Tag: Obamacare

Gingrich Notes GOP Has No Alternative to Obamacare

Buck Banks

I will bet you, for most of you, you go home in the next two weeks when your members of Congress are home, and you look them in the eye and you say, ‘What is your positive replacement for Obamacare?’ They will have zero answer. … We are caught up right now in a culture, and you see it every single day, where as long as we are negative and as long as we are vicious and as long as we can tear down our opponent, we don’t have to learn anything. We have to do the homework.

— Newt Gingrich, reprimanding his fellow Republicans in unusually harsh terms, blaming GOP lawmakers for not developing alternatives to President Obama’s health care reform law, CNN reports.

Could It Be that Republicans are Just Too Stupid to Govern?

Buck Banks

But there’s another alternative worth considering: What if House members are trying to act in their self-interest; they’re just exceptionally bad at figuring out what that is? What if they’re, you know, kinda dumb? For example, if you’re a House Republican, presumably you have some policy preferences: You’d like to massively cut taxes for the wealthy, you’d like to slash spending for the poor, you’d like to privatize Social Security and voucherize Medicare. In short, you’d like to enact the Ryan plan in its full, Randian glory. But, of course, there’s no way to do that as long as there’s a Democrat in the White House. And, unfortunately, as long as you’re committed to acting crazy — threatening needless government shutdowns; insisting that Obamacare is the greatest assault on freedom since the Nazi march across Europe; failing to fix massive electoral liabilities, like your perceived hostility to Latinos —you may preserve your House majority. But it’s going to be damn-near impossible for a Republican to win the presidency.

— Noam Scheiber, writing in the New Republic, considers whether the threat by House Republicans to shut the government down over Obamacare is rational, albeit with perverse incentives.

GOP Warns Pro Sports Leagues Not to Promote Obamacare

Buck Banks

6

Number of professional sports leagues to whom Senate Republican leaders have sent letters warning them not to provide the Obama administration any assistance in promoting Obamacare,” TPM reports. “The letters, dated June 27, warn the chiefs of the National Football League, Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, Professional Golf Association and NASCAR that partnering with the administration to publicize the benefits of the health care law would damage their reputations.”

House Republicans Have Spent 15 Percent of Their Days Since 2011 Trying to Repeal Obamacare

Buck Banks

43

Number of days since Republicans took over the House that they have devoted time to voting on repeal of President Obama’s signature health care overhaul. Thursday’s 37th vote to repeal means they have held votes on only 281 days since taking power in January 2011, and Republicans have spent no less than 15 percent of their time on the House floor on repeal in some way.