The ACA is a mandate. It is also a rediculously expensive step to socialized single payer. Soon docs will know what it's like to be an airline pilot! It will take your social security from you if you are say under about age 50, in my opinion, but you will keep paying FICA and pay for more expensive healthcare, of lesser quality and access, for those that have worked their life to have access to it.
I was no fan of the inflated healthcare costs to give all access to at least the emergency room. I am no fan of the lack of tort reforms driving up an increment to healthcare. Since congress couldn't actually work the problems, just kick the can, it's a hollow loss and hollow victory. Unless you really travel the world, you don't know of the dollar's true decline in the last 10 years.
You won't see it in your stock portfolio directly, but if you take your nice 10-20% gains and do not realize it is in part because the dollar is falling so you get more of them and are at the real average 7% gains- stay in school.
The slick trick is dropping folks off full-time employment to avoid the ACA burden on employers; dropping the growth of private sector core businesses will hide in the shadows. You'll see the military shrink to a police force again, and stay there, in the next few years. Making a full time work week around 32 hours will be the final move to socializing the sheeple- of which the vocal four or so here might catch on at some point.
If you lived the 32 hour work week under "this sequestration", you can only imagine what the more vocal sections of the work force will dredge up when it hits them.
There won't be enough disposable income to grow the middle class or move around big business. Killing the true middle class will make us look like every other country.
(edit you to "your" and expense to "expensive", plus a few cogency clean-ups. Getting lazy w/ a real keyboard and no autocorrect!)