THE mainstream media, NPR & Washington Post included, is missing a major point in this story, the glaring hypocrisy of the representatives who voted to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act while keeping their insurance that is subsidized by the taxpayers at a cost of approximately $700 a month per policy. They feel they are entitled to government subsidized health care but nobody else is. They have the same lack of morality as the executives of the banks, financial institutions and companies who feel they are entitled to obscene bonuses after their companies were bailed out by the taxpayers. The gop/tea-bagger controlled House will make sure America does get one medical procedure, though it will be with greater frequency than recommended by the AMA......know what it is? Here's a hint....BOHICA!!!! BYOL (bring your own lube).....
The new Republican-controlled House voted Wednesday 245-189 to repeal the historic health care overhaul legislation signed last March by President Obama, but the measure appears destined to prove largely symbolic.
Top Democrats in the Senate, including Majority Leader Harry Reid, who characterized the House action as "partisan grandstanding," say they will block efforts to take up the bill.
And Obama, while signaling a willingness to work on aspects of the sweeping bill where compromise may be possible, has pledged to veto any effort to repeal the centerpiece of his domestic agenda.
Republicans lack the votes in the Senate to override a presidential veto.
But the up-or-down repeal vote fulfills a campaign promise many Republican candidates made last fall, and sets into motion a larger GOP strategy to use the power levers they control to chip away at aspects of the bill over the next two years.
During repeal debate that began Tuesday, and wound down late Wednesday afternoon, Republican Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon said that his party will come up with a "replacement bill."
Other House GOP leaders on the issue, including Rep. Steve King of Iowa, say the party will also use its muscle in the appropriations process to pull funding that would implement aspects of the bill, including enforcing the legislation's requirement that citizens have private or employer-provided health insurance.
Republican leaders say they don't have a deadline for producing new health care legislation — the "replace" part of their campaign promise of "repeal and replace."
But four House committees will be charged tomorrow with coming up with proposed changes to the existing bill. And more than two dozen states have joined a Florida lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the health care law.
Largely Respectful Debate, Except …
The seven hours of floor debate struck a largely respectful tone, with one glaring detour: Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee late Tuesday compared Republican arguments to Nazi propaganda and "blood libel." The term was recently invoked, to much criticism, by former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in a statement critical of the media's coverage of her in the wake of the recent shootings in Arizona that critically injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and killed six people.
The health care measure, a hot-button political issue for more than 18 months and the first bill considered under House Republican control in the new Congress, is officially titled the "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act."
Before the Tucson massacre, the impending repeal debate appeared likely to be stridently partisan — a replay, perhaps, of last year's debate, when terms like "death panels" were casually employed. But, as was the case Tuesday when the bill came to the floor, the language remained - with an exception or two - largely focused on well-worn talking points Wednesday.
House Speaker John Boehner, noting that Obama has indicated that the health care bill needs work, said: "If we agree that this law needs improving, why would we keep it on the books?"
Obama in a statement this week said that while "we can't go backward," he is "willing and eager" to work with members of both parties to "improve the Affordable Care Act."
Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi, who was House Speaker when the bill passed, defended popular aspects of the bill that have already gone into effect, including barring insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, to allowing adult children up to age 26 to remain on their parents' policies.
"Repeal would be devastating to so many Americans," Pelosi said.
House Republicans have already indicated that they are unlikely to strip the pre-existing condition rule from any plan going forward.
But they also warned opponents not to underestimate their determination or their willingness to use parliamentary maneuvers to deny the Obama administration funds needed to carry out the law.
"Repeal doesn't mean we aren't for health care reform, quite the contrary," said Rep. Phil Roe (R-TN), an obstetrician-gynecologist. "This bill does increase the number of people who are insured. But it does nothing to decrease the costs."
That, he predicted, will make Obama's expansion of coverage unsustainable.
Both Parties Seize Opportunity To Make Case
Many Democrats were defiant during the debate. "We are not interested in taking down, repealing and destroying," said Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA).
They also held an informal hearing Tuesday featuring actual people who are benefiting from some of the parts of the law that have already taken effect.
