Republican Senate Majority Leader-elect, Mitch McConnell, campaigned on repealing Obamacare, promising to uproot Obamacare “root and branch” he often said, and the voters in Kentucky, who benefit most from Obamacare decided to put McConnell in charge.
So in an effort to keep his promise to take away his constituents healthcare, McConnell is already gearing up for a repeal vote in the senate.
“Number one: We certainly will have a vote on proceeding to a bill to repeal Obamacare. … It was a very large issue in the campaign,” he told Roll Call in an interview published on Monday.
Republicans will have 54 members in the new Senate to convene on January 3 – short of the 60 needed to overcome an expected Democratic filibuster on a bill that repeals Obamacare.
Though he spoke of a more cooperative and functioning Senate, McConnell insisted that Republicans “will go at that law [Obamacare] – which in my view is the single worst piece of legislation passed in the last half century – in every way that we can.”
No need to mince words here. Starting with immigration reform President Obama must do what is best for the country and the people who live here and not give a fuck what the Republicans, still very much led by the Tea Party, think about it. After being stymied for six long years by a Congress that did not want the first black President to have a legacy of any kind, he must now give it back to them in a big way. There is nothing to lose, no Republican lite Democrats to protect. After Obama was elected twice, by landslide electoral college victories, Republicans refused to admit there was any mandate, even any legitimacy to his victories. Now Obama must tell them loud and clear that he feels the exact same way about their victory.
Immigration reform is a no lose deal for Obama and the Democrats. First of all it’s the right thing to do. It will prevent 5 million people who live and work here, have families here, from being deported. It will also cement the Latino vote in 2016 and the Republicans have little chance of winning without a decent chunk of the Latino vote. As the Republicans complain and talk about impeachment, this will only make Latinos hate them even more than they already do. Any attempt to impeach Obama for something totally lawful and correct, will further destroy Republicans just as the impeachment of Bill Clinton did.
So there really is no downside to Obama acting by executive action on Immigration. As I had mentioned in my last column, the next two years must be executive orders and veto’s and that’s it. There is no negotiating to do with Republicans, not anymore. Been there for six years, done that for six years. You can’t negotiate with neanderthals. They don’t have the brains nor the heart to do what is right for the American people that are not in the top one percent. On the Keystone pipeline Obama must use his veto pen. Obama must show that America will take the lead on global warming. Funny how a party that hasn’t cared one bit about creating jobs, all of a sudden cares about a thousand short term jobs that would lead to about 50 permanent jobs. The over 200,000 jobs that Obama has been creating every month, they won’t talk about of course.
There is nothing more to talk about. Obama must now finish carving his legacy. A legacy that is about taking us out of a recession, ending two wars, finishing Bin Laden, bringing affordable health care to over 10 million people, a stock market that hits record highs daily, gas prices that continue to plummet, cutting the deficit in more than half, and so on and so on and so on.
Republicans will scream and shout, they will have tantrums and curse and threaten. Too damn bad. They have and will continue to misread this past election and overplay their hand. Obama must use this against them and continue to watch the infighting within the Republican party. Let them continue to have to answer impeachment calls from the Tea Party members, let them continue their infighting over this and other issues. Let them fight over shutting down the government. The more resolute he is the more infighting there will be as they try to figure out what to do with this newly defiant President that they are certainly not accustomed to.
I’m cautiously optimistic. Obama has had these opportunities before and has squandered them. However maybe with Immigration reform, the great climate deal with China, and his recent comments about the Keystone pipeline, we are indeed seeing a new Obama. An Obama that has finally realized what the agenda of the Republican party is and has been since January 20, 2009. They couldn’t prevent him from being elected twice, but they still believe they can control his destiny.
They can do so only if he allows it. He is the President. He has the moral high ground and the law on his side. He has the veto pen. He cannot allow Republicans to hurt this country anymore than they already have. He cannot allow them to destroy all the good he has done and take us back to 2008.
He must forge ahead. All they can do is cry about it. He has all the power. They know it. Let’s hope he does as well.
Although Republicans are still dead set on taking away Anericans’ healthcare, a new poll released by Gallup finds that for those who signed up for Obamacare during the first enrollment period, 70% say their coverage is “good” or “excellent.”
Over seven in 10 Americans who bought new health insurance policies through the government exchanges earlier this year rate the quality of their healthcare and their healthcare coverage as “excellent” or “good.” These positive evaluations are generally similar to the reviews that all insured Americans give to their health insurance.
Among those who bought new health insurance policies through the exchanges, the majority are about as satisfied with their coverage and healthcare as are other Americans — suggesting that the end result of the exchange enrollment process is a generally positive one for those who take advantage of it. Americans who still lack health insurance will have the opportunity to buy coverage when the national insurance marketplace exchanges open again on Nov. 15.
