for a reality check.
As much as the clown-mouths in the punditry claim the roll-out of the A.C.A. is the end of President Obama's Everything, as much as the sand-brained ninnyhammers hope for the total destruction of the Obama Universe and all of his messiah-worshipping minions, we have news for them:
Na Ga Happen.
Was this a blow to the implementation of the A.C.A.?
Yes.
Could the roll out have been done better?
Yes.
Is it like Katrina? The Iraq War? Watergate? Monicagate?
No. No. No. And NO!
The TeaPublicans have lost their reason as they pray for the End Times of the Obama Administration. As certain as Radical Redneck will steal or morph into another blog identity, the TeaPublicans will at some point wake up and realize that this is only the end of the first year of President Obama's second term. The American people have very short memories. This bungled kick-off will be forgotten. The A.C.A. will enroll the number of people it needs to enroll. The TeaPublicans will continue to obstruct, sabotage, and tell their followers that THIS IS IT FOR OBAMA! And they'll zombie-follow that narrative as though it were true, until reality hits them between their beady little eyes. Because we know those benighted folks tend to live in an alternate reality where merely wishing for fantasies makes them so.
So for those of us who understand how politics works and how the TeaPublicans will always overestimate their predictions of utter failure and collapse for the opposition, just remember what the estimable Douglas Adams said:
Turn off the noise. Don't listen to what the flying monkeys are howling about on the teevee; and fer gawdsake stay away from the blogs where the best they can come up with is telling the world that the FLOTUS has a large posterior. That passes for intelligent political discussion on that side. No. Really. What are you worrying about if that's the level of discourse there?
Washington Post editor Bob Woodward has spoken a small bit of reality and on Fox News Sunday, no less. The pundits are all wrong. ObamaCare isn’t Obama’s Katrina or his Iraq, or even his Watergate (notice these are all Republican scandals that Republicans are dying to falsely equivocate onto a Democrat.
Nope.
According to Woodward, Obama is incompetent (of course), but he had good intentions. “What this is, it’s a mess clearly, but what it isn’t, and I think you have to look at the question of motive. And the President’s motive here, even though there were deep problems with the implementation, he wants to do something good for 30 million people and get them health insurance.
So this isn’t Watergate, this isn’t Clinton and Monica Lewinsky.”
Yes, we can admit this was incompetence. Now name a two-term president who didn't run into trouble in his second term. This isn't like President Ronald Reagan's criminal Iran-Contra scandal where actual laws were broken and where dozens of people in his administration were criminally indicted. This isn't the sort of incompetency that President George W. Bush presided over where thousands of people died; and this isn't a juicy sex scandal ala President Bill Clinton, either.
Mr. Obama will get through this. His motives are admirable even if his aides failed him, and he took the blame for it.
It's up to those of us who believe that universal health care is a right not a privilege to counter the unrelenting harpies whose only contribution to helping millions of uninsured and underinsured Americans is to hope for President Obama's health care plan to fail.
We're better than that.
Much better.
Check these out:
U.S. healthcare: Most expensive, longest waits, most red tape
Six Things the Media Doesn't Understand About Obamacare
26 comments:
FYI:
"The fix the president has instituted is rather ingenious. More importantly it immediately ensured that Congress, the insurance companies, and the American citizens absorb responsibility for the solution.
The president said, "Insurers can extend current plans that otherwise would be canceled into 2014 and Americans whose plans have been canceled can choose to re-enroll in the same kind of plan." He then said, "This fix won't solve every problem for every person, but it's going to help a lot of people. Doing more would require work with Congress."
The president’s fix allows insurance companies to extend the cancelled policies even if they do not conform to the Affordable Care Act for one year. The insurance companies cannot enroll new customers into the substandard policies. The insurance companies are also required to inform the purchasers of these substandard policies that they may qualify for federal subsidies only through the exchanges. They must disclose that these policies do not have the consumer protections that all new insurance policies must have. They must also inform them that they may qualify for Medicaid."
Those who are betting that obstruction and sabotage would deter this president should take heed. This president has accomplished substantive changes to the direction of this country even as billions have been spent to derail him. Bet against him at your peril.
The wingnuts are doing a premature victory dance. They did the same thing over the non-scandal Benghazi tragedy, and the non-scandal IRS issue.
They're doing the same thing now.
Staying calm. Not signing up, way too soon. I believe in doing things with both eyes wide open and since this ACA is untested I'll happily let others be the guinea pig. Rolling the dice, I'm a gambler and independent as Hell. My wife is covered so I'm happy.
Eating popcorn and watching the merriment.
Is my ambivalence showing?
I have insurance as well, RN. At one time in my life when I faced serious health problems, I didn't.
Personally, I don't think watching a health plan, which would help millions and millions of people, take a pounding is something one would take pleasure in.
You state that you're a gambler, but will not take a chance on the A.C.A.? Then you're not a gambler.
