God knows I WISH I could drop my current health plan “to opt-in the Obama health plan.” But I can’t. You may recall the Republicans foreclosed that option.
Only Republicans could, in the name of liberty, take away Americans freedoms. It was a public OPTION, not an obligation, that we liberals supported. But the Republicans INSISTED that we must all pay the monopolistic rates of their billionaire insurance friends, rather than the far cheaper Government rates paid by every other citizen of every other Western industrialized nation on earth.
So yes, Philip, I very very badly want Government health care, the same that the President and Members of Congress have (and I used to have when I was a Congressional attorney), the same that veterans and Americans over 65 have. What right do you have to keep me from choosing this option? What’s it to you? You can still pay the overhead of the insurance companies if you want to. I won’t stop you. I just don’t want to pay it for myself.
As for Constitutional rights, Congress in Article 1, Section 8 has the right to “To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States”
So that easily covers health care. At 75, you should know that already. You get Medicare! Or are you one of the extremely few senior citizens who opted out of THAT Government program?
Here’s my point, Craig, and I find it amazing — much like an abused spouse who complains that the incompetent police keep allowing her husband to beat her and asks the police therefore to stay away!
The Democrats and the President fought like hell (and may well lose this election partly because of it) to stop health-insurance companies from robbing you blind.
The Republicans and conservatives, financed by these same companies, fought like hell to allow these companies to rob you blind.
We reached a muddled compromise, better than the current system, but nowhere near as good as it could be if Republicans had been on the side of consumers rather than on the side of the thieves (ahem, insurance companies).
And now, you’re complaining that you want fewer police and more thieves!
If you don’t like the way these health-insurance companies are treating you, the answer is MORE regulation, not less! Is this really too difficult for you to see? And the only to get them off your back is to have liberals in office, not the conservatives who are owned lock, stock, and barrel by these evil companies!
Wake up. Please. Wake up. Look around you. Who’s trying to help you? And who’s trying to destroy you? The President and the Democrats are on YOUR side. Republicans are on THEIR side. Do you really really not see this?
And you call me delusional? Do you not see your own delusions?
Craig October 25, 2010 6:24 pm
Ok, enough already with this voodoo liberalism. Let me do a little conservative translation. Mark, what you’re trying to say is that you are the only smart person in the room that understands what’s in the Health Care Bill. Meanwhile, everyone else in the room is laughing at you.
You seem to be having difficulty sorting out delusion from reality. You can say the bill states that insurance companies must cover those with pre-existing conditions but the reality is it’s just not happening. Over promised, under delivered as witnessed by myself. I recently decided to go back into business for myself. I had 2 choices, go onto Cobra which had just increased by 31% or find my own coverage. I was on the the phone with HumanaOne, conducting a phone application, when they started telling me more about my medical history than I knew myself. Last year on a business trip to Utah, I came down with food poisoning and went to an Urgent care. When asked about it I didn’t know what they were talking about until they mentioned I was in Utah. They required that I perform a Paramed exam as a condition to qualify for insurance. The exam concluded that I have high blood pressure 157/80. I was denied health insurance. I went to my physician 2 weeks later. He took my blood pressure, it was a healthy 130 over 80.Now, I have a hit on my record that I was denied insurance. I’m a healthy 37 year old man.
Now, I’m on temporary catastrophic insurance. Regular exams are paid out of pocket. HumanaOne requires that I have 3 physical exams over the next 6 months by my physician, paid out of pocket, then I pay, again out of pocket, a second Paramed exam to qualify to reapply to HumanaOne.
Congress can pass any bill stating there will be peace on Earth or to end World Hunger but that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. Of course, if you asked me if I wanted to see peace on Earth, I would say of course. But reality trumps delusion.
So Jane, are you really upset that a slightly smaller profit for banks will allow students to get part of their student-loan debt forgiven after 10 years of public service in teaching, nursing, or service in the military? And after they’ve paid 10% of their income above basic living requirements toward that debt for at least 10 years?
Really? You hate that part of the bill? Please explain why.
Or is it fair to say that once you know the details of this provision of the bill that you complained about, you really don’t mind it so much?
Also, the law does indeed decrease the cost of student loans by wiping out the profit for banks on these loans.
