With the White House’s recent announcement that it is delaying the Obamacare employer health insurance mandate for yet another year, the current administration has once again demonstrated its intention to selectively decide which laws it wants to enforce and execute, and those it does not.
While Obamacare is clearly an unworkable legislative disaster, that’s no excuse for the president to disregard the rule of law. It’s not just a faulty and embarrassing website; Obamacare is most problematic from a policy standpoint, precipitating soaring premiums, dropped coverage and countless hours lost in bureaucratic jungles for the millions of Americans scrambling to replace the insurance plans that they liked but can no longer keep because of the White House’s signature legislative achievement.
In January’s State of the Union address, President Barack Obama challenged Republicans in Congress who are critical of his health care bill, chiding: “So again, if you have specific plans to cut costs, cover more people, and increase choice – tell America what you’d do differently. Let’s see if the numbers add up.”
As it would happen, thanks in particular to leadership from Tennessee’s congressional delegation, there are several such proposals that have been put forward by the GOP. And contrary to what President Obama and congressional Democrats repeatedly claim, these Republican proposals not only exist, they are in legislative format, available online, and can be accessed in a fraction of the time that it takes one to unsuccessfully sign up for Obamacare.
Tennessee representatives Marsha Blackburn, Diane Black, Phil Roe, Scott DesJarlais, Steve Fincher and Chuck Fleischmann are cosponsors of House Resolution 3121, legislation introduced by the Republican Study Committee (RSC), a group of conservative members of the U.S. House, who would repeal Obamacare, along with its 20 tax increases, and replace it with a series of patient-centered, market-oriented reforms that would increase access to care and bring down costs.