If Obamacare was so horrible, why do Republicans act like it needs to be replaced with anything after repeal?
Because it has the word ‘Obama’ in it.Seriously, most Republicans are all for the Affordable Care Act, but Obamacare? No way! They aren’t informed enough to know that its the same darn thing. Most people are sheep, no matter the party, and just goes along with everyone else. Obamacare is another word for the Affordable Care Act, which many are in favor of. If you explain Obamacare to them without mentioning the name (yes, I have tried this out) they say “Well, that sounds pretty good”. Obama is probably the most hated president since Abraham Lincoln.Hopefully, he gets that legacy too. Both of them were fighters against racism. Barack Obama being what many people call a disgusting mulatto, ruffles more than a few feathers. Truthfully, most people who don’t like Obama are secretly racist.I live in L.A, and its socially unacceptable to be outwardly racist. You can pick them out if the voted for Trump, and hate Obama for seemingly no good reason. The people I know anyways. I live in a Republican area, so its much more outwardly racist than the rest of L.A. I’ve heard people in my neighborhood say “Well, he’s alright for a BLACK GUY, but he can’t compare to the rest!” I mean, what other president has been through all he has? He has been accused of being from another country, being muslim, a terrorist and more. But really, he is one of the best presidents we’ve ever had, I mean, look what he has done. He is much more respectable than that orange creep who’s going to repeal it. If he were white, he would be praised. Then again, he might have not gotten the nomination in the first place.
Why do Republicans oppose universal healthcare so badly?
There are two main reasons, several smaller reasons: 1. Republicans see the purpose of health care as being to generate profits for the handful of corporations that own our health care system. Providing health care itself is just an unavoidable business expense, the real purpose is profits. This is why Republicans won't propose any changes that might threaten the profits of the corporations. The Paul Ryan plan, for instance, gives Medicare funds to the corporations, so they can skim 25-30% off the top as profits and overhead before anyone gets any health care. 2. The Republicans get really upset when a Democrat wins the White House. They see it as never being in their interests to cooperate with a Democrat, because that only hands him a victory. So whatever Obama proposes, you can bet the mortgage payment the Republicans will disagree. There is actually nothing in Obama's plan that wasn't previously proposed by a Republican, but when a Democrat proposes them they're SOCIALISM. In the US we have allowed money to become just too important in our electoral politics. Both parties desperately need money to run campaigns, and they both get the money from the same sources. So you can't realistically expect their true agendas to be all that different. This is one reason the Republicans make every issue partisan. Otherwise everyone would be on the same side! In this case, Obama began his campaign advocating a single payer system, but halfway through the campaign, he said he'd changed his mind, that he didn't think single payer would work 'in a country like this one'. In the meanwhile, of course, he'd taken money from the health care industry. So his plan, like the plans of Bill Clinton and GHW Bush, had the US govt buying health insurance for the uninsured from the existing health insurance companies, at their going rate. Basically shoveling taxpayer money to these powerful corporations, just as the Paul Ryan plan does..
Don't Republicans realize that Obamacare was modeled after what Mitt Romney had in Massachusetts?
Yes, but that isn’t the point.What Romneycare did was take the money that the federal government was already giving to Massachusetts to help pay for the care for people without insurance, and use it instead to help people buy insurance, along with a mandate, and lots of other rules and regulations. It’s similar to Obamacare, but there’s one very important difference.What happened in Massachusetts was a state solution. The people of Massachusetts decided on their goals; they discussed it; they voted on it; and they were largely pretty happy with what they did. It was the people of Massachusetts deciding how they were going to live in Massachusetts.Obamacare was a national solution, and people in different parts of the country have wildly different ideas about how they’d like to live. It’s understandably frustrating for people when Senators and Congressmen from 1,000+ miles away that they can’t vote for or against meet in Washington DC to decide how everyone is going to live. Our Constitution was designed with the intention that the farther away you get from an individual, the less that individual can be affected. The people in your state capital have more impact on your day to day existence than the people in Washington DC.The big divide in America isn’t left / right or Democrat / Republican; it’s always been nationalists / regionalists. The Affordable Care Act was a big power grab by nationalists, whereas Massachusetts was a state decision.
Are the failed attempts to repeal Obamacare escalating Republican infighting?
Well sure. The GOP is self-destructing, having embraced the despicable form of Donald Trump as a means to forwarding their own agenda, only to find that the radical right part of their party (evangelicals) doesn’t agree with the reactionary part of their party,(Rand Paul et al) which in turn doesn’t agree with the few remaining moderates in their party (John McCain et al). It’s fractured into sub-parties.Trump, being a weak president with no leadership ability, (as in ZERO) is of no help to party cohesion. It’s an “every man for himself” kind of situation, an internal struggle for power. Call it “political Darwinism” if you will. Trump will never change. He will never “get better”. He wasn’t elected to lead, or unite but to destroy. If that includes the GOP, well, so be it.The more radical / reactionary right parts of the party will retain power through gerrymandering and voter suppression, especially in the House, but the moderates in the Senate face certain death in 2018 I think, as they have satisfied no one.Since Trump voters elected him to destroy everything in the status quo, we must admit that the plan is working. The downside of this “cultural revolution” is that nobody, especially his voters, spent any time pondering what the effects of this destruction would actually be. They were artfully distracted from a critical analysis of their own immediate needs by an appeal to super-patriotism and to issues which have no direct influence on their lives other than to make them angry.So, too, the GOP, which should by all accounts and with more than enough votes be passing legislation successfully at a whiz-bang clip, have also become victims of the poisonous atmosphere of hatred and anger in the Trump greenhouse. They are turning their weapons on themselves.
Will Democrats ever admit that Obamacare was bad?
ACA is deeply flawed. It is a mess for the very reason that it is not universal. It is a mess because the cost of opting out is low. It is a mess because there is no mechanism to make sure members of the middle class who are part of the exchange don’t get crushed by absurdly high premiums.But relative to what existed before, it is a marvelous band aid. And had there been enough will in the Senate (thanks, Joe Lieberman), there would even have been a single-payer option to cover the lack of choices in local exchanges.The cause of most of the weakness in ACA results from the compromises made by the Democrats during the year or so of negotiations with the Republicans prior to its passage. We might have been better off without the negotiations, since not a single Republican voted for the legislation, even though they had ample voice. In fact, as soon as the bill passed and was signed, the Republicans created the false narrative that they were completely shut out of the process.
Why are Republicans in the House and Senate having such trouble coming up with healthcare legislation?
They could just revoke the ACA but Mr Trump said he thinks both should happen at the same time but perhaps it wont be possible. They are working on a plan that all Senators will pass and then will go to conference about the House bill. What are you accusing Mr. Trump of lying about? Mr. Trump did not have a plan. The Republicans in the House and in the Senate have different plans but they cannot agree on every provision. How does that indicate Mr Trump was lying about something?
Should we amend the Constitution to repeal ObamaCare?
Even some of the attorneys general that are suing say that it is probably constitutional and that the lawsuits are more symbolic then legally compelling. The health care law is clearly constitutional. Also, if you have the support to amend the constitution simply elect members of Congress that will vote to repeal it and to override the Presidential veto. If you don't have the votes for that you probably won't have the votes for the much more complicated process of a constitutional amendment. Besides, the democratically elected members of the Congress voted for this bill...you lost. Since when in this country does the minority start throwing a hissy fit when they loose. You are a bunch of cry babies, win a few elections and you can repeal the bill, until then stop whining.