The complicated and dishonest process by which Democrats forced ObamaCare socialized medicine through Congress left open a small window of time late in the process in which Republicans in the Senate could offer amendments.
Although the amendments were doomed to failure by the Democrat majority, it is informative to consider the commonsense things that some of them would have accomplished.
Here are just a few:
* One amendment would have removed hundreds of millions of dollars worth of “sweetheart deals” for certain states. Do you remember the $300 million “Louisiana Purchase,” which was provided to ensure a Louisiana Democrat senator’s support for ObamaCare? The defeat of this amendment means the “purchase” is still in the law, as are many other payoffs to various states.
* Another proposal would have held President Barack Obama to his promise that under ObamaCare, “(N)o family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.” It was defeated, too, and you may rest assured that it will not be only the “rich” and the so-called “rich” who pay higher taxes.
* Another vanquished amendment would have required the president and members of Congress to get medical care under the health care “exchanges” that ObamaCare sets up for the uninsured, the self-employed and small businesses.
* Still another would have forbidden convicted rapists and child molesters from getting sexual impotency drugs such as Viagra through ObamaCare.
* Other amendments — all defeated — would have protected wounded soldiers, children, cancer patients and the disabled from ObamaCare’s new taxes on medical devices such as wheelchairs, artificial limbs and blood pressure monitors. (Congress punished medical device makers with the new taxes for not supporting ObamaCare.)
Democrats say the amendments were meant only to embarrass them and derail ObamaCare, not to improve the law. But if that’s so, they should at the very least be proposing separate legislation that would leave ObamaCare intact but incorporate these needed changes.
If they feel “embarrassed” about so many provisions of ObamaCare, it is because those provisions are, in fact, embarrassing and should not be part of the law.