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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=dlj725@hughes.net href="mailto:dlj725@hughes.net">David Johnson</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=Undisclosed-Recipient:;
href="mailto:Undisclosed-Recipient:;">Undisclosed-Recipient:;</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, July 04, 2012 11:32 AM</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>
<DIV class=subheadlinestyle><FONT size=4>A Victory for Obamacare, a Defeat for
the Left</FONT></DIV>
<H1 class=article-title>The Health Care Trap</H1>
<DIV class=mainauthorstyle>by SHAMUS COOKE</DIV>
<DIV class=main-text>The political victory for President Obama in the Supreme
Court has created an interesting shift in American politics. More important
than the blow against his Republican opponent has been the re-energizing of
Obama’s base, a loose coalition of liberals, labor, and leftists.<BR>Many in
these groups were lured into supporting Obamacare because of the political
forces aligned against it, especially the loud extremists of the right
wing. Obama’s campaign skillfully exploited this fact, and soon a win for
Obamacare was a strike against evil. The massive disappointment the President
had been to his once enthusiastic supporters was swept aside amid
anti-Republican euphoria, just in time for election season.<BR>But aligning with
Obama will have dire consequences for his allies, who are leaving the wider
working class behind in an attempt to boost a President who hasn’t earned the
support. Without the active support of their base and broader population,
the liberal and labor groups supporting Obama have less leverage to make the
critical political demands needed to fight the recession, ensuring that their
demands will fall on deaf ears.<BR>The sad fact remains that most Americans do
not support Obamacare, as poll after poll has shown. The pro-Democratic
Party <EM>New York Times</EM> reports:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE> ”…just 32 percent supported the Affordable Care Act when it
was approved in March 2010, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll. As of
a month ago, 34 percent supported it, virtually unchanged.”<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>Keep
in mind that the anti-Obamacare majority includes many members of labor, senior,
and liberal groups whose leadership endorsed the
measure.<BR>Indeed, Obamacare will negatively affect labor and senior
groups in a direct way. The health care legislation levies new taxes on
“Cadillac” health care plans – any health care policy that is above
meager. Union members typically have these plans, and employers are already
preparing for the new tax by slashing these plans with an aim to get them below
the Obamacare tax threshold.<BR>The fact that Obamacare gives employers this
strong incentive to weaken their employees health care plan is not an accident,
but a key provision in the plan that will fundamentally change health care in a
negative way, for millions of people.<BR>Worse still is that the Congressional
Budget Office (CBO) predicts that employers are expected to use Obamacare as an
excuse to stop providing employer-based health care altogether, creating
millions of newly-uninsured employees who will then be mandated to buy insurance
for themselves.<BR>The CBO predicts that 3-5 million people are likely to be
victimized in this way, but the figure could rise to <A>20
million</A>. Of course employers will take advantage of Obamacare to shift
the cost of health care onto individuals, in the same way that employers shifted
away from pensions and onto the 401(k) scheme.<BR>Senior groups – most notably
the AARP – supported Obamacare even though it is funded, in part, by cutting
Medicare by $500 billion. <A>Politifact explains</A>:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE>“Nearly $220 billion [in Medicare cuts] comes from reducing
annual increases in payments that health care providers [hospitals, etc.]
would otherwise receive from Medicare…Then there’s another $136 billion in
projected savings that would come from changes [cuts] to the Medicare
Advantage program. About 25 percent of Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in
a Medicare Advantage plan.”<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>Of course, cutting Medicare
reimbursements to health care providers will result in reduced care for Medicare
beneficiaries, who already suffer from a shortage of providers who will accept
Medicare.<BR>Most ominous are the millions of people who will be mandated to buy
shoddy corporate health insurance that they would have bought already, if they
felt they could afford it (only the very poorest people will get free health
care from Obamacare).<BR>It is expected that over <A>26 million people</A>
will remain uninsured after Obamacare is implemented, while the
corporate-dominated health care industry has been empowered with millions of new
customers, ensuring that further progress in the health care field will remain
blocked.<BR>There are undoubtedly progressive aspects to Obamacare. But the
above facts will create tens of millions – potentially hundreds of millions of
angry people – the same people who are being ignored by the labor and
liberal groups who’ve promoted Obamacare. This is the key point.<BR>Working
people are a powerful social force when they are united and act
collectively. Labor and liberal groups have caused unnecessary divisions by
supporting a health care law that victimizes millions of working
people. These groups misled their members into supporting Obamacare for
obvious political reasons, since they have deep ties to the Democratic
Party.<BR>These ties are quickly evolving into chains for working
people. Contrary to the opinion of some labor leaders, Obamacare is not a
“step in the right direction”. Further steps towards a sane health care
system have been frozen, since the Obama-attached left has misrepresented
Obamacare as a savior; these groups will not be inspired to fight for
universal health care because they are happy – thrilled! – with Obama’s
plan.<BR>Most importantly, labor and liberal leaders have made it profoundly
more difficult to view Obama and the Democrats as they should be: a political
adversary that must be challenged in the streets. The jobs recession is
again deepening, which will create further city, state, and national deficits
that will be used to further gouge social services and lead to more
layoffs.<BR>The last four years have been detrimental for millions of working
people, and the political party overseeing this misery is going into the next
election as a “champion of working people,” thanks to Obama’s stalwart
supporters that lead working class organizations.<BR>A mass movement is needed
for real change, but left groups have chained the movement to a president who
wants nothing to do with such as movement, as his attitude towards the Occupy
and the Wisconsin movement more than proved.<BR>Obama has again disarmed the
left, which will sadly repeat history by scrambling, post-election, to find an
independent voice to deal with the recession and continued assaults on working
people. A mass movement is the only salvation for working people, requiring
that uniting demands – a federal jobs program, Medicare for all, taxing the
rich, etc. – be fought for in the streets against all those who oppose them,
both Democrats and Republicans.<BR>Watering down demands to promote Democrats is
a strategy that weakens the workers’ movement at a crucial time. Hopefully,
Obamacare is history’s last example.<BR><EM><STRONG>Shamus
Cooke</STRONG> is a social service worker and trade unionist. He can
reached at <A href="">shamuscooke@gmail.com</A> </EM><BR></DIV><!-- end of AOLMsgPart_1_2eb12070-4fcf-43a0-9a35-da76b6be4806 --></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>