How Bullshit Magically Turns Into Fact

by Karoli on November 25, 2011 · 95 comments

I used to write these stories debunking the right wing only, and usually in the context of Fox News. But lately, it seems as though the entire angry political blogosphere, whether right, left or libertarian, seems to need to magically transform bullshit into fact. I’m going to give you two examples of how this works so you can actually figure out for yourself why it’s important to keep your critical thinking cap on.

Shriek loudly! The DHS has infiltrated OWS on behalf of the 1%!!!!

Naomi Wolf wrote a nonsensical piece today that’s being spammed all over Twitter. It asserts that there is a deliberate plot afoot via collusion by the United States Congress, the Department of Homeland Security and our oligarchical overlords to undermine the very populist, leaderless Occupy Wall Street movement. One of her key pieces of evidence is an unsupported and unverified report that 18 mayors coordinated their crackdowns with the Department of Homeland Security. There’s only one problem with that: It’s nothing more than innuendo. Here, let me show you.

Here are the two links she provides as evidence: One to Wonkette; the other to Washingtonsblog.com. Both articles point back to this absurd article on the Examiner.com site (a very, very right-wing Phil Anschutz, write-out-of-your-butt-with-no-evidence kind of site). Washingtonsblog goes one step further, updating with this:

(And for those who are understandably doubtful about Examiner.com as a news source,here’s an AP story from a couple hours ago that verifies everything except the specific mention of DHS coordination.)

Got that? The headlines on both of these stories (Wonkette and WashingtonsBlog) were splayed across the sites in very large heading fonts: “Homeland Security Coordinated….” and yet the AP confirms everything BUT DHS coordination. Still, that didn’t stop Wolf from ignoring the AP story entirely and writing a piece for the Guardian that included links to bolster her argument that clearly don’t.

Why? I reiterate. No one has a source, no one has any evidence, and the originating story which Michael Moore and now Naomi Wolf breathlessly spread quotes an anonymous source with the promise of still more to come in the future. Well, it’s the future. It’s two weeks later and crickets from Mr. Ellis. Mission accomplished, though. Ask people who are paying attention to the OWS movement and they’ll swear up and down that yes, it was coordinated by DHS because MICHAEL MOORE and now NAOMI WOLF say so.

Truth: We don’t know. It isn’t completely out of the realm of possibility for mayors to consult with DHS. After all, that’s what they’re there for. To help local and state governments deal with threats. At best, one can conclude that maybe they did, and maybe they didn’t coordinate.

But again, it doesn’t matter if you can spread it on the Internet and get Keith Olbermann to pick it up and give Michael Moore a mic to spread that nonsense further (see video).

Milt Shook did a fantastic job showing us that the originating Examiner.com writer is not a credible source, too. Read it.

Undeterred, Wolf actually says this like it’s something readers have reason to believe:

In other words, for the DHS to be on a call with mayors, the logic of its chain of command and accountability implies that congressional overseers, with the blessing of the White House, told the DHS to authorise mayors to order their police forces – pumped up with millions of dollars of hardware and training from the DHS – to make war on peaceful citizens.

There you have it. Bullshit, spread worldwide, with the full cooperation of so-called journalists. It’ll work, too, because she has enough name recognition that people won’t question her claims. Which leads me to example number two.

President Obama personally killed the public option

This one is big. It started on the big-name lefty blogs like FireDogLake, and Jane Hamsher was instrumental throughout the health care debate at spreading it around. The only problem is that it’s untrue. Even those who acknowledge that it’s untrue dig in deep, saying that if he’d just used his bully pulpit, just simply taken it on the road with the Public Option Gospel Tour, we’d have a public option today. Except, well, have a look at the jobs bill. Even with people in the streets, parks, tents and on bridges, Congress does nothing but block it. Nothing.

Still, the myth persists. This article from last week by Jonathan Bernstein on The Plum Line got no attention, but it should have.

Bernstein’s post was inspired by yet another disappointed lefty using it as evidence that we have somehow been betrayed and left behind by our Democratic President. (cue weeping and gnashing of teeth). Drew Westen wrote this:

…as pundits endlessly debated the popular “public option” in health care reform, that the president had cut a deal with health care industry executives to block it the year before.

