Some more Obamacare stuff begins today. It's bad news for the crowd who, in the name of liberty, would force women to have children and get sick, just like the Founding Fathers who loved America would have done. CBS explains: Under the new provision that goes into effect August 1, 2012, women will be eligible to receive the following eight … Read More
Does Romney Know What He Is Saying?
Here's Romney at a fundraiser in Jerusalem on Monday: Do you realize what health care spending is as a percentage of the G.D.P. in Israel? Eight percent. You spend eight percent of G.D.P. on health care. You’re a pretty healthy nation. We spend 18 percent of our G.D.P. on health care, 10 percentage points more….We have to find ways — … Read More
Like A Lead Balloon
Romney spoke in front of the NAACP this morning (I give him props for that), and told them he would repeal Obamacare. How well did that go over? About like you would expect… In truth, Romney knew that saying that would generate boos, which will help him with his (racist) base. That's why he said it.
Anti-Obamaism Hurts People
Rick Perry, governor of the state with the highest percentage of uninsured residents, declares he won't create a health insurance exchange or take advantage of Obamacare's Medicaid expansion. Now, understand. Obamacare's Medicaid expansion costs the State of Texas nothing for three years — the federal government picks up the tab. And after three years, Texas (like all other states), only has to pay … Read More
Best Reaction Of Them All
Sarah Palin tweet: Okay. First of all, Obama gave his opinion that the mandate wasn't a tax — an opinion also held by such commies as Justices Scalia, Thomas, Alito and Kennedy. Secondly, you can't "lie" about an opinion. Your opinion might not prevail at the end of the day, but that doesn't mean you lie. That's like saying "The … Read More
Punditry
Almost everyone got it wrong. There were a few in recent days who stuck out their neck and thought that the individual mandate would be upheld 5-4, but they thought it would be on Commerce Clause grounds. Kudos to Ben Beutler at TPM, who noticed back in March, right after the oral argument, that Roberts was leaning toward uphold the … Read More
The Mandate IS a Tax, But Probably Not One That Will Affect You
Spin is now the game. And Republicans are quick to tell you that Obamacare is a huge (some of them are saying "the hugest") tax on middle class people ever. It's not. They're lying. The tax imposed by the individual mandate amounts to either $695 or 2.5 percent of household income for those who don’t have insurance and are not … Read More
Over-reactions From The Excitable Right
UPDATE from Wonkette: Now that poors can get health insurance because the demon Supreme Court sided with that commie muslin NOBAMA fella, the only way to defend our freedom is armed insurrection! Mount up and ride to the sound of the gun says former Michigan Republican Party spokesman Matthew Davis. Matthew Davis, an attorney in Lansing, sent the email moments after the … Read More
Four Reasons Obamacare Is A Good Thing
1) Obamacare will reduce the deficit. The Congressional Budget Office estimated in 2011 that Obamacare will reduce the federal deficit by $210 billion over the next decade. The law is expected to save about $1 trillion over its second decade, according to other CBO analyses. The CBO found that repealing the law, as Republicans attempted to do in 2011, would increase the deficit by $230 billion over … Read More
Live Blogging The Supreme Court Healthcare Decision
9:46 am: Here is the question before the court, in plain English: Does it violate the Constitution for Congress to require virtually all Americans to obtain health insurance by 2014 or pay a penalty? If the Court's answer is yes, then it has to decide whether just the requirement — the so-called "individual mandate" — is invalid, or whether part … Read More
A Word Of Caution About Today’s ACA Decision from The Supremes
Like Bush v Gore, early out-of-the-box news reports about the decision today are likely to be inaccurate. Not necessarily wrong, but they may not convey the whole truth. There are many aspects to the Affordable Care Act, and the judges may uphold some aspects and reject others. Then there may be disagreements about the remedy, and several opinions from the … Read More
It Doesn’t Matter What The News Is Today…
…the topic will be the Supreme Court's decision on healthcare, in 24 hours. Recent polling has suggested that 61 percent of Americans oppose the individual mandate. But according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 55 percent of survey respondents said that if the Supreme Court strikes down the mandate, it would “not make much difference either way” to them and their families. … Read More
Republicans Like Obamacare Provisions; They Just Don’t Like Obama
Key points from a just-released Reuters-Ipsos poll: * Eighty percent of Republicans favor “creating an insurance pool where small businesses and uninsured have access to insurance exchanges to take advantage of large group pricing benefits.” That’s backed by 75 percent of independents. * Fifty-seven percent of Republicans support “providing subsidies on a sliding scale to aid individuals and families who … Read More
Obamacare Decision Today?
It's possible, but I suspect not. Anyway, if you're reading this on Monday, June 25 before 10am, the place to be isn't here, but the live blog at SCOTUSBlog. We'll know almost imeediately if they decided on Obamacare. UPDATE: No Obamacare decision today, it looks like. But SCOTUS did reject a Montana case which could have weakened Citizen's United. Unfortunately, … Read More
Swept Under The Rug
It is a particularly dark chapter in North Carolina history. Between 1929 annd 1974, an estimated 7,600 North Carolinians, both men and women, were sterilized under the authorization of the North Carolina Eugenics Board, according to the N.C. Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation. Many of those people were minorities, poor, undereducated, institutionalized, sick or disabled. Between 1,500 and 2,000 victims of state … Read More