Jun. 4th, 2013

defrog: (mooseburgers)
ITEM: Conservative groups opposed to the Obamacare law have decided if they can’t repeal it or have the courts strike it down, they can at least ensure that Obamacare fails to work. 

According to Bloomberg, Heritage Action for America (the advocacy arm of the Heritage Foundation) and the Tea Party-aligned group FreedomWorks will push Congress to cut off funding for the insurance exchanges that are key to the entire Obamacare plan, and meanwhile run ads “warning” people that the exchanges don’t work. The rationale: the less people sign up with the exchanges, the more insurance costs will go up under Obamacare:

The insurance exchanges, which will go online in October to provide coverage starting Jan. 1, are designed as Internet marketplaces where people can compare prices for insurance and find out if they qualify for subsidies or Medicaid. Having effective exchanges will be important so people can comply with the law’s mandate that all Americans get insurance or pay a fee.

By creating a large pool of individual buyers, the exchanges are intended to lower the cost of coverage by spreading the risk for insurance companies. Opponents predict that if there isn’t a large enough group or mostly high-cost sick patients sign up, insurance plans won’t be affordable, said Josh Withrow, legislative affairs manager for FreedomWorks.

“If enough people don’t get in to these exchanges, it’s essentially going to be to be unfundable,” said Withrow. “They need the healthy people in the exchanges.”

Ironically, as Wonkette points out, Heritage Action for America knows all this is because the Heritage Foundation helped create the idea of exchange systems for RomneyCare in Massachusetts. Obamacare uses the same principle. And since we know that the exchange system works, the secret to getting rid of Obamacare is, basically, sabotaging the exchange system so that it doesn’t work, after which Republicans will say “See, we TOLD you it would never work the way Obama said!” right before they repeal it.

Which is, obviously, kind of a dick thing to do, considering that the goal is to ensure that the millions of people that might benefit from Obamacare don’t.

But then I guess it’s the logical outcome for a party that has pretty much opposed Obamacare strictly on ideological grounds (GOVT TAKEOVER OF HEALTHCARE, SOCIALISM, ETC) rather than its workability, and have spent an insane amount of time trying to get rid of it – unsuccessfully (although those 37 repeal votes and Supreme Court challenges have paid off in at least one way – 19% of the country actually believes Obamacare has either been repealed or shut down, and another 23% don't know what its status is, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation).

So why not resort to sabotage? And so what if it screws over the millions of Americans that might benefit from Obamacare? They already don’t have health insurance, and they’re also takers who want free Obama stuff, so it’s not like the GOP is going to deprive them of something they actually have. Or don’t have. Or whatever.

Listen all y’all it’s a sabotage,

This is dF


defrog: (Default)
!!! (a.k.a. Chk Chk Chk) get a lot of crap about their name, but I’ve been a fan of their art-funk sound for awhile now. 

As it happens, they have a new album out. It’s called Thr!!!er, of course. And it goes for a more pop feel than previous albums.

This is not necessarily a good thing, depending on whether you prefer it funky or poppy. I prefer the former, and !!!’s attempts to balance the two are somewhat hit and miss. Oddly, this is reportedly the first time they went to the studio with fully completed songs ready to go, yet a number of them sound half-completed.

Still, sometimes it works.

Listen and decide for yrself.





We want the funk,

This is dF


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