But given all the bank bailouts, is it too much to ask them to forego some profits (small to them but onerous to a kid paying for a college) so that our youth can be educated?
Do you really believe in transferring more money from poor people struggling to get an education to Chase Manhattan and J.P. Morgan?
How many Americans know what’s in the student-loan portion (or any other portion) of the bill? Did you know, Jane? I’m not being critical. I’m just pointing out that once people know what’s in the bill, they like it, but the vast majority of us haven’t spent the time to find out what’s in it.
Here, direct from the New York Times, is what the student loan provisions in the bill consist of:
The new law will eliminate fees paid to private banks to act as intermediaries in providing loans to college students and use much of the nearly $68 billion in savings over 11 years to expand Pell Grants and make it easier for students to repay outstanding loans after graduating. The law also invests $2 billion in community colleges over the next four years to provide education and career training programs to workers eligible for Trade Adjustment aid.
The law will increase Pell Grant grants along with inflation in the next few years, which should raise the maximum grant to $5,975 from $5,550 by 2017, according to the White House, and it will also provide 820,000 more grants by 2020. Including money from last year’s stimulus program and regular budget increases, the White House said Mr. Obama has now doubled spending on Pell Grants.
Students who borrow money starting in July 2014 will be allowed to cap their repayments at 10 percent of their income above basic living requirements, instead of 15 percent. Moreover, if they keep up their payments, they will have any remaining debt forgiven after 20 years instead of 25 years – or after 10 years if they are in public service, such as teaching, nursing or serving in the military.
Mr. Obama portrayed the overhaul of the student loan program as a triumph over an “army of lobbyists,†singling out Sally Mae, which he said spent $3 million to stop the changes. “For almost two decades, we’ve been trying to fix a sweetheart deal in federal law that essentially gave billions of dollars to banks,†he said. He said the money “was spent padding student lenders’ pockets.â€
To Philip,
God knows I WISH I could drop my current health plan "to opt-in the Obama health plan." But I can't. You may recall the Republicans foreclosed that option.
Only Repub... More >>
Mark October 26, 2010 10:16 am
To Philip,
God knows I WISH I could drop my current health plan “to opt-in the Obama health plan.” But I can’t. You may recall the Republicans foreclosed that option.
Only Republicans could, in the name of liberty, take away Americans freedoms. It was a public OPTION, not an obligation, that we liberals supported. But the Republicans INSISTED that we must all pay the monopolistic rates of their billionaire insurance friends, rather than the far cheaper Government rates paid by every other citizen of every other Western industrialized nation on earth.
So yes, Philip, I very very badly want Government health care, the same that the President and Members of Congress have (and I used to have when I was a Congressional attorney), the same that veterans and Americans over 65 have. What right do you have to keep me from choosing this option? What’s it to you? You can still pay the overhead of the insurance companies if you want to. I won’t stop you. I just don’t want to pay it for myself.
As for Constitutional rights, Congress in Article 1, Section 8 has the right to “To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States”
So that easily covers health care. At 75, you should know that already. You get Medicare! Or are you one of the extremely few senior citizens who opted out of THAT Government program?
Mark October 26, 2010 10:08 am
Have you called your Congressman about it?
Here’s my point, Craig, and I find it amazing — much like an abused spouse who complains that the incompetent police keep allowing her husband to beat her and asks the police therefore to stay away!
The Democrats and the President fought like hell (and may well lose this election partly because of it) to stop health-insurance companies from robbing you blind.
The Republicans and conservatives, financed by these same companies, fought like hell to allow these companies to rob you blind.
We reached a muddled compromise, better than the current system, but nowhere near as good as it could be if Republicans had been on the side of consumers rather than on the side of the thieves (ahem, insurance companies).
And now, you’re complaining that you want fewer police and more thieves!
If you don’t like the way these health-insurance companies are treating you, the answer is MORE regulation, not less! Is this really too difficult for you to see? And the only to get them off your back is to have liberals in office, not the conservatives who are owned lock, stock, and barrel by these evil companies!
Wake up. Please. Wake up. Look around you. Who’s trying to help you? And who’s trying to destroy you? The President and the Democrats are on YOUR side. Republicans are on THEIR side. Do you really really not see this?
