Truthiness

After the very welcome break in the hot weather last evening, I figured that I’d start getting back into my regular workout routine today. As the morning wore on, I came to the realization that I was going to take one more day off to recuperate from several days of brutal weather and I decided to have a lazy Sunday. Ken got several things down out in the yard, and I got a couple of things done inside, but it was mostly just being slugs and watching “The Walking Dead” marathon on AMC. It was a zombie day in every sense of the word!

I was thinking a few substantive thoughts today, though, based on a couple of Bookface posts. Conservatives are still going apeshit over the Affordable Care Act being upheld by the Supreme Court, and especially that Chief Justice Roberts was the swing vote. A friend posted a link to a site that had people talking about secession. Abraham Lincoln is rolling over in his grave.

The hysteria is just out of control. Get a grip, people. There are no Death Panels™, this is not a government takeover of healthcare, and this is not the biggest tax increase in the history of the world. The right wing propaganda machine is in full gear, and I’m sick unto death of the lies.

I am no expert on the Affordable Care Act, but I’ve done enough homework to speak intelligently on it, and I am going to do my best to counter these ridiculous claims about how the ACA means the end of the world as we know it, orgies in the streets, and cats and dogs living together. Admittedly, the Obama administration has done an abysmal job on getting the message out about what is and is not in the ACA. I found something the other day that I have saved for use in future fistfights arguments discussions about the ACA. A Reddit author posted it, and I found it reposted on a website I like, Political Irony. You can read what is and is not in the Affordable Care Act, and I urge you to take a look at it. Please take the time to really learn about it, rather than listening to the lies being perpetrated by the likes of Limbaugh and Hannity.

One thing I object the most strongly to is the notion that “Oh, now we’re ALL gonna be paying for those people who are too cheap to get their own healthcare, like those fifth generation welfare queens, and if you want healthcare, get a JOB already and blah di fucking blah.” Beyond the whole concept of people being “too cheap” to get their own healthcare, the horrible “welfare queen” phrase that was promoted by Reagan, and our health insurance being tied to jobs, there is something fundamentally wrong (oh hell, I sound like Newt!) with this attitude. Because here is a newsflash: we are ALL paying already for people who don’t have health insurance. Every time an uninsured person goes to ER because they are in crisis (from what is often a manageable condition), we pay in increased hospital costs and in increased insurance costs. Every time someone declares bankruptcy due to medical bills, we all pay. I would much rather we pay for everyone to receive preventive care and live a higher quality life than continue to allow people to live in misery and die from something that could have been prevented or caught earlier.

This is something so simple to me that I can’t understand anyone who thinks that people should be left to die or go bankrupt because of medical bills.