The Republican shutdown of the U.S. Government in an attempt to destroy the Affordable Care Act is a prime example of the inhumanity of the Tea Party and other members of the “White Wing” of the Conservative Republican base.
Their callous indifference to human life is best typified by Republican Governors and Republican legislators refusing to take advantage of Medicaid expansion by denying 6 million uninsured Americans in 26 states the immediate health care they would qualify for under the Medicaid expansion program. This despite the fact that the Federal government offered to pick up the entire cost for the first three years and 90% after that.
With the American government and people held hostage, the Republicans have made a series of different ransom demands.
Supposedly the shutdown originally happened because Republicans claimed they wanted to defund or repeal Obamacare. The House had passed and sent to the Senate over 40 bills that would have gutted the Affordable Care Act, all of which were rejected by the Senate. Not to mention President Obama had promised to veto any such bill. Not to mention the program was almost entirely self funded so as to prevent Republicans from slashing any appropriations for partisan political reasons.
During the crafting of the Affordable Care Act, Senator Charles Grassley (R. IA) cynically proposed that all Congressional staff and elected members be required to join Obamacare, thinking that would be a deal breaker for Democrats. But Democrats agreed.
One question that came up recently was the following; would staffers and elected officials still receive their Federal contribution toward their health insurance as does every other Federal employee. That issue was clarified in the affirmative.
Republicans called this an “exemption” from Obamacare that no other American enjoys, when in fact, most enrollees in the Affordable Care program will receive a Federal subsidy, hence the name, “Affordable Care Act.”
On Tuesday, October 15, Republican Senator Vitter of Louisiana proposed that Congressional staffers, the elected members and the White House staffers all lose the Federal employer funded health care subsidies that every other Federal employee enjoys.
If this is one of the Republican Party’s plans to shrink the size of government, it might possibly work. Congressional staffers will quit their jobs in a heartbeat, and either join the private sector or another department of government, rather than pay as much as $10,000 a year for a family of four out of pocket for health insurance to protect their families, homes and finances.
Obviously, this is another attempt by the Republicans to lie to the American people, since once all the brouhaha is over and no one is paying attention, Republican elected officials would not deny paid, life saving health insurance to themselves or their staffers, or, would they?
Republican groups such as the Senate Conservatives Fund have aired fund raising commercials containing blatant lies and distortions.
In one of their ads they exhort their base to call Congress and demand that Obamacare be repealed or defunded. Dutifully, a little old lady is shown picking up the phone, despite the fact she almost certainly has Medicare and the Affordable Care Act would have no effect on her health plan. It might, however, provide affordable, life saving health insurance to one of her children or grandchildren. But deceiving senior citizens is one of the Republicans favorite scare tactics.
In another example, one of their commercials states that Americans will be “forced” to join ObamaCare against their will. This is a reference to the long standing Republican idea, the Individual Mandate. The Individual Mandate was first proposed by the conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation. Although first proposed publicly by conservatives, it is actually an idea proposed by the for-profit health insurance companies themselves.
Once Democrats and President Obama accepted the idea and included it reluctantly in the Affordable Care Act, Republicans opposed it.
If they ever have the opportunity or the power, Republicans would have or will have some version of the Individual Mandate as law at the behest of and for the benefit of the for-profit health insurance companies.
Thus despite what he said, President Romney would have never repealed that section of the Affordable Care Act and Republican legislators would never have asked him to do so.
One of the first ransom demands that the Republicans made was to delay the Affordable Care Act or possibly just the Individual Mandate for a year. Democrats and the President have steadfastly refused, since there is no guarantee that Republicans will not demand further delays or disruptions in a future hostage funding crisis.
Bloomberg News columnist Ramesh Ponnuru writes in a October 5, 2013 Atlanta Journal Constitution editorial that “GOP should keep up it’s resistance to Obamacare.”
That advice is probably not needed. Since Republicans are still attempting to sabotage Social Security after 60 years and Medicare after 40 years, the Affordable Care Act will certainly get the same treatment in the decades to come.
President Obama is adamant he will not negotiate ransom terms with Republican fiscal hostage takers, so as not to set a fiscal crisis precedent that future Presidents of either party will have to suffer through. With the exchanges open for business on October 1st, and the present open enrollment period scheduled to run for six months, until March 30th, 2014, still it might be possible to negotiate a compromise with recalcitrant conservatives and allow them to save face.
In any sort of serious negotiation, each side takes extreme positions which they are prepared to give up in the back and forth of negotiations in order to eventually reach a final agreement. One of the ransom demands that Republicans have made is to delay the implementation of the Individual Mandate for a year, 12 months. That of course, is just their initial negotiating position and is certainly not etched in stone.
In the spirit of honest negotiations, Democrats could compromise and propose to delay the penalty phase of the implementation of the Individual Mandate for 3 months starting from October 1, 2013. Republicans would counter to delay the implementation for 9 months. Democrats could counter with a proposal to delay implementation of the Individual Mandate for 6 months, or until March 30th, 2014, and tell the Republicans, that’s their final offer.
Republicans would almost certainly accept that outcome, and could cite it as a hard won victory to their base. The conservative base holds many false ideas about the Affordable Care Act thanks to blatantly incorrect information provided by conservative media and politicians. Republican politicians could declare victory and no one in their base would be the wiser.
Jim McMeans
Danielsville, GA