And you call me delusional? Do you not see your own delusions?
Craig October 25, 2010 6:24 pm
Ok, enough already with this voodoo liberalism. Let me do a little conservative translation. Mark, what you’re trying to say is that you are the only smart person in the room that understands what’s in the Health Care Bill. Meanwhile, everyone else in the room is laughing at you.
You seem to be having difficulty sorting out delusion from reality. You can say the bill states that insurance companies must cover those with pre-existing conditions but the reality is it’s just not happening. Over promised, under delivered as witnessed by myself. I recently decided to go back into business for myself. I had 2 choices, go onto Cobra which had just increased by 31% or find my own coverage. I was on the the phone with HumanaOne, conducting a phone application, when they started telling me more about my medical history than I knew myself. Last year on a business trip to Utah, I came down with food poisoning and went to an Urgent care. When asked about it I didn’t know what they were talking about until they mentioned I was in Utah. They required that I perform a Paramed exam as a condition to qualify for insurance. The exam concluded that I have high blood pressure 157/80. I was denied health insurance. I went to my physician 2 weeks later. He took my blood pressure, it was a healthy 130 over 80.Now, I have a hit on my record that I was denied insurance. I’m a healthy 37 year old man.
Now, I’m on temporary catastrophic insurance. Regular exams are paid out of pocket. HumanaOne requires that I have 3 physical exams over the next 6 months by my physician, paid out of pocket, then I pay, again out of pocket, a second Paramed exam to qualify to reapply to HumanaOne.
Congress can pass any bill stating there will be peace on Earth or to end World Hunger but that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. Of course, if you asked me if I wanted to see peace on Earth, I would say of course. But reality trumps delusion.
Mark October 25, 2010 10:59 am
So Jane, are you really upset that a slightly smaller profit for banks will allow students to get part of their student-loan debt forgiven after 10 years of public service in teaching, nursing, or service in the military? And after they’ve paid 10% of their income above basic living requirements toward that debt for at least 10 years?
Really? You hate that part of the bill? Please explain why.
Or is it fair to say that once you know the details of this provision of the bill that you complained about, you really don’t mind it so much?
Mark October 25, 2010 10:54 am
Also, the law does indeed decrease the cost of student loans by wiping out the profit for banks on these loans.
But given all the bank bailouts, is it too much to ask them to forego some profits (small to them but onerous to a kid paying for a college) so that our youth can be educated?
Do you really believe in transferring more money from poor people struggling to get an education to Chase Manhattan and J.P. Morgan?
How many Americans know what’s in the student-loan portion (or any other portion) of the bill? Did you know, Jane? I’m not being critical. I’m just pointing out that once people know what’s in the bill, they like it, but the vast majority of us haven’t spent the time to find out what’s in it.
Here, direct from the New York Times, is what the student loan provisions in the bill consist of:
The new law will eliminate fees paid to private banks to act as intermediaries in providing loans to college students and use much of the nearly $68 billion in savings over 11 years to expand Pell Grants and make it easier for students to repay outstanding loans after graduating. The law also invests $2 billion in community colleges over the next four years to provide education and career training programs to workers eligible for Trade Adjustment aid.
The law will increase Pell Grant grants along with inflation in the next few years, which should raise the maximum grant to $5,975 from $5,550 by 2017, according to the White House, and it will also provide 820,000 more grants by 2020. Including money from last year’s stimulus program and regular budget increases, the White House said Mr. Obama has now doubled spending on Pell Grants.
Students who borrow money starting in July 2014 will be allowed to cap their repayments at 10 percent of their income above basic living requirements, instead of 15 percent. Moreover, if they keep up their payments, they will have any remaining debt forgiven after 20 years instead of 25 years – or after 10 years if they are in public service, such as teaching, nursing or serving in the military.
Mr. Obama portrayed the overhaul of the student loan program as a triumph over an “army of lobbyists,†singling out Sally Mae, which he said spent $3 million to stop the changes. “For almost two decades, we’ve been trying to fix a sweetheart deal in federal law that essentially gave billions of dollars to banks,†he said. He said the money “was spent padding student lenders’ pockets.â€