Editorial: GOP acting spiteful
Publisher’s note: This editorial is from the Sept. 19, 2013, Sacramento Bee.
House Republican leaders have shown how far they are willing to go to cave to the tea party faction. They signaled on Wednesday that they are willing to shut down the federal government if they don’t get their pipe dream to defund Obamacare.
They simply are unwilling to acknowledge that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which they call Obamacare, is the law of the land.
Those under age 65 who don’t get health insurance through their employer, Medicare or Medicaid will be able to enroll in an “exchange” starting Oct. 1 to buy health insurance that starts January 2014.
Many other provisions already have taken effect. Congress passed and President Obama signed Obamacare into law in 2010. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the law in June 2012.
Yes the law was passed by Congress under the darkness of night and under the lie that in reality it’s another new and very expensive tax. You can spin this healthcare law all you want, it’s expensive and a total mess! You obviously aren’t trying to run a company and take care of your people. If you were you’d be thanking the GOP for standing up against this nightmare of a law. Both sides just spend and spend with no end in sight. What do you want to see happen, nothing? Just keep going the way we have? The GOP are not trying to shut down the Government, that outcome will be on the president and democrats who want their cake and eat it to. This idea of having to say yes to anything the left wants has to stop.
It was signed into law by Democrats [A Democratic House and a Democratic Senate} with no input from any Republicans. Republicans were not allowed to have anything to say. “You have to pass it before you know whats in it” That was the famous words of Nancy Polosi, then Speaker of the House. 2700+ pages and they didn’t even read it before they passed it.
Do you buy a house before you look at it? do you buy a car before you look at it or drive it? Do you buy life insurance before you know anything about it? Do you buy anything before you see it or try it?
I guess you do if your a DEMOCRAT.and then cram it down the throat of the rest of the people.
Old timer, you’re revising history. The GOP choose NOT to contribute! From day one of Obama’s presidency all the GOP has focused on is obstruction.
So, the law was passed at the wrong time of day and, despite over five years, no republican has even attempted to offer an alternative or improved law? And that is the problem? And, all you can do is quote silly anecdotes, out of context? Sounds reasonable…
The Republicans have a plan but the Senate will not bring it forward for a vote, It’s a Democratic Senate and Harry Reid will not let it be heard or put up for a vote, He is afraid it will pass because 70% of the people DON’T WANT IT.[Obamacare] Get a clue dumbfounded and Biggerpicture, get your head out of the sand and get your facts straight. 17 trillion in debt and your kids and grand kids are going to have to pay it, we are so over taxed that it is shamefull, the greatest Country in the world and we have 47 million people on food stamps, Millions on welfare and don’t even look for work and after 5 years of Obumer there is no light at the end of the tunnel, just more of the same, no jobs, larger debt and 3 more years of the same do nothing President, He should be impeached.
Conservative pretzel logic. Come 2014 watch as the GOP seats in congress vanish. Good riddance to bad rubbish!
The author of this article makes it sound like this law is some kind of panacea for healthcare.
The only reason it is a law today is because the Supreme Court ruled it was a tax and the government has the authority to tax.
The impact to the majority of US workers is finally being exposed.
It is causing some full time workers to be scheduled part time for 29 hours a week and not have employer proved healthcare.
It is causing some full time workers to lose the ability to have their employer’s insurance cover their spouse.
It is causing some full time workers to pay more or lose benefits which they had before.
The article makes it sound like, for part time workers without insurance, that the government is offering a way for them to buy insurance. In reality it is creating a obligation for them to purchase insurance and the IRS staff is being increased to enforce it. They must buy it or they will be taxed.
It’s both sad and scary that folks think they know something about economics because they grew up reading Ayn Rand comic books and thought they must be reading something intellectual since there were no pictures.
