Trump is threatening Republican Congresspeople and Senators with consequences if they don't pass the messed-up GOP replacement for Obamacare, and pronto. (News flash: the Republican repeal-and-replace bill is going nowhere pronto.)
What consequences? That's the question those Republicans are asking themselves if they're smart, I think. Trump's approval rating is 37% and dropping. One poll says that only 3% of Trump voters regret voting for him. But I think people may be giving that poll too much weight. I think that questions which are equally important, or more, are: how many people who didn't vote in the 2016 Presidential election, or voted for Stein or Johnson or someone else, now regret not voting for Hillary? Over 110 million people eligible to vote didn't vote, and Johnson got 4,489,221 votes, Stein 1,457,216, and 1,884,459 votes were cast for someone other than Trump, Hillary, Stein or Johnson. That's over 117,830,896 people who didn't vote for either Trump or Hillary. What do they think of Trump? how will they be voting in the future? Maybe I'm missing something, but I can't imagine how the numbers add up to anything but good news for Democrats and bad news for Republicans, and especially bad news for Trump and those Republicans seen as especially close to Trump.
Let me repeat that Trump's approval rating is 37% and dropping. The Presidency of the United States is the brightest spotlight in the history of the human race so far, it's the position which gives its occupant less room to hide than any other, and although Donald has his niche, the more that humanity in general gets a good look at him, the less they like what they see.
Most of the Republican Congresspeople and Senators who are not with Trump and Ryan on this health care bill are from districts and states which were either close in the Presidential election or went for Hillary. For those politicians, it may be worse for them if Trump supports them than if he doesn't.
The special election for Georgia's 6th congressional district will be held on April 18, to fill the seat vacated by Tom Price, who resigned to become Trump's Secretary of Health and Human Services. A lot of politicians are watching this special election very carefully. The 6th district has been Republican since 1979, since Newt Gingrich won the first of his 10 consecutive terms there from 1979 to 1999. A lot of those Republican wins since Newt won his first term have been quite lopsided. The 6th district in Georgia has been considered a very safe seat for the Republicans. But Donald Trump has a way if changing things. It looks quite possible that a Democrat, John Ossoff, could win the special election in April, despite the GOP spending a huge amount of money to try to keep the seat. If Ossoff wins, or even if he come close to winning, it could be seen as one more sign that Republican politicians don't need to feel threatened by Trump, except in the sense that being closely associated with him could hurt them.
Showing posts with label Obamacare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obamacare. Show all posts
Friday, March 24, 2017
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
"I'm Not On Obamacare"
Now, if the GOP succeeds in doing away with the ACA, and can convince their supporters who were on ACA plans and are outraged that the ACA is gone, and who still think Obamacare and the ACA are two completely different things, that the ACA disappearing is completely Obama's fault -- well, I guess that would be just more of the same. And speaking of Holy Shit: the Republicans, not just Trump but Republican legislators, are talking about building that fucking wall. "Mexico will pay us for it after it's done." You'd figure at some point their BS would become too stupid to fly anymore. However...
Monday, October 3, 2016
Postscript To: "Where's MY Death Panel?"
In my previous post I mentioned a story getting a lot of coverage by conservatives soon after Duh-duh-DUHHHH!!!! Obamacare went into affect, about a man who said he has leukemia, said he was born poor, said he now runs two companies, and said he may have to get another job because his out-of-pocket for medical treatment has gone from $4500 to $26,000, because of Obamacare.
Fact Check cleared this one up very quickly, although it seems that Fox News and the Heritage Foundation weren't so energetic about publicizing the corrections.
The true story is that he ending keeping his doctor and paying less for insurance from another company. In a response to Fact check, he still blamed Obama for having to change insurance companies:
“The health insurance industry certainly needed to be put in check, and we certainly needed to provide affordable care for low income earners. But, I should not have had a product that I was willing to pay for, and that I had been very happy with, taken away from me by a government mandate and then taxed…er, I mean fined…if I chose not to replace it with a product I don’t like.”
But the Federal government didn't tell his previous, more-expensive insurer, Celtic, to drop him. And Celtic didn't get back to Fact check to tell their side of the story.
But, clearly, it feels to a lot of people like Obama is screwing them over whenever anything bad happens to them. Even when, as in this case, Obama has actually come to their rescue and made things better after someone else has screwed them over.
