Okay I swear to Cthon that I was
done Tating for the day and then someone posted this astounding piece
of propaganda poorly disguised as news. Now before we even get into
the ridiculousness of the story as a whole let me hit you with an
actual quote from this steaming pile. “Unfortunately, we’ve
been unable to verify Will Sheehan’s story. As the initial source
pointed out, either he is telling a lie or the government is using
early threats to preemptively provoke people to pay the penalty.”
Now in the author's defense, he did at least marginally admit that
Mr.Sheehan may have been lying. Any way onward and downward.
Let us get one thing very straight here. This concept that the Evil
US Government is going to use the sign up process to persecute
Merricans by gathering up their personal data is nothing more than
scare tactics to keep people from using the system. Plain and
simple. Keep in mind I am not denying that the Government is more
than capable of committing such larceny, I am just pointing out that
they don't need to use the ACA website to do it. Every single aspect
of your lives is recorded somewhere in some data base. Got a Cell
Phone? Got a PC with the Interwebz? Hells, get a newspaper or
magazine? Then the US Gov has been tracking you. They can find out
when you went potty this morning and what kind of TP you used so
trust me, they don't need to use the ACA to do it.
But hey let us move past that tiny bit of fact for a second. Suppose
they are doing that? Suppose they are using the data base to track
people who don't sign up for insurance on the site. What exactly
does that tell them using the site alone? All it tells them is that
someone didn't sign up for insurance using the ACA. What doesn't it
tell them? Did the person sign up for insurance through another
source? Do the people already have insurance through another source
and were simply shopping around for a cheaper price? Or maybe it was
some reporter who was simply getting details for a story? So the
idea that the IRS is going to base all of its decisions on the ACA
site is a little stupid...okay it is a lot stupid.
Moving past that one is what I like to consider to be the last nail
in the coffin of nutjobs that believe this crap. Everyone has 180
days to find and get insurance before ANY penalties are incurred. If
you go to the website, it actually tells you that. So the idea that
some poor schmuck was sent a warning the day after he checked out the
website is kind of a tell that stories like this are a bunch of poop.
I fully expect more and more of this Bullshift Propaganda to come out
over the next week or so. After all, now that the ACA is in place
and actual facts and data are coming in, the Reboobicans are
terrified. Suddenly all of the things they have been screaming about
for the past few years is being put to the test so neither side can
no longer through out random numbers and figures to make their
arguments. Let us face it folks, there are few things politicians
fear more than actual facts.
End of Rant
"This concept that the Evil US Government is going to use the sign up process to persecute Merricans by gathering up their personal data is nothing more than scare tactics to keep people from using the system."
ReplyDeleteCheck your facts Rebel. Japanese internment camps. Trail of Tears. The Tuskegee experiments. Look up the SCOTUS case IRS v. US Census Bureau. BATF. NSA spying. Check your facts.
Any time the US government gets its hands on personal information it is in real danger of being used to persecute people.
Once again proving that no one actually reads all of what I wrote only what they want to read. I did not say that the Government does not or has never done this just that they don't need any new system to do so. Any information entered into the new Insurance Search is information that the various Spook Agencies already have in abundance. The information entered into the site is basic stuff like your net income, social security information etc. The site is not gathering up any sort of NEW information so the conspiracy that it is doing so is moronic.
ReplyDeleteAs a general point of order of the three items you mentioned, only one of them might have had anything to do with the gathering of personal information. The Trail of Tears occurred long before the concept even existed and the Tuskegee Experiments were all done on volunteers unaware of the extent of evil being done to them. Neither case involved the Government gathering and misusing Personal Data.
People keep ranting and raving about all of these top secret or not so top secret efforts by the US Gov to gather information and seem completely ignorant of the fact that for the most part, They are doing the Government's job for them. Facebook, Twitter, Cell Phones, Smart Phones etc do a much better job of spying than any agency.
Beyond any of that is my original point. This article and others like it I have seen is nothing but lies and propaganda. The fact that this man says that he was threatened with a lien of 1000s of dollars either means he is lying since the penalties don't start for 180ish days OR more likely he was guilty of some form of income tax evasion and got caught. Course even this is unlikely since, as my wife pointed out, the IRS is furloughed along with everyone else, so there was no one to send the message. The fact that the author of this piece admitted openly that he could not prove whether the man was lying or not is another damning sign. The kind of people that will believe that the ACA website is some secret government plot to steal our lifes are the same kind of idiots that believe that small robot bugs are flying around inserting RFID chips into people's arms so that the government can track them. But feel free to believe what you want.