Onward!

The twentieth century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy. (Alex Carey, Australian writer and social psychologist)

It is arguable that the success of business propaganda in persuading us, for so long, that we are free from propaganda is one of the most significant propaganda achievements of the twentieth century. (same guy)

I won’t belabor this point, as I know it is bad form. But I am the only person I know who predicted that the Final Nine would uphold the individual mandate. (Side note: I also predicted that Obama would extend the Bush tax cuts. He’ll be reelected and will again extend those tax cuts next year.) I also said in some blog somewhere that the only parts of the law in danger were those of actual benefit to us, such as Medicaid expansion.

More predictions, if my reader thinks I have any credibility at all:

1. Medical costs will continue to go up at alarming rates. Those who see this and support ACA will say “Yeah, but they’d be going up faster if we didn’t have this law.” The non-falsifiable hypothesis is very useful in the art of sophistry.

2. Health care insurance costs will continue to go up, and the coverages offered will continue to shrink. Deductibles, out-of-pocket costs, and costs that insurers simply refuse to pay will steadily drain household resources for those people who have insurance. There will still be medical bankruptcies aplenty. Private insurance is still laden with perverse incentives, pitting customers against investors (who always win out). (My own policy, which I am dropping next month, converted to a hospitalization policy at the same price, and does not cover anything outside of that and medicines. Anthem Blue Cross wants to discourage doctor visits. That will be standard fare.)

3. There will be no further congressional action. The window has closed, and the subject will not be visited again in the coming decade, except perhaps to attack Medicaid and Medicare.

I opened this post with quotes on propaganda. When one steps back, that’s really all that American political discourse is. Most of public opinion, even as I know the uneducated state of the population, rests to the left of both parties. Media only covers disputes between the parties, placing it to the right of the public. Issues are boiled down to potent short phrases (“death panel” and “government-run” were supplied to us by the public relations industry) and symbols (welfare recipient and immigrants are potent).

This time I will end on an optimistic note: It cannot endure forever. The system must collapse under its own weight. Even the ACA bailout will not preserve the internally dysfunctional private health insurance system. Vermont, if allowed to function under the eleventh amendment, will eventually have single payer and, following the Saskatchewan example, will boot the insurers out. In short order after that, the single payer system will spread – only because it works. The state exchanges under ACA, though meant to fail, might succeed in places. California has ruled that health insurance executives cannot sit on the ruling board of its exchange. That’s a first step.

I’m done writing about ACA now. I’ve got so much more! Ireland last week junked electronic voting. Spain and Greece might well follow Ireland, and refuse to cover private bank bad loans with taxpayer funds. Iceland told the bankers to take a hike, and is doing fine. Massive wildfires out west might well convince skeptics that climate change is real. Rehberg might unseat Tester.

Sadly, David Sirota is soon off the morning show on AM760 in Denver, replaced by an Obamabot. Sen Michael Bennet, Mayor Michael Hancock and Governor John Hickenlooper, (Sirota calls him “Howdy Doody”, oddly fitting), false flag liberals all, might well agree to appear on the new show, hosted by Gloria Neal. Her bombs ar long defused, so that these men of men can safely come on and face no penetrating questions. She is, after all, a “journalist.”

Onward! Who says blogging is not fun?