Monday, October 28, 2013

Broken News - And A Hope n' Change Puzzle!


READERS: Just for fun, here's the current headline from Drudge Report. Beneath that, you'll find the Hope n' Change cartoon and commentary, full of nutritious facts and snark - just like always...

 
But (and here's where the puzzle comes in), there's something just a bit unusual about the cartoon and commentary. Can you figure out what it is without peeking at the bottom on this page...?   -Stilton

obama, obama jokes, cartoon, dinosaurs, obamacare, insurance, keep, conservative, tea party, stilton jarlsberg, psychic

When Barack Obama speaks, he usually uses language which is so vague, obscure, misleading, and ambiguous that when he actually says something that is 100% clear, we can be sure of one thing: he's lying.

As a case in point, the president ramrodded Obamacare by repeatedly promising the American public "If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what."

Well gosh - that certainly seems clear, direct, and hard to misinterpret!

But according to a new report from the Treasury Department, under Obamacare the majority of employer-insured Americans won't be able to keep their current health care plans. Period. No matter what.

Up to 90 million Americans will be forced by the government to purchase more expensive health plans, whether they want them or not. And up to 80% of small businesses will have to scrap their current healthcare plans...and choose between purchasing more expensive government-designed plans, or simply cancelling employee insurance altogether and paying a less-expensive fine.

Of course, the only real news here is that it's now the government confirming all the dire things that conservatives had been warning about in the many months preceding the passage of Obamacare.

But seeing an approaching asteroid isn't the same thing as stopping it.


PUZZLE SOLUTION (Scroll Down)...

(more)


(more)


(more)


(more)


(more)


(more)

Okay,  the unusual quality about the cartoon and commentary above is that I published them on June 13, 2010...over three freaking years ago (under the title "Details, Details"). That's how long people who've paid attention to non-mainstream (but entirely legitimate) news sources have known that the government itself was predicting millions of people would lose their healthcare insurance. But did anyone listen to us? NooOOoooo! (By the way, the original post included a link to an article detailing the Treasury report, but I've removed it since the page was no longer active.)

Hope n' Change wishes we could take credit for having great insight or a supernatural ability to predict the future, but the truth is far more humdrum...and one helluva lot more depressing.  Per the commentary above, it wasn't hard for us to see the asteroid hurtling our way...but we were powerless to stop it (at least in part because the Obama administration conspired with the IRS to make sure that the Tea Party couldn't organize voters for the last round of elections).

Hmm. When we decided to post this little "blast from the past," we thought it would be sort of amusing. But on reflection, it just makes us tired and sad. And damned angry.

25 comments:

George in Houtx said...

BUT, in their infinite wisdom (/sarc),I will now have to purchase insurance covering birth control, pregnancy, pediatrics , and all that other good stuff. this in spite of the fact that I am 59 , single/divorced , male , with ALL of my kids over the age of 30!

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

@George in Houtx- Yeah, that's pretty much the story we're now hearing from the Obama apologists: Sure you lost your old insurance and sure you'll pay a lot more - but it's much better insurance because it covers so many things which you'll never need! And besides, some sucker will get stuck paying the subsidies for your policy - unless, of course, you're the sucker getting jammed to fund members of the entitlement club.

Anonymous said...

The housing mortgage crisis of health insurance.........

Grumpy Curmudgeon said...

@Stilton: What's worse is that according to the article (and The Kelly Files), the administration knew of this in 2010, yet he campaigned (ceaselessly as usual) with the 'you can keep... mantra. Lying by the President is an impeachable offense, but for reasons stated previously, nothing will be done until we get a Republican majority in the Senate. Of course, it wasn't in the newspaper, so he didn't know anything about it - but I bet my bippy, Valerie knew. It's interesting that HHS grandfathered the policies to get the bill passed, then wrote regulations decimating the grandfathered policies.

The newest mantra from the administration that doesn't do anything wrong is "It's those nasty insurance companies that are raising the premiums, not the fault of Obamacare". Point 1) when you add in all the additional services, premiums are gonna go up, and 2) when you have to cover all the ones who were in the high risk pools, premiums are gonna go up.