These data reflecting newly insured Americans’ attitudes toward their healthcare coverage are based on interviews conducted Oct. 22 through Nov. 12 on Gallup Daily tracking. Gallup asked all Americans with health insurance if their coverage was new for 2014, and if so, whether they had obtained their coverage through federal or state exchanges. About 4% of the adult population classify themselves as being newly insured this year through the exchanges. The comparison group of all Americans with insurance is from Gallup’s annual healthcare survey, conducted this year Nov. 6-9.
Republicans are moving quickly. On Tuesday, they scare the American people into giving them control of Congress and now, two days later, the Republican led Supreme Court has announced that it will hear a case whose purpose is to gut Obamacare and destroy it from within.
ThinkProgress reports: In an unexpected step into a politically charged case, the Supreme Court announced on Friday that it would hear a lawsuit seeking to strip health care from millions of Americans.
The Affordable Care Act gives states a choice whether they will set up their own health exchange where consumers can buy health insurance or whether to allow the federal government to do so for them. This lawsuit alleges that subsidies helping individuals buy health insurance are only available in exchanges run by a state, not by the feds. If it succeeds, the likely result will be a “death spiral” where higher premiums cause healthy consumers to drop out of the insurance market, which will cause higher premiums, which will cause more consumers to drop their insurance. Eventually, many states’ individual insurance markets are likely to collapse if this lawsuit prevails.
An Associated Press report on Monday has Ohio Governor John Kasich in the bowl of hot water with his conservative constituents.
In the report, the governor said that Obamacare repeal is not going to happen because, well, it’s a darn good law! But when conservatives in Ohio heard their governor speak favorably of Obamacare, they were up in arms, the posse to overthrow the governor with their knives and pitchforks almost formed.
So to clear his name and expressed his hate of Obamacare, the governor called POLITICO Monday night to clarify what he meant. He was talking specifically about repeal of the expansion of Medicaid — which Ohio has implemented — and not of the Affordable Care Act more broadly.
“From Day 1, and up until today and into tomorrow, I do not support Obamacare,” the Republican governor said on Monday evening. “I never have, and I believe it should be repealed.”
Except for the Medicaid expansion part — which wouldn’t exist without the law. Kasich, however, thinks there ought to be a way to save it.
“I have favored expanding Medicaid, but I don’t really see expanding Medicaid as really connected to Obamacare,” Kasich said.
If Republicans take the Senate, Kasich said, “you better believe they’re gonna repeal Obamacare and I agree with that.” But, he added, “There’s got to be an accommodation” for Medicaid expansion.
There is a reason you’re not hearing much about Obamacare and how it will spell Armageddon for the United States and its economy. That reason is because Republicans have been proven wrong so many times on this issue, Americans would laugh in their faces if they even try to utter those false claims again.
With that said, supporters of the Affordable Care Act have had quite a few reasons to celebrate lately, and as of yesterday, the news keeps getting better.
Consumers in much of the country will have a broader selection of health insurance plans next year, the Obama administration said Tuesday, as it predicted an increase of about 25 percent in the number of insurers that are expected to compete in federal and state marketplaces. […]
So far, [administration officials] said, the number of insurers, also known as issuers, is up to 315 next year, from 252 this year. For the 36 states served by the federal marketplace, it said, the number is up almost 30 percent, to 248 next year, from 191 this year.
When congressional Republicans predicted that private insurers would want nothing to do with “Obamacare,” and the lack of participation would be a disaster for consumers, the GOP lawmakers had it backwards. Competition has already helped hold down premiums, and with more insurance companies now eager to get into the system and compete for Americans’ business, consumers are poised to benefit even more.
It was a lie Republicans used to scare people away from getting healthcare, willfully misleading people with the claim that the program will fail causing premiums to rise because of the “fact” that millions will not pay for the coverage.
Republicans even went on a crusade advising some not to pay for the coverage, telling them to take the penalty instead. And like other claims these Republicans and their conservative media outlets made about Obamacare, this claim, this fact as they called it, is now proven as false.
What did you expect? After all, we are talking about Republicans here!
According to reports, only about 9% of the 8 million people who signed up failed to pay their premiums. Health insurance industry experts had feared that number could be between 10% and 15%, Congress was told Thursday.
The update was released as the Obama administration prepares for the second year of enrollment under the program.
Obamacare’s website had a chaotic launch last year, but enrollment is projected to grow next year.
Rob Portman is a Republican Senator for the state of Ohio. And on Thursday, the Republican senator told reporters that if they get control of the Senate in the November election, a vote to Repeal Obamacare will follow. With the House of Representatives already controlled by Republicans, the prospects of a repeal bill passing both houses of Congress is extremely likely.
“I suspect we will vote to repeal early to put on record the fact that we Republicans think it was a bad policy and we think it is hurting our constituents,” said Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), appearing at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. “We think health care costs should be going down, not up. We think people should be able to keep the insurance that they had. They are worried about the fact that the next shoe to drop is going to be employer coverage.”
As Portman’s remarks indicated, a repeal vote by a Republican-controlled Senate would be a largely perfunctory exercise, designed to register GOP opposition with the health care law once again. The president would never sign such a measure, even if he were severely chastened by the 2014 election results. Even top conservative donors concede as much.
