Sign Up | Log In
REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS
Republican Health Care Panic
Sunday, July 28, 2013 3:28 AM
NIKI2
Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...
Quote:Leading Republicans appear to be nerving themselves up for another round of attempted fiscal blackmail. With the end of the fiscal year looming, they aren’t offering the kinds of compromises that might produce a deal and avoid a government shutdown; instead, they’re drafting extremist legislation — bills that would, for example, cut clean-water grants by 83 percent — that has no chance of becoming law. Furthermore, they’re threatening, once again, to block any rise in the debt ceiling, a move that would damage the U.S. economy and possibly provoke a world financial crisis. Yet even as Republican politicians seem ready to go on the offensive, there’s a palpable sense of anxiety, even despair, among conservative pundits and analysts. Better-informed people on the right seem, finally, to be facing up to a horrible truth: Health care reform, President Obama’s signature policy achievement, is probably going to work. And the good news about Obamacare is, I’d argue, what’s driving the Republican Party’s intensified extremism. Successful health reform wouldn’t just be a victory for a president conservatives loathe, it would be an object demonstration of the falseness of right-wing ideology. So Republicans are being driven into a last, desperate effort to head this thing off at the pass. Some background: Although you’d never know it from all the fulminations, with prominent Republicans routinely comparing Obamacare to slavery, the Affordable Care Act is based on three simple ideas. First, all Americans should have access to affordable insurance, even if they have pre-existing medical problems. Second, people should be induced or required to buy insurance even if they’re currently healthy, so that the risk pool remains reasonably favorable. Third, to prevent the insurance “mandate” from being too onerous, there should be subsidies to hold premiums down as a share of income. Is such a system workable? For a while, Republicans convinced themselves that it was doomed to failure, and that they could profit politically from the inevitable “train wreck.” But a system along exactly these lines has been operating in Massachusetts since 2006, where it was introduced by a Republican governor. What was his name? Mitt Somethingorother? And no trains have been wrecked so far. The question is whether the Massachusetts success story can be replicated in other states, especially big states like California and New York with large numbers of uninsured residents. The answer to this question depends, in the first place, on whether insurance companies are willing to offer coverage at reasonable rates. And the answer, so far, is a clear “yes.” In California, insurers came in with bids running significantly below expectations; in New York, it appears that premiums will be cut roughly in half. So is this a case of something for nothing, in which nobody loses? No. In states like California, which have allowed discrimination based on health status, a small number of young, healthy, affluent residents will see their premiums go up. In New York, people who don’t think they need insurance and are too rich to receive subsidies — probably an even smaller group — will feel put upon by being obliged to buy policies. Mainly, though, those insurance subsidies will cost money, and that money will, to an important extent, be raised through higher taxes on the 1 percent: tax increases that have, by the way, already taken effect. Over all, then, health reform will help millions of Americans who were previously either too sick or too poor to get the coverage they needed, and also offer a great deal of reassurance to millions more who currently have insurance but fear losing it; it will provide these benefits at the expense of a much smaller number of other Americans, mostly the very well off. It is, if you like, a plan to comfort the afflicted while (slightly) afflicting the comfortable. And the prospect that such a plan might succeed is anathema to a party whose whole philosophy is built around doing just the opposite, of taking from the “takers” and giving to the “job creators,” known to the rest of us as the “rich.” Hence the brinkmanship. So will Republicans actually take us to the brink? If they do, it will be crucial to understand why they would do such a thing, when their own leaders have admitted that confrontations over the budget inflict substantial harm on the economy. It won’t be because they fear the budget deficit, which is coming down fast. Nor will it be because they sincerely believe that spending cuts produce prosperity. No, Republicans may be willing to risk economic and financial crisis solely in order to deny essential health care and financial security to millions of their fellow Americans. Let’s hear it for their noble cause! http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/26/opinion/krugman-republican-health-care-panic.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130726&_r=2&
Sunday, July 28, 2013 3:43 AM
Sunday, July 28, 2013 4:45 AM
WHOZIT
Sunday, July 28, 2013 6:11 AM
STORYMARK
Quote:Originally posted by whozit: Why don't you mention that all the left-wing unions that want out of Obamacare?