Another point that hasn't come up yet - when these people actually go and try to use their newly purchased Obamacare policies, there are now a myriad of checks that must be made before the companies can authorize and pay for a service, i.e., has the premium been paid, immigration status, what are the policy exclusions, etc. This adds additional delays in processing payments to the doctors/hospitals so that more and more are requiring that you pay the co-pay up front, and worse, unless it's an emergency, the procedure will have to be pre-certified so they can be assured of being paid.

Fish Out of Water said...

While gloat and shock/outrage come to mind, I would think it better to shudder in fear as the end game of Obamacare is to eradicate private health insurance as we know it and force all the sheepeople into a government-run program.

Death panels he we come.

Colby said...

@Stilton,
Congrats on being WAAAAY ahead of the curve again; if only the lemmings were paying attention! I spotted the 2010 date on the cartoon pretty quickly, but you DID drop some strong hints, so I’m not patting myself on the back much. If I was a lib, I’d expect some kind of trophy or award, though.

Question (probably rhetorical)… When the hell is o’buttma going to be held accountable for something; anything? He gets more passes than a ’59 VW bus going uphill on I-95. Those of you who have ever driven this 36 horsepower box will know what I mean. I keep thinking “This one will stick!” but it never does. He makes the Teflon Don look like flypaper. BUT…. Is there maybe the slightest glimmer of hope? When I clicked on the Drudge link, what did my eyes behold? My eyes beheld a big fat NBC logo. What?! NBC reporting an o’buttma lie? Can it be? Not getting my hopes up here; been dashed too many times… but I can dream, can’t I?

@Grumpy,
I really enjoyed watching Megyn Kelly last night; she got pretty animated (pissed) about the lying-ass president. And don’t you just love the latest crop of o’buttma minions who are trying the sell the, “Sure your insurance got cancelled, but now you can SIGN UP and get BETTER insurance for LESS money!” Riiiigghht…. Three lies in one shot. You can’t sign up, the insurance sucks, and it costs double. Snake oil…

The company I work for is having the annual benefits meetings Thursday. I feel like I’m standing on a train track, and my foot is nailed to the tie. Might have to stop at the “coffee” store on the way home Thursday.

Bruce Bleu said...

@George in Houtx...
To paraphrase Tom Hanks in Apollo 13, "George in Houtx, YOU have a problem!" Because YOU are providing for yourself, because YOU are NOT sucking at the teat of government, YOU must be PUNISHED! Just like "affirmative action" is reverse discrimination, (and how we got lamont in the "Spite House"), the Unaffordable Careless Act is reverse SLAVERY, where the producers must provide for the slackers because those in CONTROL SAY so!

@Stilton...
"...but it's much better insurance because it ACCOMPLISHES OUR AGENDA... BWAAAA HAAAA HAAAA!" A parody of that song about Moonbeam's state, "Single Payer, Here we come, right to where Marx said we should...!"

Bruce Bleu said...

@Colby...
Kahlua IS basically COFFEE, so have yourself a Black Russian, or six.

John the Econ said...

The only surprise here is that there are still idiots out there who will be surprised. Of course the Administration knew this from day one. It was one of the primary missions of ObamaCare!

Kudos to Stilton for the time warp. Of course back then, those of us who dared point out what we saw as the pretty obvious "flaws" of ObamaCare were labeled as "right wing zealots" and "haters". It didn't take me long to figure out that these weren't "flaws", but were in fact the "features" of ObamaCare; as @Fish Out of Water says above, the real mission of ObamaCare has always been to destroy both the insurance industry and private practice in the US so that it can all be replaced with a government-run "single payer" regime. Only now are the masses starting to figure this out.

The problem now is that it's too late. The damage is done. Millions of productive Americans have lost their coverage and they are not going to get it back. As has been the plan, Government intervention is their only hope and solution.

