Because the Obamacare bill is huge, confusing, contradictory, and filled with malodorous, semi-digested bits of roughage which Nance Pelosi "passed so you can see what's in it," there are a few aspects of the law which needed clarification.
For example, the Obamacare law specifically states that lawmakers and their staff members must purchase their own health insurance through the online exchanges that the law created. Period. Case closed.
Hmmm- that doesn't seem to hard to interpret, does it? But the language means that these very highly-paid individuals would then lose the generous coverage already provided under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, and have to share the same options as the filthy rabble.
That's why the House and Senate brought in a lawyer...well, a former lawyer who no longer has a license...to carefully reexamine the language. That man, who by wild coincidence happens to be the very "Obama" that "Obamacare" was named after, has interpreted the language to mean "never mind what the law says - politicians and their staffs can still keep their high salaries (averaging around $174k/year), and their taxpayer-funded top-quality healthcare plans, and get a Monopoly card that allows them to "Go Directly Past The Death Panels and Collect $200k."
The fear was that if wealthy politicians and staff members had to pay for the same so-called "Affordable Healthcare" which the rest of us are getting in kinetic suppository form, they'd be forced to quit their jobs and go elsewhere - causing a "brain drain" in Washington which would make it even more stupid and inept than it already is.
A concept which is, to Hope n' Change anyway, frankly inconceivable.
17 comments:
Contact your masters in the castle on the hill, er, Congress. Even if they are dimocrat morons like mine. Talk to friends and neighbors. Maybe even sign some online petition. Hell, I don't know. We have to try something to abort this piece of crap. Abortion is a right now, right?
http://www.dontfundobamacare.com/
Yeah, that. It prompted a rare posting to my blog a couple 2 days ago. Inconceivable that we have come this far only to fall back into fiefdom... The founding fathers must be quite proud of King George Øbama and the nobles of congress. Quite proud indeed.
Congress has been exempting itself from laws for many a year now -- why anyone thought they'd have to follow this one, I don't know. What we need is a simple constitutional amendment, not that it'll happen, since they're the ones who would have to pass it short of a convention of the people.
Meanwhile, they're issuing so many waivers that their arms are tired. THe union supporters are up in arms, the poor advocates will be along shortly. The ObamaYouth (sic,) are expected to be hit with double and triple their premiums if they have any; millions will remain uninsured. The large companies are deserting what they pushed, I hear even AARP is not happy. Who is happy with this law? I think only the clusterbunny.
And we're not done yet, not by a long shot -- you know bunnies: At each step of the way will come the surprises and "wow, that's what's in it!" - but wait, there's more --
Then the doctors will quit, and the hospitals opt out -- and well, it seems few will be following the gazillion provisions of the mess. One could go on -- oh, yes, "train wreck" -- that's the apt phrase.
I confess it's sort of fun to watch, and Liberty minded people could make much political hay out of it to get rid of a lot of the federal behemoth - but don't expect most Republicans to be among them -- they like their exemptions, too, I'm sure.
What a fine post today, Doctor J! Thou art a fine wordsmith, and crankethd up the sarcasm to new pinnacles of excellence.
I NEVER, EVER watch MSM news, but can only imagine the spin. "In an unprecedented move of self sacrifice, The President has issued a decree to force the Republican controlled congress to keep their crappy old health care plans while the rest of the country gets to step up to the new, wildly superior and AFFORDABLE health care so graciously offered by Lord Obama to his grateful subjects. To show his solidarity with the common man, Lord Obama has sequestered himself in a simple hut in a vinyard near Boston for nine consecutive days of meditation and prayer, and is therefore not available for comment at the moment. We believe this to be the ultimate act of self sacrifice."
Oh yes, #Colby, I forgot to thank you for the giggles at the "up at the butt crack ..." comment on Monday -- Stilt said I could have something from the top shelf -- I took the box of restraint. :)
Once again, our friend @Stilton has managed to push one of my hot buttons.
Supposedly, I'm one of the "lucky" ones who gets to keep the health insurance I liked. Except, the "health insurance I liked" now costs nearly twice what it did when Obama took office in 2009, and I get none of the supposed freebies. And in roughly a month I expect to learn that it will cost even more. In 2008, Obama promised I'd be paying $2500 less by now. Where's my $6,500?
