Reboot.

So, the shutdown has ended.  Should I rephrase that to something like, "The government has successfully rebooted?"  LOL.  I'm not sure.

When this all first began, I wanted to publish a post about about everything but I never got around to it.  A lot of my friends who normally don't give two poops about politics were getting all political and I was always tempted to punch in my two cents and argue my point of view.  I never did because I didn't feel like engaging in a huge Facebook war.

I wanted to put the Affordable Care Act into terms some people might understand.  I guess starting with that, AKA Obamacare, would be a great place to begin at, in my explanation as far as why Republicans should not be afraid to take partial responsibility in this shutdown (as crazy as that sounds, to a lot of my fellow conservatives.)**

Everyone owns a cell phone.  I think you can say that phones with larger screens will break more easily than your traditional flip phone.  As a sales associate at Radioshack, I understand that because of this, phone insurance on these basic phones is cheaper than on, let's say, an iPhone.  On that note, when you claim your insurance, you may be charged a deductible depending on the extent or amount of damage or wear.  Our current insurance companies work this very same way; individuals that are more likely to receive healthcare (for example, a pregnant mother versus a fit, young teenager boy) will have higher premiums or whatnot.  Anyway, this is all within good reason.  Just like with your car insurance, you're going to pay more per month if you have been in more accidents.  It's not discriminatory.  It's not racist.  It isn't sexist.  It's logical.

Beyond likeliness of someone to use their said insurance, an individual can't bring in a broken phone that doesn't have insurance, and then try to sign up for it to get it fixed.  That's cheating the system.  Right?  And I'm sure you're like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa.  If I didn't know I had cancer, and needed health insurance, it isn't fair that I can't get coverage!"  And I agree with you.

Here's where the Affordable Care Act went right: they are forcing insurance companies to cover preexisting conditions.  They went wrong by saying you can't charge over a certain amount for premiums.  They went wrong, too, by saying you can't base premiums off of gender, race, or other things like that.  (Kind of.)

The problem with this is that it screws over both individuals and the companies.  I think we can all agree that there needs to be reform.  For sure.  But this isn't the way to do it.  What this does is force insurance companies to make their ends meet by increasing premiums for everyone.  So the guy who wants to buy the most basic insurance now has to pay for it at the price of some of the more advanced premium rates or whatever.  (Sorry, I'm not an expert at this, so I hope this makes sense).

And what's worse is people are mandated to buy it.  And the government employees and elected officials are not.

That's so unconstitutional.  You can't enact a tax on the people across the board and let elected officials be exempt for any reason.  And you certainly can't force people to purchase a product.

Anyway, if I were in Congress, I would look at it this way: The Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional.  I swore an oath as a Congressman to uphold and defend The US Constitution.  By passing a budget that funds the Affordable Care Act, I will be supporting something that is unconstitutional.  I will not pass a budget that will fund the Affordable Care Act.

And that's that.  This government shutdown... it sucks.  It did suck.  Whatever.  And call it partisanship, all you want.  If you do, then you're saying that standing up for the Constitution is a Republican thing.  And if that's what you think, then I don't see why you wouldn't support my guy. :)

Look guys, The Constitution is important.  And it's imperative that we make our elected officials stand with it, or leave office.  That's it. There is no gray area here.  It's either following the rules, or being removed from office, impeached, whatever.

And while we're on the healthcare topic, I invite you to read my campaign's official stance on it.  I'd also invite you to compare that to our opponent, but he happens to lack any stances on anything, apparently.  The Affordable Care Act was the wrong solution.  Unlike some people, though, we will criticize it, but offer our own approach.

Anyway, if someone else voted to close the government and put 800,000 employees out of work for a few weeks, and close down all these national monuments and parks, I'd say the only justifiable reason would be to put an end to unconstitutional legislation.  On that note, Republicans in the House did try this word everyone's throwing around: compromise.

They tried to allow the Affordable Care Act to remain funded at first if Senate Democrats would remove the part which exempts them, other elected officials, and federal employees.  The Democrats refused.  The House then asked them to delay the individual mandate for a year.  The Democrats refused.

Keep this in mind, our Great Leader Barack Obama said he'd veto it anyway.

Besides, this is all a big distraction from the larger problem at hand: we STILL can't pay our bills, and we are farther from balancing the budget than ever before.  *sighs*

By the way, I'm in full campaign mode.  If you want to know more about my candidate, his stances on certain things, or if you have questions, make use of the comment box, and I'll publish something official from our campaign for ya'll to read.

Cheers, everyone.  Thanks for reading.

 

Fact of the Day: the QC Examiner is a legit blog.  I read her stuff a lot, and I hope to be on her level someday.  Check out her stuff here.

**This does not reflect the views of my candidate or my campaign; these are merely personal opinions from a blog that is not funded by or paid for by Friends of Eric Reyes.  For official statements, inquiries, or questions, visit www.ericreyes.us)