Jan 04, 2011
What a difference a couple of months make. During the 2010 campaigns, House Republican candidates affiliated with the Tea Party ran strongly against “government health care.”
Most Republican Freshman are refusing to say whether they will accept government funded health care as a Member of Congress. A few Members-elect have honored their campaign rhetoric by refusing to accept congressional health care:
Their silence can only mean one thing: Republican Freshman will hypocritically take government funded health care even though they ran campaigns against it.
“Most Americans think incoming Congressmen who campaigned against the health care bill should put their money where their mouth is and decline government provided health care now that they're in office.” [Public Policy Polling, 11/23/10]
Don’t let your Representative stay silent! Ask Freshman Republicans whether they will accept government funded health care, despite their campaign against it.
Rightrdia thinks the GOP made a strategic mistake by opening the new Congress with an health care repeal effort.
The Democrats spent a year getting the the Affordable Health Care Act of 2009 passed and quite frankly Rightardia thought it made the Dems look slow and plodding.
The Democrats should sandbag Boehner on health care repeal and use every trick in the book to stop the repeal cold.
The Republicans have already exempted health care repeal and the estate tax from deficit reduction rules.
The GOP has essentially admitted that Obamacare does, in fact, reduce the deficit and that the estate tax compromise to a $5 million estate threshold will increase the deficit. This is cynical politics.
Why is the GOP wandering into the health care tar patch again? We suspect they have been ordered to do it by the big health care corporations.
The GOP Congress would have been smarter to open with a jobs bill. As Rightardia has pointed out, few GOP administrations have been interested in creating jobs.
Bush's bragged about the increase in US worker productivity which means employers can get by with fewer workers.
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Most Republican Freshman are refusing to say whether they will accept government funded health care as a Member of Congress. A few Members-elect have honored their campaign rhetoric by refusing to accept congressional health care:
- *Representative-elect Bobby Schilling (IL-17) – “Schilling, R-Ill., told us on ABC’s ‘Top Line’ today that he’s staying true to his outsider status, refusing a congressional pension in addition the health care coverage that members of Congress are entitled to receive.” [ABC News, 11/17/10]
- Representative-elect Mike Kelly (PA-03) – “A caller to C-SPAN’s Washington Journal asked Representative-elect Kelly, who “strongly opposes” the health care law, if he would be willing to give up his government-sponsored health insurance. Kelly said that he would.” [Think Progress, 11/18/10]
- Representative-elect Joe Walsh (IL-08) – “Another newly elected Republican member of Congress says he will not accept the government-sponsored health insurance plan available to lawmakers. Rep.-elect Joe Walsh (Ill.), who rode a wave of Tea Party support to defeat three-term Rep. Melissa Bean (D) in November, said he does not believe lawmakers should receive the benefits.” [The Hill, 12/26/10]
- Representative-elect Bill Johnson (OH-06) – “Rep.-elect Bill Johnson (R-OH) says he won't take Congressional health care benefits.” [Hotline, 12/2/10]
Their silence can only mean one thing: Republican Freshman will hypocritically take government funded health care even though they ran campaigns against it.
“Most Americans think incoming Congressmen who campaigned against the health care bill should put their money where their mouth is and decline government provided health care now that they're in office.” [Public Policy Polling, 11/23/10]
Don’t let your Representative stay silent! Ask Freshman Republicans whether they will accept government funded health care, despite their campaign against it.
Rightrdia thinks the GOP made a strategic mistake by opening the new Congress with an health care repeal effort.
The Democrats spent a year getting the the Affordable Health Care Act of 2009 passed and quite frankly Rightardia thought it made the Dems look slow and plodding.
The Democrats should sandbag Boehner on health care repeal and use every trick in the book to stop the repeal cold.
The Republicans have already exempted health care repeal and the estate tax from deficit reduction rules.
The GOP has essentially admitted that Obamacare does, in fact, reduce the deficit and that the estate tax compromise to a $5 million estate threshold will increase the deficit. This is cynical politics.
Why is the GOP wandering into the health care tar patch again? We suspect they have been ordered to do it by the big health care corporations.
The GOP Congress would have been smarter to open with a jobs bill. As Rightardia has pointed out, few GOP administrations have been interested in creating jobs.
Bush's bragged about the increase in US worker productivity which means employers can get by with fewer workers.
Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/UFPYA
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3 comments:
Agree the GOP should pursue jobs, not undoing health care. They've only been complaining for 2 years that Obama didn't do enough about jobs.
It doesn't make sense to call them hypocritical for accepting health care benefits from "the government", though. The government employs them; they are taking employer-provided health-care benefits.
Economic point: Rising productivity benefits the whole economy. It allows creation of higher-value jobs, thus increases employment, because output from existing jobs costs less.
The kind of reasoning that opposes productivity gains because they supposedly cost jobs is partly what got unions into trouble in recent years. Now smart unions (e.g., longshoremen) embrace productivity & technology, and bargain to hold onto the new jobs created.
Woodnik makes a good point, but increasing productivity--US workers are the most productive in the world--without expanding employment is a zero sum game.
Bush had the worst job creation record of any modern president. Labor is on its knees because corporations have been hiring legal teams at $200+ per hour to prevent shops form organizing.
EFCA will help, but Obama should have got that done before the 212th congress went in session. Rightardia thinks EFCA is dead for the next two years.
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