• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s a doggy dog world.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Come on, man.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Bark louder, little dog.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

White supremacy is terrorism.

As long as McCarthy is Speaker, the House will never be in order.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

It’s easier to kill a dangerous animal than a man who just happens to have different thoughts/values than one’s own.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

“In the name of Zandar, I will fight the Stupid!”

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Mobile Menu

  • Four Directions Montana
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • War in Ukraine
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • 2021-22 Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Politics / Crazification Factor / Getting Another One Past The Goalie

Getting Another One Past The Goalie

by Zandar|  November 14, 201110:00 am| 19 Comments

This post is in: Crazification Factor, Bring on the Brawndo!, hoocoodanode, Our Failed Political Establishment

FacebookTweetEmail

Fresh off his success getting Congress to pass legislation to help find jobs for returning Iraq and Afghanistan vets, the next stage in President Obama’s push for jobs bill is a similar $1 billion measure to hire, train, and deploy healthcare workers.

The Obama administration will announce Monday as much as $1 billion in funding to hire, train and deploy health-care workers, part of the White House’s broader “We Can’t Wait” agenda to bolster the economy after President Obama’s jobs bill stalled in Congress.

Grants can go to doctors, community groups, local government and other organizations that work with patients in federal health-care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. The funds are for experimenting with different ways to expand the health-care workforce while reducing the cost of delivering care. There will be an emphasis on speed, with new programs expected to be running within six months of funding.

“This will open the inbox for many innovators and organizations that have an idea to bring to the table,” Don Berwick, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said in an interview. “We’re seeking innovators, organizations and leaders that have an idea to bring into further testing.”

On the surface, this seems like exactly the kind of program Republicans want in their approach to health care: venture capitalism for the doctors, hospitals, and medical device corporations to find better real-world solutions to lower Medicare and Medicaid costs.   The reality is I fully expect Republicans to scream “Obamacare!” and unanimously vote against it because they are fully in the grip of The Crazy.

The fact of the matter is after Friday’s Senate vote to approve a jobs measure for veterans, the Tea Party will expect their wishes to be heeded on this, and you should expect to see a number of Republicans dismiss the measure as part of the President’s evil death panel machine or whatever.

It would be outstanding if I’m wrong on this preemptive hoocodanode, but I don’t think I will be.  All that matters to the GOP is that Obama must be defeated so they can repeal this “horrible assault on our liberty” so we can die from not being able to afford healthcare like the Founding Fathers wanted, then turn around and pass the same legislation with the word “Freedom” in the title.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Watching the Detectives
Next Post: Balloon Juice meet up success! »

Reader Interactions

19Comments

  1. 1.

    Josie

    November 14, 2011 at 10:18 am

    I may not be reading the article correctly, but it sounds to me as though this is an administrative initiative and won’t need congress’ approval. That won’t, however, keep them from screeching about the expense and the abuse of power, etc.

  2. 2.

    imonlylurking

    November 14, 2011 at 10:19 am

    Interesting timing.

    I’ve been seeing more and more stories in the local paper about attempts to revise health care delivery.

    This one is from today’s paper.

    There was another story a few months ago-I’ll have to see if I can dig out the link-about using group doctor visits to manage chronic health conditions, like diabetes and asthma. That one was amusing-the doctor tapped to manage these group visits was really opposed, he thought it would fail miserably, and now he’s their biggest fan. (The clinic network saw visits decline by 30%, I think.)

  3. 3.

    4tehlulz

    November 14, 2011 at 10:22 am

    OH BOY HERE WE GO

    Setting the stage for a historic constitutional confrontation over federal power, the Supreme Court on Monday granted three separate cases on the constitutionality of the new federal health care law, and set aside 5 1/2 hours — probably in March — for oral argument.

  4. 4.

    Michael

    November 14, 2011 at 10:40 am

    Yes, it’s administrative action not requiring congressional approval.

  5. 5.

    Frankensteinbeck

    November 14, 2011 at 10:42 am

    The SENATE passed that tiny, token jobs bill. That doesn’t hugely surprise me. The GOP senate are assholes, but they’re sane. Rand Paul’s the only tea partier who won a senate seat. The question for every bill has always been ‘Will it pass the howler monkeys in the GOP House?’

  6. 6.

    Judas Escargot

    November 14, 2011 at 10:43 am

    @4tehlulz:

    Liberals need to be ready for the outcome.

    If it turns out that SCOTUS is seriously willing to throw away 75 years’ worth of decisions to get rid of the mandate… what other laws that we don’t like will suddenly become vulnerable?

  7. 7.

    burnspbesq

    November 14, 2011 at 10:43 am

    @4tehlulz:

    It’s interesting that one of the issues on which they granted cert is the Anti-Injunction Act, which gives them an opportunity to kick the can several years down the road rather than having to reach the merits in an election year.

  8. 8.

    burnspbesq

    November 14, 2011 at 10:47 am

    @Judas Escargot:

    I think you meant to say “187 years.” “Modern” Commerce Clause jurisprudence has its roots in Gibbons v. Ogden, which was decided in 1824.

  9. 9.

    Judas Escargot

    November 14, 2011 at 10:55 am

    @burnspbesq:

    Even better, then.

    The pure-abstractionist in me is intellectually curious as to what they’ll decide, and how they’ll try to argue it without unraveling all those years’ worth of decisions.

