Breaking: Trump White House Trolls for "Obamacare Disaster Stories"

I've gotten a lot of emails from The White House. The Obama White House, mostly. But apparently, Cheetolini must've inherited the mailing list. And just minutes ago, he used it to push out the most hyper-partisan, push-poll-feeling email I've ever gotten from that source.

"Share Your Obamacare Disaster Story"


That's the subject line. Isn't that nice? It assumes that you have such a story. Or, that if you have an Obamacare story, it must be a disaster. Or, more likely, that they only want stories from people who consider it a disaster. And here, ladies and germs, is a primo example of how the Trump White House differs from Obama's.

Firstly, the Obama version wouldn't have been so ham-handed and obvious about the desire to get only one sort of response. But secondly, the Obama team would have wanted examples of all types. They'd want to know if you have had good experiences or bad experiences. They did so. They helped people who were having difficulties and obstacles with that plan, and other issues. Not Trump! Tell me how awful it is!

In truth, clearly, this is about bolstering the need for (Please Don't Call It) TrumpCare. Trump's claims that it would cover everyone regardless of income, and that it would be cheaper and better are. Not. True. But in Trumpland, that's a minor detail. His followers have been remarkably willing to give him massive latitude on the exact wording of his promises. They will on this as well. And if you give them a few juicy stories to repeat ad nauseam for the next 8 years? Even better.

The letter:

---

Obamacare has been a complete failure since the beginning, and things are only getting worse.

Today, President Donald J. Trump held a listening session to hear directly from Americans who have experienced significant hardship as a result of Obamacare's poor coverage and rising prices.

President Trump wants to hear from hard-working Americans like you. How has Obamacare affected you? Share your Obamacare disaster story.


During the meeting, one woman revealed that she had her health insurance cancelled three times since Obamacare became law. Another attendee had her insurance jump from $17,000 a year to a devastating $52,500 a year for her struggling family, while yet another said her health insurance now costs more than her mortgage.

Obamacare came packaged as the healthcare solution for all Americans. Instead, the country was given hundreds of pages of broken promises.

Millions of hard-working Americans have been impaired by soaring costs, cancelled plans, and overbearing mandates. As one of those innocent Americans, President Trump wants to hear your story about how this disastrous law has affected you and your family.

Share Your Story

---

So, I propose we share all kinds of stories! Who's with me?

US Facing Ebola with No Surgeon General

Why don't we have a Surgeon General to shepherd us through a medical crisis like Ebola? Three guesses. . .

Target Workers Better Off with ObamaCare?

Image from source, ThinkProgress

This is already shaping up to be a bad year for brick-and-mortar department stores across the country. While I'm sure the right (hi, Dan!) will say this is just a fact of life in "Obama's America," the fact is, we shop differently than we used to. Other than some after-Christmas shopping for each other at Kohl's at steep discounts, The Other Half and I buy almost everything online these days. And for all the worries people have about identity theft online, we all saw what happened at Target, right? That was in person shopping there.

Target is having a bad year, obviously, and along with closing some stores (much like JC Penney, Sears and others), they're going to stop offering insurance to their part-time employees. And this--I'm certain--will be a major issue for conservatives (hi again, Dan!). But is it a problem? Is it possible that these workers might get a better deal on the healthcare exchange? Maybe so. . .

[Excerpt]

Why Target’s Part-Time Employees Will Be Better Off Under Obamacare

Chain retailer Target announced on Wednesday that it will stop offering health insurance to employees who work less than 30 hours per week, instead sending these workers to Obamacare’s insurance marketplaces to buy new plans. The announcement was quickly picked up by conservative outlets as proof that the health law is giving workers short shrift. To the contrary, these part-time workers will most likely be better off under Obamacare plans, and Target’s decision to shift the employees into the marketplaces is definitive proof that the health law is doing exactly what it’s intended to do. . .

Read more at: Think Progress

Nice Work if You Can Get It: Congress Done for the Year?

Image from source, Politico

There's been lots of talk in Congress about companies cutting people's hours "because of" ObamaCare (in reality taking advantage of the situation to maximize profits, usually). But there's a group of part time workers with platinum health care for life. Congress!

But tell me something. If this Congress suddenly stopped legislating. . .how would that be any different from what they're doing?

