Republicans’ New Bill Strips Workers’ Health Care and Adds $74 Billion to the Deficit It’s no secret that the Republican Party has endeavored to sink President Obama’s primary legislative achievement, the Affordable Care Act, since before its inception and by any means necessary, or that the conservative establishment has harnessed tea-party fervor and made the repeal of “Obamacare” and the ousting of President Obama from office their main objective. In light of these goals, the objections to the legislation have echoed the usual conservative concerns over “socialized” medicine (however misplaced these concerns may be in the case of the ACA). Moreover, it appears that the latest installation of GOP obstruction (the “Save American Workers Act”) is aimed to redefine “full time” employment under the ACA by seeking to increase the threshold of “full time” employment (from 30 to 40 hours of work per week) all in an effort to further embattle the Obama administration in obstructionist tweaking of the ACA. However, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), these new provisions would effectively allow more businesses to circumvent the employer mandate in the ACA and, as it turns out, increase the deficit by $74 billion, as well as allowing for several other disastrous effects. In the grip of their mild incoherence, the conservative establishment has accused the law of cutting medicare (which it doesn’t), of being a government takeover (which it clearly isn’t), of adding to the deficit (which it doesn’t), of being unpopular (which it isn’t), of being unconstitutional (which was recently ruled on), and claimed that it would kill jobs (it doesn’t) among many other outlandish claims (e.g. death panels as such). The Republican party and other right-wing advocates seem intent on ridiculing, distorting, and finally overturning this central piece of legislation. Adding insult to injury, this latest piece of obstructionist legislation seems to encourage the very effects conservatives claim are disastrous about the ACA as it stands. While it seems obvious that their motives are “political” and not based on reality, the GOP insists that their Orwellian branding of this latest obstructionist bill is appropriate. Nevertheless, the facts are that the “Save American Workers Act,” which was co-sponsored by 208 others in Congress, claims to protect working poor and middle class employees while doing the exact opposite. In fact, one million workers would lose their work-based insurance policies. Half would be forced into either an ACA plan, Medicaid or SCHIP. The other half wouldn’t get any health insurance at all…It gets worse. Due to the provision loosening the penalty for not complying with the law, the deficit would go up by $74 billion. The CBO study on the matter is straightforward yet Republicans insist on this notion that the bill would actually help workers. While Republicans would claim the contrary, this is a shameless giveaway to major employers (to the detriment of employees) that is by no means an act of rescue. So, while the GOP continue their jarringly misleading arguments for the continued obstruction of the ACA, this latest attempt to “save American workers,” again, seems like anything but.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Mar 2014 03:17:58 +0000
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