He links to a Talking Points Memo story asserting that Jim Messina killed the public option in exchange for concessions by hospitals. The TPM story links to “corroboration” by a for-profit hospital lobbyist and David Kirkpatrick, a New York Times reporter.

Here’s the problem: The reporter is quoting the same lobbyist TPM used for their story. Yet again, all of it points back to one source and that source happens to be someone with a deep vested interest in a) stirring dissent just before a vote on the health care bill; b) eroding Obama’s credibility with his own party and constituents just before a vote on the health care bill; and c) it stretches the existence of a deal to one with a secret public option death clause.

Here’s what Kirkpatrick confirmed: There was a deal on costs with hospitals. This was widely reported when it was made. In fact, the President had a press and photo opportunity at the time the deal was made. Here are a few links to articles ahead of the actual deal, reported by various sources:

Politico: Hospitals nearing a deal with White House
USAToday: Biden announces White House deal with hospitals
New York Times: White House and Hospitals Are Reported to Be Near Deal

Those were in July, 2009, long before the public option debate became a full-scale war. Remember, the House passed a bill with the public option included later in 2009. Here’s an analysis in the New York Times of what hospitals got and gave. In a nutshell: Hospitals would receive about $171 billion in extra reimbursements under Medicare changes in the ACA while giving up $155 billion in cost cuts, with most of the cuts coming into play on a delayed basis. There were some deals on emergency care, provided the numbers of uninsured came down.

Read this: There was no mention, not even a whisper, of any “dealmaking” over the public option, but that didn’t stop the New York Times from quoting the very same lobbyist with no independent verification in August, 2009.

That didn’t stop the Hamshers and Uygurs of the world from jumping on the “public option killed in secret deal train”, but not until about eight months later. Watch Cenk Uygur tell his audience all about how the public option was killed in a secret deal:

He repeats exactly the same thing everyone else repeated, except no one bothered to verify facts. No one.

That, my friends, is how bullshit magically transforms into fact on the left, with magical unsourced, unverified, but narrative-friendly assertions.

Why do facts matter?

Great question. Why do they? Clearly we can have top-name journalists out there on top-name newspaper sites like the New York Times and the Guardian spewing whatever nonsense they think fits their narrative, with no consequence. A large segment of the left will view their claims as further evidence they shouldn’t bother supporting a President who is one of the most progressive Presidents in modern history while the right wing will cluck and concern troll about how evil the left is. A fact-free environment gives everyone the right to turn the narrative into one they want in order to persuade a larger segment of the population they’re right.

Here’s the problem. The right wing has this mastered and they have a 24-hour news network to help them spread the word. They’ve gamed social media and aren’t shy about buying sponsored links on every left-wing page they can. When the Naomi Wolfs, Michael Moores, and others hand them something they can use on their influential but fact-free networks, they run with it.

Our side is less organized, and generally less in step with what the average low information voter might respond to. So when the LEFT begins to spread these lies across their sphere of influence, it peels off and suppresses enthusiasm, one small group at a time. Their goal is purity. They don’t live in practical terms. If you don’t believe me, please go review Ralph Nader’s role in handing the election in 2000 over to George W. Bush. Between Nader and the United States Supreme Court, one has to wonder which masters they serve, but if you’ve read this far, know this: They are not serving masters who want anything good for you, or anyone else.

Yes. Facts matter. They matter, and it matters that so-called reputable publications exist as fact-free entities when the narrative suits. Who benefits? The same people Naomi Wolf and Michael Moore call the 1%. Who are they working for again?

Update re: alleged DHS coordination In Portland, Feds were involved because occupiers were on federal land. But pay attention:

There is another line of thinking out there that runs directly counter to the federal-coordination theory: Ruiz wouldn’t comment on this, but one well-placed city source said, in fact, that the feds were mostly inclined to leave Schrunk Plaza open. It was city officials who cajoled them into getting on board—lest they watch most of Occupy’s camp merely move several hundred feet south onto federal land. Which would have been awkward for the city. But also interesting.