Old Timer, the facts are that the United States has been in debt for our entire existence, with very few exceptions. The Congress can and should promote their recommended changes and improvements to the current law. Your excuse that the Senate “will not let it be heard…” is lame at best. If the (republican controlled) Congress would stop wasting their time on symbolic legislation that has absolutely no chance of becoming law and offer real legislation with real solutions, none of this would be happening. BTW, where is the Congress’ jobs bill that they said they had during the presidential election? Over five years and no action whatsoever on the ACA or jobs from Congress.
“It is causing some full time workers to be scheduled part time for 29 hours a week and not have employer proved healthcare.
It is causing some full time workers to lose the ability to have their employer’s insurance cover their spouse.
It is causing some full time workers to pay more or lose benefits which they had before.”
None of that is new. Until we have a single payer system nothing will get better.
dumbfounded,
If the pipe line were to be approved it would create 100,000 jobs same day as it was approved,to say nothing about the businesses that would benefit alone the way, the more people working the more taxes that are being paid the less people on welfare and food stamps,
open up oil exploration and another 100,000 jobs would be opened and our gas prices would go down and we would not be controlled by Mid-East oil, I could go on but you know that it’s true.
cosa pescado— can you outline what you mean by a single payer system and how it is paid for?
Cosa, you are missing the point of Obama Care. http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolynmcclanahan/2013/09/14/why-every-small-employer-should-sign-up-for-obamacares-shop-exchange/
This is how the Swiss model works, and it does work.
Tahoeadvocate: do your own homework, jock.
Really? That is a serious question?
I don’t care what model we use as long as it works.
Tahoeadvocate due your homework and quite spouting the conservatives talking points that have found to actually be mostly if not all false.
The Kaiser Foundation (non-partisan and non-profit foundation) have found that the 21 states that have set up exchanges are have provided some very competitive rates, cheaper than what is currently available in those states in many cases.
The last year health care cost is the lowest it has been in 50 plus years (measured by against GDP). Even though the primary provisions of Obamacare have yet to take affect, Health Care economist have attributed some (not all) of this decrease due to the early provisions of Obamacare.
See for example: http://www.factcheck.org/2013/08/obamacare-by-the-numbers/
As health care cost for companies have increased double digits annually for the last 10 plus years (I own a small business that employees 20 professional level and can attest to this) a number of companies have chosen to not cover spouses of employees who can gain coverage for through there own company – in other words a cost savings. This practice is not new and will likely continue as a way of containing health care cost, even as overall health care cost decline (reduce cost an easy way to increase profit).
And you are true, workers will pay a premium for Cadillac Plans as they unnecessarily drive up health care cost while not improving health (that has been proven as we pay more then twice as much for health care against GDP then any other industrialized nation for poorer health). Obamacare rewards preventive care, prohibits plans from dropping sick people and requires plans to cover people with pre-existing conditions – something plans prior to Obamacare did not do.
The way you drive cost down is requiring everyone (healthy and not) to get health care. Those of us blessed enough to make a good living will pay an additional premium, something I am glad to do as I cover uninsured now (buried in my premiums). How do you think the really expensive hospital visits (emergency room) are paid for – you bet ya, by those of us who carry insurance.
So is Obamacare perfect, no, but it is way better then what we currently have and is and well save cost finally helping us to be more competitive. Twenty years ago it was estimated that every care produce in the US had a $1500 surcharge against us do to our health care cost. So we started $1500 in the hole against foreign cars. Now the playing field will be somewhat leveled.
Rick
The real problem with the Obamacare law is that it did very little about what are health care cost are. Every one is saying go to Candaian model or the Swiss model, but what no one realises is that we pay 2 to 3 times per capita in health care cost than these othere countries do. The reason is because Health care providers there dont make anywhere near what ours do. Also Drugs are also at least double here than there for the same drugs. Medical Malpractic claims are much much lower also because we allow hugh settlements on claims and a go 40% of the settlement goes to legal fees.
What ever we are doing, it isn’t working (for the people, the insurance companies and related industries are loving it).
I don’t think we can do any worse.
Republicans object to Obamacare because they still cling to “free enterprise” as self-governing method for big business. Republicans have always cared only about big buisness and money.
