Obamacare

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Majority supports Obamacare, Republicans still want to destroy it

The latest polls show that a majority of Americans support Obamacare, with the numbers going up as more people benefit from it and see that it hasn’t caused the sun to fall from the sky.doctor-obama

Fifty-one percent of Americans favor retaining the Affordable Care Act with “small modifications,” while 13 percent would leave the law intact and 34 percent would repeal it. That’s the highest level of public acceptance for the law yet.

What people still don’t like is the mandate.  Typical Americans, aren’t we?  We want it but we don’t want to have to pay for it.

Hey, I’m one of those who doesn’t like the mandate, although if we’re not going to pay for it any other way, we need to have the mandate. Give me a medicare for all plan already and save us all some money and then we can get rid of the mandate.

None of these polls showing support for it has deterred Republicans, who recently held their 50th vote to repeal it.  It’s almost unreal, isn’t it?  50 useless votes?  From the party that complains about government inefficiency and waste?

Maybe they’re sick.  And I don’t think that’s covered.

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Green Eggs and Spam

You keep using that book.  I do not think it means what you think it means.

Republicans have a habit of rewriting Dr. Suess‘ “Green Eggs and Ham” while emphasizing all the things they do not like about Obamacare.  Numerous internet memes have done the same thing.  I’m not sure if that is because they assume their intended audience has the minds of children or if they think it’s funny.   GreenEggsDetail

What they keep missing is that the story is about how wrong it is to be stubbornly against something you know nothing about.  The main character finds out he actually likes green eggs and ham once he tries it.

And that’s what is happening with Obamacare.  The more people learn about it, the more they like it.  The more people who have been able to get better and cheaper insurance, the happier they are with it.

Seriously, the thing people don’t like is the word “Obamacare.”  One study asked people what they thought of Obamacare as opposed to the “Affordable Care Act” and overwhelmingly people preferred the Affordable Care Act over Obamacare.  (Since you’re reading this blog, I assume you are smart enough to realize they are the exact same thing.)  Other studies show that when you take the Act bit by bit, people really like it.   (“No pre-existing conditions?  Great!  Kids covered while college age?  Wonderful!  No more caps on benefits?  Excellent!  No more charging women more for health care?  We like!”)  What they dislike is the mandate, which liberals also don’t like (We wanted medicare-for-all).  The mandate was the part of the plan proposed by Republicans way back when Bob Dole had it in his platform.

So as Sarah Palin and Ted Cruz continue to read from “Green Eggs and Ham” the rest of us can laugh at them, aware that they are blind to the irony of quoting a story that has a moral which directly contradicts everything they are saying.

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Planned Parenthood and Obamacare

Just wanted to share these.

Obamacare6 Obamacare5 Obamacare4 Obamacare3 Obamacare2 obamacare1

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How to Speak Republican

Lesson 27.

When an official report says something other than what you want it to say, make sure to twist it into something more favorable to you and bad for your opponent.

Example:  The Congressional Budget Office said that because of Obamacare, people who stayed in jobs solely for the insurance were now free to pursue other things.  They could now get rid of that second job, stay at home with the kids, or even start their own business.  Approximately 2.5 million people would be taking advantage of this, which will mean that 2.5 million jobs will soon be available for the unemployed to get.  The unemployment rate will fall, and perhaps even more small businesses will be formed.

Question:  How do you translate this news into Republican?

Analysis:  This is a difficult one, because clearly these are Republican goals.  Reducing unemployment, encouraging parents to stay at home, and helping small businesses form are all traditional Republican ideals.  However, to acknowledge this would be to not only admit that Obamacare might have some good points, but also allow the Democrats to claim that.  Clearly, any admission of any gains at all would be improper.

Solution:  Lie.  The best way to get around a truth you dislike is to lie.   Try one of these whoppers:pinocchio

“Obamacare is a disincentive to work!”  This one isn’t bad.  It implies that staying in a terrible job you hate just for the insurance is preferable to taking your life into your own hands and doing what you want.  But it’s still slightly true, albeit misleading.  you can do better.

“Obamacare will destroy 2.5 million jobs!”  There’s the winner.  A complete lie, absolutely not what the CBO said, and sure to be bought by a clueless media who doesn’t want to have to actually do the reading to realize that it’s complete bullshit.  Even if it was true, it’s offset by the fact that Obamacare has added 8.1 million new jobs.  But of course, you will never mention that.

Summary:  As we have seen from every other lesson, the answer is always to lie.  You can never go wrong that way if you want to learn how to speak Republican fluently.

Editorial cartoon: Selective vision makes everything simple

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NOW can we please get single-payer?

For those of you who are against Obamacare:  Most of you are not deluded.  You understand that it’s not going to get repealed.  We’re stuck with it.

But it has a whole lot of problems.  There’s a new bureaucracy, and that damned web page, and there’s still issues involving businesses that don’t want to provide health care for things they don’t believe in.  It’s a bother to force people to sign up for it, and then there’s the penalty part of it if you don’t.  And insurance companies can still limit which doctor you get to see.  (That happened to me when I switched and suddenly discovered that they wouldn’t cover payment to the family doctor my wife and I have been seeing for a dozen years or more.)

There is one easy solution.

All we have to do is remove the age restriction on medicare.

The bureaucracy for it is already in place, and the elderly are overwhelmingly happy with the way it works.  You get to choose your own doctor.  Insurance companies are out of the picture and can’t regulate what gets covered.  medicare
We spread the costs out among 300 million people or so (as opposed to the way we spread them out among much smaller insurance groups today) and reduce the average expenditure per person.   And a new Obamacare bureaucracy, with its books full of regulations telling the insurance companies what they can and cannot do, can be thrown in the garbage.

And just like the elderly do now, you can buy insurance that goes beyond what medicare covers if you so desire.

This is the original plan the Democrats wanted way back when, but you folks insisted on a “market-based” plan similar to Romneycare.  That is, until the democrats agreed to do it that way.  Then you hated Romneycare.

Medicare for all is the way to go.

This is why every other industrialized country has done it this way, and has had many years of experience doing it to show that it works.  (Heck, we have many years of doing it, if you count medicare.)

But the fact is that this is the easiest, cheapest, and best way to provide health insurance to Americans.  That’s what you like, right?  Saving money?

This will do it.

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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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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.”