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The Obamacare Lies

I have absolutely no problem with debating whether Obamacare is a good idea or not.  We can discuss whether the government should be providing this care or if it should be left to the private market;  we can compare the advantages and disadvantages of it; Paul Miller we can even argue over the moral implications.

Just don’t lie.

Seriously, once you start lying in order to support your argument, you’ve lost.   When you continue to lie even after being corrected (I’m looking at you, Sarah Palin) then it’s clear you’re either too evil to care or too stupid to realize.  Either way, you’re not worth debating any more.

Here now are the biggest lies about Obamacare. The fact that someone said them on Fox News doesn’t make them true.  Click the links if that helps.

There will be government Death Panels that decide who gets care!  No, there won’t be.  This one has no foundation in fact, but this one is a favorite of Sarah Palin.

Obamacare is socialism. This one is said by people whose entire knowledge of political science appears to be “socialism is bad.” It’s not socialism. It’s forced captialism. And, just to reiterate, it’s a Republican idea that was once part of the Republican platform. It only became evil socialism when Obama endorsed it.

Obamacare is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court, which is the last word on what is constitutional, said that it is. There’s nothing wrong with saying, “In my opinion, the Supreme Court was wrong” (I do that all the time), but then to declare that your opinion equals a fact is just dishonest. That’s like saying “Marijuana is legal everywhere” just because you want it to be.

Congress is exempt from Obamacare. People still repeat this, despite it being absolutely false. Congress is not exempt. Some people say “Congress should have the same plan the rest of us have!” which, of course, was the idea of the Public Option, so we could buy into the federal health care system. Not surprisingly, the same people who fought against the Public Option are often the same ones complaining that we can’t get the same plan as Congress.

Muslims are exempt from Obamacare. This one also ties into the “Muslims are evil and Obama is a secret Muslim” mindset of the loonies. Muslims are not exempt.

Obamacare cuts $716 billion from Medicare. This is one of my favorite lies, because it’s so damned hypocritical and so blatant. Obamcare saved $716 billion; nothing was taken away from anyone’s benefits. (But why is this important to Republicans, who have vowed to dismantle medicare? Don’t they want to defund it? It’s hilarious how they can argue both ways.) Republicans are still repeating this one even after it was blown away in the Presidential debates.

Illegal immigrants will now get free health care! Well, no. No one is getting free health care. That’s the point.

Doctors who went to American Schools will not accept Obamacare. This whopper was said by Ann Coulter, so that alone should let you know it’s not true. Also, Obamacare isn’t a program a doctor opts out of. It doesn’t affect doctors at all; it just makes you have insurance.

The government will be allowed to do warrantless home searches because of Obamacare. This is just another of the tin-foil hat crowd’s paranoia at work. Clearly not true.

Obamacare requires us to have microchip tracking implants installed. Apparently so we can eventually be made a part of the matrix. More loony paranoia.

Babies aren’t covered!  Sure they are.  This one was based on a Tea Party liar who claimed his child wasn’t covered after he “forgot” to list the child on his application.

There are more, of course.  The lies never stop.  Do some searches, and find unbiased sources to check these lies before you foolishly accept them.

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Constitutional Amendments I’d add

Which amendments would I like to see made to our Constitution?

After discussing Schwarzenegger’s pledge to run for President a few days ago, I began thinking of them.  Here then is my list, in order of preference.constitution_quill_pen

Abolish the Electoral College and replace it with popular vote.  This will get rid of “red” and “blue” states, allow for every vote to count, and prevent someone the majority of Americans don’t want from becoming President.

Abolish the requirement that you have to be a natural born citizen to be President.  Keep the requirement for citizenship, of course, but there is no reason why someone who became a citizen should not run.

Establish an independent commission to redraw congressional districts every ten years.  In order to prevent gerrymandering, we need to take district drawing out of the hands of politicians.  Ideally, they should do this for the states too, under the idea of Equal Protection.

Limit Senators to two six-year terms and Congress members to six two-year terms.   Come on, it’s not like there aren’t other qualified people out there.  Serve your terms and go home.  Treat this like a public service instead of a career.

Abolish Washington DC and make Washington part of Maryland. It’s ridiculous that these people do not get a representative in Congress. While there are enough people living there to make DC a state (more people live in DC than in Wyoming), the easiest solution is to just merge it with Maryland.

Define the death penalty as “cruel and unusual punishment” and thus prohibited.  It’s time we recognized that the death penalty is prone to mistakes, applied in a discriminatory manner, and doesn’t belong in a modern civilized society.

Then there are some that are needed to overturn Supreme Court decisions, but honestly, a few more votes on the Court would prevent that.  Back in the 70s we fought for an Equal Rights Amendment to prohibit discrimination against women.  Since that time, the Courts have held that women are, indeed, “people” under the 14th amendment and as such are entitled to protection against discrimination.  However, a different court could come along and go back the other way.  Therefore, the following amendments would be nice:

Amend the 14th amendment to prohibit discrimination against women, gays, and non-English speaking people.  I’m including transgender people and such in this.

