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n2doc

(47,953 posts)
Sun Aug 11, 2013, 07:00 PM Aug 2013

Republicans Are In a Full Blown Panic as the Affordable Care Act Grows More Successful

Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction and as a rule saboteurs attempt to conceal their identities to avoid the consequences of their actions; unless they are Republicans. Since January 2009, Republicans have gone to great lengths to sabotage President Obama’s attempts to save the economy and they made no attempt to conceal their identities. In fact, Republicans reveled in the publicity they received for killing jobs and obstructing economic recovery, and their racist supporters cheered them on every step of the way regardless the damage they wrought to the economy and other Americans. Still, President Obama prevailed and saved the economy, created millions of jobs, cut spending to their lowest levels in over 60 years, and set reform in motion to give 30-million Americans access to basic affordable healthcare that Republicans are still attempting to sabotage.

There are several reasons why Republicans are escalating their attempts to sabotage the Affordable Care Act, and none are more important to their survival as their inhumane supporters’ opposition to other Americans’ well-being. It is not to say that Republicans would love nothing more than to deny 30 million Americans basic health insurance for the sole purpose of seeing them infirm and suffering, because that is, in and of itself, a primary Republican goal in sabotaging the ACA. In fact, they were brutally frank that, by their libertarian standards, healthcare was a divine privilege reserved for Americans who could afford astronomical premiums just to stay healthy, but there is more driving their machinations to derail the ACA than simple conservative inhumanity.

Regardless the ACA will give the insurance industry about 30-million new policy holders, there are provisions in the law that Republicans despise because their industry donors lost free-rein to gouge policy holders and rake in obscene profits. In fact, there is a direct correlation between the renewed frenzy to sabotage the health law and industry profits that drives Republican opposition. The secret trigger in the ACA that pushed early Republican opposition was the so-called 80/20 rule that required insurance carriers to spend 80% of premiums on real healthcare or write rebate checks to policy holders for amounts they did not spend. Republicans rushed to defend the industry that railed at the idea of only reaping 20% profits. The second trigger is that competition inherent in healthcare exchanges in states that embraced the health law has reduced premiums substantially. For example, in New York, premiums are set to fall by roughly 50%, and in California, this author’s premiums fell by about 40% after 17 years of perpetual increases and that does not include rebate checks that began rolling in last year according to the 80/20 rule. It is the health law’s success stories like these that have Republicans in a panic and it is the third reason they are going all in to sabotage the ACA; it is successful.

Republicans hoped beyond hope that the law would fail giving them the opportunity to portray President Obama as a failure, but between ending pre-existing conditions, keeping children on their parents’ policies until age 26, the 80/20 rule, and free-market competition resulting in lower rates, the law is a success. That it reduces the nation’s deficit and creates jobs is just too much for Republicans to bear and has elicited a multi-faceted, last ditch effort to sabotage the law that a long-time conservative stalwart considers “unprecedented and contemptible.” Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative belief tank, recently assailed Republican leadership for going to extreme measures to “damage the possibility of a smooth rollout of the health reform plan.” Ornstein railed at Republicans’ “guerrilla efforts to cut off funding, dozens of votes to repeal, abusive comments by leaders, attempts to discourage states from participating in Medicaid expansion or crafting exchanges, threatening letters to associations that might publicize the availability of insurance on exchanges, and now a new set of threats—to have a government shutdown, or to refuse to raise the debt ceiling, unless the president agrees to stop all funding for implementation of the plan, to do everything possible to undercut and destroy its implementation to benefit politically from all the resulting turmoil is simply unacceptable, even contemptible. That the effort is spearheaded by the Republican leaders of the House and Senate takes one’s breath away.” It is noteworthy that Ornstein joined Thomas Mann last year to assail Republicans for creating Washington’s dysfunction and inability to govern, but to directly criticize the GOP leadership is remarkable and too long in coming.

more

http://www.politicususa.com/2013/08/11/republicans-full-blown-panic-affordable-care-act-grows-successful.html

