That’s basically Obama’s argument for Obamacare — he rattles of a small number of good things that people will like because they are free, and ignores the mountain of regulation which will crush so much of what makes the vast majority of Americans satisfied with the current system.
But offering free stuff is a powerful political argument — provided the public doesn’t understand the downside.
Update: Feds have 13,000 pages of regs ready to go.
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More smoke and mirrors from the Houdini of the White House.
Does anyone even listen to him any more?
I think I’m going to clean out my bank accounts and put it all on ‘Red’, I like those odds better than what it’ll be like giving this pretender another 4 years.
That slogan’s a winner in Detroit a/k/a New Fallujah, or any other inner city, I’m sure.
Yep! Almost 50% of America is on the Gummint teat, so free, free free, plays well to them.
Once he completes the Death Star, we’re screwed! No one will be able to undo that much bureaucracy, short of another American Revolution.
Oh, sure. He’s “Betting on America”:
’cause he realizes he’s the long-shot in the race, not the U.S.A.
when he’s bowing first to this world leader, now that one
when he and Michelle are only proud of the U.S.A. when things go their way
while drives the country deeper and deeper in debt
when his cronies play the “race” card
when he jumps into a situation when it’s a white/black thing, but not a black/white one.
Sure, Obama. You’re “Betting on America.” What did you do? Buy a bunch of stocks short for when the market dumps the next time?
Prove it
It is clear that you didn’t even read whe whole sentence. Or you didn’t undersatnd it. Go back and try again.
Following my own advice…
It is clear that you didn’t even read the whole sentence. Or you didn’t understand it. Go back and try again.
@K, yes I did and no you don’t; does that make it clear. The author made a claim but can he/she defend it?
If you’re bettin’ on America, don’t gamble on Obama.
The most blatant lie Ive seen used is the fantasy that because of Obamacare…”50 million people will now be insured”
May as well toss in “will also win the lottery this week” one is about as truthful as the other.
A large portion of the “uninsured” group wont be affected by any tax/penalty as they dont file with IRS. Another portion of the uninsured group are non citizens.
Seems to me the most direct way of insuring the uninsured would be to equip all the hospirals with the ability to enroll folks on the spot into some medicaid type plan as a condition (where its possible) of treatment.
Weve heard for years thats the biggest problem..these folks show up at the ER for treatment and the hospital has to treat them and that causes cost increases all the way thru the system.
If the product were oil wed go to where folks get oil chages.
But hey. I guess its too simple a solution for big government to even consider.
Good points. When my son was newly dropped out of college and not yet established in a decent job, he didn’t have health insurance. Fortunately, he didn’t need it. The one time he did break his leg, it was on the way to work, and Workman’s Comp paid for it. No kidding.
I know dirt balls who don’t pay taxes. They will have no penalty for not having health insurance. When they need it, they will just buy it, and we will subsidize it.
Those big numbers (50 million, 40 million, etc.) of uninsureds that the Democrats threw around to try and justify ObamaTax always included millions of illegal aliens living in the U.S. Poor, uninsured illegal aliens routinely use our ER’s and free clinics for their health care, at a cost to U.S. taxpayers of billions of dollars every year (southwestern states are particularly hard hit). But the “Affordable Care Act” specifically exempts illegal aliens from the mandate to purchase health insurance.
We now live in a country where the government requires citizens to prove they have health insurance, but does not require foreign non-citizens living here illegally to do the same. Illegal aliens have more freedoms in our country than we citizens do.
So now we know who the “Affordable Care Act” made health care affordable for … for those already getting it for free, including illegals. But to keep those hospitals in business, the rest of us will have our rates “necessarily skyrocket”.
Florida tries to eliminate illegal voters … Obama takes them to court (and loses)
Arizona tries to reign in the illegal invasion … Obama takes them to court.
I have affordable catastrophic health care, Obama taxes/penalizes me for not spending enough to support everyone else, including illegals. He seems to be running for president of the world again, and thumbing his nose at most of America.
But offering free stuff is a powerful political argument — provided the public doesn’t understand the downside.
The challenge is to express the downside
—in terms voters can understand, and
—in terms voters will accept despite the Left’s demagoguery about moral imperatives and heart-wrenching special cases.
If someone can make the public understand what happens when a government keeps playing the game of concentrated benefits and diffuse costs, that marketing genius could change Western history.
The approval rating of Congress is 11% … while 30% of likely voters say America is heading in the right direction. But Obama will show voters a shiny nickel and have his Hollywood pals throw a circus.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-dear-person-seeking-job-why-i-cant-hire-you
Dear Person Seeking a Job: Why I Can’t Hire You
The overhead costs for employees have skyrocketed. So even though the wages employees see on their paychecks have stagnated, the total compensation costs the employer pays have risen substantially. …
there is a long list of items, now add even more expensive health care, and a lawyer to read all the new reg’s being dashed off without oversight.
