The New American Politics thread

[Rockin' Flames]

Originally Posted by Montana Moe

ACA 101

I'm certainly not an expert on the topic, but the biggest issue I see with the ACA is that no one knows what it really entails. People are getting their information from third parties and not researching it themselves. Yes, this also includes the legislators that had the responsibility of making it law.

On a personal note, my company rep on the health insurance commission had no idea that the 80% rule even existed, so I've got that going for me. We weren't given a refund because our insurance company is a self funded co-op and spends much more than 80% on services. I know a few people that have, though.

What I'm curious to see is how many companies will decide to stop providing health insurance coverage for their employees at all. It really seems like a no win for the employers to provide a health insurance. As your link mentioned:

"here are two situations where large employers may face a penalty for workers who get subsidized coverage in an Exchange:

1. Large employers that do not offer coverage and have at least one full-time employee receiving subsidized coverage are assessed an annual fee of $2,000 per full-time employee, but the first 30 employees are excluded in calculating the assessment.
2. Large employers who offer coverage that is either unaffordable or inadequate and who have at least one full-time employee receiving subsidized coverage in the Exchange must pay an annual fee of $3,000 for each full-time employee receiving a premium credit, with a maximum penalty equal to $2,000 for each full-time employee, excluding the first 30 employees from the assessment. (Coverage is considered unaffordable if the employee must contribute more than 9.5 percent of their household income for their premium. Coverage is considered inadequate if the plan's does not coverage at least 60 percent of a person's medical costs on average - referred to as actuarial values.)"

So basically employers could cancel all insurance and after excluding 30 employees pay a $2,000 fine if at least one employee qualifies for the subsidy.

Or the employer could gamble and provide insurance and risk that their employees won't choose to go to the exchange and see if they qualify for a subsidy. If they choose to offer insurance they could be faced with a fine of up to $2,000 per employee (no 30 employee exclusion being available as if no insurance were offered). So really in the second scenario the employer ends up picking up medical insurance costs and larger potential penalties.

[Displaced Flames fan]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/03/politi...html?hpt=hp_t1

Good article on what a daunting task change via legislation is for new members of Congress. Hope this kid keeps plowing forward.

[Street Pharmacist]

Haha. RNC bans CNN and NBC from any debates for making a Hillary documentary.

What a bunch of babies.


http://therightscoop.com/rnc-bans-nb...lican-debates/

“We’re done putting up with this nonsense,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said ahead of the vote. “There are plenty of other outlets. We’ll still reach voters, maybe more voters. But CNN and NBC anchors will just have to watch on their competitors’ networks.”

waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

[Senator Clay Davis]

Good lord is the RNC out to lunch. And perhaps unsurprisingly if they did any research they'd find out one of the documentaries is being made by the same guy who did "Inside Job", which villainized many people from the Clinton administration for their role in the financial downfall. I'm guessing he won't be making a puff piece for Hillary.

On the other hand if this means fewer Republican debates or less coverage, then everyone wins.

[troutman]

How California Is Turning The Rest Of The West Blue


http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolit...paign=20130829

California used to attract millions of newcomers, but now more people are moving away. And they're taking a more progressive strain of politics with them to places like Colorado and Nevada.

[DuffMan]

Have you ever heard of the phrase Christian Dominionist?

To see what kind of players are starting to step up for the Tea Party branch of the GOP, check out these 2 guys.

Rafael Cruz (Ted Cruz's father)

In April, Rafael Cruz, the father of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), spoke to the tea party of Hood County, which is southwest of Fort Worth, and made a bold declaration: The United States is a "Christian nation." The septuagenarian businessman turned evangelical pastor did not choose to use the more inclusive formulation "Judeo-Christian nation." Insisting that the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution "were signed on the knees of the framers" and were a "divine revelation from God," he went on to say, "yet our president has the gall to tell us that this is not a Christian nation…The United States of America was formed to honor the word of God." Seven months earlier, Rafael Cruz, speaking to the North Texas Tea Party on behalf of his son, who was then running for Senate, called President Barack Obama an "outright Marxist" who "seeks to destroy all concept of God," and he urged the crowd to send Obama "back to Kenya."

David Barton

It's hard to overstate how important Barton has been in shaping the worldview of the Christian right, and of populist conservatives more generally. A self-taught historian with a degree in religious education from Oral Roberts University, he runs a Texas-based organization called WallBuilders, which specializes in books and videos meant to show that the founding fathers were overwhelmingly “orthodox, evangelical” believers who intended for the United States to be a Christian nation. Newt Gingrich has called his work “wonderful” and “most useful.” George W. Bush’s campaign hired him to do clergy outreach in 2004. In 2010, Glenn Beck called him called him “the most important man in America right now.”

Barton, who believes America should be governed by Biblical law, also helped write the 2008 Republican Party platform. And he has advised numerous political candidates, including former Arkansas governor and presidential contender Mike Huckabee, who has said that all Americans should be "forced at gunpoint" to "listen to every David Barton message."

