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The Supreme Court of the United States of Ameristan has evidently decided that the federal government enjoys unlimited power. Freedom is seemingly irrelevant and nonexistent, and thus here in the People's Republic of America, the government can unconstitutionally do as it wishes, without restriction by law or liberty.

Okay folks, it seems like this keeps coming up in other threads, so I thought the subject might be worthy of its own thread. The title of my post, using formatting available to me in the post body is, "What exactly is wrong with Obamacare". I don't want answers like, "it's socialized medicine!" since we had that already long before the new law was passed. I don't even want answers like, "it's even more socialized socialized medicine" unless you can tell me exactly what you mean. I'm looking for facts here, and I'm looking for the "big difference" between what we have now and what we had before. From the high-level standpoint, Obamacare seems to me an "optimization" of the former system. If you start with the premise that all US residents will be taken care of no matter what--a premise solidified in the 1960s in the USA--then Obamacare is simply a more efficient way to execute on that premise. Or so goes my theory. Prove me wrong. My assumptions thus far are as follows: 1. Since the 1960s we've had "socialized medicine" in the sense that we've guaranteed the medical help to anybody who needed it. 2. The above allowed lots of people to freeload off the system. Many people didn't buy insurance because they didn't want to (or couldn't, but OC doesn't change anything for them since poor people get free OC). Many employers too essentially freeloaded off of taxpayers by not providing health insurance to their employees, knowing that the public system would take care of them. 3. The individual mandate is necessary to fix the problem above, and also fix a core problem of insurance, which is that you need healthy people to pay into it in order to make the system work. In a very direct way we've already had an individual mandate in that I am mandated to pay my income taxes which pay for other people's health care, and I have been for decades. 4. That operating under the premise in #1, there is generally no better way to solve the practical problem presented by this premise. Would love to hear what people have to say on this...

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/obamacare-exemption-lawmakers-aides-90610.html Opening paragraphs of article in Politico: Lawmakers, aides may get Obamacare exemption By: John Bresnahan and Jake Sherman April 24, 2013 09:49 PM EDT Congressional leaders in both parties are engaged in high-level, confidential talks about exempting lawmakers and Capitol Hill aides from the insurance exchanges they are mandated to join as part of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, sources in both parties said. The talks — which involve Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), the Obama administration and other top lawmakers — are extraordinarily sensitive, with both sides acutely aware of the potential for political fallout from giving carve-outs from the hugely controversial law to 535 lawmakers and thousands of their aides. Discussions have stretched out for months, sources said. A source close to the talks says: “Everyone has to hold hands on this and jump, or nothing is going to get done.” Yet if Capitol Hill leaders move forward with the plan, they risk being dubbed hypocrites by their political rivals and the American public.... Disgusting.