Cartoons: for many the doctor is out

After 7 years of trying to repeal Obamacare, the House Republicans have come up with its replacement-- the  American Health Care Act (AHCA).  The Atlantic reports in The People Helped by the Republican Health-Care Bill stating:

Though most old and sick people will be worse off under the GOP bill, it might be a boon—real or perceived—for people earning just above the Obamacare subsidy cutoff.

If it doesn't help sick people, what's it for? They could have spent the time working to make Obamacare better. Wikipedia gives a history of the GOP's efforts to repeal Obamacare (ACA).

Here are some of the editorial cartoonists' comments.

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Steve Sack, The Week

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RJ Matson, The Week

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Adam Zyglis, The Week

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Meanwhile President Trump lives in a conspiracy theorist's world.

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Jack Ohman, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: Foggy Bottom reality

Saturday Night Live (SNL) is doing such a good job of satirizing this administration that the line between fact and fiction (if there is one) is becoming even harder to discern. BTW, the term Foggy Bottom is associated with the U.S. State Department, now somewhat defunct.

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Phil Hands, The Week

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So, Congress will dump Obamacare (ACA) without having a replacement? Sad.

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Michael Ramirez, The Week

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Even credentialed psychologists question Trump's mental health--from afar. One credentialed psychologist is says he's just a  "world class narcissist."

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Tom Stiglich, The Week

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It's the poor--you know, the people at the bottom of the economic heap--that reap what's left over when the power games end.

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Joe Heller, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: it's all in who's looking at it

Here are some viewpoints you may or may not find laughable.

Many news sources are reporting the demise of ObamaCare, despite its success in some states. The insurance companies are one of the parties contributing to its demise. (In case the print is too small to read, here's what it says: "We're pulling out of the ObamaCare marketplace. We can't continue to sell insurance to the poor if they're going to insist on using it.")

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Drew Sheneman, The Week

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Here's a sweet headline from MarketWatch: Your baby monitor may have contributed to last week’s massive internet hack.

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Dan Wasserman, The Week

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For all the worry about funding another war in the Middle East, we've already funded one right here in America.

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Joe Heller, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: bashing away

Judging from the cartoons currently being shown on The Week's cartoon page, the cartooning world has given way to bashing your political opponent--and anyone else within range. So my selection today is about any topic not directly related to waging political war. This is what I found.

Bill Clinton was misquoted as describing "Obamacare as 'crazy',” according to New York Magazine in 7 Reasons To Stop Freaking Out About Obamacare.

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Nate Beeler, The Week

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While Capitalism in the U.S. isn't working particularly well, what with income inequality and favors for the wealthy, Socialism in Venezuela is crashing. It seems everyone is in the same stew and the pot is empty--In a hungry Venezuela, buying too much food can get you arrested.

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Michael Ramirez, The Week

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Rick McKee comments for those of us caught in the political middle.

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Rick McKee, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons and more: Government Waste

While we all joke about the snafu (military slang) that is Obamacare signup, it is an excellent example of how the Federal government works at present. This article at TIME Magazine offers an explanation of what was going on behind the scenes, "Traffic Didn’t Crash the Obamacare Site Alone. Bad Coding Did Too."

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Scott Stantis, "How The Glitch Stole Healthcare," USNews

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The site Outside the Beltway has an article titled "Is Government Inefficient?" with the cartoon shown below.  Here is an observation from the article:

While some federal agencies have made good-faith attempts to become more efficient, most still carry the dead weight of unnecessary overhead, outmoded business processes, infrastructure that is no longer aligned to their mission, and underperforming organizational structures.

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David Horsey, "The Federal Bureaucracy," OutsideTheBeltway

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One of the current problems is that the Fed uses a lot of contractors (aka outsourcing) with little coordination and oversight.  The article "Outsourced Government: Have We Gone Too Far?" discusses this.  During the Clinton administration, also that of G.W. Bush, attempts was made to 'reinvent government' (Wikipedia), but they fell by the wayside, as analyzed in this lessons-learned paper.  According to Wikipedia's NPR (National Partnership for Reinventing Government) article: "It was the eleventh federal reform effort in the 20th century."

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Paul Noth, "We Don't Need to Reinvent theWheel...," New Yorker

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In the case of government reform, reinventing the wheel may be needed.  If you feel something should be done, take a look at Citizens Against Government Waste.  The movement addresses more than government spending.

As for the dyfunction of the Obamacare site, some are suggesting that the NSA can help.

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Jack Ohman, Obamacare-NSA, USNews

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-- Marge

Cartoons: Obamacare

I know, I know, it's all you hear about lately.  But the cartoonists are having a field day -- here are 6 of 141 political cartoons on Obamacare, found at the US News website.

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Tom Stiglich, USNews

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Drew Sheneman, USNews

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Drew Sheneman on Obamacare, USNews

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Michael Ramirez, USNews

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Drew Sheneman on Obamacare and small business, USNews

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Walt Handelsman on fixing Obamacare, USNews

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I just tried HealthCare.gov, the site for signing for Obamacare, and it worked just fine (loading the front page, that is). 

-- Marge

Cartoons: the Republican circus

Steve Sack, "On Lockdown," The Week

That the Republicans in Congress are holding the government hostage over Obamacare really twists my knickers.  Having lost count of the number of times they've voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA, aka Obamacare, I checked today.  At present it's 42 times.  Fortunately Democrats in the Senate have given the government and Obamacare a little more time.
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Steve Benson, "GOP Circus," Cagle.com

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Michael Ramirez, "Leading From Behind," The Week

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Jim Morin, Miami Herald/McClatchy

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Marshall Ramsey, "Shut Down the Government," USNews

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Mike Luckovich "The Grumpy Old Party," The Week

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A huge thanks to these fine cartoonists for their insights.

-- Marge