Sunday, July 28, 2013 6:13 AM
Sunday, July 28, 2013 7:18 AM
Sunday, July 28, 2013 7:50 AM
Quote:GOP To Conservatives: Stop Acting Crazy Over Obamacare The GOP push to hold government funding hostage to gutting Obamacare appears to be losing steam in Congress as a growing chorus of Republicans and conservative writers are coming out of the woodwork to urge hardliners within their party to be realistic. “I think it’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard of,” Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) told reporters in the Capitol on Thursday. “Listen, as long as Barack Obama is president, the Affordable Care Act is going to be law.” Republicans in the House and Senate are working to corner colleagues into withholding support for keeping government open after the lights go out on Sept. 30 unless Obamacare is defunded. And a growing number of pragmatic conservatives — in and out of Congress — recognize that’s a suicide mission that threatens the GOP’s credibility as well as its electoral prospects ahead of a promising midterm election. In recent days, Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), a deputy majority whip, has derided the conservative effort as a “temper tantrum” and compared it to “blackmail.” Appearing Wednesday evening on Fox News, he warned that “it is the sort of thing that creates a backlash and could cost the Republicans the majority in the House.” Meanwhile, two well-read conservative writers — Byron York of the Washington Examiner and Ramesh Ponnuru, a columnist for Bloomberg View — put the kibosh on this plan Friday. In an article titled “No, the GOP is not going to defund Obamacare,” York reports that Republicans privately admit they’re embarking on a fool’s errand but have to show conservatives they’re sparing no effort to fight Obamacare. Ponnuru calls the plan “disastrous” and warns that “it will backfire.” He lists several reasons why the public “would almost certainly blame Republicans” if the government shuts down — all of which are well understood by pragmatic Republicans who witnessed the Newt Gingrich-led shutdowns of the 1990s. In the Senate, a letter by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) demanding Obamacare be defunded in a government funding or debt limit bill actually lost signatories, after some senators reportedly dropped off — including Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX). After initially leaking word that the letter had at least 15 signatories, the final version was released Thursday by Lee’s office with 11 GOP signatories — Sens. Lee, Marco Rubio (FL), Ted Cruz (TX), James Risch (ID), Rand Paul (KY), James Inhofe (OK), David Vitter (LA), John Thune (SD), Jeff Chiesa (NJ), Mike Enzi (WY), Deb Fischer (NE), and Chuck Grassley (IA). “[W]e believe the only way to avert disaster is to fully repeal ObamaCare and start over with a more sensible, practical approach to reforming our healthcare system,” the letter reads. “For these reasons, we will not support any continuing resolution or appropriations legislation that funds further implementation or enforcement of ObamaCare.” Cornyn’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment on why he dropped off. A Democratic leadership aide speculated that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was trying to isolate the signatories so he’s not forced to carry out their demands. None of this means that it’s going to be easy for Republicans, particularly the ones who lead the House, to sidestep the voracious conservative appetite for going all out to thwart Obamacare. Various deep-pocketed and influential conservative groups, including Heritage Action and Club For Growth, are working hard to corner Republicans. Others, like FreedomWorks and Americans For Prosperity, are working to dissuade uninsured Americans from buying health insurance under the marketplaces set up by Obamacare. RedState.com editor and Fox News contributor Erick Erickson is on the warpath against any perceived wobbliness on the cause from Republicans or even outside conservative advocates. “The establishment and base have moved so far apart the base is about ready to go third party or sit at home,” Erickson lamented in a blog post Friday. “We have seen this before. The GOP leadership will cave and dazzle the base with shiny objects.” In the House, a letter circulated by Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) calls on Republicans to push for defunding Obamacare in an upcoming continuing resolution but stops short of calling for an iron-clad commitment. At his weekly briefing Thursday, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) reiterated that he’ll keep trying to repeal and defund Obamacare but wouldn’t commit to demanding as much in a government funding measure. “No decisions have been made about how we’re going to deal with the CR,” he said. http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/07/gop-to-conservatives-stop-acting-crazy-over-obamacare.php?ref=fpb
Sunday, July 28, 2013 7:53 AM
Quote:Sen. Coburn Calls Effort To Gut Obamacare ‘Dishonest,’ ‘Hype’ The schism within the Republican Party over whether or not to gut Obamacare grew wider on Friday with one of the most conservative senators splashing cold water on the idea. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) told conservative writer Byron York that, while he'd "love" to cut funding for the new health care law, it's an unrealistic push by the handful of GOP senators who have pledged to oppose any continuing resolution or appropriations bill that funds Obamacare. “I’d love to defund it,” Coburn said. “I’d be leading the charge if I thought this would work. But it will not work.” The Oklahoma Republican said the lawmakers who are leading the defunding charge — a group that includes Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT, Marco Rubio (R-FL), Rand Paul (R-KY) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) — are being "dishonest" with their base about what they can actually get done. “It’s a denial of reality mixed with a whole bunch of hype to promote groups and individuals who are saying, ‘I’m going to give you hope’ for something that we can’t do,” Coburn said. Coburn's fellow Sooner State Republican, Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), also slammed fellow party members who have threatened a government shutdown unless Obamacare is gutted. Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), meanwhile, said Thursday that the effort to shut down the government if the health care law isn't defunded "the dumbest idea I've ever heard of." http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/sen-coburn-calls-effort-to-defund-obamacare-dishonest
YOUR OPTIONS
NEW POSTS TODAY
OTHER TOPICS
FFF.NET SOCIAL