Plunging Towards Gomorrah
Posts tagged Health Care
“Where Do We Get the Free ObamaCare?”
Apr 7th
What happens when you combine a new entitlement with an ignorant population desperate for handouts? Well, I think I have a pretty good idea after reading Margaret Talev’s article about the confusion surrounding ObamaCare. Hold onto your gag reflex it’s not pretty.
Questions reflecting confusion have flooded insurance companies, doctors’ offices, human resources departments and business groups.
“They’re saying, ‘Where do we get the free Obama care, and how do I sign up for that?’ ” said Carrie McLean, a licensed agent for eHealthInsurance.com. The California-based company sells coverage from 185 health insurance carriers in 50 states.
Just wait until some of these people realize they’ll face fines if they don’t get insurance. I guess I shouldn’t be that surprised when nearly half of U.S. households don’t even pay Federal income tax. It seems that no one realizes that life saving medical breakthroughs come at a cost. When the financial incentive is removed there will be less research and less breakthroughs. Unfortunately John Smith wants his unicorn and he wants it now. Progress be damned, the idea of “fair share” is much more important than saving lives.
Nanny State: Save Us from Evil Calories!
Apr 1st
Going forward, the list of unintended consequences of ObamaCare will be endless. One part of the bill includes a federal requirement for restaurants to publish calorie counts for each menu items. For smaller restaurant chains with large menus this is going to be a very detrimental law and will discourage expansion. For consumers it’s going to mean less choice because restaurants will be forced to reduce the size of their menus.
The pressure of this law will eventually force restaurants like Davanni’s to reduce consumer choice as a way of managing the overwhelming burden of maintaining their disclosures. Smaller chains that succeed in satisfying their customers and managing their business used to be rewarded with growth, but this law will put an artificial cap on expansion at 19 locations. That means that fewer people will find jobs, and even in existing stores, money that may have funded more jobs will instead go to reprinting the same menu boards over and over again. And all of this comes because political elites think that people are too stupid to know that a pizza is fattening or how to access information that already exists in much more efficient formats than menu boards.
Is this law really worth the cost? Are Americans really going to benefit from having calorie counts on their menu at Chili’s? As what point does the nanny state end? Have calorie counts discouraged people from buying unhealthy food at grocery stores? If people want healthier choices at restaurants the market will take care of it. However, progressives do not believe Americans can think for themselves. Daddy Federal Government has to take care of us, or we’ll hurt ourselves.
The Young and the Uninformed
Mar 30th
One of the most vocal groups in favor of ObamaCare is the young voter bloc. It’s shocking because this bill hurts this group the most. Young people are already contributing to two programs that are going bankrupt and whose benefits they’ll never see. Thanks to ObamaCare young workers are forced to get health care by law or be fined, all in the name of subsidizing free health care for elderly Americans. Oh, by the way, if you’re a young person who already has health care your premium is going to go up at least 17%. Need I mention the fact that some major corporations estimate that the bill will raise their operating costs substantially? Even Steamboat Ski Resort is uneasy about the fines they’ll have to pay on behalf of its seasonal workers. I wonder who will end up paying for these extra costs? How about the uninformed youth of America!
Or, to put it in simpler terms, they’re getting f***ed by the same people who pushed the “F*** the Vote” campaign and the Democrats. Had the younger voters taken the time to learn something about risk pools, insurance, and the experience of Massachusetts and Maine using the same kind of mandates, they’d have told Rock the Vote to f*** off. They still have the opportunity to deliver that message to Democrats in November.
Shouldn’t young educated Americans know this issue better than anyone? That’s a rhetorical question because I already know the answer. Of course they don’t understand. Outside of the business college at the local university the higher education centers don’t teach things like balanced budgets. Instead, we get such practical programs as Queer Studies, Gender Studies and other pseudo-academic pursuits in the name of pursuing faux social justice instead of excellence. A recently graduated student may well understand the principles of smart growth, thinking green, and the concept of “fair share.” However, none of those things matter if everyone is going bankrupt.
The Young and the Uninformed
That’s the most puzzling thing. In 2000 the United States was headed toward bankruptcy. In 2002 we added the Department of Homeland Security. Shortly after that we added the colossal prescription drug bill. In 2009, TARP added a trillion more to our national debt. In 2010, we’re going bankrupt at an even faster pace and now Obama has passed another entitlement we can’t afford. The question I have for young voters is this: do you want to live in a banana republic in your lifetime?
