There’s another reason why the Republicans oppose Obamacare. There is a worldview that equates sickness with laziness and lack of effort. Notice the asides about slackers on disability and the poor and chronically ill by the right. The “you’re not really sick, just faking” is the attitude. Wellness is a sign of virtue to them, not a matter of education and resources. Obamacare blows that whole thing out of the water by providing resources and education to those who are deemed “unworthy”. Health care without judgement?
Well, my asthma certainly isn’t a sign of immorality-more likely a combination of genetics and a near-lifetime of breathing in auto fumes and dust. Being virtuous is no substitute for an inhaler.
I know it’s pretty sick. But I’ve been there. As a single person with no kids, Medicaid coverage was withdrawn from people like us in the early nineties. The Medicaid expansion would once again cover some of us too young for Medicare and too poor to get insurance otherwise . And many single adults also have “pre-existing conditions”, mental illness and other problems that require medical intervention. And right on schedule, the old rhetoric is returning from Republicans because we can now get health care from Medicaid if we cannot afford any private insurance.
While I now have health care, thanks to being in a Government job, I haven’t forgotten what it was like not to have consistent care, nor what it was like to have no doctor of my own for 20 years. And I no longer live in fear that if my job were to go away, I would be unable to get some kind of coverage.
Obamacare, with its expansion of the safety net means that the lessons supposedly taught by “sickness” will no longer be taught. We childless losers will not feel the sting of our immoral lifestyles. Instead of being an example of how one must conform to be healthy, we will be an example of living our lives on our own terms.
Monday, I’m volunteering outside our local welfare office handing out flyers on Obamacare.
A supporter of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani holds a local newspaper with a headline that reads, “Historic call from a return flight,” upon his arrival from the U.S. near the Mehrabad airport in Tehran, Sept. 28
Saturday and Sunday: The President has no public events scheduled
Monday: The President will host Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu at the White House.
Tuesday: The President will attend meetings at the White House.
Wednesday: The President will deliver remarks at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s 36th Annual Awards Gala at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. The First Lady will also attend.
Thursday and Friday: The President will attend meetings at the White House.
Saturday: The President will depart on his trip to Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines.
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NYT: U.S. and Iran Agree to Speed Talks to Defuse Nuclear Issue
The long-fractured relationship between the United States and Iran took a significant turn on Friday when President Obama and President Hassan Rouhani became the first leaders of their countries to speak since the Tehran hostage crisis more than three decades ago.
In a hurriedly arranged telephone call, Mr. Obama reached Mr. Rouhani as the Iranian leader was headed to the airport to leave New York after a whirlwind news media and diplomatic blitz. The two agreed to accelerate talks aimed at defusing the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program and afterward expressed optimism at the prospect of a rapprochement that would transform the Middle East.
…. The conversation was the first between Iranian and American leaders since 1979 when President Jimmy Carter spoke by telephone with Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi shortly before the shah left the country…
Kurt Eichenwald: Are Republicans So Frantic to Stop Obamacare Because They Fear It Will Work?
What is it about Obamacare that compels seemingly intelligent people to explode in bubbling spasms of stupid? Are they misinformed? Unable to see past the rage-fueled partisan sweat dripping into their eyes? Or just plain dishonest?
No matter. At this point, it has become obvious that history will look back on the four-year war on Obamacare as one of the saddest, most bizarre, and most dishonestly embarrassing episodes of our time. I have given up trying to understand the vehement opposition of so many who cannot offer up truthful reasons for their objections, and instead fuel the hatred and fears of the uninformed with the most illogical, mendacious, and fundamentally bizarre arguments that have ever been marshaled. By comparison, Joe McCarthy’s McCarthyistic McCarthyism was an exercise in reason.
Jonathan Cohn: Obamacare Is About to Go Live. Here’s Why It Was Worth the Wait.
