GOP to White House: What's your ObamaCare backup plan if we win?

[SummerSnow]

GOP lawmakers have a big question for President Obama about the upcoming Supreme Court case that could undo much of his signature healthcare law: What happens if we win?

Republican leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent a letter Wednesday to the head of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), demanding the administration show its hand in case the court rules against ObamaCare this summer.


“Given HHS’s responsibilities, we believe it is prudent that the Department plan for the full range of potential outcomes and consequences of the Court’s decision,” leaders of the committee wrote in a letter to HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell.

The lawmakers are seeking any and all information related to the administration's preparation — starting with "all scenarios considered or evaluated."

Both parties have acknowledged that the case, King v. Burwell, is the biggest threat to the healthcare law while Obama remains in office.

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/231024-gop-to-white-house-what-is-your-obamacare-backup-plan

* I know the GOP back up plan...no healthcare for you*

[Vinca]

1. The GOP should be thinking about their own "backup" plan and not worry about Obama.

They seem to think they can lead the country, but all they appear to be able to do is bash Obama. Someone tell them the POTUS will be off making speeches for millions of dollars in a couple of years and they'll still be in Congress trying to screw over poor people.

[maddiemom]

24. Yes! A "backup" or "better" plan should be entirely a GOP responsibility.

[Politicalboi]

2. Fuck the GOP

The plan should be for Obama to go on TV and tell the American people the GOP fucked us over. Let us all hang in the wind till the American people realize how important it was that they should have voted in 2014. Call and e-mail the GOP EVERY day to ask them what we should do about our ails and diseases. And in a few months Obama should declare Medicare 4 ALL and make it an executive order. After not having any insurance for a few months, people will look at Obama as a saint.

[LiberalLovinLug]

26. Obama detests using the bully pulpit

Haven't you heard?

I'm not a big fan of Maureen Dowd for her past snuggling up to the previous admin, but she's spot on in this article about his efforts to pass stricter gun laws after Newtown:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/opinion/sunday/dowd-president-obama-is-no-bully-in-the-pulpit.html

Couldn’t the president have given his Rose Garden speech about the “shameful” actions in Washington before the vote rather than after?

There were ways to get to 60 votes. The White House just had to scratch it out with a real strategy and a never-let-go attitude.

Obama hates selling. He thinks people should just accept the right thing to do. But as Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat, noted, senators have their own tough selling job to do back home. “In the end you can really believe in something,” he told The Times’s Jennifer Steinhauer, “but you have to go sell it.”


I just don't get it. One of the best orators in Presidential history but he refuses to use this gift, at least as much as he could.

[randome]

32. Maybe he refused to be a seller. If so, it's a valid philosophical viewpoint.

Are we fated to always be sold something? To always buy from whoever puts on the best presentation instead of thinking with our heads?
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Everything is a satellite to some other thing.[/center][/font][hr]

[LiberalLovinLug]

36. Maybe WE don't need a saleperson

But unfortunately many folks need it. Especially the mushy middle, the undecided, the moderates, the fence sitters. It also doesn't hurt to see Obama show that he really believes in something, to show some passion about an issue. I remember that presser after Congress voted down the background check bill. Obama was passionate, angry, and sent a powerful message....unfortunately it was AFTER the bill was defeated.

[Boomerproud]

38. Obama keeps acting like the American public are adults.

I'm not sure he believes it-but that is how he operates. Also his ultra-cool demeanor (which I feel is authentic) does him more harm than good when, as you say, passion and feeling is needed.

[cynzke]

45. THAT is exactly what Obama should do, and......

Fire up the people to demand the GOP fix the mess by expanding medicaid and BEGIN building their own exchange. BETTER YET, why can't the states buy OR LEASE the use of federal exchange?

[Fred Sanders]

3. They have no plan but they are outraged by their own accusations Obama has no plan...fuck off GOP.

Obamacare is the plan that is sinking your already very leaky ship of fools with a cargo full of nothing, so why don't yor clueless fuckers go run along and play and have another repeal vote.

[Arkana]

4. "Our backup plan is to spend the last months of our time

in the White House telling everyone who got health insurance that Republicans don't want you to have it."

[JaneyVee]

5. Here's the plan:

Obama goes on tv and tells the Nation that the Republicans just took away healthcare for millions without a backup plan.

[elfin]

7. Yes - they WANT Obama to save it

Both so they can't be blamed for people dying and also so they still have a fraudulent "scare" issue for 2016.

[jeff47]

6. Why do they need a plan?

If the SCOTUS ruling is sane, nothing changes.

If the SCOTUS ruling is crazy, people in red states lose access to health care. Thanks to Republicans.

Don't really need a plan to undo that. It'll undo itself when Republicans lose big in 2016.

