Posted by Tina
Seems like the old Reagan question is being asked in many circles and in news outlets. So I thought it might be instructive to ask what your lives have been like?
1. Has it stayed about the same,gotten better, or gotten worse in the last 3+ years under the Obama administration?
2. Do the policies of this administration give you hope about the future?
How IS that hope and change working out for ya?
Tina, sweetheart … are we supposed to have forgotten from whence we started: the implosion of Lehman Brothers and imminent global economic collapse?
To be still employed is to be doing extravagantly well.
To be “better off” will take four or five non-Republican administrations in a row … which we will have if, and only if, all those Toby’s, those non-holding Repugs, can bring themselves to stomach their non-white brethren better off, as well.
She is not holding her breath.
“She” is wrong about everything economic (including the causes of the crash) as her support of this failed administration (only the rich are doing well…have you noticed?) demonstrates!
While the “leader” vacations, plays golf, and enjoys fundraising with fat cats in entertainment and banking, real unemployment is 15-22% depending on how they crunch the numbers. The working (Ha ha ha ha ha ) poor unemployment among blacks is closer to 50%!
His only solution is to take even more money out of the private sector (tax the rich which will not pay the interest on our debt for more than a day or so). He thinks he will take this money, invest it in green companies, and that will FIX the entire economy. What a lame brain! The man is inept…period!
But I’ll hand one thing to him. He has managed to “transform” America into a third world nation with elitists in government partying and laughing at those who pay the taxes. Congratualtions Mr. President…one campaign promise made real.
Your party is a da*n joke!
I am a lot better off financially. My company has fully recovered from the recession. BUT I am not going to attribute that to Obama’s policies. My kids will not be able to afford college.
No matter how much money people are going to be making, if we don’t overhaul the health insurance industry we are going to all be paying too much money to insurance companies for too little coverage. People compare the health insurance mandate to the car insurance mandate. Car insurance is affordable and covers your accidents. Health insurance is not affordable. Employees at my company pay $800 a month to cover a family. That coverage includes a $50 co pay for office visits and a huge deductible. Obama and Romney need to figure out how Americans can get affordable health care. It should not be considered a luxury to go to a doctor and get medicine when people are sick.
I realize that many conservatives think Obama has turned America to socialism and that is insane. He has done nothing. His health care reform is almost identical to Romney’s. He got us out of Iraq on Bush’s timeline. We are still getting our butts kicked in Afghanistan. We are still spending a fortune housing prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Unemployment is still high. People are still losing their homes at record rates. What has Obama done that makes our lives better? Not much.
He has done a great job of robbing us of our civil rights. Occupy Wall Street demonstrations have shown us that America has turned into a police state. Look at the UC Davis protest where the campus police hosed students protesting tuition hikes with pepper spray. One of the great things about America is our right to protest, and Obama is urging other countries to allow people to protest. Bush was a terrible president, his No Child Left Behind destroyed public education. Obama has kept that policy going strong and made it worse. His DOJ is the most corrupt ever. Under Obama it is now legal for the president to order the assasination of an American citizen if they are considered a terrorist threat.
How long before we are considered the “terrorists?”
America votes for the best looking guy with the most money that tells the best lies. We are so caught up with the drama of divisive topics that the real issues get swept under a rug. The charade of our political system is merely to distract us while they terrorize people and extract resources all over the world. There is a reason why the USA is the most hated country in the world and its not our freedom, its our ignorance.
I am better off than I was 3 years ago. The stock market is recovering, and so is the general business economy.
I hope the Supreme Court allows the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) to continue.
Self employed people like my self, need access to health insurance. Unfortunately none of the current Republican proposals (such as allowing insurance sales across state lines) will work for me. The health insurance companies don’t want people between 55 – 65. We are just too high a risk to their profits. I can’t say that I blame them, but that just the way it is.
I’m disappointed that Obama didn’t enact a “Medicare for Everyone” type approach, or at allowing people over 50 to buy into Medicare. But I’ll take what I can get.
