Official 2013 Budget/Debt Limit/Obamacare Crisis Thread

So does the House, but seeing as they are allowing themselves to be run by people who don't have a clue with regards to economics, I am not hopeful.

 

I'll take that to mean you've lost interest in budget deficits. As far as the plan itself, I didn't think it was possible to make our health care system work, but the GOP actually manages to pull that off. There are 3 primary things to look at with health reform: cost to government, accessibility, and affordability. Let's look at each.

1. Cost to government: all sorts of spending and tax cuts; not a single cost offset. In other words, a huge ballooning of the deficit.

2. Accessibility. Not a single thing in there to address pre-existing conditions. And the system is designed to move people from employer coverage to individual coverage (a good thing in general) - but that means everyone with pre-existing conditions currently on group coverage now is stuck with difficulty getting health care.

3. Affordability. This whole plan is tied to the tax code. The poor (the 47% that pay no income taxes) get NOTHING at all to make their insurance more affordable. The wealthy get the biggest subsidy by taking the most off their taxes.

So summed up, this plan manages to increase the deficit, make accessibility WORSE, and does nothing to make health care more affordable to the vast majority of Americans. It does, however, make health care cheaper for the wealthy. Well done, GOP. Well done.

 

Unfortunate typo...

 

Act 1

and (replacement of Obamacare with watered-down, half-effective version that manages to both piss federal money away, give more federal control of state functions, and has a bunch of ideological red meat that is purely rhetorical given the actual facts. This betrays the ideals of those who oppose Obamacare, and show they're willing to consider anything to counter a name. par for the course given this is Heritage Foundation, Republican policy.)

Act 2

...

let's just give monies back to people. taxes back will always solve every problem.

this is a minor fix to Obamacare:

But consider it like a market-driven incentive to buy the Indian healthcare plan, and spend the rest on GTA 5 copies.

Act 3

WAIT are we throwing federal funds away? what happened to responsibility???

Also, this system makes no sense. You're forcing premiums lower through government fiat, but this essentially admits there is fault with the insurance market, guzzles money to fix a market problem, but only fixes it half-way: after all, how many uninsured people will still have to occupy emergency rooms? Where is the incentive to lower premiums beyond getting a buttload of cash handed to you, without increased volume of the healthy? This is the bluntest, most direct solution to out-of-control premiums for those with pre-existing conditions, and it makes no sense.

Act 4

So basically, let's repeal Obamacare exchanges, then create a similar federal exchange solution that goes beyond state regulations to having the federal government regulate insurance providers.

WOW, that kinda makes sense, except I think the federal government kills children, and/or something. Two words for why this is unworkable and who would fight against it: "House GOP".

Act 5

so...because we can't measure it with a dollar sign, we should ignore it. Hey, those costs with dollar signs are still going to be there, and they're the largest component of it all but um, economic rights rah rah.

Ideological rubbish.

Act 6

Purely ideological, and pointless given current federal law. Pennies in the bucket for a social cause gone wild, and stale red meat for people who do not know the law.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/02/obamacare-abortion-surcharge_n_1397564.html

 

I just have one question, why doesn't the Republicans want to fix the health care system in this country? They stop every attempt to fix the system, yet they never do anything when they are in power.

Do the Republicans not in the top 1% feel there is no problem with the current system that they never want anything to be done about it? The system would have been so much easier to put in place if a Republican president had the guts to do it.

 

I don't think Obamacare is going to be that big of a deal after reading more about it.

 

when single-payer gets passed, it'll be interpreted as the Holocaust for some with the way the rhetoric is mounting

 

Too late... Right wingers have already made the parallel between obamacare and Nazism.

 

It was a compromise plan recognizing the fact that health insurance is basic requirement. This is all political theater.

 

Is Obama blinking? Perhaps he's coming to his senses that this debate is easier now than over a debt ceiling discussion? Or is he wising up to the fact that he'll shoulder blame from many people on this continual lurch from crisis to crisis?

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09-30/just-hours-go-obama-suddenly-negotiating-mood

Last week Obama was unwilling to negotiate on the two key issues in the current government pre-shutdown debacle: Obamacare and the debt ceiling. Things seem to have changed quite quickly, now that the government shutdown is just 11 hours away. From Reuters:

OBAMA SAYS EVERYONE MUST SIT DOWN AND NEGOTIATE IN GOOD FAITH, CAN'T HAVE TALKS UNDER RISK OF POTENTIAL U.S. DEBT DEFAULT
OBAMA SAYS HE IS NOT RESIGNED TO A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN TAKING PLACE
OBAMA SAYS U.S. DOLLAR IS RESERVE CURRENCY OF THE WORLD, "WE DON'T MESS WITH THAT
OBAMA SAYS EXPECTS TO SPEAK TO CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY
In other words, Obama blinked (for the n-th time in what has not been a good year for presidential leverage). And to think it took less than a 1% drop in the S&P (and a rather stubborn Republican party) to get "diplomacy" going...

 

Zerohedge. ****ing Zerohedge.

What, you couldn't use Infowars instead?

 

better than what the left trots out around here. Mother Jones, talkingpointsmemo, Daily Kos, huffpo, etc

 

good lord all of the websites you guys use for the pee-pee games are crap.

 

And the New York Times, the Washington Post, the LA Times, and numerous other legitimate news sources. All you have are fringe far-right sources that an educated person laughs at. With all due respect, did you really go to Rice?

 

Except he hasn't changed his stance. He's always said he's not willing to negotiate on Obamacare or the debt ceiling and that he is willing to negotiate on the general budget appropriations bills. Nothing he said today was any different.

 

this is what he said - same as last week and before:

"I am not only open to but eager to have negotiations around a long-term budget” Obama said in the Oval Office, after a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

He said the only way to achieve an agreement "is for everybody to sit down in good faith, without threatening to harm women and veterans and children with a government shutdown. And certainly we can't have any kind of meaningful negotiations under the cloud of potential default -- the first in U.S. history."

Basically, pass a clean CR and extend the debt ceiling, then we'll talk.

 

You become less and less civil by the day.

Keep the D&D civil

 

Well my feeling that it isn't going to be that big of a deal has more to do with the number of exemptions that exist for the individual mandate. I think the plan as it stands misses the mark of its intended target. I feel that many people will simply opt to not get insurance and they won't be subject to the "tax" due to the many exemptions.

Just curious does anyone know if the premiums are guaranteed for a year or longer or can they change a few months after you sign up? Can they change after you start having insurance claims?