The Supreme Court just ruled on Obama's healthcare law. They upheld the individual mandate as a tax and struck down a Medicare expansion, as I understand it. I don't want this to turn into a liberals vs conservatives thread, but I'm curious what some of you think: is the individual mandate constitutional? Is it right to penalize us for not buying something? What does this mean for the 2012 elections? Is this a good thing for the white house or will this just energize the GOP? If this becomes a flame war I want a mod to shut it down.
The crux of this law was devised by Republicans. It was their answer to the fact that hell would freeze over before they accepted the notion of universal healthcare. Mitt Romney himself was the Godfather of this bill, passing something very similar in the state of Massachusetts back when he was governor. This was the one piece of legislation that Romney championed and stood upon and defended for many years. Romney himself said that it hurt the economy to have uninsured people entering into emergency rooms and having basically those who were insured having to flip that bill for uninsured people with increased premium rates. Then Obama comes along and takes "Romneycare" to the federal level and all of a sudden Romney and other Republicans are up in arms. Dude, this isn't even Obama's bill. It's Romney's bill turned against him. Be careful what you wish for. LOL. Romney can't fight Obama on this issue. He is the least qualified Republican to do so. He has absolutely no leg to stand on. Opposing this act makes Romney look like both a hypocrite and, yes, the magical Romney words, a "flip-flopper." Obama doesnt even want this law. He promised on the campaign trail massive healthcare reform, and he delivered. But this was a compromise. It was the best he could do. Ultimately, he wants what all democrats want. Universal healthcare. Universal healthcare would be a democratic bill. The Affordable Care Act is a Republican bill opposed by Republicans only because a Democratic president is the one that introduced it on a congressional level.
If it does I'm going to ask the mods to close it...the reason I started it was just to get a discussion going. We'll see how this turns out...
Yeah...first reply slams Republicans...this is gonna go well. Where's the 'Smilie eating popcorn' when you need one?
The sad thing is that Romneycare is actually working in Mass. 98 percent of people are insured and the state is far from going broke. Statisically speaking, the general health of the people of that state is very good. Bottom line, this individual mandate law is helping a lot of people in that state and here is Romney, turning his back and his own bill and his own people just to try and score political points. It's ridiculous. Obamacare really is nothing more then Romneycare, only its on a much grander scale. Mitt Romney is an empty shill in an empty suit. I can't imagine how anyone can see him as anything different then the two-faced, back-stabbing, flip-flopping fraud that he is. You want to argue that politically or economically, this bill is bad. That argument can be made. My only real point is that this is Romney's bill. It's a Republican bill. So how can Romney and the Republicans oppose with such ferocity their own damn bill? Is Romney desperate to get reelected as Governor of Massacussetts so that he could repel on day one his own "harmful" bill? That's what I'd want to know.
It's so bizzare looking at this from the point of view of a country that already has universal healthcare. Sure, we get into arguments about minor details regarding it, but we're all in agreement that actually having it is a good thing. It's such a non-issue to everybody when they grow up viewing it as the normal way things work. People in the US that are so opposed to it should realise that in a couple of generations it'd barely be brought into question. Everyone would be a lot more secure and hardly anyone would be complaining.
I don't know anything about this law, cause I forgot to check new for a few days, but does it like insure a healthcare for any citizen? Shouldn't that be a good thing?
Seen a piece about this on the BBC last night. It had a mother who was happy with the bill as her son with a genetic illness would now get health insurance. This staggered me, I have long known America has no universal HC but I just assumed kids got it free anyway. They do not choose to be born into poor households. You really have to have a long hard look at yourselves if your prisoners get better care than your most innocent and vulnerable in society.
