Pull The Plug On Obamacare
According to a recent Rasmussen Reports survey, support for the overall repeal of the federal government’s health care overhaul has never fallen below 50 percent. However, many Americans are slowly accepting the idea that an all out repeal may be a mere fantasy since Democrats presently control the Senate by a slim margin, as well as the White House.
With Mr. Obama likely to veto any repeal bill put on his desk, should a white flag be hoisted? Of course not, considering voters sent Republicans a mandate in November that begins with the elimination of Obamacare.
And the reality is health care reform requires a substantial amount of federal and taxpayer funding in order to function. The bulk of this appropriation ultimately comes from the U.S. House of Representatives meaning the logical solution to eventually doing away with Obamacare is to begin the process of defunding this big-government monstrosity.
First, Republicans would be wise to start with the inaccuracies of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
The non-partisan CBO, which has historically been known to underestimate when it comes to the fiscal impact of legislation, predicted health care reform would actually reduce the deficit and help lower health care costs.
Even though initial estimates revealed health care would drive up deficit spending by over $150 billion, the CBO is sticking to its claims that a massive government entitlement program will somehow reduce our nation’s debt. That was actually a modest amount considering new figures show Obamacare will actually add $3-5 trillion over the next decade.
Reality is often an extremely difficult world to live in when it comes to media pundits and politicians but here in the real world the CBO takes the information they acquire literally, meaning any numbers submitted to them via a bill is accurate in their eyes. And we all know that legislation written by politicians who surrender to special interest groups never contains information that is over-inflated.
Yea and the British won the Revolutionary War too.
The bottom line is Obamacare is a fiscal nightmare to taxpayers because the more people on the new health care plan means more government subsidies given to people to buy it, meaning more costs to the taxpayer. And the CBO believes the government can pay for health care costs by imposing new taxes to the tune of $1 trillion.
Even more disturbing, the CBO estimates that when Obama leaves office he will also leave behind a bigger deficit on his successor thanks to health care reform spending. Not to mention, a 10-13 percent increase on health insurance premiums. But the irony of all of this is the CBO believes that by 2019 there will still be roughly 23 million Americans without health care coverage.
So in the middle of a long-term economic crisis, the answer is to bloat government more while increasing taxes on Americans with the end result being nearly the same as when this all started?
This is the part where we insert the Twilight Zone theme.
Not to mention the unconstitutionality of Obamacare coming in the form of the government forcing private citizens to buy insurance. Many Americans will either pay the fine or flat out refuse to cooperate which will add to the fiscal chaos. So in other words any figures coming out of the CBO must be taken with a grain of salt.
Last week Congressman Steve King (R-Iowa) penned a column in defense of the House’s repeal vote. In it he wrote that, “Our tactic must be to pass a funding ban on implementing and enforcing Obamacare”.
He goes on to add that, “Enacting a funding ban will leave repeal supporters in the strongest position to continue our efforts in a manner that the president may well have difficulty blocking.”
King realizes the possibility of full repeal is unlikely at this time so the way around the roadblock is through stripping the program of its money. And considering Mr. Obama has spent more money than any of his predecessors it only makes sense to begin the defunding of health care now in order to advance genuine reform.
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Ashley Stinnett lives in West Virginia, where he serves as an adjunct college instructor, writer, media and public relations consultant, public speaker, volunteer for various conservative organizations, and a civilian recruiter for the NRA. He is registered with the Associated Press, and is a nationally syndicated columnist with The North Star National. He is the author of the new book, “Grasping Appalachian Conservatism: How Not To Be Mistaken For A Latte Liberal.”
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