Should you accept as fact the idea that the feds were reluctant and the city pushed them along? NO. Why? Because it’s attributed to an anonymous source with nothing to back it up, which makes this theory as worthy as the DHS coordination theory, or just speculation with no facts behind it.

Update 2: AngryBlackLady has a post at her site that reminds me there were three other posts strongly debunking the whole #OWS coordination “theory”. Check them out here and here. Finally, Joshua Holland, senior Alternet editor, wrote a terrific post a couple of weeks ago about why DHS probably didn’t coordinate with cities.

Strange how those counterpoints went ignored by Ms. Wolf.

Tagged as: DHS, facts, OWS, public option, rant

http://www.drumsnwhistles.com/ Karoli

Keep in mind, I’m not against the public option. I’m against the unsubstantiated allegation that it’s death came at the hands of the White House in a secret deal.
http://breakingbrown.com Yvette Carnell

I hear you, and on that point, we agree.

My main point is that the political landscape in 2009 is a lot different than it was in 2011. I don’t think it’s fair to say that since it can’t be done now, it couldn’t have been done then. It’s an oversimplification in my view.
http://breakingbrown.com Yvette Carnell

“By the way, Ms. Yvette Carnell seems to confuse single payer and/or private insurance with a public option, to be the same as “universal health care.”

Actually, I don’t confuse the two, I’m just discussing them both in the same dialogue. I’m discussing how championing one could’ve led to the other. I really don’t see how that could’ve confused you.
GN

Aha, so in other words, you had no idea previous to this discussion
that HCR was passed with a student loan reform side car which amongst
many other items contained HBCU grants and increased federal student
loan and aid funding. Long story short: the student loan reform
component of the HCR side car has nothing to do with single payer; it
was included because Dems seized the opportunity to add a panoply of
items on the liberal wish list to legislation which they knew they could
pressure even fiscal hawks to pass. This is why I cautioned you
against panning omnibus legislation. Notice the difference between our comments? Mine are about facts; yours
are about personality, specifically, your interpretation of President
Obama’s personality (a character attack which in addition to its
irrelevance to policy items which help real people, also happens to have
no basis in reality). Mine are about how people are helped by
legislation, about how HCR can increase the public’s appetite for
tweaking and improving this reform, and about discussing the merits of
expanding existing publicly administered health care programs to folks
who claim to care so much about said programs yet curiously only seem
concerned to the extent that they can bash POTUS for the lack of a new
public program.

New rule: if you don’t care about the Medicaid expansion, I’m not going to believe that you care so much about publicly administered health care programs that you’d destroy the most significant addition to the safety net in 50 years in your rage that we didn’t get a new one. Point blank period.
And btw, I don’t give a sugar honey iced tea what you think of my “internal
fortitude,” lol, I care about policy and facts. For any lurkers who are
tired of feeling uninformed and fed contentless talking points, a
fact-based and reality-based assessment of the debt deal is available
here
GN

The confusion is deliberate; this is how HCR has been purity trolled for years, alongside heaping spoonfuls of character attacks which curiously match the right wing’s contention that POTUS lacks conviction, isn’t a leader, etc. It’s not only tiresome and completely fact-free, but quite frankly, I find it suspicious.
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GN

Excellent comment, written by woody45 in response to this article and comments section:

**********
What is is about this thing [loss of the public option] that keeps them up at night? It would have
cost more and covered less people. It wasn’t even a blip on the radar
screen during 2008 then suddenly it became the totality of health care
reform.

Jacob Hacker invented the darn thing and practically
begged Congress to pass the bill knowing the public option was not going
to be in it. What do they know more than the guy who created it?

How
much was a regular policy for the average family going to cost? They
never tell you. If it was going to be dirt cheap (aka as drive the
insurance companies out of business) then how do you get the votes to
even get it out of committee?

They got a national health system,
the end of rescissions, a ban on lifetime caps, a ban on preexisting
conditions, the overhaul of the delivery system, an unprecedented
expansion of Medicaid, national exchanges to spur more competition,
historic investments in community health centers, an industry that’s
creating jobs and all of it paid for in a responsible manner.

