We’re gonna have some fun today.
“Budget Hawk” (XKCD)
Let’s play a game! List famous political figures, and the predatory birds you’d like them to be attacked by. I’ll start!
- Rush Limbaugh attacked by an Eagle
- Roger Ailes attacked by a Buzzard
- Sean Hannity attacked by a Vulture
- Mitch McConnell attacked by an Osprey
“Simplified Chinese” – Ed (Gin And Tacos)
I happen to agree with Ed on the issue of China. They have serious structural problems that need to be resolved before they can be considered a serious competitor to the United States. A large but poorly equipped military, industry that is imitative rather than innovative, significant resource issues, etc. However, China could resolve these issues rapidly if they so desired, thanks to single party rule.
“In Florida, Scott Administration Vows To Accelerate Voter Purge: ‘There Will Be More Names'” – Judd Legum (ThinkProgress)
Elections have consequences. Had Skeletor, I mean Rick Scott, not been elected in 2010, he wouldn’t have had the opportunity to disenfranchise thousands of legitimate voters.
In case you’re wondering why you’re not hearing more about it, it’s because none of the big national papers are writing about it.
“Senate Republicans signal big shift on ‘Obamacare'” – Sahil Kapur (TPM)
The utter height of hypocrisy. After spending four years ginning up the base, doing their damnedest to kill the law, mounting an absurd series of legal challenges, and promising nothing less than the complete repeal, the GOP is going to keep the sugar but spare Americans the medicine.
Here’s the problem: that doesn’t work.
The GOP wants to keep the three most popular provisions of the law: guaranteeing coverage of pre-existing conditions, allowing young adults of up to 26 years old to remain on a parent’s insurance policy, and closing the Medicare prescription drug coverage gap known as the “doughnut hole”.
You cannot guarantee coverage of pre-existing conditions without ensuring a large, low-expenditure base of insured individuals. That’s the whole point of the individual mandate. What will happen is healthy people will choose not to get insurance, and all that will be left in the system are the elderly and infirm, who will cause insurance prices to spike and bankrupt the American medical system. It fundamentally doesn’t work.
Keeping kids on their parents policy is fine from a cost perspective; it helps to mitigate the issues with pre-existing conditions.
There’s more than a little irony that the Doughnut Hole closure comes as the result of a signature George W. Bush policy. For those of you unfamiliar, Medicare Part D, the Prescription Drug Benefit, has a hole where an individual pays a discounted rate for medication up to $2800 annually, then they will pay the full cost of their medication until they hit $4550, after which their drugs become heavily discounted. The PPACA closes this by introducing similar discounts for the gap.
Ultimately, what we as a country need is a public/private insurance system. A system where everyone is enrolled in a public insurance system and pays into it through taxes, but has the option of a private system with more benefits. In a first world industrialized nation, the idea that someone could go broke because they get sick is a travesty.
Getting back to the original article, the fact is that the GOP has had four years to come up with a healthcare plan, and they still don’t have one. They didn’t have one when Obamacare was written. They didn’t have one when it was passed. They didn’t have one when they were raising hell about it on Capitol Hill and every Sunday morning talk show. They didn’t have one when they were running against it in 2010. They didn’t have one in control of the House. And they sure as hell don’t have one now.
So, given the option inbetween a healthcare plan that might actually do something to control healthcare costs, versus wishy thinking, I’m going to go with the one that might actually work.
