"Obamacare": The Road to Health or a Subsidy for Wealth?

I had a terrible day Thursday what with all the name calling. I support universal health care and think it's fine to tax the very wealthy for the benefit of society and those with the least. Still, after the court's ruling I dared to speak up and say that the outrageous health care COSTS we currently have, the lack of incentives for preventive care and the pay per procedure system should be reformed BEFORE we write a blank check to the health industrial complex. I also dared to point out that we will have to borrow money to pay for it (unless we raise taxes on the wealthy, which seems unlikely in this climate despite that it is the right thing to do). I repeatedly asserted my support for universal care throughout making these points. Nevertheless, I was attacked by a surprisingly large amount of people for being "tea party" (which is a ridiculous accusation given my politics) and a Fox news watcher, etc. It was VERY hateful by people I only assume call themselves "liberals". The sad thing is that without reforming the overpriced and substandard health care in this country, universal healthcare will further bankrupt our country (again, unless we raise taxes on the wealthy). When we get so much debt that we can't afford to pay interest payments anymore, austerity (aka structural adjustment policies in the third world) will eventually make its way here, making "Obamacare" ENTIRELY MOOT since at that point we would lose control over our own fiscal policy decisions. It's like every liberal in the country is whistling past the graveyard on this one, so delighted due to their enormous lowering of standards. It's sick. "You are all diseased" as George Carlin once said. I guess you feel it's easier just to make your grandchildren pay for today's corrupt health care instead of actually reforming the health care system so we can afford it. No amount of health care will save you from your own greedy, diseased minds.


Without reforming the outrageously high cost of health care in this country we are just writing a blank check to insurance and pharmaceutical companies. Since we borrow the money to pay them, we will be going into debt much faster than we are now (which is at a pretty fast pace mind you). Don't you understand what happens when you can't pay your interest payments anymore? They have control over your fiscal decisions. THEY WILL SHUT OBAMACARE, FOOD STAMPS, MEDICARE/MEDICAID ETC. AS SOON AS WE FALL BEHIND ON OUR DEBT OBLIGATIONS PEOPLE. Consider that we are only able to make our current payments by borrowing. What would happen if just one of our debt holders decided we had too much? Well, look it up. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_adjustmenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_adjustment


I'm sick of being attacked like I'm a tea partier. I'm NOT! I'm for raising taxes on the wealthy BY A LOT. BUT that isn't happening, now is it? Not when you've got millions of poor people convinced they might someday be rich and therefor vote AGAINST their own economic interests.

A friend said that it's better to go broke while trying to help sick people than going broke without trying to help sick people. I agree. A former professor asked if I thought it was better to sit on our hands and 'let people die'. I was embarrassed to have to correct a professor by pointing out her simple fallacy. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma


It was a long day.

Austerity, Death by A Thousand Cuts

I guess the average American who doesn't think about politics much will be quite surprised when they no longer get pell grants, food stamps, medicare, medicaid, social security, veterans' benefits, unemployment insurance, disability, ANY food, water and air pollution regulation, earned income tax credits or the like, community medical clinics, community youth programs, services at national parks (or maybe no national parks since they could bring in some money from logging and mining), community services for the elderly, community development block grants, federal financial assistance for schools and roads, publically priced utilities (since they will be privatized and the price goes way up), a dollar that is worth much, any environmental, humanitarian or labor protection from multi-national corporations that will demand (and get) unfettered access to our markets, and a fraction of the money spent on education and public infrastructure including needed sanitation and water quality maintenance and improvements. These things together makes an economic "development" strategy often called Structural Adjustment Policies (and the Washington Consensus) and they've been used with devastating results in the third world for 50 years or more. Now they call it "austerity" as it moves out of the "third" world and into the "first". Whatever they call it, it is a death by a thousand cuts.