In January 2016, President Barack Obama received a bill from the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives negotiated using reconciliation. That bill would have fully repealed the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and defunded public money for Planned Parenthood.
President Obama VETOED that bill.
Fast forward to today. The Republicans tell us they cannot send a repeal ONLY bill to the President because it cannot pass muster in the Senate under reconciliation.
This is an outright LIE.
They have larger majorities in both houses of Congress today. They have a Republican president TODAY. Now they tell us they cannot repeal Obamacare? A LIE.
They are presenting us with a false choice. Either Repeal AND Replace, or do nothing. That is also a lie. They can and should repeal Obamacare entirely and then get out of health insurance at the federal government level. When the ACA was forced on us, Republicans called it socialism and redistribution of wealth and un-American to have the government taking over 1/6th of the US economy.
Now they act like government needs to stay involved in meddling with health insurance?? Seriously??
The GOP is not being honest and their past attempts to eliminate Obamacare were insincere and dishonest. They seem to care more about buying votes and keeping another entitlement, along with protecting lobbyists of the medical insurance and health care provider networks and state governors who bought into the Medicaid expansion.
They lie to us and then they fail to act upon the things that actually drive up the costs of providing medical care and drugs to Americans. Things like the FDA that takes years to approve drugs that Canada and other countries dispense today (protecting the drug lobby), Lawsuit reforms (protecting trial lawyers), a broadened marketplace (protecting state insurance commissions and premium prices from competition).
At the very least, the GOP could repeal the ACA fully and then do the hard work of legislating that the Democrats refused to do back in 2009. The GOP is just as guilty of playing politics like the Democrats on this issue. They could repeal Obamacare this week if they wanted. They have the old bill that Obama vetoed. Just dust it off and send it to the president.
Fernando Cadiz
Phoenix