And
after all that they’re still crying. It’s raining a hundred dollar
bills and they’re outside searching for a nickel they lost three weeks
ago.
Anonymous

yeah, the chapter 13 bankruptcy i filed 6 months ago due to medical expenses was mostly just my liberal whining as is my employer’s 18% increase for my health insurance that i found covers very little but at least they didn’t drop it altogether like they threatened and since my state is opting out of the exchange program the fact that i’m screwed shouldn’t get in the way of my obama love, should it? oh and the religious exclusion for birth control coverage brouhaha. — hey, look over there! obama is so totally like progressive and cute!
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GN

My life isn’t perfect either; doesn’t mean that I’m going to come onto websites bashing progressive legislation which helps others. So let’s kick all of the young adults who are on their parents insurance back off; let’s cancel all of the new policies for sick people who had been previously denied insurance because of a preexisting condition; let’s take it all back because you feel “screwed” and thus why shouldn’t everyone else? Those aren’t my liberal values. I’m of course very sorry to hear about your travails, genuinely, but this is not a compelling comment with regards to HCR as a policy and expansion of the social safety net.

eta: your experience right now is that HCR is not helpful to your personal immediate situation (although it will be helpful to you as the legislation approaches fuller implementation); however, it’s helpful to this person and millions like her http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2011/09/media-fail-uninformed-electorate-on.html

Does she matter? Or are liberals no longer about helping people and it’s every person for her or himself? You can try to trivialize this with the usual caricatures, but I’m interested in policy, not media memes.
http://breakingbrown.com Yvette Carnell

Oh, jeez. Really? Of course I know that it passed. And you know I know it. My question was about the relevance of it passing as it relates to health care reform. Let’s not play games with one another or be disingenuous. I’m assuming, maybe wrongly, that we’re both grown. If this is some sort of sophomoric competition for you, then feel free to move on.

“ Long story short: the student loan reform component of the HCR side car has nothing to do with single payer; ”That was kind of my point. Next time, do both of us a favor and read my entire post before coming. It would be helpful to our exchange. And please stop using the word “omnibus”, I worked on the Hill. I know an omnibus contains several measures and don’t require a tutorial from you (maybe you should look into Big Brother / Big Sister).

And here are facts I previously outlined in my post:

1) Health care reform is a windfall for health care insurers

2) Reducing costs is key to reform. Obama’s plan doesn’t reduce costs with a single payer plan, free market competition, or a public option.

3) Our new economy requires flexibility (read Umair Haque) and as such, a revamped health care system would’ve made for a mobile and secure workforce. Obama’s plan doesn’t come close.

4) And on and on… just read what I’ve said objectively without any desire to do Obama’s bidding and I’m sure you’ll take a different view. You’re too invested in the man to be objective.

But character is important in a President and so is temperament. Being President is about leadership, not forever playing the role of the “grownup in the room” or “leader leading from behind.” Character assessments, and flaws, shouldn’t be discounted in a President – ever. If Obama had effectively used the bullypulpit, I’m sure you’d be in his cheering his steeliness, so let’s not be hypocritical.

And I really don’t care about your sugar, honey, or ice tea. Goodness…
GN

Well, you most certainly threw around personality nonsense and internet personality diagnosis, so don’t creep away now, lol. Your “facts” are unsubstantiated claims “Obama’s plan doesn’t reduce costs…” and character attacks “you’re too invested in the man to be objective” masquerading as sound policy analysis. Again, I thank you for your illustrative commentary.
http://breakingbrown.com Yvette Carnell

Funny how you can tell gooberpeas not to bash progressive legislation, but you have no problem bashing him (or her). What s/he’s telling you is that the legislation hasn’t changed his life. In fact, it appears as though it’s made it worse. It pays to listen to people who are actually living the repercussions. Everything isn’t learned from anecdotal.
http://breakingbrown.com Yvette Carnell

Just awful. In Georgia, insurers stopped carrying child only policies. People are hurting but we’re all expected to just cheer Obama’s “effort” and carry on…
http://cousinavi.wordpress.com cousinavi

