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Author Topic:   Obamacare Will Collapse
Randall
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Posts: 32918
From: Saturn next to Charmainec
Registered: Apr 2009

posted September 30, 2013 12:33 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Randall     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
What the GOP's Defund-ObamaCare Caucus is failing to see is that ObamaCare is no longer just ObamaCare. It is about something that is beyond the reach of a congressional vote.

As its Oct. 1 implementation date arrives, ObamaCare is the biggest bet that American liberalism has made in 80 years on its foundational beliefs. This thing called "ObamaCare" carries on its back all the justifications, hopes and dreams of the entitlement state. The chance is at hand to let its political underpinnings collapse, perhaps permanently.

If ObamaCare fails, or seriously falters, the entitlement state will suffer a historic loss of credibility with the American people. It will finally be vulnerable to challenge and fundamental change. But no mere congressional vote can achieve that. Only the American people can kill ObamaCare.

No matter what Sen. Ted Cruz and his allies do, ObamaCare won't die. It would return another day in some other incarnation. The Democrats would argue, rightly, that the ideas inside ObamaCare weren't defeated. What the Democrats would lose is a vote in Congress, nothing more.

A political idea, once it becomes a national program, achieves legitimacy with the public. Over time, that legitimacy deepens. So it has been with the idea of national social insurance.

German Chancellor Otto von Bismark's creation of a social insurance system in the 19th century spread through Europe. After the devastation of World War I, few questioned its need. In the U.S., Franklin Roosevelt's Social Security system was seen as an antidote to the Depression. The public's three-decade support for the idea allowed Lyndon Johnson to pass the Medicare and Medicaid entitlements even in the absence of an economic crisis.

Going back at least to the Breaux-Thomas Medicare Commission in 1999, endless learned bodies have warned that the U.S. entitlement scheme of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is financially unsupportable. Of Medicare, Rep. Bill Thomas said at the time, "One of the biggest problems is that the government tries to administer 10,000 prices in 3,000 counties, and it gets it wrong most of the time." But change never comes.

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Chad Crowe

The Four Horsemen of the Democratic Apocalypse.

Medicaid is the worst medicine in the United States. It grinds on. Doctors in droves are withdrawing from Medicare. No matter. It all lives on.

An established political idea is like a vampire. Facts, opinions, votes, garlic: Nothing can make it die.

But there is one thing that can kill an established political idea. It will die if the public that embraced it abandons it.

Six months ago, that didn't seem likely. Now it does.

The public's dislike of ObamaCare isn't growing with every new poll for reasons of philosophical attachment to notions of liberty and choice. Fear of ObamaCare is growing because a cascade of news suggests that ObamaCare is an impending catastrophe.

Big labor unions and smaller franchise restaurant owners want out. UPS dropped coverage for employed spouses. Corporations such as Walgreens and IBM IBM -0.46% are transferring employees or retirees into private insurance exchanges. Because of ObamaCare, the Cleveland Clinic has announced early retirements for staff and possible layoffs. The federal government this week made public its estimate of premium costs for the federal health-care exchanges. It is a morass, revealing the law's underappreciated operational complexity.

But ObamaCare's Achilles' heel is technology. The software glitches are going to drive people insane.

Creating really large software for institutions is hard. Creating big software that can communicate across unrelated institutions is unimaginably hard. ObamaCare's software has to communicate—accurately—across a mind-boggling array of institutions: HHS, the IRS, Medicare, the state-run exchanges, and a whole galaxy of private insurers' and employers' software systems.

Recalling Rep. Thomas's 1999 remark about Medicare setting prices for 3,000 counties, there is already mispricing of ObamaCare's insurance policies inside the exchanges set up in the states.

The odds of ObamaCare's eventual self-collapse look stronger every day. After that happens, then what? Try truly universal health insurance? Not bloody likely if the aghast U.S. public has any say.
Related Video

Wonder Land columnist Dan Henninger on why the failure of universal healthcare may finally discredit the broader entitlement state. Photos: Associated Press

Enacted with zero Republican votes, ObamaCare is the solely owned creation of the Democrats' belief in their own limitless powers to fashion goodness out of legislated entitlements. Sometimes social experiments go wrong. In the end, the only one who supported Frankenstein was Dr. Frankenstein. The Democrats in 2014 should by all means be asked relentlessly to defend their monster.

Republicans and conservatives, instead of tilting at the defunding windmill, should be working now to present the American people with the policy ideas that will emerge inevitably when ObamaCare's declines. The system of private insurance exchanges being adopted by the likes of Walgreens suggests a parallel alternative to ObamaCare may be happening already.

