The Republicans in Congress have thrown their little boy tantrum, having decided that Americans don’t need government and should not have affordable medical insurance. They forced a shutdown because they insist on eliminating the Affordable Care Act (ACA) which mandates health care for all Americans.
I wrote a rant about this, but a much wiser person has said it better. This link takes you to a posting by John Scalzi. READ IT!
The Broken Bullhorn 
Already read it, and it’s very good.
Yes. And even though the ACA isn’t perfect, it’s at least a step in the right direction. There’s no point in arguing about it unless someone comes up with something even better and more comprehensive to replace it (*cough* single payer system *cough*).
I’m trying to keep my ranting to a minimum, but as someone whose job is contingent upon government funding, it’s incredibly frustrating to have to worry about how long I’m going to have to go without a paycheck before our elected officials decide to grow up and pass a budget instead of throwing a tantrum about legislation that’s already passed.
What is sick is that the one person I heard asking one of them what they were offering as an alternative was Jason Jones (basically a comedian) on The Daily Show. The quality of press coverage in this country sucks big time. Clearly, Roger Ailes puts out the “talking points of the day” as everyone on Fox News is on the exact same page until they get the next day’s memo and new talking points. (If you don’t believe me, watch The Daily Show any night.)
I honestly don’t think most of them particularly want to keep health care from the poor. I think the poor rarely enter their minds. It’s all about their frustration of having a foreign-born Muslim in the White House (for two terms yet!) and their inability to do anything about that.
Watch for impeachment hearings as some future date. I blame Boehner who was supposed to be the grownup in the nursery but instead let the inmates run the asylum (to mix metaphors).
Jeff, they don’t give a s**t about anyone else but themselves. Is Hawaii now considered “foreign born”? Maybe he was just raised there. It’s not clear to me how a group with a constituency that equals just 18% of the American voters can hold the government hostage like this.
I’m pretty upset right now over something else (see tomorrow post) so forgive my stupidity.
I don’t think they really believe Obama is from Kenya or a Muslim, but by repeating it often enough they have convinced many in the (let’s be honest here) moron constituency whose sole news source features Sean Hannity and the like.
The ultimate answer is government run healthcare like England, France, Canada, Germany, and most of the advanced countries enjoy. Medicare should have been extended to EVERYONE. But the Forces of Evil are bound and determined to stop everyone from having affordable health coverage, yet they have no alternative plan. Idiots!