Republicans are "re-litigating, regurgitating and re-arguing" a debate that was settled last year, said Rep. Rob Andrews (D-NJ). Repeal is "the wrong bill at the wrong time," he added.
Republicans argued that the law gives the federal government too much power, particularly the requirement that nearly every American either have health insurance or else pay a penalty.
"If this law is constitutional, if Congress has such broad power, our limited federal government will have become limitless," said Michigan freshman Republican Rep. Justin Amash.
The GOP's Health Care Priorities
The House is scheduled to vote Thursday to instruct several major committees to draft health care legislation that reflects Republican priorities, including limits on medical malpractice awards and stricter language barring taxpayer funding for abortions. But an earlier GOP bill that offered a competing vision to the Democrats' only covered a fraction of the people reached by Obama's law.
No matter, Republicans say. A modest, step-by-step approach may turn out to be more sustainable in the long run than a major new government program whose costs and consequences are still unclear.
The fate of the repeal-and-replace effort hinges on the quality of the replacement legislation and the care that Republicans put into drafting it, said Rep. Chris Gibson (R-NY), a freshman. If it meets the needs and concerns of the public, Gibson said, he believes Democrats in the Senate may be persuaded to give it serious consideration.
Easier said than done, Democrats say. For example, Republicans say they also want to help people with pre-existing medical conditions find affordable coverage. But many experts say that won't be possible unless there is some kind of requirement that healthy people get into the insurance pool as well, thereby helping to keep premiums down.
"They're going to have to deal with that," said Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 Democrat.
But while the legislative battle is likely to end in a draw, at least for now, the battle for public opinion rages on. A new CNN poll provides more ammunition for both sides. For Republicans, it finds that half of those polled think the law should be repealed. But Democrats will take heart in the fact that nearly 80 percent of Americans favor at least some aspect of the health law.
Contributing: Julie Rovner; Liz Halloran; The Associated Press
House votes to repeal health-care law
By Felicia Sonmez and David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, January 19, 2011; 6:33 PM
The House on Wednesday evening passed a bill that would repeal the national health care overhaul, approving the measure on a largely party-line vote.
The repeal bill passed 245 to 189, with three Democrats - Reps. Mike Ross (Ark.), Dan Boren (Okla.) and Mike McIntyre (N.C.) - joining Republicans in backing the measure. The three were among the four Democrats who voted earlier this month to advance the measure. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who remains in serious condition following this month's mass shooting in Tucson, was the only lawmaker not voting.
The bill's passage came after Democrats unsuccessfully staged an eleventh-hour vote in an effort to derail the Republican-sponsored measure.
The Democratic move, which would have made the repeal effort ineffective unless a majority of lawmakers gave up their federal health care benefits within 30 days of the bill's passage, fell short in the GOP-led House.
While the repeal passed the House, ultimately, it is expected to fail.
To actually repeal the law, Republicans would need the approval of the Democrat-controlled Senate and President Obama, unless they have enough votes to override his veto. They are not likely to get that approval.
That made Wednesday's debate look like a dress rehearsal for an entirely different discussion: not whether the bill should be repealed, but how it might be changed.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in his remarks on the House floor that repeal would prevent more than $770 billion in tax hikes, reduce spending by $540 billion and protect more than 7 million seniors from losing or being denied coverage through Medicare Advantage.
"Repeal means paving the way for better solutions that will lower the cost without destroying jobs or bankrupting our government, and repeal means keeping a promise," Boehner said. "This is what we said what we'd do. We listened to the people; we made a commitment to them, a pledge to make their priorities, our priorities."
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) defended the law by citing some of the stories of seven Americans who gave testimony on Tuesday at a hearing called by House Democrats. "Nothing speaks more eloquently to the success of health care reform than the success of their own personal stories," she said.
"We don't want them to think that in order for them to have the same kind of access to health care that we do, we should say to them, 'Run for Congress,'" Pelosi said.
Throughout Wednesday's debate, some Republicans said that elements of the current law - such as a ban on denying coverage for for pre-existing conditions, or the ability for parents to keep young adult children on their insurance - might be included in a replacement bill they want to write.
