3482

Poverty is of course more directly associated with a bad education than any other factor. And yet there’s nothing morally wrong with a bad education? There certainly is – for the providers. The governments of states that provide bad education should be ashamed of themselves because they are failing their citizens.

3483

Considering I know quite a few Black Republicans who think he is Satan Incarnate… yeah, not so much, I don’t think.

3484

Unless it pertains to them getting something, then they love it, as shown by any data at all involving red states and government expenditures. Red states almost universally get more from the government than they pay out to it.

3485

What makes you believe this?

All recent history points to Republicans taking their destined loss as a message that their candidate was not a real republican and that the only way to win is to put up a real republican who is further to the right. I figure eventually their candidate will go so far to the right that he will overflow and become extreme left.

3486

Yeah, they don’t learn from mistakes. They just determine their mistakes weren’t big enough.

They’ve been doing it for almost 30 years at this point.

If Trump got the nomination and lost, it would be because he was a secret liberal with ties to Hillary Clinton (a thing that is actually being floated out there right now, in case he wins the nomination).

As long as they keep winning at the state level so much they wont change. It’s their proof that America wants what they’re selling. The GOP will only start to change once they lose both houses of Congress, the Presidency, the majority of governorships and the majority of state legislatures. Considering they control almost all of that list right now, why would they back down from their gameplan which has worked so well?

Remember, this is a party that should’ve been dead in every way in 2008. They managed to not only survive, but take control of most government offices after failing so spectacularly that even their own pundits thought it would take them 20+ years to recover. Yet, they did it in TWO.

3487

That Trump is still on top of the GOP polls is just jaw-dropping. I get it, last time you had that idiot woman (what’s her name?) leading at one point, you had Cain, you had Perry, and they all fell away. But somehow Trump can be shown in a debate to have NO idea what he’s talking about (the put down by Paul on China not being a part of the agreement Trump was using as an example of how China was playing us,) he can mock a disabled person on stage, he can say how he had to struggle like the little people with a “small million dollar loan” from his dad, he can just say ANYTHING and get away with it with NO drop in the polls. It’s mind boggling. I do believe the “all Trump, all the time” coverage he gets every single day from the news and all other media really helps him. The only person I’ve seen treat him like he deserves to be treated was Morning Joe: After his “Ban alll Muslims coming in to America” comment, Trump’s obvious strategy was to talk non-stop in interviews so he didn’t get and have to answer any questions. He did it with Stephanopolous, who tried to ask a question only to have Trump talk non-stop and not allow George to get a word in, obviously pissing off Steph. However, when Trump tried that with Morning Joe, Joe said you either have to stop and take questions or you get no air time; Trump kept talking so Joe said screw you and cut to a commercial break in the middle of Trump’s talking.

I’m sure someone like Bush has to believe that if he just hangs in there, Trump will fall away when the actual primary voting occurs and then he’ll have a chance.

3488

You realize the emergency room visit have gone up under ACA not down? (as some people foolishly predicted.) Before ACA poor people were reluctant to go to the emergency room unless they really sick because they were understandably scared of being hit with a huge bill. The reality, of course, is that very few 5 and 6 digit bills were actually paid by anybody individually much less poor people. They were written down and paid collectively. ACA has resulted in a huge increase in Medicaid enrollment. So now that poor people have insurance, shockingly enough they actually go to see doctors. It’s often more convenient to go an emergency room, rather than go through the hassles of dealing with a PCP, and there is little financial incentive for them not use an emergency room.

The reason Democrat’s can’t defend ACA is it pretty much indefensible. The reason there isn’t a bigger outcry is people have finally realized that for the most part, people get insurance through employers and most of the provision that effect employers are continually delayed. It is only, folks like myself who paid individually who are really impacted.

3489

Or people who don’t get insurance through work. Or who have a preexisting condition. Or who had to opt out of insurance since they literally couldn’t afford it. Or people who had to change insurance, especially with a preexisting condition. Or people who lost their jobs, especially with a preexisting condition. Or people who have individual insurance who were deathly afraid of using it for fear of their rates going up massively.

What about someone who, before, had to change insurance, or lost employer insurance, while they were pregnant. How would that have worked out before the ACA? They’d have been fucked.

That happened to my wife.

Or someone who is self employed, and out of fear of the insurance rates, ignores a health problem rather than go see the doctor. Eventually they wind up in the hospital, nearly dies from it, and is now permanently disabled.

Yeah, her uncle did that.

So there are lots of people whose lives are positively impacted by the ACA. And, yeah, the short term there were always going to be costs to a change, no matter what that change was. What is the long term though? What of all those people getting medical treatment who would not have otherwise before? What was the cost before to letting that person get worse, dying, or becoming disabled? It’s crass to weigh the value of the life only in dollars and cents, but at some level we have to. Does those people seeking treatment now reduce the costs in the future?