    The human in me is still horrified that half the country would cheer at the news that the 1-2 million who’ve already started to get health insurance (the under 26 year olds, etc) might just as suddenly get it stripped away from them again.

  10. 10.

    Villago Delenda Est

    November 14, 2011 at 11:18 am

    @Judas Escargot:

    Given the nature of Roberts, Scalia, Alito, and Thomas, I’d expect the entire Constitution to be tossed out the window, and an invitation issued to some Stuart pretender to take the crown of the United Colonies, providing he was militant about the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings.

  11. 11.

    The Other Bob

    November 14, 2011 at 11:39 am

    I am no lawyer or constitutional scholar, so this is just opinion, but it seems to me that if the federal government does not have the power to make this relatively small change to how we fund our health care, then is there really a point to our federal government at all?

    The confederates will have won. If we cannot fix health care, then the red states and blue states should go their separate ways. Let the south have its state’s rights and weak federal powers, but those of us who understand that in the international marketplace a state cannot provide for its people, nor can it compete against those nations who invest and educate and empower its citizens for success.
    The experiment will have failed.

    Please give me a nation, not a collections of states.

  12. 12.

    danimal

    November 14, 2011 at 12:03 pm

    All that matters to the GOP is that Obama must be defeated so they can repeal this “horrible assault on our liberty” so we can die from not being able to afford healthcare like the Founding Fathers wanted, then turn around and pass the same legislation with the word “Freedom” in the title.

    This can not be stressed enough. The GOP opposition to Obamacare is heavy on the “Obama.” These poseurs strutting around claiming that ACA is unconstitutional will suddenly figure out that it’s ok once it’s their idea. I’d call them idiots, but some of the idiots I know have a soul and a good heart, and these are qualities the GOP leaders lack.

  13. 13.

    The Moar You Know

    November 14, 2011 at 12:08 pm

    If it turns out that SCOTUS is seriously willing to throw away 75 years’ worth of decisions to get rid of the mandate… what other laws that we don’t like will suddenly become vulnerable?

    @Judas Escargot: Doesn’t matter. Liberals have this problem where they want to obey laws and precedent. Conservatives have no compunctions about freely violating either to get their goals accomplished.

    Those laws that we don’t like will remain law, and we’ll obey them like the good law-abiding liberals that we are.

  14. 14.

    Villago Delenda Est

    November 14, 2011 at 12:09 pm

    @danimal:

    These poseurs strutting around claiming that ACA is unconstitutional will suddenly figure out that it’s ok once it’s their idea.

    The supreme irony here is that it was their idea in the first place, and the basis of Romneycare, which OvenMitt announced at a press conference which was basically his “Hi, I’m Mitt, and I’m going to be your President someday” coming out party.

    Which he’s been desperately running away from ever since ACA was passed, because now all those concepts are associated with the near sheriff.

  15. 15.

    RSA

    November 14, 2011 at 1:13 pm

    Obama must be defeated so they can repeal this “horrible assault on our liberty” so we can die from not being able to afford healthcare like the Founding Fathers wanted

    On the plus side, we’ll still be able to afford the best health care available to the Founding Fathers in the late 18th century–leeches, unsterilized medical equipment, and whatever weird shit we can grow in our backyards. That’s dying with patriotism.

  16. 16.

    Perspecticus

    November 14, 2011 at 3:23 pm

    hoocodanode- no dictionary results

    That was Webster’s. Just in case, I checked Urban Dictionary…

    hoocodanode isn’t defined yet.

    I really like the word, and it’s fun to say, but what is it?

  17. 17.

    Menzies

    November 14, 2011 at 3:48 pm

    @Perspecticus:

    Phonetic rendering of “who could’ve known.” Check out the Lexicon on your right.

  18. 18.

    RalfW

    November 14, 2011 at 8:12 pm

    …pass the same legislation with the word “Freedom” in the title.

    the same legislation, with more pork/grift for profiteers, and no $$ for gubmit institutions, Zandar.

    Get with the jobsprofit program, dude.

  19. 19.

    mclaren

    November 14, 2011 at 8:24 pm

    What magnificent genius! Health care is the lowest productivity, highest-cost industry in America. So clearly we need more health care workers.

    The American medical-industrial complex is collapsing from its own corruption and monopolistic anti-competitive bribe-taking inefficiency, so clearly we need to make the American medical-industrial complex bigger.

    EPIC FAIL, Obama.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

2024 Pet Calendars!

Order 2024 Calendars

Recent Comments

  • Martin on “Just be as quiet as a mouse” (Dec 5, 2023 @ 2:51pm)
  • Martin on “Just be as quiet as a mouse” (Dec 5, 2023 @ 2:50pm)
  • Jørgen on Squishable Morning Thread: FL Dems Get It Right (Dec 5, 2023 @ 2:44pm)
  • Chris on “Just be as quiet as a mouse” (Dec 5, 2023 @ 2:41pm)
  • Soprano2 on “Just be as quiet as a mouse” (Dec 5, 2023 @ 2:40pm)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8
Virginia House Races
Four Directions: Montana

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
We All Need A Little Kindness
What Has Biden Done for You Lately?

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Cole & Friends Learn Español

Introductory Post
Cole & Friends Learn Español

Four Directions Montana

Donate

Walter’s Fund (Athenspets)

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!