Obama was giving this speech in my neck of the woods today.
http://www.sanduskyregister.com/
From what I understand, only 300 tickets were handed out. I guess that was handled badly and many are upset.
http://www.sanduskyregister.com/sandusky/betweenthelines/dark-about-tickets
Some of the comments from this story are very interesting.
matt westerhold says-
“Two supporters of Lyndon LoRouche (blast from past) were at the Sandusky Post Office earlier and we’ve gotten other info that a protest is planned at Shoreline Park prior to the President’s arrival.
Also, just got a call and then a text that still other protesters are gathering at Battery Park. Reporter Jessica Cuffman is heading down there now. We’ll keep you posted.”
“Matt, I hope the SR reports on the considerable inconvenience and money that this has caused downtown business such as my own. Staffing issues and considerable lost revenue, notwithstanding the disruption caused by having the secret service basically hijack my office.
The circumstances are more understandable if the event were open to the entire community. This is simply a cute photo op of a faux ice cream social for national news consumption. If the Dems need to honor VIPs, volunteers, and contributors to the exclusion of the rest of the community, there are plenty of venues that can host 300 people with far less disruption.
Being a left wing newspaper, I doubt we will hear this side of the story.”
Cedar Point traffic and the President. Bet it was a fun day in Sandusky today. (j/k)
The most disturbing of all…quote from the Obama pilot fish at Politico
“I’ll work with anybody who wants to work with me to continue to improve our health care system and our health care laws, but the law I passed is here to stay,” Obama said at a campaign event in Ohio.
The Great American Pharoah not only writes the laws..he passes them as well.
Unbelievable:
This guy Edward Berenson, author of Statue of Liberty: A Transatlantic Story, on CSPAN booktv or something.
First he say’s Emma Lazarus sonnet The New Colossus gave the Statue of Liberty voice, then he say’s that it wasn’t until FDR’s New Deal that the Statue of Liberty had vision…
Got that, The Welfare State = Liberty’s promise of the future.
Obama 2012 : Bread and Circuses for All
With the current regime(I mean administration) constantly giving out free stuff, i.e. taxpayers money for DoE backed green industry loans (as long as they are previous/current Obama bundlers/political croanies)and amazingly each of the companies going bankrupt…can a link be made that any of these and current green companies who recieved taxpayer loans due to their political/monetary connection to the current regime (again I mean administraition)donated to the Obama campaign and if so couldnt a case be made Obama is violating federal law by illegally recieving and using taxpay money for his reelection? Pty sure theres a rule on the books somewhere against that…least I hope.
“Sounds great, but wait, folks! That’s not all! Vote for Obama in November and we’ll throw in a Joe Biden for free! That’s right, for the low, low price of just one vote you get Obama AND Joe Biden!”
We are now all going through the Middle Passage. Obama wanted Americans to know what it is like to be colonized, to have resources that you don’t get the benefit of, to have other people come into your country and do as they would with you and your laws. Now, he wants Americans to know slavery. This period in which we are waiting for the full oppression of his Obamacare, in which we await 13,000 pages of regulations by diligent slavers, er, lawyers, in which we await ever more burdensome taxes that will not just eat our substance but will deprive us of the will to do and earn–this period is our Middle Passage.
When we get to where Obama is taking us, then we will feel the full weight of his lash on our backs, regardless of our race. But, not if we are Muslim, of course.
They are exempt from mandates and laws that strip the Jewish and Christian hospitals of the articles of their faith.
So, while we have not yet reached the distant shores to which our slaver (and it’s ironic that he is white-black-Muslim-alleged Christian) intends to disembark our freedom, wealth, and our Constitution, we have a chance to turn the ship around, to wrest the whip from the hand of the slaver, to wrest our freedom and Constitution from sure and certain destruction.
More Obama “Magic Spin”
Think back to the old Johnny Carson skits with Art Fern. Except without the famous Slauson Cut Off
Presto Chango via Memorandum
Obamacare Is A Major Tax Cut For Middle Class Families
This is exactly what I have been trying to explain to uninformed people since the discussion over Obamacare/Tax began. I’ve been taking care of many elderly relatives for years and I also have lost many young friends to cancers of all kinds. Don’t look up “Angiosarcoma” if you want to sleep at night. When Obama or his surrogates tout the law as providing “free” birth control pills or mammograms, I want to pull my hair out in frustration. Sandra Fluke demeaned all women and their health needs when she was used for Obama’s dog and pony show about birth control and Plan B pills. Does Fluke know that women in their early 40’s-50’s who took birth control pills for years and years are dropping off like flies from a breast cancer epidemic? It’s outrageous that the WH does a bait and switch using the cheapest services possible –bc pills and mammograms– as “freebies” but when you’re REALLY sick, with Angiosarcoma or Leukemia you’re going to be without the ability to do anything other than what HHS and government health exchanges have determined your illness warrants in the way of treatment. Don’t let the uninformed masses who think they’re getting “free” healthcare sway you into believing anyt of the government propaganda hurled at us.
I forget who said it but it sounds like something Mark Steyn would say: “You have no idea how expensive health care can be until you get it for free”. Or something like that.
Or maybe it was:”If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you get it for free!”.