So it was with totally predictable outrage that I read about Obama personally seeing to it that the most politically-connected people in the country (most of which who make much more money than I and most people I know do) will continue to be insulated from the reality they themselves have created, and that I and millions of other Americans have to face even though the law explicitly says that they have to!
Once again, we're witness to what has become an imperial presidency. This President now feels totally free to decree which parts of laws he will enact and enforce, and which parts he will totally ignore. What's the point on even having a Congress and courts anymore? Clearly, we're now living under a monarchy.
And the most arrogant excuse is this "We have to do this for our staff because if we don't, we'll suffer 'brain drain'" meme.
Really now? WTF do you think is happening everywhere else in America today???
The dome that obviously is insulating the beltway is clearly more impenetrable than even I thought. This sentiment alone should tell you everything you need to know about the vacuousness of our national leadership in Washington. Is it even possible to be that clueless about the reality that they are imposing upon the rest of us, or are they just that self-centered and don't even care? Or is it somewhere in between? And does it even matter?
@Jim Hlavac has it right. That will all happen, and ObamaCare will be a total success; not in improving health care in America, but destroying. Only then can the Progressives achieve their dream of implementing a truly socialist system upon a desperate citizenry.
And where's the GOP on this? From all I can see, it seems their complicit! Oh yeah, they repeatedly feign outrage by voting to repeal ObamaCare, knowing it will do absolutely no good.
If the GOP really had balls and wanted to go for a go-for-broke strategy on ObamaCare, what they should do is pass legislation that restores every aspect of the law that has either been repealed by Congress or waived by the President.
That's right. Make employers have to provide insurance as of January 1. Kill all of the waivers that have gone to unions and other corporate-crony friends of Democrats and the President. Make every small business in America have to file a 1099 for every vendor they spend more than $600 with. Bury everyone in paperwork and kill more jobs. Make them experience the whole nightmare of Nancy Pelosi's creating. Stop making ObamaCare a softer, slow death and make this bad, destructive law hit every American, rich and poor, in the nose like a 2x4 so they finally really get it. Then, after a week or two, Congress they'll have no choice but to repeal it.
If Congress allows this latest insult to Americans and the rule-of-law to stand, they might as well dissolve. Except they won't, because clearly the benefits are too good. That right there tells you who they are really working for.
Boy, that John the Econ has a way w/ words, I tell ya. Once he says a thing, thoroughly and well, it just says SAID.
Brilliant, as always, sir!
Colby
I am not ALLOWED to watch the msm 'news' unless I am in my hannibal lecter travel suit. Even then family members say I make it difficult to watch.
OK show of hands for those who have filled out their zerocare application paperwork?
I thought so.
I am expecting a jump in fbi crime stats when this paper work is due.
P.S. a brain drain from congress and senate would raise the collective IQ in Wash D.C. by more than few points.
Did anyone believe this would not happen...after all, Congress IS the ruling class now. They have no credibility with the public anyway, so why would they hesitate to not show some integrity at this point? They were all duly elected, so the blame goes to the voters who put them there.
As it does with each and every one of the elected people destroying this country. I hate to sound so negative, but I don't expect anything from the right side of the aisle to fly at this point...defunding, securing borders, coming up with a budget, whatever SHOULD be done, WILL NOT be done, and vice versa.
Great work, btw, Stilt! God bless what's left of America
@PRY, is Congress really "the ruling class" now, or have they just been exposed as slaves to a megastate run by a dictator?
After all, the President now openly picks and chooses which laws he shall obey and enforce. DREAM act? Was never actually voted on, and yet he goes ahead and enforces it as though it was. DOMA? No interest in enforcing that one after it was safe to come out. Non-recess-recess appointments. And now striking yet another politically inconvenient aspect of ObamaCare.
No, I think Congress has become irrelevant, and the President is throwing them a bone to keep them complacent, just like he throws cheap cell phones at the poor to keep them in line.
No, I don't think Congress is a "ruling class" anymore. They've been rolled, and now are just another class of welfare recipient to be coaxed out every so often to vote properly.
