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dirtbag
climber
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Jan 15, 2014 - 06:02pm PT
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What's your brilliant solution?
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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Jan 31, 2014 - 04:19pm PT
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This is good.
John Stewart grills Nancy Pelosi. I'll wager that she doesn't go back on that show anytime soon. For her that was 8 minutes of hell
Gotta love the way he just laughs derisively at some of her answers, and the audience is right there with him.
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Jan 31, 2014 - 10:54pm PT
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Wow. When you lose Jon Stewart, you've lost North Korea.
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
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Jan 31, 2014 - 11:13pm PT
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Relentless stupidity is another term for dementia...
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froodish
Social climber
Portland, Oregon
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Good piece by Clay Shirky about a phenomenon that's not unique to government...
Healthcare.gov and the Gulf Between Planning and Reality
...The idea that “failure is not an option” is a fantasy version of how non-engineers should motivate engineers. That sentiment was invented by a screenwriter, riffing on an after-the-fact observation about Apollo 13; no one said it at the time. (If you ever say it, wash your mouth out with soap. If anyone ever says it to you, run.) Even NASA’s vaunted moonshot, so often referred to as the best of government innovation, tested with dozens of unmanned missions first, several of which failed outright.
Failure is always an option. Engineers work as hard as they do because they understand the risk of failure. And for anything it might have meant in its screenplay version, here that sentiment means the opposite; the unnamed executives were saying “Addressing the possibility of failure is not an option.”...
http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2013/11/healthcare-gov-and-the-gulf-between-planning-and-reality/
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
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There's never enough chap stick to go around when it comes down to our politicians paying lip-service to the constituents or their corporate sponsors...
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madbolter1
Big Wall climber
Denver, CO
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.... then inserts the policy amendments that ensure the goal of the legislation isnt possible
then they vote for it
and scream it up saying "told you it wouldnt work!"
This summary of "events" is shockingly revisionist.
If you care to even TRY to sustain the ridiculous hand-waving and frothing of your post, then please provide a DETAILED explanation of....
1) "Inserts the policy ammendments...." WHAT Republican inserted ANY policy amendments? EXACTLY what amendments were these? Explain!
2) "Ensure the goal of the legislation isn't possible...." EXACTLY how did any Republican ensure this? EXACTLY what amendment(s) ensured this? Explain!
3) "Then they vote for it...." Uhhh... WHAT? Not one Republican voted for Obumblecare, so WHAT in the world are you talking about here??? EXPLAIN!!!
4) "Scream up saying 'told you it wouldn't work!'" And EXACTLY how are the Republicans in ANY way responsible for Obumblecare's problems? EXACTLY what causal chain (in your fantasy-land version of "history") makes the Republicans in the SLIGHTEST bit responsible for any of this? EXPLAIN!!!!!!!
You cannot up-thread complain that the Republicans wanted NOTHING to do with this utter botch of a "reform," and you cannot accuse them of "doing nothing," and then NOW (when Obumblecare is becoming clearly revealed as the botch that it really is) claim that the Republicans are somehow RESPONSIBLE for the (now increasingly obvious) failings of the legislation that they had NOTHING to do with passing.
You DON'T get to have it both ways!
I'm NO Republican! But I find the revisionism that Obumblecare supporters now engage in to be the very "evil" you decried in YOUR post! For better or worse, the Democrats enjoy 100% of the responsibility for Obumblecare. THEY passed it during a window in time in which they could STEAMROLLER over all Republican objection, and they did so with exactly ZERO Republican support!
If Obumblecare had quickly proved to be fabulous, then people like you would be crowing crap like, "See! The Democrats got your back, and the Republicans are USELESS and unable to accomplish sweepingly wonderful reforms like this! WE did this 'for you' over all of their objections!"
But instead, Obumblecare is more and more being revealed as SUCH a botch that even MANY Democrats are now running scared of its electoral implications! And now even people like you are backpedaling and trying to make the REPUBLICANS out to be complicit in its (vast) failings.
Pathetic!
If you are (FINALLY) admitting what a sick botch Obumblecare really is, that's great! THAT portion of reality is (FINALLY) sinking it for you. But you DON'T get to now blame ANYBODY else for its failings than your vaunted Obumblator in Chief and his Bumblecrat cronies and henchmen.
