C’mon, Governor Snyder, do the right thing

As regular readers of this site know, we have been calling on Michigan Governor Rick Snyder to expand Medicaid coverage in our state, one of the many excellent provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA, aka “Obamacare”.) You can read LOLGOP’s pieces on this HERE and HERE and my piece HERE.

Now the Michigan Democrats are starting to move on this issue. Today, State Representative Andy Schor (D-Lansing) introduced a House Resolution today calling on Governor Snyder to expand Medicaid under the federal ACA.

As Rep. Schor notes in his press release, “under the ACA, the cost of expanding Medicaid to more residents would be covered 100 percent by the federal government from 2014 through 2016. After that, the federal government would cover no less than 90 percent of the cost.”

Much more after the jump.

The BFDness of Obamacare continues to roll out

Earlier this week, LOLGOP explained how a component of the Affordable Care Act, lovingly called “Obamacare” by those who understand that our President cares about Americans without health insurance, includes a huge expansion of Medicaid. He also explained how this is free to states for the first two years and they are on the hook for only 10% of the additional costs after that. He also explained how upwards of 670,000 more Michiganders will be covered by health insurance under this expansion of one of the most beloved and official government programs that we have.

Follow me after the jump for a couple of other things about it that make it even more attractive. And don’t forget to sign our petition!

Thirty-fourth time’s a charm?

Republicans have been trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act since it was passed. The last time was in July 2012. That was the 33rd attempt.

Today, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann introduced legislation to try it again for the 34th time.

More idiocracy after the fold.

Letting ideology trump protecting our most vulnerable citizens

Michigan’s Tea Party Republicans are doing everything in their power to block the formation of a state-run health insurance exchange. These state exchanges are mandated by the Affordable Care Act and, if they are not formed, the federal government will do it for them, taking away the state’s ability to control their own destiny. As I wrote last summer, this self-defeating behavior is harmful to Michigan’s most vulnerable citizens.

Details after the jump.

Leadership? Not so much…

As I reported last month, tea partiers in Michigan have been working diligently against their own self-interest, trying to prevent a state-run health insurance exchange from being formed in Michigan. The exchange, mandated by the Affordable Care Act, would help up to a half million Michiganders obtain affordable health insurance.

If the state doesn’t create one of their own, the federal government will do it for them. And that, apparently, is exactly what is going to happen in Michigan because Governor Rick Snyder has backed down from his push for the Michigan-run exchange.

More after the jump.

These guys are out of control

As is becoming increasingly clear to anyone paying attention to the 2012 presidential election, the Ryan/Romney campaign has given up all hope of winning on the issues and on their record and have resorted to unprecedented lying — literally making things up about President Obama and then putting it out as truth in stump speeches, online videos, television ads, appearances by surrogates on news programs and in fundraising emails.

There is a new one this week and it takes the LYING and HYPOCRISY to a new and rather incredible level.

The Ryan/Romney campaign is claiming that President Obama stripped $716 billion out of Medicare benefits “to pay for Obamacare”.

This is a lie.

Also, those same cuts, which I’ll describe in a moment, are in the Ryan budget plan that Mitt Romney has endorsed.

Details and more after the jump.

Medical professionals’ knowledge vs. tea party hallucinations about Obamacare

I get an absolutely ridiculous amount of email every day and a goodly amount of it comes from folks recommending things for me to write about or from one of the various organizations that I subscribe to. I also subscribe to some right wing groups, just so I can get a pulse on what they are going on about at any given time.

This past week I received two emails that were essentially about the same thing. One pointed me to an amazing interview of two medical professionals by my dear friend Betsy de Parry. In it, they talk about the Affordable Care Act (ACA or “Obamacare”) and what it really means to Americans.

The other was yet another freakout passel of lies and fabrications about the ACA from the Tea Party of West Michigan.

The two emails could not have been in starker contrast. More after the jump.

Too stupid to vote???

Despite the fact that most Americans want Republicans to move on (pdf) and quit fighting a battle they’ve already lost, House Republicans spent the day debating the repeal the Affordable Care Act, a waste of time and taxpayer money given that it’ll never get out of the Senate much less be signed into law by President Obama. The vote tomorrow will be 31st time they’ve done this. In light of that, it’s worth having a look at what Obama-haters in the hinterlands are saying and thinking.

I was perusing the Letters to the Editor page at the Livingston County Press and Argus today and came across this letter, written by a person so detached from facts and reality that it’s almost insulting that they printed it.

This letter shows just exactly what we’re up against heading into the November election.

Sorry, face. This nose has GOT to go…

Tea party types in Michigan, facing the stinging blow of the U.S. Supreme Court upholding the constitution, are now working on a self-defeating effort to make sure that Michigan doesn’t create a health insurance exchange for Michiganders to shop for affordable health insurance. This comical effort apparently disregards the fact that, if they are successful, the federal government will create one FOR us, limiting our state legislators’ ability to have any say or control in the matter.

This is from an email I received yesterday from the Tea Party of West Michigan (all typos and grammatical errors are theirs, not mine – like the grammatically incorrect tagline at the top of every page on their website: “Influence policy, effect elections, protect the Constitution”)…

[Email and more after the jump.]

Shoot ’em up, shoot ’em up, rah, rah, rah!

For some on the right, this whole “every American having access to healthcare coverage” thing is just too goddam much. I wrote yesterday about some of the instant freakout responses. Today we have another and it’s a doozy.

Former Republican Party spokesman and Lansing “civil rights” attorney Matthew Davis sent out a press release titled “Is Armed Rebellion Now Justified?”.

His press release and more after the jump.

Going off of the rails on the crazy train…

It’s hard to believe that it’s been over two years since the Affordable Care Act, our beloved Obamacare, was signed into law. After all, the sky is still up, right?

Today’s Supreme Court ruling upholding the constitutionality of Obamacare is exactly what happens when the right challenges the constitutionality of a law that was supported, endorsed, and championed by a president who is a constitutional scholar: they get their asses handed to them. The result has been predictable, even if the SCOTUS ruling was not.

Much more after the jump.