A dysfunctional US Congress has caused over 1 million federal workers to be sent home as the federal fiscal year begins with no budget. Certain essential services, however, will continue, including immigration and border controls and payments to social security recipients, and also thankfully, there will be no reduction in federal funding for blogs such as this.
I have strong feelings about the government shutdown, but they are not relevant to the birther movement, except that some of the same rumor-based decision making processes we see with birtherism, seem to play a role in the Tea Party approach to legislation.
I wonder why we don’t see any birther claims that “Disgruntled government workers without pay will spill the beans on Obama’s secrets?” or “Federal judges without pay will no longer rule in Obama’s favour” or suchlike.
Wait till they find out this is all just a distraction from the small flood that will destroy Hawaii’s original vital records on Thursday (which happens to be German Unification Day).
Good thing we were all paid 4 years in advance in November and don’t have to worry about cuts until Obama’s third term starts.
Oh! And lets not forget those checks the government cuts to Obots who post on sites like birther report. Well, according to the loonies therein, the only people who post dissenting opinions there are paid Obots.
Wait a minute…I thought your blog was funded by Soros?
Sometimes I get so confused about this stuff…
It looks like the Senate killed to motion to go to conference. We are back to square 1. This what the GOP should do:
It would be an absolute disaster for the GOP to CAVE and sign off on the Clear CR. It would mean that the GOP accomplished NOTHING and would be blamed for a government shutdown.
Because the government has shut down the GOP House needs to tell the Senate and Obama this:
We are joining the government shutdown. All business and consideration the GOP House will STOP. The only message Boahner needs to tell Reid and Obama is that we are willing to negotiate. The GOP House then WAITS.
It won’t be long before Reid and Obama say they want to talk.
After a few days the GOP House could come back and start passing tiny bills to fund even agency at a time.
But as far as passing a clean CR – IT IS NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN! If the GOP pass one, it will be disasterous for them.
No. Doc’s blog is funded by the men in grey suits. The same people who are tracking every single move that Orly Taitz makes. They do stuff like “hack” her website, and fiddle with her brakes.
It’s funny that the birthers think obots are Federal employees. When in fact we are employed by the NWO, and we get paid in solid gold NWO ducats.
Earth to john, earth to john: It’s already been disastrous for the Republicans.
Hey John, serious question for you.
You’ve been dead wrong about everything else up to this point. So, what makes you think you’re right about this?
Straight answer please. None of your usual crap.
If you can’t be bothered to back your ridiculous statements, please stop coming here.
It was, but as of today it is part of the AFA that is totally funded even if the government shuts down. So, all the FEMA camps are open and accepting birthers for indoctrination and all the anti-birther work continues uninterrupted. So back to work all of you!!! 😆
Welcome back John. Have you had a chance to think about how you have been misled by your hero Colonel Z ? Have you changed any of your opinions? Or, are you Colonel Z?
Would you support letting the House take an up or down vote on a clean CR? Boehner won’t allow it because he knows it would pass.
Besides, it’s took late to delay Obamacare. It started today, and it is not affected by, the government shutdown.
The Republicans are already being blamed for the government shutdown.
Republicans in Washington insist they have simply been upholding the wishes of the American people throughout their efforts to block the Affordable Care Act, but a poll released Tuesday tells a very different story.
In fact, the latest survey from Quinnipiac University contains a ton of bad news for the GOP. For starters, 72 percent of Americans said they are opposed to shutting down the government in an effort to block implementation of the health care law. A poll last week also showed a wide majority opposed to shutting down the government over Obamacare.
The federal government shut down for the first time since 1996 on Tuesday morning amid Republican-led efforts to include policy concessions on the health care law in must-pass bills to fund the government.
While Quinnipiac’s poll showed that the Affordable Care Act remains polarizing — 45 percent support it while 47 percent are opposed — 58 percent said they are opposed to Congress cutting off funding for the law. Seventy-four percent said they disapprove of congressional Republicans while only 17 percent said they approve — their lowest score ever in Quinnipiac’s polling.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/poll-indicates-gop-has-been-deeply-damaged-by-shutdown-fight
It looks like you might benefit from some perspective and a little history lesson. The cartoon about how laws are made will be particularly illuminating for you.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/30/jon-stewart-on-govt-shutdown_n_4020581.html
Regarding the ACA……I’m not impressed. We were told we could beep our existing plan. In my case it will be cancelled. To go with the ACA, my premiums will increase over 100% for similar coverage with the same company. Affordable? Not!
