Shutdown Open Thread, Day 1
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From Forbes, which of course everyone knows is a bastion of communists and liberals:
Amidst all the cries of Barack Obama being the most prolific big government spender the nation has ever suffered, Marketwatch is reporting that our president has actually been tighter with a buck than any United States president since Dwight D. Eisenhower.
From Fox News, another left wing cess poll of Nanny State apologists:
Five reasons Americans already love ObamaCare — plus one reason why they’re gonna love it even more, soon
There’s a reason Republicans have been rushing to try and defund the Affordable Care Act before October 1, when major sections of the law take effect. Republicans know what polls show — that most Americans don’t know what’s in ObamaCare, but when told what the law actually includes, a strong majority support the law. Once state health insurance exchanges take effect, and premiums for all Americans go down, Republicans know the law will only become more popular and harder to repeal.
As Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “It’s a lot harder to undo something than it is to stop it in the first place.”
Exactly. […]
1. ACA allows young Americans to stay on their parents’ insurance plans
Because of ObamaCare, which allows kids to stay on their parents insurance plans until age 26, 3.4 million young Americans now have coverage. […] According to polling, three-in-four Americans support this part of the Affordable Care Act including, yes, over two-thirds of Republicans.
2. ACA bans insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions
Another aspect of ObamaCare that has already taken effect is the ban on insurance companies denying coverage to patients based on pre-existing conditions. That means an end to insurance company horror stories like four-month-old Alex Lange being denied health insurance because he was too chubby. […] The ban on pre-existing condition limits, which will apply to every single American by 2014, is supported by 83% of Americans.
3. ACA offers tax credits to small businesses to buy insurance
The Affordable Care Act expands tax credits to help small businesses provide health insurance to their workers. Companies with fewer than 50 employees do not have to provide insurance, but even for these businesses, ObamaCare will make it easier and cheaper if they choose to do so. According to polling, 88% of Americans these small business tax credits are great, including — wait for it … yes, 83% of Republicans. That’s right, over eight-in-ten Republicans support the provision of ObamaCare that helps small businesses afford and expand their health insurance offerings to employees.
4. ACA requires companies with more than 50 employees to provide health insurance
Over 96% of companies with more than 50 employees already provide health insurance to their employees. And contrary to Republicans claiming otherwise, studies show the vast majority of those employers do not plan to drop or reduce that coverage because of ObamaCare. Also, there is no evidence that ObamaCare has led to companies slashing full-time workers. In fact, since ObamaCare passed in March 2010, over 90% of the gain in employment has been full-time positions. […] 75% of Americanssupport this element of ObamaCare.
5. ACA provides subsidies to help individuals afford coverage
Many of the 45 million Americans who lack health insurance simply don’t have enough money to afford coverage. ObamaCare will lower the cost of premiums but also provide subsidies to help low- and middle-income Americans purchase insurance. […] [M]ost Americans — 76% to be exact — support the individual subsidy. That includes 61% of Republicans.
There’s even more aspects of ObamaCare that the American people already support — including the employer mandate, the increased Medicare payroll tax on higher-income Americans and the expansion of Medicaid.
And then, starting October 1, here’s one more:
6. State-based health insurance exchanges
Americans of all political stripes like choice and competition, which is precisely what the ObamaCare health insurance exchanges will create. So it’s no wonder that 80% of Americans — including 72% of Republicans — support the health insurance exchange program in ObamaCare. And that’s even before the exchanges have taken effect!
Plus, a new report shows that health insurance premiums will be even lower under ObamaCare than originally projected.
The difference between Democrats and Republicans, in one image:
The GOP saw the polls this morning, and now they are knifing each other in the back like the criminals they are. Peter King blamed Ted Cruz and all who follow him for the Republican Shutdown. I cannot embed the video, so go to Buzzfeed and watch it there. Here is the transcript:
“That’s Ted Cruz’s fault. Ted Cruz led us down this path. This was a disaster from the start,” King said. “I could have predicted this and this is what the leadership predicted three weeks ago when they said they would never pursue defunding because it was going to work against us and we’d be blamed. But Ted Cruz insisted that his people follow him, and we did it, and that’s why we’re in this position. It’s his fault, and he wants us to get him out of it. Listen I’m saying the president should negotiate, but I ‘m saying that this was caused by Ted Cruz and his acolytes in the House of Representatives. They led us down this dead end street.”
King continued battering Cruz, citing other prominent Republicans who had attacked Cruz’s strategy in the past.
“Wall Street Journal, Karl Rove, Tom Coburn, all solid conservatives said this was a terrible policy to begin with,” King said. “We had a Republican Senator say it was the dopiest idea they’d ever heard. Ted Cruz is to blame, and those in the House who stand with him have brought about this train wreck. It’s up to us to try to get it out and it’s up to the president to step in and stop standing on the sidelines.”
No, Mr. King. The President is not obligated to help out the Republian Party in its Civil War. The President is not obligated to solve a problem the Republican Party started. The solution to this whole mess is so fucking simple my 3 three old niece could figure it out: Pass the clean Senate bill.
That is your solution, Mr. King. Stop being a coward and vote no on these Obamacare defunding blackmailing hostage taking House CR and tell each sane Republican to do likewise. That is your job, Mr. King, not the President’s.
From the Wall Street Journal, another bastion of unAmerican Marxist thought:
At the National Institutes of Health, nearly three-quarters of the staff was furloughed. One result: director Francis Collins said about 200 patients who otherwise would be admitted to the NIH Clinical Center into clinical trials each week will be turned away. This includes about 30 children, most of them cancer patients, he said.
If any of these people die during the shutdown, or eventually die during the delay of their treatment during the shutdown, every single Republican in the House must be charged with murder.
