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1,200 NASA Layoffs, Shuttle Fuel Tank Plant Shuts Down
As the space shuttle program winds down, 1,200 NASA workers were laid off today, and thousands more will lose their jobs in the months ahead. "Many shuttle workers held out hope that they could find new jobs in the Constellation program, which would have included two new rocket systems and a new crew module to transport astronauts into space. From the beginning, Constellation was plagued by underfunding. This year, Obama killed the program's future funding because of budget overruns and because it was behind schedule. That could affect more than 20,000 workers along Florida's space coast, according to Rice." This comes alongside news that Lockheed Martin has stopped work at the production plant that supplied 136 external fuel tanks for the space shuttles since 1973.
No, you didn't fix it for me, don't presume to know what I intended. The standard Slashdot meme is against the author, musician and actor, with the distribution company being a separate target for fun.
I absolutely believe that my company will be unable to afford to provide health insurance in 2014. Along with most other small businesses, all the people will be dumped into the "Exchanges" where the government will be forced to subsidize health care for the masses.
This isn't a "public option" but is simply subsidizing health funds that we have today. It isn't insurance because insurance is risk management. They have regulated the risk management out, so it is just a fund where you pay in and maybe (just maybe) you get your health care paid for.
Anyone that actually believed the lies about not having to switch to the new government approved health plans was deluded. Anyone that believed this would cost less was equally deluded. Your plan in 2014 will certainly cover every possible alternative. You will wonder why a 40 year old man has maternity coverage. You will wonder why someone 25 has coverage for nursing home care. But you will be paying for all of this care either directly or indirectly through taxes.
The only way this gets to be affordable at all is to make sure the current situation where most of the spending is in the last year of life changes to match how it is in most other countries. They have long wondered in Europe why our health care spending was so skewed like that when theirs was not. We are about to find out.