Obamacare Is the Right’s Worst Nightmare

[Nbadan]

Krugman: Obamacare Is the Right’s


News from New York: it looks as if insurance premiums on the individual market are going to plunge thanks to Obamacare. This shouldn’t come as a surprise; in fact, the New York experience perfectly illustrates why Obamacare had to look the way it does. And it also illustrates why conservatives should be terrified about this legislation, as it takes effect. Americans may have had a lot of misgivings in advance, thanks to vast, deliberately spread misinformation. But I agree with Matt Yglesias — unless the GOP finds even more ways to sabotage the plan, this thing is going to work, it’s going to be extremely popular, and it’s going to wreak havoc with conservative ideology.

To understand what’s happening in New York, you have to start with what almost everyone at least pretends to believe: Americans shouldn’t find it impossible to get health insurance because of pre-existing conditions that aren’t their fault. Two decades ago, New York tried to deal with this by imposing community rating: insurance is available to everyone, and the price doesn’t depend on your medical history.

The problem was that this created a death spiral: young, healthy people didn’t buy insurance, worsening the risk pool, driving up premiums, driving out more relatively healthy people, etc., until you were left with a rump of very ill people paying very high rates.

How do you deal with this? Well, ideally, Medicare for all. But since that wasn’t going to happen, you improve the risk pool by requiring everyone to buy insurance — the individual mandate. And since some people won’t be able to afford that, you also offer subsidies...Where does the money for the subsidies come from? Partly by reducing corporate welfare: reducing overpayments for Medicare Advantage, reducing tax breaks for very generous insurance plans; partly with new taxes on the wealthy.

- more -

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/17/obamacare-is-the-rights-worst-nightmare

He's right. Wait till those over 60 realize they can retire early Because they can join the exchanges for affordable health care until Medicare - which will open up tremendous job opportunities for Xers and Millenials, and nobody will want to turn back.

That's why the GOP is so desperate to kill it....

[Rogue]

Shit ain't only a nighmare to the Right but to everyone despite political stance or social class, a nightmare that I'd kill myself in order to wake up from.

[Nbadan]

Lower premiums are a nightmare to you?

[ChumpDumper]

It was the right's idea in the first place.

[Nbadan]

Health Care Costs Set to Fall 50%....NYT...



http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/17/health/health-plan-cost-for-new-yorkers-set-to-fall-50.html?_r=1&


Individuals buying health insurance on their own will see their premiums tumble next year in New York State as changes under the federal health care law take effect, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced on Wednesday.


State insurance regulators say they have approved rates for 2014 that are at least 50 percent lower on average than those currently available in New York. Beginning in October, individuals in New York City who now pay $1,000 a month or more for coverage will be able to shop for health insurance for as little as $308 monthly. With federal subsidies, the cost will be even lower.

Supporters of the new health care law, the Affordable Care Act, credited the drop in rates to the online purchasing exchanges the law created, which they say are spurring competition among insurers that are anticipating an influx of new customers. The law requires that an exchange be started in every state.

[johnsmith]

My premiums, as well as every one I know, have gone up i the past two years....dramatically.... I don't understand obamacare enough to say otherwise, but if they go down now, I will be grateful....an article that you're posting however, doesn't ring true.

[Capt Bringdown]

Obamacare = Romneycare

LOL, "it’s going to wreak havoc with conservative ideology."

Obamacare is conservative ideology. Republican opposition is just Kabuki theater, and good politics. The Democrats took ownership of a bad Republican idea (mandate), Republicans are smart to punish them for it.

No surprise that hard-core Obamabot Krugman is trying to shine Obama's turds.

Obamacare clusterfuck -- more -->> (http://www.correntewire.com/obamacare_clusterfuck)

[Rogue]

the so-called Obamacare is just a picture of bread that Obama drew with his left hand and uses to kill people's hunger, it makes you feel better at first sight but at the end of day you'll realize you still have an empty stomach. My point is that the medical resources are limited in our society and if you make it affordable to more people, the quality of it will be dragged down supposedly.

Furthermore, Obamacare will only agravate the waste of medical resources, as opposed to what he desired and promised. Stupid people will beat the door and cram every hospital only to enjoy the right Obama grants them, leaving those who're really sick and in urgent need of care dying in the crowd. Like you only have enough bread for 3 people but you break it up and spread it among 10, and all 10 people will starve to death.