[Excerpt]

Congress seems to be done legislating for the year

 It’s just mid-November, but it’s quickly becoming a reality: Washington could be mostly done making laws for the year. If it isn’t evident by looking at the thin congressional calendar, top sources in both chambers are downright grim that the final eight weeks in 2013 will produce any legislative breakthroughs, like a broad budget agreement or an immigration deal. . .

Read more at: Politico

Sorting Out the ObamaCare Scares

At least this lady has been retired from the site.
Image from ThinkProgress

So far, virtually every bad story I've heard about ObamaCare's implementation (beyond the admittedly glitchy website) has been fraught with errors, misleading statistics and in some cases, lies. And if the source is from Right Wing World, you can almost guarantee that there's very little about the story that is correct. One of the most annoying aspects of all the reporting, is that it would seem the entire mainstream media has turned the whole thing into a game, "let's see if we can crash the system!" Very little effort has been put into actually checking out if peoples' stories actually check out.
So, though I was never a particular fan of what the ACA finally became (I think a single-payer, "Medicare for all" plan would have made a lot more sense), I feel like I've got to wave my arms and say, HEY! Don't go in for the easy story, dig a little deeper. It may not all be great, but it's not that bad either.

[Excerpt]

Here Is What’s Wrong With That Story About Obama Knowing That Your Health Care Policy Would Get Cancelled
 
The NBC News investigations unit is reporting that “50 to 75 percent of the 14 million consumers who buy their insurance individually can expect to receive a ‘cancellation’ letter or the equivalent over the next year because their existing policies don’t meet the standards mandated by the new health care law” — a fact administration officials knew but kept from the public. . .

Read more at: Think Progress

Today is Make or Break for "Obamacare"

Wow. How embarrassing. Image
from source, Think Progress.

UPDATE: Whew! Upheld, almost entirely. Cool, cool. Many conservatives severely butt-hurt about it, cool, cool. And looks like I was right about the issue of the mandate being a tax. Cool!

ORIGINAL POST:

And by make or break, I mean possibly broken apart, or broken altogether. Or maybe--just maybe--it will be upheld. As it pertains to healthcare, I'm currently covered by my husband's company's plan. Score one for inclusive corporations. So, I'm not impacted by the decision either way, at least not as things stand. But I know there are lots of people who are enjoying some health care improvements, such as having adult children on their plans until 26, or the moratorium on preexisting conditions.

The truth is, when the separate parts of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare came from Hillarycare linguistically, and Romneycare genetically) are explained, people really like them. Dress them up with the Obamacare name, and inject some Rush Limbaugh-isms, and it has a very low approval rating. Big surprise. And don't tell me that Republicans pushed this Supreme Court battle "for the American people." It was done to get President Obama on his signature achievement. The "individual mandate" was a Republican idea, originally, after all. And it amounts to a tax. Thanks and congratulations will go to Grover Norquist for it not being called that. Who elected him?

So, one way or the other, this is going to be big news today, all weekend, on the Sunday talk shows, and through next week. Whichever way it goes, it's going to be used by both sides in probably many elections. Unlike many of the other issues of the week or two, this one is going to have lasting impact. And thanks to an oopsie, we already know how it's going to be reported, in each possible outcome! At least from the Chicago Sun-Times. Like the ending of the movie Clue, there are multiple endings to this story, all pre-written, and accidentally released. And in each case, there is a downside for Obama! Liberal media my ass. . . .

[Excerpt]

How Not To Write About Tomorrow’s Supreme Court Decision

Earlier today, the Chicago Sun-Times accidentally posted a pre-written story on tomorrow’s pending Affordable Care Act decision in the Supreme Court, which included ready-to-go intro paragraphs for several possible outcomes. . .

Read them all at: Think Progress

Santorum: No One Has Ever Died Because They Didn't Have Health Care

In a year full of stupid, Rick (don't Google me) Santorum takes the prize. What a boob.

[Excerpt]


Santorum: No One Has Ever Died Because They Didn't Have Health Care

. . .“The answer is not what can we do to prevent deaths because of a lack of health insurance. There’s — I reject that number completely, that people die in America because of lack of health insurance,” Santorum said to a crowd of 100. . .

