Associated Press
In the last Congress, the Republican-led House of Representatives voted 33 times to repeal all or part of the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"). In this Congress, the total may very well be zero.
Paul Singer is out with a fun piece about the first hundred or so bills introduced in the 113th Congress. No change from previous Congresses, really -- the first people into the breach are the ones with doomed bills dear to their hearts, which they introduce every two years.
This, however, is a quiet change from the 112th: "Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., announced on Twitter that she had introduced the first bill of the 113th Congress to repeal Obamacare." Bachmann introduced the same bill immediately after the Affordable Care Act passed, and introduced it again in the 112th. But right now, a week after Bachmann introduced the bill, it has no co-sponsors. No one else has introduced an Obamacare repeal bill.
Since 2010, it's hard to overstate the time and energy congressional Republicans invested in trying to destroy the health care reform law, even though they knew it was largely pointless. After the Affordable Care Act was signed, Republicans introduced nine bills to repeal it. After the 2010 midterms, GOP leaders described repeal as one of their top priorities and it was one of the House's first legislative actions.
For proponents of the law, there was never a legitimate legislative threat -- repeal would never pass the Senate or get Obama's signature -- but Republicans kept up the vanity exercise anyway.
And yet, here we are.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is calling the Affordable Care Act "the law of the land"; public support for repeal is evaporating; even some conservative red-state governors are cooperating with implementation; and Michele Bachmann's repeal legislation hasn't attracted any co-sponsors.
It looks like "Obamacare" is here to stay. As Dave Weigel concluded, "The era of flashy repeal stunts is over."
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Can we agree to put the name "Michelle Bachmann" in the permanent killfile here?
She barely won her re-election... And, back to the same BAT CRAP CRAZY Clown Car! Enough already. What a complete and utter goofball.
The people in her district who vote for her must be just as bat crap crazy as she is! If breathing wasn't automatic, she'd suffocate.
The definition of insanity - performing the same action, over and over, and expecting a different outcome...
- Albert Einstein
Don't worry , the gop and teas will be attacking the ACA again soon ! They never learn !
Just got a notice from BS/COBRA, it's run the course come April. I sure hope HCR has my back when I have to replace it. Right now it eats just under half of my monthly budget.
Over? Was it over when the German's bombed Pearl Harbor?
Forget it. She's on a roll.
It will never be over to the GOP (until they go the way of the Whigs), just like Social Security and Medicare continue to be threatened by the same @!$%#s.
They've just shifted their focus from attempts to repeal to screwing with the IPAB. Maybe they'll find ways to de-fund the agency that will be setting up the exchanges in (republicant) states that don't set them up. Maybe Boehner will once again say that the Affordable Care Act needs to be on the table in the debt ceiling/sequestration crisis. I agree, if after all of this time they're still gunning for the new deal acts, what are the chances they're done with Obamacare already?
For your Animal House reference I must state that Blutarski would definitely have made a better politician than the current traitors in the GOP.
I agree (and according to the closing shots of Animal House, he did become a senator.)
A Warthog would make a better representative than Ms. Crazy eyes
Are Palin and Bachmann twins that were separated at birth?
They're too busy protecting the rights of mass murderers.
Now that they figure they can't repeal it, they're just blaming the ACA for their increase in health care costs. Oh, brother.
For all the vision-challenged folks out there, what has changed is that preventive care is now more widely available. Preventive care is not going to cause an immediate drop in health care costs, because it takes time for its benefit to take effect and become apparent. Expect a near-term increase with gradual but significant decrease over the years.
As an example, it costs way less to monitor and treat high cholesterol than to perform surgery to correct clogged arteries--not to mention the loss of wages and/or decreased quality of life that would entail. The decreased cost (and better overall health) will only gradually be felt. Patience, patience. . . .
Or, to be more specific, overall costs may not drop, but they should stop increasing way above the rate of inflation. If we're really lucky, costs may actually drop as we recoup some of the over-inflated costs of the past few decades, but we shouldn't really expect that to happen or promise that it will. The stated purpose of the ACA (in the area of cost control) is to slow the increase in health care costs so it becomes manageable, not to reverse it.
If the ACA would be allowed to negotiate drug prices with pharma there would be a significant reduction in medical costs. As a bonus such a move would eliminate the hundreds of obnoxious TV ads for the drug of the day. (to counter the disease of the day)
People are going to like the ACA, and the right wing knows it. They made a big mistake fighting it tooth and nail, and waging that fight with breathtaking dishonesty.
The CBO says the ACA will save a trillion dollars over the next 10 years. Healthcare costs are the biggest drivers of the deficit, and yet the dim bulbs of the GOTP still think they should repeal it. They blather on and on about cutting entitlements, like Medicare and Medicaid, yet when there is a program in place that will actually help achieve that goal, they want to get rid of it. It's right up their with Tippy Turtle McConnell filibustering his own bill.
