Reading editorials like this one (which are coming from even some mainstream, left-leaning news sources as the health-care abortion comes closer to being performed upon the American population) inspires me to a new political slogan:
The only party that can make Republicans look good.
Only problem is, which party should use it? Oh, the choices …
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While on the subject of the odious health-care bill and dirty tactics, here’s a pretty good whupping from Peggy Noonan, too. I sure do like her style.
Well, I am probably one of maybe two people who thinks the health care bill isn’t about health care at all. From what I can glean, nothing in this bill will come to pass for 4 years-EXCEPT-we all get to pay for it.
In other words our cash strapped over committed feds will have a new windfall of income for four years, free and right off the top.
All the dirty provisions that will derail health care for everyone except the insurance and drug companies won’t actually happen until after the public will supposedly have forgotten what exactly it is that they have been paying for.
Rural Mike. Funny, I was just having a conversation with neighbors this morning about this bill & one of them also brought up the idea that, “This bill is really about something else than we’re being told.” About power and control, obviously. About Dem hubris, vanity, and delusions, yep. About political favors. But about something else we won’t find out about until much later.
My neighbors, conservatives with libertarian leanings, actually believe the R-party will repeal the bill if it passes. Yeah. Dream on …
You’ve nailed it that all the dirty provisions and all the real doom won’t hit until so far in the future that people will have forgotten the cause. But I disagree with you slightly when you say that nothing will happen for four years. If I understand correctly (and at this point, who the heck really knows what’s in that ghastly bill), certain provisions will kick in almost immediately that will be very, very popular with the public. E.g. insurance companies will be forbidden right away to put lifetime caps on their policies. They’ll also be forbidden from excluding coverage for pre-existing conditions. People will cheer that.
Then, when insurance rates begin to go even higher, people won’t make the connection — won’t understand that the increases are driven by provisions like that. They’ll just think the insurers are being greedy and …
… wait for it …
Thank heaven the government is now doing something about that! Or the government needs to do more about that.
OMG … the Dems may be delusional in pursuing this when all the evidence says it’s ruinous and they’ll be loathed for it. But if this thing passes … we’re even more doomed than we already were. And nobody will ever repeal it. They’ll just “fix” it.
Did I mention … we’re doomed?
According to the Washington Post, these are some of the provisions in the health-care bill that would take effect this year:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/21/AR2010032101637.html?sub=AR
All stuff that will be popular with those who aren’t aware that actions have consequences.
Irony: Just last week Obama promised that before the bill was voted on “everybody” would know exactly what’s in it because it would have been “posted” for a considerable time before any vote. It’s now past 6:00 eastern time. Congress was scheduled to start their series of three health-related votes at 2:30. Voting should be concluded in about three hours. (NOTE: Latest reports are that they’re several hours behind schedule on the crucial votes. Still …)
And only within the last two hours are these sketchy — and quite possibly deceptive and quite certainly incomplete — summaries of the bill beginning to appear in the news.
Yeah. Real “open government,” that.
[E.g. insurance companies will be forbidden right away to put lifetime caps on their policies. They’ll also be forbidden from excluding coverage for pre-existing conditions. People will cheer that.]
If so, expect this to be done almost immediately and then the effects from that will also come immediately. Then we’ll see if the people will make the connection. Doubtful.
Just found out that the bill have just passed Congress and is now on the way to Obama for his signature.
BOHICA!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_health_care_overhaul
I really hope the bastards will be voted out during the next elections for this, not giving time for us to “understand” like Obama promised. But I’m not holding my breath.
Fast work, Jim B. Thanks for bringing the news here so quickly. BOHICA indeed.
Yeah, the bastards will be voted out in November. Unfortunately, another crop of bastards will be voted in and not one line of that bill will be repealed.
“…and from canceling policies because someone gets sick.”
Insurance companies were already forbidden from canceling policies because someone got sick. They could raise rates, but they could not drop the person.
I don’t know how well that was enforced, but claiming that the Nightmare Bill prevents this is a cheap PR trick.
It truly is disgusting when, just like the laughably misnamed patriot act, we have huge, sweeping legislation that we will all be subject to, without any attempt to inform the public.
The points are well taken, that this bill APPEARS to offer consumer protection, and that on the surface, it seems to curtail some of the most blatant profiteering on people’s health-or lack thereof.
Unfortunately, I have to agree with Claire’s friends…there is a hidden agenda at work. Maybe we catch a glimpse of this through the renewed push for i.d. cards, now featuring biometrics, perhaps forcing we subjects to accept new technologies that spread the web of surveillance and control.
Now that the government has inserted itself into health care, it can move into a new phase of power, manipulating people by withholding or dispensing the very drugs and care that many require to function and live.
The possibilities are many. This from our current prez who argued FOR torture, pushed the pat act back through, rules through executive order, and has yet to close gitmo. Perhaps people will begin to see that the liberal vs conservative split is almost entirely artificial and manufactured. The window dressing changes, but the policies remain the same.
Here’s the former director of the Congressional Budget Office looking beyond the budgetary jiggery-pokery to the real (short-term) cost of the health-care law.
I listened to an economist from another country wonder openly why Americans don’t want health care.
The part that he is missing is that insurance chicanery has nothing to do with health care. Everything so far has been to prop up a system that is famous for its negative footprint.
Thank you for the link, it solidified my trust in Lies From Above. I strongly believed the claimed deficit reduction to be smoke and mirrors, and by gosh, it certainly is.
No politician has the courage or independence to work to bring real health care to the American People. Instead we get more fraudulent games that will take very good care of special interests, and place the heel of big brother upon the country’s neck with ever more weight.
The challenge is to not simply preserve, but expand our own freedoms. Maybe we need to start challenging our own sacred cows. Well, people, if you really didn’t think America needed independent candidates without the corrupt brand of political party, it seems to me the time is now to revise that position.
Here’s something a bit surprising. There are states enacting lawsuits to prevent the National Healthcare Plan from going forward.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2219276420100322
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2215987420100322
There’s also appears to be some Civil Disobedience acting out already:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/03/22/us/AP-US-Democrats-Offices-Damaged.html?_r=1
And lo and behold, what’s next? Could it be?
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.b24442bc9647cf6ceeb5e334a6908618.d01&show_article=1