Will They Once Again Turn a Gift Into an Abortion?

It appears that the Conservatives have been handed a great gift in the form of “Obamacare.” If you think that the website debacle is bad, the emerging realization that there is NO “free healthcare,” NO vaunted “public option” (UNLESS you already qualify for Medicare or Medicaid), ONLY mandated health insurance with a range of policies, from “Bronze” thru “Silver” and “Gold,” all the way to “Platinum,” with those policies that come with higher premiums delivering a wider range of care AND much lower deductibles and those policies with lower premiums delivering a much more limited range of care, with much higher deductibles, often as high as $25,000 or more. That realization amounts to a gigantic “bait and switch,” a prodigious ripoff and it will almost certainly come with profound and far-ranging political and social ramifications.

Small and medium size businesses have long been screaming about the ACA’s costs, but now labor unions are crying too (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/09/20/obama-s-labor-pains-unions-rage-against-the-affordable-care-act.html). Big Labor is especially concerned that the collectively bargained, multi-employer insurance plans that more than 15 million unionized workers access under the Taft-Hartley Act may well be threatened under the ACA. Those plans currently allow workers like builders, plumbers, carpenters, etc. to change jobs among participating employers and stay in the same health-insurance plan. Because many of the jobs involve manual labor, the plans usually account for injuries and repetitive stresses, benefits that unions say their workers sought instead of higher wages.

However, under the Affordable Care Act, small companies can choose to stop covering such workers through the union agreements and send their workers to the state-based exchanges instead. The Fed’s claim is that trough these exchanges, workers COULD “pay lower premiums thanks to federal subsidies,” but many of these workers are now paying NO or very negligible premiums, as these plans are primarily financed by the Construction firms they work with.

Labor leaders are also concerned that even the workers who retain union plans will end up paying higher premiums, and since there will be fewer people in the plans, the coverage for those remaining members could very well become less comprehensive.

Wisely Senate Republicans, like Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) who introduced a bill last week specifically barring the White House from making any changes to the bill for organized labor, have sought to take full advantage of this crisis. Senator Thune and his cohorts rightly claim that any such changes or modifications for such Labor Unions would amount to a “backroom deal.”

“Union leaders are now awaking to the ugly reality of ObamaCare that most Americans have predicted all along, including higher health care costs,” Senator Thune said.

Not long ago, commentators on CBS News radio had speculated that the costs of the ACA could result in such an onerous tax burden and such a diminution in health care that “the government could be thrust into Republican hands for the rest of the Century.”

I personally find that highly unlikely.

First, a mere decade of GOP rule could (1) undo much of the entitlement ethos currently embraced by much of America and (2) show just how equally inept the GOP is, relative to the Democrats. BOTH political Parties are largely peopled by short-sighted, self-centered would-be “rulers” rather than statesmen or public servants.

Moreover, just as the Democrats have done with their post-Great Recession political gift, the Republicans will almost certainly find a way to fuck this gift up. Most likely, given their wont, they’ll probably screw it up by focusing on “social issues” like gays and abortion.

The one thing I've NEVER understood is how truly religious people could possibly embrace the Conservative, “fend-for-yourself” agenda. The SAME doctrine that declares “all life sacred,” also preaches that “aid to the destitute is mandated by Christian morality.”

I AM a Conservative, but I am NOT a “Christian,” certainly not in the contemporary sense of that word, so I am NOT burdened by the inane ethos that declares “ALL life sacred,” and DO NOT belief charity or alms is mandated by ANY moral code, “Christian,” or other, as such a code would make veritable slaves (true “public servants”) of the most productive among us.

IF you truly believe  things like, “God ‘blesses’ people with children,” you’re really not a Conservative at all, but you probably ARE an idiot!

In real life, no “god” micromanages life any more than such a god would “play dice.”

Children aren't “blessings” from any “god,” especially to those who can’t even adequately feed themselves without government aid. The 25 y/o woman (Tashika Turner) who lost 3 of her children in a South Bronx fire had run up nearly $4,000 in unpaid electric bills, which is why she’d resorted to using candles for light. Unfortunately she’d apparently left some of them burning as they all went to sleep. Children are NOT “blessings” to those who cannot even adequately take care of their own needs.

God does NOT “bless” people with children, people “bless” or “curse” themselves with them. You see, people don’t “pray” children into existence, they generally...how to put this most diplomatically...well, they fuck and often the byproduct of such copulations is children. Now-a-days, people mostly copulate (fuck) for recreation, as it’s a relatively cheap, somewhat exciting, or at least stimulating and abundantly available form of fun.

Suffice to say, mandated contraception for the dependent poor, coupled with clean, cheap and readily available abortions for those who want them would effectively eliminate such tragedies.

STILL, I have little doubt that once the GOP becomes both empowered and emboldened by the coming failure of “Obamacare,” the zealotry will once again pop out into the foreground to sabotage any potential success that Party might hope to achieve.

To the zealot, focusing on goofball and already lost “social issues,” like gays and abortion, is far more important than bringing much needed Libertarians and Independents back into the fold, so I have little doubt at all that the GOP will find a new wave of Chrstine O’Donnell’s, Sharon Angle’s and Todd Akin’s to turn this gift into a…well, into a political abortion.

And yes, while it’s true, I don’t much care for organized religion or religionists, for that matter, I have some very recent history (some connected with the names cited above) that backs my view up. Much as I have little use for religion or religious zealots, I don’t hate them either, I just wish they’d take to sliming the other side with their crazy ideas every once in a while.