Don’t rub your eyes. That really is Cruz’s name in the Yea column with all the other 99 members of the Senate who voted for Harry Reid’s cloture motion. After speaking for 22 hours, and after having repeatedly argued that a vote for cloture was a vote to fund ObamaCare, Ted Cruz was too embarrassed to actually vote against funding ObamaCare. He thought he could shield his failure by voting for it. I guess his pal, Mike Lee, figured the same thing.
I think we have just witnessed the new Guinness Book of World Records official winner for jackass.
And people think Cruz is a genius, why?
And no .. I don’t give a crap he argued cases before the Supreme Court, especially if Roberts was on the bench at the time. We know that the Chamber of Commerce is going to get what ever it wants before arguments are even made.
Well, up until he voted for cloture himself, I’d have said what he did was pretty damn smart if his goal was to accumulate the names of future supporters.
But after this move, I’m kind of flummoxed.
You can’t tell people stopping Obamacare is the most important thing on the planet, and then vote for it to proceed.
Ya look like a schmuck!
ROFLMAO!!!
After that strutting and preening Texas cow-patties 21+ hour faux-filibuster, the Senate just voted.
100 to 0, FOR CLOTURE!!!
Even the Cruz-ader voted for cloture!
WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
Jesus H. F*cking Keerist!!!’
You can’t make sh*t like this, up!!!
If Monty F*cking Python was an American comedy troupe specializing in politics, they couldn’t have dreamed up this farce while high on blotter acid, hashish, tequila, meth, and peyote!!!!!
If Salvador Dali wasn’t dead, I think we would ask him to do a painting of this vote taking place!
100 to 0!
LOL!
.
I DO. NOT. GET. IT.
The fool stood up an yammered for 21 straight hours about how the Senate ought to stop this, but he wasn’t willing to be the sole No vote?
Cue the calliope.
Story time:
Republican staffer for a Republican congressman I know: “I can’t afford this $2200 a year in fucking premiums!”
points her to subsidy calculator
“Wait it will only cost me $340 a year with subsidies?” (Bronze plan)
And boom goes the dynamite. I know these Bagger congress peope are useless, but aren’t staffers supposed to know what’s real and what’s fake?
Bronze Plan is garbage. How many low wage workers can afford a $5000 deductible. I make a little over the median wage and I couldn’t afford a $5,000 deductible for my car much less my body.
Looking at that chart (from deep Blue California) Bronze and Silver are catastrophic plans for young yuppies that can put money into a Medical savings Plan.. Gold and Platinum are the only plans worth anything. Gold if you don’t need prescription drugs, Platinum if you do. No wonder the Unions are screaming. It’s fake pseudo-insurance. Expanded Medicaid is the only good part of the law and the federal government should pay 100% instead of 90% so the neo-Confederates can’t drop out.
A five thousand dollar deductible is rough, but a maximum out-of-pocket of $12,700 makes it a lot easier to stomach. You are insuring yourself against life-long financial ruin. You can pay back $12,700, even if it takes you a few years to pull it off. You may never be able to pay back the full cost of an extended hospital stay or major surgery.
It also gets you in the door and gets you the pre-negotiated prices.
This, this, this.
Medical providers will typically charge you about 3 times a fair negotiated price. Having any insurance whatsoever is effectively covering 65% of your bill with no deductable because it stops the provider from shafting you. This makes all the plans a fantastic deal regardless of the official deductibles or coverage rates.
It’s also four months net pay for a minimum wage worker. So poor people won’t go see the doctor until they are in extreme pain or can’t get up. Just like now.
Well, not really.
I mean, a preventative visit to the doctor for a physical is free under the bronze plan. And you get three primary care visits a year at $60 a pop.
Yeah, seeing a specialist is a problem, but you can keep up with your health with a bronze plan as long as you don’t come down with something serious.
What about the %5,000 deductible? Deductibles have to be paid before anything.
No, not before preventative care visits or your 3 primary care visits. Those are not subject to the deductible,
I’m talking about curative care, not preventative care. Pregnancy, accidents, disease. Like the guy at work who complained about a sore throat, turns out he has throat cancer. Pay the first $5,000 for radiation and chemotherapy? Well, he can afford it, but I’m talking about people who make half or a fourth what we do. I’m thinking specifically about people like my daughter who doesn’t have a pot to piss in. Income of $4,000 a year.
but we’re also talking about the difference of having no insurance and having a big chunk paid for
Before that person with throat cancer would either die because they wouldn’t get care or would be totally wiped out with the large expense.
It might not cover everything, but it will give them a fighting chance where they had none before.
No, I’m talking about the difference between Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. IMHO, only Platinum is comparable to the employer based group policies that I have been a member of. That has been about half a dozen insurance companies and many different companies.
I get that, but people that have employer plans cannot be on the exchange anyway so why even compare. Really should be compared to what was on the private market beforehand for those few who could afford it and the fact the rest never had insurance at all.
Comparing to employer plans is like apples & oranges since many employers heavily subsidizes their plans as a benefit to their employees, for example my company pays about 60% of the total cost.
Yes, the Postal Service does the same, however the Postmaster-General is lobbying Congress to remove us from Federal Employee Health Benefits and put us in his crappy pet HMO. Daryl Issa backs this.
IMO, what EVERYONE should get is Medicaid. No co-pays, no deductibles.
Single Payer is going to eventually happen. The decoupling of insurance from work is the first step.
Agreed, but unfortunately a lot of people (including ME!) are going to be stepped on in the process.
comment by JAPA over at TOD:
The most important thing is the $12,700 maximum annual out-of-pocket expense that you get with any plan. The Platinum is $8,000.
That’s really what insurance is about. It’s not about keeping your costs low, it’s about preventing them from being ruinous.
If you are twenty-seven and in good health, you’re not worried about prescription drugs or co-pays for office visits. You just don’t want to be ruined if you fall off a ladder and break your neck or you get into a car accident or have some skiing accident. The $12,700 maximum annual out-of-pocket expense gives you that peace of mind.
If you have more health needs, then a better plan is a good idea. I think the Gold Plan is the way to go if you can afford it.
Like I said Gold if you don’t take many drugs, Platinum if you do.
I know you’re trying to throw an anvil, and he is indeed a jackass who voted out of both sides of his ass since he should have voted against it today after the showboat, but you’ve been all about senate procedure lately so…
…to clarify, he’s cloturing to begin debate, has nothing to do with whether debate will be allowed to end.
Also it’s interesting, everyone hates Cruz story of his life. But everyone also says he is very very smart.
He is a stupid person’s idea of a smart person (2.0).
Them’s his peeps – and the only audience he’s playing to.
He could (and probably will) make up some bullshit about his cloture vote, and they will swallow it whole.
Maybe even the FerengiMediaTM with them. FSM knows they’ve been imbecilic about everything else.
But for now, yes, let us make with the laughs.
Read Josh Marshall’s investigation, his wife and the rest of the class at Harvard all found him repellent but very smart. He makes the point that a class full of Harvard assholes found him to be an incredible asshole so that tells you how much of an asshole.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/me-ted
People underestimating his intelligence is what got him to this point.
I just don’t get it! https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mokoolapps.flowerspuzzles