This has been an interesting week.
Some of the less-publicized elements of that interesting week have slipped under the radar. I'm here to help with that.
First off, remember my grumping and complaining that Congress "of course" didn't have to participate in the Obamacare program? Well, it turns out they may have screwed the pooch big time in response to their constituents' screeching about that; they changed the bill to require that Congress buy ONLY plans from the exchanges... But the exchanges aren't set up yet, and won't be until 2014. Which means they can't, and as of the date Obamacare was signed into law, they were stripped of their health insurance... and prohibited by law from buying insurance anywhere else.
I bet they'll love paying for their endless rounds of preventive care out of pocket for the next 4 years, don't you?
Several more tidbits about Obamacare, before I move on to the other comical (and not-so-comical) events of the last few days: Barney Frank, renowned jackass, got on a plane from L.A. to Boston the other day, and found himself being confronted by two drunken female opthalmologists, who called him every name in the book for helping Obamacare be made law; bonus points to Mr. Frank's boyfriend, James Ready, for acting the part of the aggravator on every episode of Jerry Springer ever.
The Wall Street Journal noted today that despite all the assurances proponents of Obamacare gave the public, there will be a shortfall of better than 150,000 doctors in the U.S. over the next few years, thanks in large part to the millions of formerly uninsured people who now can go to the doctor for sniffles and carpet burn, instead of waiting until they're actually in need of medical care.
For those of you asking "well, conservatives, where's this tax increase you were all on about?" I'd like to introduce you to the $3.9 billion a year in taxes that you'll (14.8 million Americans, 14.7 million of whom earn less than $200,000 a year) have to pay every year from 2019 on, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation; there ya go. It won't be the last, either.
And for those of you asking "where's this rationed care you were on about?" I'd like to introduce you to this New York Times article, in which the Grey Lady happily burbles about how the biggest priority, post-Obamacare, is learning to tell people they cannot get treatment or preventive care, because the bureaucrats have decided they don't need it.
On to other, stranger things than health care:
I never thought I would say this, but the Ku Klux Klan did something right the other day.
Wait, back up.
Let me put it like this: how badly fucked up do you have to be, and on how many levels, for the Ku Klux Klan to totally disavow you, deny any connection between you, and "absolutely repudiate their activities?"
Pretty bad, right?
So who could possibly have managed this feat?
If you guessed Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist "Church," ding ding ding, you're our lucky winner.
In other news, the KKK has a website.
Moving right along...
It must be getting tough for the Dems. They're so stressed out that they are now actually attempting to invade Republican meetings to swear at people (with video goodness, y'all;) Obama is finding out that it's almost impossible NOT to do all the same things that President Bush did, you know, that they swore at him about; especially the part where they can't yell at their own guy after Obama authorizes assassination of an American citizen, despite yelling about Bush not respecting the "rights" of terrorists and enemy combatants. (He did so under the same statutes that I was blogging about in Maybe The Scariest Article I've Ever Written, if anyone's interested in the legality of it.)
It's gotta be a tough time to be a jackass.
When the president of FRANCE calls your Chosen One "insane," you know you've got it bad.
When Social Security goes broke years before you said it would, thanks to your double-dipping in the funds, you know you've got it bad.
When your Chosen One, despite promising openness and receiving media outlet gladhanding on a scale never before seen in this country gives the finger to the press on multiple occasions and then cavalierly dismisses it, even after disappearing to mysterious destinations that the media should really have been interested in, you know you've got it bad.
When Congress' reaction to the difficulty of balancing the budget, and the growing panic and anger among the populace is to decide not to bother with a budget, because that makes it easier to hide how much they're stealing - and then the media finds out about it, you know you've got it bad.
The center cannot hold; you cannot continue to blithely bang away at the things which made, and make, this country great, without endangering that greatness; this week, a lot of steps were taken in the direction of Democrats being forced into a face-to-face confrontation with that fact.
