S
SuperLuigi
Guest
Until you are in pain and can’t get treatment.
Then again, we’ve all got to make sacrifices for the utopia.
Enjoy!
Then again, we’ve all got to make sacrifices for the utopia.
Enjoy!
And yet, despite all the apparent unpopularity of the ACA, a significant part of the reason the Republicans are unable to push through even amendments to the legislation is simply because a growing majority of Americans don’t want key parts of the ACA revoked, and many certainly don’t want to see Medicare gutted. What seems to have happened, as a number of pundits, even Conservative pundits predicted, is that one way or the other Obamacare was going to become part of the national fabric, and that most basic principle of entitlements, that once you’ve put them in place, you can never remove them, has come to pass.I don’t know everything in this latest legislative effort, but to the extent it rids this country of obamacare (Rand Paul says it doesn’t) I’m for it.
It has been eight years now since any American could choose his own healthcare plan. It has been eight years since one could just buy a “catastrophic” plan. It has been eight years since one could decline coverage for birth control, abortifacients, alcohol or drug treatment. It has been eight years since a 55 year old woman could decline pregnancy coverage.
It has been eight years now that a family of four making over $80,000 could reasonably afford health insurance.
It has been eight years now that a family is actually punished if its teenage members earn money to help the family or pay for their own educations.
And it has been eight years since most small businesses could afford to provide their workers with health insurance.
If it was up to me, every vestige of Obamacare would be repealed and congress would start over. But any port in a storm, and that includes what the Repubs now are promoting.
I don’t for a moment doubt the Repubs are worried about all kinds of potential hazards, including the fact that Obamacare was intended to create a constituency, and did.And yet, despite all the apparent unpopularity of the ACA, a significant part of the reason the Republicans are unable to push through even amendments to the legislation is simply because a growing majority of Americans don’t want key parts of the ACA revoked, and many certainly don’t want to see Medicare gutted. What seems to have happened, as a number of pundits, even Conservative pundits predicted, is that one way or the other Obamacare was going to become part of the national fabric, and that most basic principle of entitlements, that once you’ve put them in place, you can never remove them, has come to pass.
Let’s follow your logic all the way. Right now the Democrats, or at least a fairly large portion of them, are beginning to line up behind some form of single payer. Now if the Republicans do manage to gut the ACA and begin the process of radically downsizing Medicare (even if that simply means allowing funding to fall below inflation thresholds), and the Democrats march in with a single payer plan, the Republicans may have some serious issues in 2018 and 2020. They clearly know it, as new versions of this bill magically find more money for Alaska and Maine, in the hopes of gaining the votes they need. But even with that, with the likes of Cruz and Paul clearly unhappy with even this bill, it’s no guarantee.
In reality, I think the Republicans would just like to have the whole thing go away. McConnell clearly has no appetite to take this on again, but they’re stuck having to defend to an angry base, may of which, ironically, could be harmed by the ACA’s demise, why they didn’t get rid of Obamacare.
I guess my biggest problem with repeal and replace is the concept that America can flop around like a fish out of water when it comes to its laws, switching back and forth every two to four years. That is the way to become an irrelevant banana republic (not the clothing store). Trump supporters are fond of reminding us that he won and we need to get over it. I agree. However the flip side to that is Obama also won and we need to get over that. Healthcare was one of his major goals and he won. Period. So fix what the current Congress deems fixing and cut out this repeal and replace garbage. We cannot throw out our law books and bring in another set every two years.McCain has not lied he has weighed the proposed legislation on its merits and rejected it as anything but an improvement for the nation. The whole repeal and replace concept is the wrong tack to take when it would be far better and more reasonable for the whole nation. If the law is screwed up then it is congress that needs to amend it and make it better.
Trump may not be a racist, but he is pretty darned useless as a President. Considering that previous health care reform initiatives have had intimate involvement from the Administrations of the time, and that Trump has basically never done anything to further any of the Republican initiatives, and not even given even a vague outline of what he’d like to see, Trump and his supporters can hardly complain when Republican lawmakers flounder and fight among themselves.Trump is not a racist, but I know of many liberals who act that way.