"We will address, with a replacement bill, pre-existing conditions," said Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.). But Walden said Republicans wanted to to keep out of the replacement bill other elements of the overhaul law, which he said included an increase in the overall cost of healthcare.
"We can do better than this, given a chance," Walden said.
Democrats also said they would be willing to change elements of the law.
"This is political theater. It's a charade," Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) said of the repeal proposal. He continued: "I'm willing to change the bill. But repealing it is the absolutely wrong way of doing it."
The two sides still seemed a long way from actual compromise. Republicans have not said exactly how they would replace the current bill with one that provided these benefits with lower costs. And Democrats seem unwilling to budge on some elements most unpopular with Republicans, like the requirement that all individuals buy health insurance.
The tone of Wednesday's debate was far more muted than the first debate over the healthcare overhaul--there were fewer mentions of "job-killing," or comparisons of the bill to socialism.
But, as the day went on, both sides slipped in bitter jabs at the other. Freshman Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), compared his state's fight against the health-care overhaul to the American Revolution.
"We did not accept the chains of George III, nor will we accept the chains of Obamacare," Griffith said.
After him, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) said Republicans were telling untruths about the healthcare legislation. He said that, if anyone watching on television was playing a drinking game that required them to drink when a Republican bent the truth, they needed to get a designated driver.
Weiner said the Republicans' tactics should be called the "'We don't really mean it' strategy."
The night before, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) had compared the Republican tactics on this issue to ones used by the Nazis.
"They say it's a government takeover of health care, a big lie just like Goebbels," Cohen said. "You say it enough, you repeat the lie, you repeat the lie, and eventually, people believe it. Like blood libel. That's the same kind of thing.
"The Germans said enough about the Jews and people believed it--believed it and you have the Holocaust," Cohen said.
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) on Wednesday called the health care overhaul "the crown jewel of socialism." And a handful of members of both parties used heated rhetoric in charging that the health care overhaul would "kill jobs" -- or that its repeal would result in "killing Americans."
Wednesday's floor debate was a chance for both sides to try out the arguments they are likely to use in this year's longer debate, as Congress considers changing or eliminating the healthcare legislation one piece at a time.
Republicans largely used their floor remarks to tie the health care law to the economy, arguing that the health care overhaul will do away with fiscal discipline through increased spending and higher taxes, cost the country jobs and create economic uncertainty.
Some lawmakers went further, arguing that the law itself is unconstitutional, would overextend the reach of government and would allow for taxpayer-funded abortions, even though Democrats say that is not the case.
Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), a prominent conservative who is mulling a bid for president or governor, said that with Wednesday's vote, House Republicans "are going to stand with the American people and vote to repeal their government takeover of health care lock, stock and barrel."
"Now I know the other side and some liberals in the media don't like us using that term -- government takeover of health care -- but let me break it down for you: When you mandate that every American purchase health insurance whether they want it or need it or not ... and you throw in public funding of abortion against the wishes of the overwhelming majority of the American people, that's a government takeover of health care and the American people know it," Pence said in his floor remarks.
In the battle of constituent anecdotes, Republicans told stories about small businessmen worried about the bill's costs. Democrats, on the other hand, talked about patients: people who would get help paying for pre-natal care, or the treatment of cancer or other diseases.
At one point, Reps. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) sparred over how women would be affected by a repeal of the health care law.
"Thanks to the new law, women do not have to worry anymore about being treated as second-class citizens or about being discriminated against for being a woman," Slaughter said, arguing that the health care law made it illegal for insurance companies to charge women higher premiums and would require that insurers provide coverage for victims of domestic violence.
Blackburn shot back that the health care overhaul would make it "more difficult for women under the age of 50 and over the age of 75 to get mammograms."
"One of our primary concerns with this legislation was the way in which women would be adversely impacted," Blackburn said, adding that "we need this bill off the books."
BUCKNACKT'S SORDID TAWDRY BLOG We should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive & well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate, bier or wein in hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WHOO-HOO, WHAT A RIDE!!!!!!"
No comments:
Post a Comment