ones; abortion and outright infanticide are long-standing practices in traditional families). And of course the “bleeding-heart” morality or egalitarianism on many parts of what we call The Left, and always shaky relationship between mainstream liberals and serious feminism, could kick off leftist opposition to the Anti-Child Right.

And a quick glance at the Ex-Im’s financial statement shows “Borrowings from the U.S. Treasury (Note 11) $8,279.3″ (figures in millions). That would be over $8 billion they borrowed from the Treasury while their total net profits for the year were ($207.4). That would be a negative $207 million dollars. Not sure how you can manage to lose money if your business is giving away government money.

Iceland screwed themselves over with their bank fiasco. Ask one of them about it – they’ll admit quite readily they managed to inflate a huge bubble which promptly burst on them. It was the only nordic to get into banking in a major one and the only one to be screwed by it.

As to the Nordic nations – their system is “Folkesocialisme” (there are no “pure” political systems in this world outside North Korea)

They have a highly redistributional tax system, a strong welfare net and a policy of individual help which enables individuals to be in free association.

They absolutely have a very strong free market and associated tax policies. Folkesocialisme doesn’t rule that out, and there’s a strong mutual and cooperative movement within the Nordic nations which actively encourage free markets (and opposes, in many aspects, capitalism).

Trying to slap a single label on something as diverse as socialism is a mistake.

America? It isn’t capitalist. It’s corporatist. Capitalism’s flaws are magnified by corporatism.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3722888.stm

“The US claims Airbus has received the equivalent of $40bn (£22.4bn; 32bn euros) in subsidies since its inception in 1967, mostly in the form of government loans with advantageous repayment terms.

The EU says Boeing has pocketed some $18bn in direct and indirect subsidies since 1992, including a $3.2bn tax break from the authorities in Washington state, where the firm has assembly operations. “

Oh yes, the long term damage in the Nordic…oh, wait, healthy, happy, prosperous.

The myth of Scandinavian socialism.

1. Iceland success?

2. Scandinavian countries are not nearly as socialist as leftist claim them to be. Most all have greater business freedom, monetary freedom, and property rights enforcement than the US currently “enjoys”.

3. Most importantly? Scandinavian countries have much less corruption than the US at local, state, national levels in police, justice, and politics.

There’s more, but I just included the easy-to-understand points. As usual, it is folly to declare socialism or “leftism” clearly superior (and therefore declare any number of inane ideas and policies superior) based on over-simplification of complex economic and societal interactions.

The only way you can use Scandinavian “successes” as proof that socialism is superior to (USA) capitalism is if you promote the premise that all Scandinavian countries are purely socialist and the USA is purely capitalist. Neither of these is true and such a claim would mark you as a fool. A fool, I say.

Liberals, like conservatives, love corporate welfare.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/125124570

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/29/1078814/-Bipolar-Schadenfreude-No-ROI-for-electing-Republicans-or-Democrats

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/03/16/446179/delta-cantor-export-bank/

And hey, you could pass a sensible insurance-based system like the one in the Netherlands… (but no, better to bicker and ensure you get an expensive mess as a “compromise”)