Cutting Through The Crap – The Truth About “Obamacare” (ACA)

The Supreme Court yesterday made an important decision that will improve the lives of millions of people and bring stability to American families across the country.

The decision was extremely close, with Chief Justice Roberts siding with the liberals in what many think is an effort to salvage some respect for the court.

I posted President Obama’s speech yesterday and highly recommend it to you, if you still haven’t seen it. Here are some of the real effects of the Affordable Care Act. Talk to your friends, family and anyone who will listen about the real provisions in the law. The amount of misinformation in the public sphere is crazy, we must correct at least some of it.

• Insurance companies no longer have unchecked power to cancel your policy, deny you coverage, or charge women more than men.

• Soon, no American will ever again be denied care or charged more due to a pre-existing condition, like cancer or even asthma.

• Preventive care will still be covered free of charge by insurance companies–including mammograms for women and wellness visits for seniors.

• By August, millions of Americans will receive a rebate because their insurance company spent too much of their premium on administrative costs or CEO bonuses.

• 5.3 million seniors will continue to save $600 a year on their prescription drugs.

• Efforts to strengthen and protect Medicare by cracking down on waste, fraud, and abuse will remain in place.

• 6.6 million young adults will still be able to stay on their family’s plan until they’re 26.

The court’s decision will have an impact on 129 million Americans with pre-existing conditions by bringing security to their lives and comfort in knowing that they will not be left out in the cold. These families will be saved from having to liquidate their life savings, sell their homes or go bankrupt in order to get the care they need.

The reaction from some on the right illustrates how the $210 million dollar campaign of lies against the Affordable Care Act has permeated the thinking of too many people. We all must pull together to counter that misinformation and talk to people, one on one, and inform them of what is really in the bill.

Cross-posted at Angry Black Lady Chronicles

President Obama’s Reaction To The Supreme Court Decision On Health Care!

A Summary Of Mitt Romney’s Credentials And History Of Flip Flopping!

I’ve been listening to Steve Benen and Bill Simmon’s podcast at polyscifiradio.com and Steve had an excellent description of Mitt Romney in a nutshell. It’s one of those “file away in the vault” summations that might come in handy if Romney becomes the nominee. This part of his rant is the flip side of how Mitt is the presumptive nominee, but it reveals how difficult it is going to be for Mitt to rally the GOP. It’s going to be fun running against Mitt if he is the last man standing in the GOP primary.

Mitt Romney is a French speaking Mormon, vulture capitalist and his real names is Willard. There’s no way in the world that the Republican party is going to nominate a French speaking Mormon, vulture capitalist named Willard for the presidency.

The party’s voters don’t like him as evidenced by these polls that show he can’t quite break the ceiling. They don’t like him, they don’t trust him because he’s flip flopped on more issues than any politician I can ever think of.

And you look at those issues that he flip flopped on – he was pro-choice, pro gay rights, pro gun-control, pro “amnesty” for undocumented immigrants.

Ah, moderate on all these issues. He believes that climate change is real and should be dealt with, which Republicans consider to be ridiculous. He distanced himself from Reagan – as a candidate.

He attended Planned Parenthood fundraisers as a candidate – for governor and he helped create the blueprint for the Affordable Care Act, which Republican voters hate with the heat of a thousand suns.

He was for the bank bailout before he was against it. He was for the stimulus before he was against it. He was against the auto industry rescue before he took credit for it.

You combine those factors and I would argue that he’s about as appealing to Republican voters as I am.

I assume you are all readers of The Washington Monthly where Steve Benen resides. If not, you are missing out on some of the best writing and political analysis on the internet.

Cross-posted at Angry Black Lady Chronicles

“Now Is The Time” To Pass Health Care – President Obama

I’m not counting this President out yet, and you’d be a fool to bet against him.

Chris Matthews Knocks Out Howard Dean Over Massachusetts Spin!

If you haven’t seen this, you must! The good stuff starts around 4 minutes, but the whole thing is worth watching. I have mixed feelings about Chris Matthews in general, but Chris was on fire last night and is for now, my hero. He took on the Dean, Hamsher, Uygur and Marsh crowd and smacked them to the ground. It’s my favorite clip of the year. Here is a portion from Extreme Liberal’s Rush Transcript….

Howard Dean (HD): …Of the Obama voters who either stayed home or voted for Scott Brown, they overwhelmingly wanted to do more on health care, not less.

Chris Matthews (CM): So they were more progressive than the democrat?

HD: That’s correct!

CM: So on all the issues raised in the campaign, debt, taxes, arrogance of power in the Democratic Party in Mass….all those issues, where were the voters?

HD: The voters were upset. They were upset by Washington as usual, dealing with special interests, writing a bill that was great for the insurance industry, not doing much about the bankers.

CM: That’s your position!

HD: That’s not my position, that’s the voters of Massachusetts.

CM: You just said the voters of Massachusetts agree with you but they voted Republican, that makes no sense.

HD: It does make sense.

CM: If you were in the voting booth, would you have voted for Scott Brown? Would you have done this?

HD: Of course not!

CM: Well, well, oh but you rationally would not have voted for the conservative Republican because he’s against health care, but you say the voters are irrational, they somehow send smoke signals in their voting. They vote for the conservative Republican who’s totally against health care reform to tell the country they want a progressive health care program. THAT’S CRAZY!

HD: We know what they did.

CM: Are voters crazy?

HD: Chris, Chris

CM: Are voters crazy?

HD: There’s only one crazy person around here and I may hold up a mirror and you may see him in a minute here…

CM: You mean the voters vote right wing Republican to express progressive values?

Un-fucking-believable. That has to be one of the best take downs of a crooked spin job I’ve ever seen. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of things I love about Howard Dean but his tactics here are just plain stupid. His crooked spin to reinforce his crazy notion was ripped apart at the seams. Many kudos to Chris Matthews for standing up to this crap.