Health Care Reform Passes in House

I know I've written a couple of times about how the Obama administration with majorities in both the House and Senate has accomplished nothing... but I rather liked it that way. I disagree with pretty much everything that's come out of that man's mouth, from his policy rhetoric to his ego-inflating "self-deprecating" humor. It was a private source of amusement for me that nothing was getting done, but I was quite hoping that nothing would continue to get done.

Then, low and behold, the House has passed it's version of the health care reform bill. The sarcasm of my excitement would know no bounds were I to bother writing about it, but frankly, I'm too pissed to bother at the moment.

Consumerist has a nifty breakdown of what this version of the bill means for us common folk, so click on over there to get some details written in non-political verbiage.

EDIT: Check out this fascinating article I found over on The Knight Shift this evening for even more information on this "wonderful" new bill. Hip-hip hooray for our idiotic government. This outlines how the new bill "provides that an individual (or a husband and wife in the case of a joint return) who does not, at any time during the taxable year, maintain acceptable health insurance coverage for himself or herself and each of his or her qualifying children is subject to an additional tax."

How about this one:

If the government determines that the taxpayer’s unpaid tax liability results from willful behavior, the following penalties could apply…

Criminal penalties

Prosecution is authorized under the Code for a variety of offenses. Depending on the level of the noncompliance, the following penalties could apply to an individual:

Section 7203 – misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year.

Section 7201 – felony willful evasion is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years.

What's more, according to said article, the Congressional Budget Office has said that the lowest cost family plan under this bill will cost $15,000 in 2016. I don't know about you, but I don't have an extra 15 grand just layin' around.

Oh boy, let me tell you how positively exciting this news is. Pay us more money because paying the health care tax is mandatory, and keeping an acceptable level of health insurance is mandatory and if you don't, we'll slap you with outrageous fines and send you to prison. Because the Constitution says we can do that. Um... yeah.

Socialism much?