Obamacare’s new insurance marketplaces are scheduled to open for business on October 1, just a few days from now. For all the attention that date has received, it is less important than it might seem. Because new coverage won’t actually begin until January 1, most people looking to get insurance on their own won’t start shopping until the end of the year. But October 1 is still a milestone. And with Republicans threatening to let the government shut down or default if Obamacare takes full effect, it’s also a good moment to take a step back and assess the law—to think, in the broadest possible terms, about whether the reforms it has enacted are worthwhile.
ThinkProgress: Kentucky Governor: Obamacare Is A ‘Historic Change’ That’s Desperately Needed In Red States
In a New York Times op-ed published on Thursday, Kentucky’s governor implores his fellow Southern states to put the health of their citizens above the politicized fight over Obamacare. Gov. Steve Beshear (D) notes that the health reform law could have a huge impact on the struggling Americans who live in red states, and he’s “offended” that so many state leaders are so preoccupied with resisting it.
“There’s a huge disconnect between the rank partisanship of national politics and the outlook of governors whose job it is to help beleaguered families, strengthen work forces, attract companies and create a balanced budget,” the governor writes. He points out that “it’s no coincidence” that the handful of Republican governors who have bucked their party and agreed to implement Obamacare’s provisions see the health law “not as a referendum on President Obama but as a tool for historic change.”
ThinkProgress: Despite Texas Politicians’ Crusade Against Obamacare, The State Is Quietly Inching Toward Reform
Gov. Rick Perry and Sen. Ted Cruz may be trying their hardest to undermine the Affordable Care Act — but that’s not stopping Houston public health officials and outreach organizations from embarking on a “historic” campaign to sign Americans up for coverage under Obamacare, Kaiser Health News reports.
Nearly one in three Texans is uninsured, the highest uninsurance rate in the country …. Some low-income and uninsured Texans are so desperate for medical care that they cross over to Mexico in order to find cheaper drugs on the other side of the border.
But that hasn’t deterred Perry from rejecting generous federal funding to expand Medicaid under Obamacare — thereby denying 1.5 million poor Texans basic health benefits …. Texas officials are even refusing to police Obamacare’s most basic protections, such as barring insurers from rejecting consumer with pre-existing medical conditions.
Al Jazeera: Ted Cruz’s anti-‘Obamacare’ poster child likes the health care law
John Connelly was not watching when Sen. Ted Cruz said his name during Cruz’s 21-hour marathon speech on the Senate floor earlier this week to rally fellow Republicans against the Affordable Care Act … he was not exactly thrilled. In fact, he is supportive of the law and has already reaped some of the benefits of the ACA….
…. His father’s union-provided health insurance still covers him, thanks to the provision of the ACA that allows children to stay on their parents’ plan until the age of 26. Private insurers are no longer allowed to deny his younger sister coverage, even though she suffers from a seizure disorder that qualifies as a pre-existing condition.
…. “Maybe he should’ve spent less time reading Dr. Seuss and more time looking into the policies that he’s talking about,” Connelly said…
TPM: GOP Descends Into Civil War Over Obamacare As Shutdown Looms
… The deep chasm over the health care law leaves Congress potentially facing its first shutdown of the federal government since 1996 when the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30, unless congressional leaders pull a rabbit out of their hats at the last minute.
…. GOP leaders are mulling several options on what to do next. One possibility, according to sources, is to attach two Obamacare-related provisions to the continuing resolution ….
But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) categorically ruled that out on Friday.
“Let’s be absolutely clear: we are going to accept nothing that relates to Obamacare.,” he told reporters after the bill passed, calling on Republicans to “get a life” and talk about something other than Obamacare.
James Fallows: Your False-Equivalence Guide to the Days Ahead
A kind of politics we have not seen for more than 150 years
Two big examples of problematic self-government are upon us. They are of course the possible partial shutdown of the federal government, following the long-running hamstringing of public functions via “the sequester”; and a possible vote not to raise the federal debt ceiling, which would create the prospect of a default on U.S. Treasury debt.
