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Earl,
The good news for the elephants is that once over the cliff, they will no longer have to worry about tax hikes. The House can pass a bill in early January 2013 to reduce taxes on the middle class (up to $250K or $400K, wherever it lands is irrelevant), and still preserve their sycophancy to Grover. Oh what a wonderful world!
Michael A.
Bart: Ooh, baby, you are so talented!
[looks into the camera]
Bart: And they are so *dumb*!
The last line is especially appropriate and applies not only to ALL those holding office in D.C. but to the people who reelected Barack Obama to another four years of public abuse. But then again, that’s just my opinion. (I am still entitled to that aren’t I?)
Terry, I agree that Obama leaves much to be desired, but I cannot image the USA under a Romney presidency. My biggest problem with him was his stealth Mormon agenda, which I think would have really been quite scary for the world. Seriously, the guy believes he’s a demi-god, and the rest of us twerps are heathen detritus. Not someone who should be anywhere near the nuclear football.
Yes, Washington D.C. is a mess and all signs point to further dysfunction, ennui, failure, and damage. Washington D.C. is a cancerous growth and needs all of the standard medical tools used to staunch such tumors aimed against it. That being said, it’s all we got, so we’ll have to continue working within the confines of this failed system until something else comes along.
America in the 21 century = muddling along. Maybe by 2025 the logjam will break.
What cliff? There’s over a trillion dollar shortfall on the books each year (we’ll forget about the trillions swept under the rug) and this “cliff” would barely dent it. A fiscal pothole.
Big medical tax increases are starting Jan 1, courtesy Obamacare. The “cliff” brouhaha is doing a nice job of distracting people, but those will still hurt, too.
I suspect if Democrats identified those $3 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax hikes that Obama campaigned on, and passed those NOW, the Republicans would be passing those tax hikes, but the history of our out of control spending is that the tax increases are always passed first, and the promised spending cuts always come up short.
GG wrote: “Big medical tax increases are starting Jan 1, courtesy Obamacare.”
Nothing more than a re-allocation of costs. Some will pay more, some will pay less. Just got another dunning notice from Blue Shield today, our family medical expenses are going up another $100 per mo. starting in February. We have a lovely plan, which is where we pay many thousands of dollars for catastrophic coverage, with a $4K deductible. That deductible means that ALL of our health care expenses during the year come out of our pockets, and we avoid proactive care because we can’t afford it. But I’m the guy who pays for all the non-payers in the ER, so a nice “thank you manderson for being the shlup who gets to carry all the worthless indigents on your back” would be greatly appreciated.
Once the exchanges kick in, I’ll be moving all my chips into that play. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll be the first person to let you know. But since there is nothing else on the table to fix this mess, complaining about Obamacare is like complaining about the sky being blue. It is what it is–make it work, or let it hammer you into the ground. Your choice.
Another good link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/30/opinion/sunday/why-the-economy-needs-tax-reform.html?hp&_r=0
Mandersonation, you haven’t been the only one paying full freight, but if you think delivering the care you’ve been getting to everyone, including the indigent, is going to be cheaper than rationing by waiting time and other access barriers, and that you won’t be paying even more now for even less care in the future, you’ve deluded yourself.
The last two years have seen the Obamacare goodies that cost nothing come to light. The next two years the costs start to come into view. Fasten your seatbelts.
I am still searching for just ONE thing that is true which was promised about Obamacare. The Obamacare bamboozle has been and continues to be the biggest pack of lies involved with any piece of legislation coming out of Congress. And that includes all the broken Indian treaties of yore, and even sweeps in a confused SCOTUS that defined the imposed Obamacare costs as a tax, an appellation still denied by the administration that continues to call it an ‘insurance premium’ as published in the printed version of the law.
The progressives will win history’s biggest ‘Useful Idiots’ award (also known as the Lenin Prize) for decrying America’s cost of healthcare, and dutifully braying that Obamacare will reduce it. Stand by for ram.