[boutons_deux]

My premiums, as well as every one I know, have gone up i the past two years....dramatically....

health care (including insurance) cost history since 1960

http://image.slidesharecdn.com/health-spending-trends-and-impacts-health-costs-051012-130416162436-phpapp02/95/slide-1-1024.jpg?1367800520

http://kff.org/slideshow/health-spending-trends-and-impact/ (http://kff.org/slideshow/health-spending-trends-and-impact/)

the US health care industry is nothing but another wealth-extractive strategy by capitalists.

It's impossible to blame all recent rises in health care costs on Obamacare because without doubt the insurance companies are lying that they have to raise premiums because of Obamacare. They've been raising premiums extractively for 40 years.

[boutons_deux]

BigFood/BigAg: shittiest possible SHIT, really cheap (and taxpayer subsidized)

Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us on Deadly Junk

Food giants have used food science to train Americans for a lifetime of extra calories, pounds and health risks.

Salt Sugar Fat is as gripping as it is unappetizing, describing how the food industry has meticulously researched and orchestrated our cravings for food. In essence, the more sugar, salt, and fat you eat, the more the hedonist part of your brain insists you want. This cycle has contributed to our current, and concurrent, epidemics of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, yet there’s a potential health benefit to discovering these grisly truths about how our taste buds—and our brains’ reward centers—have been systematically studied and manipulated.

http://www.alternet.org/food/salt-sugar-fat-how-food-giants-hooked-us-deadly-junk

if man made it, don't put it you mouth

if it's in package, don't eat it.

If it doesn't rot, don't eat it.

if man didn't eat it 12K+ years ago, don't eat it now

[CosmicCowboy]

The WHOLE story on New York's "falling" rates....

http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2013/07/18/the-new-york-times-tries-and-fails-to-save-obamacare-from-health-insurance-rate-shock/

[Nbadan]

You can calculate how much money your family will save every year with the National Health Care calculator

http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/healthpolicy/calculator/

And, in most cases, it WILL be pretty damned affordable. In the case of the top 1% it won't be, and for people who were just not buying insurance before (shifting the burden to higher premiums for everybody else) it won't be, but for everybody else it will be a lot cheaper.


That's why the GOP is going to throw everything but the kitchen sink into an attempt to kill the ACA before the exchanges come online, and everybody will find this out.

[boutons_deux]

Republican Health Care Panic (iow, RomneyCare panic)

Leading Republicans appear to be nerving themselves up for another round of attempted fiscal blackmail.

With the end of the fiscal year looming, they aren’t offering the kinds of compromises that might produce a deal and avoid a government shutdown; instead, they’re drafting extremist legislation (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/24/us/politics/house-gop-sets-new-offensive-on-obama-goals.html) — bills that would, for example, cut clean-water grants by 83 percent — that has no chance of becoming law. Furthermore, they’re threatening, once again, to block any rise in the debt ceiling, a move that would damage the U.S. economy and possibly provoke a world financial crisis.

Yet even as Republican politicians seem ready to go on the offensive, there’s a palpable sense of anxiety, even despair, among conservative pundits and analysts. Better-informed people on the right seem, finally, to be facing up to a horrible truth: Health care reform, President Obama’s signature policy achievement, is probably going to work.

And the good news about Obamacare is, I’d argue, what’s driving the Republican Party’s intensified extremism.

Successful health reform wouldn’t just be a victory for a president conservatives loathe, it would be an object demonstration of the falseness of right-wing ideology. So Republicans are being driven into a last, desperate effort to head this thing off at the pass.

Some background: Although you’d never know it from all the fulminations, with prominent Republicans routinely (http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/03/naacp-cuccinelli-obamacare-slavery.php) comparing Obamacare to slavery (http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/07/05/511106/sen-rand-paul-compares-scotus-decision-upholding-obamacare-to-pro-slavery-dred-scott-decision/), the Affordable Care Act is based on three simple ideas.

( scroteface tells us black Americans are actually better off as slaves, so why is scroteface against obamacare slavery? :lol )

First, all Americans should have access to affordable insurance, even if they have pre-existing medical problems.

Second, people should be induced or required to buy insurance even if they’re currently healthy, so that the risk pool remains reasonably favorable.

Third, to prevent the insurance “mandate” from being too onerous, there should be subsidies to hold premiums down as a share of income.

(http://mobile.nytimes.com/images/100000000349849/2013/07/26/opinion/krugman-republican-health-care-panic.html?from=opinion)Is such a system workable? For a while, Republicans convinced themselves that it was doomed to failure, and that they could profit politically from the inevitable “train wreck.” But a system along exactly these lines has been operating in Massachusetts since 2006, where it was introduced by a Republican governor. What was his name? Mitt Somethingorother? And no trains have been wrecked so far.

