Today, the Republicans who took over the House of Representatives are demonstrating their positive, practical agenda for improving the lives of Americans by engaging in an elaborate fantasy. They intend to pass a bill that would repeal the health care reform passed by the last Congress. Afterward, the bill will be voted down in the Senate; and even if it somehow passed through Congress, the President will veto it.
Never mind the GOP’s arguments — which are largely based on dishonest, or perhaps fantasy-based, numbers (as columnist Paul Krugman says, these guys seem to have given up on the war on terror for a war on arithmetic and logic).
Here’s my point: Even if you accept Republican arguments for repealing health care reform, the whole exercise is a waste of time and effort, doomed to eventual defeat; it’s an odd charade, designed to throw some red meat to the GOP’s teabagger wing and little else. Considering the depth and breadth of the country’s problems, and all the Republican talk of urgency during the 2010 campaign, taking up so much time on such a fool’s errand is more than just silly or cynical — it’s a disgrace.
At the very least, however, you’d expect the GOPers in Congress to stick to their beliefs and decline government-sponsored health coverage for themselves, right? We-l-l-l-l, wait a minute now, let’s don’t go overboard with this thing. So far, only eight GOP members of Congress have opted out of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan. ThinkProgress has created a video in which they asked several repeal-supporting congressmen if they planned to continue getting health insurance through the federal government. The reasons given for keeping their sweet deal while denying new benefits to ordinary Americans are priceless. At least Rep. Ron Paul admitted his position “could be” hypocritical, which is more than the other tone-deaf lawmakers mustered. Here’s the video from ThinkProgress:
This article appears in Jan 18-24, 2011.
I think it says something that more House members voted to repeal Obamacare than originally voted to create it (245 vs 219). And the fact that suddenly BHO is willing to work with both Democrats and Republicans to “improve” the Affordable Care Act says a lot as well.
While the GOP effort to repeal it may or may not be a waste of time and effort (a waste at least for the next 2 years while BHO is prez), I think the real battle, for now, will be played out in the 26+ states’ challenge that Obamacare is unconstitutional.
And I don’t expect any politician, whether Dem or Repub, to be anything BUT hypocritical. They ALL have the mentality of “Do as I say, not as I do”.