Like Midwest Rhino above, I have also gone with catastrophic health insurance. I did so for two reasons – one, I’ve been self-employed for a long time and eligible only for an individual plan, which the most expensive route, and two, I’ve enjoyed very good health to date (age 56), with only a kidney stone lithotripsy, a hernia operation, and half a dozen minor ER patchups over the past twenty years.
I have a $5,000 deductible plan, then the standard 80/20 $15 per office visit after that. I have a special account where sits $5,000 to cover the deductible should something ugly happen to me.
For all those minor office or ER visits for patchups and other minor stuff, I did not use insurance and paid cash, saving the receipt to apply against my annual deductible. According to Obama, et al, and the federal government, this makes me a ‘freeloader’. They make no distinction between those without insurance and those who pay cash. If you don’t have an ‘approved’ plan, you are a freeloader, to be loathed, ostracized, marginalized, demonized, and moved against by your own government. You are a political pawn, negatively charged.
The lithotripsy and hernia surgery each cost north of $10,000, with me paying the first $5,000 and 20% of everything above. I had both treatment events completely paid for by the end of the treatment run.
I’m happy with this. My health care providers are happy with this. My insurance company is happy with this. My bank is happy with this. All players are happy with this. But no, this arrangement is wrong, according to Obama, et al. This arrangement, under ObamaTax, must be punished. I will be forced to select a new plan of which the federal government approves, which is the same as saying the federal government will choose my new plan for me. If I fail to comply, I will be held accountable, punished with a tax for every year I fail to comply, fail to do as I am told by the federal government.
The only reason my choice in covering health care is considered wrong by the federal government is because it allows no vector for a sizable portion of my money to be peeled off to pay for the care of the slackers sitting in the wagon I’m forced to pull.
If that’s America, consider me ready for revolution.
I don’t understand this constant refrain about making sure that Americans have “health INSURANCE”. Having INSURANCE purchased from a private company so that that company can make a profit in between the consumer and the medical care provider should not be the goal. I pay cash for my health care. I PAY cash. Who am I supposedly “freeloading” off of when I P-A-Y in FULL (and more than any insurance company does) in C-A-S-H.
Health care costs are inflated and ridiculous because people with INSURANCE with co-pays that are too low don’t give a fig about whether the hospital charges $7 for a box of Kleenex, or whether the doctor whose buddy owns the medical lab orders a bunch of unnecessary tests and unnecessary followup office visits. And the insurance companies can’t administratively practicably argue over (for them) millions of bits of minutiae so instead they just pay cents on the dollar. What that does is cause an upward spiraling of costs.
And where in heck anyway did we as a society develop the nutjob notion that medical insurance is supposed to be provided by an employer.
A few years ago, I thought I was having a gall bladder attack and went to the emergency room on a Sunday. (As it turns out, there was nothing wrong with me. I sprained a rib. Didn’t know you could sprain a rib.) Anyway, I was in the ER for a couple of hours. I was seen mostly by a PA, had an XRay, and then for about 5 minutes by a physician. The physician billed $130. The hospital and its PA employee billed around $5000. Later that day I happened to be talking to one of my physician brothers and mentioned that I thought the ER bill was ridiculous compared with the doctor’s bill. He said that they do that, and to just call them up and tell them you will pay the Medicare rate. I did that, and they said oh, if you are going to pay your bill, then okay, and it was immediately slashed by like 2/3.
This system is NUTS.
Insurance should not be for “basic care” or “preventative care”. It should be for catastrophic expenses.
20-something years ago when our twins were born prematurely, although perfectly healthy and over 5 lbs, they were kept completely unnecessarily in the neonatal ward. Why? Because we had very fancy 100% corporate insurance — and the hospital wanted to fund the four uninsured neonates (two illegals and two crack babies) that were also currently in the hospital. I will never forgive that churning at the expense of torturing my kids. The hospital even threatened to call child protective services on us when we demanded that our babies be released. The bill (mind you, decades ago) was over $150,000. Completely unnecessary. We dropped the insurance. Since then, with several hospital stays, routine medical care, kid illnesses, dentists and orthodontia, broken bones, a few operations, all paid in cash, and the premiums for an umbrella policy with $50,000 deductible (for if someone gets cancer or something else very serious), we have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars by not buying and having medical insurance.
So I guess I am a mean sonofabitch or a “freeloader” because I do not want to buy insurance at astronomical premiums so that the Sandra Flukes of this world can have their birth control pills for free, so that the hospitals can give free services to illegals who come here to give birth, so that wealthy Medicare recipients can get their toenails cut for free at the podiatrist, so that Medicaid recipients can get “mental health” therapies, so that more and more fakers can collect SSI for “anxiety”, and so that the medical providers and insurance companies (and government) can play games with each other of overcharging and underpaying for lots of unnecessary medical services, while the consumers and taxpayers get see-sawed and snookered.
And this is special (forwarded from someone in Massachusetts):
The experiences of Hawkins and Janitor are on the money. These and similar experiences need to be force fed to their representatives in congress.
“… but the law I passed is here to stay.” If it had been ruled unconstitutional [as it should have been,thank you very much CJ Roberts], he would have blamed his underlings in congress for trying to grab too much at one time.
It is truly sickening to think that this asshat could win re-election.
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