The question is whether the Massachusetts success story can be replicated in other states, especially big states like California and New York with large numbers of uninsured residents. The answer to this question depends, in the first place, on whether insurance companies are willing to offer coverage at reasonable rates. And the answer, so far, is a clear “yes.” In California, insurers came in with bids running significantly below expectations (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/05/23/california-obamacare-premiums-no-rate-shock-here/); in New York, it appears that premiums will be cut roughly in half (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/17/health/health-plan-cost-for-new-yorkers-set-to-fall-50.html).

So is this a case of something for nothing, in which nobody loses? No. In states like California, which have allowed discrimination based on health status, a small number of young, healthy, affluent residents will see their premiums go up. In New York, people who don’t think they need insurance and are too rich to receive subsidies — probably an even smaller group — will feel put upon by being obliged to buy policies. Mainly, though, those insurance subsidies will cost money, and that money will, to an important extent, be raised through higher taxes on the 1 percent: tax increases that have, by the way, already taken effect (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/us/politics/new-taxes-to-take-effect-to-fund-health-care-law.html).

Over all, then, health reform will help millions of Americans who were previously either too sick or too poor to get the coverage they needed, and also offer a great deal of reassurance to millions more who currently have insurance but fear losing it; it will provide these benefits at the expense of a much smaller number of other Americans, mostly the very well off. It is, if you like, a plan to comfort the afflicted while (slightly) afflicting the comfortable.

And the prospect that such a plan might succeed is anathema to a party whose whole philosophy is built around doing just the opposite, of taking from the “takers” and giving to the “job creators,” known to the rest of us as the “rich.” Hence the brinkmanship.

So will Republicans actually take us to the brink? If they do, it will be crucial to understand why they would do such a thing, when their own leaders have admitted that confrontations over the budget inflict substantial harm on the economy. It won’t be because they fear the budget deficit, which is coming down fast (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/04/23/the-deficit-is-falling-fast-can-washington-accept-victory/). Nor will it be because they sincerely believe that spending cuts produce prosperity.

No, Republicans may be willing to risk economic and financial crisis solely in order to deny essential health care and financial security to millions of their fellow Americans. Let’s hear it for their noble cause!


http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/07/26/opinion/krugman-republican-health-care-panic.html

Fuck Repugs and fuck Repug voters.

[CosmicCowboy]

Fuck Boutons

[boutons_deux]

Fuck Boutons

ACA's gonna succeed, in spite of Repug/VRWC all-out efforts to sabotage it, and red state victims of Repug politics will start asking why blue state residents are benefitting while red state residents are getting Repug-fucked, in yet another way.

[SnakeBoy]

You can calculate how much money your family will save every year with the National Health Care calculator

http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/healthpolicy/calculator/



270% increase for me :(

[boutons_deux]

Is the Affordable Care Act a Hidden Jobs Killer?


http://www.cepr.net/images/stories/blogs/aca-jobs-killer-table1-2013-07.jpg

There are two points that are striking. First, a very small share of the workforce falls into this group.


Well under 1 million workers, roughly 0.6 percent of the labor force, typically work between 26-29 hours a week.
It is also important to remember that many of these workers choose to work less than a full-time job. More than two-thirds of the workers who report working less than full-time jobs say that they are doing so by choice.
If this ratio also applies to the workers who usually work between 26-29 hours it would mean that less than 300,000 workers, or roughly 0.2 percent of the workforce, are working this number of hours as a result of their employer’s decision.

The other striking aspect to the data in Table 1 is that the number and percentage of workers putting in between 26-29 hours per week was slightly lower in 2013 than in 2012.


The average percentage of workers in this category for 2013 was 0.597 percent.
That is down from 0.604 percent in 2012.
While this drop is not close to being statistically significant, the change is in the wrong direction for the ACA as job-killer story.

While there may certainly be instances of individual employers carrying through with threats to reduce their employees’ hours to below 30 to avoid the sanctions in the ACA, the numbers are too small to show up in the data.


It appears that in setting worker hours employers are responding to business considerations in much the same way as they did before the ACA took effect.
While the sanctions in the ACA may provide some marginal incentive to reduce worker hours below the 30-hour cutoff, other considerations in setting worker hours appear to be far more important.\


http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/cepr-blog/is-the-affordable-care-act-a-hidden-jobs-killer

iow, another REPUG BIG FUCKING LIE is destroyed

[TeyshaBlue]

16,500 say YOU LIE.
http://news.investors.com/070313-662427-16500-work-fewer-hours-from-obamacare-employer-mandate.htm?p=full

This is in it's infancy. A little early to be doing your touchdown dance.

