Saturday, January 07, 2017

Repeal and Replace? WITH WHAT?



Your tax dollars at work
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Here's the bad news: In the next four years, a lot of innocent people are going to die needlessly.
 
Now for the good news: This time around, the dead will not be only foreigners with brown skin and Arabic names. I just wanted to give you a little something to look forward to.
 
Onward, Idiot Nation.
 
Affordable Care - "Obamacare" as they always sneeringly referred to it - will soon be going the way of the 8-Track tape cartridge. The Republicans are attempting to pull the wool over the eyes of their idiotic constituency by saying that they're going to replace it with something even better. Of course, they have no plan to replace it with anything. My guess is the right wing is hoping that, by this time next year, the completely dumbed-down American people will have forgotten all about the fact that, for one brief shining moment in the history of this doomed republic, health insurance was affordable for the masses.
 
"This great nation will endure as it has endured. It will revive and will prosper. So first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is - fear itself"
 
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
4 March 1933
 
All bets are off. This once-great nation is toast. "Make America great again"? These psychotic imbeciles cannot be serious.

It's no longer a debatable point: Yesterday, Donald Trump was given an Intel briefing at his throne inside Trump Tower in New York City. The heads of every major intelligence agency in America confronted him with the incontrovertible evidence that he is only headed for the White House on January 20 because he was installed (via the hacking of the DNC computers) by the ruler of the former Soviet Union. Can you even imagine the mass freak out that would have ensued had Barak Obama entered into the presidency under similar circumstances? They would have lynched him on the spot.

I spoke to my cousin last night, who informed me that more-than-a-few of the locals are in a blind rage at me for the brutality and profanity of my language in the wake of this latest example of mass, electoral insanity (Goshen, New York is still an exceedingly conservative little town). I can only paraphrase the great, abolitionist writer and editor, William Lloyd Garrison, who, on the eve of the American civil war wrote, in effect, Do not expect my language to remain moderate in the wake of this oncoming cataclysm. 

You won't recognize this place in four years. Good going, America. I'm going back to bed.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY



19 Comments:

At 5:48 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

Tom,

There are couple of points on Obamacare, I'd like to remind folks of:

(1) Before Obamacare even took shape, BOTH parties were in agreement that the state of healthcare, its costs, and those falling through the cracks were unacceptable.

(2) Although there has been much to do about Obamacare "strangling business," small businesses did just fine. I noticed a trend of positions being posted at 30, 35, 37.5 hours a week, versus a 40 week, exempting those positions from being covered by a company's medical plan. Many of these small businesses did away with their plans entirely, because there was now Obamacare.

Once again it was normal Americans slitting each other's throats in the name of greed. It wasn't "socialism" or "evil republicans," it was just plain ol' fashion GREED.

(3) One thing that hasn't been scrutinized overly much, is the cost of services and medicine. During the election, it was announced premiums (in some places) would increase by at least 25%. WHY?

Did costs for insurance companies increase? How? I've looked at Obamacare plans and they aren't generous. Premiums and co-pays are high, with out of pocket minimums before the insurance even kicks in, so what exactly is everyone going to pay for? Did everyone suddenly get their appendix removed?

Again, I see nothing but greed.

One thing the GOP pushed for and we never explored was tort reform. That was key issue.

I'm not a fan of the GOP, but I can't say I'm a fan of Obamacare and the inherent greed of the medical industry. Making a profit--covering expenses, investing in research, growing a business IS important, but it's called the "Hippocratic Oath," not the "Hypocrit Oath."

 
At 7:40 PM, Blogger Majormajor said...

Tom,

Not to depress you even more but here are a few of the Republicans ideas/plans to replace Obamacare.. You see the GOP HAS several ideas.

Look at the history of OBAMAcare, remember Botox Nancy's statement, go to pass it before we know what's in it, and the unilateral change to the bill Obama had to make afterit was passed to keep it from crumbling, and the websites that caused to much pain.

Keep that in mind and be as tolerant for the GOP's plans you were for OBAMAcare.

http://thefederalist.com/2017/01/06/gop-does-have-a-plan-to-replace-obamacare-thats-what-scares-democrats/

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/06/house-gop-obamacare/488168/

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/rand-paul-says-trump-supports-simultaneous-repeal-replace-obamacare

N

 
At 10:12 AM, Blogger Jefferson's Guardian said...

Chuck "majormajor" Morre: "You see the GOP HAS several ideas."

Tom, I read all the articles that Chuck provided as links. Apparently your resident troll, Chuck, didn't.

(1) David Harsanyi article: "In the end, though, Republicans will have to sell the American people on market-based solutions."