The fact is health care costs are at “extortion” levels for medical services and will drive many out of their homes.
Obamacare may not be perfect – but it’s a great start to attempt to pave a path towards creating true competition for medical providers and health insurance companies.
The “tea party” is dead …. let’s try something new !
Pipeline=100,000 jobs? Now that is some creative mathematics. How would adding a pipeline that allows one country (Canada) to get their product to the international market affect the price in another country (the United States)? And how is that thinking even compatible with free-market capitalism? I took the off-topic bait because it was so absurdly thrown into the water.
I still don’t see any answer to why the Congress hasn’t fixed the ACA after over five years of whining. And you say that is because of the Senate? Seriously?
What I don’t see are Republicans coming up with anything to replace the Obamacare they so desperately want to get rid of. Could it truely be just their deep hatred for Obama ?
by in large, yup. we gotta get this health care thing under control, and the affordable health care act is a good start.
John A, exactly my point. If it was really the legislation, they could propose fixes to address their problems with the legislation. As you see in the comments above, there is no explanation except to blame someone else. Neither party appears to be particularly interested in stopping the real problem: profit by corporate interests.
I dont see how the affordable healthcare act fixes the underlinging problem with the costs. The Democrats got scared and did not fix the Malpractice issue because one of their biggest supporters hated that(trial lawyers) The problem with malpractic is that it makes doctors order more test than are nessecary, which increases costs. John how does it creat any new true competition for medical providers and health insurance companies? I looked at the rates in the california exchange and it was just a little bit higher than normal market rates. There is no incentive for the healthcare providers to lower their costs. If the healtcare providers dont lover their costs the insurance companies cant lower their rates as they will never be able to operate long term at a loss.
And dont you belive it the Democrats also cling to “free enterprise” as self-governing method for big business. Over regulation of business does hurt job creation. Look at some of the European Countries like Italy and Spain, both of these countries put the worker above all other things and it hurts their job creation. It is almost impossible to fire someone there and 30 hour workweeks is becoming the norm along with 30 day vacation. We have to be somewhere in the middle and be fair to both workers and the employers.
Until we face up to the fact that our for-profit model for health insurance coverage and medical services was a clusterfudge of greed and failure we won’t solve this problem.
The ACA was passed with some flaws because of the wimpy Dinos caving to the obstructionists in Congress but it is some baby steps forward. It is an improvement and a stopgap measure for now.
The only intelligent alternative is some form of single payer. I propose Medicare Part-E(everyone).
Let’s join the rest of the industrialized world in making health care a citizen’s birthright and eliminate the “money over people” laissez-faire bloodsuckers.
Whatever your individual views on Healthcare are, Tea Party influenced Republicans have introduced a new and unprecedented level of obstructionism to our government. Yes, our government has a long history of parties playing games of brinksmanship with each other but usually they come together in the end and get work done by recognizing who has a majority of power and negotiating for some middle ground. No longer, now we have a faction of one party blocking all progress in an infantile response to not getting their minority view.
The Democrats control two-thirds of our government. The President won by a clear majority. We are to all ignore the majority party and shut everything down because a minority in power is having a temper tantrum. In the future, when we are sure to have party roles reversed, how do you think the Democrats will react when they have minority control? Are we now in a position that any minority faction within a party can hold all of government hostage?
Add to this insanity a long history of both parties raising the debt ceiling to pay their bills (Reagan raised the debt ceiling 17 times). This debt is already outstanding. Not paying our bills will effect our credit rating as it has previously done. Does anyone really believe that paying ones bills is somehow optional much less something that is negotiable? Try telling your Credit Card company that you are not going to pay them because you are having a disagreement with your spouse and see what happens.
I am disgusted with both parties but have to give the Republicans kudos for making the likes of Obama, Reid and Pelosi appear to be the more mature actors in this Shakespearean play. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead and so is any semblance of a middle ground in present day politics.
My two cents
-Scott