In one of my rare political musings, it’s now 9:07 PM here on the east coast; the government is just mere hours away from what the news is saying will be the 18th time a fiscal disagreement has forced our government to shut down. I’ve bitten the bullet and have read the recent articles about why this is happening and while I understand there is severe opposition to what they’re calling “Obamacare” in Congress, I just find it incredible that there are Republicans so hell-bent on having things their way that they’re willing to fuck over the country because they don’t like what’s going down.
So much for this august body doing what’s best for Americans, huh? I remember seeing the articles about the filibuster that Republican dude undertook – that whole process just strikes me as being hysterically funny because, yeah, they can hold the floor for as long as they can… and they don’t really have to talk about anything meaningful so “Green Eggs and Ham” is actually a legit topic of discussion in this situation.
But to what end? From what I’ve been reading, if the shutdown happens – and depending on how long it goes – it’ll cost more money to get things restarted and back to some semblance of normal… so just what in the hell is going on here and, even better, who’s getting rich behind this because knowing the way politicians work, someone is benefiting from this while Americans are going to potentially be out of work, government services shut down or greatly impaired, etc..
I read that some Republicans are raising all holy hell about a medical devices tax that’s supposed to be at the heart of their resistance . After reading the article and what this tax is supposed to be about, I guess I’m like a lot of people and wondering why this is such a big fucking deal and while it might not mean anything to the average citizen, well, it obviously means something to the Republicans for them to act, as one article said, like fiscal terrorists, which is kinda crazy since it’s a well-known fact that the United States of America does not negotiate with terrorists.
They’re willing to hold the government hostage to get what they want and if other people wind up suffering, I guess it sucks to be one of the little people. I also read that if the current crisis is averted – and I really do hope it is – those same ‘fiscal terrorists’ will have another chance to make a mess when it’s time to renew the Treasury Department’s debt ceiling, which is necessary to our country’s ability to pay its debts and fund the stuff the government’s already spent money on.
I don’t quite get it. According to what I’ve read, none of this action will decrease government spending or reduce the national debt… so why cripple a system of government that already has ongoing money issues? Things are hard enough as it is, right? So why make things harder than they have to be?
As strange as it may seem, the government is actually working exactly the way it was designed to work – that checks and balances thing and Congress is, well, they’re being Congress. I’ve said in the past that everyone raises most holy hell with whoever’s occupying the White House when, in fact, Congress is responsible for a lot of shit going bad and all because they can’t ever agree on what’s best for the country and its citizens. You have these pissing contests between Republicans and Democrats that ultimately rains shit down on people like you and me.
This shit is crazy and I can only hope that it doesn’t get any crazier… but I guess we’ll find out in two hours, twenty-six minutes…
Ribbons Undone
1 October 2013 at 00:22
You can bet that someone is making money off of all of this. It wouldn’t be happening if there wasn’t a profit for someone. Our government doesn’t do anything for free.
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kdaddy23
1 October 2013 at 00:29
Nope, they sure as hell don’t.
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travellinginternationally
1 October 2013 at 00:54
The sad thing is the US has health-care completely wrong. Having lived in the US I remember having about 25% – 33% of my pay going to pay for insurance and then panicking every time I needed treatment, wondering how I will pay for it. Now, living in the UK, I pay around $200 / month, from my pay, for the NHS where I am treated for free, I pay around $11 for any medication (Wales & Scotland get their medications for free) and plus I receive private health insurance with $250 deductible free from my employer. The private insurance gets me treated faster and it opens more treatment options for me. Now, I do not have to worry about paying for health-care.
With that said, I do believe there are certain aspects about Obamacare that mirror the UK system but I do not believe Obama has health-care right. As I understand it, illegal immigrants are entitled to health-care under Obama’s plan? In the UK, there is a major push to charge non-EU immigrants that includes illegals for health care due to the cost involved. Also, I believe a major failing of Obama’s plan is that it lack the proper controls to make medicines affordable. Without controlling the cost of medicines it makes any plan expensive and likely to fail. Finally, there are problems with the law itself. I just read about 500,000 children did not get coverage under the bill due to the way it was written.
I am not saying the Republicans are right to defund Obamacare and the only thing I will agree with them is the general principle that the law needs to be re-examined. From my understanding the law is not workable and it will add to the cost of healthcare instead of making it cheaper.
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kdaddy23
1 October 2013 at 01:14
I’m pretty sure that someone has screwed the pooch with this national healthcare plan and the healthcare industry stands to make out like even bigger bandits than they already are. I don’t remember if illegals are going to be entitled or not; honestly, I haven’t been paying much attention to the initiative other than hearing that a lot of people don’t like it and that it has flaws that would wind up hurting more people than helping.
And I checked the news and found that those idiots couldn’t reach an agreement so the US government is now in a shutdown mode.
Making it cheaper, sadly, ain’t the American way; again, someone stands to get very rich off of Obamacare. The pharms industry – and I used to work for one that’s based in London (starts with an A) – will make a ton of money because the cost of medicine isn’t being controlled; insurance companies will start finding more reasons to turn down any claims because with so many people now having health insurance, it’s going to affect their bottom lines big time. Then, as you point out, flaws in the way it was written will exclude many of the people who really need it.
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travellinginternationally
1 October 2013 at 13:00
I have to commend Obama for trying to improve healthcare and in the the ‘same breath,’ I have to ask how come he did not learn from Clinton?
My friends and family still in the States are seeing their health insurance premiums rise by at least $100 per month starting today, I believe.
I have to agree with you, making things cheaper is not the American way especially if there is a large profit to be made.
In my opinion, the best way would have been some form of nationalization of health care whereby insurance companies do not compete for individual customers but instead compete for contracts to provide coverage.
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