Jim we can both celebrate a recovering stock market but up arrows don’t tell the whole story. The volume of trades has been very low; ordinary people are not investing. Also the stock market is an indicator of big business doing well which leaves out most of the drivers of the economy…medium to small business. Americas GDP, the rate of growth, has been abysmal…Mexico’s GDP is higher than ours! The media is not reporting on the economy in a way that accurately reflects what is going on. They positively spin the unemployment numbers, for instance, and 2.2% growth (last quarter) is TERRIBLE…especially after three years of policy that was promised to work! Other recoveries resulted in growth of at least 4-6%% and the recovery kicked in within 18 months. this so-called recovery is one long slog of tepid hanging on.
I hate to break it to you but the latest information on Obamacare is that it has caused insurance rates to go up.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/sallypipes/2011/10/10/higher-health-insurance-premiums-this-year-blame-obamacare/
Jim you can’t know if Republican ideas for bringing down health insurance and health care costs will work because they have not been tried. They are based on the same kinds of principles that have always made this country prosper: freedom, choice, healthy competition, and reasonable regulation. Under that model people see a future they can count on and they are willing to risk. I think it would be well worth trying. Obamacare adds a very expensive bureaucracy between the patient and his insurance company and the patient and his doctor. You’re a smart businessman. How can paying for all of that overhead bring down the cost of insurance or care?
Cato has an excellent article about how government has pushed the cost of medical care up and created an unfair, impractical system.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb111/hb111-12.pdf
Our government continues to promise what it cannot possibly deliver and it is costing us dearly both in taxes and in rising costs for everything we need.
I wish you continuing success in your business and a real affordable solution to your health insurance problem.
I don’t think insurance rates are going up because of Obama/Romneycare. They were going up, up, up, up every single year before the ACA. There is a provision in that act that mandates 85% of insurance premiums have to be spent on medical care. This means that people who purchase their own insurance will get a rebate check and employers who provide for their employees will get a rebate check. My company received theirs from Blue Cross in January. I do not think we need to fight for health insurance companies to make billions of dollars in profit every year. We are told by our politicians that everyone can get health care in the emergency room but that costs a fortune for people and they end up paying that bill forever. That is a ridiculous way to provide health care to citizens. We spend too much of our paychecks on health insurance. That is wrong. I wish California had adopted the single payer plan because I would happily pay the $800 a month I pay to Blue Cross for a plan that actually covered something without me having to pay even more out of pocket.
Tina: “I hate to break it to you but the latest information on Obamacare is that it has caused insurance rates to go up.”
It’s not just the cost of insurance going up it’s also the cut in services that used to be provided to those of us in the later years of our lives.
As a retired employee, along with all my retired co-workers which number in the hundreds if not thousands, we are no longer covered at all with 5 (five) hospital chains. The letter I received said if I chose to go to one of these hospitals or was taken there for an emergency the full cost was my/our responsibility.
It appears us “senior” are already getting hit with not just the increased cost but the availability of the very care we’ll need.
It appears ObamaCare is the one pushing us off the cliff now. Where’s the RNC ad with Obama behind the wheelchair instead of Ryan? It’s not just the “good stuff” that was made available up front under ObamaCare like having adult kids on parent premiums until they turn 25 year old. Turns out there are bad things too, but it’s not in the news and no one seems to care. If grandma or grandpa are pushed off the cliff and no one sees it then it just didn’t happen, right?
My 20 years of serving on the district’s negotiation team tells me the services were cut to seniors to keep the district’s premium cost down for those still working. Bet it was a trade-off so continued level of health care could be provided for those still working.
Rex if America votes for the good looking guy with the most money and tells the most lies, then you must be right. They voted for Obama in 2008.
Tina, the Forbes article you linked to misinterprets the Kaiser study. According to Kaiser, the ACA was only responsible for one or two percentage points in premium increases.
“Critics of the national health reform law passed in 2010 like to blame everything but the weather on Obamacare, but regardless of how you feel about the Affordable Care Act, its effect on premiums this year is modest. Most of the laws provisions dont go into effect until 2014. The two biggest changes this year allow young adults up to age 26 to stay on their parents insurance policies and require some insurance plans to cover preventive services at no cost to patients. These are popular provisions that provide real benefits, and combined they account for about one to two percentage points of this years premium increase.”
http://www.kff.org/pullingittogether/rising_health_costs_federal.cfm
Premiums have been rising for years.