Tom Harkin vs. Jason Mattera
Mar 29th
Jason Mattera is now the new hero of The Daily Plunge. Anyone who takes on the American treasure that is Senator Tom Harkin automatically receives legendary status. Mattera asked Harkin directly about the Senator’s shameless claim that health insurance risk pools are comparable to racial segregation. Harkin’s response is in the priceless video below.
Senator Harkin tries to deny he made such a statement, but the pork-loving politician from Iowa must have a short memory. I touched on this briefly yesterday, but the mainstream press should be the ones calling out politicians for making idiotic statements like the ones Harkin made about health care. Harkin’s comparison did nothing to advance the debate.
Rising Cost of Health Care
Mar 23rd
This video is older than I am but it’s still as relevant today as it has ever been. Sadly Milton Friedman’s logical arguments are no match for a public hungry for entitlements.
How Are We Going to Pay for All of This?
Mar 23rd
Obama signs the Health Care bill and then hands the invoice to a little child who will have to pay for it.
Greg Mankiw always offers a level headed analysis on economic issues. It’s probably a prerequisite for every non-liberal who wants to work at Harvard. It seems the supporters of ObamaCare have put aside all the negative aspects of the bill and have a adopted the lies from the White House and Congress.
The other group is kind of like The Economist. The UK-based news magazine has really lost touch with logic lately. Their argument in favor of ObamaCare is as weak as it is logical. The basic argument is that any bill is better than no bill at all. This is a news magazine that calls itself The Economist?
What’s odd is that when President Bush tried to tackle reforming Social Security no one adopted the “let’s pass something” approach. The Republicans abandoned reform because they feared political backlash. The Democrats are philosophically opposed to fixing any entitlement. It’s in the DNA of the Democratic party to expand and break as many entitlement programs as possible.
Notice that no Republican advocates a serious reform of Medicare. The Democrats are the welfare party, and the Republicans are simply the caretakers of the welfare state. While the left longingly gazes at their Obama posters the President has never said how he’s going to pay for all these goodies. That’s Greg Mankiw’s point.
The Obama administration’s political philosophy is more egalitarian and more communitarian than mine. Their spending programs require much higher taxes than we have now and, indeed, much higher taxes than they have had the temerity to propose. Here is the question I have been wondering about: How long can the President wait before he comes clean with the American people and explains how high taxes needs to rise to pay for his vision of government?
I’ll go one step further because the Republicans aren’t prepared for the serious challenges ahead. The taxes needed to pay for all these programs will have to be enormous. The GOP doesn’t have the guts to tackle the problem. Taxing the rich isn’t going to pay for it all. If people are concerned about the economy right now, just wait until the VAT tax starts.
I’m not sure Obama even cares. Perhaps he just wants to be the guy who gave the U.S. health care. Obama will let some other administration clean up the wreckage. Hey, Lyndon Johnson is still considered a great president and he only got us mired in Vietnam, started the welfare state, and gave us Medicare.
It seems liberals are determined to turn the U.S. into one big giant pyramid scheme. This might last five, fifteen, or twenty-five years, but eventually the whole house of card falls. Progressives love to tell sob stories about the disadvantaged. What about the working man whose paycheck is being siphoned away? Who is helping the forgotten man and how are we going to afford this when he’s out of job?
The Danger of Endless Entitlements
Mar 22nd
This is what happens when the state finally goes bankrupt.
There’s a fundamental difference between conservatives and liberals. It was on full display this past week as the pillars of the liberal establishment rallied behind ObamaCare. Liberals who opposed the Senate bill for not being bigger decided something was better than nothing. The mainstream press (Washington Post, New York Times, etc.) endorsed the bill. It’s odd that anyone can be in favor of a bill that’s so bad. I won’t go into the details because I’ve written about it extensively over the past six months. Besides, I find myself looking at cardboard boxes wondering if I should start saving materials for when we’re living under a bridge if I think about it too much.
ObamaCare is bad from beginning to end. It’s the greatest gift ever given to the insurance companies in the short term, but signals the end of their business in the long term. Meanwhile, the President and his deranged followers act like everything is rosy. Liberals have fallen in love with the “idea” of heath care. I wrote about this a few days ago. Health care isn’t a logical issue to these robots; it’s a purely emotional issue.
The most common argument for universal health care is that Europe and Canada have it. This is a shallow and uninformed argument. When did the United States start looking at Europe for ideas? This is the continent we have bailed out of two horrendous world wars and who we defended during the Cold War. The only reason these States have been able to afford their massive entitlements is because the American taxpayer has paid for Europe’s defense. Furthermore, these European states are going bankrupt (see Greece, etc., etc.). They’ve reduced their defense budgets to shambles and they still can’t afford the entitlements, the pensions, the health care, and all the stuff the leftist crazies in our government would have us do.
