Filed under the heading of useless government action; the Republican House (and three Democrats) voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. In truth, the voted for the “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act”, a magnificent example of snake-oil salesmanship. The action has no real political meaning; the Senate will never see the legislation because Republicans don’t have the votes to either open the debate or invoke cloture to force a vote. If the Senate were to pass a complement, President Obama would veto the action, and there aren’t enough votes in the House to override his veto.
Posts filed under Current Legislation
The Return Of Death Panel
It is a new year and a new Congress, but the changing of the calendar has served only to usher in new controversy on a settled subject; health care reform. The Affordable Care Act, passed by majorities in both houses, consolidated into one measure according to congressional rules, and signed by the President, is under attack by revisionist conservatives. Lacking any real, democratic basis for repealing the measure, the conservative mainstream media revived the original law’s biggest boogieman; the Death Panel.
The Boehner Protocols
Think what you will about John Boehner, the presumptive Speaker of the House stands as the most powerful opposition leader in American political history. The party discipline enforced by the pugnacious Ohio Republican meant that Democrats with a massive majority were forced to sweat out intra-party compromises to get measures passed in the House. The imagery presented to Americans of a unified Republican House standing in opposition to measures that were always (according to the Minority Leader) “forced down our throats”, cost untold electoral damage to the Democrats in 2010.
The Lame Duck Takes Flight
We the people are witnessing the stirrings of one of the truly rare events in nature; our Congress in action. The Senate has taken the extraordinary step of actually acting on a trio of bills in the same month; the food safety package, the START treaty ratification process, and the now infamous Obamadeal with the Republicans. The House, which in fairness is usually quite active, moved on the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell repeal. In view of all this auspicious activity, writing a column on sports this evening seemed frivolous.
The Death Of The Mandate
The whole of what I like to call the conservative mainstream media has decided that the ruling by Federal Judge Henry Hudson is a blow to what they call the “linchpin” of the Affordable Care Act. Even the dreaded “sources within the Obama Administration” are concerned because the mandate is the key to the ban on preexisting conditions. The secret of this story friends, is that they are all missing the real point.
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