To address the question posed in the headline, am I better off than I was four years ago? Yes, and at least some of that is due to policies favored by Obama.
I have benefited from the Making Work Pay tax credit, and other credits and tax cuts Obama has granted to poor and middle class workers.
I cannot afford my own insurance, which is why I’m thankful that the ACA allows me to stay on my parents’ plan for a couple more years.
I am also thankful that when I do get my own insurance, the insurance company will not be able to discriminate against me for a pre-existing condition. That is, unless Republicans manage to repeal the ACA before that time.
I have friends that have benefited far more than myself from some of Obama’s policies. I know a lesbian woman who has always wanted to serve her country, but felt that it would be impossible to avoid mentioning her fiancee of three years while serving in the military. This was the deciding factor in her decision not to enlist. (I think proponents of DADT severely underestimate how hard something like this would be for a person. ) Now that Obama has gotten rid of the arbitrary and stupid Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell law, she will be able to serve proudly without the constant fear that she will be outed and kicked out. This will surely be not only a benefit to her, but also to our military.
While this article poses an important question, I think an even better one is, “Will we be better off with the other guy?” I don’t think we will.
Peggy: “Where’s the RNC ad with Obama behind the wheelchair instead of Ryan?”
We posted one didn’t we? It was a few weeks back. If I recall it made the point perfectly 😀
The bottom line is that the government (the states too) made promises that it could not keep. Then instead of admitting the mistake (Republicans/Libertarians have) and doing something to correct it they just kept shoving the problem down the road…now we’re all about to go off a cliff and the only solution that progressives have is to double down and make even bigger promises that can’t be kept.
We the people are the solution. The most difficult problem is overcoming the prejudices of progressive thought.
Chris: “According to Kaiser, the ACA was only responsible for one or two percentage points in premium increasest.”
The plan was sold on the idea that the costs would go down and everyone would be covered. neither is true.
“Premiums have been rising for years.”
Premiums and healthcare have been increasing sharply since the government enacted Medicare (and other government health care plans). The projected cost of medicare in 1965 is a joke compared to what it costs today. See chart here:
http://freedomkeys.com/medicare.htm
Government involvement makes healthcare and premiums cost more. See also here:
http://www.american.com/archive/2009/december-2009/why-reform-will-cost-taxpayers-more-much-more
Chris if you can, please explain to our readers how adding layers of expensive bureaucracy won’t make healthcare and insurance more costly? Please explain how a lot of people can be covered and at the same time costs will go down.
The much higher bill will be paid by taxpayers and future taxpayers in addition to the higher premiums we will all pay. But more likely as time goes by and the costs become unsustainable, services will be cut and docs and hospitals will not be reimbursed adequately to maintain quality of care. Those who really need care will be denied…but gee, the healthy young college kid aged 24 can still get that sore throat taken care of on his parents policy for next to nothin.
There are better ways to solve the problems and the solutions will be better for everyone overall.
I’m glad you are doing well Chris. I hope once you graduate it’s the same. right now the job prospects are not good for college graduates. You are very lucky to have the part time job you have.
I wish I could say the same for the many people who are, or soon will be, out of their houses or out of a job, or both, and have been living on their savings and retirement money. We have endured this nonrecovery so Obama could play at being santa to the greens, the unions, other special interests and his favorite bankers and corporate heads. We have suffered great losses just so he can attempt to make things fair for his chosen few while creating a sense of great divisions and frankly, unfairness overall.
I actually hate that word, fair. I prefer freedom, opportunity, risk, reward, trial and error. These words suggest a sense of being alive and particpation. Fair is about being managed and no matter how well intentioned…efforts to manage results never end in things being fair.
The “other guy” Mitt Romney knows how to create conditions so that businesses can prosper and grow, so that innovators and investors will be willing and able to take risks, and so that job opportunities will be forthcoming. (It won’t cost trillions in taxpayer money either)
Boy do we need change now…it’s time to put Americans back to work!
Which, Peggy, is why you want to support single payer, national coverage. Can you really not see it? Your premium would go into a common pot. All expeditures to all facilities would be paid out of said pot … and you could get care anywhere.
