Posted on 09/24/2013 7:16:04 PM PDT by neverdem
The standard line from Democrats is that Congress passed ObamaCare and it’s the law of the land, end of discussion. That disguises the ugly truth about how the Affordable Care Act became law, why it’s running into so many problems, and why it is passionately hated by conservatives.
Consider a little history: The Social Security Act was enacted in 1935 with three times as many GOP yes votes as nays in the Senate and five times more yes ballots than nos in the House. In 1965, with President Lyndon Johnson working his masterly legislative prowess, nearly half of Senate Republicans backed Medicare, and in the House it got more GOP yes votes than no votes.
Contrast that to ObamaCare — it passed without a Republican vote for it in the Senate or House.
Now, you might argue today’s Republican Party is different from, say, the one in 1965 that stamped a bipartisan seal of approval of Medicare. But the Democratic Party is different as well, as evidenced by its steamrolling the Affordable Care Act through Congress without any serious effort to incorporate significant Republican health care ideas.
It’s not like there was no bipartisan approach to reform. Republican Robert Bennett of Utah joined with Democrat Ron Wyden of Oregon to sponsor a universal health-care coverage bill with important cost-containment ideas. The Healthy Americans Act picked up 10 co-sponsors, four of them Republicans, but it was doomed by a Democratic leadership grown insolent with overwhelming majorities in Congress.
What a contrast to 1965 when the Medicare law included a key provision that had it origins in a Republican proposal — supplemental coverage, which most seniors now buy.
The no-trespass sign to the GOP during the writing of the Affordable Care Act deprived it of the benefits of critical scrutiny and helpful ideas from the business community that is a primary GOP constituent.
That kind of input might have prevented many of the calamities caused by ObamaCare: the uncertainty prompting employers to put off hiring; the high costs provoking big businesses like Delta and Walgreens to shed coverage, and others to shift parts of their workforce from full to part time; the threat to union-negotiated medical insurance, and the unpopularity of the law.
While Social Security and Medicare always had hard-core foes on the right, that was nothing like the broad, persistent and combative enmity directed at ObamaCare. Democrats have no one to blame but their our-way-or-the-highway approach.
But Tea Party Republicans are letting blinding hatred of the law blind them to the political consequences of being blamed for a potential government shutdown in their fight to defund the law. A better approach would be to capitalize on voter discontent by pushing to delay the individual mandate (as the White House did for the employer mandate) or forcing members of Congress to play by the same rules as the public.
Democratic go-it-alone arrogance built a potentially fatal political flaw in ObamaCare. Republicans shouldn’t let a zealous defund-or-shut-down-government strategy wound GOP electoral prospects in 2014 and rescue the law from the fate it deserves.
So, we should dig our already bankrupt government in even deeper because it might be used to damage Democrat prospects in the next elections...
This country really is doomed.
The Dems and Repubs are all on the same page. The two parties are in agreement on the things that screw us over. They have the same objective.
“Socialized Medicine is the Keystone to the Arch of the Socialist State.”~ Vladimir Lenin
Wouldn’t pushing back the Individual Mandate only play into the Democrats hand for next years elections?
Voters need to know the pain of this thing before they will understand it.
Before or after they exempted themselves?
I am really sick and tired of listening to the Republicans whine about getting blamed for something. This is the big leagues, and these guys are there because they want to be. They have been hiding behind their fear of media coverage for a generation now, and it is time they come up with a way to counter the propaganda. All I hear is idiots talking about reaching across the isle, or working with “their friends” on the other side. When an issue is brought up, they don’t shoot it down, they meander around with a weak response that doesn’t give anyone any confidence. Time to clean both houses and get people in there that have a little fire in their bellies.
The sooner it all comes crashing down, the sooner we start giving free markets and capitalism another try.
We have examples of where the free market has brought savings to consumers. It’s a shame that the Republicans aren’t pointing them out.
Folks.....The Lee/Cruz Defund Obamacare Petition has just crossed the 1,700,000 signature/endorsement mark and is still climbing at a rapid pace.
Within the next 48 hours...give or take a few hours, the signature numbers will pass the 2,000,000 signatures level!!! Regardless of all the blabber from the pundits, the media, the Obamabot clones, etc., no one can really predict the outcome...regardless of what happens.