(2) Russell Berman article: "The House GOP's health-care proposal would expand saving accounts, provide tax credits for buying insurance, and allow people to purchase coverage across state lines. Just don't ask how much it costs."

(3) Allegra Kirkland article: "Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said Friday that President-elect Donald Trump 'fully supports' his plan to delay the repeal of Obamacare until a replacement plan is prepared.", and "Republican have yet to put forward any type of proposal for replacement, citing a lack of consensus on what it would look like."

It would seem, once again, there are no plans. As far as Chuck's claim that there are "several ideas", my idea is that Chuck possibly read the articles he cites, first, before making his preposterous claims.

But, as Dave Dubya has many times said, it's Chuck's irrational "con-sense".

 
At 10:59 AM, Blogger Tom Degan said...

I've noticed that about Chuck myself, JG.

 
At 11:07 AM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

Chuck,
Thanks for the links you didn’t read.

There is no Republican replacement plan for Obamacare. Well, besides, “let ‘em die”.

All we have are vague proposals for “health savings accounts”, tax credits to subsidize the purchase of private health insurance, Privatize Medicare, etc.”

Your links:

From: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/06/house-gop-obamacare/488168/

Republicans Offer a Plan to Replace Obamacare

The House GOP’s health-care proposal would expand savings accounts, provide tax credits for buying insurance, and allow people to purchase coverage across state lines. Just don’t ask how much it costs.

There’s no estimate for how much it would cost, how generous the tax credits would be, how many people it would cover, or how many people would be forced off of Medicaid or their Obamacare exchange policies.

Yeah, they put a lot of thought into this, amirite?

I guess we’ll have to pass the bill to see the cost and what’s in it, amirite?

From:
http://thefederalist.com/2017/01/06/gop-does-have-a-plan-to-replace-obamacare-thats-what-scares-democrats/

In the end, though, Republicans will have to sell the American people on market-based solutions... Whatever the resulting plan looks like, though, from here on in Republicans own health care.

“Market based solutions” AKA “Let ‘em die”.

From:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/rand-paul-says-trump-supports-simultaneous-repeal-replace-obamacare

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said Friday that President-elect Donald Trump “fully supports” his plan to delay the repeal of Obamacare until a replacement plan is prepared... Republicans have yet to put forward any type of proposal for replacement, citing a lack of consensus on what it would look like.

Well there we have it. No plan, or empty, vague, and costly to patients plan.

 
At 4:26 PM, Blogger Majormajor said...

Have you forgotten how vague Obamacare was at it's begin?

Sorry you are so depressed.



 
At 11:38 PM, Blogger woodenman said...

Tom, you have been blaming the public for putting Trump into office but that is not even close to the truth. The Republicans committed three types of massive election fraud that invalidated millions of Liberal votes throughout the country. Hillary would of won in a landslide but she might have been worse than Trump with her war mongering ways. It is all downhill from here and the Fat lady is getting ready to sing.

 
At 9:11 AM, Blogger Majormajor said...

Woodsman 1954.

Is your source Buzzfeed?

;)

 
At 6:58 PM, Blogger Mozart1220 said...

Cluckie, it wasn't Vague, it was complicated, as it should be. It needed to be implemented and THEN we find the bugs so they can be fixed. You know, like every computer program you've ever heard of.

But instead of tweeking it to fix any issues, the GOP will KILL it, with no replacement, leaving tens of millions without healthcare, other than to go to ERs, costing the taxpayers MUCH more than any "fees".


Keep defending your Russian POTUS and his KKK buddies. I'm going to assume you are NOT a multimillionaire so you will suffer with the rest of us, and you won't be able to blame Liberals, though it will be entertaining to watch you try.

Meanwhile, the west is drowning in unprecedented rain and snow...but climate change is a HOAX right?

 
At 10:44 PM, Blogger woodenman said...

Hey Chuck, I get most of my information from a site called Stormfront, did you ever hear of it?

 
At 11:03 AM, Blogger Clueless It Seems said...

wonderful! the amerikan "electorate" is indeed stupid. i live north of boston and just returned from the right-wing babershop (yes, i get what few hairs i have left cut every once in awhile 'cuz i like the barber-woman) and when i said that trump was actually a communist plant she balked a little and said "give him a chance...." we shall see. i'm not holding my breath....

 
At 12:29 PM, Blogger Majormajor said...

Mozart,

Great, then you'll be ok with Obamacare replacement being ":complicated, as it should be. It needed to be implemented and THEN we find the bugs so they can be fixed."

Woodsman a.k.a. James,

Either Stormfront or Buzz Feed is fake news. Why am I not surprised you would be reading Stormfront?

 
At 1:28 PM, Blogger Majormajor said...