If Republicans feel they must "do something" now, they could get behind Sen. David Vitter's measure to force Congress to enter the burning ObamaCare castle along with the rest of the American people. Come 2017, they can repeal the ruins.

The discrediting of the entitlement state begins next Tuesday. Let it happen.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304526204579097443230322758.html

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Catalina
Knowflake

Posts: 303
From: shamballa
Registered: Aug 2013

posted September 30, 2013 01:09 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Catalina     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Just saw a great post/statistic on FB I just have to share. It speaks to the distorting power of propaganda/hatemongering.

In a recent survey 46% of Americans oppose Obamacare, while 37% oppose the Affordable Care Act. Curious.

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Ami Anne
Moderator

Posts: 48037
From: Pluto/house next to NickiG
Registered: Sep 2010

posted September 30, 2013 01:24 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Ami Anne     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Catalina:
Just saw a great post/statistic on FB I just have to share. It speaks to the distirting power of propaganda/hatemongering.

[b]In a recent survey 46% of Americans oppose Obamacare, while 37% oppose the Affordable Care Act. Curious.[/B]


This is so dumb as dumb as you thinking I alter your posts

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jwhop
Knowflake

Posts: 6348
From: Madeira Beach, FL USA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted October 01, 2013 10:29 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Care to post the actual poll...and a link to the polling site?

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Ami Anne
Moderator

Posts: 48037
From: Pluto/house next to NickiG
Registered: Sep 2010

posted October 01, 2013 12:27 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Ami Anne     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Here is the thing with NOBama care. Once it becomes law, NObama will get the CONTROL he wants. It is all about control, Peeps

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Catalina
Knowflake

Posts: 303
From: shamballa
Registered: Aug 2013

posted October 02, 2013 12:48 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Catalina     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
http://msnvideo.msn.com/?channelindex=9&from=en-us_msnhpvidmod#/vide o/fe4c2945-beee-43a5-8aed-9ec00d645bbc

The post jwhop wanted a link to was just a post going around FB...i found it amusing but not worth tomes of research to pin down.

Tis pity a sense of humour gets no slack here unless it is at someone else's expense.

But this link will show you a wonderful interview sequence which basically says the same thing...sorry bout the ad don't know how to lose it but it's short! The lady at the beginning and end does have a sense of humour.

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Ami Anne
Moderator

Posts: 48037
From: Pluto/house next to NickiG
Registered: Sep 2010

posted October 02, 2013 07:53 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Ami Anne     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Tis pity a sense of humour gets no slack here unless it is at someone else's expense.

That is you

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Want To Ask Any Question About Bible Prophecy? Go For it. It is Free, of course.


http://www.mychristianpsychic.com/

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jwhop
Knowflake

Posts: 6348
From: Madeira Beach, FL USA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted October 02, 2013 09:40 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
"The post jwhop wanted a link to was just a post going around FB...i found it amusing but not worth tomes of research to pin down."...Catalina/katatonic

Right Catalina/katatonic, you are forever making statements you can't back up with any proof...or even a source no matter how loony that source may be.

Time and exposure to your absurd statements have proved your word can't be taken seriously.

Now, it's trust...but verify time.

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Catalina
Knowflake

Posts: 303
From: shamballa
Registered: Aug 2013

posted October 02, 2013 11:08 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Catalina     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Sweet jwhop, I never claimed to be "MAKING A STATEMENT" I merely "shared" someone's statement that is going round FB,

Not everything is a court case or a matter of life and death. I referenced where it came from and what it was before I posted it. It was not submitted as EVIDENCE but so others could see it.

There are a lot of people here, supposedly, who never post only read.

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Ami Anne
Moderator

Posts: 48037
From: Pluto/house next to NickiG
Registered: Sep 2010

posted October 02, 2013 11:12 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Ami Anne     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Catalina:
Sweet jwhop, I never claimed to be "MAKING A STATEMENT" I merely "shared" someone's statement that is going round FB,

Not everything is a court case or a matter of life and death. I referenced where it came from and what it was before I posted it. It was not submitted as EVIDENCE but so others could see it.

There are a lot of people here, supposedly, who never post only read.


Do you feel you are outnumbered

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Want To Ask Any Question About Bible Prophecy? Go For it. It is Free, of course.


http://www.mychristianpsychic.com/

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AcousticGod
Knowflake

Posts: 7819
From: Pleasanton, CA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted October 02, 2013 11:29 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for AcousticGod     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
What a stupid exchange. Yes, Cata's poll is true, and further verified by a late night talk show. People don't seem to equate "Obamacare" with the Affordable Care Act.

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