Expect another EO soon, cousin. As I’ve mentioned before, Мистер Ориндж really believes that being president is exactly like Cecil B. DeMille’s pharaoh (“So shall it be written; so shall it be done”). The twerp is an illiterate (at the very least, functionally illiterate) and seems to believe the written word, most especially his written word, has an unconquerable magic. This very well might be why he freaks out more at his executive orders being challenged more than he freaks out about insults to his petty ego.
He probably could, with a simple regulatory change. Back in 2013, the Office of Personnel Management issued a regulation allowing the ‘employer’ health insurance contribution for congress to go directly to the D.C. exchange to offset premiums.
As far as I know, no other employer health benefit is handled this way so I can imagine PR along the lines of ‘Nobody else gets this. Unfair!’
Thank you.
Yes, the GOP really is anti-business. Most people I know who balk at self-employment is for exactly that reason: Fear of health care bankruptcy.
When my late husband migrated here from Australia and I told him one of us had to keep/have a job that offered health insurance benefits in order to have coverage, he just couldn’t understand why Americans thought they had the “greatest health care in the world.” I carried the load for us by staying employed in government while simultaneously growing my little business as my husband got his feet under him in a new land.
He paid heed to our insurance concerns and at age 48, went and wore an orange apron with a national home improvement company, strictly for the benefits. We each kept benefits offered through our employers in those years since employers paid 100% of the cost of coverage for their employees.
When we decided to move to Oregon, he stayed on with the orange apron company for the benefits so I could be self-employed full time. By then, he had risen within the company to the point that he no longer wore an orange apron. Though he encouraged me to give up my business as we no longer needed my income, I just couldn’t quite do that. Good thing, as it turned out when he died very suddenly and left me with one-third of the household income we enjoyed together.
As a self-employed person, the ACA has been a salvation for people like me and Happy Lendervedder. And it’s why I find it particularly galling when the likes of Kellyanne Conway say I should just go “get a job.”
In Beauregard’s home state, the vultures circle, preening themselves for преЦАРдент Trump.
The American system is idiotic. Who knows how much stronger our economy would be if this stupid (and often deadly) allegiance to middlemen—the Middleman must be paid!!!—could be consigned to the medical-waste bin of history.
The effects are broader (though less intense) even for people who do have reasonably decent income and insurance – after any significant medical procedure, the endless stream of “not covered” copayments the providers inevitably pull out of their asses over the next few months makes it impossible to budget normally, adding another layer of depressed consumer confidence and economic weakness.
Agreed.
I’m not advocating for the GOP’s Most-Scary-Thing (people getting Free Stuff). I’m saying that health care is more like infrastructure than it is like entertainment or fashion or sports or the other things people spend their discretionary income on. If you want a thriving, vibrant, growing economy, then you don’t make roads or flood-control or defense into for-profit industries. You may partner with for-profit industries in the pursuit of the most effective way of providing these things—but you do provide them, because they are the foundation on which an economy can grow.
Same thing with health care. It’s foundational.
“A lot of people wish President Trump was a dictator, maybe we could repeal Obamacare. It would be a lot easier that way.” On his show, "The Five”
Meanwhile in Russia, Putin, responding to sanctions, orders U.S. to cut diplomatic staff by 755. Putin said Sunday that Russia had run out of patience waiting for relations with the United States to “improve”. He means, for his stooge Trump to deliver the goods.
Yup, the Right accuses Dems of wanting a dictator, but they’re the ones who constantly opine about how things would be easier if their guy was one.
It isn’t mere projection, it is a tactic. Accuse your opponents of the stuff you’re actually doing.
**“We don’t want to take my time up with how great I am,” **
Compare THAT with how the fucking Cheeto In Chief wants things to be.
No, as always, they will blame the liberals.
We’ve been so distracted by Trump’s colossal incompetence in putting a staff together and his fecklessness in domestic affairs that we’re forgetting the rising costs of having a shit gibbon running foreign affairs.
Russia is now expelling 700+ US diplomats
North Korea is now nearly a gold member of the nuclear club
And now China is basically starting to grow weary of trying to put out the Trumpster fire.
The world today is looking more and more like the world of 1910. We’re heading toward a massive global political crisis and we have absolutely the worst person imaginable dealing with this situation.
Remember months ago, when I myself said, Trump would fuck them all and they deserved it??? Here it comes.
It really is goddamned crazy. I just can’t wrap my head around it, and how it’s happening here.
They’ve been working up to it for decades. Sadly, a coalescence of interests occurred at exactly the wrong moment, and now here we are.
I was pleased to see a commentator this morning on one of the news shows calling this out for precisely what it is: Fascism. It was being discussed in the context of Sinclair News Group taking over 70% of local television stations and their requirement to now broadcast Boris Epshsteyn’s Trump propaganda pieces on the local news 9 times per week.
How Boris Epshteyn and Sinclair News Group Bring Trump Propaganda to Local News
This is what is happening in our country now. We need to recognize it for what it is, and fight it with everything we’ve got.
I’ve been saying this. The Right knows that a majority of people aren’t buying their bullshit, so they’re going to change the rules so that majority rule no longer matters. Wanna know why Trump acts like an authoritarian? Because a lot of people voted for an authoritarian. They just are stupid enough to believe that he was sent by God to make liberal snowflakes cry and that he’ll never screw conservatives.
Note to conservatives: authoritarians almost always come to power with some form of consent. They often have a lot of ‘friends’ to start with, but by the time it’s over, almost everyone’s on their shit list. Ask Russia. Ask Venezuela. Ask Germany. Ask Turkey. Closer to home, ask Sean Spicer. Ask Reince Priebus. Ask Jeff Sessions. All were supporters of Trump, all on his shitlist now. Because authoritarians see everyone as a potential threat. Today, American authoritarians fire people. Tomorrow, American’s authoritarians might send people before a firing squad.
But go ahead, just keep watching Fox News and live in a parallel universe where time flows backwards.
Yes. This.
And the Democrats have failed to convey this. They let the Republicans control the debate by framing healthcare as an “entitlement”. Then they message in a totally reactive way, talking about all the people that will be hurt because they will lose their entitlements. Very frustrating.
In case you missed it, from a couple weeks ago: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=830653
Thank you, yes, I did see your thread on the subject. I commented there, too. I remember discussing it previously but wouldn’t have remembered where to find the thread on a bet. 
I believe it’s so important for people to be aware of this stuff. I hope you don’t mind I posted about it again in a Pit thread without referencing your prior thread on the subject.