The Democrats’ Healthcare Conundrum (Updated)
Update: The House voted today to repeal ObamaCare, 236-181.
The battle over President Barack Obama’s plan to change the U.S. health care system is far from over. Getting a bill through the Congress and signed into law may have won him the first round – but the debate renews with the opening of the 112th Congress.
As several legal and constitutional challenges work their way through the federal courts system, the U.S. House of Representatives, now controlled by the Republicans, has scheduled a vote (this week) to junk the whole thing. It’s likely to pass, perhaps even by a veto-proof majority if the Democrats who voted against it last year – and who are still in Congress – join with the GOP in pushing for its repeal.
This means, once again, that the action moves to the United States Senate where, it should be recalled, the original ObamaCare proposal languished for months until Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid could figure out a strategy to get it to the floor for a vote.
With the Democrats still in the majority in the Senate – albeit by a narrower margin – most political commentators expect the repeal language to die a slow, lingering death as Reid uses every parliamentary trick at his disposal to keep it from coming to the floor for a vote.
In the short run, that looks like a winning strategy. In the long run, it may hand the Senate to the Republicans in the November 2012 election. Far too many Senate Democrats occupy seats in states either carried by John McCain in 2008 or in which the GOP performed well in 2010 for them to be able to comfortably turn their backs on the health care repeal movement. Virginia’s Jim Webb, Florida’s Bill Nelson and Nebraska’s Ben Nelson, and Missouri’s Claire McCaskill are but a few of the endangered Democrats who put their re-election at risk if they ignore how deeply the American people dislike ObamaCare now that they really understand what it does.
I am sure that the Dem senators up for re-election are soiling their shorts over this issue. Hang tough, Repubs. Make every Dem own every vote supporting obamacare, and obama own every veto. Let’s see how well that works for them in 2012.
To listen to the huffing and puffing and stomping of the 20% of the electorate that is aggressively liberal you would believe that they somehow are representative of 99% of the will of the American people and if they aren’t then they certainly are smarter than the rest of those know nothing hill billies.
Let’s hope their cage gets rattle with their own political medicine. Something needs to be shoved down their throats with a large spoon for a change so they can understand how it feels.
And spare us all the ‘Well Bush blah blah blah”. We conservatives by and large didn’t have as much use for him as you seem to think. Many of his policies and his Rino pals were no better than the far left administrations are now.
Now open wide and take your medicine.
To paraphrase Obama’s spiritual mentor: His chickens are coming home to roost. The first half of Obama’s term was a left wing wet dream of a socialist US. But since he is both a die-hard socialist and an idiot, his policies have been unwaveringly wrong at every turn on every front – foreign policy, domestic policy, the economy, the war on islamic radicalism (which doesn’t even exist in the dimbulb’s brain)education, the environment, etc,etc,etc..
Most liberal pundits are now pushing the ‘comback kid’ meme, and these fantasies all rely on things getting better just as obama told them. But there is no redeeming feature in his policies. I believe that 2011 will be a constant trickle of more and more bad news as the chickens do come home to roost. The dems will lie and blame republicans for Obama’s mistakes, and give obama credit for any republican successes, but are people even buying it anymore? Every campaign promise has been broken and Obama, who never had much credibility to those of us paying attention, has even less now. Notice that the word ‘stimulus’ has been banned, having become a toxic reminder of a trillion dollar mistake. I have a feeling that obama and cohorts would like to ban ‘obamacare’, but unfortunately obama can’t ignore his ‘signature achievement’ and he must continue to polish this turd, and his supporters must now be on the record of supporting this pile of crap.
More irksome to me than the individual mandate is the federal government mandating the minimum benefits insurers are required to offer. I can select my own auto, home, life, and boat coverage; why do I need to pay more for a coverage level I don’t want or need? And when will premiums be set according to risk. Obama and the rest of the socialiists whine constantly about diabetes, obesity, and the poor dietary habits of the public yet insurance companies can’t charge some fat, lazy couch potato a higher rate than someone that takes care of themselves. That’s the same as charging Porsche owners the same rate as Hyundai owners. The latter subsidizes the former. I want to be left alone to manage my own affairs. I don’t need paternalistic government looking out for me.
It’s not just the federal mandates… most states also mandate what must be covered in their state. That’s just as bad.
There may be a few mandates that actually make sense… the rest should be tossed into the trash can post-haste.
Talk radio or Fox News should keep a running tally of the efforts to block / repeal Obamascare; the various lawsuits, the repeal legislation, legislation to defund it; states efforts to prevent it, etc.
The country needs to know how massive the effort to disable this nighmare is, and the lengths the marxists are willing to go to protect their takeover of your life.
The House bill also may stay Reid’s attempt to end the filibuster. Does he really want to lower the bar for the repeal of Obamacare from 60 to 51 votes. If the Democrats lose in 2012, the end of the filibuster virtually guarantees the repeal of Obamacare.
