whocoodanode

The Rube Goldberg aspects as they pertain to employers are some of the most bizarre and underappreciated (naturally, of course, since most people not involved in business generally and HR in particular have no working knowledge of the spectacular level of idiocy and waste involved).

Of course, it’s difficult to design a sensible system when the premise itself – employer provided health insurance – is flawed.

DSWright, is it passe to call you a professional leftist?

Why are you being so mean to the good hearted people at Think Progress? They know life is complicated and Obama is doing his best.

Agree the deficit fetishists should be simultaneously mocked and ignored.

However, I think touting CBO projections is actually quite dangerous, because what they do is extrapolate current trends. That’s valuable for knowing where things are headed at current rates, but it hides the fact that current conditions can’t continue. We simply are on an unsustainable trajectory.

There are huge problems in the financial sector (evidenced by the fact that the banksters are unjailable, the Fed can’t remove the ‘emergency’ backstops, and virtually all lending is backed by the government – student loans, home mortgages, auto industry). When the other shoe drops, it is going to require either significant further bailouts or a change in policy from bailouts to something else. Either way, deficit projections are irrelevant and the ‘better economy’ little more than a mirage, a kicking the can of problems rather than solving them.

Thanks for the reply. Now I know it is unintentional humor, which is even funnier.

What do the number of faux teabaggers in Congress have to do with the devil-in-the-details mess that is PPACA?

I don’t think ObamaCare is the end of the world. I think it’s irrelevant. We had major healthcare problems before passage, and we have the exact same major problems after passage.

Plus some specific new inefficiencies to ridicule.

For the love of all that is good on this planet, please, please tell me that is snarkalicious? That is just too funny. 2007 called, they want their Obama memes back.

This really is the trifecta. 1) Expansion of healthcare in the 1960s wasn’t anything significant (remember when Obama was pushing the greatest health reform since the 1930s, nevermind that whole Medicare thingy?), 2) Icky Edwards and Screamin’ Dean! Run!, 3) Obama tried, really…it was all the GOP/Congress’ fault…neverimnd that it was Obama that pushed back against every option brought up by Democrats, from the 2008 party platform to healthcare specifics in the primaries to all options on the table but single payer rhetoric as President. I mean, he even went on national TV and said abortion isn’t a healthcare issue.

But poor ‘ole Barry. Just doing his best, but screwed by Democrats, the GOP, and the whole gosh darn world that just won’t be as progressive as he deep down wants to be. He doesn’t want to advocate corporatist policies that run directly counter to the desires of the citizenry…Boehner makes him.

Oh yeah, I forgot it was AP that broke the NYPD spying stuff! Kevin, you will never run out of material.

Great title Jon.

It is very difficult to discuss the hilarity that is PPACA/ObamaCare without serious snark.

This is a fascinating story. At once disgusting assault on the Constitution. Yet, simultaneously, just another assault on the Constitution. I assume that the White House has authorized spying on journalists, just as I assume the White House has authorized abuse of prisoners and protecting financial crooks and war criminals from prosecution.

It’s like, Earth to AP, the Constitution is under assault. Please, like, do some reportin’ on it! (Or if you’re on their team, stop complainin’ and just cash your checks already.)

sweet

Thanks for the update. This story just keeps getting weirder and more disgusting.

But I think that’s actually good news. It is flushing out these kinds of faux leadership structures into the light of day that is really important to actually changing anything.

Thanks!

@newcarguy: hopefully they weren’t past their expiration date

You’re being optimistic. You’re assuming that exchanges will be up and running next year :)

Well said.

I remember finding the campaign meme about being a Constitutional lawyer particularly hilarious. What the beliefs were that he held about the Constitution were, of course, irrelevant. The point was, he had them!

Democrats owe George Bush so many apologies it is difficult to keep track of ‘em all.

That was such a fun management case study. If you run a small-time fraud, you have to remember that you are ultimately dependent upon keeping up appearances and maintaining some bit of credibility to keep the money train rolling.

Only the really Big Time fish can so flagrantly flaunt their fiefdoms.

Thanks for highlighting this. I am amazed at how little appreciation there seems to be amongst larger Democratic circles for just how bad things are.

It’s like pointing out reality has become too pessimistic to say out loud.

Right on, transparency is the key. Everybody makes mistakes. It’s when you don’t want people to know how you reach your conclusions that there is a problem.

yes, yes, we know, millennials are stoopid and lazy and horrible and terrible and no good and very bad and why can’t they buy my house for the price I’m asking!

jerks

/sarc

You reject BLS stats as a way to refute a critique of the Obama Administration? That is some powerful stuff you’re smoking (or you’re not understanding my point – the employment situation for working age adults is horrible beyond description, partly because the Obama Administration doesn’t want the situation described accurately).

What data do we have other than the data collected by the government? As flawed as public data is, there is no private data on the economy that remotely covers what the BLS, Fed, Census Bureau, and others report on things like employment, wages, and net worth. And that data is clear: older households are doing significantly less bad than younger ones.

More to the point, what data do you have that shows the 55+ demo is uniquely hard hit over the past five years? Why is this about comparing ages, particularly when, if you’re going to enter that debate, the data shows that the 55+ crowd is doing relatively better.

The logic behind the pledge is about “starving the beast.”

Isn’t the logic to undermine progressive taxation? I don’t think we’ve seen any evidence that the GOP leadership in DC wants to shrink government.

They love government helping their buddies and ruling the little people.