Unfortunately, they are also getting a taste of what government-run health care is going to be like. The HealthCare.gov fiasco encapsulates everything that is and will be wrong with government-provided services It's a ill-conceived cluster%@#* designed by political and bureaucratic hacks, subcontracted out to no-bid friend-of-the-Obamas cronies who have already previously demonstrated that they have no competency managing large-scale database projects!

http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/25/michelle-obamas-princeton-classmate-is-executive-at-company-that-built-obamacare-website/

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/10/22/Obamacare-Tech-Firm-Built-Canadian-Gun-Registry

(However, if the Democrats ever do achieve their dream of requiring that all guns in the US be registered, I do hope it's outsourced to CGI!)

So finally, America is waking up to the reality that many voted for. And they're starting to get the idea that today's "virtual" waiting rooms will eventually translate to real waiting rooms. If they can't run a web site, how can they possibly run a health system for 300 million people?

But my question is: When will they start to figure out that socialized health care will not just destroy the private health care industry in the US, but the "middle class" itself?

After all, isn't that the true mission of Marxism?

FlyBoy said...

So it seems that the lame stream media is finally getting off of their lazy asses and starting to do their job. BTW, I heard on Mark Levin's show last night that apparently there are plans to TAX YOUR HEALTH BENEFITS! All Barry needs to accomplish this is a compliant congress.

Personal to Harry Reid: You said last week in an interview that Americans are "willing (and want)to pay more taxes." (http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/harry-reid-everybody-willing-pay-more-taxes_764666.html) I can tell you wholeheartedly that THIS American does NOT want any more of my paycheck going to the gubmint. Honestly, I don't know what they're putting in the water there in DC, but you need to lay off of it.

Yakko Warner said...

Well, the answer is obvious. He said if you liked your plan, you could keep it. Obviously, none of these people really liked it, they just thought they did. They'll like what they're getting as a replacement much better anyway.

PRY said...

Is all this hoopla that I am sick of hearing about on FOX anyway, could be just a huge distraction, since single-payer is the ultimate goal? Thousands will lose their insurance on Jan. 1, are they just outa luck? Does anyone think their website will be operating then? No, that may be the next step in this little dance. Gubmint run "healthcare". They can start setting up the gulags then.

David in SoCal said...

@Colby:Why wait all day?! Stop off at the store on your way IN to work! It's 5:00 somewhere.....Anytime!
@All:Fudged my rompers when I found out the 'Lame-Stream Media' featured the Messiah's lies about Unaffordable Control Tax promises. PLUS; '60(lib)Minutes' even had a segment about the lies in Benghazi. I thought I heard all the residents of Hell asking for a match this afternoon....Baby steps.

Colby said...

@BruceBleu,
Kahlua is an excellent suggestion, but that stuff is EXPENSIVE! My budget is more on the Mad Dog 20-20 level. Does anybody make paper bag wine that tastes like Kahlua?

David in SoCal,
Another excellent suggestion, but see comments above.

All,
We all were expecting it.... now the blame is being placed on the insurance companies. They are purposefully cancelling insurance policies just to make our Supreme Potentate look bad (or something). If they weren't the evil rich corporations that they are, they would offer customers the much higher cost insurance and absorb the difference. After all, they have bazillions of dollars and can afford it, but they are just greedy and evil and also secretly want to use all of us for satanic rituals and drink our blood (or something).

I hope Sebelius gets her ass handed to her today, but I know better. Too bad her interviewer won't be Trey Gowdy!

John the Econ said...

How can that be @Colby? Wasn't it that same insurance industry that signed on to support ObamaCare because they thought it would effectively force people to be their customers?

New one: Were you aware that the HealthCare.gov web site is not bound by the HIPAA or is HIPAA compliant? That's right. The Federal Government reserves the right to share any of the highly personal information you provide there with any other agency, be it the IRS, NSA, CIA, NPS, or your local dog catcher.