Well I have to say that the new "health"care rules for the common WORKING citizen are pretty well turning the way they were intended by the ruling elite.
Case in point. As a person who has worked outside my entire life, I developed a sizable melonoma on my face. When I had it removed the ruling from the new improved system of health coverage lords decreed that the procedure would not be paid for by insurance. After all it was on my face, and therefore it was "cosmetic" elective surgery. Decision appeals were all denied.
Who needs death panels when cancer surgeries are no longer covered? Unless of course you are a Washington insider leaching off the life blood of the average American citizen.
@Readers- Outstanding and enjoyable comments here today, but I haven't really been able to jump in. It's a semi-tough day here (related to healthcare, appropriately enough) and I'm having to prioritize what's important over what can be postponed. Meaning I'll try to join the conversation as soon as I can - but in the meanwhile, you're all doing a great job of stirring this big, ugly pot!
John the Econ...you are absolutely right, I had not read your post before I posted, but my sentiments are the same.
It seems to me at this point that WE THE PEOPLE have been rendered totally powerless. Oh, we can still vote, and call our congressmen, but to what avail?
The tyrannical imperial state of our government now has become a mighty bulwark, easily resisting everything in its path. The MSM, the freeloaders, and the high and mighty mindset of elected and appointed federal officials are mighty arms to deal with and they are the support system for this monolith of evil. You or I could not get away with obviously lying on a regular basis, but Obama can and does. His presser on Friday really proved that.
We should look at how it all began in the 1930s as the German people rallied around Hitler and gave him all he wanted, to their dismay as very soon afterward, he had the power to do what he wanted, regardless of how the people felt.
A horrible time in history is just repeating itself. May
God have mercy, I believe He is our only hope. But this country for most of my life, has started defying the laws of God, and you always reap what you sow.
It's time we recognize what you said in your post is actually true, as much as we do not want it to be. It's time for us to accept the truth, because seems to me we are closer to the end of a great American now than ever before.
@PRY, I hate to concede this, but you might be right. We have been rendered mostly powerless, and for the most part we just let it happen.
I live in a very gerrymandered district where historically, because of demographics, my representatives have been somewhere between incompetent and outright crazy. The last time I bothered to write, it was during the financial crisis regarding the banking and bailout situation. In response, I got a form letter thanking me for my support of ObamaCare.
I used to warn my liberal friends that sooner or later, the powers they so recklessly grant to politicians and the megastate will be used against them. I used to phrase it in a way that might make them think, such as "How would you feel if George Bush had that power with you in their sights?". But now, as the IRS and NSA scandals clearly demonstrate, the megastate is now acting on it's own. Soon, if not already, it's too late to stop it. My Progressive friends will no longer have to worry about a George Bush, or worse, a Ronald Reagan wielding power over them, because the IRS and FEC (now connected to the IRS scandal as well) will see to it that no honest limited-government Constitutionalist will ever get elected ever again.
I'm not so certain that we'll get another "Hitler", but we'll get something just as bad, if not worse; a faceless, out-of-control oppressive, megastate bureaucracy that will operate something like the "Borg" out of "Star Trek"; consuming and absorbing everything in existence into the collective and producing nothing of value; just existing for the sake of existing.
But hey, at least the Borg get free health care. (Up until the point they are no longer useful to the collective)
The actual 'Affordable Health Care Act' is in itself just another distraction....we must remember that it ain't about health care at all! It is about POWER! I hope everyone has seen Ronald Reagan's explanation about the FIRST thing anyone does seeking absolute power is to socialize healthcare....please if you havent seen it, go here...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRdLpem-AAs
It's not too late to stop it I hope, but it's getting close! We need a grassroots revolution!
In terms of the "brain drain" in WDC, I believe it has already occurred. It was set in motion some time after 1913, and has progressively gotten deeper each election cycle thereafter, with merely sparks of intelligence flaring up - only to be smothered - since.
I think Jeremiah Wright got precisely what he so famously asked God to do with the election of Øbama and the supermajority he briefly enjoyed in what used to be Congress - and America is being delivered in a hand basket...
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