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Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan
It's no secret that I don't love this bill--but as Obama would say, "let's be clear."
There is no specific tax increase tied to this bill. People keep saying that this bill raises taxes, and it just isn't true.
People currently uninsured will have to buy health insurance, but that isn't quite the same thing. People who are poor will be eligible for a subsidized program that offers better care than they can now receive at a lower cost.
The only people who don't benefit are middle-class people who don't have health insurance because they have some blinkered notion that they don't need it. Well, them and the government, which is footing a large portion of the bill here.
The big problem here is that it does nothing to curtail the health-care-industry's inflationary billing practices, and nothing to curtail rising health care costs. But again--let's be clear. This bill doesn't solve that problem, but it also didn't produce it. If anything, the problem would have been worse if the government had done nothing.
And--bizarrely--that was the Republicans' stance all along: don't do this--do nothing instead. I think history will show that they squandered a huge opportunity to develop a positive vision for governance in the U.S. by hitching their wagon to the status quo, which everyone agrees is broken.
I'm guessing we see a significant bump in the polls for Obama after the dust settles, but only time will tell.
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I'm neither for or against this bill, I don't know enough about the rammifications of it.
but when you suddenly start talking about subsidizing people for insurance costs then that money has to come from somewhere. Either they're going to have to cut from somewhere else (Defense, but its not bloodly likely to happen in the dollars that they need) or a tax increase will occur at some point, and I'm backing on that.
I think they have handed the Republican party some really damning campaign material, especially after the first person decides they'd rather go to prison then buy insurance. Or the first dirt farmer gets his fine in the mail.
I don't know if I agree with the significant increase in the polls for Obama. There will be some people that like it, some that think its an ineffective and half a$$ed policy and those that outright hate it.
I completely agree that the system in the states isn't great and needs to be overhauled. But this is a monitary bill more then anything else, it doesn't really address quality of care issues.