NO revisionism. You get to OWN this botch ALL on your own, with NO Republican involvement in it. You got EXACTLY what you cried out for and wanted: A law that got passed without anybody knowing what was in it, passed "so that we can find out what's in it," in arguably the most flagrantly irresponsible legislative act in human history, and now being "administrated" in the most outrageously irresponsible fashion; and you've got not even ONE Republican on the hook with the entire mess! So you don't get to blame THEM for it now.
OWN it! Don't pass the buck; this is YOUR steaming pile, and the FACT that YOUR party couldn't be bothered to think through the implications of thousands of pages of this morass before unilaterally passing it is on YOU, not on any Republican.
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madbolter1
Big Wall climber
Denver, CO
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Classic non-answer.
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apogee
climber
Technically expert, safe belayer, can lead if easy
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But if Jon Stewart criticizes Christie, he should be ignored as an useless lib.
(Didn't Kos just say that?)
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couchmaster
climber
pdx
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 5, 2014 - 12:24pm PT
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Do any of you signed up Californians (and you all need to be signed up or have insurance if you do not have it yet, get on it) have experience using your healthcare? This report suggest that it looks like it may be smoke and mirrors.
"February 5, 2014
Can't keep you doctor under Obamacare? Try simply finding a doctor in CA
Rick Moran
Congratulations! You have successfully signed up for a truly excellent plan on the Covered California website!
It's a really, really great plan. Really. Now, good look finding a doctor who will treat you.
Los Angeles Times:
"After overcoming website glitches and long waits to get Obamacare, some patients are now running into frustrating new roadblocks at the doctor's office. A month into the most sweeping changes to healthcare in half a century, people are having trouble finding doctors at all, getting faulty information on which ones are covered and receiving little help from insurers swamped by new business.
Experts have warned for months that the logjam was inevitable. But the extent of the problems is taking by surprise many patients - and even doctors - as frustrations mount. Aliso Viejo resident Danielle Nelson said Anthem Blue Cross promised half a dozen times that her oncologists would be covered under her new policy. She was diagnosed last year with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and discovered a suspicious lump near her jaw in early January. But when she went to her oncologist's office, she promptly encountered a bright orange sign saying that Covered California plans are not accepted.
"I'm a complete fan of the Affordable Care Act, but now I can't sleep at night," Nelson said. "I can't imagine this is how President Obama wanted it to happen."
To hold down premiums under the healthcare law, major insurers have sharply cut the number of doctors and hospitals available to patients in the state's new health insurance market. Now those limited options are becoming clearer, and California officials say they are receiving more consumer complaints about access to medical providers. State lawmakers are also moving swiftly to ease some of the problems that have arisen.
"It's a little early for anyone to know how widespread and deep this problem is," said California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones. "There are a lot of economic incentives for health insurers to narrow their networks, but if they go too far, people won't have access to care. Network adequacy will be a big issue in 2014.""
One patient got coverage after years of being denied due to a pre-existing condition. Unfortunately, when she needed a specialist, she couldn't find one that would take Obamacare plans:
She jumped at the chance in early January to visit a primary-care doctor for long-running numbness in her arm and shoulder as a result of bone spurs on her spine. The doctor referred her to a specialist, and problems ensued. At least four doctors wouldn't accept her health plan - even though the state exchange website and her insurer, Health Net Inc., list them as part of her HMO network.
"It's a phantom network," Berumen said.
We got wind of this problem early on when many California doctors complained that they were listed on the exchanges but weren't accepting patients covered under Obamacare. No one knows how their names were added to the exchanges but it must have been news to them when patients began calling and were told they were out of luck.
It's probably only a matter of time before states start passing laws that all doctors will have to treat any patient with any insurance plan that asks. This will be especially true for new Medicaid patients who are having problems finding a doctor to treat them in the big cities. They are still flocking to emergency rooms and that won't change anytime soon.
The more the people - including doctors - resist, the more coercive becomes the state."
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Larry Nelson
Social climber
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Democrat apologists are now trying to back out of responsibility for this soup sandwich. Sorry apologists, you own it all.
Both parties suck and DC is the corrupt Imperial capital.
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." - Mencken
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couchmaster
climber
pdx
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 13, 2014 - 03:23pm PT
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Interest TGT, but not really germane to the discourse. Did any of you California based Obamacare supporters sign up AND utilize the system yet?
