House GOP stabbing ObamaCare voodoo doll one more time
It’s no surprise that House Republicans have gotten very good at this “repeal” thing, given the practice they’ve had at it. When they vote yet again today to kill ObamaCare, by some counts it will be the 31st time they have voted to repeal all or part of that much-reviled piece of legislation.
However, they’re not so good about keeping the second half of their 2010 campaign pledge, the part about “replacing” ObamaCare with a conservative alternative that accomplishes many of the same goals.
“Why is it so hard?” Matt Miller asks in a fine piece in today’s Washington Post. “Because Obamacare WAS the Republican alternative. It was the conservative-designed mandate and subsidy approach…. Only in America could a Democratic president pass Mitt Romney’s health plan and fund it partly through John McCain’s best idea from the last campaign (taxing some employer-provided plans) and be branded a ’socialist’.”
As I noted in the blog post earlier this morning, I’m always leery of pundits offering free advice on how a candidate should campaign, but I’ll make an exception in Miller’s case. He writes:
“Here’s what you should do, Mr. President. In the debates this fall, pull out a small laminated card you’ve had made as a prop for this purpose. Then remind Mitt Romney that the ranks of the uninsured today are equal to the combined populations of Oklahoma, Connecticut, Iowa, Mississippi, Kansas, Kentucky, Arkansas, Utah, Oregon, Nevada, New Mexico, West Virginia, Nebraska, Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Montana, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, Vermont and Wyoming.
Read that list slowly, Mr. President. Then ask your opponent: “Would America turn its back on the citizens of these 25 states if everyone there lacked basic health coverage? That’s what we’ve been doing for decades. You knew it was right to act when you were governor of Massachusetts, Mitt. How can you pretend we don’t need to solve this for the nation? And how can you object with a straight face when your own pioneering plan was my model?”
The president should also say he’d be happy to talk reform once Republicans offer a rival plan that the CBO certifies will cover 30 million people, as the Affordable Care Act does.
Today’s Republican party won’t do it. They want the money for tax cuts for the top. They don’t care.”
Well put, Mr. Miller. Very well put.
– Jay Bookman
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416 comments Add your comment
tiredofIT
July 11th, 2012
3:11 pm
“We will do anything to stop socialism and the communist ideology of redistributing the wealth and taking from those who have been successful by honest means and hard work.”
–
So why are Republicans “redistributing” it to those with more than they know what to do with it?
Paul
July 11th, 2012
3:13 pm
Ben Shockley!!! HI!!!
Did you use all your time away to find a cite for your assertion the top 1% pays about 90% of taxes?
Regarding “Dem president Clinton pardons scumbag Dem tax evader after $1.3 million in donations from scumbag’s Dem wife, plus whatever he got from her in the middle of the night after that visit to the white house.”
See, Ben, if you’re gonna do the innuendo and inference thing, at least do more than skim the surface with allusions to sexual fantasies. Stuff like “Patrick Fitzgerald’s was Special Counsel in the investigation into the Plame affair. Fitzgerald knew going in that the leaker was Richard Armitage, but he kept the investigation going for years and got Scooter Libby, VP Cheney’s Chief of Staff, on a perjury charge. By the way, Fitzgerald was an Assistant United States Attorney in New York City who represented the government’s interests in opposing the pardon of Marc Rich, who was pardoned by Pres Clinton. One of Rich’s attorneys was Scooter Libby.”
See?
Paul
July 11th, 2012
3:15 pm
smelly rat
“If the ACA is so great, why were the exemptions, exceptions and bribes necessary to get the required votes?”
Can you think of any major legislation that hasn’t involved such political horse trading?
GT
July 11th, 2012
3:22 pm
If the south had won the war the US might be a better place to live. The very red states, most of them southern, are the most impoverished and now on the welfare of most of the blue states that have to feed them. You take these 13 or 20 states off the map and the US has a very vibrate economy, yet these states would be the ones who would elect Romney. In fact I would venture when Matt Miller’s list came out on the card I would put the states that this country carries the most, the one that can’t pull their own weight and many like Georgia would be on that list. And I would want to know what world a governor comes from that says his camels are the thirstiest but I will not let em drink while the others do. Sick just plain so dumb it is sick. Any when they show up on death’s door and our state takes them into the hospitals what expense have they escaped for this show of foolery? For over 100 years the state of Georgia whether under Democrats or Republicans have been on an agenda for suicide, it now continues.
Don't Forget
July 11th, 2012
3:27 pm
Josef, yes I know what “it” is. There’s also “Columbian” and “pre-Columbian” theories as to it’s origin.
On physical exam of the eyes though it is said they are like a prostitute, they accomodate but don’t react”
Thomas
July 11th, 2012
3:33 pm
GT- you may want to venture out of a classroom and google states with largest minority population and municipalities filing bankruptcy. Extremists on both sides are the same- I suppose you would suggest Ga/Alabama/MS, etc shipping out its minorities to even the economic score card?
