Posted on 07/03/2012 5:32:48 AM PDT by IbJensen
Mitch McConnell is in the headlines again for saying the odds are against those wanting repeal of Obamacare. “[I]t’s a lot harder to undo something than it is to stop it in the first place,” he said in part.
For once, let’s give McConnell the benefit of the doubt and suggest he is talking about the present Congress, not the next Congress, though in actual context he seems to mean both. Let’s be charitable.
The truth is, I don’t expect Republicans in Congress to be fully committed to repeal next year even if they have Mitt Romney in the White House, a Republican Senate, and hold the House.
We’ve played this game before. And yes, we are being played.
We are being played by a group of Republican leaders who have consistently shown in the past few years to lack the testicular fortitude to do what’s right when it counts — they are the John Robertses of Congress.
Republicans, at this point, are all about drawing lines in the sand against the Democrats only to wipe them away with their feet.
The debt ceiling? Cave.
The continuing resolution? Cave.
Republicans have excelled at theater and not much else. “Oh, pshaw!” you say. “They only control one house of one branch of the federal government. What could they do?”
In February, Mitch McConnell had the option of bringing Jim DeMint’s amendment to the floor of the Senate to force another vote on repeal. He wouldn’t. Why? He didn’t want to make Harry Reid mad.
When the blowback was so great after that news leaked, Americans for Limited Government and other groups demanded McConnell get in line or get out of the way. He folded like a cheap suit and in so doing promised March would be a month of fighting about repeal.
Nothing happened.
So now McConnell says he will force the issue before the election and then make repeal of Obamacare priority number one if the GOP takes back the Senate, but the odds are against full repeal. This is code for Republican leaders, timid as they are and driven by polling, keeping parts of Obamacare instead of doing full repeal and starting over.
The truth is many Republicans like parts of Obamacare. The truth is a number of Senate Republicans were willing to vote back in December of 2009 that the individual mandate was unconstitutional while keeping their names on healthcare legislation by Senator Bob Bennett that had an individual mandate.
The truth is with Republican leaders like we have in both Houses, who needs the Democrats? It was not just Democrats responsible for $16 trillion in debt. Even now, Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell and the rest are trying to find ways to weasel out of paying down the debt and bring back earmarks.
When Republicans won’t fight on their ground, they just won’t fight. John Boehner has to have David Winston, a pollster, tell him up from down, and Mitch McConnell only does WWE fights — lots of theater, but a predetermined outcome negotiated in advance with Harry Reid that can get both bases fired up while doing as little to advance freedom as possible. Maybe Linda McMahon in the Senate will do McConnell some good.
There is a truth that hurts Mitch McConnell. The truth is, Jim DeMint has now been joined by Ron Johnson, Mike Lee, Rand Paul, and others. The truth is they see what must be done. Send them men like Ted Cruz to help force McConnell’s hand.
And then there is this. Jim DeMint is parting ways with the Senate Conservatives Fund. In its place will be a Super PAC called Senate Conservatives Action. Unlike DeMint’s prior effort, this Super PAC can take unlimited money. Conservatives with cash can pony up and force Mitch McConnell’s hand.
Let’s be very clear here — voting to repeal Obamacare is not enough. Repealing it is.
Yep, it really matters not that 0bamacare is “the law of the land”. 0bama & the ‘rats could declare that you must be able to fart a wish-granting angel and get whatever you want - they can’t legislate non-reality.
The system is going to collapse, and those who are dependent on it will... simply, they will die.
You are right and that is exactly what is going to happen whether we elect Mitt or not. These fools have no intention of cutting the size of govt and attempting to balance the budget.
If you are working on stocking up one year of food supplies just keep at it.
The obvious answer to the question :What is the Republicans alternative to Obamacare?” is to answer :
FREEDOM!
But look at at all these mental giants like Mcconnell and Boehner try to come come up with something.. it’s so simple.
They need to replace Boehner he looks like a guy that I see at the country club half drunk all the time and looking for a golfing partner. Put that blond haired guy in there from S.C.
What's going through their minds: "I've got to justify my role in this government by coming up with something the government can do." and "I know that siding with individual liberty is the right thing to do, but that does nothing to empower ME."
