Everyone in America has heard Donald Trump’s misogynist and offensive remarks or read about his numerous affairs and infidelity. As Michelle Obama once said with power, “I can’t believe I’m saying a candidate for president of the United States has bragged about sexually assaulting women, I’ve listened to this, and I feel it so personally,”… Continue reading Republicans Never Had The Moral High Ground
Category: Healthcare
Republicans Are Out Of Healthcare Options
In 1986, as a part of the Budget Reconciliation Act, President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. This legislation guaranteed any hospital emergency room that accepted Medicare are required to provide treatment to all others regardless of legal status, citizenship, or payment ability. There were no reimbursement provisions… Continue reading Republicans Are Out Of Healthcare Options
Speaker Ryan Adds Planned Parenthood To Obamacare Repeal
An all-out attack on Planned Parenthood has just been announced by the GOP. Today Speaker Ryan announced that defunding of Planned Parenthood would be part of the Obamacare reconciliation bill. Using the reconciliation process skates around a potential Democratic filibuster and allows a straight up vote. Not only are Republicans trying to slip though this… Continue reading Speaker Ryan Adds Planned Parenthood To Obamacare Repeal
Ted Cruz Called Out By Fox News
On Sunday Chris Wallace called out Ted Cruz for his blatant distortions of fact. Cruz continued with his Obamacare-doomsday rhetoric, which has no foundation in fact or basic logic. Even Fox News was uncomfortable with Cruz’s distortions, and Chris Wallace finally called them out. Here is the transcript: WALLACE: I want to drill down into Cruz-care,… Continue reading Ted Cruz Called Out By Fox News
The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) Explained
In 2009 when President Obama first took office, America faced a serious healthcare problem that had been ignored for decades. Significant changes needed to be made to address our nation’s problems, which included rising costs and inadequate care following a trajectory to insolvency. At President Obama’s inauguration forty-five million citizens did not have access to… Continue reading The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) Explained
The Food Stamp Surfer
As any viewer of Fox News will tell you, America has become an entitlement nation. This claim is reinforced by example after example of individuals gaming the system or dissected across Fox’s political theater. The right’s fixation on the poor has become so blatant Fox has even come up with a pseudo-correspondent that fuels the… Continue reading The Food Stamp Surfer
Obamacare Unlocks American Innovation
America’s antiquated health care insurance system has hampered innovation and ultimately slowed economic growth for decades due to the insurance system’s perverse incentives. However, the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, has done much to reverse those disincentives. Consider the following scenario: Imagine you work for a large company that pays an acceptable salary.… Continue reading Obamacare Unlocks American Innovation
Is Obamacare Doomed for Failure?
When the media finds a narrative it loves, it tends to hang on, even when the facts do not compute. The poll numbers for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, have plummeted since the embarrassingly flawed roll-out of the online health insurance exchanges, and as reports spread regarding cancellations of some lower-grade insurance policies.… Continue reading Is Obamacare Doomed for Failure?
Shutdown Antics Threaten Constitutional Order
The current shutdown of the federal government and upcoming showdown over the debt ceiling has caused many people to ask who is to blame for this gridlock. The media, in its effort to try to report both sides of the story, often end up giving balanced treatment to an unbalanced phenomenon. What we have is… Continue reading Shutdown Antics Threaten Constitutional Order
Government Shutdown – The Lincoln Analogy
Obamacare pales in comparison to the importance of freeing the Slaves. And shutting down the government is nothing at all like Civil War. But the principles are exactly the same. President Obama came in inexperienced and made mistakes – so did President Lincoln. But they both promoted the overriding principle of Constitutional government of, by, and… Continue reading Government Shutdown – The Lincoln Analogy
The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) Explained
In 2009 when President Obama first took office, America faced a serious healthcare problem that had been ignored for decades. Significant changes needed to be made to address our nation’s problems, which included rising costs and inadequate care following a trajectory to insolvency. At President Obama’s inauguration forty-five million citizens did not have access to… Continue reading The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) Explained
Arizona’s Medicaid Expansion
Today brought a conversation that many of my fellow LDS Democrats hear on a regular basis. Midway into the morning I received a phone call from my wife who was clearly energized by her subject, and began to inform me of an organized petition that a church member asked her to sign. Here is our… Continue reading Arizona’s Medicaid Expansion
After Obamacare, Can Congress Make You Eat Broccoli?
Opponents of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 frequently criticized the law’s central component — the individual insurance mandate — and argued that if Congress was permitted to compel everyone to purchase health insurance, it could also pass other laws that compelled Americans to buy products such as broccoli. In his ruling against ACA,… Continue reading After Obamacare, Can Congress Make You Eat Broccoli?
Violence and Mental Health
The recent mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut reinvigorated the national debate about gun control. While I believe that additional measures must be adopted to make it more difficult for criminals and the mentally ill to obtain firearms, it is equally important that Americans evaluate other areas in our society… Continue reading Violence and Mental Health
President Obama Endorsed by Mormon Democrats
In 2008, President Barack Obama was elected into one of the worst economic disasters since Franklin Roosevelt stepped into the Oval Office. The United States economy was shedding approximately 800,000 jobs per month. Home foreclosures were skyrocketing and the stock market plummeted. From continuing the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and the Recovery Act, to the… Continue reading President Obama Endorsed by Mormon Democrats
Affordable Care Act Focuses on Workers, Removes Perverse Incentives
President Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) was not directed at the poorest Americans, who already have Medicaid, but at the working poor. This includes those who work full-time, but cannot afford their own health insurance policy. In addition, low-wage jobs are far less likely to provide health insurance benefits. Thus, typical low-wage earners are left… Continue reading Affordable Care Act Focuses on Workers, Removes Perverse Incentives
Universal Health Care Benefits Everyone, Eliminates Free Riders
Positive rights should not just be viewed through the lens of entitlement. Positive rights are similar to public goods in that they provide positive benefits to society as a whole (in economics, this phenomenon is called a positive externality). This is especially true with health care. If everyone has access to good health care, the… Continue reading Universal Health Care Benefits Everyone, Eliminates Free Riders
GOP Turns on Insurance Mandate at Its Own Peril
In January 2009, Mitt Romney penned some advice to incoming President Barack Obama regarding health care reform in a USA Today op-ed piece. Romney suggested Obama look to “the lessons we learned in Massachusetts,” in contemplating federal-level reform, noting specifically: First, we established incentives for those who were uninsured to buy insurance. Using tax penalties,… Continue reading GOP Turns on Insurance Mandate at Its Own Peril
The Anti-Life Pro-Lifers
Have you ever come across someone who vehemently supports the criminalization of most or all forms of abortion? Chances are that person opposed with equal fervor President Obama’s health care reform bill and most, if not all forms of public assistance to those in need. It is also quite likely that that person supported the… Continue reading The Anti-Life Pro-Lifers
WhichMitt.com Part 2
I recently posted two video clips of Mitt Romney contradicting himself on economic stimulus and President Obama’s health care reform bill. While most politicians’ views on various issues change a little over time, Romney’s shift on these issues was a complete 180 degree shift and only occurred since Obama has been in office. The Republican… Continue reading WhichMitt.com Part 2