The Glade 4.0

The only thing favorable I hear people say with respect to the ACA was the pre-existing condition portion. Especially with my liberal friends, this is their only go-to point. It never occurred to them they could have just legislated that single point without demolishing the rest of the health care market.

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The Dude abides.

Nothing has changed for me so IDGAF.

My problem isn't how I'm affected by ACA, it's the effect it'll have on my kids.

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In time, this too shall pass.

As Taskiss said, my biggest concern is my kids. My health care coverage is covered for life, due to me being one of those Unionized government workers with a golden contract you guys are usually whining about.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

The argument is that you couldn't cover the pre existing condition folks without forcing everyone into the system. Because, then nobody would have insurance, they'd just wait to get it once they got sick.

And there were arguments against that argument. And arguments against those arguments. The point is, we could have solved just that problem without creating the train wreck we have now.

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The Dude abides.

If we had addressed that issue through some other means, then we wouldn't have a socialist health care system, and then Europe and Canada wouldn't think we were cool.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

They still don't (think we're cool).

I don't see how anyone over the age of my-mom-still-dresses-me-for-school could still not see how we're throwing ourselves into a deep(er) economic pit with this mess; all for next to naught other than bloating the federal government.

Because I don't have to pay for health care anymore. The government does that. It collects money from those rich Wall Street fat cats and uses it to help the poor, struggling workers like me afford quality health care.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

Pass that over here Coro, gotta be some good stuff.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

Get them hooked on the stuff and they're your slave for life. Their kids, too.

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In time, this too shall pass.

Which is why the ones fighting against it are running so scared. They are literally fighting for the the future of their political ideology.

Some liken it to the Romans figuring they could vote themselves anything they wanted, and hastening the fall of the Empire.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

More than just the future of a "political ideology", it's the future of the Republic.

"When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic." - Benjamin Franklin

Why doesn't voting yourself money work? Because it's other people's money, and as Maggie Thatcher said, "They [socialists] always run out of other people's money".

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

"We are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children, what it once was like in America when men were free."

You see, this is the fundamental disconnect here. If you're trying to block a policy that constitutes a truly significant threat to our way of life or that is a real moral obscenity, then sure, use every legislative tactic you can - including shutting down the government - to win. On the other hand, if you're trying to block a policy that you think is really unwise or even immoral, but it's withen the realm of legitimate debate and disagreement or can be undone gradually or at a later date, then you accept defeat graciously and work within the ordinary norms of the system to improve things.

To most people, the ACA, like Medicare and Social Security before it, is just another policy they either agree with or not. To the wingnuts, though, it's the end of all that once was good and free about America. So, you have a handful of wingnuts in the House (and their wingnut supporters in the media and in Republican primaries) holding futile vote after futile vote to repeal, shutting down the government and threatening to default on the country's debts, all to repeal a law whose cost and scope is dwarfed by other related policies that have been around longer than many of the wingnuts have been alive without threatening our way of life.

Medicare is responsible for the vast, vast majority of the entire national debt, and Obamacare is similar in scope, so I don't think it's fair to just dismiss the effect on that basis.

However, the anti-Obamacare people really do need to keep the hyperbole in check. I'm referring to the individuals who just have to claim that Obamacare will provide no benefit to anyone, anywhere, in either the short or the long term. They are essentially arguing that our politicians have gone beyond pandering to their bases and are now knowingly **** everyone in the country for political gain, and that the only reason said **** is effective is their entire constituencies are comprised of idiots. You see, all the poor people that voted for Obamacare are too stupid to realize they are screwing themselves over. Come on guys, there are plenty of good anti-Obamacare arguments that don't require stooping to such immense cynicism and misanthropy.

RD, I think the most important lesson I taught my kids is that they can have anything they want, they just have to earn it.

My way of life IS threatened.

ACA won't save lives. That's impossible. It can only improve the quality of life and extend lives past the date where nature would have selected under normal circumstances to end life.

That's a "bonus" to someone's natural existence. Of course, we all want bonuses. And I want bonuses for my kids, so I taught them how to get them - they need to earn them.. Heck, I want EVERYBODY to have bonuses! There's a whole world out there, go conquer!

