Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives postponed a vote recently on repealing ObamaCare socialized medicine. Knowing the debate would be divisive, they put it off in the wake of the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and the killing of six others at an event the congresswoman was attending. But difficult issues cannot be put off forever, so Republicans have rescheduled the debate for this week.
As you might imagine, President Barack Obama is dismissive of any further discussion of ObamaCare in Congress.
“What we can’t do is re-fight the battles of the past two years that distract us from the hard work of moving our economy forward,” he said in one of his weekly addresses.
But concern for our economy is one of the very reasons why we must “re-fight” ObamaCare.
Only by using a series of accounting tricks to hide the program’s true cost have Democrats been able to claim that ObamaCare will somehow cut spending. For instance, many billions of dollars in ObamaCare’s costs were hidden by simply putting them into a different bill. That money is most assuredly going to be spent, but it’s not “technically” counted as part of ObamaCare’s expense. Plus, history shows time and again that major federal entitlements end up costing far more than their original estimates. We don’t have the money for yet another big-ticket debacle!
Fortunately, the American people have not been fooled. Poll after poll finds public disapproval of ObamaCare, even now, nearly a year after Democrats passed it with zero Republican support. The latest Rasmussen Reports survey shows 54 percent of likely voters in favor of repeal, compared with only 40 percent opposed.
The reasons for the unpopularity of the “reforms” are clear. ObamaCare will force virtually everyone to buy government-approved insurance — which one federal judge has already ruled unconstitutional. And it defies reason to claim, as the administration does, that Washington can add tens of millions of people to government-run health care without massive spending increases. Existing programs such as Medicare are already going broke. With our nation saddled with a $14 trillion debt, the last thing we need is trillion-dollar ObamaCare to bust the budget further.
That is not to say that Congress actually will be able to repeal ObamaCare — at least not right now. The new GOP majority in the House will very likely vote to repeal the costly law — over fierce objections by Democrats. But the Senate is still narrowly under Democrat control. So the Senate is unlikely even to allow thorough debate of repeal, much less an up-or-down, simple-majority vote. And even if the Senate somehow joined the House in voting for repeal, Obama certainly would veto any attempt to reject ObamaCare.
Nevertheless, a House vote on repeal is clearly in line with public sentiment, the Constitution and economic common sense. So even if the effort is doomed in the Democrat-controlled Senate, the House should indeed vote for repeal. Meanwhile, efforts should also be undertaken in the House to de-fund Obama-Care wherever possible.
The president may not want to “re-fight the battles” over health-care reform, but our country cannot afford not to confront ObamaCare’s budget-busting provisions.