Category Archives: Political Commentary

Repeal And Replace

A commenter has an interesting idea for the Republicans next year:

Assuming we get a republican congress in November, the way to repeal ObamaCare is to attached a clause repealing ObamaCare in every single appropriations bill next year. As long as Obama continues to veto them, the federal agencies will not get any money at all. Of course, this requires that the congressional republicans have more balls than Gingrich did at the end of 1995 when he “chickened out” first in this game with Clinton. It is up to the tea party movement to support the election of fiscally conservative candidates who will have the balls to step up to the plate to make sure that ObamaCare gets repealed.

That would require Republican control of both houses, which is possible, but not likely (it will be tough to take over the Senate). But if it happens, the nice thing about it is that the “government shutdown” could be spun this time as being the Democrats’ fault. It won’t even have to be vetoed by the president, because they’d likely filibuster the appropriations bill in the Senate to protect an unpopular measure.

Message To Dems

People still don’t like ObamaCare. We’re going to follow your sage advice from yesterday, Mr. President, and “bring it ongo for it.”

And it turns out Nancy Pelosi was right — we had to pass the bill to learn what was in it:

Now that the bill has been safely passed and signed into law, the mainstream press is gradually revealing the scores of delightful provisions tucked away in the 2,700 page abomination: job-killing taxes on businesses, innovation-killing taxes on medical products, suffocating regulations on individual freedoms, wealth-sapping taxes on the middle-class, unprecedented intrusions on personal privacy, unconstitutional mandates on individuals, racially discriminatory preferences for favored groups, a Ponzi-scheme-on-steroids financing mechanism, and spending on a galactic, incomprehensible scale.

Not to mention this:

The health care overhaul will cost U.S. companies billions and make them more likely to drop prescription drug coverage for retirees because of a change in how the government subsidizes those benefits.

In the first two days after the law was signed, three major companies — Deere & Co., Caterpillar Inc. and Valero Energy — said they expect to take a total hit of $265 million to account for smaller tax deductions in the future.

With more than 3,500 companies now getting the tax break as an incentive to keep providing coverage, others are almost certain to announce similar cost increases in the weeks ahead as they sort out the impact of the change.

Figuring out what it will mean for retirees will take longer, but analysts said as many as 2 million could lose the prescription drug coverage provided by their former employers, leaving them to enroll in Medicare’s program.

But “if you like your plan, you’ll be able to keep it.” Right? And just think of all the job creation this will mean. For IRS agents.

Bring it onGo for it,” indeed. For the Democrats, that bill may be the longest suicide note in history.

[Update mid morning]

(Dr.) Paul Hsieh, on the real ObamaCare fraud.