[boutons_deux]

16,500 workers, if true, is what %age of total workforce?

and of course, IBD :lol Extreme right wing propaganda

Editorials[edit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investor%27s_Business_Daily?veaction=edit&vesection=2)]Investors Business Daily also carries editorials and columns on topics from "economics and government to politics and culture".[5] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investor's_Business_Daily#cite_note-5) It carries columns from writers it describes as "On The Left and On The Right",[6] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investor's_Business_Daily#cite_note-6) including L. Brent Bozell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Brent_Bozell_III), Richard Cohen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Cohen), E. J. Dionne (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._J._Dionne), Victor Davis Hanson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Davis_Hanson),Charles Krauthammer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Krauthammer), and Thomas Sowell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sowell). Pulitzer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulitzer_prize)-winning cartoonist Michael Ramirez (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Ramirez) has worked for IBD since late 2005. Investors Business Daily also publishes editorials skeptical of peak oil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil) and global warming (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming), often proposing alternate solutions. The Times (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Times) has characterized IBD as a "right-wing newspaper".[7] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investor's_Business_Daily#cite_note-times-7)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investor's_Business_Daily

TB :lol extremist right-wing propaganda shill

[TeyshaBlue]

Dumbass. You cite thinkprogress and have the stupidity to ridicule another source? gfy moonbat.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/07/part-time-workers-obamacare_n_3210321.html

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-half-of-small-biz-to-cut-hours-and-workers-20130719,0,2333566.story

[TeyshaBlue]

16,500 people don't give a fuck what percentage of the workforce they are, shill.

[TeyshaBlue]

Because this doesn't fit your demented binary solution set, I'll repeat:

This is in it's infancy. A little early to be doing your touchdown dance.

[TeyshaBlue]

Which is precisely why I haven't started a thread one way of the other on this. It's not conclusive yet.

lol simpleton.

[TeyshaBlue]

And just to demonstrate what intellectual honesty looks like, since you have no conception of it whatsoever, I'll repeat again.

It's not conclusive one way or the other, yet.

http://www.alternet.org/labor/companies-threaten-cut-hours

[TeyshaBlue]

http://wyx9dztd8qaoymtw.zippykid.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/HowtoBitchslapYourWineMonopolizingLegisl_116D2/633695463449611430bitchslap8x6.jpg

[boutons_deux]

http://wyx9dztd8qaoymtw.zippykid.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/HowtoBitchslapYourWineMonopolizingLegisl_116D2/633695463449611430bitchslap8x6.jpg

nope, you right-wingers are getting bitch slapped by Obamacare that will expose all your lies and propaganda, and put a Dem in the WH 2016, maintain control of Senate, and make inroads to the fucked up Repug House.

[SnakeBoy]

nope, you right-wingers are getting bitch slapped by Obamacare that will expose all your lies and propaganda, and put a Dem in the WH 2016, maintain control of Senate, and make inroads to the fucked up Repug House.

Is that why dems keep pushing back full implemention of obamacare until after the next election?

[boutons_deux]

Is that why dems keep pushing back full implemention of obamacare until after the next election?

You Lie

[TeyshaBlue]

lol simpleton

[boutons_deux]

16,500 people don't give a fuck what percentage of the workforce they are, shill.

since when do you extreme conservative/Repug voters GAF about ANY moochers/takers/47%ers? :lol

TB :lol sheds a tear for 16,500 losers? :lol

[TeyshaBlue]

Since when does the enlightened (:lol) progressive moonbat ignore 16,500 workers?:lol

[CosmicCowboy]

Even idiots like Boutox and Dan should be able to understand that if you add 30 million new insureds "for free" the cost to everyone else is gonna go up one way or another.

