Several Republican Senators-elect say that they want to reexamine The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) piece by piece, keep what works, eliminate what doesnt, and fix whats broken. Actually, that sounds completely reasonable. After all, everyone, including the members of Congress who passed it and the president, has said that it will need tweaking in the future. Every big, complex law does. So again, it sounds reasonable. But those Republicans have mentioned repeatedly two things that they want to eliminate: the individual mandate, and the medical device tax. I can understand why theyd want to eliminate those things. But its fair to point out that self-proclaimed deficit hawks who have griped about exploding deficits (despite the fact that in reality deficits have been cut by two thirds) would be eliminating the parts of Obamacare which pay for it. EVERY health insurance plan, in order to be financially solvent, must have healthy people paying into the system. At one time we all mostly pay in. At others, we take out. Thats how insurance works! So while theyve won at the ballot box the right to reexamine the law, if they eliminate the parts of it that they say they plan to, anyone who really cares about exploding deficits should point out that, minus those provisions, most of the cost of care under the act WILL go straight to the deficit! Conservatives seem deeply concerned about the debt only when the other party is in charge, and this is just the latest example! Welcome to the majority, guys, and the virtual rectal probe of examination and fact-checking EVERYTHING, that comes with it! So I would suggest that we all look not merely at whether the new Congress will be able to work with the president and get things done, but also whether, in the process, they dump (as I suspect they will) the conservative financial principles theyve claimed to believe-in since President Obama first took office. Did they really believe what they claimed to? Were they serious about their conservative principles? My hunch is that some were, but most werent. But lets watch them and see! And keep in mind the fact that, as even Speaker Boehner has grudgingly admitted, WE HAVE NO SHORT-TERM DEBT PROBLEM! We have ZERO problem making payments on the debt, and that debt, by the way, is mostly to ourselves, not China, as some on the right claim!
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 00:54:52 +0000
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