“Progressives” (and I count myself one) are never going to be happy with any Democratic president (leaving aside how much less happy we’d be with any Republican).
The difference between what we would wish to see done and what can actually be accomplished, crossed with the fact that liberals are a fractious demographic that do not march in lockstep but rather break immediately into pet-issue factions all demanding immediate solutions to particular issues (Gitmo, Wall St., jobs, taxes, LGBT…) creates a perennial set of circumstances.
The focus on the left devolves into constant whinging about the gap between reality and some idealized end point instead of recognition – and CREDIT – for what has been accomplished in the face of unprecedented and borderline treasonous obstructionism, and in an environment flooded not only with outright lies from the right but with Firebaggers like Hamsher, Wolfe, Greenwald et al on the left.
The repeal of DADT; a deficit cutting HCRA that extends care to millions of previously uninsured Americans; pulled the economy back from the brink of global collapse; killed Osama bin Laden; ended the war in Iraq; appointed two pro-choice women to the USSC…

There’s plenty of room to criticize this president: Gitmo is still open, the Patriot Act is still on the books, none of the war criminals in the previous administration has been frog-marched before congress, and no one responsible for selling AAA-rated junk CDOs while betting against them with other people’s money has been pimp-walked off to a 50-year prison sentence…but none of that diminshes the ocean of difference between THIS president and where we’d be today with President McCain, or where we’ll be in five years with President Gingrich.

It’s one thing to steadfastly push in the direction we need to go. It’s another to holler, “Traitor!” at the best chance we have of moving in that direction. It’s still another to do so while relying on the sort of willfully blind, fact-free bullshit employed by the right as your justification.
What’s wrong cannot be fixed in one term. It cannot be FIXED in two terms, and may not ever be fixed to any progressive’s satisfaction, and certainly not every progressive’s satisfaction. But go right on ahead assisting the GOP in splitting and demoralizing the left.
A Republican house with a Republican president – do you prefer the Evangelical or the Mormon, the serial adulterer or the serial harasser, the pathetically stupid or the pathological liar? – is sure to be a step in the right direction.

Yes, it’s true: Obama failed to provide rainbows and unicorns for everyone immediately.
This is war…and you take the ground a few inches at a time. If you’re not in it for the long haul, at least stop tossing grenades at our own trenches.
GN

I doubt that the legislation has made his life worse and there’s a difference between bashing and questioning. No need to catch feelings.
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Otis

Facts? You have no facts. These are not facts.

I will give you some facts, Karoli.

We are an insignificant species on an insignificant planet in an insignificant star system tucked away in an insignificant corner of an insignificant galaxy. The universe most likely contains hundred of billions of planets with life on them, and not one of them cares even an iota whether we exist or not.

This planet is a tiny, blue lifeboat spinning through a vast and inhospitable void. There is no god — that is just human arrogance and intellectual dishonesty. We project ourselves onto the void and imagine that we are somehow the center of the universe and that some remarkably-human-like “superior” being is watching over us — a superior being who acts amazingly like an ill-tempered human. We do so love to be the center of attention.

We believe that we are special — that we are separate from the rest of the animals. That we have “souls” and an “afterlife.” But this is more hubris. We are animals, nothing more. As with every other animal, we spend virtually all of our lives engaged in only two activities: self-preservation and procreation. And our daily behavior reveals our true primate nature. We are inevitably tribal, and we are obsessed with hierarchies and the domination and submission that they entail.

All else is nonsense. It’s the mass hallucination to which we all subscribe voluntarily each day. We invent all sorts of silly stuff — like, say, money, or private property, or law, or religion — and then we pretend that these things are real, and because we all agree to pretend, we make them real. And we destroy anyone who refuses to go along.

One of the biggest and silliest of our illusions is that there exists a class of “rulers.” This hallucination is shared by “right” and “left” alike. These rulers have “power.” They are the ones in control, and we must do as they say. We become fascinated by the leaders, and we begin to live our lives vicariously through them, whether they are billionaires, or politicians, or famous movie stars. We pretend that they have all the power. Because then we can pretend that we don’t have any.

See, that let’s us off the hook. Every day we go out into the world and we work all day long to prop up the mass delusion. And we violently oppose anyone who tells us that emperor is not wearing clothes.

