so Adam has insurance thru my work, but because of obamacare he now has to pay his work to not get fined for not getting the insurance thru them that they now have to have/offer?! what? this makes no sense to me. kinda off subject of the shutdown. but wasn't it over obamacare?
In part, yes. The shutdown was the congress republicans lashing out against a lot of government spending that has been going on over the past five years. As you might be familiar with, we always hear about how there is this budget of expenses that no one in Washington seems capable of making or agreeing to, so we just kick the can down the road and just shrug it off until is shows up again. So instead of making our deadlines, we just extend them. That budget is how much money the government plans to spend and the things it plans to spend its money on. And since no one has turned anything in, there is no set plan as to what and how Washington D.C. plans to spend taxpayers money although it hasn't stopped them from spending in the first place. The democrats want to extend how much money they can use while the Republicans want to keep it as small as possible.
So, we have these Republicans in Congress who believe that continuing to just spend and spend will cause a fiscal collapse. Things like Obamacare are considered to be huge expenses that in theory sound nice but are not actually sustainable. They can only tax the people so much and get so much back and they can only print so much money before it all becomes useless with inflation. Rather than let things proceed, Congress opted to shut down the government in the hopes they could reset the board in their favor and obviously it did not work. They only thing they managed to do is get decked by the media left and right while the Senate and the Executive Branch hammed up how backwards the whole affair was.
As for your insurance issues, I feel Egann might be more knowledgeable on the subject.
Well, kinda.
I wasn't watching too closely, but I was under the impression that the House passed a budget which funded the government EXCEPT Obamacare weeks ago, some time before the shutdown, but the democrats responded by saying "no, we're the majority party and Obamacare is law." Nobody blinked, and so shutdown. The budget became an inevitable secondary issue, but it was always basically a talking point to pad out speeches with. Truth be told, little government Republicans don't really exist anymore, at least not in Washington. They'll talk about it because they know about 25% of the Republican party base is concerned about it, but budget cuts rarely pass even under Republican leadership. Regardless of party platform, the majority party will always spend an incredible amount of money on pet projects, wars, and so forth while the minority party moans about how wasteful it is. It's more a complaint of "we're not getting to spend that money with you" than "your spending is wasteful."
About your insurance, frogmonkies. It's impossible to say what manner of insanity Adam's boss has gotten into. Employment is how most people get insurance because employers can get bulk discounts, so I'd guess the boss just bought 'errybody insurance to get the cheapest rate...and if it's not best for individual workers? Tough. I'll just fine you for not using it. Situations like this, where both partners are working a job which offers healthcare for a family, are actually pretty common, but this is the first time I've heard of someone FINING you for not using it. Imagine a situation where both jobs fined you for not using their healthcare! It's a very tricky operation because if the boss *is* bluffing (and I think he is) then calling him out on it might put you guys in the crosshairs of some retribution. I hope you don't have that kind of boss, but it's something to keep in the back of your mind.
