I think he’s right: Obamacare was passed by two means, really (maybe more, but at least these two):
Raw arithmetic of a Democratic majority, Democratic Senate, and Democratic President.
Consensus that you can - or at least ambivalence to the idea that you can - pass expansive entitlements without paying for them with current money.
As for (1), the Iraq War certainly had a great deal to do with ushering in the raw math needed to pass something like Obamacare, as the author explains (I think, rightly). Democrats knew it, and seized on it (and it almost still didn’t pass), but
As for (2), the GOP deserves lots of blame for that as well. Under any form of reasonable fiscal sanity, there is no way the nation could afford Obamacare, even if everyone thought it was a fantastic idea and there were enough votes in support of the “idea” of it. But because Republicans were hard-charging, “deficits don’t matter” for years (decades, really), their own ideas and policies (see Medicare Part D) paved the way for Obamacare being passed when it should have been met with a “yeah, right” even amongst those who had some support for it.
Though I find no flaw in the logic of the argument, I still cannot help but think the result is very much like blaming a rape victim for her assault because she dressed just a little too provocatively.
[quote]JEATON wrote:
Though I find no flaw in the logic of the argument, I still cannot help but think the result is very much like blaming a rape victim for her assault because she dressed just a little too provocatively. [/quote]
So the US citizenry is the rape victim and the Super Majority of Democrats in the House, Senate, and White House are the perps?
To say that we cannot afford it is ridiculous. The billions upon billions that have been spent in unjust wars could easily pay for universal healthcare and education. To say that we(the U.S.) are the industrialized country who is doing healthcare right is beyond explanation while other industrialized countries are doing it wrong. The U.S. public spends twice as much as any other country on healthcare with subpar results when compared to other countries. We are ranked 37th in the world. The healthcare initiative was watered down due to the insurance industry. Not because the public didn’t want it. The corporations almost always get their way. It was nice to hear the writer actually admit there were no WMD’s however he doesn’t address it’s immorality and the fact that the public was lied to support the war.
Yeah but the U.S. wasn’t the only country that thought Iraq still had chems, many other
Countries did as well… our ally England was one of them, but I imagine you may extrapolate that
the WORLD public was lied to support the war…Man this shit is getting old,
I’ll meet ya half way to at least say we shouldn’t have gone into Afghanistan…we would have
got Bin Laden without that precursor, and we don’t give two shits about the Veterans here
when they come back, as they are killin’ themselves faster than they are dying in combat
for the last 3 years.
They are expendable when there’s ALWAYS another fresh new Soldier behind him waiting to replace
the ones we lost.
[quote]JEATON wrote:
Though I find no flaw in the logic of the argument, I still cannot help but think the result is very much like blaming a rape victim for her assault because she dressed just a little too provocatively. [/quote]
Yeah, a health care bill is the moral equivalent of rape and a hundred thousand American and Iraqi bodies piled high in a sandblown shithole half the world away is the moral equivalent of wearing a short skirt.
[quote]JEATON wrote:
Though I find no flaw in the logic of the argument, I still cannot help but think the result is very much like blaming a rape victim for her assault because she dressed just a little too provocatively. [/quote]
Yeah, a health care bill is the moral equivalent of rape and a hundred thousand American and Iraqi bodies piled high in a sandblown shithole half the world away is the moral equivalent of wearing a short skirt.
I’m not a big fan of Obamacare but damn.[/quote]
heh
yeh that’s exactly what he said
nice job on noticing the subliminal - didn’t think ya had it in ya to be honest