The Great Smoky Mountain Journal
Staff Reports
Posted: Monday, January 01, 2018 12:26 PM
OUR VIEW: Obama Care Repeal/Replace Failure On Backs of Republicans Yes, But Don't Forget Who Started This
For seven years now the Republican Party has promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act. For seven years they campaigned for our votes and got American voter support on that promise. The won the House back in 2010, gained seats in 2012, took the Senate in 2014 and the White House in 2016 - all on the wave that what has been labeled "Obama Care" was going to be dismantled and relief given to the American public and business community.
The taxes and penalties of this law were, and still are, crippling. There is nothing "affordable" about it and never has been.
And yet, even though the GOP now controls both Houses of Congress and the White House, Obamacare is still the law of the land after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared Tuesday he did not have the votes to repeal and replace the scourge to our healthcare system.
Chances are it will remain so unless the Republicans come to the
plate and start doing their jobs. Don't count on that happening anytime
soon.
Before we get into asking the question why, we need to state the obvious
first. Obama Care was the Democrats doing, not the Republicans. Not one
Republican voted for it and not one Democrat voted against it. This is
their baby start to finish.
This monstrosity of a health care issue wouldn't be in the tee total mess it's in today had the Democrats not sought to redistribute wealth and scheme to bring the American tax payer into a single payer health care system. That was the goal of this all along. Don't let that get lost in the discourse of your thinking when discussing this with political buddies. The main stream media fail to mention that often in their mockery of the Republican's failures on getting it repealed.
When Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts had a brain melt down and declared the law was basically a tax, giving the law a 5-4 pat on the back by the highest court of the land, this monster became entrenched so much into the fabric of our nation it is not going to be easy to get it removed. Those who designed it knew this all along and are having high five parties today at the many failed efforts to get rid of it.
People tend to forget most of the penalties, taxes and bad things related to the health care law took place effective January 2017, the year former President Barrack Obama, the real power and architect behind this health care law, knew he would be gone from office. In South Georgia talk, he left a pile of dung a mile deep for his successor. He figured if Hillary got in she'd continue protecting it; if a Republican got in, he knew back in 2010, when the law passed, it would be so entrenched into our nation, it would be impossible to change and repeal, replace and remove. Sounds like a real whale of a guy right?
When one realizes Barrack Obama was never concerned about real health care, but producing a socialist utopia with the government controlling everything, then one can understand why we have such a convoluted, controversial, and unfair health care system.
Back to the Republicans. They have a
horrible mess to clean up and it's not going to be easy with the many
factions at work even in their own party that still hate President
Trump.
Are the liberal Republicans who control the Senate liars, backstabbers
or just incompetent? The answer to that is yes and no to all three. The
main issue is politicians forget why they are there in Washington D.C.
and that is we the people put them there to work for US! Heritage
Action, a conservative non-profit group said this:
“Many conservatives are justifiably
frustrated with the abstinence of their more liberal colleagues, but
both wings of the Republican Party must continue working toward their
longstanding promise of repealing and replacing Obamacare."
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) also delivered a stern warning to his fellow
Republicans Tuesday saying basically if the Republicans don't fulfill
their promises to the American people, they don't deserve to govern in
the majority.
“If we do not repeal the Affordable Care Act after campaigning on it for
seven years, the American people will find someone else to represent
them – and they should,” Meadows said in a radio interview with a
conservative news outlet. “It is incumbent on us to get things done. The
people back home – they don’t understand why we didn’t have a bill on
the president’s desk by January 20th. And quite frankly, neither do I,”
he said.
Meadows said in the same interview President Trump is not to blame for
the inaction on Obamacare.
“It’s not the president’s fault. The president is all in on this,” he
said. “A lot of Republicans forgot what they promised to the American
people. We’ve got to remember those campaign promises.”
So who is to blame?
As Meadows said, the disconnect is when those in the upper chambers of
Congress allow legislation that is supported primarily by those in the
opposite party, when the opposite party has no desire to change anything
about this failing healthcare system. They may own it, but they are
going to hang its failures on the Republicans unless something is done!
As Meadows said, “Given the
choice between a Republican who votes like a Democrat and a Democrat who
votes like a Democrat, the American people will pick the one who votes
their own constituency every time.”
That was a diplomatic way of saying Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is a
moron and obstructing President Trump’s agenda. McConnell has never been
on the Trump agenda train from the start despite what he says in front
of cameras. To be frank, neither has Paul Ryan. Both need to go!!!!
Most of what shackles the Senate are archaic rules imposed on itself by leaders playing politics and not looking out for the American people. Then when things like this fail, the rules are blamed, not the politicians.
Trump does shoulder some of the blame because he's allowed these antagonists to obstruct his agenda instead of standing up to them, calling them out, and demanding a change. Drain the Swamp is more than a campaign slogan - it's an imperative. The swamp is not full of just Democrats; it's Republicans too, Republicans disguised as "Rhinos." Why Trump picked McConnell's wife, Elaine Chao to head up the Department of Transportation is still a head shaking notion.
In our view if the buck stops at the
top of Congress, there needs to be wholesale changes and fast or the
Republicans are facing Armageddon in the fall of 2018.
In other words, if the Republican leadership will not advance President
Trump’s agenda – then it’s time for some new Republican leadership. And
if they fail to make those changes – the Republicans may very well be
the minority party in 2018.
“This administration is growing weary of no results,” Meadows added. “I’m growing weary of no results. If this leader is not willing to change the rules – if there’s another leader willing to do that – I’m supportive of that.”
We think most Americans feel the same
way.
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Christopher McDonald, Publisher, Editor in Charge
Great Smoky Mountain Journal