The Republicans couldn’t (or wouldn’t) do anything about our broken health care system for a really really long time. (BTW, this is the definition of a broken health care system: http://newshour.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/2012/10/02/At_17.6_percent_of_GDP_in_2010_slideshow.jpg)
Obama and the Democrats finally did something. Will it work? Only time will tell. But I would much rather head down the Obamacare path than do nothing. Doing nothing is no longer acceptable to the American people. And in the bigger picture, doing nothing about anything (except for bombing brown people) is a losing political strategy, dear Republicans.
The demographics have spoken; the Republican Party is rump and Whig until their Great Reinvention occurs. Oh, and I just walked outside and looked up. As I suspected, the sky wasn’t falling.
If certain parts of PPACA don’t work out, they will get fixed. Probably by Democrats, because as far as I can tell, the Republican strategy appears to be “sit in the corner and whine because no one wants to play with me anymore.” Sheesh.
MA, you’ve made it clear you want to shed your (few) employees from an employer (you) sponsored insurance program. You shouldn’t have to provide this, but that’s the system that grew like Topsy under many decades of mostly majority Democratic Houses, ever since the WWII wage and price controls that led some of the country’s largest employers to offer health care coverage as a tax free benefit. So, nearly 70 years later, we’re still stuck with it and for the next few years, it’s going to get even worse under Obamacare.
Sorry, but Republicans really did try to reform health care, but Democratic sacred cows like the trial lawyers blocked tort reform, and Dem’s are now even scaling back health savings accounts; as of Jan 1, the maximum is $2500, down from $5000 this year. Not that the accounts were every very good, as it leaves people begging for their money back and the companies running them win as they get to keep what they don’t give back,. Imagine if the money could just sit and grow like a health IRA or 401k. Nope; people actually being able to buy health care with before tax dollars isn’t something Pelosi’s congress believed in . I believe you can thank Dems for that one.
Mike, enjoy the moment. Don’t expect the elation to last.
Only a true socialist like MA could think the democrats have the answer to healthcare. What a hoot! Free enterprise, shoot the trial lawyers (except mine) and appoint conservative judges. The answer.
Todd, trial lawyers didn’t need to be shot, and Republicans unbridled could have done just as badly.
Some Democrats still think there’s a pony in there but many others think it’s likely to just be a pile of manure. This year, we’ll start to find out which it is. It remains expensive, and someone will be paying. MA thinks it will be those fat cats, I think it will be MA, me, and everyone else who has been paying all along.
GG, you misunderstand. I want healthcare costs to go down relative to GDP. I don’t think PPACA will do that, but it begins the conversation and provides a variety of mechanisms to “pull the levers” of health care reform. If, in 5 years, I’m paying the same or more for the services I receive today, I will be ready to substantially change PPACA, even crush it if necessary.
This is what I have been saying all along. I support tort reform. I support more competition for health care plans. And I support PPACA because it’s all we have. It appears the only disagreement we have is that you want to front-load your bitching and moaning and I am willing to put off my bitching and moaning for a while.
Fair enough. We’ll just have to wait and see “what’s in the bill” in order to evaluate the results.
MA, my bitching and moaning is because every single free market oriented health care reform was deep sixed by Pelosi and Reid as they decorated their health care Christmas tree. Allow health care insurers to work across state lines. Full disclosure on medical bills as to the range of contractual pricing agreements, Open pricing allowing shopping for the best mix of service and quality for the price. Tort reform. Removing the tax barrier for individuals buying policies and reforming risk pool formation.
I’m recovering from oral surgery, a root canal therapy that went bad leaving me with a cyst where facial bone was supposed to be. All is well now, outpatient surgery took about and hour, but the insurance company accounting (medical, not dental) looks like this:
Amount billed $2475
Contract savings $1765
Amount allowed $710
Deductable $710
Paid $0
I’m cool with paying $710 out of pocket, but I suspect if I walked in the door in pain and needing the surgery, they’d not have done it until they had the full $2500 in hand, plus the initial evaluation that was another $300 (just a $30 copay out of pocket) and if the check bounced, they’d hound us into bankruptcy.
