Over the last two years, the Republican House has spent 4% of "floor time" pretending to repeal Obamacare - a total of thirty three (33) legislative initiatives.
Alan: Within three years of the Affordable Care Act's full enactment in 2014, Americans will be as fond of Obamacare as they are currently fond of Social Security and Medicare.
What is Obamacare?
http://www.reddit.com/tb/vbkfm
http://www.standupforhealthcare.org/learn-more/quick-facts/12-reasons-to-support-health-care?gclid=CNrFxrOIlLECFSUTNAodOB1nDA
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/07/86-of-canadians-want-to-strengthen.html
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It's election year theatrics, nothing more.
Don't the Republicans have anything better to do?
Republicans in Congress are hosting their own showing of "Groundhog Day" Wednesday - they intend, apparently, to do the same thing over and over again, even if it's pointless.
The GOP will once again call a vote on repealing President Barack Obama's health care law. Given their majority, they'll probably win that vote.
They have been down this road before, winning a repeal vote in February 2011, 245-189, to undo Obama's signature domestic legislation. The vote didn't mean anything, of course, except for firing up the conservative base, because the Democrat-controlled Senate wasn't about to take up the bill.
"They already voted 30 times," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said on the Senate floor Monday. "Speaker Boehner said, 'Let's do it again.' Thirty-one times. Thirty-one times taking many, many hours, many, many days that should have been spent creating jobs. Congressional Republicans have spent months trying to repeal a law that has already saved lives."
In an election year, there is the sense among the Republican faithful that in the wake of the Supreme Court decision to uphold the law (and conservative Chief Justice John Roberts' supposed defection), the GOP needs to make a show of carrying on the fight.
It's political theater - nothing more.
Republicans should move on. If they have a better plan, they should advance it. But here's the thing: The party doesn't appear to have a coherent plan to address millions of people without insurance or the rising costs associated with a broken system. The ideas they do have - allowing the sale of insurance across state lines, health savings accounts, medical malpractice limits and a government-subsidized insurance pool for sick people who cannot buy insurance are fine ideas. But they are like a Band-aid on a gaping wound. The Affordable Care Act, for all its faults - and it has faults - at least provides a comprehensive solution.
And now it appears that even a few of the rank and file wonder if nonstop harping on "Obamacare" is such a healthy thing to do.
As one old GOP hand told The New York Times this week: "Anytime Republicans are debating taxes and the economy, we're winning. Anytime we're debating health care, they're winning."
Some Republicans in swing districts are even openly admitting that some provisions of the Affordable Care Act might not be so bad, after all. Their constituents like such provisions as mandated coverage of people with pre-existing medical conditions or the prohibition on canceling insurance when a customer gets sick.
We'd agree with former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, a candidate for Senate, who told The Times: "There's a strong sense that we don't want to carry on this fight, over and over. Let's move on."
But to do that, the Republicans will first have to stop hitting rewind. Don't bet on that to happen until after the November elections.
To be considered for publication as a letter to the editor, e-mail your opinion to the Journal Sentinel editorial department.
***
July 11, 2012
Health care repeal effort: Worth the time?
(CBS News) WASHINGTON - The House of Representatives voted to repeal the president's health care law Wednesday.
It is the 33rd time that House Republicans have done that, even though they know the repeal won't pass the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats. Even if it did, the President would veto it.
When there's urgent business before the House, why spend so much time voting to repeal the law over and over again?
House passes health care repeal, again
Watch: Boehner: Repealing health care was our "pledge to America"Watch: Carney: Health care repeal effort shows why people "loathe" politics
Watch: Boehner: Repealing health care was our "pledge to America"Watch: Carney: Health care repeal effort shows why people "loathe" politics
House Republicans have now held so many repeal votes, lawmakers are losing track.
"Here we are again voting for the 31st time," said Rep. Steny Hoyer, a Republican from Maryland. Another representative noted that it was the 32nd.
In fact, Tuesday's vote makes it the 33rd time the House has tried to repeal all or part of President Obama's health care law.
A CBS News tally found the Republican repeal effort has taken up at least 80 hours on the House floor, or two full work weeks, since 2010.
"Obamacare is a massive tax hike on the middle class," said Texas Republican Lamar Smith.
But Wednesday's measure will suffer the same fate as the other full repeal efforts, which sailed through the Republican-controlled House but died, predictably, in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
"I say shame," said John Dingell, a Democratic congressman from Michigan. "You're wasting the time of the American people. You're wasting the time of Congress."
And time is precious on Capitol Hill, where House leaders have scheduled only 42 more working days between now and the end of the year when critical deadlines loom. The Bush-era tax cuts are set to expire then for everyone, and steep across-the-board spending cuts will kick in.
There's been little attempt to seek common ground on those issues or on funding the government, which must be done by October, or on tackling the nation's 8.2 percent unemployment rate.
Virginia's Eric Cantor, the second highest ranking House Republican, spearheaded today's repeal measure.
When asked why they keep holding these debates and repeal votes, Cantor said Republicans "want to try and get it right."
"Again the American people have rejected Obamacare," Cantor said. "You know they don't want Washington telling them what kind of health care they should have."
Is the GOP proposing something else? "Absolutely," Cantor said. "All along the process during which Obamacare was being discussed here in Capitol Hill we posited an alternative."
Republicans did release a short outline of their health care priorities in 2009, but they haven't released any formal replacement for the president's health care law and have no immediate plans to do so. One of their main goals with all these votes is to tie vulnerable Democrats to an unpopular law in an election year.
Nancy CordesNancy Cordes is CBS News' congressional correspondent.
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