Obamacare isn't even out of the box, and yet the GOP decided opposing Obamacare is the party's way back to the hearts and minds of the nation's voters -- or at least those who vote for US Senators and Presidents. The problem: the GOP House can't force the Senate to do its bidding.
The US Senate isn't going to vote for the "push me off a cliff" proposal. So what point are the House members like Eric Cantor and John Boehner making?
The only clarity is that there is so much poisonous rancor inside the GOP, all the American public can do is a) either sit back and watch in spellbound disbelief, or 2) ignore it. Alot of Americans are ignoring Congress.
A lot of people are ignoring the pyrotechnics. They've given up on looking for jobs. They've given up on public institutions. They've given up on government.
The GOP believes at its core, people believe and vote for their own self-interest. Well OK, my GOP friends: consider this little piece of my self interest.
I buy my own health care insurance. My deductible is so high, I am assured of never tapping its benefits beyond pharmacy costs unless there is a catastrophe. I recently paid out of pocket for a procedure that wasn't covered by my insurance. It never occurred to me that it might not work. It didn't. Fortunately, I'm not significantly worse off -- except poorer and shaken -- , but it also never occurred to me that if I WAS injured, my health insurance company could scrub itself of responsibility for the consequences.
Without getting into details, my experience -- not unusual for anyone in advancing middle age -- is by no means unique. I ran into the broken US health care system. Broken. It didn't hurt me badly, but it could have. Yes, if you are rich enough or have a gold-plated health care policy (like members of Congress!), we have the finest medical doctors and technologies in the world. But there is NO REASON other than corporate greed that health care costs are so high for individuals and families. There is NO REASON that the health care DELIVERY system is in the lower ranks of the developed world.
GOP House members keep saying, we have the best health care system in the world. What planet are they living on? The GOP's hair-brained mission -- tying the national debt ceiling to Obamacare -- could be the straw that breaks the voters' backs.
Let Obamacare roll out. Fix parts that don't work. GOP, don't hold the nation hostage to whatever cool-aid House leaders are passing around in caucus. Voters, rebel.
22 comments:
Amen!!!
#bullsh*t.
Speak for yourself. You are rich. I am poor. I was laid off 2 1/2 years ago. I can only find part-time work because of Obamacare. Full-time job opportunities have dried up. Now I am required to buy health insurance. Obama has exempted big corporations and congress. Why cant people like me have an exemption, too?
it is amusing to see people complain when the opposition party is doing what it is supposed to do ... oppose.
Meanwhile in Miami, Gimenez closed the Health Care Planning Dept which should be taking the lead to coordinate education and enrollment efforts for the Affordable Care Act. He claims its not because he is a Republican Party diehard. Ok then, but what is he doing to make sure residents get enrolled in Obamacare? Did he even object when Governor Scott's people ban navigators from Health Dept premises?
My sons got to stay on my health insurance until age 26 because of the Obama administration health care reforms. And now they will be able to afford health care insurance because of Obamacare. It is a human right to have health care.
If America supports Obamacare, why does every poll show Americans hate it?
It has to do with who they are polling.
They are showing their true colors. Americans are going to remember this for a long time. Just like social security, republicans fought tooth and nail against it. The country has moved on, and they are standing still and in the way. We are tired of "my way or the highway kind of people". We need to send some compromisers to DC, people who can really work on problem-solving.
Many people are finding out that their insurance does not work when they need it most. . .
Candidate Obama in 2008 criticized health insurance plans as unworkable and a bad policy especially for the poor. He was right.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FknJLMc84bo
A friend of mine in his 40s, a health enthusiast, avid runner and exercise guru, all of a sudden was stricken with cancer. Although he was covered with health insurance on his job, it only covers so much. With astronomical healthcare costs, he stands to lose home and everything he has ever worked for and still be paying on his bill the rest of his life. But Obamacare will save the day for him as he will need care in the future. Obamacare is the first phase, cost containment is the next phase. A 50 cent drug store item should not cost $20 in the hospital.
anyone who is against obamacare is a racist
Really? Actually, I want them to lock the barn door and work on things like tort reform. News to me.
Their opposition to Obamacare is actually a good thing for America in the long run because it guarantees Hillary will be President and that the Republicans will lose their majority in the House. The "party of stupid" loves to bite off its nose to spite its face focusing on opposing Obama just to be in opposition rather than when their constituents want. Only from that kind of defeat can the lunatic right be either jettisoned from the party or a new party can be spawned without them. It is long past time for a third party which will hopefully be a party of reason.
The reason we have a Republican majority is because of overwhelming opposition to Obamacare. The Democrats were thrown out of power in 2010 because of their 2009 partisan vote to impose Obamacare on US taxpayers.
So stop whining about Republican efforts to derail Obamacare. It's the reason they were elected.
Bill Clinton once said, write a Health Care bill with once sentence:
All Americans will be placed in Medicare.
Everyone with a paycheck already pays for this. In theory, compared with Obamacare, this was the simplest cheapest way to get from A to B providing Health Care for all.
