But, No One Knows...

Last night, The Blog's real world alter ego posted the following link on the Facebook.

It is the full text of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka: Obamacare.

If any of you have any questions about what, exactly the ACA entails, all of the answers can be found there.

"BAM!"

The PC's favorite conservative commented on the post.

                                                                  Click to enlarge. But, you know that.

Bless his heart.

Even when we are, pretty much, on the same page, he can be exasperating.

Here, with a few edits and adjustments for the purposes of this blog, was my response to his comment...

Actually, it was. All proposed bills are, by law, made available to the public (and these days, that means on line,) a minimum of, I believe, three weeks before they go to a vote. (The above link is relatively recent, but the original bill has been on the congress.gov site since before it was voted on.) Many interests, like the corporate media, told you that you didn't need to know, etc. because they had a stake in convincing you that you should believe that you didn't have the option of knowing.

(Don't bother dusting off the, out of context, Nancy Pelosi quote that the right-wing loves to flog.

"But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it..."

In context, she was saying the same thing I am saying.)

And it is true that the bill is incredibly complicated and most of us don't have the time or education to fully understand it. It's a complicated issue that required a complicated approach. I have a friend who is a liberal pundit by profession. Unlike many pundits on both sides, she takes her job very seriously and does her homework. She told me that it took her three weeks and the help of a couple of lawyers to get through it and understand it. And, to be clear, this was before it was voted into law.

(Another popular shibboleth from the right-wing is that no Senators or Reps. read the bill before they voted on it. This is, technically, true. But, Congressmen have large staffs of aides. Every proposed bill is parsed into small, digestible chunks that are assigned to the aides. Their job is to read and summarize their own portions, then compile the summaries for the Congressman. So yes, everyone who voted on it knew what was in it when they voted on it.)

And you are right, it is the law. Passed by both Houses and upheld by the Supreme Court. One quibble, though. There is no jail penalty. Only a nominal fine. And even the most fervent supporters concede that the fine isn't enough to be effective and enforcement of it will be difficult.

BTW... going back to an earlier thread, do you know that there is a provision in the bill that gives tax breaks to small businesses who provide insurance to their employees under the ACA?

 One last thing... Ted Cruz, during his fake filibuster, read most of "Green Eggs and Ham"  ("...I do not like green eggs and ham!") and claimed that it was a good analogy for Obamacare. But, he left out the last couple of pages. Our main character knows that he does not like something that he has never tried.

When he finally relents and takes a taste, (this is the part that the Senator left out,) he discovers that he does like it.

He likes it so much that he will "...eat them here or there. I will eat them anywhere!"

So stand up straight. Bending over is undignified. Taste the green eggs and ham before you decide that you don't like them.

You just might like them, Sam-I-Am!