Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/290721
Greg Stevens, Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor Editorial Board How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@red bluffdailynews.com Phone: 530-527- 2151 ext. 112 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FaCEbook.CoM/ rbdailynEwS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @rEdbluFFnEwS If there's one thing Repub- licans hate even more than health insurance for a grow- ing number of Americans, it's empirical evidence that Obam- acare is insuring a growing number of Americans. As we hit the first enroll- ment deadline, the raw stats demonstrate that the health re- form law is very much alive and threading itself into the na- tional fabric. Well over 6 mil- lion people have signed up on the state-run marketplace ex- changes, nearly matching the original forecast - a minor mir- acle, given last autumn's web- site disaster. Roughly one-third of those signers were previ- ously uninsured. Plus, another 4.5 million previously unin- sured people have signed up for Obamacare, via the expanded Medicaid program that's now available in half the states. Plus, 3 million previously uninsured young adults are now covered under their parents' plans, via a popular Obamacare provision. In other words, at least 9.5 million previously uninsured Americans now have coverage; indeed, the nonpartisan Con - gressional Budget Office says in a new report that the un- insured population will drop more than 20 percent during 2014. Meanwhile, the public opinion vibes are bullish. The latest ABC News-Washington Post poll says that a plurality of Americans now favor Obam - acare, 49 to 48 percent. That's a new high, driven by a surge in Democratic support. And while Republicans continue to jerk their knees for repeal, pollsters at the Kaiser Family Founda - tion say that only 29 percent of Americans want repeal. But we all know how the hat- ers in the conservative cocoon react to facts. The basic mindset: "No this isn't happening!" Or as Republi - can Sen. John Barrasso of Wy- oming insisted, the Obama ad- ministration is simply "cooking the books." By now, of course, we recog- nize the symptoms of this denial psychosis. Like when they in- sist that virtually every climate change scientist on the planet is making stuff up. And when they insisted, in October 2012, that all the pollsters forecasting an Obama victory were just cook - ing the numbers. And when they insisted, in October 2012, that the reported drop in the jobless rate was actually a Labor De- partment plot to cook the stats. I know, I know. Obamacare comes with many caveats; its fine print has yet to be delin - eated. To borrow the immor- tal Donald Rumsfeld phrase, there are many unknown un- knowns. We won't know for awhile how many of the signers have started paying premiums, or what percentage of young healthy people have enrolled, or whether large uninsured communities (such as Hispan - ics) can be persuaded to sign up, or whether insurance com- panies will hike their premi- ums (as they typically did, pre- Obamacare), or how the law's postponed provisions will work when they finally kick in. And I will be shocked if the Republicans don't win big in the autumn midterm elections. Their votes (older white peo - ple) typically dominate the mid- terms, and this year they'll be highly motivated by hatred of Obamacare. President Obama's coalition (younger and racially diverse) isn't well attuned to the midterms, and even if they like Obamacare, their intensity level probably isn't sufficient to pro - pel them to the polls en masse. But even if Republicans take the Senate and agitate anew for repeal in 2015, they'll be forced to face political reality - not just Obama's veto power, but the vir - tually impossible task of stop- ping a train that has already left the station. Anyone who signs up for Obamacare is a voter who would resent Republican med - dling; in politics, the most sui- cidal thing you can do is try to take away something that peo- ple have. And certainly by 2016, the Obamacare constituency will be in the tens of millions. The process hasn't been smooth or pretty - as they say in football, it's "two yards and a cloud of dust" - but the health reform team continues to move the ball downfield despite carp - ing from the sidelines. Ross Douthat, the New York Times' conservative columnist, framed it best in his wake-up message to the haters. Obam - acare, he said, "is taking place on a significant scale." For Re- publicans, the big political risk is that they "would end up strip- ping coverage from millions of newly-insured Americans...But wherever they go and whatever they do, they will have to deal with the reality that Obamacare, thrice-buried, looks very much alive." Or they can just keep tell - ing themselves that reality is merely a mirage. Sounds about right. Dick Polman is the national po- litical columnist at NewsWorks/ WHYY in Philadelphia (news- works.org/polman) and a "Writer in Residence" at the University of Philadelphia. Email him at dick- polman7@gmail.com. dick Polman Obamacare haters can't handle truth Cartoonist's take I canceled my cable tele- vision service awhile back and it's been a welcome trip back to a simpler time in more ways than one. Rabbit ears aren't what they were back in the early '90s when I would hold one end in my right hand while touching the metal doorknob to the bathroom with my left foot trying to see Will Clark's at-bat through the snow of static. Reception yoga? Today the signals pulled out of thin air by antennae are digital and crystal clear. Not only that, each of the net - works broadcasts two or three channels and it's the extra chan- nels, beyond the main network affiliates, that captivate me. For example, ABC is broad- cast on channel 7-1 here in Red Bluff. There's nothing I care for on ABC, but channel 7-2 broad- casts nothing but classic televi- sion shows — shows I grew up watching or watching in reruns. I have to admit, "Gilligan's Is- land," "I Dream of Jeannie" and "F Troop" were far more enjoyable when I was a kid than now, but they are still fun once in awhile. The real treats are "Taxi," "The Bob Newhart Show," "All in the Family," "The Rockford Files," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "The Twilight Zone," "The Odd Cou - ple," etc. Does anything on the major networks come close to even one of these shows? That may be nos - talgia talking. The real charm of watching these older reruns on broadcast television is just that — it's the way I remember en - joying television. It