In a lather

by | Sep 26, 2013 | Editor's Blog, Health Care, NCGOP | 6 comments

Republicans are all in a lather about the implementation of Obamacare. Here in North Carolina, they got news that sent them over the moon. Our state’s premiums will be higher than than the national average.

On twitter, this was like Christmas in September. The right-wing talking-point tweeters were doing 140-character metaphorical jigs tweeting various forms of “I told ya so, you liberal idiots.” And, at the same time, Ted Cruz was wooing them with his faux filibuster. They were swooning like teenage girls at an Elvis concert.

The right-flank of the Republican Party, dominated by the Tea Party faction, is betting the farm that the failure of Obamacare is going to send Democrats the way of the dinosaur. They are sure that the public is hanging on every negative article and they have polls that show the American people dislike the new program more than they like it.

The funnest part for me is watching them eat their own. They’re outright attacking Senator Richard Burr for not trying to defund Obamacare by any futile means possible. And they attacked the conservative but pragmatic Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) as a RINO for saying that the folks trying to defund Obamacare are not based in the “real world.” While I hope the moderates in the GOP civil war eventually win, right now I’m just enjoying the show.

Republicans may hate Obamacare, but it’s their own fault. Throughout the first decade of the 21st century, when the GOP controlled the White House and Congress, health care reform was consistently the top issue among voters in federal races. Republicans, though, chose not to address it.

When Democrats took back Congress in 2006, health care reform was front and center in most Congressional races. During the 2008 Democratic primary for president, the famous debates between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton focused on how to implement reform, not whether to implement it. While the collapse of the economy changed the public’s priorities and focus after Obama’s election, demand for health care reform is real and has been part of the public debate for decades.

After the hundreds of millions of dollars Republicans and their corporate allies spent trashing Obamacare, support for the program should be in the tank. It’s not. Yes, there is skepticism and fear of change, but the visceral reaction to the implementation is reserved for those who just want to see the president fail.

My guess is there are going to be glitches to the program, as there are with all big programs, and that we hear about a few isolated horror stories that get a lot of press. But, overall, most people will find only subtle changes and few find the disaster that the GOP is predicting. The real disaster will be for the GOP if they allow those who are frothing at the mouth to drive their political agenda.

 

6 Comments

  1. NCBlue

    The problem with blue line’s thinking is it is highly flawed. The facts are clear the Affordable Care Act will be huge and once it is firmly in place the American people at least the smarter ones will see the foible that the Republican party has tried to pull. I would think that the majority of those who rail against the AFA do not even know what it is or what it entails. The list of good things it does is way to long to cover here. But to respond to Blue Line. Why do you hate for people who have not had health insurance or could not afford health insurance that they will now have a chance to get it. If you look at the full price of the premium you are missing the facts. Most people are like my wife 49 years old female smoker. With the government paying a major portion of her premium her monthly costs should be around $163 a month for the silver plan. I would venture a guess that is less than most pay through their employer. It is not perfect or superior coverage, but she has not had health insurance for over four years now. To us it means everything. Perhaps even preventing her early demise due to some illness we do not even know about yet. So Blue line you keep thinking that it is going to fail, and we will keep thanking the Democrats with our votes for finally doing something.

    • Blue Line

      NCBlue – your wife is a smoker, yet you lament her inability to get health insurance? You, sir, are completely missing the point. Good day.

  2. Blue Line

    Mr. Mills – I’ve got news for you, bud: it won’t work like it’s supposed to. Specifically, the first A in ACA will never happen. You see, in order for it to be affordable, young healthy people have to sign up to spread the risk pool. Now that ACA says you can’t be denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition, why would any young 20-something sign up?

    • Cokead

      Maybe to keep the pre-existing condition from existing in the first place? Not all pre-existing conditions are present at birth.

    • M

      Great, let’s see who proves correct. I’m willing to bet the 2016 election that you don’t know what you’re talking about. See you at the polls.

    • Thomas Mills

      And according to polls, young people are most support and least resistant to signing up. So we’ll see.

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