patrick.net

zzyzzx says

Anyone else think that these alone won't pay for the extra deadbeats we will be supporting with Obamacare?

The big cost the PPACA covers isn't the deadbeats (in fact dead beats will pay a fine unless their income is below a threshold).

The biggest new costs that will be covered (and paid for by the ACA) are preexisting conditions, removing lifetime caps (so if someone has a relapse of their cancer the insurance company doesn't say - sorry you already hit your lifetime cap), and generally people can't be kicked off of a policy for being sick.

This is a huge win for the people. Real coverage, rather than just something that healthy people pay for and sometimes only sometimes receive benefits.

bob2356 says

FortWayne says

It because this way because the unions which run this country felt that for generations employer must provide health insurance, and that's how the system adjusted.

Private employer union membership is something like 7%. Public is 30%. I can certainly see how they run the country. How is it that so many countries with much stronger unions never developed employer health care? The reason private employer health care plans proliferated was because in 1954 they became exempt from taxes. Public plans followed later as a way to avoid direct increases in public salaries. Follow the money.

Try a 78 percent unionized public workforce, not 30. I would like to see the private sector as heavily unionized as the public sector, but the past 30+ years have seen the dismantling of private-sector unions.

zzyzzx - Great poster - "Governmental Irony". Where can I get a copy?

BTW, it clearly demonstrates the schizophrenic mindset of liberal lawmakers, doesn't it?

Honest Abe says

Where can I get a copy?

Somebody needs to teach Abe how to use a computer.

Abe, do a google search on "how to copy and paste an image" If you are on a pc look into "save image as."

I think it's ironic that you're intellectually about as sophisticated as you are in how to use a computer.

Marcus, OK - I can do the "save image as" - but how do I go from that to a 24" by 36" poster on glossy paper?

Thanks for your help. Abe.

P.S. The message on the poster is clearly a mixed message, isn't it?

The welfare question is a little more complicated than the question of feeding bears at Yosemite.

It's not as brilliant an insight as you think.

Nobody ever thought it would be a good idea to give people a free standard of living that is as good as what they can get from working.

Is there a really big problem when our economy can not provide opportunities for some that will pay them better than welfare ? OR when the pay is so low, that they qualify for food stamps and health care even when they have a minimum wage job ?

Yes, that's a problem. What's your solution ? Give them nothing, until they resort to crime, and then pay even more to some private prison companies to house them?

Marcus, good point, you said: Nobody ever thought it would be a good idea to give people a free standard of living that is as good as what they can get from working.

Except that is what we have in many cases. Its financially better, after paying taxes and withholding, to freeload than it is to work. How about this: cut the size and expense of government, cut taxes, cut withholding. Let the worker keep more of the fruits of their own labor rather than stealing it and sending it off to Washington to be wasted and squandered.

That way it might be possible to shift millions of people from welfare to work - because now they can AFFORD to work.

I can't have an intelligent conversation with you Abe. You not only speak in right wing sound bites, you think in them too.

THe truth that you would never understand is that I'm a conservative. But I'm a conservative in the real world, which doesn't lend itself to such silliness.

Welfare reform already incentivizes work. But since noboy can live on $134/week there's food stamps and other aid.

marcus says

Yes, that's a problem. What's your solution ? Give them nothing, until they resort to crime, and then pay even more to some private prison companies to house them?

Hahaha, you're a conservative, on what planet? If welfare reform incentivizes work, why are so many on welfare? Could it be because of liberal government policies (which you support) keep indentured voters indentured?

In other words, so you can understand, if the government continues to shackle people with dependency, the dependents MUST support those policies, or else.

We're doomed as a species because of our ability to believe what we want to believe, rather than do real objective analysis.

If you have ever wondered why so many of history's worst dictators were able to get a big enough following to get off the ground, this is the reason.

Check this out. From A Texas GOP platform. See page 12

http://s3.amazonaws.com/texasgop_pre/assets/original/2012Platform_Final.pdf

Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority

Honest Abe says

In other words, so you can understand, if the government continues to shackle people with dependency, the dependents MUST support those policies, or else.

Was there a tiny little moment where you comprehended what I was saying and when you considered the painful truth that you're full of shit, before not answering the question and going back to spouting silly mindless drivel ?

monkframe says

Try a 78 percent unionized public workforce, not 30.

Department of labor says 36%, where are you getting your numbers from?

marcus says

Was there a tiny little moment where you comprehended what I was saying and when you considered the painful truth that you're full of shit, before not answering the question and going back to spouting silly mindless drivel ?

The Ignore feature is a wonderful thing.

marcus says

Yes, that's a problem. What's your solution ? Give them nothing, until they resort to crime,

The solution is to give them less, a lot less, so that they have incentive to take a job normally done by Mexicans.