GOP’s 2014 horror strategy: Exploit Americans’ misfortune, drum up fake outrage

[DonViejo]

Prepare for them to search high and low for people disappointed with Obamacare -- then pretend to share their pain

BRIAN BEUTLER

A quick look at the House and Senate vote calendars indicates that Congress did not in fact come back into session over the holidays to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which means that as of today (depending on how you count it) millions and millions of people who were previously uninsured now have comprehensive healthcare coverage.

There’s the 3-or-so million young adults under 26 who have been covered under their parents plans for a couple of years now, about 4 million new Medicaid beneficiaries, and some large percentage of the 2 million who have enrolled in a private plan via Healthcare.gov or one of 14 state-based insurance exchanges and submitted their first premium payment.

Their benefits are now active, which means proponents of repealing the law have a severe entropy problem on their hands. Just like you can’t re-create an erased image by unshaking an Etch-A-Sketch, you can no longer re-create the pre-Obamacare status quo by repealing the law. Some new beneficiaries would be returned to the ranks of the uninsured, just as they were before, but others would return to an individual market they were happy to leave behind, and even the thin skim of people who were happy with plans that have been canceled wouldn’t necessarily be able to reclaim them.

After spending three months effusing sympathy for people who’ve had their insurance plans canceled, Republicans can’t really continue to support repeal while ignoring the (2 million? 6 million? 9 million?) who would lose their coverage as a result. But the GOP lacks a consensus replacement for Obamacare, and the plans that caucuses within the party do support don’t do anything for the new beneficiaries, and fall well short of Obamacare’s coverage expansion in the long run.

full article
http://www.salon.com/2014/01/02/gops_2014_horror_strategy_exploit_americans_misfortune_drum_up_fake_outrage/

[Proud Liberal Dem]

1. So, in other words

Last edited Thu Jan 2, 2014, 01:24 PM - Edit history (2)

they're not going to be doing anything significantly different than what they have been doing?

At some point or another, shouldn't constant bashing and lack of problem-solving simply be unacceptable? Or is it *really* just good enough for some people to sit on the sidelines and throw bombs at people trying to do good for others and complain and try to stop them from helping?

The article makes a great point at how *upset* the Republicans were about people's plans being cancelled "because of ACA" but even more people are going to lose their (new) plans if the Republicans repeal ACA. How do they navigate around that?

[Wounded Bear]

2. Yep, decades of precedent....

Business as usual.

See sig V V V