[CosmicCowboy]

http://www.californiahealthline.org/articles/2013/7/24/poll-moderate-conservative-democrats-support-of-aca-slipping

Support for the Affordable Care Act among ideologically moderate and conservative Democrats has declined from 74% in 2010 -- when the law was enacted -- to 46%, according to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll, the Post's "The Fix" reports. Last year, a similar poll found that support for the ACA among the two factions of Democratic voters stood at 57%.
Meanwhile, 78% of self-identified liberal Democrats said they support the health reform law, the latest survey found. Because 57% of Democratic voters in this year's poll identified either as conservative or moderate, overall support for the ACA in the party has declined from 68% in last year's poll to 58% in this year's poll, the lowest it has been since the law's enactment, according to "The Fix."
The drop in support among the broader group of Democratic voters mirrors the results of similar tracking polls by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Fox News (Clement, "The Fix," Washington Post, 7/23).
For the poll, Langer Research Associates surveyed a random national sample of 1,002 adults by telephone between July 18 and July 21. The poll has a margin of sampling error of 3.5 percentage points (Langer, "Politics," ABC News, 7/23).
More Details of Poll
Overall, 42% of respondents said they continue to favor the ACA, while 49% said they oppose to the law (Sherfinski, "Inside Politics," Washington Times, 7/23). The poll also surveyed respondents on the Obama administration's recent decision to delay by one year the ACA's employer coverage mandate.
The poll found that overall, 51% of respondents said they support the administration's decision, while 45% said they opposed the decision. Of the latter group, 48% of respondents said the delay indicates that the law is so flawed that it should be repealed, while 46% said the delay "is just something that happens when changes are made to a complex system."
Effect on Midterm Election
According to The Hill's "Healthwatch," some observers suggest the decline in overall support among Democratic voters could be detrimental to congressional Democrats' efforts to retain key Senate seats in certain conservative states in next year's midterm election. However, some Democrats say they remain hopeful that public opinion will improve as the law's major provisions take effect in January 2014 (Baker, "Healthwatch," The Hill, 7/23).

[boutons_deux]

GOP To Conservatives: Stop Acting Crazy Over Obamacare

The GOP push to hold government funding hostage to gutting Obamacare appears to be losing steam in Congress as a growing chorus of Republicans and conservative writers are coming out of the woodwork to urge hardliners within their party to be realistic.

“I think it’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard of,” Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) told (http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/gop-senator-govt-shutdown-threats-over-obamacare-dumbest) reporters in the Capitol on Thursday. “Listen, as long as Barack Obama is president, the Affordable Care Act is going to be law.”

Republicans in the House and Senate are working to corner colleagues (http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/07/conservatives-desperately-move-to-shut-down-government-over-obamacare.php) into withholding support for keeping government open after the lights go out on Sept. 30 unless Obamacare is defunded. And a growing number of pragmatic conservatives — in and out of Congress — recognize that’s a suicide mission that threatens the GOP’s credibility as well as its electoral prospects ahead of a promising midterm election.

In recent days, Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), a deputy majority whip, has derided (http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/07/tom-cole-obamacare-government-shutdown.php) the conservative effort as a “temper tantrum” and compared it to “blackmail.” Appearing Wednesday evening on Fox News, he warned that “it is the sort of thing that creates a backlash and could cost the Republicans the majority in the House.”

Meanwhile, two well-read conservative writers — Byron York of the Washington Examiner and Ramesh Ponnuru, a columnist for Bloomberg View — put the kibosh on this plan Friday.

In an article (http://washingtonexaminer.com/no-the-gop-is-not-going-to-defund-obamacare/article/2533518) titled “No, the GOP is not going to defund Obamacare,” York reports that Republicans privately admit they’re embarking on a fool’s errand but have to show conservatives they’re sparing no effort to fight Obamacare.

Ponnuru calls (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-26/drop-the-disastrous-plan-to-defund-obamacare.html) the plan “disastrous” and warns that “it will backfire.” He lists several reasons why the public “would almost certainly blame Republicans” if the government shuts down — all of which are well understood by pragmatic Republicans who witnessed the Newt Gingrich-led shutdowns of the 1990s.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/07/gop-to-conservatives-stop-acting-crazy-over-obamacare.php

:lol

[Nbadan]

All the wingnuts have on this issue is their polls...what a joke...What is evident is that in states where politicians drop ideological obstructions and work in concert with the law to help their citizens, the moral thing to do, progress is made. For those in states where politicians’ ideological blinders are worn, their citizens suffer. Texas is a state where over 25% of its population is uninsured and many more are underinsured, yet Governor Rick Perry refuses to accept Obamacare dollars to expand Medicaid that would help millions of Texans under false ideological pretenses.

http://egbertowillies.com/2013/07/19/good-news-on-obamacare-yet-media-concentrate-on-gop-sabotage/



Before the House vote, officials in New York State said they had approved premium rates for 2014 that are at least 50 percent lower on average than those currently available. In New York City, individuals who now pay $1,000 a month or more will be able to find policies on the health exchanges — online marketplaces where they can comparison shop for plans — for as little as $308 a month.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/19/opinion/the-good-news-on-insurance-premiums.html?hp&_r=0

[spursncowboys]

Obamacare Call Center Will Not Offer Health-Care Benefits to Employees (http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/354556/obamacare-call-center-will-not-offer-health-care-benefits-employees-eliana-johnson)

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/354556/obamacare-call-center-will-not-offer-health-care-benefits-employees-eliana-johnson


:lol
ironic

[Clipper Nation]

Obamacare = Romneycare

LOL, "it’s going to wreak havoc with conservative ideology."