OK, so they have a contract with the insurer and that’s worth something in giving them business. No problem. But if they’re willing to do the surgery for $710 if billed to the insurer, I’d wave my magic wand and say, if I was on a jury, that charging an individual would be limited to something like $900. Buying health insurance is now more like Mafia insurance… you have a gang on your side to beat up the gang on their side for a piece of the action. And the government has had their own gang, demanding low prices for Mediscare and Medicaid, that is one of the things making people like oral surgeons have wildly differing prices depending on what money they can shake from which tree.
Obamacare won’t work unless they can squeeze profit out of medicine without causing medical providers to work less. It appears some are betting yes, some no.
“I support tort reform.”
Didn’t happen.
“I support more competition for health care plans.”
Didn’t happen. In fact, we now have a one size fits all insurance plan designed by the Executive branch of the Federal government.
“And I support PPACA because it’s all we have.”
It’s an Affordable Care Act in the same, exact way a tax on baked goods and parenting called the “Mom and Apple Pie Act” would be.
“I support tort reform.”
Didn’t happen.
PPACA is the only chance that it will happen under our extremely broken political structure, it’s all we’ve got.
“I support more competition for health care plans.”
Didn’t happen. In fact, we now have a one size fits all insurance plan designed by the Executive branch of the Federal government.
PPACA has avenues to get away from federally funded insurance plans. The whole thing is an experimental framework. That’s the beauty of it.
“And I support PPACA because it’s all we have.”
It’s an Affordable Care Act in the same, exact way a tax on baked goods and parenting called the “Mom and Apple Pie Act” would be.
Reductionist bullcrap. You have to pass the law to understand what’s in it. Imagine a bulldozer, coming down the pike, scraping everything out of its way. And then imagine the hordes pawing through what’s left behind, trying to figure out how to move forward. That’s the ONLY way we can function in a governmental system that is a complete failure. This is as good as it gets. Welcome to the failed American system of the 21st century.
I’m a “glass is half full” kinda guy, so when I hear lots of whining it bores me to tears. Remember, I’ve been raising kids since 1986 and what I have learned in all of those years is that complaining is just a crying out for my work assignments.
“The whole thing is an experimental framework. That’s the beauty of it.”
That’s the terror of it. It’s an experiment that’s tearing up the existing healthcare system and replaces it with a framework produced by politicians on the left who excluded politicians who weren’t on the left when making all the decisions.
I get it, you hate the past situation enough you’re sure anything will be better. We shall see.
GG wrote: “I get it, you hate the past situation enough you’re sure anything will be better. We shall see.”
Thanks. And if it turns out to be as horrible as some are predicting, I promise to deliver a big fat apology. But that will have to wait until January 1, 2015, given the last requirements time to either fester or cure:
” Establish Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) tasked with developing comprehensive proposals to reduce excess cost growth and improve care quality in Medicare
Implementation date: First recommendations due January 15, 2014, (funding available October 1, 2011)”
http://www.cms.org/strategic-priorities/practice-viability/practice-evolution/timeline/2014-major-provisions-ppaca/
“But that will have to wait until January 1, 2015”
Try Tuesday, 4 November 2014. That’s the next day of Reckoning.
Given that the dysfunction of the American health care system has been going on for many decades, and that the percentage of GDP assigned to health care has been steadily increasing during those years, I find it troubling that you would nickel and dime me two months for an apology, if the whole mess isn’t fixed less than a year after the real rubber hits the road.
But hey, I’m still game! Color me Mister Optimism. Fine, apology delivered on Wednesday, November 5th, 2014, if PPACA has still not gained any traction in fixing this huge portion of the entitlement debacle. Stay tuned.