Orrinthology

Orrin Hatch was a hoot the other day. The elderly Senator from Utah said that Obamacare was designed to fail so that the dreaded dems could usher in  (egads!) single payer socialized medicine.

That President of ours is sure crafty. And prescient. How did he ever figure out that the Republicans would vote 36 times (so far) to repeal the program?

The latest fiasco was Ted Cruz's baby. The amendment sought to “establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund to provide for the repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.” The vote failed.

Ahead of the vote, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) put out a statement trashing Obamacare for being too expensive and "not working" in the way that was promised by Democrats.

"Three years later, the President's health care law remains a job-killer that grows the government and slows the economy, which is why it’s important to repeal the whole thing and replace it with commonsense reforms that lower costs and that Americans actually want," McConnell said.

Kind of funny that it isn't working. Not surprising, since you have tried to kill the infant program at every turn, of course the patient is not well.

Now Obama's opponents have embarked on a paper cut strategy to bleed the program to death. The House bill left out nearly a billion dollars in funding for insurance exchanges as well as funds for the IRS to prepare to enforce the law's tax rules.

The Senate voted 79-20 to scuttle the Obamacare 2.3% sales tax on medical devices. The tax, which took effect in January, would have raised $29 billion towards the costs of the healthcare law. The Cruz amendment would also strip out the money for Pell Grants, for historically black colleges and $2 billion for community colleges.

There are at least eight other similar GOP budget amendments. They include one by Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) to prevent new Obamacare spending, one by Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) to repeal Obamacare's funding sources and one by Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) to prevent the use of funds for marketing Obamacare.

Two different amendments — #326 from Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and #417 from Sen. Coburn — would eliminate many of  the subsidies that help ensure Americans can purchase health care on the state-wide insurance marketplaces.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK)’s Amendment #408 would “reduce the federal matching rate for Medicaid expansions,” which could threaten funding for the provision and dissuade states from opting to expand their Medicaid pools.  Coburn  wants to “prevent the federal government from making an unrealistic promise to States to fund any State’s expansion of the Medicaid program at a higher level of federal reimbursement.”

Sen. Richard Burr's (R-NC)  Amendment #357 seeks to “delay implementation of the President’s health care law for 2 years.”

This sort of obstruction is similar to what the Republicans are doing filibustering and blocking a simple vote on federal judges. President George W. Bush has two of his D.C. Circuit nominees blocked by Democratic filibusters, but he also succeeded in winning confirmation for four appointees to the appeals court. Obama can't get any cooperation at all. Obama is the first president in 50 years who failed to make an appointment to the court during a full term.

"Republican presidents have been hugely successful in packing the D.C. Circuit with extraordinarily conservative judges, and they don't want any more jurists on the bench to dilute that ideological power." Marge Baker, executive vice president of People for the American Way.

This sort of childish behavior is totally unconscionable, needlessly adversarial and the favor is sure to be returned one day. For sure. People have long memories. Government can't work this way for perpetuity. But don't even consider working with this Obama guy for one damn minute. It is all about regaining power, some way, some how. Even if you have to employ some scorched earth tactics in the process.

Don't shoot your parents, burn your house down and then complain about your plight as poor orphans. It is no wonder the american public see you in the light that they do. Nobody is fooled by your slash, burn and obstruct philosophy. The election is over, it was a referendum on a lot of things, including healthcare. If you want to stop government dead in its tracks, we are in for a long four years and they will be no good for anybody.