was happen- ing on a schedule and I had to be there if I was going to see it. Showing up is well on its way to becoming a lost art in a world dominated by entertainment on demand. There's something to be said for living in real time, though. When I had a DVR, television became something of a chore. Shows piled up that I had yet to watch. I would find myself set - ting aside time to catch up. Not exactly healthy behavior. I do try to be home Monday nights to catch "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and enjoy it most for its theme song, "Love Is All Around." I have a very distinct mem - ory of my grandfather shushing everyone in the room when the show's theme song started. You see, he had spent years trying to memorize the lyrics so he could sing along all the way through. His handicap? He only heard the song once a week. He couldn't rewind it. He couldn't pause it. He couldn't look up the lyrics online. And I'm sure he missed a week now and then. In the last two minutes I not only looked up the full lyrics and downloaded an mp3 of the song that I can listen to any time I want on my phone, but learned it was written and performed by Sonny Curtis – though often mistakenly credited to Paul Wil - liams – who also wrote "I Fought the Law." During the title sequence, the title is in Peignot font by the way, the woman in the background when Mary Richards tosses her hat into the air is Hazel Fred - erick, who happened to be out shopping that day and wandered through the shot. You get the point. All of this is mildly interesting, but none of it is likely to ever come up again. I'd just as soon spend those couple of minutes practicing my rendition of "Love Is All Around." Of course, I'll have to wait until Monday evening. Chip Thompson can be reached at 527-2151, Ext. 112 or by email at edi - tor@redbluffdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @EditorChip. 545 diamond ave. With each glance and every little movement the process hasn't been smooth or pretty - as they say in football, it's "two yards and a cloud of dust" - but the health reform team continues to move the ball downfield despite carping from the sidelines. Sounding off A look at what readers are saying in comments on our website and on social media. you just have to love California's "catch & release" program! bryan reddish: Comment on story about a woman arrested with a stolen vehicle not surprised in the least, with the release programs in the state and the economy being down, this is bound to have happened. Matt rader: Comment about a Red Bluff police report that arrests are up 28 percent Chip Thompson By Kathleen Parker WaSHiNGtoN » Rush Lim- baugh can relax. The pop- ular "demon of the right" has been replaced at least through the midterms by the Koch brothers, Charles and David. Who? Exactly. Though cable and online news junkies know the names, the vast majority of Americans probably have no idea who the Kochs are. They're about to find out. For the uninitiated, the brothers are libertarian bil - lionaires whose vast indus- tries in petroleum, asphalt, natural gas liquids, coal and ethanol employ 60,000 people. More to the point, they are spending gobs of their own money to sway politics toward free-market principles and away from current government expan - sionist trends. For this, they have been targeted by Democrats, who are not exactly penniless when it comes to advanc - ing their own politicians and policies. Senate Major- ity Leader Harry Reid broke down all barriers to proto- col recently when he called the Kochs "un-American." Charles Koch, in an op- ed in The Wall Street Jour - nal, responded by calling Democrats "collectivists." "Instead of encouraging free and open debate, collec - tivists strive to discredit and intimidate opponents," wrote Koch. "They engage in char- acter assassination. (I should know, as the almost daily target of their attacks.) This is the approach that Arthur Schopenhauer described in the 19th century, that Saul Alinsky famously advocated in the 20th, and that so many despots have infamously practiced. Such tactics are the antithesis of what is re - quired for a free society — and a telltale sign that the collectivists do not have good answers." Billionaires, ya gotta love 'em. But they're so much eas - ier to hate. Thus, Democrats are trying to make the Koch brothers the new face of the Republican Party. Appointing a person — or a pair of brothers — as the human face of the "enemy" is not a novel idea. During a previous election cycle, the Obama administration identified Limbaugh as the true leader of the Republi - can Party. This was an easy sell as many Republicans genuflected to Limbaugh, even apologizing when they might have offended him. The more the left hates Limbaugh, the richer he gets. (BEG ITAL)Oh, please, Mr. Democrat, hate my guts some more.(END ITAL) Mr. Limbaugh, take your bow, it's Koch time. The doubling down on the Kochs has been in play for some months, advanced by frequent mentions among liberal commentators who, though perhaps not as in - fluential as Limbaugh, have large followings. Reid suffers no remorse and fired back that he was delighted if people now knew who those un-Ameri - cans are. The more who de- spise the Kochs, the better. The Kochs aren't just lead- ers of the Republican Party, as Democrats are propos- ing; they are the face of the Haves. To dislike the Kochs is to dislike the wealthy in general. This is really the heart of the Democratic proposition. As the midterm elections take shape around the de - bate about income inequal- ity, the Kochs personify the uncaring-est of the 1 per- centers. Allowing the super- wealthy to disproportion- ately influence political out- comes may indeed be bad for the democratic process — and that's of legitimate con- cern to all. But one's eyes should be wide open when people are singled out as un- American. What's next? A Senate committee investi - gating such un-American ac- tivities as advocating free- market principles or pursu- ing capitalist endeavors? Of course, I'm kidding. That could never happen here, except it sort of al - ready has. When Reid called the Kochs un-Ameri- can, a powerful government official fired a shot across the bow of two private citi- zens who have acted within the law while contribut- ing wealth to the economy through employment. Reid owes the Kochs — and the American people — an apology. Editorial Democrats' strategy: Demonizing the Kochs OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, april 5, 2014 » MORE AT FaCEbook.CoM/rbdailynEwS AND TwiTTEr.CoM/rEdbluFFnEwS a4