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I have no desire to dig through the numbers but it seems to me the two differing numbers are apples and oranges. The number of people uninsured include people not 18 and older.
Oh, please. The Republicans were offered numerous chances to have input into the process. In fact, much of the ACA is a compromise to Republican ideas. From The Economist:
The majority of the plan is a Republican idea, one that had widespread GOP support as an alternative to the universal healthcare Bill and Hillary wanted to implement in the '90s. So in an attempt to get the GOP on board, the Democrats moved away from single payer to a model that they believed the Republicans would support, because it was their idea to begin with.
You can't get much more of a compromise than to agree to go with the opposition's model. Heck, one of their perennial presidential candidates had even successfully implemented it in his state. Why wouldn't they believe the GOP would support their own plan?
But when put forth by a Democratic president a decade later, suddenly it was SOCIALISM!!
Why? Because the GOP was focused on one thing and one thing only, fulfilling Mitch McConnell's declaration that the Republicans' main priority was to see that Obama was a one term president.
That, my friend, is the very definition of adolescent behavior.
Thanks.
Let's get past the stupid name-calling games, shall we?
The fact is that Obamacare was passed with zero Republican votes. Joseph Cao (R, LA) was the lone GOP member to initially support it, but even he reversed course after he found out that his district was going to get screwed in the deal.
The fact is also that Obamacare was shoved through with no GOP input:
There was a path to bipartisan reform, but Democrats rejected it
Hence, a bipartisan health-care agenda at the federal level will necessarily look quite different than one at the state level. If liberals had bothered to ask, they could easily have elicited bipartisan support for a proposal that did the following: (1) set up the Obamacare exchanges for those under 400% of FPL; (2) applied the Ryan reforms to Medicare and Medicaid (or, alternatively, folded in Medicare and Medicaid acute-care into the PPACA exchanges); (3) equalized the tax treatment of employer-sponsored and individually-purchased insurance; and (4) not increase taxes or the deficit.
But they didn’t. The Democratically-controlled House passed its plan in 2009 with nearly zero Republican input
If Democrats had any interest in a bi-partisan bill they would not have had to resort to parliamentary trickery to get it passed. Previous sea change legislation always had at least some bipartisan input and support, including Medicare, Social Security, and yes, Medicare Part D.
Obamacare was the first sea change legislation to pass with zero bipartisanship. Is it adolescent? Prolly not. Adolescents that I know can work together better than that.
Just more proof that the two parties are just different sides to the same coin. Faux opposition is what we saw. Just enough to make us think that they (Republicans) actually were going to do something about the Obamacare disaster. The reality is that they answer to the same corporate interests as the democrats, neither answer to the people.
I said that when Obamacare came out, it was here to stay, because it was already bought and paid for as a stealth bailout for the Crony Fascist Insurance Industry.
Pharma and Insurance are at the very top of the Lobby Chain
Top Lobbying Industries
Pharmaceuticals/Health Products $3,036,664,697
Insurance $2,115,888,177
Republicans are as much Crony Capitalists as Democrats and don't want to disappoint their crony donors in those Industries that donate to them heavily as well.
There are no True Market Prices for goods and labor for many things in this country when it is rigged at the government level to enrich Fascists at the majority of Americans expense.
That is where the real theft is taking place in this country.
Oh, please. The Republicans were offered numerous chances to have input into the process. In fact, much of the ACA is a compromise to Republican ideas. From The Economist:
They publicized the conference where Obama met with Republicans over healthcare and shut down 100% of their suggestions and questions. The ACA was then designed in closed sessions with zero Republicans in attendance. Your assertion that Republicans were offered numerous chances to have input into the process is an out and out lie.
You take a Heritage Foundation theoretical white paper from over 20 years ago that was later declared unconstitutional by the same organization that produced the paper, pass a 2,000 page law that includes a few ideas from that white paper, and declare it's a "compromise to Republican ideas"? Again, that assertion is an out and out lie.
Next time, try and produce something that's at least remotely credible.
I think the penalties will be scaled back by huge amounts.
I wonder how long it'll take before people start to moan that their $3500 in refunds was wiped out due to the ACA tax.
Eventually Crony Capitalists utilizing government to bail out their banks and insurance industry, plus using Communist labor run out of other peoples money - The American Consumer
Remember that Obama's chief of staff in March 2010 when Obamacare was passed and signed was still Rahm Emanuel, whose stated philosophy was "**** 'em, we have the votes."
Is that an adolescent philosophy? I don't know...probably not. It's more Mafioso IMO. Obamacare was shoved through with zero bipartisan input per Rahm, and 8 months later Dems took their 2010 "shellacking" and Rahm fled the scene to run for Chicago Mayor.
Five years later, Obamacare is the gift that keeps giving for the GOP.
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