Their goal is to reduce the role of government, not to address the deficit. They deliberately explode the deficit so they can argue that we "can't afford" government and have to cut it. Initiatives that actually make government programs more efficient and reduce costs without cutting government programs work against that goal, so they oppose them.
Their goal is what it always was: overthrowing the results of the election of 1932.
Redshift,
The only part of government they want to cut are the parts that benefit the average American.
"...it's hard to overstate the time and energy congressional Republicans invested in trying to destroy the health care reform law..."
Actually, it's not that hard - the GOTP to the exclusion of everything else is fixated on doing everything they can to NOT work to fix the messes made under their watch from the early 2000's!
Just like the German bombing of Pearl Harbor, I'm waiting for the Republicans to admit they liked Romneycare before they opposed it as Obamacare.
The German bombing of Pearl Harbor????
Ideas of repeal fade away because everyone has come to the conclusion that it is the law of the land. Now they are busy trying to figure out how to survive with all of these new taxes and fees and other costs that are coming their way because of it. Businesses are trying to figure out how to get around it. When new costs are laid upon our citizens, lawyers become busy trying to find out how to get around those added costs. Costs will always be passed on to the consumers. Government knows that, and that is how they continue to roll. Tax business and costs to consumers go up. Always comes back to the taxpayer. The government gets more tax money and the consumer gets higher costs. All in all it is the citizens that pay more and the government refuses to curb its spending.
If business REALLY wanted to get the healthcare costs off their backs, they'd support single payer. They would no longer have to provide healthcare for their employers. Seems to work pretty well for all the other advanced nations. Instead, they support a system that mostly benefits another industry---the insurance companies, which are nothing more than a middleman between a patient and a doctor. They reap billions, all while deciding which treatments they will and will not cover, and how much they will pay for them. All done by people the customer doesn't know, and has no control over. It's the same boogeyman that repubs use constantly against the ACA, hyperventilating over "death panels". Yes, there are death panels, but they exist only in insurance companies. They studiously avoid mentioning that little factoid as they bloviate against what they see as the tyranies of the ACA. If businesses want to use their legal efforts in a more productive manner, go after the insurance companies. Instead, they are bound and determined to shoot themselves in the foot by trying to repeal a law that saves a trillion dollars over the decade. If they got what they wanted, their costs would soar, as their employees would still get sick, costing them lost productivity as well as higher insurance costs. The stupidity of businesspeople who are supposed to be so "smart" is mind-boggling. Just more reason to NOT want a businessperson as president. They obviously can't think their way out of a paper bag....unless it's a criminal enterprise, such as we see on Wall Street. Then they seem to be clever enough to not only stay out of prison, but to reap huge bonuses at the same time.
All of these new taxes and fees and other costs? Just gimme my benefits for free! Pay for it? Never! Damn those Democrats for raising taxes!
The Debt ceiling is being used to cut spending as fast as possible before the rescission ends and before the Affordable Care Act goes into effect, & before they begin to end the wars! Lets ask 1 big question how many times did the Republican party vote to raise the Debt Ceiling under President Bush? 17 times.. yes seventeen!!! This is NOT about the deficit, if it was they would have allowed the sequester & allow the bush tax cuts to expire fully, thus nearly balancing the budget. This is about using the deficit they created as an excuse to go after the programs they don't like while then can! The CBO has already seen a large reduction in the growth of healthcare costs with the affordable care act only partially implemented, & the growth of healthcare is the only true long-term spending problem. if we go to war it raises the deficit if you don't raise taxes, when you expand medicare to include drugs with out a funding source it raises the deficit, and if you cut taxes below ware they have have to be to fund programs it raises the deficit. Then add a huge economic crisis that puts 10's of millions out of work & on to gov. programs the eat. add all that up, then compare it to Obama's 700 b in stimulus witch 300 b was cuts cuts. then with a straight face tell me republicans care a tiny bit about any deficit they want the big 3 while were in a crisis cuz when its over there excuses go away. just 2 years the war will be coming to an end thats half your trillion rite there, and the ACA will come into effect in 2 years also thats the whole deficit that's why the republicans are all the sudden against raising the debt ceiling!! They all know it in the media, watch an listen for a single word about why the deficit is they way it is, or why not ask politicians to give the ACA a chance to curb healthcare costs when fully implemented? No they dont do NEWS anymore its all in a attempt to scare people Don't swallow the bait!
The republicans insisted on reducing govt. income and then cutting programs that benefit the middle class and poor while keeping subsidies to big corporations as oil and agribuisness. The honest thing to do would be to have the debate on which services that govt. would provide and which would not be provided. Then adjust taxes to pay for those desired services. What will it take to get honesty from Republicans?
The republicans make a lot of ugly noise and have total lunatics running their insane asylum. Their despicable plots to undermine the President of the United States, without any regard to what's good for us, the American people, is sickening. They are the same people praying for doomsday and terrified of common sense. I'm so sick of the crazy and mean things they say and do. They don't want a government--good, MOVE TO SOMALIA--NO GOVERNMENT!