The Republican party began focusing on the repeal of the Affordable Care Act before the ink was even dry on the law. They claim it is socialized medicine and should be deemed unconstitutional.
what eye thynk: Is their opposition really ideological? The Heritage Foundation, a conservative right wing think tank founded in 1973 to “formulate and promote conservative public policies”, not only supports a national health care policy, but has outlined a program not dissimilar to the Affordable Care Act.
No, the Republican opposition is fueled by one thing and one thing only: it was passed by a Democratic administration. Faced with this perceived humiliation, they say that the Affordable Care Act must be repealed and that they can design a much better plan. If that is true, why haven’t they done it in the past? Their own think tank has been supporting the idea for years, yet they have never made any serious attempt to offer a national health care program of their own and they offered no concrete suggestions while the ACA was debated in Congress. If the ACA is brought down by the Supreme Court, they will crow about their victory, but don’t expect to see a Republican sponsored health care plan anytime soon.
How can they explain this to their uninsured constituents? “Sorry, we couldn’t support a health care plan that we didn’t write ourselves and we have no intention of writing one, so just continue to do what you’ve been doing, except you might want to look for an alternative to Planned Parenthood because we’ll be defunding that group too. Oh, and don’t forget to vote for me in November!”?!?
Our terminology is that we elect people to “serve” in Congress. Members of Congress self-serve ample helpings of perks for themselves, (I’m still amazed they had to pass a bill to stop themselves from insider trading), perks that include generous health care plans for their membership. Republican members, however, seem to have forgotten there are less affluent people at home who deserve good service too.
It is time to show those we elect that when we are underserved, we will vote for a change of staff.
I read a post from one of my republican friends -- she wanted everyone to vote for Mitt Romney because "he is the only one who can beat Obama". This seems to be the only focus of the repubs -- not taking care of the country or the people that make up this country -- not taking care of our failing life-support structure, the environment. Just beat the dems -- yay team!!!!!!! Not a good strategy for saving a sinking ship!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, with their aversion to birth control and abortion, it's only a matter of time until there's more Republicans than Democrats.
ReplyDeleteThe question to ask, always, is who is it that is underwriting the candidacies of any representatives that consistently come down against reforms. The answer is those corporations that stand to lose the most from disrupting the status quo. Follow the money.
ReplyDeleteThat and the fact that most Rethuglicans can't bring themselves to support anything that this Democratic (and Black, but that's another discussion) president is behind - even when it has been shown that many of these things they are blocking are ideas that Republicans had presented and supported in the past....when it was their own initiative. There must be a cliff over there on the far right and they are moving ever closer to it.
I grew up in a Republican household. Ike is the 1st sitting President I recall and, at eight years of age, if my Dad liked Ike, so did I. Nixon followed and we all know how that turned out.
ReplyDeleteReagan was considered to be conservative at the time, but pales by comparison in todays political arena.
The Bushes were, well... they were the Bushes.
To vote for a Republican today would be like putting piranha in your bath tub: good for the Piranha, not good for you.