1. I have a right to refuse health care: The Deplorable Care Act.

Yeah, healthcare is a real liberty wrecker.

“A version of the ACA was tried under Romney in Massachusetts and that marks the day freedom died.”

—John Q. Republican

I vividly remember the day Romney seized power in Massachusetts in 2006. The United Nations stood idly by as the unthinkable happened. In 2007 that monstrous republican governor used radiation against his own people!  …who had cancer. The hospitals were all overflowing!  …with people seeking needed treatment. Most tried to flee the state during those dark times. The image of route 90, backed up with cars bumper-to-bumper, is still burned in my memory  …I think a Red Sox game was letting out.

The Supreme Court differs with your appraisal of the individual mandate’s Constitutionality, but I too have always been wary of this part of the ACA. But at least Mr. Obama identified an important problem. Without MAJOR reforms to our healthcare system, we were on the fast track to ruin. Currently the U.S. is ranked 37^th in the world and it’s twice as expensive as the next most costly system, or, as the republicans call it, the free market works. That makes me sick…and thanks to Obamacare I lost my doctor!

If the free market works, then you need to make it actually work. Fail long enough and we’ll have a Homeland Security sized HIPPA and Joint Commission. No, that’s not about legalization. I wish.

But your “leave me alone, I’ll pay for my own ER visits when they happen” is ridiculous. Thanks to something called data, we have found the vast majority of uninsured Americans will never pay a dime for their ER hospital visits. Oh, and the GOP’s recent counter proposal to the ACA is asinine, here.

The possibilities are:

1. We make the ACA work.

2. We come up with a viable alternative.

3. Healthcare becomes a right for all Americans.

4. Those poor peeps who won’t sign up for the ACA must sign a ‘don’t treat me’ waiver, aka, ‘the please die quietly in the lobby’ plan.

*which, oddly enough, is also my recent submission to Jan Brewer’s AZ State Motto Contest. The winner was Drink Water or Die. I get it; we live in a desert. I was geographically disadvantaged.

I’ll give you this much, Pokey, whereas most of the other 17-universal healthcare models across the globe are working reasonably well, the U.S. is no longer as competent as most countries. I also live in fear of the fascist bureaucracy that such a mega-health system will undoubtedly spawn, thus my initial hesitancy to endorse this shit. But I believe everything pales in comparison to electing a republican—operating solely from a false reality—as our president. Let’s see how Putin’s “chess” plays out and then extrapolate that to the next GOP frontrunner.

2. It is unconstitutional to force a person or business to directly violate their conscience:

The ACA’s mandated coverage of birth control is a sticky wicket, but I believe women’s rights are equally as important as our religious sensibilities. I almost wrote “freedoms” there, but that would be a stretch. I think Obama has tried to hear and respond to the concerns of the religious community and he has tried to strike a balance. The devout have an argument but, like anything else on the right, it’s a weak one.

If you start with the premise that every tax dollar collected, in this case for employee healthcare, must somehow be endorsed by those taxed before it’s allocated…uhhhh, what?

Let’s say someone drank too much and now has liver issues? My money shouldn’t go to his treatment, because I don’t even drink. And I’m not paying for Adderall because I don’t believe in ADHD. Oh, and the Bible suggests we stone homosexuals to death, not treat them, which could save the taxpayer tens of millions! Maybe each citizen should receive a report to see where the money’s going. I don’t want to pay for the next Discord’s ghost-investigation-tax-right-off, because they’re just sanctioned binge fests. Okay, you might have a point on that one.

Your approach is way more of a slippery slope than the alternative. Let’s allow adults to make their own decisions with their own doctors on their own legal healthcare options. Tell you what, we’ll even take it off your karma and your conscience….for no extra cost to you! But only if you act now! Besides, the Pope reminded everyone not to get too hung up on the whole contraception thing. And don’t you report to him?

Or:

You really got a learn Photoshop, Poke.

3. As the federal government grows in power and scope, our individual liberties shrink.

Our liberties markedly shrank in the aftermath of 9/11. I seem to remember being opposed to that. But, sorry, some of them aren’t coming back.

Fun Fact:

Most Americans polled choose security over personal freedoms.

And thus far we’re losing the NSA battle. Your totalitarian watch is crucial, but once again the GOP has proved a distraction. They were reluctant, for years, to even run the NSA scandal (the only substantial Obama scandal), because they know they created the problem. Their listeners don’t, of course, but what’s new? So instead, the right just invents stuff. Most of the real reporting on the NSA is occurring on the left, but, again, Glenn Greenwald is the guy to watch.

Even the Republican Speaker of the House recently admitted the “think tanks” on the right have “lost all credibility”. If 9 out of 10 things covered by the right wing media is drivel, Obama will continue to dismiss everything they say, even the real shit. Fox News is an actual scandal’s best friend. Fox and Frauds? This is precisely why, without republican reform, we’re in big trouble. Well, I would prefer a new party at this point. Transcosmetic anyone?

4. Joseph Stalin has infiltrated the U.S. and turned our country into an amoral wasteland.

I’m afraid we’re moving into the age of atheism. I am not an atheist, but I believe if it is done correctly, it sure beats Huckabee. As per many societal models (Beck, Cowan, Graves, et al.), all cultures inevitably move toward liberalism, but whether it’s a hedonistic breakdown in morals or a natural evolutionary step for any given society will depend on how a country makes such a transition. Whether the U.S. becomes Nirvana or Newark hinges on having two healthy political parties. This has been my battle cry. Currently we have one ship listing to port and the other is currently resting at a depth below a certain Boeing 777. As usual, the republicans have mistaken the forest for the tree huggers.