Posted on 03/10/2010 4:56:27 AM PST by Kaslin
There seems to be growing optimism among some Republicans that if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi finagles the votes to pass Obamacare, the GOP triumphantly will sweep into power and immediately repeal it.
Though short-term GOP gains are almost certain, there are numerous problems with this kind of quixotic thinking.
To begin with, there exists almost no historical evidence to suggest Republicans will possess either the fortitude or the power to undo a massive government entitlement program.
Can we trust them? Most of you will remember it was the Republican Party's leadership that pressured conservatives to vote for the fiscally irresponsible Medicare Part D program in 2003. (Democrats like to argue that this illustrates GOP hypocrisy. Perhaps. With Obamacare, the GOP has a chance at redemption.)
Then there are conspicuous problems to consider. Republicans do not possess 60 votes in the Senate -- and likely won't for a while. Best-case scenario: They will have to deal with a president who will veto their efforts to undo the sole "accomplishment" of his presidency.
Obama spent last week campaigning for health care reform, at one point getting some college-age fans worked up about all the free stuff -- "free" preventive care and "free" checkups and so forth -- they would receive if his version of health care reform passed.
Which brings us to another stumbling block. If health care is now a "right" and "free" to an ever-growing group of Americans -- people who believe stuff can be had for "free" -- are Republicans really going to snatch it away from them?
You can picture the hideous debate already, as Republicans fold in the face of accusations that they are working for the murderous profit-mongers against the underprivileged victims of a wretched capitalistic system. (Even today, Jim Bunning stood nearly alone.)
Admittedly, the GOP also has a few things going for it.
If enacted, perhaps no other major federal program will have been more unpopular with the American people. A new Rasmussen survey claims only 25 percent of Americans believe Obamacare would "help the U.S. economy." Fifty percent of the nation believes it would hurt the economy, and 78 percent of those polled believe the middle class would be paying the bill.
Sixty-six percent of Americans believe the plan would increase the federal deficit, and 10 percent, apparently, will believe anything.
Republicans are now also free to unsheathe a seldom-used weapon to push through legislation. The Democrats have already made the case that ignoring committee hearings and relying on unilateral parliamentary tricks -- despite the objections of the lowly proles -- is acceptable, as long as you deem a bill important enough.
Republicans also have the advantage of utilizing the Democrats' own deception on cost estimates.
Most of the imagined benefits of Obamacare would not kick in until 2014, so Republicans have a few years' cushion to move forward as seniors lose their Medicare Advantage program and taxes begin to rise along with premiums.
But none of that can erase history. Once government infiltrates, it rarely retreats. There are precious few examples of federal programs shirking rather than growing -- most often in extraordinary ways.
Democrats know it.
Perhaps a re-branded Republican Party will be able to deflect the emotionalism of liberal arguments and reject the lure of spending, though the past decade hasn't exactly inspired confidence.
Soon enough, we'll find out whether the GOP has transformed into a party that matches its rhetoric. But repealing Obamacare? That's a tall order.
****Most of the imagined benefits of Obamacare would not kick in until 2014, so Republicans have a few years’ cushion to move forward as seniors lose their Medicare Advantage program and taxes begin to rise along with premiums.****
Not funding it should kill it!!!!
Which brings us to another stumbling block. If health care is now a “right” and “free” to an ever-growing group of Americans — people who believe stuff can be had for “free” — are Republicans really going to snatch it away from them?
yeh- it free now....how many people are going to believe its’ free when the bill comes rolling in??
This is only modern day TAX SLAVERY.
Where there is a will there is a way.
If the people revolt in enough states and they will, so be it, we will fix it. We will fix their wagons, GOOD! Period. End of STORY.
I want free groceries. Eating is a right.
I want free housing. A home is a right. (0 mortgage relief)
Ain't that the truth!
The Results of Legal Plunder; The Law; Frederic Bastiat 1801-1850
Men naturally rebel against the injustice of which they are victims. Thus, when plunder is organized by law for the profit of those who make the law, all the plundered classes try somehow to enter — by peaceful or revolutionary means — into the making of laws. According to their degree of enlightenment, these plundered classes may propose one of two entirely different purposes when they attempt to attain political power: Either they may wish to stop lawful plunder, or they may wish to share in it.
