It's Repeal That's Ailing

Friday 21 January 2011

by: Eugene Robinson, Op-Ed

Washington - This whole health care thing isn't quite working out the way Republicans planned. My guess is that they'll soon try to change the subject -- but I'm afraid they're already in too deep.

Wednesday's vote to repeal President Obama's health insurance reform law was supposed to be a crowning triumph. We heard confident GOP predictions that cowed Democrats would defect in droves, generating unstoppable momentum that forced the Senate to obey "the will of the people" and follow suit. The Democrats' biggest domestic accomplishment would be in ruins and Obama's political standing would be damaged, perhaps irreparably.

What actually happened, though, is that the Republican majority managed to win the votes of just three Democrats -- all of them Blue Dogs who have been consistent opponents of the reform package anyway. In terms of actual defectors, meaning Democrats who changed sides on the issue, there were none. This is momentum?

The unimpressive vote came at a moment when "the will of the people" on health care is coming into sharper focus. Most polls that offer a simple binary choice -- do you like the "Obamacare" law or not -- show that the reforms remain narrowly unpopular. Yet a significant fraction of those who are unhappy complain not that the reform law went too far but that it didn't go far enough. I think of these people as the "public option" crowd.

A recent Associated Press poll found that 41 percent of those surveyed opposed the reform law and 40 percent supported it. But when asked what Congress should do, 43 percent said the law should be modified so that it does more to change the health care system. Another 19 percent said it should be left as it is.

More troubling for the GOP, the AP poll found that just 26 percent of respondents wanted Congress to repeal the reform law completely. A recent Washington Post poll found support for outright repeal at 18 percent; a Marist poll pegged it at 30 percent.

In other words, what House Republicans just voted to do may be the will of the tea party but it's not "the will of the people."

"The test of a first-rate intelligence," F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, "is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function." By this standard, House Republicans are geniuses. To pass the "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act," they had to believe that the work of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is both authoritative and worthless.

The CBO, which "scores" the impact of proposed legislation, calculated that the health reform law will reduce federal deficits by at least $143 billion through 2019. Confronted with the fact that repeal would deepen the nation's fiscal woe, Republicans simply claimed the CBO estimate to be rubbish. Who cares what the CBO says, anyway?

Er, um, Republicans care, at least when it's convenient. Delving into the CBO's analysis, they unearthed a finding that they proclaimed as definitive: The reform law would eliminate 650,000 jobs. Hence "Job-Killing" in the repeal bill's title.

One problem, though: The CBO analysis contains no such figure. It's an extrapolation of a rough estimate of an anticipated effect that no reasonable person would describe as "job-killing." What the budget office actually said is that there are people who would like to withdraw from the work force -- sometimes because of a chronic medical condition -- but feel compelled to continue working in order to keep their health insurance. Once the reforms take effect, these individuals will have new options. That's where the "lost" jobs supposedly come from.

The exercise in intellectual contortion that was necessary for the House to pass the repeal bill will be an excellent tune-up for what's supposed to come next. "Repeal and replace" was the promise -- get rid of the Democrats' reform plan and design one of their own. This is going to be fun.

It turns out that voters look forward to the day when no one can be denied insurance coverage because of pre-existing conditions. They like the fact that young adults, until they are 26, can be kept on their parents' policies. They like not having yearly or lifetime limits on benefits. The GOP is going to have to design something that looks a lot like Obamacare.

Meanwhile, Obama's approval ratings climb higher every week. Somebody change the subject. Quick!

http://www.truth-out.org/eugene-robinson-its-repeal-thats-ailing67041

Excellent read.

Good information too.

just 3 dems, huh....i guess yall forgot about the 12 the jumped from dem to repub a few months ago...

I guess you didn't read properly.

Dems who are backing the repeal are what they are talking about.

It is good information without the right wing spin to it.

what so good about it? i didn't see anything that was "informative" in it, mostly just talked about worthless polls, throwing a few numbers around like they mean something...why do lefties always post a blog and think it's the truth? read some real news, post some facts every once in a while... blogs just are not any kind of factual news..

Only the ignorant want the American health care system to remain as it was before Obama and supporters changed it. In fact, many of us won't be happy until the US adopts nationalized health care. And just so there won't be any incorrect assumptions, I have what is currently considered excellent health insurance. It's expensive and it still sucks.

I have crappy insurance it really sucks. But it went up since Obama care. I know some people who dont have any, and cant afford it.

Having national HC is not all its cracked up to be. I live in a country that has it right now and am paying more for HC than I did back in the US. Paying a flat 30% for everything including medication isn't cheap. If you make 40k here you are paying about $180 a month for the insurance compared to the $60 I was paying in the US. Facilities are better in the US as well.

Really only the ignorant? Why? What's wrong with me wanting to pay my own bills? I'm ignorant cause i'm self reliant? I'm ignorant cause i don't want to pay your bills? My healthcare doesn't suck! I have a caring doctor that has taken good care of my family and it has never been a worry! Is it expensive? Yes it is, but you know it gets that way when you have government regulation, fraud, freeloaders, and crackheads to support! Handing it to government is ignorant and if you look at any other government agency you can easily come to that conclusion! Maybe you just want other people to pay your bills?

Careful where you get your 'information'

TruthOut is a 501(3)c... If you know anything about politics you know exactally what that means.

they also are quick a proud about giving voice to 'progressive' ideals.

Don't read the articles till you check out the web site. Then go through and see what type of articles said sight allows.

Takes but a few minutes and one quickly realizes that 'data' provide by this site is slanted for a particular reason.

501(3)c donation collection to 'bolster' a particular political agenda.

Immediate suspicion of accuracy of data.

501(3)c's sould be completely disallowed in our political system as far as I am concerned... Reguardless of which agenda they are supporting.

I will point out the most obvious lie in this article. (I refuse to call a lie 'spin' anymore)... I am sick of this bs.

"Wednesday's vote to repeal President Obama's health insurance reform law was supposed to be a crowning triumph. We heard confident GOP predictions that cowed Democrats would defect in droves, generating unstoppable momentum that forced the Senate to obey "the will of the people" and follow suit. The Democrats' biggest domestic accomplishment would be in ruins and Obama's political standing would be damaged, perhaps irreparably. "

This is based on hoping people don't pay attention. I (and many others) actually DO PAY ATTENTION.

I the days before the vote republicans that this bit of lie references ACTUALLY said 'we know it will not pass the senate... But we promised so we must try', and 'if it does pass the senate the President will more than likely veot it'

There were no 'confident' GOP predictions as stated with this lie.

The paragraph is the authors words and not the words or actions of the 'GOP' that author lies about.

People cannot seem to differentiate between factual unbiased news sources and totally biased opinion.

Someone posting an opinion from a biased author and claiming it's the gospel is a common practice these days.

I don't even read the threads anymore until I look first at the source.

It's been going up every year since I entered the work force and I'm 50. Where have you been?

It going up this year could easily be explained by observing the lobbyist money payed to Repub members of congress. They have to get some reimbursement since their efforts, for the most part, failed.

Correct!
Only 1 in 4 want repeal.

The rest either want to leave the new health-care bill alone or strengthen it.

They read what they want to read Dragoness. If they don't find it in your post they uickly try to distract from it.

Keep the good posts coming Dragoness.

bump