So it all boils down to this.

The GOP does not believe health care should be a government responsibility. War, prisons, executions, walls to keep immigrants out, tax breaks and subsidies for billionaires, restricting and limiting voting, these are all the governments business, but not health care. Unless that health care has to do with women’s reproduction, that of course is an acceptable place for GOP noses to go poking.

One of the most bizarre facts about this showdown is that so few people know what its about. Polls are showing that people do not know that the Affordable Care Act and Obamacare are the same thing. Score one for the GOP.

People are scared of Obamacare because its intrusive, violates privacy and crushes job creation. People are supportive of the Affordable Care Act because it allows their kids to stay on their insurance longer, it doesn’t penalize people with pre-existing conditions and and covers the catastrophic health situations that have been leading to bankruptcy and foreclosure over the last 30 years.

So what is the pending disaster of government shut down all about? Obamacare. The ideology that the government should step in and help regulate an industry that routinely gouges, screws and crushes folks when they are at their weakest by stuffing them full of fine print and wrapping them up in red tape.

Its hopeless.

I lived without health insurance for many years and when it was once offered at the nonprofit I worked at the cost was so great (to me) that it was not even a consideration. I bet there will still be some of that going on after ACA is implemented. I am surprised how little anyone talks about how many people are in the slice between Medicaid expansion and actually being able to afford the cost of insurance. All the folks likely to opt-out or hope they aren’t noticed. Calculated risk.

Living life in a low wage job, even if its not paycheck to paycheck, is a high risk proposition. You bet everyday that you will not get sick, that your car won’t die, that the cops won’t stop you for that muffler and find out you’re driving without insurance. Making more that $15,000 a year, but less than enough to have savings, is a precarious place to be. Made more precarious by the sledgehammer the GOP is using to whack at the US economy with this grandstanding.

So much to thank the GOP for this year. November is coming up fast.