[Left and Right] The Supreme Court Only Hurt Progressives Today
Today the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, ruled that the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is constitutionally sound. I am really glad they ruled that way but not for traditional reasons. I am not one of these people who think that something has to be fantastic because the people who championed it are not Republicans. If you are looking for blind faith than go find yourself a religion.
It is funny that the majority of Democrats and Liberals I speak to these days think such ridiculous things about the Affordable Care Act. A short list of things I hear almost daily:
1. Under the Affordable Care Act I will finally have health insurance: Think again my friend, true you may have health insurance in 2014 but it won’t be because anyone gave it to you. You will be forced through threat of IRS action to purchase health insurance. You may think that it is so amazing, but unless you actually are very low on the income scale that can run you up to $1,000 per month. The exchanges are supposed to bring down costs but that really is just theoretical right now. If I am a betting man I think most of you take the IRS fine and avoid paying the premiums you can’t afford to begin with.
2. Under The Affordable Care Act Insurance Companies will not be able to screw me out of care anymore: Think that Obama saved you from the clutches of the evil health insurance companies? Think again. He not only firmly entrenched them into American healthcare but he is forcing you to do business with them. Sure they will not be able to deny you coverage for preexisting conditions anymore but do you really believe they are just going to write a check every time you want anything you want? There is no way. Also, every time in the future that it gets too expensive to run their companies who do you think will be standing right at the door of Congress asking for a bailout? Too big to fail ring a bell?
3. The system has been a corporate free for all for years, let’s try a progressive solution like Obamacare: This is my favorite. Most self declared liberals that I talk to don’t realize that until very recently the only people who ever pushed for the individual mandate were conservatives. The more conservative the more conviction they had in it. Remember that the Affordable Care Act is not the first time this has been done. Massachusetts has had an identical bill on the books for years. Who passed that one into law? Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Just because a Democrat suggests something doesn’t always make it a liberal/progressive solution. In fact a lot of times it is just a repackaged conservative scheme that if Bush suggested all the pseudo liberals would dust off their Bush=Nazi posters and line up to protest.
That is why it is time to really mourn the loss we all incurred today. Today the Supreme Court put off any meaningful discussion we can have in this country about a single payer system for at least ten years. Progressives were prepared to start pushing for a “Medicare for all” solution as soon as the court rendered Obamacare unconstitutional, but alas that conversation will not be taking place anytime soon. All you fake progressives out there who want to worship the Affordable Care Act just because it was passed by President Obama, you will see over the next few year what you did. At that point you may even have graduated college by then and will start jumping on the conservative “deregulation” bandwagon.
It stand to reason, in closing that all of the people who are cheering on the Affordable Care Act are forgetting the biggest design flaw it contains. It empowers the Secretary of Health and Human Services to shape a lot of the policies and regulations that the insurance industry will have to abide by. Remember when Team Obama told the insurance companies they will be forced to cover the costs of contraception for all females? What do you think will happen next time a conservative is elected? DO you think that his Secretary of Health and Human Services will direct the Insurance companies to do the same? Or do you think they will have no problem telling the Insurance industry that bans on contraception, abortion and other sensitive issues will not have to go through Congress anymore, just implemented through Executive fiat? When do conservatives start campaigning on the regulations they will force insurance companies to listen to?
Food for thought
