Quote: (07-12-2013 05:04 PM)Therapsid Wrote:
Quote: (07-12-2013 04:56 PM)2Wycked Wrote:
He cites that all independent analyses of Obamacare say it massively cuts costs. I can't even begin to explain how mindbogglingly false that it.
However, he has been told that Obama & Democrats care about helping the poor. Therefore, they would not do anything to hurt the middle class or poor.
Off-topic, but this gets to the heart of the contradiction behind the sale of Obamacare. Is it supposed to cut costs or provide better health care to poor and middle class people? When push comes to shove, what's the primary goal of the bill?
What's weird is that most liberals don't see that there's a conflict of values here. But, when I press libs on this point, surprisingly enough they often come out more in favor of cutting costs, that is for government directed rationing. In other words, they're comfortable with the state telling them their dad with cancer should get no more medical care or that their grandmother shouldn't get a hip replacement and instead be sent to a hospice. But this contradicts the bleeding heart image of liberalism where everything should be done to help the poor, weak, and marginalized. It supports my sense that in reality they're less about caring for the victims they drone on about, whether it be blacks, gays, the poor, etc., and more about just expanding government control and regulation over our lives.
Search "Obamacare 29 hours". I'm libertarian-leaning, but I've always been open-minded to national healthcare reform. This is the stuff of legend.
The reasons Democrats, progressives, and liberals will defend it regardless of its consequences is that they have been disenfranchised by Obama on every front - war, the economy, the police state, higher education, etc. - except socialized healthcare. To admit the negative implications of Obamacare would be to admit 100% total failure, which would be psychologically unacceptable.
The June jobs report came out. The headline number is great, at 195,000 net new hires. However...
WallStreetJournal: Part-Time America
A misconception even among some Obamacare opponents is that it is forcing small businesses below the 50 employee mark. However, even the major companies have been letting people go. Contingent workers where I'm interning over the summer -
this is a company which has near-monopoly market share of its industry and makes 10+ billion every fiscal quarter - have had their hours cut since May.
To 29 hours.
That's how insane this is. Obamacare is crushing small businesses and putting the sqeeze on the Fortune 50 corporations alike. The entire economy from top to bottom is feeling this.
The CBO -
the federal government's own agency - has steadily revised its projections of Obamacare's tax hikes, deficit reduction, millions of people that remain uninsured, etc. Every year since the Affordable Care Act passed, the numbers get worse and worse. Keep watching.
The Democrats know how catastrophic this is, hence the deferral of the employee mandate to January 15, 2015, so they can retake the House in the 2014 midterm elections before their constituents run headlong into reality. Ironically, many of them already are, and don't know why. They're literally going to be voting for an assraping.
And as for its effectiveness: It's a simple matter of supply and demand. The number of American doctors and medical school enrollments have not increased commiserate with the demand as the inability to charge higher for preexisting conditions is outlawed.
(This is pure speculation, but unless it is repealed, this will impact the freedom and mobility of the doctors. An MD in Massachusetts wants to move to Ohio - too many doctors living there already mate. Or we might you to relocate you to the slums of California where there aren't any. It's a way of nationalizing the healthcare industry, turning doctors into government employees through force. Before coming home from university, I asked all of my friends who voted for Obama if they disagreed, and not one could refute me.)
The Supreme Court passed it under the Tax and Spending clause. And not just that, but it's as a regressive tax as Social Security and inflation. Obamacare raids $700,000,000,000 from Medicare, only to put six million on Medicaid.
Living in the modern U.S. is like living in a Kafka novel.
Edit: If you think about it, at least SS, Medicare, and Medicaid started off solvent before devolving into pyramid schemes. Obamacare starts off as one right off the bat. It's like its authors were competing to outdo each other to fuck over the country.