Obamacare

The Affordable Care Act is a 1200-page mess. I will grant this readily. President Obama deserves to have his name linked to it throughout history, as Obamacare. In the first years of his presidency, Mr. Obama either made a major tactical mistake while he held control of Congress or sold his soul to the health insurance corporations of the U.S.. He could have and should have pressed through a one-payer, national health care insurance, if his motivation was to help the poor and uninsured. The Democrats would have done it. The public, by now, would love it. This did not happen. Instead, the health insurance companies, initially enthusiastic for new subscribers, are backing off from Obamacare under warnings from economists who have outlined the possible collapse of their industry if the public does not swallow the inadequate policies on offer. 

Mr. Obama's bow to his corporate/Wall Street handlers has cost him and the American public dearly. The government shutdown today is simply drama, staged by exploitative Republicans for political gain. These folks are our domestic terrorists. They use fear of government to frighten the old and the uneducated to vote for them. Their agenda is to abuse those misguided supporters over time by increasing corporate welfare at the expense of human welfare. They are funded primarily by shadowy corporate moguls, like the Koch brothers. 

Yesterday, I listened to a panel broadcast on the Fox network, owned by notoriously corrupt and corrupting Rupert Murdoch. The panel consisted of Tea Party supporters and doctors. The lies about the health care system, which were broadcast without question, were stunning. One of the doctors stated baldly that the Affordable Care Act will fail because doctors cannot make "enough money" giving medical care under its provisions. He then went on to imply that doctors would be impoverished and would not deliver care. Imagine that. How many truly poor American doctors do you know?

A political party which uses misinformation and manipulation of fear against the better interests of the people is a greater danger than a rag-tag group of terrorists off our shores. That political party, the Tea Party, are domestic terrorists because they tell lies to promote fear to gain the support of those who simply don't know better for causes that are based in the corporate greed of the fossil fuel industries. Tea Party politicians are simply paid thugs for those industries. When John McCain, a nationalist and Republican to his roots, stands tall in opposition to the Tea Party, intelligent Americans should become quite concerned. Anyone considering himself/herself a humanist should be appalled.