In fact, your provider is insisting you come to see it this way.
“I actually hate that word, fair. I prefer freedom, opportunity, risk, reward, trial and error.”
That’s very “dog eat dog” of you, Tina. But how do you reconcile this with your livelihood from government contracting?
This site is still more deeply odd … and repeatedly weird.
Ahhh the common “pot” where the commoners get to share equally in badly managed, poor quality care and the elites exist outside the system. Libby your blind adherence to this something for nothing utopian dream is incredible.
“That’s very “dog eat dog” of you…”
The lady thinks she doesn’t compete in this world. People have given her a job out of the goodness of their hearts…as a favor…just cause she’s so special. Grow up lady.
“…how do you reconcile this with your livelihood from government contracting?
Libby my company has a product that municipalities need and want. I compete against others for the opportunity to sell that product. I have to be the low bidder to get the contract. There is nothing illegal or unseemly about it. I’m not making back room deals or taking money without delivering value for that money. I’m not being awarded cash for a product that is untried, untested, or unwanted (Solyndra). I’m not selling call girls to randy politicians or 10K shower curtains for Al Gore’s Yacht so what exactly is your problem?
Ahhh the common “pot” where the commoners get to share equally in badly managed, poor quality care and the elites exist outside the system.”
You feed out of this pot … why should we not presume the same of you, and your product.
Have you been reading, at all, about the outing of the American Legislative Exchange Council? It’s an organization in the business of creating government demand for products just such as yours.
Tina, to preserve your livelihood … you want to comport yourself quietly, most humbly … and for Pete’s sake quit your snivelling about all the other myriad feeders at the trough, even if they mayhap to be … of color.
Libby: “You feed out of this pot … why should we not presume the same of you, and your product.”
Feeding at the trough implies taking something for nothing. I neither take nor accept something for nothing.
Municipalities need my product and they purchase it at a good price by way of a low bidding process. THEY SOLICIT ME! If you think there is a problem with local government purchases you are free to investigate.
You won’t find me cheating the government…if anything more often than not I am cheated because it usually takes longer for government entities to pay their bills. Sometimes they take up to two years to actually order after a contract is awarded and prices for parts have increased by then making profit margins pretty tight.
You’re amazing Libby. I have not asked that governments be eliminated but you respond to me as if I have. You never seem to mind the waste, fraud and abuse that clearly goes on with big bureaucracies. You don’t seem to mind that people who are capable of working are taking from the public trough…just don’t bother you about it and make the rich pay the bill. Have you given any thought at all to how unethical that position is or how much your attitude adds to the demeaning of generations of people who become generationally dependent?
I have asked for reasonable reforms in government because the system is failing. I have asked for smaller government because smaller government is more efficient and less wasteful. I have asked for low taxes and reasonable regulation to stimulate growth in the private sector which will mean a lot of good paying jobs for Americans. I have asked public servants to stop expecting free health care and huge pensions on the backs of taxpayers, many of whom make less than the public servants. The private sector pays into their own pension plans why shouldn’t public sector workers? In fact why shouldn’t the expectation be that we all pay our own way in life since it would be cheaper for everyone? Free education through high school, if its good, should ensure that people are prepared to work as adults. If not then the system is broken. I am asking that it be fixed. We have increased the money spent and that hasn’t worked…it’s time to try something else.
“It’s an organization in the business of creating government demand for products just such as yours.”
That’s far from the truth…a nice way of saying its a lie. You’ve been listening to your progressive buds again.
Our readers can decide for themselves:
http://www.alec.org/about-alec/
The American Legislative Exchange Council works to advance the fundamental principles of free-market enterprise, limited government, and federalism at the state level through a nonpartisan public-private partnership of Americas state legislators, members of the private sector and the general public.
http://www.alec.org/about-alec/frequently-asked-questions/
Q: What is the American Legislative Exchange Council?
A: The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. It provides a constructive forum for state legislators and private sector leaders to discuss and exchange practical, state-level public policy issues. The potential solutions discussed at ALEC focus on free markets, limited government and constitutional division of powers between the federal and state governments. The organization respects diversity of thought; it is a non-partisan resource for its members, which include more than 2,000 Republican and Democratic state legislators. (emphasis mine)
Q: What does ALEC do and on what issues?