Who cancelled your policy?
Have you looked at other insurance providers? And does the increase you talk about include the tax credits in ACA?
Actually, John is on to something. If the GOPs in the House go away, we might actually see some sensible outcomes.
I suspect john embraced birtherism because it dovetailed nicely with his opposition to the president and the president’s policies. If john ever seriously questioned birthersm, he might have to question his judgment about Obama, and that would precipitate an existential crisis from which he could not recover.
The insurance company cancelled the insurance because it was not in effect prior to the date the ACA was signed into law. The increase does not include the subsidies. The actual increase is 131% with the same company.
For those losing hours and becoming “part-time” employees and mandated to purchase health insurance, it’s like taking a double hit.
Carl, I’m not really interested in asking you to subsidise my premiums. I guess I’m a little old fashioned.
The law doesn’t require any insurance company to cancel coverage. If an insurance company chooses not to renew a policy, that’s strictly voluntary on the insurance company’s part.
If you live in a state which has set up its own insurance exchange or is participating in the Federal insurance exchange, you should have no trouble finding coverage which is equivalent to your existing plan.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303983904579095731139251304.html
Mr. George, I’m actually interested real-world anecdotes as the media is spinning everything so wildly. May I ask what state and provider you had? Was it individual or group? Etc.
Have you looked at your state’s exchange? We’re on Medicare so I haven’t looked at all the rules about cancellations and that sort of thing but I did look at rates where we live now and where we lived a few years ago and they looked pretty good compared to what we were paying on a company plan. Income level makes a big difference in premiums and subsidies.
As far as the subsidies are concerned they are tax credits and if you’ve been paying taxes you you’ve paid for them. I’m not sure why you would pass them up.
Here’s a nice piece from Bloomberg with some perspective that is worth keeping in mind on day one of Obamacare:
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-01/the-four-things-you-need-to-know-about-obamacares-first-day?campaign_id=DN100113
New York News Headline: “House of Turds”
The Dish: The Nullification Party
I seem to have messed up the markup on the above post. Sorry.
All the text is from the linked article at The Dish.
Jimmy Kimmel Asks Pedestrians If They Prefer Obamacare Or The Affordable Care Act
“It turns out that plenty of people hate Obamacare, but love the Affordable Care Act. ”
94% of Americans will pay less that expected, and “expected” is the initial prediction that most would pay less than they are now. So if you’re one of the infinitesimally small number that see any increase at all, perhaps you just need to look a little harder?
http://aspe.hhs.gov/health/reports/2013/MarketplacePremiums/ib_marketplace_premiums.cfm
Oh look, John went back under his rock. Big surprise.
I have always been happy to pay more in taxes to help make health care available to people who cannot afford it. Call me old fashioned, but it’s something that humane people do for one another.
I agree 100%.
That’s one of the biggest complaints I have about tea party-ists. They love the idea of self-reliance. Self-reliance is all fine and good, if you’re able to accomplish it. But we get so much more ahead as a country if we help each other out. We have no children, but I gladly pay for our school system. If some people can’t afford health insurance, I gladly help out with that. It’s a loss to the whole community if women have unplanned pregnancies, if diabetics can’t afford medication and end up blind, if cancer victims are not diagnosed early and so needlessly die when their children are young. A little money spent upfront saves so much more money later! (Sorry, I get a little passionate about it at times. I’ve got to stop reading the idiotic Free Republic posts.)
And I agree with you 100%…
Amen. There is just a streak of pure old meanness that runs through some of these folks.
Today’s conservative is simply someone who would be perfectly happy to live under a freeway overpass, cooking pigeons over a trashcan fire, provided he could be guaranteed that the people living under the next overpass had no pigeons at all.
I bet 90+% of Tea Partiers would just die miserably if they ever got cancer or something similar. They are not the folks who have money, or a good insurance, or anything. That’s why it’s two-fold against their own interest to hate the ACA, but they don’t realize that. They’re like cows who go “yay, burgers are great!”.
You must be of Danish heritage. The Danes pay possibly the highest taxes in the world and are (because of that ?) the happiest people in the world. (Google-it).
I thought Jon Stewart’s comments last night were dead on target. Even Bill O’Reilly seemed to blame the GOP, at least in part.
Seen from here, your situation reminds me of what’s happening in Italy where Berlusconi is ready to sink their government rather than lose his parlementary imnmunity and face up the (mild) punishment in store for him as a result of his recent conciction. (With more to come, no doubt.)