Read more at: New Civil Rights Movement

DNC Ad Highlights Rowdy GOP Debate Crowds

Actually, this seems a little bit late. I have to wonder though, if in the next couple of debates, the crowds are admonished to shut the f up!

Tying it All Together: The Tea Party Death Cult

This is good stuff about a bad thing. And it needs to be pointed out again, and again.

Image from DailyKos

[Excerpt]

The tea party death cult 

Many remember the moment when it was said that Rep. Alan Grayson had gone too far. The speech that signaled that he had far exceeded the reasonable political bounds of his swing district and had violated the supposed normative decorum of the hallowed House of Representatives. . .


. . .Grayson had a different characterization of the so-called Republican plan for healthcare:

Don't get sick. And if you do get sick, die quickly. . .

 . . .Until last week, Grayson's speech about Republican perspectives on health care could theoretically have been considered a rhetorical exaggeration. But not any more. It's now a simple fact that a good number of tea party voters actively like to see people die. . .

Read more at: DailyKos

More Conservatives Coming Out Against Minimum Wage

If the election in November goes according to conventional wisdom, the GOP is poised to make tremendous gains, or even take over one or both houses of Congress.  I get that a President's party usually loses big in mid-term elections.  I get that when the economy is bad, the party in power is often in trouble.  The pendulum swings left, and then always swings right again.  But is America ready to have that sucker lassoed, hogtied, and lashed to a hitching post in the furthest reaches of Teabaggistan?

I hope not.  Because if it is, my faith in my fellow man--and their reasoning skills--is going to be lower than it already is.  Think about how this election season has gone so far. Who has been demonized--besides President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid--by the GOP so far?  Gays, naturally. People who don't have health insurance. Immigrants. Black people. Muslims. Gays again. The unemployed. I'm sure I've left some out. And then there's the fact that many prominent candidates are advocating eliminating or privatizing Social Security, Medicare and the VA.  So, there's your old and sick and veterans.  As icing on the cake, now they're targeting the poor.  Who is left to vote for them?

[Excerpt]

More Candidates Come Out Against Minimum Wage

Connecticut GOP Senate nominee Linda McMahon may have been the first, but apparently, not the last Republican hopeful to question the need for a national minimum wage. . .

Read more at: OnTheHillBlog

What To Do With Body Parts That Fall Off

Image from source, CNN

My friend Stupid Monkey Planet passed this story to me, and I couldn't resist posting it. Besides being very interesting, it's also very good to know what to do in this situation.  Nobody plans to get a tooth knocked out, a finger (or worse) chopped off, or--gahhhhhh--have their eyeball leave its orbit.  So read the piece below, and file it away somewhere in your head. Just in case.

[Excerpt]

What to do when body parts fall off

Jim Beaty was renovating his Seattle, Washington, home one day when he went to cut a 16-foot piece of siding in the garage. He turned to talk to his son, Eric, and the electric saw went out of control and cut his fingers. . .

Read more at: CNN

Is Sharron Angle a Hypocrite for Taking Government Health Care?

Image from source,
Think Progress

Um, yes, yes she is.  And she's batshit crazy. Had to be said.

[Excerpt]

Sharron Angle And Her Husband Receive Government Health Care

Throughout her campaign for U.S. Senate in Nevada, GOP candidate and tea party favorite Sharron Angle has railed against government intervention in just about everything. Angle said she wants to “personalize” Social Security, and she even went so far as to suggest the possibility of an armed insurrection against the U.S. government to protect “against a tyrannical government. . .”

Read more at: Think Progress

Sharron Angle on Medicare

Sharron Angle has spent a lot of her time--when not running away from reporters--trying to backtrack, gloss over or completely reverse many of her previously held positions.  That can be somewhat difficult to do when there is actual audio and video of those positions.

Awake for Surgery? Noooooo!!!

Image from source, CNN

Thanks to Stupid Monkey Planet for bringing this giant tanker of nightmare fuel to my attention.  I've had a few minor to moderate surgical procedures in my lifetime, and the only thing that made it endurable was the thought that I'd go to sleep, and when I woke up it would be over. Maybe, maybe not. Thanks, Monkey.

[Excerpt]

Awake during surgery: 'I'm in hell'

When Carol Weiher was having her right eye surgically removed in 1998, she woke up hearing disco music. The next thing she heard was "Cut deeper, pull harder."