You want a real fact? Here is a fact: Hitler most likely never killed anyone. Not one single person. But wait, wasn’t he the most evil man who ever lived? No. He was just a lost soul. Left to his own devices, how much harm could he have done?

George Bush probably never killed anyone either, though maybe he offed a few unlucky cats when he was a kid. Don’t say that to a liberal, though! And though I’m not so sure about Dick Cheney, I’m pretty sure that Donald Rumsfeld never tortured a soul, though I hear that he watched on video and gave instructions like on those live person porn sites.

What these people actually did, as far as I know, is tell other people to torture, murder, and destroy. And then those other people did so, as if they had no say in the matter. Obama is not killing anyone, understand? It’s some gal just like you or me sitting in a bunker somewhere in the Southwest who pushes the button that shoots the missile that blows the small child into little, bloody chunks. And who then high fives her coworkers. It’s somebody’s brother or sister who shoots somebody else’s father or son or niece in the head. It’s you and me.

Just as it’s gals like you and me that are making sure the trains to the death camps run on time. We’re making sure that our brothers and sisters on the killing fields and in the torture cells have the tools they need, and that they have a bunk to sleep in and some hot meals in the canteen. We’re driving the trucks that supply the things they need, and we’re digging the oil and coal and uranium out of the ground to do it. And we’re voting for the people who will coordinate this (while pretending that we’re voting to end it).

None of the people in the so-called ruling class do any of this. They wouldn’t know how. They are powerless. Some of them can’t even feed themselves without help. Like the human parasites they are, they don’t know how to live without the services of other human beings who do their dirty work.

We are the people who are destroying this earth. We are the people who are killing each other. The crap you get all worked up about on this site is nothing more than political theater. It is meaningless. There was never going to be a public option because we — the so-called 99% — don’t really want one. We don’t really want a single payer system. Or, more accurately, we do, but not as much as we don’t really want to take any risks or rock any boats.

We know that there is a better system out there somewhere. We know that we should get off our lazy asses and change things around. But change is dangerous. We might lose what little we have. So we bitch and whine and blame everyone but ourselves and we do nothing. We show up at our crappy jobs and we put up with our overbearing bosses and we go home and watch while imaginary people live the lives we wish we had on TV. And then the next day we do it all again.

And meanwhile, the planet slowly dies, and we inch ever closer to extinction. But we close our eyes, deny the reality, and continue to bleat that there is nothing we can do! We have no power. All we can do is beg our “leaders” to lead us to safety, even though we know that they are as lazy and fearful and stupid as we are, and that they are not leading us to safety, but to the roaring abyss. And, of course, we blame everyone else. Everyone but ourselves. We would do the right thing, if only everyone else would. You go first.

OWS is a joke. More bleating. It will fail miserably. Nothing will change. The reason is obvious: the whole point of OWS is to further reinforce the idea that the real power is with the 1%. We have to beg them to change things. We have to demand change from them. They have to agree to it. But it is not the 1% who are bruising us with batons, burning us with chemical sprays, electrocuting us with stun guns, and worse. Who are these cops hiding behind the armor and masks? Are they not our brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, nieces and nephews and mothers and fathers and cousins? Are they not us?

And when the military’s turn comes, who will be pointing those rifles at us? Who will be flying those unmanned drones. Who will be manning the checkpoints and doing the strip searches? Will it not be us?

Those are the true facts, Karoli. But you know that already. We all do. But you’re not going to do a damn thing about it, are you?

While Rome burned, Nero blogged. Go back to sleep. It will all be over soon.
Guest

Liar.
Crgr

The articles you link to claiming to debunk Wolf et al establish that (1) 18 mayors did consult on how to deal with, i.e. get rid of, the protesters and their camps and (2) a Homeland security representative (or representatives, this point is not clear) was involved in at least one of the conference calls. This is not actually disputed; rather merely dismissed as insignificant because a source within Oakland’s mayor’s office says “Why would anyone think we don’t talk?” [and the article concludes] “In other words: the story is much ado about nothing at all.”A more accurate conclusion – the one asserted by Wolf and others – is that this is and should be of major concern because the mayors together with the DHS representative were discussing strategies for controlling if not shutting down citizen protest. This does not, in my opinion, constitute a threat to state and local government that should be blithely accepted as precedence for DHS to help control. This is precisely why the whole concept of homeland (sic) security and the Patriot Act that established it is so dangerous and objectionable. I repeat “precisely” full stop!
http://profiles.google.com/mahabarbara Barbara O’Brien

