Driving Republicans crazy

Published November 2, 2013

by Gary Pearce, Talking About Politics, November 1, 2013.

Whatever else it does, Obamacare drives Republicans into a frenzy of hype, hypocrisy, irrationality and overreaction.

 

Exhibit A: Republicans in Congress are outraged that website glitches prevent Americans from signing up for a program Republicans compare to slavery. Why are they complaining? They should take a cue from George Holding, take a nap and chill out.

 

Exhibit B: Republican governors who probably know better (like Pat McCrory and unlike Ohio’s John Kasich) reject Medicaid expansion, even though it would help millions of Americans and save hundreds of millions of dollars. Politically, the governors have no choice. They’re terrified of the Tea Party.

 

Exhibit C: Obamacare is a classic Republican policy, hatched by the Heritage Foundation, once championed by Newt Gingrich and put into law (no matter how much he denies it) by Mitt Romney.

 

How is it a Republican policy? Well, it starts by saying: no more free ride; everybody has to get insurance. The rest of us don’t have to pay all your medical bills. (See: “takers.”)

 

Obamacare achieves that goal through another thing Republicans should like: the free market. Instead of government providing the insurance (which would be “socialism” like Medicare) you have to buy insurance from an insurance company.

 

Finally, expanding Medicaid means people can afford to get primary and preventative care, which is cheaper, instead of waiting until they’re really sick and going to the emergency room, which is really expensive – and we all end up paying for.

 

We have national health insurance now. Your taxes, insurance premiums and medical bills already have a hidden surcharge that pays the bills for people who don’t have insurance, Medicare or Medicaid.

 

If Obamacare fails, the logical next step is to put everybody on Medicaid/Medicare. I half-jokingly suggested that in a blog last week. Then two conservatives said the same thing: Marc Landry in the N&O and Ross Douthat in The New York Times. (Needless to say, I’m reconsidering my position.)

 

All this shows how Obama Derangement Syndrome is driving the Republican Party farther and farther to the right – and farther out of touch with more Americans. Now, Democrats have plenty of problems, but they look much more rational right now than Republicans.

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November 2, 2013 at 8:35 am
TP Wohlford says:

The next logical step is to implement the good ideas, the ones that could've been done with a 10-line piece of legislation, into a replacement law. You know, laws like the 26 year old child law?

If you want to do something with insurance reform, the logical step there is to move regulation of health care to the Feds. That step would've made health insurance reform a lot easier in this case, and part of the mind-blowing stupidity of this law is that it didn't take this step, at least entirely.

November 2, 2013 at 10:32 am
Norm Kelly says:

The really scary part of this post is that anyone may actually think that 'Democrats . . . have look much more rational right now'.

Let's see where the Dems look rational.

Everyone must have maternity coverage. People like me, in our mid-to-late 50's, incapable of having more children, MUST carry maternity coverage. This is no longer an option. This is not something I have a choice in. This is something that is forced down my throat by kindly, loving, fair-minded Demoncrats.

The policy that I've had for years, potentially, that I have liked well enough to continue to pay for it, use, and renew is no longer acceptable to Demoncrat politicians and bureaucrats. Some person that I don't know, I probably don't like, but who 'has my best interest at heart' has decided that the plan I want, the plan I pay for, the plan with the options I want, is considered substandard. Not by me. Not by my family. But by some faceless, uninvolved Demoncrat in Washington.

Now, my insurance MUST provide benefits I don't want, I can't use, and just INCREASE MY PREMIUMS!

If I CHOOSE to NOT participate in a given market, the kindly, loving, doing-it-for-my-benefit Demoncrats will tax me. Whether I want to buy a horse whip, Demoncrats will tax me in order to force me to maintain the horse whip market. And then they will call it part of the free-market solution to keeping the horse whip market viable.

Reports are coming out now about doctors and hospitals choosing NOT to participate in Obamacare/socialized medicine plans due to the insufficient payouts. The next step of kindly, loving, Demoncrats will be to make it illegal for these private businesses from opting out. Then the Demoncrats will come up with a plan that will limit doctor's charges and therefore income. NO doctor will be ALLOWED to see patients outside of socialized medicine/Obamacare plans. No doctor will be ALLOWED to accept cash patients.

The Demoncrats plan for the future of health care gets even scarier than Obamacare. The next step is not admitting failure of step 1. The next step is a complete, total take-over of the entire medical industry by the feds. With a new bureaucracy put in place to enforce the new laws, and more IRS agents to make sure I pay 'my fair share'.

The list of 'requirements' on me & my family, and my insurance policy could be much longer. But there's 2 problems with me documenting them here. Lack of time. I'm not a policy wonk so I don't know all the ins-and-outs of Obamacare. But then, neither are the kindly, loving Demoncrats in Washington. The vast majority of them, including Heir Reid, have NOT yet read the law, nor the regulations put in place by Sebelius. So even the policy creators aren't policy wonks. So why should I trust them to take care of my health care? What part of socialized medicine has proven successful any where in the world?