That we can’t say for certain yet, it takes time for that to show up. But there is plenty to suggest that it will be cheaper in the long run.

3490

Joe Scarborough’s shut down of Trump should be emulated by everyone everywhere.

3491

I’ve worked with three health care systems, two different regions, a total of 7 hospitals since ACA, and as a part of the team that actually loads the prices associated with the charges, including level charges for the emergency visits, I question where you received your information. Of course if you look at trends in general, Healthcare costs just go up, substantially more than than inflation and that had nothing to do with ACA. It’s been doing that for a long time.

I agree that’s what they’ve been saying, and that’s what they’re doing. I still believe there are some reasonable and logical people in that party though, and that they won’t rinse and repeat the same failed strategy forever.

This exactly. When you take pieces of ACA and you ask people direct questions like… do you think someone who has a pre-existing condition should still have access to affordable health insurance and get coverage, overwhelmingly people say yes.

A lot of those cheap insurance plans people claim to miss, that was terrible insurance which they didn’t know was terrible until they wound up in the Emergency Room with a huge bill that is barely covered. They just saw the premium and got excited. Next step, I think insurance coverage needs to be simplified like credit cards were, plain English, fewer exceptions, and authorizations completely revamped.

3492

One of my FB friends was complaining that thanks to the “affordable” care act, they’ll be paying $5,000 more for health insurance in 2016. He owns his own small computer repair business. I went to the ACA website, put in their zip code, family size, and guessed at a few other things and found a gold plan for $1,000 a month. Seems like a lot to me. Were they paying $600/mo before? I don’t know. I lacked sufficient information to call him out, but the conclusion of of the FB thread was - don’t vote for Hillary.

3493

What did his original plan cover? A lot of these plans were not good insurance. People literally didn’t realize how bad their insurance was until they wound up with an ED visit, or something other than a regular office visit.

3494

O_o. You pretty much made the most solid defense of a healthcare law I can think of, in the same post…

How can you lose employment insurance while pregnant? Isn’t it illegal to fire pregnant women in the USA? If it isn’t so, that’s insane (and so sorry that happened to you, btw)…

3495

Follow the idea to the root.

Why is his position on illegal immigration popular? Why does it resonate with his base of poor white Americans?

It’s (among other reasons) because these immigrants undercut poor white Americans on the job market. They’ll do the same work for less, thus reducing wages for everyone.

Can you think of other ways to address the issue? Other than expelling illegal aliens?

I think there are at least a few ways you could appeal to these voters without calling for mass deportations.

Understanding other people requires empathy, Trump (unlike most) uses that insight for his own benefit though.

Twenty years ago, many of these people were still voting for Democrats.

Spoken like a Massachusetts man.

(And that’s a compliment)

Poor Blacks will like his stand on immigration.

3496

By basically showing all the research that shows all this is not really happening? That immigration, including illegal immigration, if linked to anything, it’s linked to raising wages and less unemployment and job creation?

Or you could show the data that we also have that shows that illegal immigrants have left the US in great numbers in the last years, so whatever the work situation is for poor people, it has nothing to do with immigration (if it has gotten worse in the last years, and immigrant have left more than came, it’s hard to claim otherwise, even if you choose to ignore scientific research).

What you definitely should not do is to pander to ignorant, factually wrong beliefs by treating them as true.

3497

I doubt there is much competition between illegal aliens and citizens. “They’re taking our jerbs” is a myth. It’s been documented in the past that new immigrants – especially illegals – work jobs that most citizens won’t even attempt. For example, many farms in southern states would be unable to produce without immigrant workers. Offshoring of domestic industrial production has cost far more jobs – good ones too – than illegal immigrants.

3498

That is absolutely not correct. You don’t have to be empathetic in order to manipulate and scam people. There are all sorts of con-artists and thieves who understand their intended targets very well as they carry out their crimes. They don’t feel for their targets at all.

3499

Well it just so happens that my wife gave birth to our son two weeks after the ACA went into effect, so we were ok.

Had that happened in another time we could have been screwed. Could you imagine trying to get insurance for someone while pregnant? Even if you could, try getting them to cover the delivery… We’d have lost our entire savings. Bye bye any hope of buying a house in the next decade.

3500

Pay enough, and I am sure citizens would attempt it. I don’t believe in the idea that there are jobs American Citizens would not work. I do believe there are jobs they will not work for the pay being offered. And the pay being offered would go up if they couldn’t find someone to fill those jobs at those minuscule wages they offer… so would prices but it’s largely a myth there jobs legal workers won’t take.

3501

They can’t take your job, but they don’t have to pay you or your insurance if you don’t enough sick days, vacation or other ways to foot that bill.