First, I filed bankruptcy this year too; it’s been a hard year for a lot of us. But your medical expenses did not happen because of the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), most of which won’t go into effect until 2014. You might have been told that Obamacare was the reason for your health insurance hike, but that would have been a lie. When the Act does go into effect, more than 30 million Americans who have no insurance at all now will be insured. And all kinds of regulations will kick in to protect consumers from the insurance companies. If you’re going to blame Obama for your miserable life, try to be better informed about it.
http://leftwingnutjob.net Dusty, Hells most vocal bitch.

Obama’s Administration has quietly been handing out waivers to a key part of the healthcare bill which affects those that have the crappiest HC out there:

But, as of Dec. 3, the federal government had approved a total of 222 one-year waivers
that allow the insurance plans at companies like McDonald’s, Jack in
the Box and Ruby Tuesday, and unions, to ignore the requirement on
annual limits.

Companies seeking (and receiving automatically) these waivers claimed the limit regulation would
force significant hikes — in some cases, even a 100 percent increase —
in premiums, according to an Oct. 6 New York Times article.
AHIP’s Zirkelbach told us the regulation could cause seasonal,
part-time or temporary workers that are typically covered by
limited-benefits plans to lose all of their coverage.

The companies that have been approved for the waivers must reapply for them next year. Waivers are available until 2014. For people with these types of crappy healthcare NOW, they better hope to hell they don’t get cancer or any other expensive, life-threatening illness, as my sister did last year, because they will be joining the ranks of those filing BK because of medical bills until at least 2014.
Otis

Go back to sleep, little guest. President Obama will take care of you. Close your eyes and pretend that the lifestyle you lead doesn’t steal the resources that others need simply to live. Pretend that “our” soldiers are fighting for your freedom, and that the U.S. is a beacon of hope and justice that somehow emerged from genocide, slavery, violence, and oppression. You are not responsible for what others do in your name, and besides, if you stopped supporting the torture and murder of innocents, you might lose that big screen TV and those frequent flier miles. So back to sleep, little one. Sweet dreams.
Anonymous

Um, no, I’m not blaming the “Affordable Care” Act for my misfortune. I’m pointing out how ludicrous it is for people to cheer about how amazingly wonderful that act is (or will be if it ever becomes law in 2014) when real people are hurting with real pain RIGHT NOW. And those 30 million Americans: how will they pay for this amazing new insurance? What curbs are there on price-gouging by the health care industry to make up for any lost profits? There are none.

Stop trying to sell me a shit sandwich while calling it caviar on toast. It ain’t and it never will be. I’m left out of the amazing new health care world and so are millions of other Americans. I know 30 million sounds like a lot but nearly 50 million Americans are now living in poverty so it’s not as great as the soundbite makes it sound.

I like Obama once too and I worked to get him elected and then I realized that I had deluded myself into thinking that he really meant to change things in a meaningful way. I was wrong and I admit it.
Anonymous

Yeah rainbows and unicorns. Amazing how every time someone points out how little has actually changed (and many things like DADT happened without any direct support from Obama himself) we get this tired answer. What if Obama had actually tried to bring about major changes for the good instead of constantly moving the goalpost downward and complaining about how he couldn’t do any better? Yes, congress thwarted him from the beginning but instead of standing up to congress he accepted that limitation without a whimper and lost the game.
Anonymous

You know, if it was just me sure, I’d take one for the team. But I work in the public sphere and there are many, many, many just like me. If I can stay alive long enough I’m anxious to see if the “Affordable Care” Act makes any difference at all for me and those like me. It would be better, I know, for people like you if we’d just silently accept our fate because it furthers the Obama is Great! cause. But I don’t run that way. Sorry!
Singhps

You have left out the most important point in your # 2, and that is that democrat had majority in the house, and in the senate, and also controlled the White House. If President wanted a public option…..it had a better than chance that he could have given the public option to public. And your comparison of public option with jobs bill failed to mention that democrat do not control the house any more. Your analysis lacks facts as well.
http://leftwingnutjob.net Dusty, Hells most vocal bitch.