[Andy823]

18. Exactly

The red states will go batshit crazy when they lose their health insurance. They want the president to get the blame and so they are starting this BS to try and pin in on him. It won't work, but since they have no plan of their own, never have had one, they have to try and cover their own butt. It's pretty pathetic.

[monmouth4]

8. You first GOP.....n/t

[louis-t]

9. Health insurance companies might scream the loudest.

I know I'll cancel my insurance if SC screws it up.

[Volaris]

10. yep same here.

[olddots]

11. the Gop are treasonous turd maggots

Thier plan is fuedalism and the new dark ages .

[KingCharlemagne]

55. Too bad we can't recommend posts, as I would be recommending yours from here

to eternity.

Sincere hat tip.

[Rstrstx]

12. I love it, it's driving them crazy

The Republicans, or more specifically the CATO Institute which has been behind these lawsuits, absolutely can't stand it that they don't know exactly how the Obama administration intends to go around them in the event the SCOTUS rules in favor of the plaintiffs (and I very much believe the administration's backup plan is something they are not going to like at all). It's like they can't figure out where they need to slap more glue onto their house of cards.

And in case anyone missed it, the SEIU submitted a beautifully devastating amicus brief to the court on Wednesday:

http://b.3cdn.net/seiumaster/29f219ac2d3268bbd5_cbm6b54je.pdf

This has been my favorite brief so far on the case, easy to read but very competent, intended to show to a wide audience what a sham this whole affair is. The government's more technical response last week is also pretty competent - their best to date - but reads like it was written to appeal to an audience of one (we all know who).

[randome]

19. Chief Justice Roberts.

Yes, it is driving them crazy because they're scared.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]No squirrels were harmed in the making of this post. Yet.[/center][/font][hr]

[kiri]

42. Thank you very much for this.

Thank you! The actual filings are vital reading.

[herding cats]

13. In five years they've not come up with an alternative to the ACA.

And yet this is what they have to say now? How is it these idiots keep getting elected? Working class American voters who support this type of moronic attitude should all be on their knees apologizing to the rest of the country.

[Jamaal510]

15. Agreed,

Working class American voters who support this type of moronic attitude should all be on their knees apologizing to the rest of the country.

and I'd add to that scenario anyone who doesn't vote. Even when not voting, a person is essentially saying they tolerate what is going on enough to not want to do anything.

[mythology]

20. Die quickly and cheaply in their alternative

The ACA has problems, mostly due to not going far enough, but it's a good start.

[Beartracks]

41. ROFL "If we defeat this, it's Obama's fault for not having a Plan B!"

That's is such wussy, dumb, schoolyard bullshit -- that's why it's the GOP's "plan."

"We 'plan' to defeat Obamacare! We 'plan' to make Obama look bad when we do it! Mwha-ha-ha."

Their "plan" for healthcare is to defeat the only plan there is for healthcare. In other words -- revert us to the status quo, because the net effect will be as if nothing had been done. And if any party knows about nothing, and knows about doing nothing, it is the GOP.

Any "plan" they concoct -- for anything -- never, ever has anything to do with helping Americans with real problems; rather, it is ALWAYS about trying to make President Obama look bad.

They never make plans for governing (because, really, they don't even know how); they only make plans for scoring points.

=============================

[greymattermom]

14. Same plan as Obamacare

Their plan is called Romney care. Or something similar. Except that red states would automatically be enrolled in medicaid expansion without having to do anything.

[Madmiddle]

16. This is how

republican scum legislates, which is to say they are fucking useless tools, working only to help the rich and get rich off our dime, as they ruin this country they get richer.

[bemildred]

17. "You get nothing." nt

[watoos]

21. They wrote their letter to HHS for a reason

it is the 1st step in blaming Obama for a lot of people losing their insurance. Everything the GOP does is political, this letter is not a concern about what will happen it is step one in putting the blame on Obama, and the complicit M$M will be happy to play along.

[Yavin4]

22. My response would be: Single Payer

and then tell them to go fuck off.

[ProudProg2u]

23. And The Answer Is...???

If A Middle aged man gets Cancer what would you do asked the narrator of the Republican Presidential candidates...A man in the crowd of a republican debate yelled out "LET HIM DIE"...! To a round of applause from the audience at the last republican pres debates. (I think it was Wolf Blitzer who asked the question) Cons are truly disgusting sub human pos's.

[Populist_Prole]

25. What is this? Attempt number 396 to kill ACA?

Talk about fanatics!

[HockeyMom]

27. You break it, you fix it

Duh?

[Turbineguy]

28. The Plan

If the GOP wins people die.

[ananda]

29. Reframe: What's the backup plan for ..

.. the many millions who will lose affordable care
if...

[gcomeau]

30. They should answer "Medicare for all"

...for no other reason than to potentially panic them into dropping the entire lawsuit.

[Gore1FL]

31. +1

Beat me to it.

[thesquanderer]

33. It will be up to the Republicans to either...

...send Obama a bill he can sign that will re-establish what was intended in the first place

OR

... take the blame for all those who lose their subsidies.

