People:
Before you begin your rant about how terrible everyone in Washington is, make sure you get the facts straight.
This is NOT about the President, who is asking Congress to pay for
expenses they’ve already approved, including the Affordable Care Act,
which was approved by two houses of Congress, signed into law, upheld by the Supreme Court, and, when made into a central issue of the 2012 election, was not overturned by the voters.
This is NOT about the refusal of Democrats to compromise. Obamacare IS
the compromise. It was the Republican counterproposal to the
nationalized health care plan from the Clinton administration. That’s
why Mitt Romney pushed it through in Massachusetts (yes, the economist
who wrote the Massachusetts plan said Romneycare is the same as
Obamacare). It’s a mandate for people to buy PRIVATE health insurance.
Nothing could be more Republican. Many Democrats hate/d the Affordable
Care Act because it didn’t nationalize health care, but they . . .
compromised . . . so 40 million more Americans, including people with
pre-existing illnesses, could get health care. There’s been no
Republican counter-proposal because OBAMACARE IS THEIR PLAN. Obama
adopted it because he thought they’d support their own plan. How crazy
was that?
This is NOT about “Congress.” The Senate — which
has brought the House resolution to the floor multiple times, and
amended and approved the amended bill by majority vote — has approved a
“clean” funding resolution, but the Speaker of the House WILL NOT ALLOW
THAT RESOLUTION TO COME TO THE FLOOR OF THE HOUSE FOR A VOTE. Were it
to be voted on in the House, there’s a reasonable probability it would
pass with support of Democratic members and a significant number of
moderate Republicans.
Why won’t the President and the Senate
accept the Republican proposal to delay a year? Because it’s already
been delayed. The Republicans are trying to stall until after the 2014
elections, hoping to win both House and Senate so they can overturn the
law. They also are terrified that once people sign up and get
healthcare and like it, they’ll think — as they did with Medicare and
Medicaid and Social Security — that it’s a pretty good thing. THAT,
Senator Cruz, is the real message of “Green Eggs and Ham,” which you
completely misunderstood.
This IS about a small group of about
30 legislative terrorists who would rather blow up the government than
permit legislation they don’t like, even when approved by majority vote,
to be enacted. It’s also about a Speaker of the House who will not
permit a bill to come to the floor for a vote unless the terrorists
approve.
This is really about whether we believe in democracy
— in majority rule — or not. You don’t get to wreck the country every
time you don’t get your way.
If all the Border Patrol officers
— who as of this morning are working without pay — would go home, I
wonder how long it would take the Senators from Texas to get the
message?