Gamblers take chances.
.
"... but will not take a chance on the A.C.A.?"
You and your blog rock. But on this I do not agree with you.
ACA is no gamble. It is the people's law. There is no other option. ACA goes forward. USA goes forward through ACA.
Media people making noise at the expense of President Obama are of no consequence. This media noise will all pass. The people of USA have a winner, they know it. Trust the people.
Ema Nymton
~@:o?
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False Shaw. I am 61, soon to be 62. I have suffered from migraine paralysis and been hospitalized for it. It acts very much like a stroke (although it is not) and the recovery varies. After 36 years I still have residual effects from it and the Boston neurologist who helped me said it could happen again.
I have never been w/o health insurance, until I lost my job and decided to change careers and get training to become a CPT, which I did.
I had Cobra for awhile, it became so expensive that I dropped it.
I train in the gym with the hopes of competing in a power lifting competition at 62 or 63, this after a double hernia operation.
So Shaw, I am taking a risk, or gamble I will stay health and not experience a serious incident until I can either afford insurance through HNE or I go on Medicare and Medicare Advantage. If single payer becomes a reality oh well. I am rather ambivalent at this point.
My independence, stubbornness, and reason does not allow we to buy anybody feeding me a line of BS and since the President found it convenient to mislead the American people in the interest of promoting his signature legislative work I simply DO NOT TRUST HIM any longer.
My choice, my right.
I dot take risk on a pig in ba poke. My judgement at this time is I have a better chance of staying healthy than the ACA does of working.
Buying the popcorn and beer and watching the festivities.
Someone on FT's blog talking about you having "the gaul?"
Brilliant.
Didn't know you were French, Shaw!
What numbskulls those wingnuts be!
The Russians trusted the Bolsheviks Ema.
I think you could give the fringe right most of what they want and they'd still be angry.
They can't step back and take a breath and reason because the pathology is that they just want to be angry.
Again, RN, I do give you props for keeping an open mind that is becoming tough to find on the right these days.
... however, RN, you have a ways to go understanding how insurance can best spread risk.
Immediate self interest is not Pareto optimal.
"The Russians trusted the Bolsheviks Ema."
So now RN USA compares the Obama Administration to the Bolsheviks? How do you deal with people who believe the opposition are Commies? you don't because it's hopeless when they talk like that. just walk away, jose'.
No Ducky I really do not, but feel free to entertain the thought if you like.
I hate Pareto charts, read as many as I ever want to when I was a business manager. It was getting to thr point you couldn't make a decision without first generating a Pareto, several meetings and circular discussions, and a half dozen sign offs.
So Ducky, on this I'll go with gut.
No asshole I'm comparing Ema and her statement to the Russian people who trusted the Bolsheviks. And got screwed. Damn your dumb Anon.
Hey Guys, I'm blogging on the run here, and I have a helper who's been posting the comments. Just seeing them now.
My daughter, who lives in Indiana, had her house heavily damaged by the tornado.
She's fine, her cat is missing, but the house is heavily damaged.
Petty arguments about politics just aren't that important right now.
What the heck do movies have to do with the A.C.A.? Anon GONE!
"The United States also spent the most on insurance administrative cost, $606 per person, compared to $277 in France and $266 in Switzerland, the next-highest countries."
Whodathunkit.
Next the right will tell you it's because of Medicare.
You really can't win.
If there is an aliment that is caused by consuming way too much popcorn I think RN should get covered ASAP... he is a ticking time bomb.
And, I wonder why the Repubs feel it's a good idea to keep reminding us of all these past Republican scandals and screw ups?
You are a absolute jackass Canardo.
"It really is all about the website. In places where it's working, people are signing up and are pretty happy with what they're getting. Rate shock is an issue for a few of them, but not for a lot. The bottom line is the Republican Party's worst nightmare: Once Obamacare has been up and running for a while, it's going to be pretty popular."
The reports of the imminent death of the A.C.A. are greatly exaggerated. The loons on the right always do a victory dance and then fall flat on their hypocritical faces.
Ema
"ACA is no gamble. It is the people's law."
You should clarify that statement by saying it is 10-15% are the peoples law and the other 85% will pay for it.
The roll out was a massive FU and the president was warned it would be but he will hold no one accountable because he distances himself from everything.
Shaw, glad everyone is safe. Living in tornado alley for decades you realize that they happen with little to no warning and hit and run.
The A.C.A.'s roll-out was a mess, but it's being corrected.
More people will sign on, and this will pass.
The A.C.A. is the law, based on a conservative think-tank's idea.
Everything will be just fine.
.
"You should clarify that statement by saying it is 10-15% are the peoples law and the other 85% will pay for it. "
99% of all statistics are made up on the spot by very stupid people for stupid reasons.
Right Skudrunner???
Ema Nymton
~@:o?
.
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