I know this subject has been covered extensively on this site and others, but the extent of Republican sabotage of the Affordable Care Act is unprecedented, immoral and...just really makes me mad.
Today, the House will pass the 40th bill that repeals all or part of Obamacare. This particular bill will prohibit the IRS from using the enforcement powers it was given under the 2010 bill. This bill, like all 39 before it, has no chance of becoming law, but it is more evidence of the absolute insane obsession conservatives have with denying millions of Americans access to health insurance.
Let's go over some history:
1. Democrats stupidly bend over backwards for six months in 2009 to make the health care bill bipartisan. As part of this effort, Democrats abandon provisions that would have made the bill more effective, such as a public option. Senator Olympia Snowe, who writes books about bipartisanship and gets lots of money for it, decides to vote for the bill in the Senate Finance Committee. Even though basically the entire bill was designed for her support, she decides to abandon the bill for no reason in particular. This means that Democrats have to find votes from some pea-brained moderates, like Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman.
2. In January 2010, the Senate had just passed its flawed version of the health care bill with zero votes to spare. While the House and Senate are finalizing a compromise, the Massachusetts Attorney General, Martha Coakley, decides not to campaign and to insult local sports franchises, and therefore loses a Senate race to a guy who drives a pickup truck and hates the ACA. The Democrats no longer have the votes to overcome a Republican filibuster, so they have to turn Plan B which is for the House to pass the Senate version of the bill, and for both chambers to correct the bill via a reconciliation measure. This means that many of the stupid provisions in the Senate bill, written to appease people who didn't vote for the bill anyway, remain in the bill, making it significantly worse.
3. In November of 2010, Republicans win control of the House and decide to make it their cause to repeal the health care bill.
4. Republicans try like 30 times in 2011 to repeal the bill, and of course don't succeed because Democrats control the Senate and the White House.
5. Meanwhile, ideological Republican governors refuse to set up state-based exchanges because somehow that would be "appeasing" the libruls. The whole idea of state-based exchanges was introduced into the bill to appease Olympia Snowe and others who didn't want the federal government controlling everything. Olympia Snowe and others didn't support the bill, but the provision stayed in anyway. This means that the Federal Government has to set up a bunch of state-based exchanges.
6. The Supreme Court upholds the Affordable Care Act, but decides that states shouldn't have to accept one of the bill's major provisions, the expansion of Medicaid. A bunch of ideological Republican governors refuse to accept Medicaid, thus making lots of people suffer, and making the law work less effectively.
7. Republicans run a national election on repealing Obamacare, and they lose. Democrats retain the White House and pick up seats in the House and Senate.
8. Republicans, thinking that Obama only won the election because he gave out Obamaphones to minorities, or something, decide that their crusade to undermine the Affordable Care Act is just beginning! They decide to spend most of 2013 on more and more repeal votes.
9. A bunch of problems with implementation arise in 2013, largely because of the obstruction of Republican governors. Republicans revel in these failures, and instead of trying to solve the problems, double down on repealing the bill.
10. Republicans and conservative groups begin URGING young people not to sign up for Obamacare. Young people need to sign up for Obamacare. That was the whole point. In order to allow everyone to get coverage regardless of pre-existing conditions, there need to be a bunch of young healthy people in the insurance pool. The acts of sabotage reach new heights!
11. Republicans complain endlessly about how employers are cutting back hours of employees because of the ACA's requirement that employers with 50 or more employees provide health insurance to all full-time workers. The media can't get enough anecdotes from the few companies that have been cutting back hours, even though there is no evidence that this has become a trend. In response to these complaints, the administration delays the employer mandate for one year. Republicans, the very people who complained about this provision in the first place, deride this decision and say it is unconstitutional. They also use it as further justification to have more repeal votes.
12. Republicans continue to complain that implementation of the bill is a train wreck, while at the same time continuously trying to sabotage its implementation. Now many of them want to shut down the entire government to keep the bill from being funded. The media continues to cover the bad parts of the bill, because those parts affect rich people. They never mention that the bill has tradeoffs, and that 30 million more people will get health insurance. They never mention that increases in premiums are because people will be getting more comprehensive coverage, and they never mention that a majority of users of the new health insurance exchanges will be paying less because they will be getting subsidies. Instead, they interview some more rich people about how they "have" to cut more employee hours.
That's the history of sabotage. Even mild-mannered observers like Storman Norman Ornstein begin to see how freaking insane this is. If this doesn't inspire people to get out and vote, at all levels of government, I don't know what will.
In conclusion: Sabotage.