….. As a matter of journalism, any story that presents the disagreements as a “standoff,” a “showdown,” a “failure of leadership,” a sign of “partisan gridlock,” or any of the other usual terms for political disagreement, represents a failure of journalism and an inability to see or describe what is going on….
….This isn’t “gridlock.” It is a ferocious struggle within one party, between its traditionalists and its radical factions, with results that unfortunately can harm all the rest of us – and, should there be a debt default, could harm the rest of the world too.
A government shutdown next week would interrupt some services and potentially jeopardize the paychecks of more than 800,000 federal workers. The Office of Management and Budget has asked agencies to begin making contingency plans. Their first stop will be their plans from 2011. The federal government does not stop functioning completely, and by law, certain agencies must operate with unsalaried employees. They include those that deal with national security and the safety of people and property, as well as those that manage benefits such as Social Security payments. Here’s what some agencies have said about their plans this time around.
There is arising among the members of our elite press a feeling that the Democrats and the dwindling number of smart people in Congress should let the Republicans burn down the country ….
Todd Purdum makes this case. Ezra Klein also seems to be aboard, too. These are both pretty smart guys, so why they’ve decided to believe this nonsense ees-a-puzzlement to me.
….. Both a government shutdown and/or a debt-ceiling catastrophe will have savage real-world consequences for millions of people who do not live in Washington and who do not appear on panel shows….
…. Letting the crazy people work their crazy will while the rest of us suffer in the vain hope that voters will figure out on their own what happened to them, and why, is a fool’s errand.
MSNBC: Planned Parenthood takes Texas abortion laws to court
The Texas omnibus abortion law that state Senator Wendy Davis tried to block with a 13-hour filibuster is headed to court.
A trio of women’s and civil liberties groups–Planned Parenthood, the Center for Reproductive Rights and the ACLU of Texas–filed a federal lawsuit Friday against some provisions of the law, including restrictions on medication abortion and the regulations openly intended to shut down many of Texas’s abortion clinics. They were joined by more than a dozen Texas women’s health providers.
“I grew up in Texas and learned pretty early on that women only got what they fought for,” Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation, told reporters in a call Friday morning. “I think folks in the state have never fought harder.”
Kathleen Osborn: Gun dealers also support background checks. Who’s left?
We already know that a majority of Democrats, independents and even a substantial majority of Republicans are in favor of expanded background checks. We also already know that card-carrying NRA-members and Tea Partiers think background checks are a good idea. But thanks to the diligent, independent research done by the social scientists over at the University of California at Davis’s Violence Prevention Research Program, we can add another important constituency to the pro-expanded background checks camp: gun dealers. The people who would have to actually carry out those background checks. The majority of the guys and gals around the country who make their living selling guns – gun dealers, pawnbrokers and gunsmiths – are in favor of more checks.
Here is what the NRA does not want you to know: 55.4% of gun dealers surveyed support comprehensive background check requirements and 37.5% strongly favor them….
From the ‘Department of You Couldn’t Make It Up’ – I seriously thought this was from The Onion:
TPM: Poll: GOP Voters Unsure If Twitter Lets Obama Post More Than 140 Characters
Former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer backed off on his suggestion earlier this week that Twitter allows President Barack Obama to use more than 140 characters in his tweets, but some Republican primary voters evidently still have doubts.
Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling tested Fleischer’s debunked and ultimately retracted conspiracy theory in a survey released Friday, finding support and uncertainty among Republicans nationwide. The poll showed that 13 percent of GOP primary voters think Twitter does permit Obama to exceed the 140 character limit while a majority — 52 percent — said they weren’t sure…
First Lady Michelle Obama hosts a tea for Mrs. Gursharan Kaur, wife of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India, in the Yellow Oval Room of the White House, Sept. 27, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Amanda Lucidon)
The Obama Diary 
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