Saturday, December 05, 2009

"There is no sane explanation for all this other than crass political calculation."

That's Gail Collins complaining that Republicans trying to kill Obamacare are just playing politics.

On Thursday, Senator Michael Bennet, a Colorado Democrat who’s up for election next year, introduced an amendment specifically promising that Medicare recipients would not lose any of their current guaranteed benefits. It passed 100 to 0. Meanwhile, Colorado voters were getting robocalls from John McCain warning that the health care bill was going to cut their “vital Medicare coverage.”

I guess Collins buys the load o' crap from Democrats that Obamacare is about cutting costs, increasing coverage and creating better medical care. Things that Obamacare doesn't do by anyone's estimates.

I'm delighted that Republicans have discovered how to procedurally muck up the works for Democrats trying to push through the budget-busting Obamacare that Americans don't want. It is with incredible gaul that Democrats are hellbent on passing legislation they were not, in fact, elected to pass, all because they want to redistribute income and figure the best way to do it is to create a bunch of programs and tax the hell out of everyone to get it. Anyone who thinks their access to health care and the quality thereof is going to be better once Democrats get through with their "fixes" is an utter fool or won't be relying on it.

A quick side note: does anyone know how the taxes in the various bills will affect temp workers? According to the Labor Department last month, temp workers were among the only job areas that grew. This tells me that many companies are going to use temps before considering hiring full-time employees, since they don't have to pay benefits for temps. But, I assume, under Obamacare, someone will have to pay the penalties for those workers. Any ideas?