GOP Must Improve Their Own Health Care Law

You need an answer to what created Donald Trump?

ObamaCare created him.  Well not directly but indirectly with all of the constant promises from republicans that kept telling us all how horrible it was for America and how much they promised....promised to rid America of the mistake the first chance that they got.  To date, while popular in consumption, ObamaCare still does not poll well in popularity which is primarily due to the smear campaign that republicans used to help them win a majority in both houses of congress during the last election.

Republicans have not won much against Obama during his presidency, so the past election victory represented a milestone opportunity to stick it to the man who had stuck it to them so many times before.  Since winning that election, Obama has stuck it to republicans more than ever before with an assist from the Supreme Court who decided that language created for ObamaCare was not intentionally designed to dismantle it at the same time.

Those who sold their republican constituents a bill of goods relative to dismantling ObamaCare had to know that they would be asked for a respectable alternative that has yet to be suggested.  Republicans point to a number of bills that died in the House and Senate designed to repeal and/or replace ObamaCare, but none of these bills would ever gain the support of a wide swath of congress who remained hesitant to incorporate universal health care prior to the election of Barack Obama, and still remain afraid of the blood they will bear if somehow paying for a healthy America goes bust.

Has the ObamaCare scare turned in the favor of Obama?

The only reason America realized the impossible dream of universal health care is because the president who signed it into law chose a plan crafted and proven by republicans themselves.  If America had endless possibilities to the trials that challenge our social conscience and direction we would pick them like wild flowers in the field.  Universal health care, like all socialized measures, took so long because it needed to for the sake of proper considerations and trial runs like Mitt Romney and Massachusetts offered with their version of the same system we all use now.  Romney knew at the time of his running for the presidency that RomneyCare needed a couple of basic tweaks in order to operate more smoothly but he couldn't offer them up freely in fear of supporting the cause of Obama.

Those basic tweaks are still required yet on a national scale now since RomneyCare got gobbled up by ObamaCare and federal inefficiency.  The benefit is guaranteed solvency at the state level thanks to federal support.  The detriment is everything we expected from the insurance industry who currently operates with embedded financial protections and old behaviors that have caused them to game the system instead of trusting that more customers is better in the long run than milking the few you have.  Competition will eventually drive these scammers away from the market place, but probably not without a little support from congress, possibly with the threat of, or an actual single payer health care system to correct old insurance habits.

Whatever the fix, the fix must happen to ObamaCare because it is a proven model that lives.  Any real replacement requires transition and further change towards something that is frankly unknown. What remains is a pretty good idea created by republicans who have allowed a democrat president to steal it away from them.    Obama would hardly care if republicans reminded us who created ObamaCare or fight the claim since he's not up for re-election anyway, though his legacy is tied to the future solvency of his signature health care legislation.  My approach (are you listening Jeb Bush) would be to reclaim it as a republican ideology that was implemented poorly by a democrat who stole the idea in the first place.

Is the Trump craze being lead
primarily by angry white men?

In fact, that is exactly what it is.  Furthermore, the lack of repeal or attack against it at all is the singular reason why republicans are pissed off enough to actually be voting for Donald Trump.  In reality, only the angry republicans are holding up Trump right now and his polling shows that he must capture a wider segment of republican voters to even continue on his primary path, which is likely the reason for his third party considerations.  Currently, he has sucked up the air that was supposed to be breathed by Rand Paul and Chris Christie, notorious blowhards who are sucking wind with the rise of Trump.

Republicans could really help themselves by pissing off Trump just enough to hasten that third party move he's considering, and then move to recapture the health care law that they created in the first place.  Until they do that, the Obamacare scare  that they also created will continue to haunt only one side of this fight.

SCOTUS Victimized By "Do Nothing" Congress

I was listening to a radio segment from the Christian group Focus on The Family as they expressed obvious disappointment with the Supreme Court's decision on gay marriage.

I keep hoping for someone, anyone, who can offer a measured dissent that doesn't describe the majority opinion as mysticism or applesauce. What I really don't want to hear is another Supreme court justice crying about living during these days of Do Nothing.

If the founding fathers can be credited for one very important thing, it's having the wisdom to recognize the wicked heart of man. By virtue of their recognition, disagreements by moral compass and disagreements by political tactic are masked motives that don't have to cripple our democracy. According to justice Antonin Scalia, "Any country that lets 9 unelected officials create laws, hardly deserves to be called a democracy". Would that be the case if the 5-4 decision was in your favor Scalia? Was it the case when that same nine sided with you in deciding that a cruel and unusual lethal injection capital punishment is now nothing more than "we know its bad, but do you have something better?"

A few of us out here had questions about America's democracy label long before the recent decision on marriage, but I can feel your pain Scalia. I would like to ask, how can the congressional representative's in our republic consider themselves caretaker's of democracy while way too afraid to do their jobs in fear of adding to Obama's legacy?