She desperately wanted to scream or even move a finger to signal to doctors that she was awake, but the muscle relaxant she'd received prevented her from controlling her movements.


"I was doing a combination of praying and pleading and cursing and screaming, and trying anything I could do but I knew that there was nothing that was working," said Weiher, of Reston, Virginia. . .

Read more at: CNN

And Now A Word from the FReepers on Health Care Reform

Image--no, I don't understand what Obama has to do with The Joker Either--from source, Free Republic

You knew that the passage of health care would throw some right-wingers into a tizzy. So it is no surprise that the FReepers over at FreeRepublic are having a shit fit over it. But did you expect this?

[Excerpts]

"They all deserve to burn in tragic fires."

"TIME TO FIGHT!"

".....pick up your arms and revolt. . . . . NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Payback is coming. They will wondering everyday when it will come."

"F*CK OBAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"EXACTLY!!!! and the frickin government can come and git me!"

"I’ve never felt anything like what I’m feeling today. Not even on 9/11. It’s hard to even look at my girls without crying."

"Civil Disobedience will have to be the name of the game. Voting, for now, will be for fools."

"Then he’s going on vacation....I hope a shark eats him."

"I very sincerely hope not everyone is loading mags right now, Actually, in my case they are referred to as "belts"..... "

"I feel like a Jew on the night the Nuremberg Laws were passed."

Much more, just like that at: Free Republic

Columbus Dispatch: Man With Parkinson's Mocked

As a person born, raised and grown to young adulthood in Columbus, Ohio, I am apologizing for the behavior of these fellow Ohioans. Disgusting.

Ad For Scott Brown in Massachusetts WAY Over the Top

Image from The Political Class

Today there's a really weird thing going down. Massachusetts is holding a special election for U.S. Senate (why now? I dunno). That's not the weird part. It's for the seat held by Ted Kennedy for 47 years. Kennedy spearheaded health care reform as an issue for many, many years. And now, it is not unlikely that the seat could go to a Republican. What's more, because it would remove the Democrats' filibuster-proof majority, it could kill the health care reform bill.

In case you missed it, that's the weird part. Well that, and the notion that Massachusetts would elect a Republican to the seat after all of these years. Now, I'm no huge fan of the reform bills as they've turned out. They're nowhere near liberal enough, which is ironic, since Republicans are acting like it's the end of America as we know it. They talk about taking their country back, and that President Obama and the Democrats are tyrannical, which is laughable. After all, the Democrats bent over backward (and forward? ahem), and damned near gutted the thing in a futile attempt at "bipartisanship."

But you wouldn't know that from this whopper of an ad for Scott Brown. The music! The imagery! The fear! Olbermann! Maddow! Eeeeeeek! It's one of the most over-the-top things I've ever seen. John Waters couldn't top it. And Scott Brown is a miracle? I'll grant he was pretty hot back in his nude modeling days (and not so bad these days either). But a miracle? One thing's for sure, whatever happens, it will be interesting, with a heaping helping of stupid. Just like anything else political these days.

Joe Lieberman Promised Universal Health Care in 2006

Image from source, Raw Story

What a douche.

[Excerpt]

Flip Flop: Lieberman Promised Universal Health Care in 2006

Political watchdogs and supporters of the public health care option are accusing Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman of hypocrisy for announcing he plans to filibuster the Senate health care reform bill after years of voicing support for health care reform. . .

Read more at: Raw Story

"AHIP Singers" Disrupt Health Care Event

Now this is how to disrupt a meeting!



Found at: AmericaBlog

Anti-Gov't Health Care Activists On Medicare; Fail to Note Irony

Here I thought that the item I ran earlier was an anomaly. Apparently many of the people decrying government health care are also recipients of Medicare. Which is government health care. Which makes them a) stupid, b) dishonest or c) hypocrites.
[Excerpt]

Local Fox Reporter Attends Town Hall And Finds ‘Some Attendees Admit They Don’t Live In The District’


. . .During the town hall, one conservative activist turns to his fellow attendees and asks them to raise their hands if they “oppose any form of socialized or government-run health care.” Almost all the hands shot up. Rep Green quickly turned the question on the audience and asked, “How many of you have Medicare?” Nearly half the attendees raised their hands, failing to note the irony. . .

Read more (with more video) at: Think Progress