GOP's 40th Attempt to Repeal Obamacare

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright August 2, 2013
All Rights Reserved.                                      

             Taking another swipe at President Barack Obama’s historic 2010 health care legislation known as Obamacare, the GOP-controlled House introduced legislation to stop the Internal Revenue Service from implementing the law.  Though only symbolic, since the Senate would reject the legislation, it gives the feckless GOP House somethinbg to crow about.  With the IRS scandal targeting GOP non-profits still fresh on people’s minds, the House took another swipe at Obama’s national health care legislation.  At the heart of the bill is IRS-enforced individual mandate, requiring individuals to carry health insurance or face stiff penalties.  Enforcing the mandate of buying insurance helps guarantee that the vast numbers of policies sold by insurance exchanges would bring down the cost of premiums.  Obamacare was designed to cover the uninsured not covered by Medicaid or Medicare—health care for the poor and elderly.

             Obmacare was mucked up when Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) refused to sign-off on a Medicare-for-all which would have provided what most Democrats wanted in national health care:  A single-payer system.  Instead, what emerged was the next best thing, allowing the private sector to continue offering competitive private insurance plans as long as they met minimum government requirements.  While objected to by the GOP, at the heart of Obama’s plan was to prevent insurance companies from denying insurance to those with pre-existing medical conditions, something commonly done by individual plans.  Unable to qualify for Medicaid [for the poor], Medicare [for elderly and disabled] and locked out of employer-based health care, some 40 million Americans have no insurance.  Obamacare was an attempt to close the gap between these two groups of uninsured citizens.

             Members of the GOP House led by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) seem focused on appeasing right wing radio and TV pundits than protecting uninsured constituents from getting insurance.  “Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act,” said sponsor Tom Price (R-Ga.), knowing that ending the individual mandate would gut the law’s capacity to provide affordable policies by increasing coverage.  Despite bashing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act signed into law March 23, 2010, the GOP has offered no alternative, preferring to go back to the old system where ordinary citizens fend for themselves.  “Political red meat is not what the country needs,” said Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-.N.Y.).  “We need a Congress with a vision for tomorrow,” not explaining anything other than Obamacare is good for the country.  Democrats—especially the president—need to sell Obamacare more convincingly.

             White House officials have done an abysmal job selling Obamacare, explaining to the average person what they stand to gain.  When former President George W. Bush signed Medicare Part D [prescription drugs benefit] into law Dec. 8, 2003, there wasn’t much explaining to do.  At a price tag of $50 billion a year, it was the largest government entitlement since former President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed Medicare into law July 30, 1965.  Republicans moaned then and they’re squawking now about Obamacare.  Expected yearly costs to the U.S. Treasury are about $100 billion a year, replacing the costs associated with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Unintended costs to the economy from the uninsured in terms of lost productivity, early death and drain on the current health care system are incalculable.  Unexpected jobs creation and benefits to the economy are equally unknown.

             Republicans, like House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), are today’s profits of doom-and-gloom, much like the late Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.) and Calif. Gov. Ronald Reagan ranted about Medicare back in the day.  “This nothing short of an unwelcome, big-government overreach into the most personal aspect of our lives,” said Cantor, reciting the same worn-out talking points as Goldwater and Reagan.  It’s easy for Cantor, who’s fully covered by his Congressional health insurance, to call it “unwelcome,” when he’s not the one rushing the Emergency Room without insurance.  Cantor also thinks Medicare and Social Security are also government intrusions, rather than seeing entitlements as a necessary part of American life.  White House and House Democrats need to do a better job of explaining how Obamacare will benefit ordinary individuals and families. 

             New GOP efforts to discredit Obamacare continue the same empty critical drumbeat without proposing an alternative plan.  “Assertions that the IRS will have access to personal health information is wrong and deliberately misleading,” said Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.), pushing back on GOP criticism.  Republicans oppose Obamacare not because they think it’s bad for the country but because they have no other identity after the disastrous 2012 presidential election.  With internal battles brewing in the GOP between conservatives, like Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and moderates like Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.Y.), the GOP looks to like the same old party that’s lost the last two presidential elections.  Playing obstructionist in the House can’t be the best platform to go toward the 2014 Midterm elections or, for that matter, prepare the way for a better outcome in 2016.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.