30 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Republicans Are In a Full Blown Panic as the Affordable Care Act Grows More Successful (Original Post) n2doc Aug 2013 OP
K & R Scurrilous Aug 2013 #1
K & R Rosa Luxemburg Aug 2013 #4
"...there are provisions in the law that Republicans despise..." pampango Aug 2013 #2
Highlight all the success stories - write letters to the editor of newsapapers Rosa Luxemburg Aug 2013 #3
..and the amount of FUDr on DU grows with it. uponit7771 Aug 2013 #5
Please help this acronym illiterate Wednesdays Aug 2013 #13
Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. n/t winter is coming Aug 2013 #16
OK, thanks. Wednesdays Aug 2013 #23
LOL, you win the thread. n/t winter is coming Aug 2013 #25
Why don't you put the Republicans in a real panic by following Obama's advice AnotherMcIntosh Aug 2013 #6
Hopefully, the health care plan will help solve a portion of the homeless problem JDPriestly Aug 2013 #28
Thank you for this information. another_liberal Aug 2013 #7
Oh Yeah!!!!! Peacetrain Aug 2013 #8
And they've forever tied this legislation to his name. millennialmax Aug 2013 #9
K & R krawhitham Aug 2013 #10
Krugman: Obama is finally "mocking Republicans for their obsession with denying insurance to 30 pampango Aug 2013 #11
Thanks for the Krugman commentary. TexasTowelie Aug 2013 #30
Was it Newt? Cartoonist Aug 2013 #12
my recollection is that it was Bill Kristol rurallib Aug 2013 #14
Please,,,PLease Cryptoad Aug 2013 #15
The teabaggers at work are desperate for insurance premiums to double. Turbineguy Aug 2013 #17
There also seems to be a subltle shift going on to stop calling it Obamacare Egnever Aug 2013 #18
I wonder when one of them will wine about how Obama stole the idea from them bloomington-lib Aug 2013 #19
K&R BumRushDaShow Aug 2013 #20
The current Repug strategery is to shut down the government Rain Mcloud Aug 2013 #21
Straight talk. Call those heartless bastards out every chance you can! cheapdate Aug 2013 #22
I was concerned about the ACA and I still have concerns SomethingFishy Aug 2013 #24
Boink. Scurrilous Aug 2013 #26
K&R. JDPriestly Aug 2013 #27
This is so funny. bravenak Aug 2013 #29

pampango

(24,692 posts)
2. "...there are provisions in the law that Republicans despise..."
Sun Aug 11, 2013, 07:18 PM
Aug 2013
... the so-called 80/20 rule that required insurance carriers to spend 80% of premiums on real healthcare or write rebate checks to policy holders for amounts they did not spend. Republicans rushed to defend the industry that railed at the idea of only reaping 20% profits. The second trigger is that competition inherent in healthcare exchanges in states that embraced the health law has reduced premiums substantially. For example, in New York, premiums are set to fall by roughly 50%, and in California, this author’s premiums fell by about 40% after 17 years of perpetual increases and that does not include rebate checks that began rolling in last year according to the 80/20 rule. It is the health law’s success stories like these that have Republicans in a panic and it is the third reason they are going all in to sabotage the ACA; it is successful.

Thanks for posting this article, n2doc.

Wednesdays

(17,321 posts)
13. Please help this acronym illiterate
Sun Aug 11, 2013, 08:25 PM
Aug 2013

I Googled "FUDr" and the only things I could come up with were "Friends of the Upper Delaware River" and "floxuridine."

"Fuck You, Damn Republicans"?
"Falsely Underwritten Dalmation Reviews"?
"For Uncle David's Repository"?
"Feeling Utterly Devious Retroactively?"

JDPriestly

(57,936 posts)
28. Hopefully, the health care plan will help solve a portion of the homeless problem
Mon Aug 12, 2013, 12:05 AM
Aug 2013

since the mentally ill will, I assume, be able to get some assistance through the plan. Am i wrong about that?

