This is a big deal because it finally happened. Government takes “care” of our retirement (social security), healthcare in old age (medicare), and now healthcare from cradle to to grave. In two years they took over the banks, the auto industry and now healthcare. The Fed inflated to the sky (no “exit strategy”). In nine years they started two wars (ongoing) and implemented homeland security. In the next 12 months they will implement the rest of the plan. They are aided by the media. It is exactly like the Road to Serfdom video.
I’m glad I found sound economics and liberty when I did because opportunities to study such things may be deemed, how shall they say, “not in the public interest” in the future. The pretense of any sort of limit on goverment has been blown away. Why does anyone believe the 1st amendment will be upheld after looking at what they’ve accomplished since 2001? This is a big deal, folks.
The only bright spot in all this is that they didn’t get the public option. But yeah, this is a sad day. Hopefully the Senate can place procedural hurdles in the way of their bill and if not, maybe the states can nullify. But it seems unlikely, this is probably going to pass both houses and then we’ll get the usual “state’s rights is all about racism” nonsense. A sad day.
I think both sides of the ideological spectrum are opposed to the main thrust of this legislation. Socialists oppose it because of the lack of a public option, and the frankly unsustainable spending needed to fund the program. But I think we can both agree that the concentration of power represented by this bill is a direct repudiation of local and state sovereignty guaranteed by the Tenth amendment - if a successful challenge to this legislation is going to be made, it will proceed from state lawsuits against the constitutionality of various provisions within the bill.
Left or right, our loyalty should be first and foremost to the principles of democracy - not the interests that govern our state.
Like you said the gov’t was ALREADY involved in providing health care for the old, and for the poor. This is just an extension, one that had been on the cards for a while, and one that was going to happen, it was just a matter of by how much, and in the end who really cares about the smallest details that switched the key votes in the end. So in that sense, to me, its not much of a watershed moment, it just might feel that way because its ‘official’ now.
The one thing that I wonder about is that it seems like it has taken a while for the European countries to start really feeling some strong pressure from their mounting mess of their socialized medical systems, I wonder if our plight will be faster because of all the other spending we are doing and that we are starting from a position of great debt.
What do you make of this argument for this bill lowering insurance premiums:
“the more people that are insured, the more premium the insurance company collects, which spreads the risk out over a larger group, which lowers the risk to the insurance company, which in turn can decrease premiums.”
This is another nail in the coffin of the United States. The largest debtor nation in the history of the planet keeps on spending. If all unfunded liabilities are taken into account, it all totals $107+ trillion. The US is broke, and there will be either an honest default or hyperinflation sometime in the next decade. Just wait until interest rates go through the roof and the dollar loses its reserve status.
All this bill has done is assist in speeding up the realization of the US government’s insolvency. I felt sick tonight watching CSPAN and seeing the vote get to 216, and seeing these idiots all standing up and applauding. They’re clapping at destroying our lives, our kids’ lives, and maybe our grandchildrens’ lives. We all know that the day of reckoning will come, and when it does, they will blame it on…free markets gone wild.
I hate to sound like I’m taking this all too far, but I honestly believe that US society as we know it will cease to exist sometime in the foreseeable future. I can truly envision a scenario of marshall law, work and reeducation camps, and a total breakdown of the division of labor. When the debts come due and the government hyperinflates or defaults I think Americans are going to witness just how fragile the entire social construct is. Just my two cents.
Depends on who the risk is spread out over. In other words, it still matters who they’re covering. And now, insurance companies basically have to insure anyone who applies.
So the principles of the majority of the people agreeing to point guns at the minority to steal from them? Great place for loyalty to be placed. You just witnessed democracy in action tonight.
It fails to take into account the influence that the abolition of payment caps will have - even if the risk is spread out among a larger group of consumers, I suspect that the net average payout will still be higher. More coverage necessitates more cost - this is a simple fact.
It assumes that demand will remain constant, which is a fallacy. Demand will be raised, not remain constant. When something becomes cheaper, or is subsidized, it gets used more.
Well, they can say it was a republic in action and not an actual democracy. They follow what the nature of a republic is supposed to do which is not do what the public at large might want. Cause a republic is founded upon the idea that the public is a mob and so the politicians are supposed to be the special people of the society that know what’s best for everybody. In a republic, if it goes the way it’s supposed to in concept, isn’t supposed to listen to the public. The republic is supposed to find the statist elites who are the self-prescribed cream of the crop and can do what’s best for the society even if at the time the society doesn’t think it is best. They are supposed to rise above the mob. That’s why the U.S. was formed into a republic and even has an electoral process that includes an electoral college, just in case the mob gets out of hand, the republic elites put in safeguards to fend off the mob. This is simply a republic in action. It’s what it does and is supposed to do. It’s not a surprise.
It’s sad to a degree that people have to actually endure this crap the gov’t does, but I would like to see is the locals not become state apologists through all this. I want to see more, to put it brutishly, I want to see more ‘up-your’s’ with a middle finger pointed at the gov’t. I would love to see that mentality grow through all this. I want to see people get disgusted by all this. I want to see people just start to ignore the gov’t, like they did at times during the Great Depression, etc… That pioneer spirit take over and get so disgusted by all this that people don’t rat each other out but actually find it good to ignore the gov’t. That would be all very healthy in my opinion.