If the filibuster were to go as a parlimentary tool, I would expect several Dem senators to break ranks and vote to kill this evil legislation. They are walking political dead if it isn’t repealed. There is no saving the legislation.
I still have a feeling the Supreme Court will find the whole law unconstitutional. I simply can’t believe that the Supreme Court would allow a law that actually forces people to buy things the Federal Government wants you to buy. Where would it stop? Then why can’t the Feds make you buy only a car made by General Motors (or government motors)? Then why can’t the Feds tell you what clothing you can buy, what type of “energy-efficient” home you can buy, let as well as the different ways to heat or cool that home? If this law stands, Federalism, as well as individual liberty, will be dead in this nation. I really, really, hope the Supreme Court understands the ramifications of what it’s about to rule on when this case comes to the court.
The article linked says they voted on rules for debate.
Why is everyone on the internet saying they voted to repeal it?
Can’t anyone read an article before linking it?
According to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Thursday 06th January 2011 the “misguided” House Republicans “have to understand that the health care bill is not going to be repealed” and that they “should get a new lease on life and talk about something else.”
Now that Nancy is gone, Harry (the former prize fighter)is the Big Man On Campus. As such he has put the Republicans (and the entire nation) on notice that repealing Obamacare; or anything else his dear friend the scared one owns ain’t going to happen.
The ONLY thing good about this bill is that insurance companies cannot turn you away for pre-existing conditions…period. BUT HOORAY!! this is great news!
In the very beginning of Health Care Reform debate, the Republicans DID come up with their ‘own’ bill – 200 pages worth repudiated by Obama and his co- horts. Although, Obama did patronize the Republicans by ‘giving them ‘some’ time (a couple of hours worth)to discuss their version with Obama and Obama knowing full well was going to reject their plan anyway.
Another option was to open up competition among insurance companies across state lines. Both would have been more cost effective and solve many of the problems of getting affordable health care to those who need it.
Obamacare? A big lie to cover the fact Obamacare is just one big 2700 page device called socialistic ‘re-distribution of wealth’ Obama/Pelosi/Reid style, paid for by the American people and their children and possibly their grand children for years and years and years…
How depressing for a young person who has their whole life ahead of them, to know that the pay check they work hard for, 40% of it will be going to let’s be honest here, loosers, moochers, and lackys who feel they are ‘entitled’ to someone elses hard earned money.
I was in Washington DC to Protest Obamacare and it was a real let down when it got passed. Now, hearing this, I have a ray of hope as does everyone else in opposition to Obamacrap…
Hearing the bills proposed this week has been like a cool, sweet breeze after a long, hot, unusually oppressive summer.
For the past two years, unbelievably bizarre, destructive, or irrational bills have been proposed, and then passed, seemingly almost every other week.
It was as if our Congress had literally lost their minds. It was like a weird, disturbing scene from a Fellini film. Truth meant nothing. Facts and logic meant nothing.
Boehner and friends need to man up, kick butt and take names. Republicans have been bringing Swiss army knives to machine gun fights for 20 years now, and I am really, REALLY tired of it.
Your comment about “bringing Swill army knives to machine gun fights” reminds me of something I noticed again yesterday. Does everyone remember that when Bush was in office the term you heard all the time was “jobless recovery”? Now that we have Obama and his mother of all jobless recoveries, when was the last time you heard that term?
I must admit that since the new Congress took over, I don’t have to wake up every morning wondering what freedoms Obama, Pelosi and Reid are going to take away from me. Boehner may not be perfect,(who is?), but he heard the people of this great nation calling for change (and NOT the kind Obama wants). Boehner knows the score and so does McConnell in the Senate. We the people are in MUCH BETTER hands now. I will put my faith in Republicans hands EVERY TIME over a Demonrat.
Sorry Mikey, but I would not put so much hope in McConnell. He is a fatboy from the ‘old days’ of the repubs. He is like Obama and changes only what and when he has to.He should go in the next election.I cannot understand why McCain is still there either.
Let me get this straight. We’re going to be “gifted” with a health care plan we are forced to purchase and fined if we don’t, written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn’t understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn’t read it but exempts themselves from it, signed by a president who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn’t pay his taxes, to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that’s broke. What the hell could possibly go wrong?
Obama did get a little boost in polls recently because of the Arizona speech but this will be temporary. The political fundamentals did not change. Only 30% of the voters think the country is going in the right direction. His numbers will be back in the low 40′s. Democrats will still be running scared in 2012 from Healthcare bill despite the 24 hour MSM spin machine. I won’t predict the presidential race but Democrats will loose a least 7 senate seats. Even if those Democratic senators changed there minds, they doomed themselves in most voters minds.