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One “fact” concerning Obamacare seems to go unchallenged, even at “fair and balanced” Fox News.
The myth, repeated by every Unaffordable Care Act (UCA) apologist is, specifically, as Arthur Delaney writes at the Huffington Post Web site, “Big problems are not unusual for big, new programs.” He means big government programs, like Obamacare, where “the technology involved may be different, but previous expansions of the safety net have all suffered glitches. Even Social Security, the first and arguably the most successful federal social program, faced serious challenges before the first monthly retirement checks went out in 1940.”
He details some of those difficulties, primarily differentiating between many Americans with the same name, like Joe Smith, John Jones or Sally Mankowitz. Even more confusing, none of them had Social Security numbers.
Yet, the bureaucrats prevailed to where “Social Security's supporters today describe it as one of the most successful social programs in the world.”
I agree. They do.
Proponents of big-government wealth distribution programs find it easy to ignore the impending implosions of those Ponzi schemes, as well as the deleterious effects they have on the economy.
So is that true that today’s glitches are similar? The real problems with Social Security developed years later, when it was revealed to be ill-conceived and shakily financed. The first recipients got a great deal, while everyone else was paying a 2% tax (falsely represented as a premium) to provide stipends to people over 65 whom, at the time, were considered lucky to have survived to that age.
None of the government programs cited by UCA apologists replaced an existing infrastructure. Social Security did not abolish pensions, which you could keep, so millions of persons did not lose their pensions. The promise of Obamacare was that you could keep your insurance and your doctor because it would only affect thirty million or so Americans with no insurance. That was false. Now, it seems likely that more persons will lose their health insurance than will acquire it, as the government makes intrusive, arbitrary decisions regarding what existing policies must cover.
All of the programs cited preceded the computer age, when the Web made it easier, and faster, to transact business — at least until Obamacare. If you had a problem with Social Security in 1941, you wouldn’t even get transferred to voicemail, you could talk to a real bureaucrat.
Social Security was a fairly straightforward gimmick until subsequent Administrations tacked on additional complications, like Disability. Nothing to date approached the convoluted, ever-transforming maze of Obamacare.
With earlier government programs like Social Security, there was some consensus that they might be worthwhile; they weren’t forced on over half the population who opposed them. Politicians understood the legislation because they had read it. And you didn’t have to do anything if you were against them, just not file for the “benefits” and consider the costs camouflaged tax increases, which they were.
No one lost much, except for economic freedom. Even FDR didn’t have the arrogance to tell you your existing pension isn’t good enough, so T.S. it’s canceled!
— 8 Dec 2013
Presidents sometimes lie.
Obama lies constantly.
About everything.