Feelings
Nothing more than
Feelings
Trying to
Forget myyyyyyy...
And it feels to me like the GOP and right-wing media aren't falling all over themselves to, uh, you know... to check their facts, and stuff.
In conclusion, France is a land of contrasts, and this whole story is 3 years old.
Fact Check cleared this one up very quickly, although it seems that Fox News and the Heritage Foundation weren't so energetic about publicizing the corrections.
The true story is that he ending keeping his doctor and paying less for insurance from another company. In a response to Fact check, he still blamed Obama for having to change insurance companies:
“The health insurance industry certainly needed to be put in check, and we certainly needed to provide affordable care for low income earners. But, I should not have had a product that I was willing to pay for, and that I had been very happy with, taken away from me by a government mandate and then taxed…er, I mean fined…if I chose not to replace it with a product I don’t like.”
But the Federal government didn't tell his previous, more-expensive insurer, Celtic, to drop him. And Celtic didn't get back to Fact check to tell their side of the story.
But, clearly, it feels to a lot of people like Obama is screwing them over whenever anything bad happens to them. Even when, as in this case, Obama has actually come to their rescue and made things better after someone else has screwed them over.
Feelings
Nothing more than
Feelings
Trying to
Forget myyyyyyy...
And it feels to me like the GOP and right-wing media aren't falling all over themselves to, uh, you know... to check their facts, and stuff.
In conclusion, France is a land of contrasts, and this whole story is 3 years old.
Saturday, October 1, 2016
Where's MY Death Panel, Dammit?
Republicans Predicted An Obamacare Apocalypse, reads the headline to a piece by Dana Milbank in the Washington Post.
After the first Obamacare launch there were a few stories about people who went broke because of Obamacare, but they thinned out quickly. I tried to follow up on one story, to see if it was, you, know -- true. A guy said that he had been getting cancer treatments paid for by affordable insurance for years, and then came Obamacare and he was going to lose everything. The story was vague on just exactly what the guy's premiums were before, what they were under Obamacare, and how well off he was generally. Eventually I found out that the guy owned 3 companies.
They might have been very small companies... Or maybe this was a case of a multimillionaire whose premiums rose from $150 a month to $200 a month, and the very thought that part of that $50 a month might be going straight out of his pocket to help keep poor people alive made him feel like he was being murdered by Negroes and jazz musicians.
Feelings are subjective. This year's 2016 Republican National Convention, which was almost entirely about feelings, really brought that point home.
Whoops: my feelings are subjective, too: that story I mentioned upthread? I got it completely wrong: It was a story about a man who says he has leukemia, says he was born poor, says he now runs two companies, and says he may have to get another job because his out-of-pocket for medical treatment has gone from $4500 to $26,000, because of Obamacare.
I have not been able to confirm any of those things he said.
But surely, no-one would ever lie about something such as their experiences with Obamacare, would they? What reason would anyone ever have to do such a thing?
I don't want to go around making fun of people with leukemia. That's more Donald Trump's style than mine. But when it comes to people who lie about having leukemia and about their out-of-pocket medical expenses...
I don't know if this guy was lying or not. All I know is that the story disappeared very quickly, and that it seems to have been the kind of story the GOP would have hung onto like a dog with a bone. It seems to me they would have... Unless, perhaps, if it turned out it was misleading in some of its details... Or maybe if it was some sort of clerical error, and as soon as a member of the Obama administration heard about it, it was straightened out and the man was re-imbursed for the error, and given plaques and personal apologies by local and Federal-level Democrats. Now that last version, that's the sort of story the GOP would NOT hang onto like a dog with a bone.
But my point is: Where's MY death panel, dammit?
After the first Obamacare launch there were a few stories about people who went broke because of Obamacare, but they thinned out quickly. I tried to follow up on one story, to see if it was, you, know -- true. A guy said that he had been getting cancer treatments paid for by affordable insurance for years, and then came Obamacare and he was going to lose everything. The story was vague on just exactly what the guy's premiums were before, what they were under Obamacare, and how well off he was generally. Eventually I found out that the guy owned 3 companies.
They might have been very small companies... Or maybe this was a case of a multimillionaire whose premiums rose from $150 a month to $200 a month, and the very thought that part of that $50 a month might be going straight out of his pocket to help keep poor people alive made him feel like he was being murdered by Negroes and jazz musicians.
