Endgame Viable

12 entries. 4,584 words.

August, 2009

• Jim Moran’s Town Hall Meeting. 2009-08-27 1:45 AM.
  • Commentary
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I recorded about half of Jim Moran’s town hall meeting from C-SPAN Tuesday night and just finished watching it. Am I missing something, or are these things a total waste of time? Have they always been this animated or is this a recent development? 439 words.

October, 2013

• What’s Really At Stake Here. 2013-10-03 8:56 PM.
  • Politics
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  This has nothing to do with whether Obamacare is good, bad, or indifferent. What’s at stake is whether factions in Congress should have the power to circumvent the normal process of making laws so they can enforce their will on the whole country. 633 words.
• I Really Have To Say This?. 2013-10-23 6:46 PM.
  • Politics
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  The problems with Healthcare.gov are entirely unrelated to whatever problems are in the law. Saying the healthcare law is bad because the web site is broken is like saying speed limits are bad because your car broke down. 286 words.
• Healthcare.gov Contractors Declare: Not It. 2013-10-25 6:00 PM.
  • Politics
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  It’s extremely clear what the contractors are saying in their Congressional testimony: "Everything worked fine when we delivered it, so don’t blame us." 381 words.

November, 2013

• Big Mistake or a Big Lie. 2013-11-06 3:48 PM.
  • Politics
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I’m not one of those people who thinks that "making a big mistake" is the same as "lying," but now that plenty of people are losing their existing plans, he’s getting hammered for lying to us. 384 words.
• Trying To Make Sense of Insurance Premiums. 2013-11-08 7:18 PM.
  • Politics
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  Normally if I see an article titled "Obamacare destroying lives, killing business," I skip it, because it’s obviously going to be partisan rhetoric, especially coming from RedState, a political blog which thrives on such. But for some reason I went through with reading this article, because I saw that it was a (supposedly) real-life example of someone who is being forced to buy a more expensive plan with less benefits under Obamacare. 369 words.
• A Lucky Political Disaster. 2013-11-14 5:34 PM.
  • Politics
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I think it’s safe to say now that the Obamacare rollout has been a total disaster, and Democrats have no choice but to make some concessions (or "fixes"). Even if it wasn’t really a disaster, it’s solidified in the national consciousness as a disaster, and perception is reality in politics. 221 words.
• So Over Obamacare. 2013-11-21 6:31 PM.
  • Politics
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I’m over the whole Obamacare apocalypse now. It’s no longer a topic of interest. 691 words.

November, 2016

• Just Don’t Call It Trumpcare. 2016-11-14 1:11 AM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  If whatever Trump does to Obamacare turns out to be called Trumpcare, I’m gonna start throwing bricks through windows. Because then we’ll be right back here again in eight years, with the Democrats having spent eight years blocking progress on it and promising to “repeal and replace” it, when in fact all they’re going to do is tweak it and change the name. The point is, don’t put a president’s name in the law, even in jest. 93 words.

May, 2017

• The American Health Care Act, Part Deux. 2017-05-04 10:02 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  There is a lot of consternation about today’s House vote on H.R. 1628, the American Health Care Act (AHCA). Back in April (I think?), Republicans pulled the bill before voting because they didn’t have enough votes, and the world rejoiced. This time, the rumor mill says that it might pass by as little as 1 vote. Activists have been out in force imploring people to call their Representatives. Update: H.R. 1628 passed 217-213, with 20 Republicans voting no, and 1 Republican not voting. (All Democrats voted no.) The bill now has to go to the Senate where it will undoubtedly undergo further changes, then it goes back to the House to approve the Senate changes. 723 words.

June, 2017

• Defining Single-Payer. 2017-06-29 2:59 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  I finally looked up what “single-payer healthcare” means. I’ve seen this term “single-payer” bandied around in the healthcare debate for years but I’ve never been able to wrap my mind around what it meant in the context of these debates. I’ve always assumed that it was a debate over how to implement health insurance. Thus I’ve never really cared that much about it, because it felt like an “inside baseball” topic. 258 words.

October, 2017

• Question of the Day: Immortality. 2017-10-25 3:21 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  I often get on a roll with posting to this site. A question occurred to me today after I saw a tweet related to the healthcare debate: Is immortality a human right? Some people on the left of the healthcare debate believe access to healthcare is a basic human right, the same as access to food and water. If we assume that the basic purpose of healthcare is to extend human life beyond its “natural” end point, and if healthcare is a human right, does that also mean immortality is a human right? 106 words.