Last edited by idoru on Mar-24-2010 at 14:17

The partisan divide is pretty striking though. But seriously - what are the objections by the majority on the right? I'm not talking about wonks at CATO or Heritage who are worried about whether the government can really enforce the individual mandate or whether the health care industry can shoulder the burden of a shift away from emergency care and toward a greater emphasis on preventive care. I'm taking about the teabaggers - why are they opposed?

"The bill expands the size of federal government."

Actually, it doesn't. It decreases the size of the federal budget by $130 BILLION over the next ten years, and will decrease the federal deficit by a further $1 TRILLION in the ten years after that!

"The government has taken over health care."

Actually, it hasn't. There's not even a public option in this plan. Medicare is expanded to cover more people, but that's not government care - that's simply insurance coverage.

"This bill slashes Medicare!"

This one is especially rich, given that the very same teabaggers are decrying a supposed bloating of the Medicare system. What the bill does is curb add-ons to Medicare - basically, it eliminates the possibility that people can just tack things on to Medicare and increase costs later on. It limits the growth of Medicare in the future, it doesn't decrease funding in any absolute sense.

"This bill violates the free market!"

Actually, quite the opposite. By creating government-regulated exchanges for people to compare health care policies, this bill actually fosters competition and protects against monopolies.

"This bill funds abortions!"

Um, no. It simply doesn't do that. Anybody who says this doesn't know what they are talking about and can be safely disregarded in all political discussions going forward. This is a credibility wrecker.

"Obamacare is 3/4 of the budget!"

Actually, it decreases in relative share of health care spending in the budget over the next ten years, and is still dwarfed in comparison to things like, oh, the Iraq War over the past seven years. One of the favorite tricks of Republicans like Mike Pence (R-IN) is to use the ten year projected cost of health care reform, ignore the fact that we'd be spending even more money on health care if we didn't have reform, and then compare the figure to a one-year budget. Yeah, that's intellectually honest, Mike!

"This bill creates death panels!"

Ok, Sarah Palin. Another credibility buster. It doesn't ration care. There is a real concern about the capacity of the medical system, predominantly in ICU and preventive medicine, but this isn't really what teabaggers are talking about. They think there will be a panel of bureaucrats deciding if Grandma gets to have surgery or not. Nope - this decision will still be made by private insurance HMOs since there is no public option!

"This bill is unconstitutional, and our forefathers would be against it."

Well, if our forefathers thought it was unconstitutional, they shouldn't have included the Interstate Commerce Clause in the Constitution, granting the federal government the ability to regulate industries that span multiple states.

If Republicans were really worried about fiscal responsibility, they wouldn't engage in frivolous lawsuits that scream "we're sore losers!"

"This bill would send me to jail if I don't want health insurance!"

Well, it does change the law. So if you can afford health insurance and you don't purchase it, then yeah, you'll be penalized. To the tune of $94 on your next tax return. That's the individual mandate. If you don't pay the $94? Well, what happens when you don't pay taxes to the IRS?

****

There's a lot of misinformation floating around still, but as details become clearer, more and more people will be supportive of the bill. This may be the Republicans' Waterloo - they're showing that they are increasingly incapable of living in a world based on fact - they didn't want a part of the policy debate and chose to spread lies and fear-monger about slippery slopes into socialism. Come November, they may not have quite the strong showing everyone expects them to.

President Obama accomplished what no President has done in nearly 100 years of trying - we have comprehensive health care reform. It's not the end of the process, but it's a new dawn.

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Excellently put, thank you.

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There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

quote:

Originally posted by Halcyon+On+On Excellently put, thank you.

Haha, thanks.

For those interested, I've written a bit more about what the bill does and doesn't do here:

http://newmillenial.wordpress.com/2...overnment-meme/
and here
http://newmillenial.wordpress.com/2...-care-reaction/
and here
http://newmillenial.wordpress.com/2...tion-part-deux/

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You need to post all that in TOTA.

quote:

Originally posted by jennypie You need to post all that in TOTA.

By all means, feel free to quote or repost any or all of that wherever the good fight needs to be fought!

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quote:

Originally posted by Lebezniatnikov President Obama accomplished what no President has done in nearly 100 years of trying - we have comprehensive health care reform. It's not the end of the process, but it's a new dawn.

Are you still disappointed?

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Now you Yanks need to convert to the metric system

If you don't like the new healthcare plan start another civil war and separate these United States.

quote:

Originally posted by wotyzoid Are you still disappointed?

Haha, good question. He sure moves slowly, but Obama has a habit of getting nearly everything he wants in the end. I'm still learning to trust this President, but thus far at least he's shown real progress toward achieving each of the things on his agenda. Change isn't immediate, but it is happening incrementally.

I have a feeling he must be an incredible poker player.

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I certainly would not want to play chess against him. Mainly because I've never played a game of chess in my entire life, but there are other reasons!

___________________
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

quote:

Originally posted by Lebezniatnikov Haha, good question. He sure moves slowly, but Obama has a habit of getting nearly everything he wants in the end. I'm still learning to trust this President, but thus far at least he's shown real progress toward achieving each of the things on his agenda. Change isn't immediate, but it is happening incrementally. I have a feeling he must be an incredible poker player.

Good to know.

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