Feelings are subjective. This year's 2016 Republican National Convention, which was almost entirely about feelings, really brought that point home.
Whoops: my feelings are subjective, too: that story I mentioned upthread? I got it completely wrong: It was a story about a man who says he has leukemia, says he was born poor, says he now runs two companies, and says he may have to get another job because his out-of-pocket for medical treatment has gone from $4500 to $26,000, because of Obamacare.
I have not been able to confirm any of those things he said.
But surely, no-one would ever lie about something such as their experiences with Obamacare, would they? What reason would anyone ever have to do such a thing?
I don't want to go around making fun of people with leukemia. That's more Donald Trump's style than mine. But when it comes to people who lie about having leukemia and about their out-of-pocket medical expenses...
I don't know if this guy was lying or not. All I know is that the story disappeared very quickly, and that it seems to have been the kind of story the GOP would have hung onto like a dog with a bone. It seems to me they would have... Unless, perhaps, if it turned out it was misleading in some of its details... Or maybe if it was some sort of clerical error, and as soon as a member of the Obama administration heard about it, it was straightened out and the man was re-imbursed for the error, and given plaques and personal apologies by local and Federal-level Democrats. Now that last version, that's the sort of story the GOP would NOT hang onto like a dog with a bone.
But my point is: Where's MY death panel, dammit?
Saturday, October 5, 2013
GOP Fearmongering Over Obamacare
I figured the Right would start keeping something like an "Obamacare death toll" on October 1. Looks like they're on the case. A few days before the ACA went into effect, Colorado Congressman Cory Gardner was on CNN's Crossfire, spewing gibberish about Obamacare and ignoring questions about what he said. Around the same time, Michelle Malkin claimed Obamacare had killed her health plan.
And yesterday ABC News 15 in Phoenix, Arizona ran this story about a man who says he has leukemia, says he was born poor, says he now runs two companies, and says he may have to get another job because his out-of-pocket for medical treatment has gone from $4500 to $26,000, because of Obamacare.
You could run the entire D-Day Normandy invasion force through the gaps of vagueness in this story. First of all, it seems that the only source for the story is this man who says Obamacare will crush him financially. He says he was born poor. Does this mean he was often homeless and malnourished as a child, or that he felt poor in high school because some of his classmates drove their own Lamborghinis to school, and he didn't? He was allegedly "one of six kids born to a school teacher." Are we talking about a single mother with six children and no income except her paycheck from a public school, or a schoolteacher married to a man who owned an oil company -- but a much smaller oil company than the ones owned by the parents of those darn snooty rich kids with their Lamborghinis and Armani clothes, while our guy was forced to drive a Porsche 914 and wear Calvin Klein (Sometimes even hand-me-down Calvin Klein! Oh the horror and squalor!) and a Rolex, a steel Rolex, forget about gold or platinum, and definitely forget about a Patek Philippe like all those snooty kids in their Lamborghinis with their Daddies who owned big oil companies, oh life can be so cruel! -- or what? He "runs two companies." What does that mean? Is he an assistant manager at a Wal-Mart in the daytime and an assistant manager at a Denny's at night, or does he make 9 figures annually running his own spam company and his own robo-calling company? His "out of pocket" was $4500 and now it's $26,000? What does that mean? Are $4500 and $26,000 his previous and current co-payments per medical treatment? Per month? Per year? Is that the total of his health insurance premium and co-payments per month? Per year?
My point -- and maybe you're way ahead of me already -- is that this story really isn't telling us jack. If "running two companies" means he's an assistant manager at a Wal-Mart and a Denny's, and his out-of-pocket expenses are going to go from $4500 to $26,000 a year, because of the Affordable Care Act, well then, obviously, something went very wrong.
If he makes $700,000,000 a year from spam and robo-calls, then, in my humble opinion, it's not an outrage if his medical bills are about to go from $4500 to $26,000 a year, or even a month, because of Obamacare.
If he makes, say, $150,000 a year, and his medical bills are going from $4500 to #26,000 a year, then he has a legitimate gripe. If they're going from $4500 to $26,000 a month, and he really has incurable, terminal leukemia, then this is a real horror story.
If ABC News 15 in Phoenix ran a story repeating everything an individual said, without checking any of the facts, just because what the man was saying made Obamacare sound horrifying, and if, for example, this guy's out-of-pocket medical expenses will go up only a little, or go down, and he's scared not because he's actually looked into what the ACA means for him, but instead just believed what he's heard from some Teabaggers -- well then, that'd be just about par for the Tea Party course.
