Vote to Repeal Obamacare for the 50th Time and Win Prizes!

nighttimer · Mar 4, 2014

Want to make a Congresscritter mad? Tell them they're part of a "do-nothing Congress." That'll rile 'em up.

WASHINGTON — The “do nothing” Congress is preparing to do even less.

Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House majority leader, is quietly playing down expectations for any major legislative achievements in the final year of the 113th Congress, which passed fewer laws in its first year — 65 — than any single session on record. The calendar, drawn up to maximize campaign time ahead of midterm elections in November, is bare bones, with the House in session just 97 days before Election Day, the last on Oct. 2, and 112 days in all.

In 2013, the House was in session 118 days before November and 135 in all.

House leaders are warning rank-and-file Republicans that the passage in December of the first comprehensive budget in years is unlikely to herald a return to even the once-routine task of passing all 12 of the spending bills that Congress is supposed to approve each year. And in a noted departure from previous end-of-session breaks, Republican leaders held no conference calls or large meetings in the long hiatus between adjourning on Dec. 13 and preparing to return on Tuesday.

“Things are slow for sure,” said one House Republican close to the party leadership.

It's an election year and with all of the House and a good chunk of the Senate up for grabs (and within striking distance) the Republicans are avoiding tough votes on tough issues such as immigration reform, raising the minimum wage and getting the sluggish economy going. Why put themselves at risk by doing something that might be unpopular with the base (or Fox News).

But there is one thing guaranteed Republicans House members get fired up and rarin' to go and that's yet another vote to repeal Obamacare. Again. Like the 50th time, you know?

House Republicans are poised to reach a new milestone as they gear up for their 50th vote to repeal or dismantle Obamacare.

"You know what they say: 50th time is the charm," mocked President Barack Obama.

The House is set to vote Wednesday on a bill by Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-KS) to effectively delay the individual mandate for one year by reducing the penalty in 2014 for not buying insurance from $95 to $0. (Inclement weather in Washington could conceivably delay the bill further.)

The Republican-led chamber passed a similar bill last July, capturing 22 Democratic votes. Now that it's an election year, it's plausible that a significant number of Democrats will defect, given the unpopularity of the individual mandate and the likelihood that Senate Democrats will throw the bill in the garbage once it arrives.

It's the House GOP's first vote to wipe out a central feature of Obamacare since the law's major provisions took effect on Jan. 1. For all its rollout woes and negative press, millions of Americans are benefiting from the law and the consequences of full repeal are no longer theoretical. But the dreaded mandate remains an easy target that's ripe for politicking.

"The Simple Fairness Act will give hardworking Americans a one-year delay of the individual mandate tax to provide relief and protect families from this unworkable law," said Jenkins, the vice chair of the Republican conference.

House Democratic leaders will discuss the issue with their members on Tuesday, said a leadership aide, who declined to speculate on the number of Democratic defections.

Obama, meanwhile, is laughing off the vote.

"Maybe when you hit your 50th repeal vote, you will win a prize," he said Friday at a Democratic National Committee event. "Maybe if you buy 50 repeal votes, you get one free. We get it. We understand. We get you don't like it. I got it."

On the 50th vote do House Republicans get free T-shirts or coupons for Papa John's pizza like they do with promotional giveaways at sports arenas?

Ummm...pizza.

StormChord · Mar 4, 2014

I like how Obama is handling this.

Myrealana · Mar 4, 2014

A free trip to the unemployment line?

Hay, a girl can dream...

Don · Mar 4, 2014

The corporations have already gotten their delay on the mandate. What makes these upstarts think that the average joe deserves the same break?

Arcadia Divine · Mar 4, 2014

My thing is if obamacare ceases to exist tomorrow, how do they plan on fixing the problems that caused obamacare to become a reality? Do they even know?

nighttimer · Mar 4, 2014

Instead of trying to kill it off because they don't like it, Republicans should be trying to find ways to make it work better or short of that stop wasting time on meaningless gestures that make them feel better about being paid to do nothing.

Come up with a better way or fix this one. Pretending there is no need for health care reform helps no one. Which pretty much sums up the Republican approach to ordinary people.