And another thought to consider, thanks to a letter I read in the WSJ: Democrats argue that Voter ID laws are unconstitutional simply because requiring the poor and otherwise stupid to acquire approved IDs is simply too expensive and/or difficult. If it's just plain too expensive and hard to get a simple government approved ID to vote, then how can they possibly argue that requiring that citizens acquire insurance through ObamaCare, which is astonishingly more expensive and difficult be Constitutionally acceptable?

Watching the hearings now. Hypocrites!

lineman said...

You do know the beast will never be appeased right...They will keep coming for more and more until we have nothing left...Why is it people throughout history always wait until they have no resources left before they start fighting back...They always don't start until there little hope of them winning..(Warsaw Ghetto come to mind as just one of many examples)...As soon as they passed that law to exempt themselves from this atrocity we should of been marching on Washington...They are laughing their asses off at us sheep saying the sheep will take anything...So the question is what are they coming for next and will it be enough to get us off the porch...I doubt whatever it is will be enough will will just set here and take like we have done so many times before...Baaaaa

American Cowboy said...

@John the Econ said, "Watching the hearings now. Hypocrites!"

I am trying to also. Good thing I have plenty of wet wipes and a big bucket.

American Cowboy said...

Steve Scalise (R-LA) just asked Secretary Succubus if they got the system the contractors were asked to build. She replied she couldn't accurately answer that question, and as they fixed things they would be able to know what was broken. Fhat The Wuk?
Sounds an awful lot like we have to pass it to know what is in it.
Can't people see the idiocy of these liberal/democrats?
Better go clean out the bucket and get another box of wet wipes.
These people make me ill.

Anonymous said...

I heard once on the radio that the Feds will not start cutting checks to pay claims until January 1, 2016. Reportedly that's per ObamaCare.

The physicians are not signing up until they find out how much they will be paid for their services...ie can they even afford to stay in business?

Hospitals can't take ObamaCare patients as they can't wait two years to get paid. Doctors, clinics, home health...My doc can't go more than 30 days without being paid. This means most of the healthcare industry will file bankruptcy and go out of business. Then friends of Obama - like Jeffrey Immel of GE - can come in and buy up these assets at five cents on the dollar. Then they get to run these assets and bill ObamaCare big bucks until the assets collapse due to no ongoing maintenance etc. Look for this to happen.

PRY said...

That congressgal from Tennessee is one of my favorites! Can't think of her name right now, but loved the way she treated Sebelius!

They will more than likely get their stupid website going in a few weeks, THEN people will really soil their diapers when they discover the premiums and deductibles if they make a fairly decent income! It's wealth redistribution at its finest!

JustaJeepGuy said...

I can't claim any great puzzle-solving skill, as I remembered that cartoon from 2010. I also remember that there people who knew and said then that Obamadoesn'tcare was intended to fail so "single-payer" would be more easily crammed down our throats. The fact that so many "Americans" are willing to throw away their liberty for the illusion of government-provided security is the saddest thing I've ever seen.

txGreg said...

@PRY,

Was that Ellmers you're thinking of? The one who tried to get Sebelius to explain why a single male needed maternity coverage? That one moment almost made the whole painful ordeal worth listening to...

That, and the ones trying to get her to dump her taxpayer-funded plan in order to sign up on the exchanges herself (fat chance).

Colby said...

If it was Renee' Ellmers, she's a tea partier from NC. Cool.

David in SoCal said...

@Colby: Just fill yer 'Stanley' 1qt thermos,(made in China), with 75% Mad Dog, and 25% of yer favorite Juan Valdez bean extract; and you can take that to the meeting! We all may as well get drunk and be somebody at work/play/whatever; we're all hosed no matter what. Gotta go look for housing in Canada, c-y'all later!

Bruce Bleu said...


@Colby said... "Kahlua is... EXPENSIVE!"

Well, I am El Cheapo Grande, so unless I'm in a "Duty Free" store, or the Bahamas, I don't get the Kahlua brand. It's coffee liqueur, so look for an off-brand, or look for a recipe on the "inter-web" like I did once, and make it yourself. I've got some Sabroso right now, about 1/3 price of Kahlua. Copa De Oro is cheap but too sweet.