The ‘fact’ you mention Singhps, with regard to the public option, wouldn’t of changed the outcome as the Blue Dogs would not of changed their votes on that point. Personally, I think Obama took the public option off the table too quickly and too early as his heart wasn’t in it or he didn’t have what it took to convince the BD’s to vote with him on that issue. LBJ didn’t have a slam dunk when he got the civil rights bill passed, but he got it done.
http://leftwingnutjob.net Dusty, Hells most vocal bitch.

Does she matter? Or are liberals no longer about helping people and
it’s every person for her or himself? You can try to trivialize this
with the usual caricatures, but I’m interested in policy, not media
memes. That is a ridiculous statement and you know it. What about the millions who work now for McDonalds, JackInTheBox, etc that still won’t have insurance that gives them anything but lip service until 2014? Obama did not have to give out the over 200 exemptions he has so far to corporation’s with big bucks and plenty of lobbyists or is that a liberal value I missed somehow?
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=689794967 Heather Zingara Romaine

Otis, you are correct. This is why people are showing up at OWS though, to take the power back. It may fail, but at least it’s an effort to change these things. You come across almost identical to many, many people I have had discussions with at OWS.
We live in a terrible place and we are the cause, so let’s correct it. We need people like you. Please find your hope for humanity.
xoxo
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GN

lol, now I know that you’re bullshitting. Right wing troll much?
GN

People who are not earning a living wage are EXACTLY why POTUS decided to expand Medicaid. Doubt you’re liberal…
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Anonymous

You Obamabots are so funny. I’m an over 50 lifelong democrat that would be described as to the left of Ted Kennedy. I’ve been working elections and voting for 32 years, always democratic party. But if I criticize the president I’m a rightwing troll. I never said that the Affordable Care Act made my life worse. I said it hasn’t yet made it better and may not so it’s hardly a worthy riposte. It’s like fundamentalists who argue using a bible verse — if I don’t accept the bible as inerrant it’s a worthless argument to me. So is using the Affordable Care Act as proof of Obama’s progressive awesomeness and success. Sorry but you have no credibility with me.
Anonymous

You are completely unaware of cuts to Medicaid by the states and how Medicaid is part of deficit reduction? Really?
Anonymous

Actually there have been 2 congresses. Funny that one was a huge democratic majority and one is a republican majority and yet we still get the same kind of negotiating and the same kind of legislation. And the senate has renained under the president’s party control throughout.
GN

HCR hasn’t yet personally enhanced *my* life either, neither has Medicaid, Medicare, expansion of children’s healthcare programs, or the partial dismantling of welfare reform which was contained in the stimulus. I haven’t personally benefited from cash for clunkers, I haven’t personally benefited from the earned income tax credit and a progressive tax code which gives people who are raising families a break. I also haven’t gotten anything for myself from federal infrastructure spending in rural areas. Yet somehow I manage to see the value in all of those items, and not pan or dismiss them…because I’m a liberal. You did not merely criticize the President or one of the President’s policies. So please save the bible-thumping, sanctimony, and trying to pull rank. Again, I’m sorry that you’re going through a clearly difficult time. But that does not invalidate HCR nor does it negate the progress made by hands down the most progressive presidency in more than 50 years.
GN

I’m very aware of *state* budget cuts (which would have been far worse without the stimulus), that has what to do with HCR? The “catfood commission” lies about entitlement programs slashed via deficit reduction are just that…lies.
http://breakingbrown.com Yvette Carnell

This is a stinging comment, but it couldn’t be more true.
Anonymous

The Senate wouldn’t pass the Public Option. That’s the way it actually happened. The Democrats needed every single one of their votes to pass a bill and Lieberman, and probably others, simply wouldn’t vote for a public option. If the President had insisted on having the public option in the bill, we would have nothing.
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