 

another_liberal

(8,821 posts)
7. Thank you for this information.
Sun Aug 11, 2013, 08:03 PM
Aug 2013

I hope the Republicans pay a price in November, 2014, for this obstructionism in the face of Americans' needs.

pampango

(24,692 posts)
11. Krugman: Obama is finally "mocking Republicans for their obsession with denying insurance to 30
Sun Aug 11, 2013, 08:13 PM
Aug 2013

million Americans.

President Obama is finally making a strong case for his own health reform, mocking Republicans for their obsession with denying insurance to 30 million Americans. It’s about time; and many of us still feel that he did a remarkably bad job of explaining the reform in the past.

Still, Brian Beutler has a good point here: the long delay in implementation made Obamacare hard to campaign on, because people had no experience of how it works in practice. Republicans could tell all kinds of lies, promulgate all kinds of misconceptions, and if the law’s defenders tried to refute these claims, well, who was telling the truth? Remember how Medicare was going to destroy American freedom?

But now the reality of Obamacare is just months away. It may have a rocky start, especially in red states where the local government is doing all it can to disrupt the implementation, but pretty soon many Americans will have first-hand knowledge of how the system really works. And if Massachusetts is any guide, they’re going to like it a lot.

Hence Obama’s new confidence and the desperation of the GOP.


http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/11/the-power-of-incumbency-health-care-edition/?_r=1&

TexasTowelie

(111,980 posts)
30. Thanks for the Krugman commentary.
Mon Aug 12, 2013, 02:39 AM
Aug 2013

Responding for reference to respond to the right-wingers in the future.

Cartoonist

(7,311 posts)
12. Was it Newt?
Sun Aug 11, 2013, 08:19 PM
Aug 2013

Someone said that if the Dems gave America better health care, then the Republican party is finished. They have to destroy it to save themselves. They may survive 2014, but by 2016 America will realize that the ACA is a good law and that the GOP will be as dead as they fear.
They could avoid extinction by cooperating with the Dems on health care, jobs, and the environment, but they don't seem to be able to reform their party.

rurallib

(62,387 posts)
14. my recollection is that it was Bill Kristol
Sun Aug 11, 2013, 08:43 PM
Aug 2013

who was Newt's head of staff (or whatever) at the time.

Cryptoad

(8,254 posts)
15. Please,,,PLease
Sun Aug 11, 2013, 09:05 PM
Aug 2013

Educated yourselves and after OCT 1 ,,Get out and volunteer to help people signed up to ACA. Many of the people who will benefit most from ACA are going to need help getting signed up!

Turbineguy

(37,296 posts)
17. The teabaggers at work are desperate for insurance premiums to double.
Sun Aug 11, 2013, 09:17 PM
Aug 2013

If you buy a car that gets better gas mileage your gasoline consumption goes up- right?

 

Egnever

(21,506 posts)
18. There also seems to be a subltle shift going on to stop calling it Obamacare
Sun Aug 11, 2013, 09:18 PM
Aug 2013

Cause you know they dont want him getting credit for it.

I find it hilarious that they put that name on it to try to demonize it and it is now so firmly entrenched that it will end up with the net effect being he gets all the credit for it when people figure out they like it.

 

Rain Mcloud

(812 posts)
21. The current Repug strategery is to shut down the government
Sun Aug 11, 2013, 09:30 PM
Aug 2013

which they hope will sabotage the ACA and this also sets the stage for Rand Paul and the Libertarians in Human Suits to lead the minority in the senate and then pResident in 2016.
Or so I surmise to be the plan,anyway.

SomethingFishy

(4,876 posts)
24. I was concerned about the ACA and I still have concerns
Sun Aug 11, 2013, 11:07 PM
Aug 2013

but maybe if we can get a freakin Dem congress in 14 we can strengthen this thing. It's a step in the right direction and Obama should be applauded for getting the damn thing through.

Anything that pisses off the right makes me smile.

 

bravenak

(34,648 posts)
29. This is so funny.
Mon Aug 12, 2013, 12:22 AM
Aug 2013

They should have never started calling it obamacare. People are liking it more everyday. Now I notice them trying to call it the affordable care act. By its name. Ha ha ha ha ha! Ha!

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