Myrealana · Mar 4, 2014

Arcadia Divine said:
My thing is if obamacare ceases to exist tomorrow, how do they plan on fixing the problems that caused obamacare to become a reality? Do they even know?

Do they even care?

"The market will take care of it."
"There's always the ER."

Arcadia Divine · Mar 4, 2014

Myrealana said:
Do they even care?

"The market will take care of it."
"There's always the ER."

They should, they're paid to help run the country. If they don't, they need to be forced. Should that fail, then we need to find people that do care.

Edit: I may be misunderstanding your bottom quote here, but, "There's always the ER" isn't really the point of Obamacare. The main point is to insure those that otherwise can't get insured.

Myrealana · Mar 4, 2014

I know what the point of Obamacare is, but the Republicans in Congress have made clear that they don't think the previous system was broken - except for lazy people who didn't take care of themselves. And even they could go to the ER, so why change anything?

Arcadia Divine · Mar 4, 2014

Myrealana said:
except for lazy people who didn't take care of themselves. And even they could go to the ER, so why change anything?

Put yourself in the shoes of the uninsured, would you rather pay full price to have anything done regardless of severity? A lot of uninsured people really don't have the money to pay to have much of anything done to their body. I know it sucked for me whenever I had to pay full price without insurance.

Also, what if these lazy people decide to take care of themselves?

You made it sound like, to me, that the ER is the answer for everything when it's not. There are plenty of things you just don't go to the ER for due to the fact they aren't medical emergencies.

AncientEagle · Mar 4, 2014

Arcadia Divine said:
Put yourself in the shoes of the uninsured, would you rather pay full price to have anything done regardless of severity? A lot of uninsured people really don't have the money to pay to have much of anything done to their body. I know it sucked for me whenever I had to pay full price without insurance.

Also, what if these lazy people decide to take care of themselves?

You made it sound like, to me, that the ER is the answer for everything when it's not. There are plenty of things you just don't go to the ER for due to the fact they aren't medical emergencies.

Not my place to respond, but I will. I believe Myrealana's point was that the Republicans who are determined to swamp Obamacare appear to believe that we don't really have a healthcare problem, and that if the poor have a problem (probably because they're shiftless anyway), they can solve it just by going to the ER. I didn't understand the post to mean that was Myrealana's position.

Arcadia Divine · Mar 4, 2014

AncientEagle said:
Not my place to respond, but I will. I believe Myrealana's point was that the Republicans who are determined to swamp Obamacare appear to believe that we don't really have a healthcare problem, and that if the poor have a problem (probably because they're shiftless anyway), they can solve it just by going to the ER. I didn't understand the post to mean that was Myrealana's position.

Oh ok. I thought I was misunderstanding the point.

Hoplite · Mar 4, 2014

Myrealana said:
I know what the point of Obamacare is, but the Republicans in Congress have made clear that they don't think the previous system was broken - except for lazy people who didn't take care of themselves. And even they could go to the ER, so why change anything?

Arcadia Divine said:
Put yourself in the shoes of the uninsured, would you rather pay full price to have anything done regardless of severity? A lot of uninsured people really don't have the money to pay to have much of anything done to their body. I know it sucked for me whenever I had to pay full price without insurance.

Also, what if these lazy people decide to take care of themselves?

You made it sound like, to me, that the ER is the answer for everything when it's not. There are plenty of things you just don't go to the ER for due to the fact they aren't medical emergencies.

I think Myrealana was voicing the viewpoint of the GOP, not her own, and I'd agree with her. Republicans for the most part didn't think the health system was broken. Sure, it may not have been optimal, but "government has no right dictating how/if people should have insurance" (viewpoint of stereotypical Republican politician). Ironically, one the GOP's biggest complaints was that people (especially the purported swathes of illegal residents) sought treatment at the ERs and then skipped out on the bill...yet they try to defend that uninsured Americans could get treatment there.

It becomes circular logic: don't have insurance? Go to the ER. Why are medical costs so high? Because people go the ER and don't pay.

Myrealana · Mar 4, 2014

Thank you, AnceintEagle, for taking the time to understand context.