And yesterday ABC News 15 in Phoenix, Arizona ran this story about a man who says he has leukemia, says he was born poor, says he now runs two companies, and says he may have to get another job because his out-of-pocket for medical treatment has gone from $4500 to $26,000, because of Obamacare.
You could run the entire D-Day Normandy invasion force through the gaps of vagueness in this story. First of all, it seems that the only source for the story is this man who says Obamacare will crush him financially. He says he was born poor. Does this mean he was often homeless and malnourished as a child, or that he felt poor in high school because some of his classmates drove their own Lamborghinis to school, and he didn't? He was allegedly "one of six kids born to a school teacher." Are we talking about a single mother with six children and no income except her paycheck from a public school, or a schoolteacher married to a man who owned an oil company -- but a much smaller oil company than the ones owned by the parents of those darn snooty rich kids with their Lamborghinis and Armani clothes, while our guy was forced to drive a Porsche 914 and wear Calvin Klein (Sometimes even hand-me-down Calvin Klein! Oh the horror and squalor!) and a Rolex, a steel Rolex, forget about gold or platinum, and definitely forget about a Patek Philippe like all those snooty kids in their Lamborghinis with their Daddies who owned big oil companies, oh life can be so cruel! -- or what? He "runs two companies." What does that mean? Is he an assistant manager at a Wal-Mart in the daytime and an assistant manager at a Denny's at night, or does he make 9 figures annually running his own spam company and his own robo-calling company? His "out of pocket" was $4500 and now it's $26,000? What does that mean? Are $4500 and $26,000 his previous and current co-payments per medical treatment? Per month? Per year? Is that the total of his health insurance premium and co-payments per month? Per year?
My point -- and maybe you're way ahead of me already -- is that this story really isn't telling us jack. If "running two companies" means he's an assistant manager at a Wal-Mart and a Denny's, and his out-of-pocket expenses are going to go from $4500 to $26,000 a year, because of the Affordable Care Act, well then, obviously, something went very wrong.
If he makes $700,000,000 a year from spam and robo-calls, then, in my humble opinion, it's not an outrage if his medical bills are about to go from $4500 to $26,000 a year, or even a month, because of Obamacare.
If he makes, say, $150,000 a year, and his medical bills are going from $4500 to #26,000 a year, then he has a legitimate gripe. If they're going from $4500 to $26,000 a month, and he really has incurable, terminal leukemia, then this is a real horror story.
If ABC News 15 in Phoenix ran a story repeating everything an individual said, without checking any of the facts, just because what the man was saying made Obamacare sound horrifying, and if, for example, this guy's out-of-pocket medical expenses will go up only a little, or go down, and he's scared not because he's actually looked into what the ACA means for him, but instead just believed what he's heard from some Teabaggers -- well then, that'd be just about par for the Tea Party course.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
YES WE CAN HAZ HEALTHEEZ!!
I let my cat write the headline above. We are both very happy that the Supreme Court announced their decision today that it was not unconstitutional for Congress to pass legislation protecting people's health and making it more difficult for insurance companies to screw people over and less likely that people will go broke just because they happened to get sick in the US.
For now, Obamacare is safe. As most of you probably already know, Obama has embraced the term "Obamacare," although it originated as a term of abuse coined by his political opponents, following the example of the makers of Gothic cathedrals (They got that name because critics said they were barbaric, like hordes of Visigoths.), Know-Nothings, Led Zeppelin (The band had formed but didn't have its name yet when Keith Moon predicted that they would go over like a lead balloon.) punk rockers and others. It's a shrewd political tactic. This guy keeps impressing me. I feel healthier already, and I hope all of you feel better too.
For now, Obamacare is safe. As most of you probably already know, Obama has embraced the term "Obamacare," although it originated as a term of abuse coined by his political opponents, following the example of the makers of Gothic cathedrals (They got that name because critics said they were barbaric, like hordes of Visigoths.), Know-Nothings, Led Zeppelin (The band had formed but didn't have its name yet when Keith Moon predicted that they would go over like a lead balloon.) punk rockers and others. It's a shrewd political tactic. This guy keeps impressing me. I feel healthier already, and I hope all of you feel better too.
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