Repeal Appeal

The first order of business for the newly elected majority in the House is grandstanding.  I know, I know, you saw one of the new, powerful GOP House members on TV telling you with a squared jaw and steely eyes that it is all about jobs, jobs, jobs.  Brace yourselves – they were lying about that one, and a few others things, for good measure.

The first fact to know is that the Affordable Care Act will not be repealed, at least not in the next 2 years.  The Senate will not back the House, Obama would veto the repeal if it even got that far, and the GOP lacks the votes to overturn the veto.  It’s not even close.  This fact will not slow the GOP from doing what new Majority Leader Eric Cantor says “reflects what most people inside the beltway and outside the beltway want”.
  
Oops – another lie.  The public is split into thirds on this one.  Approximately one-third favors repeal, one-third favors expansion of the Act, and another third is willing to wait and see what happens.  Perhaps Cantor misspoke.  Perhaps he meant to say that the repeal effort reflects what the far right and health insurance companies want.  Hmmm, I thought they wanted jobs, jobs, jobs.

Of course, everyone knows that the ACA was a jobs killer.  Everyone knows this because someone said it on TV, or blogged about it, and it was repeated in the echo chamber as gospel truth.  Well, here’s the news from today about jobs:

• Private employers added 297,000 jobs in December compared with a revised gain of 92,000 in November, a report by a payroll processor showed on Wednesday.  The ADP gain in December was the largest in the history of ADP report.
• Fewer jobs were eliminated in nearly every major industry in 2010, the Challenger (Challenger, Gray and Christmas) report said. Layoffs in the automotive sector totaled 16,001, down 91 percent from a year ago. Retail employers — which cut 98,807 jobs a year ago — announced 38,751 layoffs in 2010, a decrease of nearly two-thirds.
• A report from consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., showed the number of planned layoffs at U.S. firms fell in December to the lowest level since 2000, while the combined yearly total was the lowest since 2007.
• Downsizing in 2010 totaled 529,973 lost positions, a 59 percent drop from the previous year. The 2010 total was the lowest since 434,350 job cuts were announced in 1997.

How could the private job growth picture have improved if ACA is still on the books?  Could it be that someone isn’t being completely honest with you?

During the debate on HCR, the Republican minority insisted that any bill, but especially the health care bill, be scored by the Congressional Budget Office to assess impact on the deficit.  They couldn’t possibly vote for any bill that added one penny to the deficit (oops – another lie: the tax compromise they voted for added trillions to the deficit).  As you may have forgotten, the CBO scored the ACA as directed, and determined that the bill would reduce the deficit over the next 10 years, while expanding coverage to 94% of Americans.  The Republicans voted against it anyway.

So I have a modest proposal – let’s send the repeal bill to the CBO to assess its impact on the deficit.  If it increases the deficit by one penny, don’t vote for the bill.  Oh no, that might expose a troubling hypocrisy in the right wing rhetoric.  The deficit is a critical issue when we discuss defunding NPR.  When reduced tax rates for all those small mom and pop stores on Main Street USA generating $1,000,000 in household income are under consideration, the deficit is not such a big deal.
   
If we skip the step of checking out the repeal bill’s impact on the deficit, let’s try something else that the GOP was for before they were against it.  Let’s have an open process and allow amendments to be added to the bill.  Not so much, says Rep. Cantor.  "It's a straightforward document," he said.
 
This should come as no surprise.  The GOP would not want to expose the component parts of the bill to public scrutiny.  Show of hands – who is in favor of allowing insurers to discriminate against children with pre-existing conditions?  I didn’t think so.  The ACA has benefits, some of which have come on line and some of which will not be in place until 2014, but exposing these benefits to the light of day would not be doing the ‘will of the people’ in this Orwellian new reality.

The Washington Monthly provides a good summary:

For two years, Republicans said all legislation had to be paid for ... but when it comes time to repeal health care reform, Republicans no longer care about their alleged principles.

For two years, Republicans said all legislation needed scores from the Congressional Budget Office ... but when it comes time to repeal health care reform, Republicans no longer care about their alleged principles.

For two years, Republicans said it was imperative for the minority to be allowed to offer amendments to legislation ... but when it comes time to repeal health care reform, Republicans no longer care about their alleged principles.

For two years, Republicans said self-executing rules and bypassing committees were outrageous abuses ... but when it comes time to repeal health care reform, Republicans no longer care about their alleged principles.

Boehner recently spoke at the AEI and said that the GOP should be "focusing on our collective responsibility to govern."  Oops – not so much.  Voting to repeal a bill that has no chance of repeal is not responsible governing.  Even if you hate the bill, the repeal effort is a waste of time.  Focus on making ACA work.