Hapax Legomenon · Mar 4, 2014

I just saw an article based on the premise that healthcare is not a right because it is built on highly-trained professionals. I did not realize that teachers and public defense attorneys were not trained professionals and that everyone had the right to affordable big macs.

clintl · Mar 4, 2014

Republicans also ignore the fact that Obamacare was a Heritage Foundation idea, proposed by the Republicans in the 1990s as the alternative to Hillarycare, and championed by Republicans such as Romney and Schwarzenegger in the 2000s. The individual mandate, in fact, was spoken of as necessary and desirable (a matter of personal responsibility) by many congressional Republicans and President Bush right up until the Democrats actually seriously started work on enacting it. Only when Obama and the Democrats embraced it did it become a demonic, socialistic thing.

Myrealana · Mar 4, 2014

Wow, Haphazard. Link, or publication name?

On second thought, maybe I don't want to read it. Just thinking about it makes my blood boil.

Plot Device · Mar 4, 2014

Okay, so my brain is the sort that tends to want to focus on the little kitty cat hiding in the trash can 50 feet away from the burning building while the rest of the news cameras and citizen spectators are all focused on the burning building itself.

And my first though after reading the OP was "Papa John's Pizza??"

So I googled them to see if they had a reaction to being implicated in all of this.

I came up with this news item. It's from Raw Story, so read at your own risk. There are plenty of OTHER news items where "Papa John's" and "Obamacare" are found mentioned side-by-side in the same article. But this one seems very fitting.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/...ther-companies-as-secret-koch-brother-allies/

Document exposes Papa John’s and other companies as secret Koch brother allies

by Travis Gettys -- Thursday, February 6, 2014

The Koch brothers are well-known for their right-wing activism, but less has been known about the wealthy conservatives who fund their vast political operations.

But a document left behind last week at the first donor gathering of 2014 at the Renaissance Esmeralda resort in Palm Springs, California, and handed over by a hotel guest to Mother Jones offers a glimpse at this network.

Attendees at events hosted by the billionaire industrialists are warned that the seminars – where plans are hatched to elect Republican officials and advance conservative ideas – are strictly confidential, and they’re told to closely guard their meeting notes and materials.

The discarded document, Mother Jones reported, lists VIP donors – including John Schnatter, founder of Papa John’s pizza chain – who met individually with Koch representatives and revealed just how closely tied Koch Industries is intertwined with the brothers’ political machine.

In addition to Schnatter – who’s already known as a longtime Republican donor and outspoken opponent of the Affordable Care Act – the one-page Koch donor list included top executives from Jockey International and TRT Holdings, which owns Omni Hotels and Gold’s Gym....

Hapax Legomenon · Mar 4, 2014

Myrealana said:
Wow, Haphazard. Link, or publication name?

On second thought, maybe I don't want to read it. Just thinking about it makes my blood boil.

Memo to Supreme Court: Health Care is Not A Right

Like, I know Forbes is coservative but usually their articles and editorials don't have such a fundamental misunderstanding of words like "slavery."

rugcat · Mar 4, 2014

Haphazard said:
Memo to Supreme Court: Health Care is Not A Right

Like, I know Forbes is coservative but usually their articles and editorials don't have such a fundamental misunderstanding of words like "slavery."

The product of the same hyperbolic thinking that proclaims that taxation is robbery.

The only difference being that the second is simply amusing, whearas the first is actively insulting.

Don · Mar 4, 2014

Haphazard said:
I just saw an article based on the premise that healthcare is not a right because it is built on highly-trained professionals. I did not realize that teachers and public defense attorneys were not trained professionals and that everyone had the right to affordable big macs.

Philosophy and political science both recognize that there's a fundamental difference between negative rights and positive rights (better termed privileges) but that distinction does not rest on the level of training of the people paying for the privilege claimed as a positive right.

Philosophers and political scientists make a distinction between negative and positive rights (not to be confused with the distinction between negative and positive liberties). According to this view, positive rights usually oblige action, whereas negative rights usually oblige inaction. These obligations may be of either a legal or moral character. The notion of positive and negative rights may also be applied to liberty rights.
...
A case in point, if Adrian has a negative right to life against Clay, then Clay is required to refrain from killing Adrian; while if Adrian has a positive right to life against Clay, then Clay is required to act as necessary to preserve the life of Adrian.

