Republicans - and even some Democrats - have donned their political boxing gloves again...and once more have entered the ring...to continue their fight over the nation's healthcare law.
The Obama Administration - on Tuesday, July 2nd, 2013 - announced that it would delay the employer mandate by one year. You may recall...that in passing the Affordable Care Act in 2010... Democrats included a requirement...that businesses with 50 or more employees...would have to provide health insurance to their workers - and if they didn't - the company failing to do so...would be subject to fines. That provision was scheduled to start in 2014. But now...it won't happen until 2015. By postponing the directive... critics of the so-called "Obamacare"... continue to chastise the President...by insisting that the law was never thought out properly...is unworkable...and should simply be repealed.
Why can't Republicans - and for that matter any Democrats and Independents who oppose Obamacare - realize once and for all...that the healthcare law is NOT going to be repealed. It just aint gonna happen!!!
Face it boys and girls...thankfully...there will never be a majority of votes - in either the Senate or the House - and even if there ever was...President Obama would never sign such a repeal.
Meanwhile...on Tuesday, July 9th, 2013...Speaker of the House John Boehner demanded the same postponement for the mandate on individual insurance purchases. The Ohio Republican reportedly told a closed-door gathering of GOP Members of the House, “Is it fair for the President of the United States to give American businesses an exemption from his healthcare law’s mandate without giving the same exemption to the rest of America? Hell no, it’s not fair."Republicans - and anyone else who is against Obamacare - can bellyache and bitch...fuss and fret...gripe and growl...and whine and wail...but their complaints will fall on deaf ears. And obviously...at least to me...it has been apparent from the very beginning...that those in Congress...and any other U.S. citizens...who have been against President Obama's most important piece of legislation...have protested it for political reasons only. I truly believe that most of the naysayers...do in fact realize...that Obamacare is going to benefit millions and millions of people...who are in desperate need of healthcare coverage...but even so...they will do whatever they can...and say whatever they want...just to spew their venom...and to attempt to sabotage...the President's signature achievement.
New Jersey Democratic Senator Robert Menendez told David Gregory on the Sunday, July 7th, 2013 edition of NBC's Meet The Press..."If ten angels came swearing from above...that this is the best law for the country's health...there would be opponents...who would say the angels lied."
Can't the Republicans get together with the Democrats - as they have in decades past - to show their concern for the country as a whole...and to not polarize our nation even further? Why must Republicans insist on giving a black eye to The White House?
When all is said and done anyway - after the "beltway bullies" make their stink...everything is going to stay the same anyway. Obamacare is the law of the land...and thank God...and President Barack Obama...it's going to stay that way.
And that's The Controversy for today.
I'm Gary B. Duglin.
"We'll talk again."
The Controversy will make an effort to publish a new commentary every Sunday and Wednesday. Unscheduled essays may appear, from time to time, on other days as well.
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Once again your left wing lies shows through. The democrats are the bullies in health care they lied cheated and bribed its way to passage. We all should remember the Corn-husker Kickback, the Louisiana Purchase, the Special Deal for Florida Medicare Advantage Recipients (only Florida Medicare Advantage), Extra Medicare Benefits for Montana Residents (only for Montana Residents)there were more but you get the point. President Obama said insurance rates would go down on average $2500 but they have gone up on average more the $2500 ($5000 difference) The CBO has now said the Insurance exchanges will cost 107% higher then first told the congress and the American people. Companies all around the country have cut back on hours so they don't have to cover people, others have not employed new people to avoid the cost of insurance. Everyday (or week) we keep finding out what more this law will do to us (not for us but to us) as Nancy Pelosi said "We have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it”.
ReplyDeleteA new Gallup poll out last Thursday reveals that 42 percent of the public believes the law will actually make things tougher for them and their families. Just 22 percent said that the health care bill would improve their health and family life. And 52 percent of Americans surveyed reported that the law itself is flawed and would drastically cut down the quality of health care citizens received in the long run. 52% of people say that this law will cut the quality of health care in this country and you want to defend it. You call it political I call it survival. It was and still is the Democrats that are playing politics with it, they locked the Republicans out writing the bill and the planning and the implementation. It is the Democrats that don't care what it does to people as long as the can give more things away on the backs of working American to buy more votes. All they have ever cared about is how to stay in power and buy more votes in any way they can to keep there power know matter what it does to our country!
Gary,
ReplyDeleteI read The Controversy faithfully. I liked your piece on "ObamaCare" and think you are on the correct side of the argument. However, we should refrain from the use of the term "ObamaCare". This term was coined by disruptive heaters of progress, who say nay not for the good of the people, but for political reasons. The bill is called the "Affordable Care Act", which is the moniker that those of us who, support the President and love our country enough to do the right thing, should use. "ObamaCare" is an attempt to demean an incredible piece of legislation that was a win for most Americans. All but the super rich should support it. Unfortunately, those who prosper enormously from the status quo have the financial ability and power to spin a web of lies about the legislation that leads astray those who would benefit from it.
So long live the "Affordable Care Act". Let all Americans role up their sleeves and make it work.
Parenthetically, the biggest problem with the ACA is the fact that President Obama (note the word "President" should always precede the word "Obama" out of respect to him and the office) and the Democrats caved in on one of the essential portions of the legislation, which was the so-called public option. The Republicans dug in their heals and emphatically stated that the public option was a non-starter. The Democrats, in an effort to secure bipartisan support for the rest of bill, deleted the portion about the public option, but they never got a single Republican naysayer to vote in favor of the bill. The authors of the ACA should have stood firm on this issue. I strongly suspect they could have passed the entire bill without any support from the Republicans, and We, the People, would have been all the better for it. Sometimes you have to be brave and make a stand. The fact is that private insurances attach an additional 25 - 27% to the cost of medical care, their fee for performing the payment transaction to the health care provider. That same business transaction is performed by the federal government for a program called Medicare. They are able to provide this service while only adding 8% for processing the transaction. Imagine that! The Feds are actually 3 times more efficient than the private sector. Now, not once, did we hear anyone from either political party articulate this very important fact, which flies in the face of claims, advanced by fear mongers on TV ads and the radio, that we should be afraid of letting federal government do anything because they are incompetent, wasteful, and inefficient. The truth is, those who are making a fortune from the status quo (i.e., the CEO's of the insurance companies, executives in the pharmaceutical industry, etc.) would like to keep things the way they are. They make sizable contributions to both political parties to make sure it does. Until we eliminate the ability of industry and the super rich to buy the votes of the legislators that We, the People, elect to serve us, we are never going to achieve the type of innovative changes required to move the country forward, and make the lot of most Americans better than it currently is.
Please, keep the Controversies flowing. It is important for people to hear the truth, even if it is, well...controversial. One must be brave to do so. I admire you for it.
Thanks so very much for your kind words about The Controversy and for your awesome comment about The Affordable Care Act. As for my reference to it as "Obamacare"...I had agreed with you wholeheartedly a few years back when Republicans - and others who were opposed to the Affordable Care Act" - were using the term "Obamacare" in a negative way. But when the President himself embraced the word - and in fact uses it himself - I got on his bandwagon and started using the term as well, but of course, in a positive way...and not like those naysayers. Thanks again for your support of The Controversy. Please keep reading. GBD
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