Tag: rationing

California’s class-based water woes.

If you can put aside for the moment the New York Times’ stubborn use of the “farmers use 80% of the water in California” canard*, this article isn’t too bad. It certainly notes the deep class divisions that are taking place in the state.  To put it simply: the rich buy their way out of the restrictions and everybody else… can’t.

The fierce drought that is gripping the West — and the imminent prospect of rationing and steep water price increases in California — is sharpening the deep economic divide in this state, illustrating parallel worlds in which wealthy communities guzzle water as poorer neighbors conserve by necessity. The daily water consumption rate was 572.4 gallons per person in Cowan Heights from July through September 2014, the hot and dry summer months California used to calculate community-by-community water rationing orders; it was 63.6 gallons per person in Compton during that same period.

Continue reading California’s class-based water woes.

#Obamacare refuses to pay for sick kids’ care in Seattle, Washington. Like it does.

Back when Obamacare was all shiny and new, I was in the habit of calling it ‘health care rationing.’ I did this because I knew that you can’t have ‘less people uninsured’ AND ‘lower prices’ AND ‘improved services’ – and I assumed that the government would choose the first two and let the third go away on the wind. I got out of the habit of using the term ‘health care rationing’ because before the Obamacare launch it became clear that the government wasn’t going to manage ‘lower prices,’ either – and after the launch it’s becoming increasingly clear that they’re not going to manage ‘less people uninsured,’ either. In short: the word ‘Obamacare’ itself is sufficient warning.

But it remains true that we’re rationing care now.  Kids’ care, too [link added: sorry!].  Continue reading #Obamacare refuses to pay for sick kids’ care in Seattle, Washington. Like it does.

Democratic Party to spend millions shoring up internal support for health care rationing.

Yes, I know what the Politico article said.  But this is what is actually happening.  Via Hot Air Headlines:

That spending has already begun, and its level is unprecedented, experts say, both in sheer volume and balance. According to data from the Campaign Media and Analysis Group, most of the ad spending this year has been to support initiatives pushed by Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress.

“That has almost never been the case in any administration,” said Evan Tracey, CMAG’s chief operating officer.

Through mid-July, CMAG, which uses automated capture technologies to monitor the airwaves, identified $9.7 million supporting Obama’s recently unveiled health care plan, $4.7 million opposing it, and $19.7 million more in generalized spending by groups staking out positions either before Obama detailed his plan or not directly supporting or opposing it.

In other words, as the largely-imaginary deadline on passing a health care rationing bill looms, the Democratic party is planning to use the August recess to hammer at the opposition of… its own members.  Meanwhile, the Republican party is proving to be more than happy at reminding those members about why they’re in opposition in the first place; what makes it doubly entertaining is that, win or lose, tying ‘moderate’ or ‘conservative’ Democrats to health rationing will benefit the GOP in next year’s races.  As Jeff noted earlier, the American people are by and large not particularly upset with their personal level of care, and they are not going to enjoy having it taken over by the government.  Continue reading Democratic Party to spend millions shoring up internal support for health care rationing.