So, my kids can either rely on themselves for their bonus...or rely on the government to put its thumb on the scale by taking away from those who have earned larger bonuses and give that to those that haven't earned bonuses

Unfortunately, taken to the logical conclusion one reaches in that circumstance, relying on the government makes my kids and your kids dependent on the government, and my job as a parent was to teach them to successfully be independent.

It undermines my lessons, what would be my greatest contribution to my kids for them for having successful lives.

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In time, this too shall pass.

And on the other side you have wingnuts who think feel that programs to promote perceived "social goods" are involate once passed, and when not yet implemented are the result of nothing but greed, selfishness, and a hatred for.. well, pretty much everyone other than the imaginary club that the opposition belongs to. Supposedly, only fatcat rich men and corporations oppose endless increases in social spending, and taxes to support it, but there is no explanation as to why rural dwellers don't support these things despite frequently being very poor, except "racism", because most rural dwellers are white.

The Republicans have to use tactics like this, or they will never get real debate on Obamacare, which was shoved through in a 100% democrat-controlled government, and that government created entirely by 8 years of the media campaigning against GWB, followed by Obama and the Democrats running against him rather than John McCain or their respective state/district opponents.

The fact is that the House of Representatives is at least trying to do its Constitutional job here (however clumsily) by holding onto the purse strings. This is exactly the reason why the House is where funding bills must originate; to check a President and Senate between whom there is no meaningful debate or disagreement, as the Senate is where the officers that implement policy are confirmed - without consultation by the House. The obstinacy here is at least as much a product of the Senate's/Democrats belief that Obamacare is somehow a special law that is immune from reconsideration. This is how we've ended up with the asinine policy of "mandatory spending" - by creating the idea that certain laws, once passed, are immune from debate or change.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

If you really believe this is not a game to the cocksuckers in power... they tried to force closure on a privately owned non profit... Mt Vernon.

This is a game to all of the people in Washington ladies and Gentlemen, they care for us about as much as we care for cockroaches.

Washington Times article

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Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

The government is still funding folks in "critical" jobs...

So, that begs the question, why is the government paying for folks to do work unless it's really necessary? Farm that work out to the private sector, award the contracts based on cost to the taxpayer vs value received. Don't waste taxpayer money.

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In time, this too shall pass.

They prioritize who stays employed the same way they will prioritize who stays alive.

Poorly

This is a misunderstanding, and a product of bureaucracy, not any game playing. I doubt very much anyone in Congress has given a moment's thought to the specifics of Mount Vernon.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

The government isn't paying anyone to do any work right now. It has nothing to do with wasting taxpayer money or not wasting it, and farming it out to the private sector wouldn't change anything anyhow because the private sector would still eventually expect to be paid.

That's what's happening right now with government employees. Money that has not been appropriated by the Congress may not be spent. Therefore, Federal employees may not be paid until money is appropriated. Nonessential employees are sent home and do not work at all; essential employees remain on duty but must eventually be back-paid for work performed. The point isn't saving money (and even if it were, the amount saved is trivial in comparison to the things that are truly causing our debt problems) it's that payment isn't authorized right now. In fact, there's really little point in having people not work, because so many employees still are working; everyone could just get back-paid later on, and in fact even those sent home will evidently now get back-pay for at least their base salary.

The issue is money that would have to be spent on things other than worker pay. For example, fuel for our vehicles. We can keep coming to work and accumulating back pay, but when we run out of fuel, I have no idea where more will come from if a spending bill is not passed. The fuel company most likely will not simply hand it over without payment, and I'm not sure it would be legal to incur that obligation if they did.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I think you totally missed the point of my post in your haste to smug liberal it up. Let me rephrase.

The United States has not had a representative government for several generations, and we're too stupid to notice we've become a nation ruled by gentrified lords.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

Sorry folks ocean is closed.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government ... f-Shutdown

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

And we're not. This is total nonsense. The reason the government is the way it is is the conflicting demands of the people. Stop pretending people are stupid. The peope are not any stupider than you are. This "gentrified lords" crap is just excuse-making.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."