"I want to thank God and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, and most of all, Barack Motherfuckin' Obama
for my Obamacare. Amen"
Yesterday the President announced that over 6 million souls have already signed up for private insurance policies through the ACA. We know that around 3 million adults 26 and under are now on their parents policies. Around 6 million working poor are now receiving free, single payer insurance via expanded Medicaid. There are surely several million more who have bought ACA policies directly through the insurance companies while the websites were buggy.
"I'll give you my Obamacare when you pry it
from my COLD, DEAD HANDS!"
I'm going to verbalize something we never hear in the media but is surely a fact as we speak:
Right now, there are about 20,000,000 people who are on good, affordable health insurance directly because of the ACA and these people know who brought it to them.
We are all rightfully concerned about the SCOTUS giving corporations the right to impose moral restrictions on our medical decisions.
Man From Wasuchistan, channeling Joe Papantonio, makes a great case why a favorable Hobby ruling for Hobby Lobby would be a terrible Gordian Knot for corporatists. Sometimes the more you struggle the tighter the binds become. Case law like quicksand often sees efforts yielding opposite results.
"Keep Big Government outta'
my expanded Medicaid."
Another contemporary case may have equally broad implications. The DC Circuit Appeals Court is now deciding if brutal language in the ACA law says that buyers through the federal Healthcare.gov do not qualify for subsidies because the law specifically states they they don't (I've seen the language and it is there... bad law writing thanks to Mr. Baucus of course). If a three judge panel wants to follow the letter of the law rather than the intent, subsidies on these policies could be nullified.
However, in such a ruling, surely a stay would be put in place until SCOTUS could rule, punting the issue into 2015. While this would seem like a great victory for the Ludites, it would force millions of Americans now getting subsidies to freak out in Red and Purple state across the land. State legislatures would be forced to agree to host exchanges and the political toll on Republicans would be gruesome. It would be a bloodbath and by the time SCOTUS ruled most states would be off of the National site anyway. The wave of indignation, nay, hatred for those who brought about this travesty would push Medicaid expansion through all but the most tone-deaf state houses. Now that the benefits have started flowing, Obamacare became an official "Third Rail". Yes, Texas would continue to screw over their citizens... and the Blue Texas movement, under Governor Wendy Davis, will progress a lot faster.
Be careful what you wish for.
"I want my ACA!"
By 2009 Nancy Pelosi had forged a large majority in the House of Representatives and she leveraged that Congress into one of the most productive and progressive of our generation. The crowning achievement was the ACA. Unfortunately for all of us, progressive policies including ENDA, SNAP, Unemployement Insurance extensions and most importantly a minimum wage increase simply are not going to be realized by this current congress. We need a new and vastly improved House with Nancy Pelosi at the gavel to make anything happen and that is possible. Even with Obama at his polling nadir polling still show Democrats with a slight advantage on the generic Congressional ballot and a large advantage in party approval. By the summer millions of Americans will be swamping state capitols with signs saying "Raise My Minimum Wage", "Expand My Medicaid" and "I Want My ACA". Gerrymandering has created a lot of red districts with small, beatable margins like the one Mike Rogers abandoned today in Michigan. If the tide comes our way we need to be in a position to win them.
To that end it is so important that we turn our heads around and take to the offensive by fielding great candidates against incumbent Reds in pink districts. If you live in a safe Dem district or a safe GOP district, look around for a winnable district to contribute to.
Erin will gladly kick Keith Rothfus' arse to the curb this November in your name
In PA, where a popular congressional vote win of 75,000 votes netted Dems 5 of 18 seats in 2012 thanks to treasonous gerrymandering I have found my adoptive candidate in the Pittsburgh suburb PA-12 . Erin McClelland is a progressive with the resume, charisma and 25/8 campaign hustle to take back this traditional home of John Murtha and union Dems. If you don't have a candidate to call your own please give her a twenty and follow her campaign from up close or afar. It's like gambling but with great kharma.
Go to her ACT Blue page to help.
If you have a good candidate you want people in prohibitive D or R districts to help please mention them in the comments. I do think this is something we need to start dwelling on because 2014 is going to be a year that shocks the Stu Rothenbergs and Larry Sabato's of the world into admitting that the Republican Party is already in histories trash heap.