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I choose the most intelligent opinions, commentators, and commenters, These "pundits" are sympathizers of the Democratic Party of course - But you can read the republicans here too :
POLITICO.COM : The Arena : The Utter Stupidity of the House Republicans in pushing for Repeal of Obamacare
Some excerpts :
Kavita Patel Director, Health Policy Program, New America Foundation :
Here are a couple of facts: the Republicans will repeal health care reform in the House. The Senate will not. And the administration will continue to implement the many facets of the Affordable Care Act which millions of patients desperately need. Beyond that, Republicans probably have not done much to hurt themselves by discussing repeal without any alternative, mostly because as we have seen, the country is frustrated with partisan politics and has largely given up on expecting much from either party.
The real story will be beyond today's vote -- once the elected officials go back to their home districts and face people struggling to pay bills and overcrowded emergency rooms, families going bankrupt from rising medical costs -- that is when we will know what the success is beyond a vote that is largely symbolic.
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Timothy Stoltzfus Jost Law Professor at the Washington and Lee University :
The Arena is about politics, but for just a moment can we focus on policy? The problems the Affordable Care Act addresses are real. We now have over 50 million uninsured and the number is growing steadily. Health care is rapidly becoming unaffordable; to the government, to employers, to ordinary Americans. The quality of American health care is inadequate. The ACA addresses these issues; the Republicans do not.
The Republicans are not offering an alternative because, frankly, they don’t have one. They put forth an alternative in 2009 during the ACA debate, and the CBO scored it as having no effect on the percentage of Americans who are uninsured and as reducing the deficit by only half as much as the ACA. The primary ideas the Republicans offer are making it more difficult for malpractice victims to sue and deregulating health insurance by allowing interstate sales.
Real malpractice reform, which would allow the victims of malpractice to recover while protecting doctors from unfounded litigation, is important. The malpractice reform the Republicans support would, according to the CBO, only reduce health care costs by one half a percent and do nothing to improve access. Deregulating health insurance would make insurance less expensive for healthy people, but less accessible to those who really need it.
In fact, the best ideas that Republicans have put forward historically for health reform — managed competition, tax credits to make insurance more accessible, and individual responsibility requirement — are all in the ACA. While the Republicans object to the fact that the Democrats have co-opted their ideas, they have no new ones to offer.
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State Sen. Tim Mathern North Dakota State Senate (D) :
Republicans not offering a specific replacement for “Obamacare” shows their vote to repeal it is an empty political stunt. I suspect someday the term “Obamacare” will signify a successful program of caring for all Americans.
I suggest Congress get to work creating jobs. Right now, we have soldiers in war protecting our freedoms and they come home to no job and no health care for their family. It is time we fight for the freedom from the fear of not having health care.
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Christopher Hahn Democratic consultant :
Here we go again. The GOP is going to make a symbolic stand and accomplish nothing for the American people. Clearly a repeal is going nowhere and they are wasting time that could be better spent on a variety of issues.
If they truly have a problem with health care, they should negotiate with the president and Senate Democrats to fix provisions of the bill that they find objectionable like the 1099 provision. They could have done this during the initial debate but they decided to hold their breath and stand
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Celinda Lake Democratic strategist :
They will pay a price. Voters, especially women don't want a symbolic debate nor do they want to start all over again. The Democrats are doing exactly the right thing highlighting what insured and uninsured Americans will lose and turning health care back over to insurance company abuses.
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John Anzalone Democratic consultant, Anzalone Liszt Research :
We all know this is a political stunt that is a dead end and a sop to the red-meat eaters in the Republican Party and tea party sympathizers. The Republicans have overplayed their hand here and have helped Democrats finally find a voice on health care that they were afraid to do before the elections. This vote offers the American people not only a great contrast on what the two parties stand for – one for protecting people from pre-existing conditions and dropped insurance coverage, the other for doing the insurance industry’s business – but it also exposing the Republicans for being overtly and shamelessly political in a time where voters want problems solved in a bipartisan way.
Even Republicans secretly just want to get this vote over with and move on because they have figured out that it is of no value to them.