Inaction from Congress has catapulted Obama into the hero republicans hoped to avoid instead of sharing some good stuff with the current Congress, which just so happens to be a majority republican.  Something similar is happening to the judiciary branch who showed their hands long ago when initial concerns over the ObamaCare, "established by the state" language first arose, and the SCOTUS worried that Congress would quibble instead of do the normal work of clarifying laws with language adjustments and amendments.

Somehow, the SCOTUS was supposed to pretend that political forces weren't trying to use them and a loophole to circumvent a law that congress can overturn with their current majority.  It would require an override of Obama's certain veto, but it would also signal to America that Congress understands and intends to use the fullness of their legislative powers: power that the Supreme Court prefers in the hands of legislators, a loose description for America's current Congress.

Did anyone notice that Congress isn't threatening to override the Supreme Court's decision on marriage the same way that they threaten ObamaCare? They could if they thought that the Supreme Court went too far. Focus on The Family think so. They teased that aforementioned program so well, that I couldn't wait to hear why the rule of law had truly been compromised instead of another angry dissent. Ten seconds into the program and the host says this:

"First of all, it doesn't matter what the Supreme Court recognizes as marriage. What matters is what God recognizes."

End of story. I changed the radio station to a baroque symphony so I could post this reminder that executive orders and Supreme Court laws supporting same-sex marriage come when civil, productive congressional discourse doesn't. 

And that's all by design.

SCOTUS Decision Could Hurt ObamaCare. Will Hurt Republicans

I hate all welfare because I believe that people who are healthy and educated rarely need welfare.

In the absence of healthy systems of education and healthcare comes the necessity for every other system of welfare that we know.  Much like those potholes during icy winters, we will only be forced to repair damage from the gap for those who fall into it. Every person we save from disease and ignorance becomes a de facto soldier in the battle towards welfare's ultimate cure.

If ObamaCare had any other name, it would be more successful.

American's who were supposed to be proud of republicans in congress because they typically represent the most educated and wealthy of the land should recognize the similarities and the differences between the words wealth and health.  While wealth might gain you access to health, you still better go see the doctor.

Doctor Phil could help with republican refusal to tell their constituents that kynect (Kentucky's anti-ObamaCare health exchange) or Louisiana Health Connect are the same as ObamaCare, and ObamaCare is the same as RomneyCare.  That might seem like a liberal jab at a former failed republican presidential candidate, but its actually a recognition to the success of Romney the governor.  Thanks to the wisdom of his former ways, Massachusetts healthcare has experienced some of the weakest growth in the percentage of people who have health insurance- because they are the only state that has had an exchange for years and didn't need ObamaCare to fix their access issue. Since  Massachusetts did experience some growth in covered citizens, Kansas was actually the only state in America (2014)  that did not have growth in covered Kansan's.  Kansas state officials eventually allowed healthcare.gov/ ObamaCare, but shunned medicare expansion based on principles that the Supreme Court upheld, but no one quite understands anymore, since medicare recipients- even in Kansas- represent the most needy of Americans.

Kentucky Connect = kynect, not ObamaCare.

Americans that got all riled up about ObamaCare during 2014 elections realize that his godforsaken name is still attached to it all, so it must be bad.  At least, that's what their congressman told them in order to gain their vote. Currently, that same congressman CAN NOT step forward and tell the truth about ObamaCare because the 2016 elections are at stake and republicans already sent the ObamaCare overthrow lawsuit to be heard by the Supreme Court.

ObamaCare is Bad....so vote for me. 

That's right. Despite the fact that ObamaCare has created more covered citizens in every state except Kansas, republicans are forced to press forward with the same distorted rhetoric that they used to scare their constituents into the voting booths in 2014.  Any attempt to step away from their  majority- and not stick it to Barry- would not be well received back at the red state watering hole.  In essence, republicans have cornered themselves into a place that someone else must rescue them from.

Established By The State

Their hopes are that the Supreme Court will quietly (5-4) override their lawsuit against the words "established by the state" which  republican's claim represents illegal confusion in ObamaCare's  implementation.   I wrote that last sentence, and even I am still confused by it all. The best hope for republicans is a Supreme Court that protects the spirit  and intent of the law and not the conservative attempt to weaken the post of the presidency, a post that they seem unlikely to ever win again.  Without placing a republican in the white house, conservatives will perpetually gerrymander to block presidents or actually work to write good laws that some democratic president might get the credit for.  Good laws like ObamaCare.  Republicans could totally fix ObamaCare (even the name), but at the risk of adding to the spirit and intent of the law and to the legacy of their most hated rival.

This matter is somewhat complex, so let's review again. Republicans, even in Kansas, are allowing their citizens to access ObamaCare subsidies, yet they  want to snatch insurance coverage from the same citizen who needed a subsidy to finally get insured in the first place.  Although health insurance coverage is mandated by law, use of the subsidy only happens when someone signs up on an insurance exchange to make it happen.  Nationwide, healthcare subsidies (welfare) are happening just as ObamaCare intended because healthy and educated people are the hallmark of a truly healthy nation, and only stupid people would intentionally live without healthcare coverage.


