In the wake of the Supreme Court decision upholding ObamaCare, several Republican governors — including Rick Perry (TX), Rick Scott (FL), Nikki Haley (SC) and Bobby Jindal (LA) — have vowed to resist the law by refusing to set up a health insurance exchange in their state.
Ironically, doing this will give the federal government even more control over their states, since if a state doesn’t set up an exchange, the federal government will step in and do it for them.
But what makes this really ironic is an editorial from Bill Frist, the Republican who was the Senate Majority leader. Frist (who is a doctor) points out that Health Exchanges were originally a Republican idea, and that they are a good idea that everyone should be able to agree on.
Originally a Republican idea, the state insurance exchanges mandated under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will offer a menu of private insurance plans to pick and choose from, all with a required set of minimum benefits, to those without employer-sponsored health insurance. These exchanges are expected to bring health insurance to an additional 16 million Americans. Unlike the Medicaid expansion, these Americans will gain private insurance, and can choose the plan that’s right for them. … Helping more Americans find and compare the private insurance they need and can afford should be an easy principle both political parties agree on. … Simply put, state exchanges represent a distinctly American opportunity to improve our local communities and at the same time help our nation avert a major crisis. Let’s take the plunge.
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Just give them time, they’ll come around.
I noticed this morning perusing Fox Nation that there is a headline, “CBO: Income inequality not getting worse.”
http://nation.foxnews.com/income-inequality/2012/07/22/cbo-income-inequality-not-getting-worse
Having looked at nation for a while now, I know that the headlines are rarely ever any indication of what is actually being said. This one is no different. If you follow the links back, you’ll find out that the report is on 2007-2009 statistics. And if you have at least a partially functioning brain, you’ll understand why using those years to demonstrate a point about the gap between the rich, who own almost every bit of the financial markets, and the poor is absurd.
But there is true hilarity buried here! I mean, the standard RW response is that either (something_bad) isn’t really happening or (something_bad) isn’t really a bad thing. But moments like this are golden, where they’ve used the latter for years, but now jump on the former!
If income inequality isn’t really a bad thing (trickle down yumminess!), then why in the world would they care that it isn’t really happening?
Like I said, just give them time. They’ll work it all out.