Cigar
01-02-2015, 11:36 AM
1. We Have Our Own Health Care Plan!
2014 was the year of the disappearing GOP promise to propose a plan to replace the Affordable Care Act. It was the only way that they could plausibly keep telling their base that they would repeal the thing. Then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said it would be part of the party's agenda at the beginning of the year. By the end of the year, no bill had ever gotten a vote. The just-around-the-bend nature of the Republican alternative health care plan became a running joke among the health care press corps.
2. Obamacare Will Cost Jobs!
By February, everyone was starting to realize that HealthCare.gov had been fixed and the law's sheer enrollment totals might not be an abject failure. That might explain why Republicans seized on a new report from the Congressional Budget Office, claiming it would "cost" two million American jobs.
3. We'll Obstruct It In The States!
From the start, the GOP has been throwing a monkey wrench in Obamacare's works at the state level, blocking Medicaid expansion and refusing to set up exchanges. But Republicans went even greater lengths in 2014 to use their power at the state level to obstruct the law.
4. The Law Doesn't Say What You Think It Says!
Now that obstruction could actually yield results, from the Republican point of view. Nobody gave much credence to the lawsuits that argued the law's crucial tax credits should not be available on HealthCare.gov, which serves 36 states, but then the conservative minds behind it got a federal court to rule in their favor. The whole law, they've alleged, is misunderstood.
5. Look At This 'Stupid' Professor Who Crafted It!
Then we concluded 2014 talking about MIT professor Jonathan Gruber, an important White House resource during the law's drafting, who was caught on tape talking about the "lack of transparency" in Obamacare's development and the "stupidity of the American voter."
TPM (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/fivepoints/republican-obamacare-grief)
:grin:
2014 was the year of the disappearing GOP promise to propose a plan to replace the Affordable Care Act. It was the only way that they could plausibly keep telling their base that they would repeal the thing. Then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said it would be part of the party's agenda at the beginning of the year. By the end of the year, no bill had ever gotten a vote. The just-around-the-bend nature of the Republican alternative health care plan became a running joke among the health care press corps.
2. Obamacare Will Cost Jobs!
By February, everyone was starting to realize that HealthCare.gov had been fixed and the law's sheer enrollment totals might not be an abject failure. That might explain why Republicans seized on a new report from the Congressional Budget Office, claiming it would "cost" two million American jobs.
3. We'll Obstruct It In The States!
From the start, the GOP has been throwing a monkey wrench in Obamacare's works at the state level, blocking Medicaid expansion and refusing to set up exchanges. But Republicans went even greater lengths in 2014 to use their power at the state level to obstruct the law.
4. The Law Doesn't Say What You Think It Says!
Now that obstruction could actually yield results, from the Republican point of view. Nobody gave much credence to the lawsuits that argued the law's crucial tax credits should not be available on HealthCare.gov, which serves 36 states, but then the conservative minds behind it got a federal court to rule in their favor. The whole law, they've alleged, is misunderstood.
5. Look At This 'Stupid' Professor Who Crafted It!
Then we concluded 2014 talking about MIT professor Jonathan Gruber, an important White House resource during the law's drafting, who was caught on tape talking about the "lack of transparency" in Obamacare's development and the "stupidity of the American voter."
TPM (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/fivepoints/republican-obamacare-grief)
:grin: