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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bread Upon The Water who wrote (230620)	9/1/2013 10:43:47 AM
From: Alex MG	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542182

Heritage Foundation Czar Jim DeMint Says Majority Of Americans Are Socialist Un-Americans For Liking Socialist Un-American Healthcare REAL AMERICANS JUST LET YOU DIE by Kaili Joy Gray Have you heard the one about how health care reform is the worst thing that ever happened to America (besides the gays, the feminists, the black dude in the White House, and birth control, obviously), and it is socialism and just like Hitler and will ruin freedom for everyone? OF COURSE YOU HAVE because it’s pretty much all Republicans have been saying for the last several years, and Jesus Harold Christ on a cruise ship are we sick of that shit. But as we get ever closer to the opening of those sweet, sweet government health care exchanges (aka The Day That Is Going To Live In Infamy Like a Mofo), we can pretty much count on Republicans to try even more harder to convince us that we should REPEAL! and IMPEACH! and DEFUND! and REPEAL SOME MORE! and, failing all that, just be deeply ashamed of ourselves for being excited about slightly lower health insurance premiums, even if that IS a direct route to socialist armageddon. Take Heritage Foundation czar and Sarah Palin imitator Jim DeMint, who quit his job senatoring South Carolina to spend more time spreading the good word about teabagging. Here he is at a townhall in Delaware, blah blahing about the evils of health care for the gazillionth time: “I cannot think of anything that’s more un-American than national government-run health care,” DeMint said. “Those who believe in those principles of socialism and collectivism we’ve seen over the centuries, they see as their holy grail taking control of the health care system.” [...] DeMint warned his town hall audience that the system threatens Americans’ freedoms. “[Health care is] such a personal service, it’s such a big part of the economy,” he said. “If [Democrats] can control that, they can control most areas of our lives.” Oooh, scaaaaaaaaaary. Better go hide under your bed before government-run health care programs come to take away your freedoms by making you enroll in the exchanges or maybe that government-run health care program, Medicare, that has been around for decades and somehow failed to destroy America, haters. We don’t even want to think about what kind of anti-American collectivist scum you are if you also receive Social Security. We are not sure why DeMint is even bothering to try to convince people to oppose Obamacare, since the president is probably maybe not really going to just up and defund it his own self. And besides, Americans are totally behind DeMint and the Heritage Foundation’s mission to save Americans from affordable health care. The Kaiser Family Foundation published an interesting report this week on public attitudes on health care, noting among other things that 57% of Americans do not want to defund the Affordable Care Act. [...] The Heritage Foundation was apparently so despondent with the findings that it lost its reading-comprehension skills — the right-wing group unveiled a poster on Wednesday, asking folks to join the 57% of Americans who do want to defund “Obamacare.” When Heritage was told it simply read the poll wrong, and got the results backwards, the organization made the same mistake again. Join the majority of Americans who support leaving Obamacare in place by opposing leaving Obamacare in place! That makes sense — if you are a Republican or A Idiot (but we repeat ourselves, ba-dump-tching!, we’ll be here all week, try the veal, and don’t forget to tip your waitresses). And that Kaiser poll, like ALL the polls on the subject, also shows that while Republicans may have succeeded in making Americans think health reform is scary and bad and scary, turns out those same Americans — or should we call them un-Americans — love the bejesus out of the provisions of health care reform. Who knew? (Besides everyone except the Heritage Foundation.) So screech on, Republicans, and keep misunderstanding what the meaning of “the majority of Americans” is, but Obamacare, aka Democratic control of our lives, hooray!, is a-comin’. You know, if the socialist collectivist un-Americanist apocalypse doesn’t kill us all first. [ ThinkProgress/ The Maddow Blog]

To: Bread Upon The Water who wrote (230620)	9/1/2013 1:03:13 PM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542182

Tell me why the charts, on which the abstract was based, are flawed--if you can. Clearly a waste of time. But let me take one more shot. Note this sentence from that first chart: In the United States marriage drops the probability of child poverty by 82 per cent. A clearly causal statement. Single parenting leads to poverty. To turn it around single parents need to couple up. And since it's a Heritage study, one can assume they are adamant that it be coupling with a person of the opposite sex. That's a classic social science mistake. As others have posted here, it's the elementary mistake of confusing correlation with causation. Whoever put that little graphic up needs to take a class in basic undergraduate methodology. The article is a near perfect illustration of the point we are all making--the Heritage Foundation and more than a few of these right wing think tanks use research to confirm conclusions they've already reached. Serious research simply doesn't work that way. Go read a ton of back copies of the American Sociological Review and the American Journal of Sociology to see what I mean.

To: Bread Upon The Water who wrote (230620)	9/1/2013 3:18:36 PM
From: bentway	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542182

Jim DeMint: Providing Health Care For Seniors And Veterans Is ‘Un-American’ And Grounded In ‘Socialism’ BY IGOR VOLSKY ON AUGUST 30, 2013 AT 8:55 AM thinkprogress.org ( Look for a "scientific" study supporting Jim's position in the near future! ) Heritage Foundation president and former Senator Jim DeMint suggested to a town hall audience in Wilmington, Delaware Thursday that health care programs like Medicare and Medicaid are “un-American” and built on the principles of “socialism and collectivism.” “I cannot think of anything that’s more un-American than national government-run health care,” DeMint said. “Those who believe in those principles of socialism and collectivism we’ve seen over the centuries, they see as their holy grail taking control of the health care system.” Though DeMint was referring specifically to the Affordable Care Act, a law the Heritage Foundation is urging Congress to defund in next month’s continuing resolution, his comments could also apply to existing programs that have more direct government involvement than the ACA. While the federal government does establish the rules and guidelines private insurers must follow in offering coverage for the uninsured though reform and directly finances insurance expansion for lower-income Americans who are eligible for Medicaid — often by contracting with private insurers — numerous other popular government programs like Medicare, the Veterans Health Administration and even the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan (FEHBP) (which DeMint himself relied on for health care coverage as a member of the Senate) are operated by the government. Public health comprises more than 40 percent of the nation’s health care spending and that percentage will remain stable as the Affordable Care Act is implemented. By 2014,“private health insurance is anticipated to account for roughly 31 percent of national health spending, or about the same share as was expected without enactment of the Affordable Care Act,” actuaries at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid estimate. DeMint warned his town hall audience that the system threatens Americans’ freedoms. “[Health care is] such a personal service, it’s such a big part of the economy,” he said. “If [Democrats] can control that, they can control most areas of our lives.”