Mr. Obama, Time’s Up

We have now been fighting in Afghanistan longer than the Civil War, World War I and World War II combined.

It’s time to come home.

It’s a damn handshake…

At Nelson Mandela’s memorial in South Africa, President Obama – while going to his seat – shook several hands. One of those hands belonged to Raul Castro.

And, of course, republicans have gone apeshit over it. John McCain even invoked Godwin’s Law and compared it to shaking hands with Hitler.

Meet The Nominee For Entrepreneur…I Mean Surgeon General

Quick, who is the current Surgeon General of the US?

No?

He can’t get up

Okay, who was the last one you can name? Did you say C. Everett Koop? You know, the guy from those Life Alert commercials.

It’s okay – I had the same answer. Unless you’re a higher-up in the medical industry, you probably don’t keep up with the Surgeon General too much.

But what would you say if I told you there have been 13 people in that position (including those who were “acting” and weren’t nominated) since Koop retired in 1989? (To put this in perspective, from the time the position was created in 1879, there were only 12 people in that position, one of them “acting”, for the next 102 years…)

Everybody In, Nobody Out

While our news channels are letting us know whether Obama is a saint or a liar because of Obamacare (and, of course, due to your news source of choice), Vermont has done something interesting.

They became the first state to pass a single-payer universal health care law for residents.

The system will be fully operational by 2017. It will be funded by Medicare and Medicaid, federal money (ACA money given to Vermont), and – you guessed it – an increase in taxes, although the increase is currently being referred to as “slight”. Vermont residents will be able to go to any doctor in any hospital in the state totally free of chrage. No bronze or silver plans, no reinstated plans that don’t cover anything – no horse hockey.

Some say this will bankrupt the state. Some say this will lead to tons of fraud. Some say this will cause the skies to open up and rain toads down on us all. I guess we’ll find out in time.

Vermont once passed a law that put restrictions on campaign contributions. Corporate lobbyists appealed to the SCOTUS, who struck down the law. Let’s just hope they don’t do the same to this one, and let’s hope the rest of the Union looks to Vermont as an example.

Best,
Clyde O. Watson

Okay, I May Have Been Wrong. You Might Be Able To Keep Your Insurance

Recently, President Obama apologized for the whole “You can keep your insurance” debacle. In my article here, I said that he should do something about it, and I’d be willing to guess that the majority of Americans agree with me.

Well, if the move Obama now wants to go with is allowed to go through, then he’s done something about it; and I have to say, I like it.

No, You Can’t Keep Your Insurance

No, you probably can’t keep your insurance. Know why? Because insurance companies are greedy.

The first time Obama said you can keep your insurance plan was in 2009. And at the time, he was right. Then the Department of Health and Human Services (the Secretary of which is Kathleen Sebelius, former Kansas Insurance Commissioner, appointed by Obama*) changed the provision. They wrote regulations that narrowed that provision, by saying that if any part of a policy was significantly changed since that date — the deductible, co-pay, or benefits, for example — the policy would not be grandfathered.

We’re Part Of The Problem

Congress’ approval rating is, as we all pretty much know, at record lows. Real Clear Politics shows the average among polls (major news sources and other regular polling institutions) to be at 84.2% on the disapproval side. Almost 85% of Americans believe that Congress as a whole is doing a shitty job of taking care of the country and doing what they’re supposed to do: represent their constituents.

However, when those same people are polled about their individual representatives, around 60% of the people polled felt that they were doing a good job.

Do you see the problem here?

The Right Way and the Wrong Way to Oppose Obamacare

Before I get into the varying approaches, let me point out an important fact that many people seem to be overlooking:

The Marketplace Website is not Obamacare.

It’s a website built for people to access insurance. The Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) is a massive overhaul of our medical insurance system. We won’t know if it’s a success or a failure for a long while.

The launch of the Marketplace website has been pretty terrible, but it does not mean Obamacare is terrible. Obamacare hasn’t even been fully implemented, so any speculation on its success or failure is purely speculation. At best, an opponent of Obamacare could point to this website launch and say, “See? This is evidence of how badly our government handles big projects!”

That stance, though, isn’t really valid either (in my humble opinion), for two reasons:

1. The government already handles projects far bigger than Obamacare. The military, for example.
2. The people currently running our medical system (private industry) have already proven that they can’t run it either. Otherwise, Obamacare wouldn’t exist.

Now, I could (and probably will) write dozens of blogs on the pros and cons of Obamacare, but this blog is specifically about the different ways various republicans have expressed their opposition to Obamacare…

They Did It!

Hey, everybody! Congress got together long enough to get everything going again for few months! Let’s run around and celebrate, patting each other on the back like we just pulled the astronauts back from the dark side of the moon into a trajectory that’ll get them home!

Bunch of idiots. Nobody should be congratulating you on doing what you’re supposed to be doing anyway. If I work in a grocery store and manage to stock all the cereal boxes where they’re supposed to be I don’t get a pat on the back. You know why? Because it’s my job. That’s what I was hired to do.

I sincerely hope everyone remembers this come election time.

Get to know us!

Jerry here. Let me start this blog by making something totally clear:

Your Face is Politics is not a news site.

We aren’t just reporting news. This site is all about discussions of political issues. We want a free forum to respectfully discuss politics without worrying about a bunch of politically correct nonsense.

We absolutely have opinions, and we openly state those opinions. On the other hand, we promise to never give information that we know is false. We’ll call out bullshit, no matter what side of the aisle it’s coming from. We listen to any opposing viewpoints. Always. We might disagree with them (sometimes enthusiastically), but we consider every opinion. When someone disagrees with us, we consider what they have to say. We don’t just try to think of a counter-argument. We listen.