A: ALEC is a think-tank for state-based public policy issues and potential solutions. It publishes research and writing on issues that are of importance to its members. It holds meetings where people from public and private sectors share their views. It also develops model bills and resolutions on economic issues. These materials can be helpful resources for state legislators who have an interest in free markets, limited government and constitutional division of powers between the federal and state governments. ALEC serves solely as a resource for its members; it does not lobby state legislatures.
ALECs task forces cover a variety of economic issues of importance to the American people, including job creation and growth, state tax issues and budget solvency, education and healthcare reforms, corrections and reentry programs, civil justice reforms, and sound energy and environmental solutions.
Q: What is ALEC Model Legislation?
A: ALEC model bills serve as public policy resources. Many organizations that focus on state-level issues also offer model state legislation or codes. These organizations include the American Bar Association, National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, and advocacy organizations, such as the National Consumer Law Center. Model bills are ideas that can be taken, modified or rejected, depending on the needs of a particular legislation. State legislators often find model bills valuable for learning from each others experiences and expertise, while tailoring the bills they introduce to meet the interests of their own states constituents. Any model bill, regardless of where it is from, rises or falls in a state based on whether it provides the solutions that makes sense in that particular state.
Unlike in many private sector groups that offer model legislation, elected state legislators fully control ALECs model legislation process. Ideas for model legislation are presented in a task force, which any member can join. The task forces often have vigorous discussions on whether to adopt a model bill, as well as the language for that model bill. When a task force believes a model bill is ready, ALECs Board of State Legislators must review and approve the bill for it to be posted for other ALEC members.
Each state legislator and their constituents then decide which solutions are best for them and their states. As ALEC Treasurer Rep. Linda Upmeyer (IA) has said, model bills are like a file cabinet. If something can help my constituents, I can take what I need; and if it doesnt help, I leave it alone.
Q: What role does ALECs corporate membership have in the organization?
A: ALEC is run by and for state legislators. What makes ALEC valuable for the public is that ALEC provides a forum for the private sector to provide practical input on how state public policy decisions can impact jobs and the local economy, which has been particularly helpful during the recent tough economic times. These private sector members include corporate and nonprofit members, along with more than 500 individuals. No ALEC member donates more than 5% of ALECs revenues. As in all organizations, sometimes public and private sectors disagree on an issue. In the end, ALECs Board of State Legislators approves all model bills and public policy decisions at ALEC.
Q: What does ALEC have to say about its detractors, including Common Cause?
A: ALEC encourages all Americans to actively participate in the public policies of this country. As legislatures and governors pursue the best solutions for their states, ALEC understands and expects that some groups may oppose solutions that emphasize free markets and limited government. ALEC respects these disagreements. It is disappointed, though, that some have chosen rhetoric over honest discussion by attacking and distorting ALECs nature and record to advance their own political agendas.
ALEC is proud of its work and its limited role. It provides a venue for earnest discussion on important economic issues. ALEC does not lobby in any state. Its model bills and resolutions are public policy resources for state legislators. To the extent any ALEC model bill is successful, it is because it provides legislators and their constituents with the kind of free market, limited government solutions they want.
“and for Pete’s sake quit your snivelling about all the other myriad feeders at the trough, even if they mayhap to be … of color.”
Libs, you are in rare form when you must resort to playing that old race card. Where did that fit in anything we were talking about? But, suddenly here you are talking about “color” as if this is the basis for something. Sometimes Libs you go too far for your own good. It takes away from what you have to say, not adds to it.
Tina: “Ahhh the common “pot” where the commoners get to share equally in badly managed, poor quality care and the elites exist outside the system. Libby your blind adherence to this something for nothing utopian dream is incredible.”
You speak like you know nothing about the world outside of the United States. Universal health care is not a “something for nothing utopian dream.” It has been the norm in most industrialized countries for over sixty years, and was supported by such noted Communists as Winston Churchhill.
It is far from the radical, impossible idea you make it out to be.