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Monday, September 23, 2013

Sham Scams of the GOP

GOP surrogates are spinning efforts to enroll younger, healthier folks in ACA as some kind of a scam, rather than an application of the enabling risk distribution inherent in all insurance. Of course, Republicans think lots of things are scams that are not: Evolution, global warming, family planning, safety regulation, macroeconomics. It should go without saying that even if the healthcare costs of older Americans considerably outweigh those of younger people in general, it remains true that lots of young people get sick and have accidents and need healthcare support. It is hard to imagine anything more irresponsible than public officials systematically exploiting the irrational feelings of young people that they are invulnerable when they are not, the better to expose millions of young citizens to greater risk of catastrophe for no reason. Or at any rate it would be hard to imagine anything more irresponsible, I suppose, if we had not just witnessed Republicans voting to ensure millions of their own suffering constituents go hungry without access to the Food Stamps program that is one of the most effective welfare programs in existence, were we not observing Republicans trying to shut the government down and threatening to default on the debt, had Republicans not monolithically rejected common sense gun safety regulations supported by overwhelming majorities of Americans, had Republicans not shut down the American Jobs Act in the face of nearly a decade long unemployment crisis, and on and on and on.

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