Nobody, including every Republican in the House and Senate thinks our Health Care system is not broken. But this bill was not the answer. The oft-repeated lie that "Republicans are against this bill because they are for the status quo" is provably false. It's a strawman argument and a cheap debate trick. There has also been a hue and cry that the minority party had no solutions to offer. Republicans have been proposing plans and amendments for 15 months. Here's Newsweek:
Rep. John Boehner of Ohio...sent out a fundraising letter praising H.R. 4038, a bill he cosponsored. Republican Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin also has a bill, H.R. 2520, which mirrors its Senate version, S. 1099, sponsored by Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. And Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon, a Democrat, and Bob Bennett of Utah, a Republican, introduced a bipartisan bill a year ago that they've also pushed in previous years.
None of these proposals has received much attention in Congress — the Wyden/Bennett bill (S. 391) was referred to committee last year, on Feb. 5; Ryan's and Coburn's bill got the same treatment on May 20; and Boehner's H.R. 4038, which was introduced by Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan, was proposed as an amendment in the form of a substitute to the Democratic bill, failing by a 176-258 nearly party-line vote (one Republican voted against it).
There was a way to do this right, with bi-partisan support, but the Dems were not interested in that way. They did not hide that fact. Read what they said about it..this was their "once-in-a-lifetime" chance to control every American's health care, do something big, something historic. Once they could not pass a bill with vast majorities in both House and Senate, they needed to pass something... anything ...to keep the administrations signature legislation alive. How cynical.
An all-Democrat-controlled government is a rare thing. Why do you think it was so urgent for them? Why do you think they used every trick and tactic in the book? Why do you think they bribed and cut deals to get their own party to vote for it? Because a dependent populace never votes to take itself off the public teat. They vote for the candy-givers. Always. This is a long-term strategy move by the Democrats. When you put your well-being in the State's hands and give away your freedom to the government, you can't easily get it back.
I have friends who say, " Every 1st world country other than the USA provides health care". I've been to a lot of "1st World" countries, too, and none of them come close to the US, in any fashion, quality of health care included. If they did, I'd move there right now. They gave up a large portion of their freedom in exchange for socialized medicine. They could afford universal health care financially in part because we picked up the bulk of their defense tab. I've noticed that none of these 1st worlders can defend themselves alone. One of the left-wing newspapers in Europe, Germany's Spiegel, even asked "U.S. Health Care: Good For America, A Burden For The World?"
Britain let the health care camel into the tent years ago. Now they've got people monitoring their garbage. Or taking the wrong testicle out. Or dying of thirst in hospitals. All anecdotal, of course, but you did watch the "Health Care Summit", didn't you? Scary stories were all the Democrats brought to the discussion. Paul Ryan brought facts.
We had the best quality health care in the world, its delivery just needed some tweaking. Now we won't ever have that kind of quality again and we've turned the delivery over to bureaucrats. Here's Investor's Business Daily on some "features" of your new plan: 20 Ways ObamaCare Will Take Away Our Freedoms.
Who will pay for the additional 16,500 IRS agents tasked with enforcing and penalizing Americans for not having health care? You will. You, me, and ALL of your friends. We will pay for all of it, with no voice at the table.
If there's one promise they made during this debacle that I actually believe, it's this:
This is just the beginning.
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