GT
July 11th, 2012
3:45 pm
Nope Thomas I am just pointing out the innate and historical ignorance of state’s rights and the pretension that the state of Georgia has the whatever to govern itself and in doing so to provide the lifestyle that our citizens here have become accustomed to. We are blinded by Walter Scott like characters that make superficial thinking a romance for fools and sprinkle that bowl of rice with fear and paranoia that only an illiterate mind could accept. And then to have that voting force captured by the Henry F. Potters of the world yet dare say you have the freedom of most Americans is beyond the pale would not you say.
fair and balanced
July 11th, 2012
4:04 pm
Okay – I have been asking for the Repub solution to the following healthcare budget busting issues with no success on the other AJC blog. Maybe some of the Obozo haters and Romney fans can help me out. What is the plan for funding or eliminating the following deficit generators:
1. Unfunded Medicare drug plan passed by George W. along with Medicare Advantage that givers extras to seniors like gym memberships. Current estimated shortfall because of no funding source?
1.2 trillion dollars? Tell me the Romney and Ryan plan. Obamacare will raise capital gaims on people like Romney by 3.8% to cover this shortfall caused by Republicans to get the frat boy reelected in 2004.
2. Romneycare created a 8,5 billion dollar increase in Medicare that is totally funded through waivers by the US taxpayer so that all persons who cannot afford insurance are covered under Romneycare.
SCOTUS after suit by the right wing leaders in various state threw out a national expansion of Medicaid modeled on Romneycare. Will Romney and Ryan cut the waivers and require Mass. to repay the feds the 8.5 billion dollars and stop future overpayments??
3. Saint Ronald passed EMTALA which requires free emergency room care to anyone who is unwilling to pay, illegal or has no insurance. This is costing everyone billions. Will the Republicans abolish this law ?
Waiting to hear some real answers to the Republican created health care deficit he inherited from Republican predecessors which only Obamacare attempts to fund so as to limit the unfunded . mandates.
GT
July 11th, 2012
4:17 pm
fair and balanced this is why Obama will eat Romney up in a debate, these people have nothing except a united hate for a black president ,they wish not to express. So the dog ate the homework is what they come loaded with to debate one of the great presidents of our times if not of all times. It is going to be the Alamo all over again for these dinosaurs unless they get John King to moderate then all bets are off as he loses control on prime time like he did in S.C.
fair and balanced
July 11th, 2012
4:56 pm
GT-Unfortunately even most Democrats do not realize the extent of the health care mess created by Republicans to buy votes and shift state liabilities to the US taxpayer. Obama has done a terrible job of making the average Joe realize this is a Republican created problem for which only Obamacare proposes solutions.
Sense & Sensibility
July 11th, 2012
5:12 pm
At least Obama is actually trying to address the healthcare issue. What are the Republicans offering as an alternative? Oh that’s right. NOTHING. Republicans have time for 31 repeals, but they can’t manage to propose an alternative healthcare plan? Republicans dog on Obama for his ideas of “Hope and Change”, but there can be neither when the Republican party is so bent on protecting their special interests, than on offering alternatives, or god forbid, working with Democrats to reach a compromise. Democrats are certainly not perfect either, and Obama certainly has shortcomings. But when you look at the intent of the respective parties, Democrats are attempting to address national issues and help average citizen, and Republicans are more concerned with pandering to the rich, at the expense of the electorate. I’ll take the intent to help the people over a complete disregard for the common man any day. What would be even better is if BOTH sides would man up and work together, instead acting like spoiled toddlers arguing a sandbox. This is America. The eyes of the world are on us. We should be setting an example of democracy and teamwork for the entire globe. Too many US citizens have lost sight of the fact that patriotism is the love of your country, not necessarily the love your president.
GT
July 11th, 2012
5:46 pm
f&b O does such an awful job of communication, I seriously think he is doing some of it on purpose. There must be some timetable they roll out the counters to the misinformation.
By the way CNN topped itself today. They are covering the NAACP convention and tell the audience they never use the word Obamacare when reporting the health care program, then in less than a paragraph down the list they refer to the health care as Obamacare themselves. That is what got the boos at the NAACP the use of Obamacare, the word, from Romney. I have gotten so use to the sarcasms I forget what a smart ass word Ocare is. .
GT
July 11th, 2012
5:46 pm
f&b O does such an awful job of communication, I seriously think he is doing some of it on purpose. There must be some timetable they roll out the counters to the misinformation.
By the way CNN topped itself today. They are covering the NAACP convention and tell the audience they never use the word Obamacare when reporting the health care program, then in less than a paragraph down the list they refer to the health care as Obamacare themselves. That is what got the boos at the NAACP the use of Obamacare, the word, from Romney. I have gotten so use to the sarcasms I forget what a smart ass word Ocare is. .
Smeely rat
July 12th, 2012
10:03 am
Paul,
You know perfectly well that things like the Cornhusker kickback and union exemption go above the normal description of give and take in political football. I honestly think that once those things came to light, the ACA was stained and the lingering bad taste had prolonged the needless debate way longer than it should have.
Proud to be me
July 12th, 2012
5:09 pm
I’ll bet Romney’s healthcare bill was nothing like ObamaCare . . why don’t you find out how many pages it was compared to the 2600+ pages of ObamaCare bill . . . it pales in comparison to ObamaCare!!! Only similarities . . it requires everyone to pay for insurance. Let’s face it . . get over that same ol’song and dance. By the time the liberals figure out what is in ObamaCare . . he’ll be long gone and whoa gonna blame then?
Proud to be me
July 12th, 2012
5:10 pm
BTW . . Republican’s aren’t wanting tax cuts for the top . . they just want to keep the Bush taxes “THE SAME!!!” . . . SAME DOESN’T MEAN A CUT!!!