The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is a United States federal statute signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. The law (along with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010) is the principal health care reform legislation of the 111th United States Congress. PPACA reforms certain aspects of the private health insurance industry and public health insurance programs, increases insurance coverage of pre-existing conditions, expands access to insurance to over 30 million Americans and increases projected national medical spending despite lowering projected Medicare spending under previous law.
PPACA passed the Senate on December 24, 2009, by a vote of 60–39 with all Democrats and two Independents voting for, and all Republicans voting against. It passed the House of Representatives on March 21, 2010, by a vote of 219–212, with 34 Democrats and all 178 Republicans voting against the bill.
A majority of the states, and numerous organizations and individual persons, have filed actions in federal court challenging the constitutionality of PPACA. As of October 2011, the constitutionality of PPACA has been upheld by three out of four federal appellate courts, with the fourth declaring the law's individual mandate alone as unconstitutional. The Supreme Court has agreed to review the suits and has scheduled over five hours for oral arguments on the matter in March 2012.
During his presidential campaign, Obama repeatedly pledged (eight times to be exact) to conduct every aspect of the debate over healthcare reform in the open, specifically over C-SPAN. Another campaign lie by Obama! Openness is only threatening to those interested in hiding something that benefits a special interest.
How did they get it passed? The Democrats and Obama resorted to a number of backdoor deals to secure the needed votes. Here are some of them in the Senate:
Senator Ben Nelson got an unprecedented deal to force federal taxpayers to pick up 100% of the cost of Nebraska's Medicaid expansion - forever. This is affectionately known as the Cornhusker kickback.
Senator Mary Landrieu was paid by Reid and Obama $300 million of our taxpayer dollars for her pet projects to secure her vote. This is the Louisiana Purchase.
Vermont Senators Pat Leahy and Bernie Sanders got an extra $250 million in Medicaid funding for their votes.
In Florida, Senator Bill Nelson got three counties carved out of Medicare Advantage cuts that will happen everywhere else in the country.
Senator Chris Dodd received a $100 million earmark for a hospital at the University of Connecticut.
Here's how he got it through the House. Nancy Pelosi and her cohorts negotiated with key pro-life Democrats to secure their vote for the pro-abortion healthcare plan. A proposed executive order (worthless as the paper its written on) by Obama would allegedly bar abortion funding in the $940 million plan. This persuaded Representative Bart Stupak (Dem.-Michigan) to vote yes and bring at least seven colleagues with him.
But remember, it was all on C-SPAN as promised by the transparent Obama!
Did you know that the democrats inserted a provision in the healthcare bill which appropriates $105 billion towards its funding - a complete and fraudulent circumvention of the legislative process?
Waivers galore! If Obamacare is such a great system why are so many waivers being sought and granted? The list of waivers has been getting longer and longer. Of the 204 new Obamacare waivers President Barack Obama’s administration approved in April 2011, 38 are for fancy eateries, hip nightclubs and decadent hotels in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s Northern California district. That’s in addition to the 27 new waivers for health care or drug companies and the 31 new union waivers Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services approved. The companies that won the waiver's in Pelosi's district didn’t have much in common with companies throughout the rest of the country that have received Obamacare waivers. More political favoritism?
In closing this Post, I'll leave you with the thoughts of lovable Maxine:
"Let me get this straight... we just passed a health care plan written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn't understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn't read it, but exempts themselves from it, to be signed by a president that also hasn't read it and who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes, all to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that's broke. What in hell could possibly go wrong"?
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