Obamacare is conservative ideology. Republican opposition is just Kabuki theater, and good politics. The Democrats took ownership of a bad Republican idea (mandate), Republicans are smart to punish them for it.

No surprise that hard-core Obamabot Krugman is trying to shine Obama's turds.

Obamacare clusterfuck -- more -->> (http://www.correntewire.com/obamacare_clusterfuck)
This, but I'm sure Boutons will now scream "false equivalence" since he wants to believe in the myth of the two-party system....

[boutons_deux]

Again, as in Bishop Gecko's MA, those states that work to implement ACA will mostly succeed, while those fucking Repug red states will fuck themselves and their 47%.

That's why the Repugs are so scared shitless to try to kill immigration reform and ACA.

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

Obamacare = Romneycare

LOL, "it’s going to wreak havoc with conservative ideology."

Obamacare is conservative ideology. Republican opposition is just Kabuki theater, and good politics. The Democrats took ownership of a bad Republican idea (mandate), Republicans are smart to punish them for it.

No surprise that hard-core Obamabot Krugman is trying to shine Obama's turds.

Obamacare clusterfuck -- more -->> (http://www.correntewire.com/obamacare_clusterfuck)

Truthbombs, tbh. Obamacare is corporate welfare Republicans are typically known for, and the Republicans tricked Obama into it. Now any effort to introduce a true single payer policy in the future can be countered with, "Remember Obamacare!"

[boutons_deux]

Calling ACA corporate welfare confirms the status quo, even for you assholes who deny it, of the USA being run for and by Corporate-Americans to 100% detriment of Human-Americans.

If BigPharma, health insurance companies, etc didn't benefit from ACA, they would have KILLED ACA with lies and propaganda like they Harry-and-Louise'd Hillary's plan 20 years ago.

The same corporations forced Dems to drop a hard core public option that Barry ran on.

The govt can't do anything without the real rulers of America extracting their (billions of ) "pound of flesh".

And not one of you have any fucking idea, right wingers and libertarans have no desire, to get corporations and 1% and the financial sector from standing between the govt and its citizens.

[KingsFanWithoutName]

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."
-- Joseph Goebbels, German Minister of Propaganda, 1933-1945

[Clipper Nation]

Truthbombs, tbh. Obamacare is corporate welfare Republicans are typically known for
Let's be real, both parties kiss equal amounts of corporate ass and have done so for a very long time....

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

Let's be real, both parties kiss equal amounts of corporate ass and have done so for a very long time....

Well in this case it was Obama using Bob Dole's healthcare plan :lol

I also think that Clinton era Democrats are giant corporate whores, but not on the ridiculous, out of control Republican level. For example, Obama has given the military industrial complex tons, but nothing on the level of the war in Iraq, tbh.

[Clipper Nation]

True, but the Clinton Democrats had been pushing for a war in Iraq throughout the '90s, tbh...

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

True, but the Clinton Democrats had been pushing for a war in Iraq throughout the '90s, tbh...

Yup, they also bombed Iraq a few times iirc, but that's the Clinton Democrat MO. Position yourself barely to the left of the Republicans so you're far enough to the right where they can't criticize you for anything while you're far enough to the left where you can say to your base, "Hey I might suck, but at least I'm not Mitt Romney!" The Clinton era Dems don't firmly stand for anything other than winning elections.

[Nbadan]

The 'Clinton Democrats' never favored an invasion and occupation of Iraq.. they were very content lobbying missiles at Hussein

[boutons_deux]

True, but the Clinton Democrats had been pushing for a war in Iraq throughout the '90s, tbh...

link? It was PNAC (Repug/Jewish neocons) writing letters in late 90s to Clinton to invade Iraq for oil.

Clinton shot a missile at OBL, whom Repugs ignored until 9/11, because they "knew" terrorism was not a threat (and if Clinton viewed terrorism as important, Repugs would know the opposite, since Dems can't be right about anythying), and much less important than Iraqi oil.