Republicans are both well educated and wealthy enough to have access to healthcare, but they are not immune to falling into gaps. Their icy war against Obama and his Care has left behind potholes that threaten to damage us all if reasonable repairs are not made.  Whether or not the Supreme Court will choose to make the repair with a concession of semantics is what we are waiting to discover.

Conservative judges on the high court would love to slap Obama upside his healthcare head by striking down this four word confusion and forcing congress to fix the problem with proper wording or a  better law that republicans prefer.  Problem is, republicans don't have anything better than what is already fixing healthcare as we know it.  If they did, Romney would have used it as a governor and we would have long since heard about it.  The only real alternative that republicans have for ObamaCare involves strengthening it for the rest of time, or screwing it- and themselves, just because their majority says they can.

Maybe our health disparity is causing an education pothole as well.

Has The Supreme Court Already Decided On Marriage Equality?

The tea leaves told me that Immigration would be the next great big shoe to drop in American culture when firm legislation is finally established to deal with it nationwide. 

I'm going to the organic food store to get some new tea leaves because Marriage Equality might win the race.  Healthcare seems deeply enough entrenched to not worry about its future anymore, so the checklist of social ills in America has both check marks and eraser smudges all over it these days. Education is sadly sliding all across the land, but stubborn states who demand autonomy will force another run at federal legislation, such as No Child Left Behind, or an acquiescence towards our current endless cycles of research and development (see; trial and error) in education.  

Thanks to the forward thinking of our youth, and an extreme ambivalence towards marriage in general, America might finally realize that love is WAY too complicated to try and force it into our social engineering machine, which breaks as many things as it holds in place.  Do you recall that joke that heterosexual liberals would use saying, "homosexuals deserve to be just as miserable as the rest of us"? When you look at marriage statistics and America's lack of affinity towards getting and staying married, it makes the humor of that joke lose its punchline.  Marriage used to get easier from the outside looking in perspective of our married grandparents lives.  In hindsight, grandpa was just a whole lot better at ignoring my restless grandma than modern day grandpa could ever be.  Watching today's old couples getting a divorce, or chasing after love in their latter years tells you all you need to know about the evolution of modern marriage.

Now, even the highly esteemed justices of the American Supreme court are angling towards granting gay couples the misery that hetero couples have free access to.  While several states have already fixed the disparity in marriage, many other states are currently fighting tooth and nail for the right to insure that only hetero couples ride the roller coaster we call modern marriage.  Time and time again, heterosexuals are proving to be just as utterly dysfunctional with love as their homosexual counterparts, so the sacred right of exclusivity is losing its reason.  Biblical morays used to rule the day, but even spiritual leaders have come to accept that, even if homosexuality is a sin, it can not be treated as a sin more extreme than the other sins from the bible, which does not assign a stack rank to human behavior- or misbehavior if you will.

The final analysis of marriage is that the paper will never insure love and the love will never be defined by a piece of paper.  What defines a marriage is uniquely special for every couple, and the strength of the unity defines the family units that contribute to the society we enjoy.  Homosexual couples are a real and significant part of society and our best hope that they "get over it" has been insulting to gays and embarrassing for any forward thinker.  My gay family deserves love just as much as my non-gay family, but sometimes we (especially black families) give more love to our jailbirds than our gay boys- as though being gay is worse than a crime.

It should be enough of a sign that the ultra conservative state of Alabama has given in on gay marriage, but  those in Alabama against gay marriage quickly objected to the will of the people, forcing the issue to be addressed by the Supreme Court of the land.  The Supreme Court refused to block Alabama's law prompting conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to clarify the message behind the message.  AP reports that, "He (Thomas) criticized his fellow justices for looking "the other way as yet another federal district judge casts aside state laws," rather than following the customary course of leaving those laws in place until the court answers an important constitutional question.", suggesting that the forward movement on gay marriage needs to wait for the Supreme Court to decide.  Justice Thomas seems unclear that 37 states have already legalized gay marriage as he tries valiantly to create a short-term out for the remaining holdout states of America.  

What they are buying time for is an inevitable course that the Supreme Court has essentially taken action on by their inaction (just as Thomas suggested in his dissent).  What has been determined is the standard even while the process of standardizing rages on.  What we have concluded is that being gay is hardly the worse sin on the planet and might be under re-evaluation as a sin at all with a closer examination of human hormones and human nature overall. The genetic design of procreation only tells about how we are to maintain human population, not the love story that sustains human families- and nothing seems to suggest that homosexual parents will automatically have homosexual or imbalanced children.  In fact, studies show that there is no social disadvantage at all to being raised with gay parents .

I personally had to come to grips with my own homophobia that was most likely rooted in my religious upbringing.  Other religious folks have done the same, and these days churches don't have to be exclusive to gay christian's because more and more regular churches are accepting gay members. Since the blood of grace covers all of our sin, even the concept of sexual sin should not compel us to expel our gay brethren from their rightful place in society and from the necessary legal standing that allows families to live and love equally. 

Marriage equality is about Family, a word that is forged in love and forever bound by its power.

Narrow Ruling For Hobby Lobby Could Open Multiple Floodgates