I could be wrong (I’ll admit it in advance) but the problem(s) you’ve identified with the ACA (correctly or not) seem to me to stem from the fact that it wasn’t conceived as a true single-payer system, or at least like many European countries with private insurances (France, Switzerlkand, etc.) a truly enforceable universal system.
The reason why it wasn’t was entirely because of right-wing GOP opposition. Therefore it is somewhat disingenuous to complain aboiut the lack of things your political representatives rejected or sabotaged, no?
If an anti-seat belt lobby forced Detroit to make cars without seat belts, then I would hope you would not complain when you go through the windshield in a crash.
Sadly, this attitude seems to be rather prevalent, AFAIK.
I recently read a letter written by Bill Kristol during the HillaryCare debates of the early 1990s (sorry, I am on a train and don’t have time to find it this moment). One of the large fears he expressed was that government healthcare may not completely fail so the middle class may actually rediscover that the government can help with some services. This would be a severe risk to the future of a GOP that has based their entire platform on “government is the problem.”
To the right, they need not understand the details of the ACA because their only problem is that it exists at all.
Yes! I think that is what is driving the desperate, last minute effort to delay, derail – anything!! – Obamacare (as they must call it) because it looks like it may work and that would be terrible news for Republicans. Kinda sick when you think about it.
This is one of the best things I’ve ever read.
Even Trent Lott thinks this current bunch of republicans are crazy
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/09/trent-lott-ted-cruz-cut-his-legs-out-under-him
No, I’m not Danish, but I think I’d like to live in Denmark. They seem like rational people. Also, I really like to bicycle, and Denmark is very supportive of bicycle culture. Plus, one of my favorite physicists, Niels Bohr, was Danish. So it’s like the complete package!
I’m not Danish, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn once.
I had a Danish for breakfast at a Holiday Inn Express once
I once swiped a day-old bagel and two packets of cream cheese from a breakfast bar at a Motel 6.
It’s funded by Boris and Natasha.
I’m not a Danish, but Ich bin ein Berliner…
Did you have to pay them back and forfeit your NCAA Tournament appearance for that year?
I’m still trying to work this out. The policy will be cancelled because it doesn’t meet the standards of the ACA. When I gain access to the Exchange I’m sure that I will get better answers. One thing I discovered. If one has an existing individual plan and doesn’t want to sign up up for the ACA, as long as your individual plan is the same or better than a Bronze plan there is no penalty for not signing up for an ACA plan. Back to work.
Close! It was actually a touring production of “Jane Eyre.” I had to forfeit my favorite seat on the bus.
Good luck!! Keep us posted on how it works out.
ROTFL! Those are great lines… too bad there is soooo much truth behind the dark humor…
Yes, it has become all too painfully obvious that this is the mindset behind a lot of their motivations…
I have had difficulty figuring out some of your previous comments on this subject, but this one is a bit clearer to me. The ACA, in requiring everyone to obtain heath insurance, sets minimum standards. Insurance companies used to sell policies that don’t meet those standards. Not surprisingly, policies that meet the standards are more expensive than policies that don’t. This apples-to-oranges comparison is the basis for right-wing claims that Obamacare is increasing premiums.
But your comments about “ACA plan” and “sign up for the ACA” seem to reflect a misconception. There is no requirement to buy insurance on the exchanges, and there’s nothing special about policies bought there. You can just call up an insurance company and deal directly with them. In some cases people qualify for tax credits, and I think it’s true that you can only get a tax credit if you buy on the exchange — but one of your comments was that you don’t want a tax credit anyhow.
Wouldn’t the government shut-down be the perfect excuse to impose martial law? Time to start counting!
Over here in the UK, we are watching and waiting for the US to declare martial law. I expect to be waiting for a very long time.
Breath easy. It isn’t going to happen.
Why not? The whole point of insurance is to allow the members of a group to collectively “subsidize” (socialize!) the members’ individual expenses.
The disaster already happened. They ran for Congress. And state legislatures all across the country. Gov’t, even society itself, is compromise. Those incapable of it are equipped to participate, and are a burden on those who are.
The very notion of a “CR” is an abomination.
The only answer these retrograders deserve:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyXHA7xiChc
(No, that’s not Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka … tho he’s perfect, too! 😛 )
So we went and elected a usurping tyrant and we end up with squat. Klayman, Taitz and the rest have not been FEMAd and we are left with this odd congressional soap opera. The government hasn’t even confiscated a squirt gun. Where’s my tyranny? Where’s my commie-socialist-racist-nazi dictatorship? Why is America not destroyed yet?
