healthcare
About four or so months I attended a progressive town hall meeting hosted by my Rep. Eddie B. Johnson, with Rep. Barbara Lee from California. An old-aged attendent asked about the healthcare ruling (this was about two weeks before the final ruling) and Rep. Johnson answered, but I don’t remember the question or answer. That’s not important. What’s important is what happened afterwards.
The next attendant, a middle aged woman, assumedly Rep. Johnson’s supporter, asked what difference is the Obamacare tax mandate from other programs like Social Security. Both are “mandatory” she says, why aren’t the other programs, Social Security specifically, being challenged. How are they in law, she asked in confusion. After Rep. Johnson gave her an “answer,” (to be fair, she said we’ll see if it’s constitutional when the court rules) I whispered to her about FDR’s “court packing” controversy in the 40′s and how America copied the same socialist countries policies whom we had tension with. Read more
Ann Coulter, author and conservative political pundit, in an interview with Fox News Sean Hannity brought down the hammer on presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s campaign spokesperson Andrea Saul.
Responding to a pro-Obama campaign ad about a man’s wife dying because of lack of health care, Saul said to news cameras Tuesday:
“To that point, if people had been in Massachusetts, under Gov. Romney’s healthcare plan, they would have had healthcare.”
Coulter went ballistic, saying: Read more
After the supreme court ruled in favor of the healthcare mandate, many conservatives lost their heads and said some really ridicules things. I made a list!
10.
Michael Reagan:  |
“This kept us on the path to socialism. … And we have to work hard, harder at being engaged so that we truly replace those people in the House, in the Senate that want to stay on the path to socialism.” — Michael Reagan, son of former President Ronald Reagan.
9.
Ken Klukowski:  |
Read more
It’s good news that the Supreme Court split 5-4 with Roberts (and not Kennedy?!?) as the deciding vote, to uphold the affordable care act. It’s interesting that this was controversial, and certainly Roberts led the court to a very safe middle ground making the issue about taxation and saying the commerce clause could not apply. If anything, I wonder if this weakens the previous commerce powers of Congress as defined by Wickard v. Filburn, I’d love to hear what a lawyer thinks.
What does this mean? Read more
All Romney had to do was take stands against
women seeking healthcare, Hispanics seeking respect,
African-Americans seeking justice & gays seeking equality
...and it worked: he finally beat Newt Gingrich.
The Republican Party has already targeted
seniors, homeowners, working families, immigrants,
Muslims, women in the workforce & low-income earners
…so they've decided it's time to beat up on students.
The right-wing has screamed that Obama is
soft on China, North Korea, Russia & Mexico,
passive on Iran, Egypt & the whole Middle East,
& now wants to fear-monger about France.
Romney's polls show that everyone dislikes him.
So he & the GOP decided to dislike everyone. Read more
All Romney had to do was take stands against
women seeking healthcare, Hispanics seeking respect,
African-Americans seeking justice & gays seeking equality
...and it worked: he finally beat Newt Gingrich.
The Republican Party has already targeted
seniors, homeowners, working families, immigrants,
Muslims, women in the workforce & low-income earners
…so they've decided it's time to beat up on students.
The right-wing has screamed that Obama is
soft on China, North Korea, Russia & Mexico,
passive on Iran, Egypt & the whole Middle East,
& now wants to fear-monger about France.
Romney's polls show that everyone dislikes him.
So he & the GOP decided to dislike everyone. Read more
The U.S. is widely known to have the highest health care expenditures per capita in the world, and not just by a little, but by a lot. I'm not going to go into the reasons for this so much, other than to point out that how to rein in these costs has long been the proverbial political hot potato. Any attempt to limit spending or apply evidence-based guidelines to care runs into a buzz saw of criticism. Read more
Conservatives go to the High Court with the low goal
of making it harder for Americans to get healthcare,
yet while they threaten to undo Obama's achievement,
the President's own national poll numbers rise.
Republicans realize that Romney's the one
& start to close ranks if not exactly rally --
yet amid talk of car elevators & jokes about lay-offs,
his own approval ratings continue to sink.
The Tea Party Congress does what it promised:
attack benefits, defend the rich, obstruct progress
-- yet as they succeed in stalling all legislation,
those who elected them are having buyer's remorse. Read more
We've written quite a bit about single payer health care systems as well as other models that are a mixture of public and private spending. Read more
"My question to you is simple," I said, as I sat across from the government bureaucrat and his interpreter. "Why doesn't the government communicate in plain English?"
"Your query poses prospective considerations," said the bureaucrat, "that rise above and beyond the level of considerations that the voter-taxpayer may be prepared to rise above and beyond."
"Huh?" I said to his interpreter. Read more