Define “people” to exclude corporations.  A person has morals and eventually dies.  Conservatives who cite the Founding Fathers for anything to support their views are oddly silent on this one.

Define “speech” to exclude money.  These last two are needed to overturn the Citizen’s United case.

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Oh, NOW the Republicans like Mandela

I’m old, but not so old that I don’t remember the fight against apartheid. I recall Ronald Reagan and the Republicans refusing to condemn the racist policies of South Africa, and how the US officially considered Mandela “a terrorist” until Clinton got into office. ricksantorum And I see where Dick Cheney still stands by that designation. Bill O’Reilly yesterday called Mandela “a Communist.”

But maybe I am being too harsh. After all, many of today’s Republicans weren’t in office back then, and we don’t know how they would have voted.

Still, I can’t help but be amused by Rick Santorum (yeah, I know, that’s a constant), who today likened the fight against Obamacare to the fight against apartheid.

Clearly! Logically! Why, the two are so identical, it’s easy to confuse them.

But even Rick can’t forgive Mandela for taking the radical view that black people and white people should live together in harmony. “Nelson Mandela stood up against a great injustice and was willing to pay a huge price for that, and that’s the reason he’s mourned today,” Santorum said. “But … what he was advocating for wasn’t necessarily the right answer.”

I suggest that Rick prove the comparison by spending 27 years in prison.

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Why Liberals Have Problems Defending Obamacare

Obamacare is like a woman with an abusive boyfriend who stays with him with the explanation that he doesn’t hit her as much as the old boyfriend.

I hate being saddled with having to defend Obamacare, because I really don’t like much of it.  doctor-obamaHowever, I find myself doing so because the attacks on it are often just so damned stupid, wrong, and outright lies (Death panels?  Babies aren’t covered?  Seriously, people really believe this crap?)

Some criticisms are from reasonable people who are upset that the website isn’t as good as it should be (a legitimate complaint). Some are upset that their rates are going up (which they did before Obamacare too, if anyone cares to remember — the key now is that you can shop around and apply for subsidies to help pay for it). And some are complaining that their weak-ass plan that was a rip off is no longer being provided to them, without realizing that this is a good thing.

Many on right criticize Obamacare because it’s “socialism.”  Those on the left criticize it because it isn’t socialism.

The fact is that there are parts of Obamacare that just about everyone likes, whether they’ll admit it or not.  No more “pre-existing conditions” keeping people from getting insurance.  No more kicking kids off insurance when they get sick.  Limitations on how much insurance companies can spend on things unrelated to health care.

The part almost everyone hates is the mandate requiring people to buy insurance.

Liberals have always been against that.  After all, that idea is a Republican idea, meant to keep the insurance companies happy and in business.  It was previously called “Romneycare” and before that it was in the Republican platform.  This is why it is so frustrating to argue with conservatives who promoted the idea and were all for it until Obama did it.  Suddenly it was a terrible idea and “socialism.”

We liberals wanted a single-payer medicare-for-all plan like every other advanced country in the world.  Insurance companies (that provide no health care themselves) would be out of the picture, so we’d save a ton of money that way.   We’d spread the costs over every single American, thus reducing the costs to individuals (that’s how insurance works, you know).  Health care would be treated like a public service in the same way we provide police protection, fire protection and education, without regard for whether you can pay for it yourself or not.   Best yet, we already have the bureaucracy in place with medicare.  No need for a fancy website that breaks down, no need to set up new regulations and policies.

So when you see those polls saying most people do not support Obamacare, remember that those numbers include people like me, who don’t support it because we want something better, not because we want to get rid of it completely.

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Obamacare doesn’t cover babies!

Fox News reported this terrible fact recently after Cornelius Kelly found that his new insurance through Obamacare covered all of his children except for his baby!baby

Kelly, a failed Tea Party candidate for the New York State Legislature, did what anyone in that situation would do: he contacted the insurance company, checked over his application paperwork, and did some research as to why this would be.

Ha ha! Just kidding. You might have missed the part where I said he was a Tea Party candidate. Instead, he went straight to The New York Post (owned by Fox News) to report this terrible aspect of Obamacare. (Apparently, of the tens of thousands who have so far signed up for Obamacare, not one had babies and therefore this loophole was previously unknown. That was me being sarcastic.)

Fox, being the ever-vigilant heroes of journalism that they are (Oop! Sorry, almost threw up in my mouth there), reported the story. After all, since they are “fair and balanced” there is no need for investigation. They report — you decide. (They never claim their reporting is accurate or true. That’s for us to decide.)

Turns out ol’ Cornelius’ baby wasn’t covered because — I know, this will be hard to imagine — he forgot to put the baby on the form. Completely forgot. Named his other kids, forgot the baby.

He got some great publicity out of it, but he didn’t do much to help the image of the “stupid party.”

Editorial cartoon of the day