You can’t trust anything these days.
That is correct. If you have health insurance which meets the minimum standards you don’t have to do anything. That includes Medicare, Medicaid, V.A., CHAMPUS, etc. In fact, it has been estimated that 80% of Americans don’t need to do anything regarding Obamacare.
The only reason that insurance of any kind works is because the premiums paid by people who are less likely to make claims pay for the money which is paid out to the people who are more likely to make claims.
Life insurance, for example, would be unaffordable if the only people who bought it were retirees. Auto insurance would be unaffordable if the only people who bought it were people with bad driving records. One of the problems with Medicare is that most Medicare recipients are senior citizens who are more likely to have health problems than the population at large. Medicare doesn’t have a pool of younger, healthier policyholders to offset the older, less healthy seniors who are on Medicare.
Here is a list of essential items that must be covered:
https://www.healthcare.gov/what-does-marketplace-health-insurance-cover/
I think one of the reasons for anger at the requirements is that some of them do not pertain to the needs of the individual (or couple), particularly maternity and newborn care, and pediatrics. You can’t negotiate for a plan that would exclude what you truly do not need.
So far, the only indication that my husband has received is that any employee who smokes should either quit or be prepared to pay an increase in premiums.
I would be curious to hear what others have been told.
What a revoltin’ development!
— Chester A. Riley – 1953-58
Lots of anecdotes out there but here’s one that may give you heart:
Meet Butch Matthews, A Republican Who Came To Love Obamacare After Realizing It Will Save Him $13,000
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/10/02/2721501/butch-matthews-obamacare-convert/
“some of the same rumor-based decision making processes we see with birtherism, seem to play a role in the Tea Party approach to legislation.”
The Theology of Government Shutdown: Christian Dominionism
I’m interested in understanding what account of Christianity creates the “no compromise” crusade that the Tea Party has become known for. It turns out that Ted’s father, Rafael Cruz, is a pastor with Texas charismatic ministry Purifying Fire International who has been campaigning against Obamacare the last several months. He has a distinct theological vision for what America is supposed to look like: Christian dominionism.
Read on:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/morgan-guyton/the-theology-of-governmen_b_4020537.html
Translation: The American Taliban.
Spot, meet On.
FIFM.
I’ve been reading about this organization. Apparently, it’s headed by the notorious fraud and God-grifter, Benny Hinn. Hinn, who, while separated from his drug-addled wife, had an affair with a blond evangelist from Florida, and whose hysterical faith-healing antics bring in millions from his jejune followers, is so obviously a fake, that if a loved one of mine became involved with his “ministry,” I’d go to court to have that family member institutionalized. The fact that Ted Cruz appears to approve of his father’s involvement with Hinn, demonstrates that you can graduate from Princeton and Harvard without ever learning to think critically or detect bull.
If “faith healers” are agin’ it, you know it must be good LOL
Exactly!
That may as well be the DEFINITION of insurance.
I wish Tom Clancy were here to write a novel about how all this was a setup for a coup that gives America her first Cuban-Canadian President. First, a totally fictitious Cuban-Canadian is installed as Speaker of the House. Next, a fictional African American President, together with his or her Vice President, are both removed from office in a horrific violent act, placing the Cuban-Canadian into office. Any resemblance to any persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
I went to one of Hinn’s services out of boredom and raw curiosity once.
He has ushers who are really, really rude and mean to attendees. A strange thing to experience in a church.
The other thing that struck me was that parts of his sermon were actually pretty good. Honestly, I was quite impressed by a few things he said, which were just random things based on life experiences and observations made by a younger Benny in Israel.
But then he changes the whole tone of the whole thing and it becomes a laughably garish, painfully phony stage presentation of faith healing. At the time, I didn’t even know that was his schtick, so, after a relatively reasonable and fairly interesting sermon, when he transitioned into his healing service, I was genuinely shocked.
Of course, being the complete shameless punk that I am, I also played along with it. I have a gift for making people in any walk of life believe that I’m aligned with them. I got right up to the stage and did the whole dance of complete shameless blasphemy. And I got on his mailing list, so whenever he sends me an envelope, I send it back with something weird.
