So, let me get this straight. This is a long sentence. We’re going to be gifted with a healthcare plan [which] we are forced to purchase and fined if we don’t, which purportedly covers at least 10 million more people without adding a single new doctor but provides for 16,000 new IRS agents, written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn’t understand it, passed by a Congress that didn’t read it, but exempted themselves from it, and signed by a President who smokes — [laughter] — same sentence! — with funding administered by a Treasury chief who didn’t pay his taxes, for which we will be taxed for four years before any benefits take effect, by a government which has already bankrupted Social Security and Medicare, all to be overseen by a Surgeon General who is obese — [laughter] — and finally, financed by a country that’s broke.
Oh -- and be sure to catch her tagline at the end!
That about sums up where we are. That we have gotten to this point is a national disgrace.
This can be humorous if viewed as a parody of arguments against the Affordable Care Act. Dr. Bellar passes along one implicitly dubious notion after another: a mortal can choose not to be in the health care market; that choice does not result in passing along costs to others; increased health care consumers won’t result in increased numbers of doctors; increased public servants, i.e., IRS agents, are bad, notwithstanding the fact that increased employment in any sector raises consumer demand; politicians read every page of complex legislation instead of passing it along to aides who summarize it; the personal faults of the president, treasury chief and surgeon general are relevant to anything; four years is a shockingly long time to accrue revenue in order to provide benefits to the population; and the Republicans didn’t inherit a surplus economy and proceed to bankrupt it with wasteful tax cuts for the wealthy, financial deregulation, an unfunded pharmaceutical program, and two simultaneous, unnecessary wars.
ReplyDeleteWhile I would prefer the single-payer coverage that exists among all of our Western allies (“Marxist” lands such as Canada, England, Israel, Germany, France, etc.), I support this reformation of the worst excesses of private insurance. Among its benefits: lifetime caps are abolished; the deficit will be reduced, according to the CBO; those with “pre-existing conditions” are no longer denied coverage; millions more will be covered; and my children can stay on my plan until age 26. Quelle horreur!