kpete
kpete's JournalRepublicans are their own worst enemy on Obamacare. Here’s proof.
The standoff over the budget and debt ceiling that culminated in a government shutdown amounted to a political disaster for Republicans. One of the main reasons why has nothing to do with what happened and everything to do with what didn’t.
A new Kaiser Family Foundation poll released Friday explains it. Forty-four percent of Americans say they paid very close attention to the fight over the short-term budget and the debt limit, while only half as many say the same thing about the glitches that have plagued the rollout of the health-care law’s online exchanges or marketplaces. Just 24 percent say they paid scant attention to the shutdown and debt showdown, compared to 46 percent who say the same thing about the troubled health-care rollout
So, while Republicans were dominating the headlines with their fight against Obamacare in the budget debate, the real-world problems with the law were going overlooked by the public for much of last month. In short, Republicans couldn’t get out of their own way.
MORE:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/11/01/republicans-are-their-own-worst-enemy-on-obamacare-heres-proof/
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and just for fun, another chart:
'Winners And Losers From Obamacare'
University of Michigan professor and senior Brookings fellow Justin Wolfers on Thursday created a chart depicting the "winners and losers" under the Affordable Care Act, sourced to a Ryan Lizza article that used estimates from M.I.T. economist Jon Gruber, a former adviser to Mitt Romney.
The chart portrays the degree to which Republicans and critics of Obamacare have amplified the media's coverage around the relatively small percentage of Americans who have received cancellation notices for stripped-down individual market plans that failed to meet the benefit requirements of the ACA.
https://twitter.com/JustinWolfers/status/395982657814667264/photo/1
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/chart-winners-and-losers-from-obamacare
Hagel blasts states on same-sex benefits policy
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Thursday sharply criticized U.S. states that are defying the Pentagon by refusing to allow National Guard facilities to issue ID cards that enable same-sex spouses of military members to claim benefits.
“This is wrong,” Hagel said in remarks prepared for delivery in New York.
“Not only does this violate the states’ obligation under federal law, their actions have created hardship and inequality by forcing couples to travel long distances to federal military bases to obtain the ID cards they’re entitled to,” he said.
Hagel said these states’ policies are unfair. He said he ordered the chief of the National Guard Bureau, Gen. Frank Grass, to “take immediate action to remedy this situation.”
http://www.armytimes.com/article/20131031/NEWS05/310310041/Hagel-blasts-states-same-sex-benefits-policy
Krugman gets it : it's "A War on the Poor"
A War on the Poor
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Republican hostility toward the poor and unfortunate has now reached such a fever pitch that the party doesn’t really stand for anything else — and only willfully blind observers can fail to see that reality.
The big question is why. But, first, let’s talk a bit more about what’s eating the right.
I still sometimes see pundits claiming that the Tea Party movement is basically driven by concerns about budget deficits. That’s delusional. Read the founding rant by Rick Santelli of CNBC: There’s nary a mention of deficits. Instead, it’s a tirade against the possibility that the government might help “losers” avoid foreclosure. Or read transcripts from Rush Limbaugh or other right-wing talk radio hosts. There’s not much about fiscal responsibility, but there’s a lot about how the government is rewarding the lazy and undeserving.
Republicans in leadership positions try to modulate their language a bit, but it’s a matter more of tone than substance. They’re still clearly passionate about making sure that the poor and unlucky get as little help as possible, that — as Representative Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, put it — the safety net is becoming “a hammock that lulls able-bodied people to lives of dependency and complacency.” And Mr. Ryan’s budget proposals involve savage cuts in safety-net programs such as food stamps and Medicaid.
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In a much-cited recent memo, Democracy Corps, a Democratic-leaning public opinion research organization, reported on the results of focus groups held with members of various Republican factions. They found the Republican base “very conscious of being white in a country that is increasingly minority” — and seeing the social safety net both as something that helps Those People, not people like themselves, and binds the rising nonwhite population to the Democratic Party. And, yes, the Medicaid expansion many states are rejecting would disproportionately have helped poor blacks.
MORE:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/01/opinion/krugman-a-war-on-the-poor.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20131101&_r=1&
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/01/1252248/-Krugman-gets-it-it-s-A-War-on-the-Poor
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