The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka “Obamacare”, has been controversial from the start. Following heated debate and razor thin votes in both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate it was finally signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010.
Bringing major changes to the healthcare of millions of Americans is a massive undertaking and the debate surrounding Obamacare has continued unabated fueled by the less than stellar launch of the Healthcare.gov website. Obamacare is just plain too big, too expensive and, well, too visible to not make a really great target for all kinds of jokes.
This book is a collection of humor about Obamacare. The law. The website. President Obama and his administration. Republicans and Democrats. Senators and Representatives. Insurance companies. Consultants. Nobody gets a pass. Jokes, mock news stories, top ten lists, poems, groaners, songs and more. Some jokes are timely adaptations of old classic jokes but many are original and have never been published before; some of the items are actually true! Many items are laced with appearances by famous people and jokes about other current events further liven up the material.
Each chapter takes humorous aim at a different aspect of Obamacare:
"Obamacare" has a little of everything – some administration, some politics, some website, etc.
“Obamacare Website” focuses in on the disastrous development and launch of the Healthcare.gov website.
“Administrators, Staffers and Bureaucrats” takes a topsy turvy look at the Health and Human Services brain trust that should have made Obamacare work but didn’t.
“Politics and Politicians” takes a jaded look at those denizens of the beltway and how they operate.”
“Media” takes a look at the reporters and pundits who should have been alerting us to the impending Obamacare disaster but didn’t.
“Obamapourri” takes a humorous look at President Obama - the man at the top and the other people who have been running things with him.
There is even a bonus chapter, “Obamacare Late Night”, that features some of the best of the quips and one liners about Obamacare from news and the late night talk shows. And the index, “Who’s Who”, tells you the famous characters used in the various jokes.
We hope everyone (maybe even some members of the Obama administration - although that may be a stretch :-) will enjoy this eclectic collection of humorous material and view it not as mean spirited but rather in the tradition of Jonathon Swift, Sinclair Lewis, Mad Magazine, National Lampoon, the Onion, late night comedians and other purveyors of humor, parody and satire.
We didn’t write the Obamacare law - don’t blame us!! It was having plenty of problems on its own long before we got here. If you don’t think a bureaucratic quagmire of this magnitude is the least bit humorous in one sense we’re in violent agreement with you. Millions of Americans are having their personal healthcare choices affected in major ways not anticipated when then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi famously told us, “But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.” And that’s not funny.
On the other hand, love it or hate it, Obamacare is the law of the land and sometimes a little humor can make a point far better than a room full of politicians. And laughter, if not the best medicine, is certainly a good medicine. Take a look inside - we may not be able to make you forget all of the difficulties that Obamacare represents, but we may be able to convince you to at least smile at them a little.
Tim Barry has been in and around the high technology companies since 1974. Starting out in Silicon Valley as a semiconductor engineer at legendary semiconductor pioneer Fairchild Semiconductor, his career has spanned the start up of the personal computer and Internet eras and included a variety of positions in hardware and software product development, marketing, senior management and independent consulting.
The holder of eight patents; the author of five books plus numerous articles on the personal computer industry, the editor of over 50 computer books and a former Infoworld columnist, Mr. Barry is currently the President and CEO of Intelligent Technologies, Inc., an Internet consulting firm he founded in 1998 that also operates a number of niche market ecommerce stores under it’s ITI Web Stores brand (www.itiwebstores.com). In his spare time he plays the piano, consults, writes, serves on boards of directors and bores his friends with tales of the halcyon years of the personal computer industry.
A long time collector of jokes and other humorous material, Mr. Barry is also an amateur stand up comedian. The Totally Unauthorized Obamacare Joke Book, is the fourth in his series of Totally Unauthorized Joke Books™. The first three members of the series were The Totally Unauthorized Microsoft Joke Book™, The Totally Unauthorized Microsoft Joke Book™, 2nd Edition and The Totally Unauthorized Enron Joke Book™. All are collections of topical jokes, top 10 lists, original poems and other humorous material.
Mr. Barry holds Bachelor of Science degrees in Electronics Engineering and Computer Science from Oregon State University. He is a life member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a member of the board of advisers of the Oregon State University school of New Media Journalism and he has served as an adviser to the Vancouver, Washington campus of the Washington State University School of Business.