“Mitch McConnell is in the headlines again for saying the odds are against those wanting repeal of Obamacare.”
Odds against? No it isn’t, Mitch. You just don’t want to do it. You don’t have the will. You RINOs love to moan and say you’re going to do this and that, but in the end—you never do. Because you’re part of the problem, part of the treason.
Attention Tea Party Members.
Find a true Conservative to run against this disgrace and Kentucky will have two GOOD senators.
The problem is...that Erick is a glass chewer and thusly his memory is faulty. Those bills were out there to flood the zone, and allow GOP talking heads, whoever was on point, to refer to a bill per talking point needs. Bennett's bill was an outlier and I don't recall it getting any traction whatsoever. The two the GOP put forth that just barely got any coverage were Coburn's SB1099 Patient's Choice Act, and McCrisis had his Health Tax Credit.
You must admit that Republicrats have done nothing but add to the convolution of this ridiculous, evil political system that ignores the Constitution and the people who are supposed to be served by a truly representative government. Rather, this is one that has pushed, shoved, and squanderously spent towards achieving (in their small minds) the ‘utopia’* that the USSR would never come close to.
*-A huge government monster controlling all phases of the citizens’ existance.
This is why the Republican Party will go the way of the Whigs, and why I am now a member of the Constitution Party.
” Republicans, at this point, are all about drawing lines in the sand against the Democrats only to wipe them away with their feet.
The debt ceiling? Cave.
The continuing resolution? Cave.
Republicans have excelled at theater and not much else. “Oh, pshaw!” you say. “They only control one house of one branch of the federal government. What could they do?”
In February, Mitch McConnell had the option of bringing Jim DeMint’s amendment to the floor of the Senate to force another vote on repeal. He wouldn’t. Why? He didn’t want to make Harry Reid mad. “
There you are.
Now where does such an attitude come from? /s
The lines are in chalk and it's raining.
Fascism is now all the rage in Amerika, the repubican leadership could have have stopped this bill in congress and did nothing, I have always said they wanted it to pass that’s why they helped it pass in the first place.
This bill will never be repealed, there is only one way tyrants can be removed from office.
They could not have stopped the bill in Congress and they did not help pass it.
That should have been the topic of the article and the call to action...not tucking that away in the end. The article is a defeatist, woe is us the sky is falling and there's nothing we can do about it now or ever mentality that is downright depressing to read and pretty much says "give up - it's over...no hope. Just forget it."
“They could not have stopped the bill in Congress and they did not help pass it.”
WRONG!
To make a party read a bill in to the record in both houses of congress all that is required is for ONE (1) person to object to it not being read in to the record. The republican leadership told ALL members to NOT force a reading of the health care bill.
That is how they aided the democrats in the passage of this bill.
It also takes to memebers of the minority party to vote yea to get the bill out of committee, McConnel put the two biggest liberal republicans on the committee and let them vote the bill out of committee.
Reading of the bill could not have stopped passage. It does not require two members of the minority party to vote a bill out of committee.
While long, the bill was not infinite in length. This would ultimately have had no effect on passage. The GOP did not have the numbers at the time.
It also takes to memebers of the minority party to vote yea to get the bill out of committee, McConnel put the two biggest liberal republicans on the committee and let them vote the bill out of committee.
No it does not - it takes a majority vote of the overall membership. I don't know where you got this from, but it is not accurate.
The reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Feb. 2 on a straight party-line vote. http://townhall.com/columnists/phyllisschlafly/2012/02/07/day_of_reckoning_for_violence_against_women_act/page/full/
Senate Committee Approves Health Care Bill By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN Voting on strict party lines, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved a bill on Wednesday to revamp the nation’s health care system, as Democrats said that the legislation held the promise of more universal health coverage and more effective and affordable medical care while Republicans argued that the measure was unaffordable and would lead not to better care but to the denial of it. The committee vote was 13 to 10. The acting committee chairman, Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, had made clear from the start that his panel would bend little when it came to the top priorities of Senate Democrats and the Obama administration, including on a provision to create a government-run health insurance plan to compete with private insurers that Republicans insisted was a deal-breaker. In the end however, Republicans held their ranks...http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/senate-committee-approves-health-care-bill/
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.