I have not read all of the 1,000 page Obamacare, just portions of it. Since it passed, Health care costs have risen dramatically.
If I were President for the day, I'd repeal Obamacare. Drop all the Drama and replace it with Clinton's version. Oh, the insurance lobby would be apoplectic if we did that though!
Medicare in and of itself cannot deny someone with pre existing conditions. It also allows those who can afford it "cadillac" coverage with additional policy's.
I think Obama blew his legacy a long time ago with his rhetoric. It was bad enough under Bush II when HE came up with TARP I. Obama brought us TARP II and Obamacare. That certainly helped all insurance companies raise rates from reasonable to sky rocket in preparation!
Nope, I don't support Obamacare and feel it totally irresponsible to implement it then fix it. That's just absurd. Fix it, then implement it. We have enough duplicity and waste in government, we don't need more people being paid to screw up our health care then try to fix it.
See my TARP I and TARP II comments. (A better statement locally: Are we ever going to get back our $500 million from US Century?) And, how did that fix the banking problem? Did we get our money bank? Nope. The middle class are not the working poor, and we have even more people below the poverty line.
Lost in all of the partisan rhetoric spilled here is the fact that Obamacare is very similar to the health plan enacted by Gov. Mitt Romney (yeah, same one) in Massachusetts. Obamacare is a fat plum for corporate America and does very little to address the fact that Americans pay far more and receive far less for their health care than any other nation on the face of the earth. Every one of the commenters here needs to get off their high partisan horses and get to work on a plan that helps the American people, not American corporations.
What the Republicans fear more than anything is that this could work. So what have they done? Had their loudspeaker, Fox News, say that people hate it. Repeat a big lie enough, as George Orwell showed in "1984", and people start to soon believe it. They get their idiot talking heads like Sarah Palin to make outlandish claims, like the law will lead to "death panels". They rely on lazy journalists, like NBC's Chuck Todd, to refuse to call the Right on their lies, saying they are content to merely report what each side is saying. They get the governors in the Red States, like our Governor Scott, to oppose it and then refuse to allow it to be implemented. They pray that it will fail. Because if it succeeds, it will pull the electorate left of center, just like Social Security did 70 years ago. If the planets align correctly, the GOP has a chance of gaining the White House and holding on to the House of Representatives. God help them if Obamacare succeeds, if it keeps health care costs down, if it lowers the budget deficit, if it creates a generation of happy, healthy people. Because if it does, all hope that the 'Publicans have of getting into the White House are gone. Texas is blue. Florida will go blue. Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania will be blue. And with that, the GOP goes the way of the Whig Party with its smoldering core, the Tea Partiers, as the bitchy and not so loyal opposition. That it why the Republicans are so desperate to have it fail.
"As you read this, 1.2 million hard-working, uninsured Floridians are one-illness away from bankruptcy, forced to use emergency rooms for primary care and are being refused the benefits of our nation’s new health care law. Why? Because the Florida legislature has refused federal funding to expand health care to these families in dire need. Also as you read this, the Florida Legislature has just returned to Tallahassee to once again debate this critical issue and others. Call 866-443-1844 today and tell your state representative that it is time to stop playing politics and expand health care for more than one million hard-working Floridians.Earlier this year, Florida legislators rejected critical federal funds which would have provided health care to working families in dire need of coverage, and create jobs. Gov. Rick Scott and his legislative allies failed to bring back our federal tax dollars to our state, contributing to the staggering figure of 4 million Floridians with no health care insurance, second only to Texas. Making our state legislature’s blocking actions even more absurd, this new funding would have led to a huge economic boost for Florida. With the federal government fully funding the cost of newly covered Floridians for three years and then covering 90 percent or more of the cost each year after, we would have seen a resulting addition of thousands of health care related and ancillary jobs across the state. Enough is enough! Call 866-443-1844 today and urge your state representative to expand health care for more than one million hard-working Floridians.
The Affordable Care Act is the law of the land, yet Gov. Scott and his Tea Party aligned allies in the legislature continue to thwart its implementation at every turn. Earlier this month, Scott’s Department of Health even went so far as to ban health care outreach counselors, called Navigators, from educating and enrolling needy Floridians at county health clinics.
The Affordable Care Act is having a tangible, positive impact in many peoples’ lives, providing the security of affordable health care desperately needed by so many Americans. But if Gov. Rick Scott and legislative leadership has their way, thousands of Florida families will be denied the critical insurance coverage they need. We can’t let that happen.
It’s time for Gov. Scott and his allies in the legislature to quit putting partisan politics above the health of hard–working Florida families. Send a powerful message to lawmakers right now by calling 866–443–1844 and making your voice heard on this life and death issue."- For a better Florida,
Mark and the progress Florida team
Obamacare: 1,000 or so pages of intolerable political dribble, double talk and bureaucratic jargon (written mostly by insurance industry lobbyist), unread by most congressmen debating it and much less so by the population at large (aka serfs or plebeians) See Patriot Act.
Awesome example with the social security. I know they still deduct that from my pay check, but am I still supposed to get any of that when I turn 70?
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