I’ve always found it interesting when the calendar changes to the day after Labor Day and the country gets serious. The rest of the world doesn’t know from this holiday and I’m sure there’s a great deal of literature on how the calendar affects world affairs. Thus, here we are.
The world continues to be on fire. ISIS, Syria, Israel, Palestine, West Africa, and English towns that breed terrorists are mainstays of the 24-hour news cycle. The president is excoriated for suggesting that we are at a loss over what to do about increasing threats overseas. Texas is on alert for possible infiltration across the Mexican border. But don’t worry about that too much because Chris Christie was just in Mexico and I’m sure he’ll scare off the militants. Of course, he hasn’t a clue about foreign policy, but at least he didn’t pull a Romney on his first foreign trip.
On the domestic political front, the big issue is that Congress is going to meet for a few days, adjourn, and go home to run for those all-important safe seats that 96% of the members occupy. Excepting, of course, those few Senate seats that are up for grabs. It’s interesting to note that except for 2010, a big exception, I know, the Republican moon-bayers have been unable to defeat Obama and the Democrats and scare the country into giving the conservatives the control they will never, ever have. Yes, the House has been able to wreak havoc on the country and, by the by, their own party, but they have not been successful at implementing their agenda. They’ve only stymied the Democrats but for the 2009-2011 Congressional session.
Oh, and that ACA law thing? It’s working fairly well. You know, millions of people now have health insurance, doctors are able to give elderly people more care, poor people can get Medicaid, except in states that don’t take free money but say they are fiscally responsible. But no worries on that because those states that deny the money are actually paying so that the states that did take free Medicaid money can cover their populations. I live in one of those states. My governor wants to be president. Scared yet?
But if the Senate goes to the GOP, then both houses of Congress will vote to repeal the ACA, right? Well, possibly, but right now the GOP isn’t taking the Senate. And chances are good that they won’t. You heard it here third.
If you’re one of the unfortunate few that listened to the Republicans and conservative media 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you’ll be scratching your head wondering why Obamacare is working. And you’ll be wondering why the prices haven’t skyrocketed, crashing the economy and bringing the nation to its knees. And for some of you walking around with no insurance because you drank the Republican Kool-aid about Obamacare, you are probably scratching your head and kicking yourself now.
Well, don’t kick too hard. Remember, you have no insurance.
For the other millions who were smart enough to buy into Obamacare, here’s more good news. Rates are falling more than was anticipated.
A new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that in seven major cities that have released data on 2015 premiums, the price of the benchmark Obamacare plan — the second-cheapest silver plan, which the federal government uses to calculate subsidies — is falling.
Yes, falling.
“Falling” is not a word that people associate with health-insurance premiums. They tend to rise as regularly as the morning sun. And, to be fair, the Kaiser Family Foundation is only looking at 16 cities in 15 states and the District of Columbia, and the drop they record is, on average, a modest 0.8 percent (though this is the same methodology they used in 2014, and to good results). But this data, though preliminary, is the best data we have — and it shows that Obamacare is doing a better job holding down costs than anyone seriously predicted, including Kaiser’s researchers.
“I expected premium growth to be modest in most of the country,” Larry Levitt, a co-author of the report, told Vox’s Sarah Kliff. “But what we saw were some decreases instead.”
So Obamacare is now a friend of the Republican governors.
After joining the other Republican governors to deny the citizens of their state affordable healthcare through Obamacare, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett has a change of heart and mind. And I am absolutely sure this change of heart had something to do with his 25 points deficit to his Democratic challenger in the upcoming election.
On Thursday, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will announce that it had granted a waiver and reached agreement with the state to provide health care coverage to 500,000 low-income residents through private insurance. The waiver will make Pennsylvania the 27th state, plus the District of Columbia, to accept federal Medicaid dollars.
Pennsylvanians who work in fast food, retail, taxi and limo driving, cleaning and housekeeping, and construction are most likely to benefit from the coverage expansion, a recent report from the health care advocacy group Families USA estimates.
News of the agreement also comes as Republican governors who are expanding their Medicaid programs up to 138 percent of the federal poverty line are registering higher poll numbers than those who do not. A recent poll has found that Gov. Tom Corbett (R-PA) trails Democratic challenger Tom Wolf by 25 percentage points. Meanwhile, 59 percent of Pennsylvania voters back Medicaid expansion, according to data from Public Policy Polling.
Not all Democrats are spineless. And not all of them are running away from Obamacare – the biggest most significant piece of legislation in the last decade.
In his latest ad, Senator Mark Pryor (D-AR) is not only running on Obamacare, he has embraced the Affordable Care Act wholeheartedly.
The ad features Pryor with his father, popular former Sen. David Pryor (D-Ark.), talking about the family’s experiences when Mark got cancer… The younger Pryor then cites ObamaCare regulations that force insurance companies to provide coverage for pre-existing conditions.”
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