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by DuffMan

Have you ever heard of the phrase Christian Dominionist?

To see what kind of players are starting to step up for the Tea Party branch of the GOP, check out these 2 guys.

Rafael Cruz (Ted Cruz's father)



David Barton

James Madison (My Favourite)



During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution.
http://religiousfreedom.lib.virginia..._m&r_1785.html

Believe it or not, this is in rebuttal to a proposal for the state to fund religious teachers.

[MarchHare]

From the Treaty of Tripoli, signed by President John Adams and approved unanimously by the United States senate in 1797:

As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen [Muslims],—and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan [Mohammedan] nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

Emphasis added.

[nfotiu]

Oh jeez... The ultra conservative, ultra tea party cucinelli is winning in the Virginia governor race. Hopefully just because northern va is reporting late, but way closer than it should be. If he wins I'll be pretty disgusted and pretty annoyed at Obama if his health care debacle gives us this kook as governor.

[gargamel]

Originally Posted by nfotiu

Oh jeez... The ultra conservative, ultra tea party cucinelli is winning in the Virginia governor race. Hopefully just because northern va is reporting late, but way closer than it should be. If he wins I'll be pretty disgusted and pretty annoyed at Obama if his health care debacle gives us this kook as governor.

That's the guy who thinks oral sex should be illegal, right?

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by gargamel

That's the guy who thinks oral sex should be illegal, right?

Yeah, and contraceptives, and wants to make it illegal for women to ask for divorce if they have kids unless they are being beaten and on and on....

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by nfotiu

Oh jeez... The ultra conservative, ultra tea party cucinelli is winning in the Virginia governor race. Hopefully just because northern va is reporting late, but way closer than it should be. If he wins I'll be pretty disgusted and pretty annoyed at Obama if his health care debacle gives us this kook as governor.

Less than 400 votes separating the two with 90% reporting. Looks like it's going down to the wire.

edit: and just after I post that, McAuliffe jumps into the lead by 5000.

[gargamel]

Originally Posted by octothorp

Less than 400 votes separating the two with 90% reporting. Looks like it's going down to the wire.

edit: and just after I post that, McAuliffe jumps into the lead by 5000.

If it somehow comes down to 1 vote, I'm going to feel like a real ******* for not bothering to get an absentee ballot.

[cal_guy]

Looks like McAuliffe is in a good position since there are about 50 precincts from Democratic leaning counties left compared to 5 or 6 in Republican counties.

[Fusebox]

McAuliffe has been declared the winner. Incredible that it was this close, I bet a lot of Republicans are going to be wondering why the party didn't put more money behind Cuccinelli as it could have made the difference.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by Fusebox

McAuliffe has been declared the winner. Incredible that it was this close, I bet a lot of Republicans are going to be wondering why the party didn't put more money behind Cuccinelli as it could have made the difference.

Cuccinelli had been such a train wreck, I am surprised they didn't hold his head underwater. I am actually amazed how close it was...

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by Fusebox

McAuliffe has been declared the winner. Incredible that it was this close, I bet a lot of Republicans are going to be wondering why the party didn't put more money behind Cuccinelli as it could have made the difference.

There were a lot of republicans supporting mcauliffe. None of the polls had it anywhere near this close. It really seems like the escalating discourse over the broken promises of obamacare gave cucinelli some late momentum.

[Red Slinger]

McAuliffe has also been dogged by scandal and concerns about his character, including, on his way home from the hospital after his wife gave birth he stopped by a Democratic fundraiser for an hour while his wife and newborn waited in the car.

So, it was essentially a race between Corrupt Scumbag vs. Fundamentalist
Wingnut Looney. Reminds me a little bit of the race a few years back in the south where David Duke of the KKK was up against a guy that had recently been impeached from office due to corruption. The impeached guy won.

[Itse]

I'm sure some US right wingers just died of stroke.

http://america.aljazeera.com/article...y100years.html

Seattle voters have elected a socialist to city council for the first time in modern history. Kshama Sawant, a member of the populist Occupy Seattle movement, ran on a platform of raising Washington State’s minimum wage to $15 and levying a “millionaire tax” to pay for mass transit and public education.

Sawant took 50.3 percent of the vote to incumbent Richard Conlin’s 49.4 percent. Even in this liberal city, Sawant's win has surprised many here because Conlin was backed by the city's political establishment.

While city council races are technically non-partisan, Sawant made sure people knew she was running as a socialist – a label that would be politically poisonous in many parts of the country.

Not really a huge deal in practice of course, but still. I did not expect so see an actual left winger get elected for anything in the US.

And of course this is what a lot of people felt that the Occupy movement should have tried to do from the start.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Itse

I'm sure some US right wingers just died of stroke.

http://america.aljazeera.com/article...y100years.html

Not really a huge deal in practice of course, but still. I did not expect so see an actual left winger get elected for anything in the US.

And of course this is what a lot of people felt that the Occupy movement should have tried to do from the start.

Great bump, interesting story I was unaware of.