[boutons_deux]

red-state Montana's FREE health care: $1M+ in state savings :lol

Montana's State-Run Free Clinic Sees Early Success


The state contracts with a private company to run the facility and pays for everything — wages of the staff, total costs of all the visits. Those are all new expenses, and they all come from the budget for state employee healthcare.

Even so, division manager Russ Hill says it's actually costing the state $1,500,000 less for healthcare than before the clinic opened.

"Because there's no markup, our cost per visit is lower than in a private fee-for-service environment," Hill says.

Physicians are paid by the hour, not by the number of procedures they prescribe like many in the private sector. The state is able to buy supplies at lower prices.

“ Because there's no markup, our cost per visit is lower than in a private fee-for-service environment. - Russ Hill of the Montana Health Center

Bottom line: a patient's visit to the employee health clinic costs the state about half what it would cost if that patient went to a private doctor. And because it's free to patients, hundreds of people have come in who had not seen a doctor for at least two years

Hill says the facility is catching a lot, including

600 people who have diabetes,

1,300 people with high cholesterol,

1,600 people with high blood pressure and

2,600 patients diagnosed as obese.

Treating these conditions early could avoid heart attacks, amputations, or other expensive hospital visits down the line, saving the state more money.

Clinic operations director and physician's assistant Jimmie Barnwell says this model feels more rewarding to him.

"Having those barriers of time and money taken out of the way are a big part [of what gets] people to come into the clinic. But then, when they come into the clinic, they get a lot of face time with the nurses and the doctors," Barnwell says.

http://www.npr.org/2013/07/30/206654000/montanas-state-run-free-clinic-sees-early-success

a really bad omen for Obamacare lowering the barriers for poor people to get medical care :lol

[boutons_deux]

Conservatives Concede Defeat In Obamacare Shutdown Fight

Multiple conservatives leading the charge to shut down the government if Obamacare isn’t defunded have begun to admit it’s a lost cause as senior Republicans put the kibosh (http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/07/gop-to-conservatives-stop-acting-crazy-over-obamacare.php) on the plan.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) lamented (http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/cruz-republicans-are-too-scared-to-defund-obamacare) Monday afternoon that Republicans are too “scared” to follow through with the plan to withhold support for funding the government after the Sept. 30 deadline unless Obamacare is defunded.

“The problem right now is we don’t have Republicans willing to stand up and do this,” he said on The Andrea Tantaros Show, a conservative talk radio program. “We need 41 Republicans in the Senate or 218 Republicans in the House, to stand together, to join me, to join Mike Lee, to join Marco Rubio, all of whom have said, we will not vote for a single continuing resolution that funds even a penny of Obamacare.”

Late last week, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) laughed out loud (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLV4gKQgZE8) when Sean Hannity of Fox News asked if Republicans have the “courage” to stand tough against legislation that funds Obamacare.

“Frankly, probably not,” the senator said.

As far as they’re concerned, these two lawmakers are pressing on with their demands, along with 10 other senators who signed a letter by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) pledging not to fund the government unless it excludes appropriations to implement the Affordable Care Act. But they’re far short of a critical mass and facing headwinds not just from Democrats but from GOP leaders who recognize the perils of shutting down the government over Obamacare.

Senior Republicans are deriding the plan as “dumb (http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/gop-senator-govt-shutdown-threats-over-obamacare-dumbest),” “silly (http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/gop-sen-corker-slams-silly-effort-to-defund)” and a “temper tantrum (http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/07/tom-cole-obamacare-government-shutdown.php),” warning that it will fail and damage the party’s prospects in the upcoming 2014 elections.

“[I]t’s dishonest,” conservative Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) told the Washington Examiner (http://washingtonexaminer.com/coburn-defund-obamacare-campaign-dishonest-hype/article/2533554), dismissing the plan as “a denial of reality mixed with a whole bunch of hype.”


http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/07/conservatives-admit-defeat-in-obamacare-shutdown-battle.php

When you can't get an extremist, corrupt, hate-govt asshole like Coburn on your extortionist team, you should know you're finished. :lol

[CosmicCowboy]

Boutons you are out of your mind if you think that hundreds of thousands of part timers now getting 36 hours a week won't get cut to 29 hours a week to dodge the ACA mandates.

[CosmicCowboy]

LOL at being diagnosed as obese.

seems to be a pretty self evident condition.

I can see it now..."What the fuck, Doc! You mean I'm fat? I didn't know that!"

