As the week begins, it’s likely that the individual mandate will gain attention as a “compromise” by Democrats and a means of saving face for Republicans. But is the individual mandate what’s ailing Obamacare? I don’t think so.
This week Washington remained center-stage in Obamacare. In postings entitled, “Military Entitlements: Can’t Touch This,” “Obamacare: Dangerously Old-Fashioned,” and “’Movements’ and Obamacare,” this blog discussed all things Washington-World, the isolated world of politics that is so large and so insulated that Washington is a subculture of America.
Again, I’m not against the Military, but for heaven’s sake, Veterans benefits are an enormous entitlement never referred to as “entitlement,” with a presumption that somehow those benefits are more “earned” as opposed to Medicare which is also earned. This is not merely a product of scarcity, it’s a problem of hypocrisy.
In “Obamacare: Dangerously Old-Fashioned,” this blog considered the evidence that Obamacare is merely a tool, another layer of data gathering on a national level rather than a truly innovative approach to problems in the healthcare industry, leaving the biggest challenge of US healthcare, capping expenses by limiting what can be charged for medical treatment unchallenged in every sphere but that of Medicare, which likely will raise the expenses for medical care elsewhere as providers even out their incomes.
In “‘Movements’ and Obamacare,” I encouraged the Tea Party to wind down rather than sink chances of a viable Republican party moving forward.
This week’s summary for Obamacare: We as consumers must remain involved with our representatives in government and remind them that Washington-World is supposed to be a reflection of the rest of the United States experience, not an increasingly isolated enclave of individuals who believe they are entitled to ignore those who put them in office and those who pay their bills.
As you listen to all the endless chatter, ask yourselves why Obamacare is NOT being applied to Federal world, (see, “We Pay for Obamacare and Congress,” August 6, 2013). As you listen to all the endless chatter ask yourselves why the unemployed are excluded from eligibility for health exchange participation if the goal is to preserve access to healthcare through the product of insurance. Further, consider why a comparatively “little” thing like the individual mandate is the “issue,” after all, it promises to cost comparatively little for individuals who opt out of insurance. Could it be a red herring? I believe so.
This week look for the path to peace in Washington World which is likely going to ignore, marginalize and dig further into the rest of the world of American citizens, because the emerging evidence suggests that Washington-World is a rogue subculture of civil servants put in office by us, paid by us but working for themselves.
If there is one blatant area of agreement in Washington-World it is that it will preserve itself at the expense of the American people. If Republicans want to turn back the clock and Democrats want to move forward, it’s time to recapture the idea of representative government, not a government that is running its own enclave of existence apart from the people it represents.