Statutes against murder protect a negative right; the Affordable Care Act represents a positive right, AKA privilege.

Negative rights involve actions that may not be taken; positive rights expand the definition of rights to include actions that must be taken, i.e. costs that must be paid by someone other than the recipient.

The conflation of the two terms is how governments grow.

juniper · Mar 4, 2014

Myrealana said:
- except for lazy people who didn't take care of themselves. And even they could go to the ER, so why change anything?

Arcadia Divine said:
There are plenty of things you just don't go to the ER for due to the fact they aren't medical emergencies.

Hee hee, I work in an ER and people come in there for the slightest of reasons - toe hurts, small (easily removed) splinter in finger, "I've had a cough since this morning" or one of my favorites, "I threw up a couple of days ago." Me: "How many times? Vomited all day?" Her: "No just once. A couple of days ago."

Hoplite said:
It becomes circular logic: don't have insurance? Go to the ER. Why are medical costs so high? Because people go the ER and don't pay.

I think Romney said once that the ER is free, didn't he? Off to look for quote ... here it is.

" ... millions and millions of people who have no health insurance and yet who can go to the emergency room and get entirely free care for which they have no responsibility ... " March 2010.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/23/mitt-romney-60-minutes-health-care_n_1908129.html

Actually he said it twice, at least - another time in 2007 on Glenn Beck's show. (same URL source)

And no, the ER isn't free, it's the most expensive place to go to for routine care. The hospital system I work for is non-profit and writes of tens of millions of dollars in fees every year, as charity cases, for people who can't pay.

clintl said:
Republicans also ignore the fact that Obamacare was a Heritage Foundation idea, proposed by the Republicans in the 1990s as the alternative to Hillarycare, and championed by Republicans such as Romney and Schwarzenegger in the 2000s.

And universal healthcare was proposed by Richard Nixon (that damn liberal!

) back in the early 1970s ...

"Without adequate health care, no one can make full use of his or her talents and opportunities. It is thus just as important that economic, racial and social barriers not stand in the way of good health care as it is to eliminate those barriers to a good education and a good job.

Three years ago, I proposed a major health insurance program to the Congress, seeking to guarantee adequate financing of health care on a nationwide basis."

http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/stories/2009/september/03/nixon-proposal.aspx

Zoombie · Mar 4, 2014

Don said:
Statutes against murder protect a negative right; the Affordable Care Act represents a positive right, AKA privilege.

...and?

I, and quite a few other Americans, all agree that health care is a worthwhile privilege to have around. I also think that there are loads of other privilages that we as an industrialized nation deserve: Roads. Internet. Public education. Water. (Just to name a few.)

And, you know, this constant argument for a smaller government hasn't given us a smaller government. It's just given us a broken government - broken because a broken system is easier to scam than one that works, and what better way to break something than convince people that it's evil and they should destroy it anyway!

It'd be funny, if it wasn't so sad...

Arcadia Divine · Mar 4, 2014

juniper said:
Hee hee, I work in an ER and people come in there for the slightest of reasons - toe hurts, small (easily removed) splinter in finger, "I've had a cough since this morning" or one of my favorites, "I threw up a couple of days ago." Me: "How many times? Vomited all day?" Her: "No just once. A couple of days ago."

My family doctor told me of a story where he got a call at 3 in the morning (from an adult) for a nose bleed and wanted to know how to stop it. If this proves how much smarter man kind is getting then we're all going to die. . . .

Needless to say, he told me he changed his number and whenever he calls someone it comes across as unavailable. LOL.

kuwisdelu · Mar 4, 2014

Don said:
Philosophy and political science both recognize that there's a fundamental difference between negative rights and positive rights.

This is a bit off-topic, but do they also recognize the difference between rights and responsibilities? I don't think Adrian has a positive right to expect Clay to help preserve his life, but I do think Clay has a positive responsibility to try to preserve Adrian's life even if Adrian shouldn't expect it. I think it's a subtle but important difference. I think we in America tend to talk too often about rights when we should be talking about responsibilities.

Vote to Repeal Obamacare for the 50th Time and Win Prizes!

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