Woe to the nation when this latter purpose prevails among the mass victims of lawful plunder when they, in turn, seize the power to make laws! Until that happens, the few practice lawful plunder upon the many, a common practice where the right to participate in the making of law is limited to a few persons. But then, participation in the making of law becomes universal. And then, men seek to balance their conflicting interests by universal plunder. Instead of rooting out the injustices found in society, they make these injustices general. As soon as the plundered classes gain political power, they establish a system of reprisals against other classes. They do not abolish legal plunder. (This objective would demand more enlightenment than they possess.) Instead, they emulate their evil predecessors by participating in this legal plunder, even though it is against their own interests.
It is as if it were necessary, before a reign of justice appears, for everyone to suffer a cruel retribution — some for their evilness, and some for their lack of understanding.
The Victims of Lawful Plunder; The Law; Frederic Bastiat 1801-1850
Great article by David Harsanyi. Thanks for posting.
The ‘health care reform’ bill is designed to ‘fundamentally transform’ (according to Obama’s speech on Oct 2008) the United States
We will become another welfare state with high taxes and chronic unemployment like all the other ‘industrialized nations with universal health care’
The womb-to-the-tomb welfare state will eventually collapse under its own weight.
I’m going to predict gun control will be a meaningless phrase after that happens.
The Republicans couldn’t even repeal the Assault Weapons Ban that swept them into power in 1994, and that was a simple matter. They will never repeal Obamacare.
THAT is the key, right there. If it can't be repealed, then starve it out of existence. There are always ways to mitigate the damage.
If the Republicans can’t repeal it or find some way to nullify it, we then need another remedy. There are multiple options for that remedy.
I urge people to join their local GOP. Get in there and focus solely on one important thing that touches all other issues: Shrink government. Find candidates that will shrink the power and scope of government.
We need people at all levels of government from local to federal.
They don’t have to repeal it. Just incrementally dismantle the parts that tear down insurance and replace them with things that strengthen competition across state lines and cut fraud. Then another bill to privatize the public option
Why “repeal”. That sounds drastic and ugly. How about “modify”. Obama’s already said to not fear the current bill because it can be modified after passage.
Republicans can wave their ugly sticks and in return lose the next election.
The assault weapons ban expired. The GOP could not repeal it because it never had a congressional majority with a GOP president until January of 2003.
Don’f forget that many states already provide free (or heavily subsidized) utilities, car, internet, cell phone and college education. Half of “workers” already pay zero or negative income tax, living off the backs of us slaves. Obama is going to stretch this to 60% or 65%. I don’t see a way back from that point except for the violence like you see in Greece when you cut back on the freebies. Just look at the March 4 protests and riots on college and high school campuses across the US caused by cutbacks of loans and outright subsidies. The “education ought to be free” mentality is thoroughly embedded in our kids. Even my own daughter asked me if I wouldn’t want education to be free in the U.S. so I would not have to pay these exorbitant (and 99% Democrat controlled) college tuition costs.
After November 2010, If republicans take over the house they will control the pursestrings, so what they can do is zero out all funding which will kill it in all but name.
If they could repeal Prohibition, they BETTER repeal this trash if it passes.
There's a FIRST time for everything..
I am personally doing everything I can not to have it come to this point, but 'never say never' when it comes to getting rid of something as corrupted as this bill.
If a Republican can take Ted Kennedy's seat, then anything is possible.
The problem with that kind of talk is it only advances the socialist thinking movement in the democrat party and defuses opposition..
One caller into the Michael Medved show, rebroadcast on WIND am 560 early am 3/10, asked; Why does Congress have its own Health care coverage delivered by Merecedes stretch Limozine (unlike Canada where there are no “exemptions”.) ? To which Medved replied (paraphrased) rather dissmisively “Well they’re on the government plan”.
Medved made it clear to me, Medved doesn’t get it. I’m not clear if the congressional health plan is co-pay (ie takenout out of of their $174,000 annual plus salary if they’re not on some committee or not. I rather think its another “perk” and there is no co-pay.
One way to get these birds to drop this this horrific boondoggle is to circulate petitions demanding that whats good for the goose is good for the gander. With a petition stating by referendum there be no exemptions, and that they like the Canadian politicians would have to travel out of the country to get good medical service.
http://www.theusmat.com/
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