US Politics Mega-thread - Page 521

On October 08 2013 04:07 farvacola wrote:
Whether or not BC/BS will gain customers is difficult to say; quite a bit of forecasting when it comes to the effects of Obamacare amounts to weather, and what will end up making the difference is how the national and state exchanges intercourse with pre-existing insurance schemas. What we do know, however, is that the largest and most influential BC/BS licensees maintain a public anti-healthcare reform platform.

Seventy percent of Americans disapprove of the way Republican lawmakers are approaching budget negotiations as the federal government shutdown enters its second week, a seven point jump from last week, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll published Monday.

President Barack Obama fared marginally better, with 51 percent of respondents disapproving of his handling of budget negotiations. Congressional Democrats, however, carried a 61 percent disapproval rating, according to the poll.

A Pew poll also released Monday bolstered this perception somewhat. According to that survey, 38 percent of Americans blamed the shutdown on congressional Republicans and 30 percent blamed it on the Obama administration.

The Post-ABC poll, conducted Oct. 2 - 6, surveyed 1,005 adults on conventional and cellular phones with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. The Pew poll, conducted Oct 3-6, surveyed 1,000 adults on conventional and cellular phones with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

Update: A CNN poll also released Monday found that 63 percent of Americans are angry at congressional Republicans for the way they have handled the government shutdown, while 57 percent are angry at Democrats and 53 percent are angry at President Barack Obama.

On October 08 2013 05:54 KwarK wrote:
At least no-one can paint the Republicans as the party of business interests anymore. That's been thoroughly disproved by this.

On October 08 2013 05:18 farvacola wrote:
I didn't say that BC/BS is, itself, against the ACA; the manner in which insurance provider licensing works makes that distinction relatively unimportant. The heads of the BC/BS organization can meet with government officials on Obamacare in pursuit of beating out their opposition to exchange preference while still having many member companies oppose healthcare reform; that's why I referred to Wellpoint and licensees as opposed to BC/BS itself. I also don't think a corporate self-reference does much insofar as proving or disproving bias, but maybe that's just me.

On October 08 2013 06:14 farvacola wrote:
All I am saying is that the opinion of the CEO of a major player in the healthcare informatics market as to how ready national exchange software ought to be is just that, an opinion of a highly public figurehead. Others in the field, as the article suggests, take a more measured stance on the system's beginning kinks, considering them practically requisite to the process of creating one of the largest insurance exchanges in the world. In the end, server instability and software kinks are not a big deal, yet.

In his weekly radio address on Sunday, Mayor Bloomberg called on Congress to rectify the shutdown crisis before it affects the aid promised to Hurricane Sandy victims.

"Government can't work for anyone if it is shut down and if the people we elected to lead refuse to work together to solve problems and move our country forward," said Bloomberg. "Right now, Washington's gridlock is doing real harm to our nation's economy and if they don't get their acts together soon New York City families, especially those who endured the worst from Hurricane Sandy will feel real pain."

Bloomberg noted that the majority of city government is not affected by the shutdown, but commented that the city of New York is home to over 27,000 federal workers, more federal workers than any other city outside of Washington D.C., and many of those workers are now furloughed and not receiving their salaries.

The second installment of Sandy relief money has not yet been issued. Bloomberg said during his address that the shutdown is not an acceptable excuse for an additional delay of federal funds that have already been appropriated.

Delays in Sandy aid could lead to a longer wait time for grants and loans that business owners are relying on and will also force additional delays on dunes replenishment and coastal protections.

Democratic mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio also pushed Congress for a resolution on Sunday.

On October 08 2013 05:54 KwarK wrote:
At least no-one can paint the Republicans as the party of business interests anymore. That's been thoroughly disproved by this.

On October 08 2013 07:21 xDaunt wrote:
There aren't that many things that republicans generally advocate that are directly "pro-business" in terms of general applicability. The only things that immediately come to mind are lowering tax burdens, reducing regulations (especially environmental regs), opposing labor unions, and opposing tort lawyers. Not all businesses care about these things equally (if at all).

On October 08 2013 07:28 Saryph wrote:
Last week on tv I saw a few Republican Congressmen talking about how they're fighting for the 'union members' and 'little man' while Obama was pushing them down in favor of 'big business.' Also the Chamber of Commerce has been irate, publicly coming out against the Tea Party and the shutdown.

All and all a pretty odd week for me.