[boutons_deux]

Boutons you are out of your mind if you think that hundreds of thousands of part timers now getting 36 hours a week won't get cut to 29 hours a week to dodge the ACA mandates.

everything I've seen is that it's not at all clear how the 50 employee or 30 hour/week thresholds will play out, except to the right-winger, Repugs who LIE non-stop to sabotage ACA.

I'm extremely gratified that CC is so deeply, sincerely concerned that low-wage part timers, aka moochers/takers/47%ers/public assistance cheaters might get hurt.

He thinks Obamacare must be destroyed to protect these poor souls.

[CosmicCowboy]

I'm a realist.

Obamacare is here to stay. It's bad policy and bad law but we are gonna have to learn to live with it.

I'm just telling you that there are going to be a lot of unintended negative consequences and part timers getting their hours cut to under 30 is just one of them. The new norm will be people holding 2 long term part time jobs to make ends meet.

[CosmicCowboy]

Damn. Check out these numbers. More than three out of four jobs created this year so far are part time jobs.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-02/obamacare-full-frontal-953000-jobs-created-2013-77-or-731000-are-part-time

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2013/08/2103%20Full%20Part%20time_0.jpg

[TeyshaBlue]

In b4 :lol zero hedge

[boutons_deux]

4 Reasons Why Millions Of Americans Are Leaving The Workforce


http://www.npr.org/news/graphics/2013/04/pm-gr-participation-rate-624.gif

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/08/02/208078183/four-reasons-why-millions-of-americans-are-leaving-the-workforce

[boutons_deux]

Part-Time Workers Say Schedules Are Getting More Erratic

For many workers, hours are not only short, but increasingly erratic as managers scramble to cover shifts without the steadying influence of experienced full-time employees.

"It's ridiculous," says Amere Graham, an 18-year-old high school graduate who works at a McDonald's in Milwaukee. "My schedule is all over the place. It's completely unpredictable."

Government data (http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf) support Graham's impressions of workplace conditions. The ranks of people working part time because they can't find full-time jobs have roughly doubled since the summer of 2007, from about 4.3 million to 8.2 million.
"There has been a surge in part-time work," says Aparna Mathur (http://www.aei.org/scholar/aparna-mathur/), an economist at the American Enterprise Institute.

The change reflects business owners' reluctance to hire full-time workers while they still have so many worries about the strength of the recovery and the cost of the Affordable Care Act (http://www.hhs.gov/opa/affordable-care-act/index.html), Mathur says. "You want to maintain flexibility so you can respond to the economy" without having to carry the costs of hiring and firing full-time employees, she says.

In a study of retail working conditions (http://retailactionproject.org/2012/01/discounted-jobs-how-retailers-sell-workers-short-executive-summary/), conducted in the fall of 2011 in New York, only 17 percent of retail workers said they have a set schedule.

http://www.npr.org/2013/07/18/202744981/part-time-workers-say-schedules-are-getting-more-erratic

[CosmicCowboy]

In b4 :lol zero hedge

OK, I'm confused. Zero hedge seems pretty straight up to me. am I missing something?

[TeyshaBlue]

OK, I'm confused. Zero hedge seems pretty straight up to me. am I missing something?

unless they are on the moonbat rss feed, they can't be straight up.

[boutons_deux]

For millennials, leaving the nest is hard to do


http://www.trbimg.com/img-51faf24e/turbine/la-fi-0802-living-with-parents-g/620


Despite an improving economy, it's getting tougher than ever for young adults to get a decent-paying job, move out and start supporting a family.

Employment hasn't rebounded among Americans ages 18 to 31, the generation generally known as millennials. Marriage also has been pushed off. And what jobs are available often are lower-paying retail, fast-food and other service jobs.

"When my parents were my age, they had their own place already, and they came from Mexico," said Patricia Guerra, 24, who lives with her parents in Ontario.

"I'm a U.S. citizen with a college degree — and it's really hard for me to achieve that for myself at this point," she said.

As the Federal Reserve (http://www.latimes.com/topic/economy-business-finance/economy/economic-policy/federal-reserve-ORGOV000035.topic) considers weaning the nation from financial life support, a new study released Thursday by Pew Research Center shows that the number of young adults living with their parents in 2012 rose to a record 36%.
Last year, 21.6 million millennials lived in their parents' homes, Pew found, up from 18.5 million in 2007, the start of the Great Recession.

The numbers reflect the unsteady reality of millennials today.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-living-with-parents-20130802,0,6203049.story