42 thoughts on “The Acme Party”

  2. The cartoon captures the situation. In the media it is often characterized as a battle of political skills.
    In what world is it normal to repeal a program that reduces health care costs for the country while giving basic health care to millions that otherwise would not have it, solely and obviously on the grounds of political ideology.
    Will the outrage against the republican model ever manifest itself in your country? I’m guessing not. sigh.

    1. The ACA is not really a matter of reducing the cost of healthcare but to provide people with healthcare that simply did not have it. The person has no control over actual health cost but does need to have affordable insurance to cover the cost. We will really never have it until they institute medicare for everyone. And please note – even medicare does does not cover everything. There will likely always be a need for medicaid.

      1. The ACA is more than just having healcare coverage for those who did not have.

        The ending of denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions helped many who already had coverage.

        Allowing children to remain on parent policies was another big factor.

        1. Certainly that is also true. My main objective was to correct the idea that the medical care itself was lower. That is not the case. But another thing that many far right republicans complained about was the fact that it was mandatory. This of course it had to be or the premiums would have been way too high to ever work.

          1. In my state automobile insurance is mandatory.
            I have never heard any of the conservative libertarian Republicans complain about car insurance being unfair. No cries of how dare the government make me buy auto insurance. No editorials complaining about the hefty fines imposed if you let your insurance lapse. I guess for repubs, property is more important that people.

          2. The conservative argument is that buying a car is an option, unlike health insurance. You can always opt out of buying car insurance by not buying a car. I believe the only way for healthcare to be somewhat affordable in this country is to require people to buy insurance (or have universal healthcare), but I do not think it is hypocritical to be against the health insurance mandate and not complain about car insurance. I agree that no one right now is addressing the costs of healthcare, but perhaps allowing US citizens to buy cheap drugs from other countries could be a “free market” solution that some could get behind? I am not sure how much of a difference this would make on premiums, and drug company lobbyists would be very much against this.

          3. The Republican position seems to be that you can opt out of health care by dying.

          5. Opt out of buying a car? I would argue that the vast majority of Americans could not opt out of owning a vehicle. If you have a job, have a family, have a life, you’re going to need a car; it’s not an option.

            I know you’re not endorsing this view, but it does illustrate how stupid conservative thinking is.

      2. I look forward to additional comments from Americans. I certainly agree, no person has control over actual health care costs.

    2. The Republicans spent eight years demonizing Obama and everything connected with him, including the ACA. They have to keep acting like it’s a great evil that’s ruining America.

    2. The Latin? That’s how it’s done in the Roadrunner cartoons. The action stops for a moment and the “Latin” names of the characters appear.

      1. I must have seen many, but that’s something I didn’t remember. Yes, of course!

      2. Yup. The roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote were originally parodies of wildlife documentaries. Showing the scientific names of the animals on screen while pausing the action was an old wildlife documentary trope.

        1. Not to mention having Marlyn Perkins in the little circle in the bottom corner…

  4. Good cartoon, but I prefer the metaphor that the dog catches the bus.

    I heard a good saying about Sacarmucci and the current paranoid White House: “The beatings will stop when morale improves!”

    1. That line goes back to at least Captain Bligh, and probably a lot further.

    1. But, while the Cowardly [“You are … not … fired … on my suggestion!”] Bully In Chief is one major reason the GOP got beeped, I also like Colbert’s observation:

      – It was your *one* job [after 7 years of making it so]!

      Hopefully the two parties can get together, GOP willing, and guarantee the current system will continue to work. The easy fix is to do like most nations, have common health insurance, but I guess US is not prepared to do the simple thing anytime soon. At least what is in place is a start. [And eventually, with increased social functionality, religiosity should decrease further.]

      1. Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing…after they have exhausted all other possibilities.

        Often apocryphally attributed to Winston Churchill

  8. The repeal of Obamacare is an impending tragedy but it seems Obamacare has nine lives – lets hope Republican ructions and the incompetence of President Psychopath enable it to continue to be so. And that the latter creep gets impeached sooner than later.

      1. he’s just a religious nut, not a psychopath and he has the mass appeal of a wet rag – he’d never get re-elected

    2. The Republican party is split over it, but their base isn’t.

      As a result they put on a very good show Friday. Then they let two safe holdouts and a dying man vote it down to give the rest of the party cover. “Oh well we tried our best.”

  9. It is no longer “Obamacare.” From here on the ACA refers to the US National Health Insurance Program, and that is what the Republicans are trying to destroy.

  12. This is one of Andrew Sullivan’s claims, that Barack Obama was the Roadrunner politician. His political enemies were always sure they had him, right up to the second they looked up to see the anvil.

  13. (Intended as a reply to Ken Pidcock.) Indeed, Sullivan has long compared Obama to the Roadrunner. He ended a post, The Triumph of Obama’s Long Game, with this:

    Obama, in fact, was the conservative in all this — nudging and amending, shaping and finessing as American society evolved — while the GOP flamed out in a reactionary dead end. But Obama’s conservatism has nonetheless brought about an epochal, defining achievement for American liberalism: a robust American consensus in favor of universal health insurance. Yes, he could.

    It is hard to overstate the salience of this victory in Obama’s long, long game — and perhaps we are still too close to events to see it as clearly as we should. But here it is: a testament to the skills and vision and tenacity of our greatest living president, whose political shadow completely eclipses the monstrous, ridiculous fool who succeeded him. Like the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, we’ve seen this story many times before in the last eight and a half years. And we also know the ending.

    Meep, meep.

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