OR those Red states who are affected could either establish their own exchanges as originally intended, OR, again, take the blame for what happens if they don't.

I don't see Obama or the Dems coming out badly on any of this.

[ThoughtCriminal]

34. GOP backup plan...

keep people who lose health insurance from voting.

[Iliyah]

35. I'm pretty sure that Pres O and his administration has a plan

and of course the GOPs won't like it.

Meanwhile, the 5 jerks that might propel millions into non-coverage (death panels) re health insurance, will also propel the insurance companies into a financial fiasco thereby sending the 1-2%ers stock market into a black hole.

GOPers will do their happy dance on the million bodies, sipping campaign, all the while blaming the Dems and Pres O, but alas that won't last toooooo long because their money(ies) will lose its oomph.

[IronLionZion]

37. I wonder how many DUers side with the GOP on this case

many DUers don't want subsidies going to big insurance.

You would think GOP might get over their spiteful quixotic quest to deny health insurance to the undeserving patients long enough to support profits for business, but no. Spite wins again.

You would think DUers might get over their spiteful quixotic quest to deny profits to the undeserving companies long enough to support health insurance for patients, but no. Spite wins again.

So either we'll continue to have patients and companies get what they don't deserve. Or nobody gets to have it. Either way, many DUers are unwittingly siding with GOP and consumed by spite.

[Beartracks]

39. GOP is trolling for ideas, since they have none of their own. n/t

[kelliekat44]

40. Beat me to it! nt

[spanone]

43. what a boatload of assholes

[ailsagirl]

58. Yep

scum of the earth

[blackspade]

44. Whitehouse to GOP....

What is your fucking plan, you demented clowns?

Let's hear it..... Chirp, chirp

[Geoff R. Casavant]

46. The only plan should be the thing that should have been done when the issue was raised

Recall, the entire case turns on some ambiguous language in the statutes. This isn't the first time a law has had ambiguous language, and the solution has always been simple -- pass an amendment to clarify the language. This has happened I would imagine literally hundreds of times before, with no trouble.

So, if King v. Burwell says the language is ambiguous, the only thing Obama needs to do is propose a bill to clarify the language and ask the Republican-led Congress to please pass it clean. If the Republicans don't, won't, or can't do it, then it's all on them.

I, for one, will be getting the popcorn ready.

[humbled_opinion]

47. Why did they even ask the question?

If Scotus shoots down the subsidies, there is going to be a large amount of people that will dump their insurance because they won't be able to afford it. I suppose the President would ask Congress to change the law and allow subsidies for states that are not operating their own exchanges and then the GOP would simply say no and the costs would skyrocket for everyone. I don't really get why they are asking Obama for a plan B. The ACA would become unaffordable and insurance companies would again offer various policies to people that could afford coverage without subsidy and we would be right back where we were before ACA.

[ck4829]

48. "Fix our mess!"

[MADem]

49. They'd better sit down with the Ways and Means chair and figure that out.

Don't those nitwits understand that all appropriations begin in the House?

They're the ones who should be worried, because "No healthcare for you" isn't going to work for people who have gotten used to the dignity of health care.

[packman]

50. You gotta admit-

those elephants have big balls. What unbelievable chutzpah - wanting to know plan B because they never had a plan A.

[2naSalit]

51. I know it will require some bravery but...

why don't we serve them with an eviction notice?

Or maybe we should rescind their healthcare and pay...

Or... ?

I've had it with these asshats.

[NutmegYankee]

52. Simple - Do nothing.

Just tell congress to fix the law wording to allow subsidies for the federal exchange, and then just Veto anything else passed healthcare wise. Even allow a shutdown, but do not yield. The only people hurt were hurt by their republican state governments.

[Moostache]

53. Line up everyone who is terminal in D.C.

Stage a mass die-in on the steps of the Congress and in front of the cameras...if I cannot get insurance and cannot get medicine, then these fuckers are going to watch me die in front of their eyes and as many others as I could round up with me.

The people who think this is no big problem because they have a job had better pay closer attention...if you are not in the 1%, they do not want you to have ANYTHING....healthcare and retirement are the tip of the iceberg...food, water, shelter are next on their wishlist of things to take...

[KingCharlemagne]

54. Fuck them, those nihilistic motherfuckers! - nt

[mehrrh]

56. whose back up plan???

Aren't they just so predictable? The ACA is working for millions of Americans; it is cheaper than many thought and the savings are projected to be greater than expected -- so of course, the GOP wants to destroy it and they have the gall to ask the WH what their back up plan is?
Au contraire, you are the ones who need a back up plan -- you destroy it? -- you own it! Replace it!

[ReRe]

57. Backup?

Universal HealthCare, or Medicare4All. PO needs a "make my day" moment, ala Clint Eastwood. Treat them more like they treat him.