One fact is for sure..US Senators, Ted Cruz & Mike Lee have a large majority of the American people in their corner. So.....if you have not done so, already, join the millions of your fellow Americans that have already signed and endorsed the Lee/Cruz Defund Obamacare Petition right now....TODAY!!! Takes only thirty seconds to complete the signing process!!!
Go to: WWW.DONTFUNDOBAMACARE.COM and sign up immediately!!!
It’s all the Dems doing....
...right up until the Reps fund it. Then it’s bipartisan.
“Voters need to know the pain of this thing before they will understand it.”
YES! Let the Dems sweat the next couple years. In the end they will be the ones who will kill this bill.
Yeah, Ted Cruz and Nancy Pelosi - two peas in a pod, right?
Yes, it would. Even as currently written, a lot of the low information voters aren't going to realize it until they file their 2014 taxes in 2015, and find they are being hit with a penalty.
However, the penalty is only $95 per person or 1% of taxable income (whichever is larger) in 2014. In 2015, it's $325 or 2%, and in 2016 it is $695 or 2.5%. There will be a "cost of living" increase every year after that. If you have dependents, you'll have to pay these penalties for up to 2 dependents, in addition to yourself.
So, the penalties won't be obvious in 2014. But, by 2016, people will have had to get insurance in 2015, or pay 2% of their income in penalties in April, 2016. Someone with an entry level job paying $30,000/year with no benefits will have to pay a fine of $600. A single mother earning $30,000 with two kids will have to pay $1800. There may be some subsidies that reduce the Obamacare premiums and make a "bronze" healthcare plan more affordable to than the penalty. But, there are still income levels where the penalty is less expensive.
This is when the rubber hits the road. The GOP's endgame should be to force the Democrats to defend Obamacare, and own it. When people start to really see what it has done to their existing health insurance, how much the "exchange" policies cost, and how much they will be fined for non-compliance, the GOP will have the opportunity to promise to end Obamacare, and sweep the House, Senate, and Oval Office. But, they had better be ready with a viable alternative, and then enact it.
Voters need to know the pain of this thing before they will understand it.
Cruz's argument is that, once an entitlement goes into effect, it's impossible to repeal. And Zero has decided illegally to go ahead and cough up the law's means-tested benefits without the means to test the means of the recipients (the computers supposedly aren't ready — so Zero's law will be on the honor system).
If the House blinks and shortly passes a clean CR, then implementation proceeds as planned, and we get to see a year from November whether you or Cruz was right.
If instead, there is an impasse, and the government shuts down, then ObamaCare is partially defunded. Absence of a CR only stops discretionary spending, and then only non-essential discretionary spending. E.g., air traffic control still happens. To defund ObamaCare completely would would require passing the current CR through the Senate and getting Zero to sign it (or passing it in both houses with two thirds).
If there is a shutdown, there is the danger Zero will try to go forward with ObamaCare anyway by juggling accounts, deeming it essential, and other shenanigans. Then you would have the program limping along, with Zero and the MSM blaming the shutdown for the train wreck symptoms. What does the GOP do then? Go to court? Impeach him? (Paradox, there — you need two thirds of the Senate for that.)
A fair # of RINOs could have easily been in favor, but knowing that it would be passed without them, voted against to now be able to hold onto their jobs without going all out to kill it.
USA, RIP.
That’s a pretty fair assessment of how any politician would view the correct course of action. I’m glad they voted as they did, but I’m under no illusion they meant well.
The GOPe is being slowly exposed to an ever larger portion of the base.
2016 is going to be ugly.
2014 is going to be ugly. It’ll take two or maybe three cycles to really air them out. McQueeg is being a world-class turd right now, and this could finally be what gets him in ‘16. It would be an excellent object lesson for junior Senator Flake.
All Republicans should support defunding. When Reid sends the CR back without it, put it back in.
We should also try to make sure the President, Congress, and the judiciary live under Obama-doesn’t-care.
ONLY when all other options have failed do you try delaying it, and then pretty much only if you’re sure that Obama will veto, as he has said he will.
Then you go to America and say, “We’ve repeatedly voted to repeal Obamacare. We voted to defund it. We voted to put your leaders under it. We voted to delay it. The Democrats have stopped every one of these efforts to save the working people of America from this onerous law, while extending special favors and delays to their Big Business friends. If you give us complete control of Congress, we will do everything we can to force this bill’s repeal.”
Then DO IT!!!
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