TGT;s link text copy/pasted
" Colorado Health-Exchange Director Indicted for Fraud, Theft
By Jillian Kay Melchior
The director of Colorado’s health exchange has been placed on administrative leave after the state discovered she had been indicted for stealing from a non-profit, the Denver Post reports:
[Christa Ann] McClure, 51, pleaded not guilty Feb. 6 in federal District Court in Montana to eight counts of theft and fraud from a nonprofit housing agency in Billings.
She was indicted Jan. 16 and notified her current Denver employer, the state-sponsored health exchange, on Monday, a few days after the story broke in Montana media, Connect for Health spokesman Ben Davis said in a telephone interview.
Connect for Health performed a criminal background check and checked references before hiring McClure in March, Davis said.
“She was completely clean,” he said. Her position as executive director of Housing Montana of Billings, he said, made her well-qualified for her post as Connect for Health’s director of partner engagement — she was liaison with state and federal partners, such as Medicaid officials. The job pays $130,000 a year.
… McClure, who has not been convicted of any charges, should have informed Connect for Health much earlier of the accusations she was facing, Davis said.
McClure was released pending trial, now scheduled for June. Each of the counts in the indictment against her carry potential penalties of five, 10 or 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
The 12-page indictment alleges that, while serving as executive director of the federally funded Housing Montana, McClure, between 2008 and 2010, paid herself “significant sums” for consulting services, although she was already on the payroll as a full-time employee.
She also made payments to her family and used federal money for personal travel, to pay family bills and to buy consulting services, the indictment alleges.
She also is accused of charging homeowners for a $750 warranty that did not exist, converting a laptop for personal use, inflating the hours she was to be compensated and writing herself a $21,000 check to which she was not entitled.
The indictment did not specify the total amount she allegedly embezzled."
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couchmaster
climber
pdx
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 13, 2014 - 03:24pm PT
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opps, I take that back TGT. I catch that woman (in our state they hired them without background checks, 400 new hires) now has access to your social security, address, drivers license and all other info. Or she did until they caught her. One more reason to want to keep the .gov out of your life.
Jesus.
Sorry, I get your point it just took a moment to sink in.
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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Feb 14, 2014 - 09:03pm PT
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dirtbag
climber
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Feb 20, 2014 - 09:18pm PT
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You get to OWN this botch ALL on your own, with NO Republican involvement in it.
Ok, cool. It will be a smashing success.
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Norton
Social climber
the Wastelands
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Feb 20, 2014 - 09:27pm PT
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Ok, cool. It will be a smashing success.
it already is
ten million of our fellow Americans are now benefiting from the ACA
including our own Locker, just ask him
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
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Feb 20, 2014 - 09:34pm PT
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Crag ranted I'm NO Republican! But I find the revisionism that Obumblecare supporters now engage in to be the very "evil" you decried in YOUR post! For better or worse, the Democrats enjoy 100% of the responsibility for Obumblecare. THEY passed it during a window in time in which they could STEAMROLLER over all Republican objection, and they did so with exactly ZERO Republican support!
You can't get support from people who have only opposition on their agenda. Republicans didn't object to healthcare reform they objected to the existence of Obama.
If Obumblecare had quickly proved to be fabulous, then people like you would be crowing crap like, "See! The Democrats got your back, and the Republicans are USELESS and unable to accomplish sweepingly wonderful reforms like this! WE did this 'for you' over all of their objections!"
The fast acting portions of the law ARE fabulous. In fact Americans believe so overwhelmingly. We like having their kids on their policies until they are 26. We like that people who were locked out of the market now could get in. The rest of the law was slow by design because nobody expected an overhaul to go quickly plus Democrats were scared that if it was too quick they would lose support of the healthcare industry itself.
Maybe you don't get politics, but Dems in safe districts have happily touted the passing of the ACA from the beginning. Republicans have done a much better job selling the "Obamacare is terrible" line and it's a lot harder to explain the details of an incredibly complicated bill that changes an almost incomprehensibly complicated healthcare finance system than it is to do what you're doing right now. Republicans (and some Democrats) were just as mad about Medicaid when it was passed in the 60's but once it was passed people got on board and figured out how to make it work. That's not been the case with the ACA.
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