“Texas Sen. Ted Cruz stumped in Iowa over the weekend, and his father Rafael Cruz was promoting his son’s possibly presidential candidacy to pastors and local Republican leaders during his trip. In fact, he said in an interview with Chrsitian Broadcasting Networks’ David Brody that he told his son: “You know Ted, you have been gifted above any man that I know and God has destined you for greatness.’ And I started making declarations about the Word of God to him every day.”
He goes on to suggest that his son is destined to save freedom in America, and even Brody called Cruz’s political career “a thing of God.”
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/ted-cruzs-father-tells-him-god-has-destined-you-greatness#sthash.6QIzuZIv.dpuf
Hinn was born in Jaffa, Israel. I was there.
Hinn is a Palestinian Arab: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Hinn
You can always tell a Harvard grad, but you can’t tell him much.
How can you tell if someone went to Harvard?
Don’t worry; they’ll let you know.
Speaking of which, here’s a video of Benny’s wife, Suzanne, testifying about godly enemas. This was when she was addicted to prescription pain killers. I don’t mean to mock her addiction, but her behavior is so Grand Guignol that someone (her husband?) should have noticed and intervened.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jhw_5ye8Qo
Mrs. Hinn eventually entered rehab (apparently Benny couldn’t heal her). Then, she lost a lot of weight, dyed her hair blond, and now looks remarkable like the pretty evangelist her husband had an affair with. God works in mysterious ways.
An important message from Ted Cruz: http://tinyurl.com/kfmrlno
Looks like Senate Republicans are getting tired of Ted Cruz.. Could they expel him?
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/ted-cruz-blasted-by-angry-gop-colleagues-government-shutdown-97753.html#ixzz2gbw8dxqM
“It was very evident to everyone in the room that Cruz doesn’t have a strategy – he never had a strategy, and could never answer a question about what the end-game was,” said one senator who attended the meeting. “I just wish the 35 House members that have bought the snake oil that was sold could witness what was witnessed today at lunch.”
I’d rimshot that, but the Gob’ment took mah drums!
WOW! Amazing savings. I’ll let you know how this works out. Thanks for the tips. One comment that was made….. I can go directly to the provider and work with them and not the Exchange. I’m well aware of that process. Unfortunately if I go to the same provider and directly purchase a similar plan to my old plan my premiums will go up 131%. That’s simply not going to work. Once I can get onto the Exchange I will better know what my options are. Thanks for your help.
Ted Cruz is such an idiot! Everyone know that urine must be strained through a gym sock before it can unleash its health-giving qualities.
Once you do get a quote from the Exchange, take it back to your current provider. You’d be surprised what a little motivation can do to stone when it comes to under-writing.
Seriously, if anyone in North Carolina needs health insurance, give Foggy a shout. He is an agent for Blue Cross.
That’s true. The socialist communists that Obama appointed, took Andrew’s drums and gave them to Moslems in Kenya. The rest of Andrew’s band had their instruments taken by the government to pay for Obamacare.
One more thing — in many states there are companies selling insurance that are not on the exchange. So if you really want to get carried away, you can get that list and call those companies too.
The funny thing about the republican nonsense is how they say oh the government should not be involved the free market should handle it. Well now that the free market is lowering costs through the healthcare marketplace their ideological problems seem like nonsense.
How is it a “free market” if only entities modeled on capitalism are allowed to play? And/or if all regs/incentives favor capitalist entities?
Chickenhearted capitalist afraid of honest competition? 😛
Well, Cruz is certainly a chip off the old block, isn’t he? I of course mean that in the most unflattering way possible.
You forgot to add eh comrade? to the end of that.
If only I could add a ushanka to that smiley …. 😉
This excellent article in ESQUIRE provides, I think, some of the causes:
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Endless_Victimhood
“So far, many tens of thousands of people had started the application process but the number of those who were able to create accounts and shop for coverage is likely in the low thousands, according to people with knowledge of the situation and estimates by insurance-industry advisers.
The administration has declined to say the total number of enrollees.”
http://m.us.wsj.com/articles/a/SB10001424052702304441404579119740283413018?mg=reno64-wsj
Apparently, this is going to take more time than anticipated and the software problems once fixed may cause issues in November. I’ve gone back to being not very impressed with the online ACA Federal Exchange.
So what. It’s not like the ACA needs a million sign-ups in the first few days to be considered a success. It’s not a Hollywood movie or a Jay-Z record.
I usually like to remind conservatives how many “glitches” your country (slavery, Jim Crow, women’s suffrage) and your Constitution (amended 25 times, hello?!) obviously had. I think an important new law can survive a couple of website outages.
FIFY. 😉