WSJ
Billionaire George Soros Lost Nearly $1 Billion in Weeks After Trump Election.


Now that's bad!

 
At 2:43 AM, Blogger Mozart1220 said...

"Fake news" is the new GOP catchphrase for "Places reporting things we don't want people to know".

You DO realize that when Facebook coined that phrase they were talking about Fox, Breitbart and "The Blaze" right?

Trump is NOW just ignoring any press that doesn't kiss his ass. Soon he'll find ways to either put them out of business or make it illegal to criticize him, you know, like his hero Hitler.

 
At 11:58 AM, Blogger Darrell Michaels said...

Good Lord! Mozart, do you mean "fake news" like:

Hand ups! Don't shoot!

Or perhaps you mean the myriads of news stories from Ferguson about the "gentle giant".

It's possible you are talking about all of those "peaceful" protests after Trump won, particularly in Portland, OR.

Maybe you mean, "a video was behind the attack on Ben Ghazi".

Yeah... fake news has been around for decades, and most all of it has come from the drive-by leftist media, sir.

 
At 2:40 AM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

TP,

You want to compare fake news? The beam in your eye is glaringly protruding.

I remember fake news about Saddam being in cahoots with al-Qaeda. I remember fake news about Saddam having "nukular" aluminum tubes and fake news about "biological labs".

Then there was the fake news from Cheney about a meeting in Prague that never happened.

Do you remember?

No problem, just thousands of dead, ISIS formed, and trillions of dollars wasted.

But what difference does it make now, amirite? A small price to pay for fake news in service to the far Right.

Some "fake news" was corrected. Yes even "hands up". Corrections indicate some integrity, even in corporate media.

But it is practically NEVER from the propaganda machine of the far Right.

We see you never heard of FOX fake news. We hear they are NEVER wrong. Never need correction. They say so. This would require a book to document.

Since you're the expert, how about educating us how many more vandals there were than peaceful protesters? No idea, right? Better just demonize them all, it's the con thing to do. Sounds like "hate fake news" to me.

How about that hate fake news about blacks voting for democrats is the same as blacks voting for plantation slavery. Still a favorite item with Klan-servatives. Just like "liberals and blacks are the real racists".

And "Nazis were liberals", cuz someone put the words "National socialism" together before Hitler even joined the party.

The fake news of the Great Global Conspiracy of Evil Climate Scientists is as popular as ever among Trumpists and anti-science gullible believers of corporate PR.

Dear Leader also says Russian hacking, at his invitation, is also fake news. Is that true?

And how many YEARS was Trump's racist hate fake news running about Obama the "foreign Muslim"?

And my favorite fake news of all, the Limbaugh-labeled "drive by leftist media". Now there's an honest journalist for you. It is Cheney-parroting corporate media, but "fake thinkers", aka cons, will never know that.

IOKIYAR after all. True believers to the end.

All that hate and fake and not a glimpse of most all of it.

Oh, and lest we forget, "Millions of illegal voters voted for Hillary and Trump won in a landslide".

Now "The people have spoken", amirite?









 
At 7:24 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

One of the neat things about being OLD (like, nearly 70) is that one gets to look back over a lifetime. I personally see all the LIES and GREED that make up the amerikan myth and I get to shake my head in disbelief.

For Tday this year, instead of stuffing myself with turkey and having family fights I went down to Plymouth, where the rock is (way underwater). The "natives" consider it a day of mourning, not a feast day. The greedy whiteman came over from Europe where he was kicked out. It still says "In God We Trust" on our money.

This country has 2 things it has to resolve and perhaps get over: slavery and genocide. Manifest Destiny? What's that? And who told us? Some guy who heard that coming in on molar #3? Sounds to me like it's another land grab. Here: have another casino and shut up and please go away. I have a football game to watch...

 
At 7:26 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

I alway hated how Bush II mispronounced "nuclear" (New Clear, it's easy if you just look at the word). Carter, shame on him, did too.

 
At 8:25 AM, Blogger Clueless It Seems said...

true believers! I have learned that one can't change what anybody thinks, judgmental or not. And watch out in Goshen. You could be shot! By a repukelican crazy. After all, guns for civilians are ok, right? The constitution says so. And the founding fathers were wise men, right? And look at how messed up the whole rest of the world is because not anyone can have a gun! Look out! The military and the police are gonna take us over and be a tool of the right wing, I mean repukelicans!

Marshall McLuhan was correct: in the future everyone will get their 15 minutes of fame. It's called Twitter. And it only takes 140 characters! Why I can remember (when I'm able to remember) that viral used to be something to be afraid of. Now it's something to crow about...

And as a former programmer? Yes, it's true that one gets the code out and works through the bugs later. That's why there are "releases".

 

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