Nutshell

The Republicans in Congress, with the fringe tea party and its sycophants wagging the dog, are holding the country and the global economy hostage in order to prevent millions of Americans from having access to affordable, quality health insurance from private companies. 

In 1996, when the Gingrich Republicans shut down the government, they did so in part to hurt Bill Clinton’s chances for re-election. It didn’t work. Barack Obama is term-limited and can’t run for President again. So what’s the political benefit here? What incentive does Obama have to negotiate with these hostage-takers? 

That’s it. That’s what the Republican Party has become – the party of very wealthy keeping reasonable, market-based policies that help the middle class from being implemented. 

And by the way, if the government shuts down, Obamacare gets implemented anyway, and millions of Americans will be able to start enrolling in new policies via the insurance exchanges tomorrow. If you have employer-supplied health insurance, you do nothing and get some new guaranteed benefits. 

13 comments

  • The Affordable Care Act can not be described as a market based policy when it relies on force to compel people to buy a product against their will.

    • You mean when the duly elected representatives in a deliberative legislature pass a law, and the law is then upheld in the Supreme Court, withstands about 40 repeal efforts, and became tantamount to a referendum of President Obama’s re-election, which he won?

      Tell me more about force.

    • Compel people to buy a product against their will? You mean like car insurance? Sure you can forgo driving a car, just like you can forgo life.
      Or maybe like being forced to purchase mortgage insurance to buy a home, or being forced to pay taxes to support the U.S Army?

      • Car insurance is not forced on people with a federal mandate. It is up to the States and forced on nobody.

        • It’s forced on everybody who owns a car, and while not a federal mandate, it is a mandate in all but three states, and if a motorist from those states wants to cross into a neighboring state, he has to meet that state’s policy requirement.

          • That is how our country is supposed to operate. The people in all States have a much more direct voice regarding car insurance. Obamacare does not enjoy anywhere near that level of support. Only 17 states, one third, have chosen to operate health exchanges.

          • And the rest have chosen to have the federal government run them for them.

  • The government shut down in 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1995, and 1996.
    But, of course, the Republicans will be bringing about the end of the world this time.
    If the ACA is so wonderful, why has the White House been scrambling for two years to grant requests for exemptions from all its union cronies and business donors? And why did Congress exempt itself?

    • And we know what happened the LAST 2 times the government got shut down.

      The Repub got bitten in the ASS.

      One more thing, Mr. H: Congress did NOT exempt itself from the ACA. This is a “zombie lie”….going back to 2010, people on your side of the ledger have been saying it. And it wasn’t any truer then than it is now.

    • 1. Congress didn’t “exempt itself”. Congresspeople and their staffs enjoy federally subsidized, employer-provided medical insurance.
      2. Similarly, other entities that provide medical insurance that complies with the requirements of the ACA aren’t affected.
      3. So what if the government shut down before? In this instance, the shutdown is pure theater – sound and fury signifying nothing.

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