Not that my faith was faltering in any way. Thanks to the Clinton and Bush administrations, I've had a very strong faith that our federal government can take on any bad situation and, through incompetent meddling and corrupt special interest influence, make it even worse.
My Obama loving friends told me more than a year ago that this administration was different. This time they would get it right, they're changing the political paradigm. But I never lost my faith. And now this administration ends the year with the worst first-year approval rating of any president ever.
That's due in part to the recent hot mess that is the so-called health care reform bill. It's pretty much universally reviled -- even by the most ardent Obama supporters -- as a special interest sellout. But some, even as they bemoan the terrible legislation, still want to give credit to the administration for doing some kind of reform.
But here's where I point out that putting the word "reform" in the title of the bill doesn't make it a reform bill, just as putting the word "Patriot" on a bill doesn't make it patriotic.
In fact, it's clear even to the most casual observer that rather than reform a broken system, this bill actually makes it more corrupt. And I'm not talking about the millions of kickbacks and earmarks some Senators are bringing home. Not a bad gig when you can get hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money for voting for terrible legislation. This is not an exaggeration.Of course, the real sweetheart deal goes to the very insurance industry that is one of the main root causes of runaway health care prices in the first place. The "reform" bill requires EVERY PERSON to buy health care insurance -- the so called individual mandate.
So, almost overnight, the government is creating millions of new customers for an industry that is already raking in record profits. Is it a surprise that insurance corporation's stock prices spiked the day after the Senate Personally, I wonder how the individual insurance mandate is even legal. I mean, how can it even be constitutional for the government to order me to by something that I can't afford or don't want? What, are they going to fine me money that I don't have then throw me in jail if I don't pay it? Seize my house, car, digital TV converter box?
Is this the America we live in now?
Oh yeah, I forgot. I guess it is.
tagged: Obama, health care, insurance, legislation, reform, politics, corruption
If the Constitution means anything, then the Individual Mandate will be shot down.
ReplyDeleteI'm not holding my breath though.
hey, you're right. give us some credit. this is decidedly not what we wanted or planned on. we need the single-payer option (so there's only one form for all 1300 insurance companies in the country) and we need the public option on health insurance so the ins. companies had competition. (I doubt you'd agree on the 2nd thought but a lot of us out here did and do).
ReplyDeleteA mandate to buy health insurance.
Oh, hell no.
Mo Rage
(A screaming, left-wing liberal--who also happens to want small government)
History only moves in (1) direction. Time and progress don't go backward unless religious fundamentalists secure power. Whether or not the health bill as written is good, it moves history in a direction.
ReplyDeleteFor all the Obama people complaining about the health bill--please shut the fuck up! Time wont stop when the bill is passed. It'll just be day (1) for the next round of debate. Just like if abortion were to become illegal in the U.S. the debate about women's rights wouldn't end there. That would be the new starting point for religious fundamentalists to begin stripping women of even more of their rights. "Uh, its been proven that when a woman has more than (1) sex partner her chances of having an abortion go up. So I demand we make it illegal for women to have sex outside of marriage cause it leads to abortion, which is illegal!" What ladies? Do you think Glen Beck's gonna suddenly become talented and not have to rabble-rouse for ratings?
To Obama people, this is still basically a Republican country. You have to make in-roads slowly. Over time. The young people know Clinton's presidency was two terms of unprecedented economic growth. Its historical fact. The young people also know that Bush's presidency was the most corrupt failure of a human rights debacle in the history of this nation that has resulted in over 4,000 U.S deaths and total economic collapse. Thats also fact.
Once the economy recovers (albeit very slowly--probably during Obama's last year of his first term), the Democrats will have a generation long reputation/legacy among voters of accomplishment; whereas the Republicans will have a generation long reputation/legacy for what they really are. A vacuous, loser, sell-out party that hides behind personal freedom as a means to intimidate the minority elements of this society.
So stay angry PFL0W. But don't be a loser and sell the whole bill out. Otherwise you're just a sucker for the Repubs.