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Charles Walcott Professor of Political Science, Virginia Tech :
As the new health care law gradually becomes less unpopular, the Republicans are taking a risk in adopting their "party of no" stance toward it. The Democrats did a poor job of explaining and selling the law the first time. With the debate reopened, they have another crack at it, and they seem likely to do better this time. That said, the current GOP ranks contain so many members who have promised to try to repeal the law that they really have no choice but to at least go through the motions. In the long run, this will play well with their base, but may well hurt them a bit with the rest of the electorate.
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Dean Baker Co-director, Center for Economic and Policy Research :
If the Democrats are prepared to speak up for their bill then the Republicans will likely pay a price in the next election. After all, they are voting to allow insurance companies to discriminate against people who are sick -- denying insurance to the people who actually need it. They are also voting to allow insurers to impose lifetime caps so that people with severe medical conditions like cancer will suddenly find out that their insurance no longer covers them.
These are not popular positions. If the public realizes that their representatives in Congress voted for these positions, it is not likely to help them on Election Day.
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Greg Dworkin Contributing Editor, Daily Kos :
The House approach is unhelpful and unwanted gamesmanship. Views on health care are very partisan... a good summary of attitudes are here: fix it, don’t repeal it, or make it stronger. Why does it even need fixing? Republican intransigence at the time of passage along with changing economic conditions and insight as implementation begins.
But the major point is something anyone outside of Washington will tell you... stop with the ideological games, and get to work on jobs. Since repeal loses jobs and increases the deficit, and since new data shows that half of Americans under 65 have pre-existing conditions (protected in the health care bill we now have), and since Americans aren’t committed to repeal (unless you are a Republican), the gamesmanship will fail. And the House will still be tasked on creating jobs. That’s something they can’t afford to fail on.
Of course, they don’t know what to do about any of our real problems, which is why the gamesmanship. They’d still rather blame Democrats than actually do something useful, like cooperate with the majority party on anything. And that is entirely the fault of the uncompromising tea party.
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Arthur 'Jerry' Kremer Chairman, Empire Government Strategies; former member, New York State Assembly :
The concept of repealing without a replacement highlighting the positive elements of the existing law makes the action hypocritical and empty. What started out as a clever political tactic now gives the Democrats talking points against the new majority. The Republicans will have scored zero points on this efforts even with the tea party crowd.
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Thomas J. Whalen Professor of Social Science, Boston University :
The problem for Republicans is that "Obamacare" is steadily gaining public support, not losing it. The more time people get to understand the underlying benefits of the law, the more likely they are to embrace it. And time is on the president's side as there is no realistic way the Republicans can overturn the existing legislation in the near term. Overall, this is a lose-lose political proposition for John Boehner and Co.
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David Biespiel American poet, director, Attic Institute :
As former Republican Sen. Bill Frist noted the other day, the health care law is the "law of the land," and the current congressional Republican Party's repeal effort is unserious.
In the meantime, the Republican repeal will fail. The Senate and the White House are not going to advance the bill. Next week, the media will be focused on a different story. By next month, individual Republicans will be announcing their intentions to run or not for the Republican presidential primary --and the media will be blitzing with those stories, all far from shouts of repeal. Then, the battle to repeal will be rejoined within the Republican Party as early as this spring when Republican presidential candidates stand shoulder to shoulder for their first debate. Every candidate will call for repeal. None, or few, will offer an alternative because it would not win base votes. By the general election of 2012, the Republican standard-bearer will offer a meek "adjust" policy. Both repeal and replace will be dead.
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Brad Bannon President, Bannon Communications Research :
I hope the repeal vote in the House makes the tea party types happy because it will make life miserable for GOP members who have to run for reelection in 2012 from swing districts.
Most parts of the new health care reform law are popular. Americans don’t like the individual mandate but they are very supportive of the provisions that prevent insurance companies from abusing their customers. The new law prevents insurance companies from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions and stops the companies from limiting payments to people who have serious illnesses.
As a Democratic campaign consultant and pollster, I am licking my chops to get a crack at one of these new GOP House members next year. I can see it now. Bill Teaparty's first big vote in Congress was to allow insurance companies to screw you over.
And that was just the first big vote. God only knows what other damage, these crazy kids will do in the next two years.
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