I am in agreement with all of this except the last word. These factors you mention did not lead to the ACA's demise, not yet. But they did result in an even more flawed result than the untampered with ACA would have produced. You're certainly right that inept and bought poiticians on both sides led to a flawed ACA; the ratio of republicans to democrats in the poison pill business was, however, something close to 20:1. There was a critical component in the original plan that had the potential to result in a plan that would eventually, and gradually, undergo metamorphosis into medicare for all with attendant efficiencies and cost saving. That component, was the public option. It was killed by a "democrat" in the Senate with encouragement and help from his Republican colleagues. The democrats withdrew it from the Bill when they realized they had no chance to get the ACA through both houses as long as the public option remained in the Bill. These observations suggest a way forward. Leave the ACA intact as it stands now, then restore the missing parts that are needed to make it half way functional. Then literally force all states to expand medicaid by making it too costly for them not to. Begin enforcing stiff penalties on those who fail to sign up for insurance. And then add the Public Option. Eventually everyone will voluntarily move to the public option because private insurance can not compete. As more and more people choose the public option, and they will, medicare will acquire more and more leverage over pricing, and the portion of the pie left to private insurers will be slowly choked off. It will take about a decade for virtually everyone to be covered under medicare, i.e., "the public option". The transition would be subtle, smooth and relatively painless for the vast majority.
Well ok,’we’ve gone from joking around to corruption. New York Times is alleging Wilbur Ross threatened to fire NOAA employees that correct Trumps erroneous Alabama claims. They also note the same day Ross threatened the firings, NOAA released the infamous unsigned memo that backed Trumps erroneous claims: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/09/climate/hurrican-dorian-trump-tweet.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share Everyday is a shit show under Trump.
Or it is a bunch of the "resistance" at NOAA trying to make it look like a shit show and creating the shit show for the sole purpose to detract from Trump, as is so often the case with you folks.
Oh, great. Just try to dress the ACA CrockCare pig up and try to market it again. Let's just call it "Medicare for Illegals" for 2020 campaign purposes.
you still give Trump the benefit of the doubt huh? Even after the Chinese call fiasco? You don't find it odd NOAA did not correct Alabama immediately but rather waited 5+ days to back Trump? Even after Wilbur's willingness to skirt the law with his citizenship question BS to please cheeto?
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/09/7592...ontradict-agency-and-back-trump-was-political NOAA Chief Scientist Says Move To Contradict Agency And Back Trump Was 'Political' NOAA's top scientist said Monday that he's investigating why the agency's leadership endorsed President Trump's false tweet that Alabama was in the path of Hurricane Dorian, after Birmingham-based meteorologists from the National Weather Service publicly pushed back on it. In an email, Craig McLean, acting chief scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, called the move by the agency to back the president inappropriate, suggesting it was politically motivated. "I am pursuing the potential violations of our NOAA Administrative Order on Scientific Integrity," McLean wrote. "My understanding is that this intervention to contradict the forecaster was not based on science but on external factors including reputation and appearance, or simply put, political." He also said that the unsigned agency press release that came out Friday backing the president compromises NOAA's ability "to convey life-saving information necessary to avoid substantial and specific danger to public health and safety." NOAA, which is part of the Commerce Department, issued a statement taking the NWS to task, saying, "The Birmingham National Weather Service's Sunday morning tweet spoke in absolute terms that were inconsistent with probabilities from the best forecast products available at the time." The controversy has been building since Trump tried to substantiate his initial assertion using an an altered version of a NOAA map of the deadly storm's trajectory that included Alabama. The "cone of uncertainty" for the storm appeared to have been crudely altered with a black marker to indicate that the state was within the potential track. On Monday, The New York Times, citing unnamed sources, reported that the NOAA rebuke defending Trump was the result of threats from Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross to fire top agency employees unless they sided with the president. The newspaper said Ross, "phoned Neil Jacobs, the acting administrator of NOAA, from Greece where the secretary was traveling for meetings and instructed Dr. Jacobs to fix the agency's perceived contradiction of the president." The department denies the events described in the story took place. "The New York Times story is false," a spokesman said in an emailed statement to NPR. "Secretary Ross did not threaten to fire any NOAA staff over forecasting and public statements about Hurricane Dorian." Despite the denial, Virginia Rep. Don Beyer, called for Ross to resign. "His direct attacks on the scientists and federal employees, whom he threatened to fire for doing their jobs by accurately reporting the weather, are an embarrassing new low for a member of this Cabinet which has been historically venal and incompetent," Beyer, a Democrat who sits on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, said in a statement. Beyer accused Ross of "rampant corruption" and added that he "does not deserve the trust of the American people or a place in the Cabinet and he should be dismissed immediately." Meanwhile, the issue is causing frustration among meteorologists and forecasters attending a national conference in Huntsville, Ala., this week where there are rumors of a potential protest, according to WBHM reporter Mary Scott Hodgin. "In recent years, too many things are politicized, that shouldn't be. Gravity is gravity. Heat is heat," Alan Sealls, a meteorologist from Mobile said. NOAA's McLean is expected to address the conference on Tuesday.
Here is what I know to be true. Trump is an embarrassment to the Presidency - a liar and a flip flopper who doesn't have the common sense to shut his mouth and cut his losses. I also know you folks will make a mountain out of a molehill, lie openly and slant narratives to make things worse than they are, and you personally will present "facts" (stuff you claim to be factual) that have been shown to be twisted and also lies. Your hate for the guy has made you so partial and partisan that you can't see clearly how your side has the exact same problems going on that you're railing about. But yet they're OK when done by someone from the left. In short, both sides are completely bent on destroying each other over the pettiest shit imaginable, doing it in the most public of forums so the world can witness the childish behavior, and meanwhile the greater good suffers. You're all in the circus together, and your arguments are about whose act goes on first.