If the left is committed to the idea of health care it will cripple the United States and the world will be a more dangerous place. The cancer of entitlements means the only place to carve out a temporary future is to cut defense. As the U.S. military weakens the world will become more unstable. Eventually, the economies of Europe and the rest of the West will cave under the weight of entitlements. It might be this generation, it might be the next, but unless there’s a change the inevitable outcome of the ignorance of the left is economic Armageddon.
Santa Claus and the Democratic Party
Mar 18th
It’s been awhile since I’ve written about party mascots here at The Daily Plunge. With support for ObamaCare well over 40% it means one thing: the average Democratic voter has lost touch with reality. They believe so strongly in the idea of health care that they’re willing to accept anything the State gives them. It’s odd that the party of liberal condescension would fall so hard for such an intellectually shallow thing as partisan loyalty.
The symbol for the Democratic Party shouldn’t be a Donkey. To be fair, it’s insulting to Donkeys. At least a Donkey is real animal. The Democrats want to believe in imaginary worlds. A world where man isn’t flawed. A world where we live in a Utopian state. In other words, it’s not a rational world. The Democrats love to cite the Canadian health care system; the same health care system that forces many of its citizens to come to the United States for adequate health care.
It’s not really the Canadian system progressives admire, it’s further North than that. It’s in the mythical world of the North Pole. You see the Democrats believe in Santa Claus State. Except the reality is that the State doesn’t give us anything, but instead takes everything we have. The intellectual giants on the left have listened to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” too many times. Now they’ve held onto that feeling. They can’t tell you why they’re in favor of ObamaCare. No rational person can, but it’s feels right. That’s why Santa Claus is the perfect mascot for the Democratic Party.
In many ways Santa Claus is the Anti-Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam “wants you.” In other words he wants you to get up off your ass and do something. Uncle Sam is skinny and angry. Santa Claus is fat, he only works one day a year, and he only wants you to “be good.” No wonder the man is so jolly. In other words you don’t have to do a damn thing and Santa Claus will give you something. Sounds like a fair deal. Don’t bother the Democrats with the details on how this is implausible; it just “feels right.”
Separation of Health Care and State
Mar 18th
Many generations ago many of our forefathers sought the New World to escape the heavy hand of the State. Eventually, those great pioneers (or perpetrators of environmental and cultural damage if you’re a Progressive) created the United States of America. The spirit of the United States was that the government wasn’t involved in every aspect of your life.
If President Obama and the leaders of Democratic Party get their way this week the State will make it law that everyone must get health care. It will be against the law to “choose” not to have health care. If you’re a healthy 28 year old the heavy hand of the government will force you to purchase health care you do not need to pay for someone else’s health care. So when President Obama says if you like your current health care plan, you can keep it, he’s not telling the truth. What if I like not having health care insurance? Can I keep that plan? No!
It is for this reason that I call on our inspirational ancestors and declare than I am firmly in favor of the separation of health care and State. It’s not the government’s responsibility to tell its citizens to get health care. Safety nets are already in place in this country. No one is dying in emergency rooms because they’re not insured. This entitlement mentality already grips most of the left. If this bill passes this cancer will spread.
The Idea of Health Care Reform
Mar 16th
Politics is never logical. If this entire health care drama has taught us anything it’s that logic, facts and rational thinking are in short supply in Washington. According to Rasmussen roughly 42% of Americans support ObamaCare. I guess that’s the Senate version of the bill. 42% is a lot of Americans. Sadly, the real statistic is that at least 42% of Americans are completely clueless when It comes to the current health care debate.
Basically what’s happened is that party loyalists are rallying around the cause. The far left, who cried outrage with the public option was removed, now backs the Senate version. They’ve even come after Dennis Kucinich, who has vowed to vote against any bill that doesn’t include the public option. What is Kucinich’s crime? I guess maintaining his pledge is too much for the deranged left.
What people are endorsing now is the “idea of reform.” No one with a brain believes this bill is anything but a disaster; however, the left has decided it’s better to endorse a disaster than for the President to fail to deliver on the “idea of reform.” Bush was able to pass a prescription drug bill despite the fact that it was terrible; however, the public wasn’t as outraged as it is today. Make no mistake, the Democrats are going to get crushed in November because of this bill. It probably doesn’t even matter if it dies. If it passes, the Tea Party movement will become the Repeal Movement. What are the Democrats really trying to accomplish?
Obama could have broken the bill into five smaller bills and passed them one at a time without much resistance. Instead he let the most inept Speaker of the House in American history take over the process. This is what happens when the nation takes a chance on electing a President that’s woefully underqualified.
