Tag Archives: obamacare

3,000,000

Wow. This is in The Huffington Post this morning: The Obama administration said Friday that more than 3 million people have now signed up for private plans through the federal and state health insurance exchanges, including more than 800,000 in … Continue reading

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A Prediction for the Next Three Years: The Californication of America Will Proceed Apace

It’s 2014. What will it be like in January of 2017? To answer this question, I think we should look backward to 35 years ago, when it was 1979. Jimmy Carter was president, the multi-ethnic “We are Family” Pittsburgh Pirates … Continue reading

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Surprise, Surprise: Obamacare Works for a Small-Business Owner

This was in The New York Times earlier this week: Rachel Bryant, a small-business owner who lives just outside Winston-Salem [N.C], felt unlucky when she received a notice from Blue Cross saying that her plan was being canceled and that the … Continue reading

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Is Obamacare a Train Wreck?

In today’s NYT is an article on the initial failure of the Obamacare website’s functioning (healthcare.gov) that nevertheless contains a ray of hope: Administration officials have said there is plenty of time to resolve the [portal] problems before the mid-December … Continue reading

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Are Obamacare Exchanges Failing?

There’s no doubt that the Obamacare exchange websites have had a terrible initial roll-out, but this is different from describing the Obamacare exchanges as a failure, at least based on this portion of an AP story that just came out … Continue reading

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Kill Obamacare or Republicans Will Default on the Debt and the Global Economy Will Die!

Historian Anne Applebaum bottom-lines Republican hostage-taking: Obamacare is the law, as confirmed by the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of our political system. A portion of one of those branches is therefore not now legally or morally empowered to change that … Continue reading

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What’s the End Game to Republican Hostage Taking?

The following, from The New York Times, is some stunning “inside baseball” reportage surrounding the Republican shut down of the federal government and John Boehner’s threat to default on the nation’s debt if Obamacare is not dismantled: They [the House … Continue reading

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It’s Always Been John Boehner’s Call (No Country for Old Men)

I think one of the great scenes in No Country for Old Men has a lot of political salience right now. John Boehner is the man pretending events are not of his making; Obama is the woman saying, “The coin don’t have … Continue reading

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Republicans Try to Stop Obamacare with Threat to Plunge the Global Economy into Recession

The Republicans are certainly getting everybody’s attention, most especially individuals from the business and finance community. Here’s The New York Times today: One of the top executives who met with Mr. Obama, Lloyd C. Blankfein, the chairman of the Goldman Sachs bank … Continue reading

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Obamacare’s Exchanges are a Good Thing

This woman’s story is illustrative of why:

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Republicans Want to Shut the Government Down

They can barely contain themselves. In fact, they’re flush about it. This was in The New York Times yesterday: The mood in the Capitol on Saturday, at least among Republicans, was downright giddy. When Republican leaders presented their plan in a … Continue reading

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Reality is starting to assert itself. You won’t read this at the Drudge Report, but evidence is accumulating that Obamacare has been working over the past three years, and it’s poised to be a success moving into its “insurance exchange … Continue reading

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Obamacare: You Fund It, You Own It

It’s entertaining to watch the Tea Party right send the Republican Party over the cliff, as in this ad pressing Mitch McConnell to defund Obamacare: __________ The Republican leadership clearly recognizes that it cannot defund Obamacare without a stand-off with … Continue reading

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Contemptible Republicans vs. Obamacare

__________ At National Journal, Norm Ornstein offers some brilliant analysis of attempts by the Republican leadership to sabotage the implementation of Obamacare: What is going on now to sabotage Obamacare is […] sharply beneath any reasonable standards of elected officials … Continue reading

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Getting People to Sign Up for Obamacare in October

Here’s one way Oregon is trying to doing it: catchy and gentle persuasion. I like it. Carrots are better than sticks. But after October, maybe recycle this into the rotation at the Baby Channel? __________ Conservatives, I presume, will probably … Continue reading

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Why Do Grandmas (Post-Menopausal Women) Exist?

Judith Shulevitz at The New Republic homes in on two theories: the “stopping-early hypothesis” and the “grandmother hypothesis”: In 1957, the evolutionary biologist George Williams proposed what is called the “stopping-early” hypothesis: Middle-age women need baby-free time to usher their youngest children into … Continue reading

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The Comforts of Modernity Lead to Atheism

That’s the fascinating thesis of psychologist Nigel Barber, supported: (1) inductively, by research he’s been conducting; and (2) deductively, by a rather straightforward syllogism, which I would put this way: Religion thrives on fear and insecurity. Where people have it … Continue reading

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Let the 30-Year-Old Die!: The Christianist Party Shouts for Crucifixion

This is a must-see. It’s the Republican audience’s reaction to a debate question directed last night to Ron Paul by Wolf Blitzer. The gist of the question was the following: Should society let an employed 30-year-old experiencing a catastrophic health crisis, but lacking insurance, die? … Continue reading

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