I usually don’t mind waiting to get my hair cut. But today was a little out of the ordinary.
The fellow ahead of me, who I’ll call Randy, felt called upon to deliver a lecture on Obamacare and how the President is directing the government to take over our lives. It was quite a rant, and Randy clearly seemed to think the rest of us gave a sh*t about his opinion.
C'mon Randy! Do You Really Think That
The Government Wants Into This?
Unfortunately there are a lot of folks like Randy. I won’t say they are un-informed, because they must be spending some time listening to Rush Limbaugh, or someone like him, deliver a stream of lies squeezed in between commercials for impotence remedies and weight loss products. Instead I think that Randy is just mis-informed.
What Randy is too stupid (sorry) to get is that Republicans have done a head fake and set up proxy arguments that appeal to voters just like him, scoring political points instead of solving the problem. So we wind up in an echo chamber filled with mindless slogans, like the Tea Partiers parading in front of the Supreme Court holding up signs saying “Don’t Tread On Me”.
Give me a break, 60% of these people don’t think that Medicare is a Government Program.
The media have played the part of enablers, because the truth is very complicated (as in boring), and they don’t want to lose their audience.
So here are the simple facts:
- The health care system in the USA is broken. Everyone agrees with that, the debate comes down to how we fix it.
- Conservatives want to get the government completely out, running it like a free market letting supply meet demand.
- Liberals want a single-payer system, with everyone guaranteed access to quality care.
For lots of reasons the Affordable Health Care Act, aka ‘Obamacare’ has given neither side what they want.
Conservatives lost the legislative battle in the Congress two years ago, but now they have chosen to challenge the law by attacking the ‘mandate’ that everyone purchase health insurance. They picked that part of the legislation to attack, because they felt that would get them the greatest chance of success at the Supreme Court. They have expanded the argument in the media ad nauseum, claiming that for Obama this is only the beginning of a government takeover.
What really gets to me is the staggering hypocracy of the Republican attack on the insurance ‘mandate’. In fact the ‘mandate’ was created by those very same Conservatives years ago in their attempts to reform the system. Its stated goal was to force everyone to purchase health insurance and stop the ‘freeloaders’ from making the rest of us pay for their medical expenses.
And folks like Randy buy into this crap, because it’s spoon-fed to them every day and they just don’t know any better. Which wouldn’t be so bad, if they would just keep their mis-informed opinions to themselves.
Especially when I’m waiting to get my hair cut, and can’t escape.
Not A Mystery 
I find it amazing that the Healthcare law is being debated and people are being polled about it when 90% of Americans do not know the provisions of the law or how it works in their favor.
I have read the law and believe that it really favors the middle class. It was written in such hard legalese that I think only an objective healthcare attorney can explain it to the masses and cure this campaign of ignorance and calumny against it.
http://blackrepublicanandmyworldview.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/its-not-just-about-trayvon-please-face-the-fundamental-issues/
Posted by mumlawyerlettered2themax | March 30, 2012, 2:44 pmAgree. Also, it’s a commentary on the level of the ‘debate’ when Americans are ‘polled’ to see if The Supreme Court should hold the law unconstitutional. I also agree with your post that the President and the Democrats really dropped the ball by not getting out in front and explaining it so people could understand it, and turn ‘Obamacare’ from a derogatory label to a positive slogan.
Posted by Bob Gelber | March 30, 2012, 3:17 pm“It was written in such hard legalese that I think only an objective healthcare attorney can explain it to the masses…” and obviously it blew smoke up you a** if indeed you really did read it. I’ve read more then enough to fully understand what I’m reading, and to know that anyone with an ounce of intellectual honesty, who doesn’t sit on a street curb with their hand out to the government for another morsel should not only be opposed to this legislation, but be down right afraid of the implications. JFK made a wonderful quote in his inaugural address that liberals seem to have forgotten (although a Democrat, JFK hated liberals – it’s true look it up), he said… “And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”
Posted by heyrob4449 | March 30, 2012, 4:55 pmYou say you read it. What was it in the law that made you afraid of the implications?? What are those implications that were frightening? It will be interesting to know.
A number of well lettered folks at The College of Law in the Advanced Legal Studies Health Law Class analyzed and reviewed this law. The Law was reviewed and studied comparatively with regard to the current law and international Healthcare law. The law was also compared proactively with the current state of Healthcare law and the future of both plans were rigorously analyzed. The Affordable Care Act is a good Law. It is like any other law with its problems and challenges but like any law when thoroughly analyzed, its positives far outweighed the negatives.
I would like to know what you read and be more richly informed about your position. Please be specific citing section and page in your response as I would like to review and respond to your concerns. Thanks.
http://blackrepublicanandmyworldview.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/its-not-just-about-trayvon-please-face-the-fundamental-issues/
Posted by mumlawyerlettered2themax | March 31, 2012, 9:06 amNo, I said I have read “more than enough” of it. This monstrosity is over 2700 pages, that’s more than double the number of pages in War & Peace. It’s been a couple of years since I tortured myself with a reading of a substantive portion of that legislation, and frankly I have neither the time nor inclination to go back and research chapter & verse for you. I frankly don’t give a rip if some “Well lettered folks” anywhere think this is a fine piece of legislation. It is unconstitutional on its face. Period!
Hillsdale collage offers a free course in “Constitution 101″ I suggest you take it, because you obviously don’t understand the document in the slightest. For a quick synopsis, here is the gist of it in a nutshell; Article 1 Section 8 is the portion that covers the “Powers of Congress”. It’s about 430 words long, so a bit much to quote here in its entirety, but just Google “Article 1 Section 8” and read up, let me know when you find the part that gives congress the power to tell us to do anything.
Next is the 10th amendment which says… “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” There is no delineated power that allows congress to compel us to do or buy anything, therefore Obamacare is unconstitutional. Why is that so difficult for progressives to understand? We the people own the government, not the other way around. Would you hire an employee to work for you, then let that employee dictate orders to you, even if it were for your own good?
You can play semantics and claim that the commerce clause grants congress this authority, or the comment in the preamble that says “promote the general welfare” but the founders were extremely explicit in their wording and their intent. Again the Hillsdale collage course mentioned above will guide you through the Federalist Papers which gives deep insight into what the founders intended and what they feared. It’s crap like Obamacare that would make Jefferson and Madison spin in their graves.
Thomas Jefferson once said… “Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law’ because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.” – This law is a prime example of the Tyrants will, and it infringes on the rights of everyone.
Posted by heyrob4449 | April 3, 2012, 11:19 amGreat perspective…………….well done………….
Tommyfrank
Posted by Tommyfrank | March 31, 2012, 7:15 am