All-purpose news and politics thread: Two Steps Beyond!(Part II)

[aja_christopher]

The fine is more about people who don't want to pay for it rather than those who can't afford to pay for it.

The heritage foundation comments were also more about presenting the bill as moderate and Republicans as intransigent for their opposition than about dismissing the left who would not have the voted for something more ambitious.

Exactly -- a large number of American voters may want universal health care but you also can't ignore the large number of voters out there who claim they don't want it.

The Republicans ran for nearly a decade on repealing the ACA and they couldn't have done that if it didn't resonate with the Republican base as a whole -- pretending as if those voters don't exist or will somehow suddenly come around to universal health care just because it's part of the "liberal" agenda is wishful thinking at it's best.

Even if it's the humane thing to do -- even if it saves us money in the long run -- many Republicans just don't want to pay for the care of others even if those programs often help them out as well.

That said, both parties seem to be equally adept at shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to governance, so here we are with chaotic policy struggles, Trump in office, and more division than ever -- the worst of all worlds.

Prior to Obama I would have argued that the solution is working with the Republicans to resolve these issues, but the last decade -- and the nomination of the represhensible Russian agent known as Donald Trump to the head of the party -- have shown me that said party needs to be voted out of existence and replaced by something that actually stays true to honest and objective fiscal and family conservative values while protecting the rights of freedoms of all American citizens equally, regardless or race, religion, sexuality or gender.

If snakes keep crawling out of a pit you don't deal with the snakes one by one -- you take out the pit itself.