Adventure is worthwhile - Aesop

Ryan Slaughters Slaughter

by Hal_10000

Watch Paul Ryan embarrass Louise Slaughter like she’s the #1 seed in the Midwest Bracket (What, me bitter? Never).  And for desert, he smashes up Xavier Becerra and Sander Levin.

Fucking.  Kick.  Ass.

I’m going to dispute Becerra, who is completely full of shit.  This talking point from the Democrats—that they are not going to tax ordinary Americans in their plan—is gibberish.  The vast majority of the cost of Obamacare is going to be paid for by people who already have insurance—in increased rates and decreased care.  The plan will also force everyone to buy insurance for themselves and/or their employees.  That’s not a tax, technically.  But it is a massive unfunded mandate on the nation to the tune of tens of billions of dollars a year.  It is the government forcing people to spend money directly on something through law rather than indirectly through taxation.  I don’t really see much of a difference.

You know, maybe the Democrats are onto something.  We should just bypass the entire tax system this way.  Instead of taxing people for welfare, the government can force us to donate to charity.  Instead of being taxed for foreign aid, we can wire money directly to other countries.  Instead of supporting the military through taxes, we’ll just bunk soldiers in our guest rooms.  (Oh yeah, like the Democrats even know about the Third Amendment.)

One other thing to notice here is the complete cluelessness—feigned or real—that the Democrats have on Medicare.  You can literally see the lack of comprehension in Slaughter’s eyes when Ryan tells her that Medicare is going bankrupt.  She doesn’t understand what he’s talking about.  The idea that the government doesn’t have infinite money does not make sense to the Democrats.  As far as they are concerned, the Great Golden God of Government can never run out of money.

Another must read on the pending HCR bill comes from Michael Cannon, who is taking the gloves off as we get close to this catastrophe.  Money quote:

Myth: This legislation would stop abusive insurance practices.

The Obama plan would encourage abusive insurance practices. Research by Obama adviser David Cutler shows that the plan’s price controls would force insurers who provide quality care for the sick into bankruptcy. Insurers would therefore use countless and covert means to deny care and avoid, mistreat and dump the sick.

Along the way, the legislation would shower private insurance companies with half a trillion dollars in government subsidies.

There are fools out there who are claiming that this bill is “moderate” because it is not a single payer healthcare plan.  They are correct.  It isn’t a “liberal” plan in the purest sense.  Instead it’s a corporatist plan to tighten the control the government and Big Business have over the industry.  Maybe that’s “moderate” in the sense that getting your legs gnawed off by rats is more moderate than being completely devoured.  That’s doesn’t make it a good idea.  Ezra Klein praises the bill thusly:

If I’d told you that the Obama administration was going to release a health-care bill that would attract every Senate Democrat—from Bernie Sanders and Barbara Boxer to Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman—and either endorsements or neutrality from the American Medical Association, the hospital industry, the pharmaceutical industry, AARP, labor, and much of the insurance industry (though they’re press releases have become more oppositional recently), you’d have thought that was a pretty moderate, consensus-oriented bill. Which it is!

No, Ezra.  If you told me that every major industry player was endorsing a massive government overhaul, I would assume we, the little people, are about to get screwed.  If Bush had proposed legislation that had “endorsement or neutrality” form the Big Oil, nuclear interests, gas companies, farmers and every single Republican, I doubt that Ezra would have said it was a pretty moderate, consensus-oriented bill.

Update: Since I mentioned single payer, that gives me an excuse to bash the NHS again by linking up this story about the NHS removing the wrong ball from a patient.  OK technically, it was just the epididymis, but that’s close enough for “AIEEEEE!”

Update: Lovely.  The Democrats are saving money in the bill by putting in budget gimmicks for Medicaid that are identical to those in Medicare, something they will “fix” in about five years.

Update: What I said about Obamacare actually raising taxes through unfunded mandates?  Michael Cannon estimates that put the cost of this at $3 trillion.  That makes more sense to me than Obama’s claims.  That ensure 30 million people at a cost of $10,000 each per year.

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