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As usual, politics in this country baffle me. President Obama has been getting it from every side lately. The liberals are after him, the gays are after him, the conservatives are REALLY after him. The guy just can’t win. Rather than accepting that America was already fucked up under Clinton and especially under Bush Jr., Americans decide to blame literally everything on President Obama.

Yes, Obama deregulated oil, the financial industry, mortgages and single handedly ruined the economy. Umm…no. The economy was already a mess, unemployment was already exponentially increasing, the war situation was already a mess and everyone was already unhappy. Obama cannot snap his fingers and fix things; he has been working hard and rather than getting support everyone is just ragging on him. Even the bailout that everyone attributes to Obama was in the works when Bush left office; Obama just signed it.

That said, President Obama worked hard to get comprehensive medical coverage for all Americans. I think he still ultimately sold out to the special interests of private insurance rather than passing socialized health like Europe, but he IS a politician still, we can’t have our cake and eat it too.

Tonight I was talking to one of my acquaintances and Obamacare came up. As usual, most of the general public is misinformed about it. He made the absurd assertion that “if you don’t have medical insurance, you get fined and go to jail”. That is not true. If you don’t have medical insurance, you do get taxed higher because the government (and ultimately the tax payers) have to pay the bill if you get injured and don’t pay for it. So in essence, you’re going to pay for medical insurance regardless, so why not save yourself the trouble and just make sure you’re covered?

I think of it like auto insurance. Most people wouldn’t dream of not having auto insurance. They want to be protected if something goes wrong, both for their sake and the sake of others. The same applies to health insurance. Under Obamacare, you can’t be denied and you can’t be charged hire rates for preexisting conditions. Every American from the healthy ones to the morbidly obese ones will pay around the same rate. So why not cover yourself?

This acquaintance says he refuses to get insurance and he refuses to pay a fine. He also refuses to go to jail. He also doesn’t believe in auto insurance and car registration. All I can do is shake my head. I don’t even think a headshake is appropriate, more like a facepalm.

I don’t understand where people get off thinking they can get in a car crash, chalk up $500,000+ in medical bills and then not pay them. Who do they think they are to expect the American public to pay their medical bills for them?

Here is an interesting excerpt from an interview with a CNN reporter and President Obama concerning Obamacare:

This is an excerpt from NewsBusters:

STEPHANOPOULOS: …during the campaign. Under this mandate, the government is forcing people to spend money, fining you if you don’t. How is that not a tax?

…. OBAMA: No. That’s not true, George. The — for us to say that you’ve got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase. What it’s saying is, is that we’re not going to have other people carrying your burdens for you anymore than the fact that right now everybody in America, just about, has to get auto insurance. Nobody considers that a tax increase.

People say to themselves, that is a fair way to make sure that if you hit my car, that I’m not covering all the costs.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But it may be fair, it may be good public policy…

OBAMA: No, but — but, George, you — you can’t just make up that language and decide that that’s called a tax increase. Any…

…. STEPHANOPOULOS: I — I don’t think I’m making it up. Merriam Webster’s Dictionary: Tax — “a charge, usually of money, imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes.”

OBAMA: George, the fact that you looked up Merriam’s Dictionary, the definition of tax increase, indicates to me that you’re stretching a little bit right now. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have gone to the dictionary to check on the definition. I mean what…

…. STEPHANOPOULOS: I wanted to check for myself. But your critics say it is a tax increase.

OBAMA: My critics say everything is a tax increase. My critics say that I’m taking over every sector of the economy. You know that.

Look, we can have a legitimate debate about whether or not we’re going to have an individual mandate or not, but…

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you reject that it’s a tax increase?

OBAMA: I absolutely reject that notion.

President Obama says it best. It is not a tax. It is your duty as an American. I know people don’t like change, but sometimes change is good and medical insurance is something that all Americans should have.