truille’s article in the January 11 Echo about the Affordable Care Act. She stated some of the pluses which conservatives conveniently ignore when they say it’s been a complete disaster. Another fact that Republicans don’t want to acknowledge is that the ACA would be a lot better if they had come to the table and negotiated in good faith in 2009 and 2010. Instead the senate republicans filibustered 112 times in 2009 and 92 times in 2010 (61 times was the previous high) without even allowing discussion. The house sent over 400 resolutions to the senate to discuss and vote on but none of them were discussed because of republican’s obstruction of the senate’s business and not doing the job they were elected to do at taxpayer’s expense of a minimum of $174,000 per senator per year. Then in 2011 the after the republicans gained control of the house they wasted time voting over 30 times to repeal all or part of the ACA and over 50 times in Obama’s first four years knowing it would never get past the senate!
They said no to “single payer” (Medicare for all), no to the “public option”, and no to the “exchange”, which earned them the nickname of the “Party of No”, and Obama had to give “big insurance” what they wanted to get enough republicans to sign and pass the “exchange”, which is why health insurance costs as much as it does. With “single payer” the lowest possible price would be negotiated and no one would have to shop for insurance. Medicare’s overhead is only 2 percent to 3 percent while “big Insurance” has an overhead of about 18 percent to 20 percent, plus their top priority is to make money, not give the American people the best deal possible!
Republican senator Roy Blunt confirmed the obvious in July of 2009 when he said that republicans would not present a plan for health reform. So did (then) Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell when he said “the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term President” in 2010, instead of working on health care, jobs, and the economy. If conservatives have any complaint about the ACA they should blame the politicians they voted for, not Obama and the democrats. Unfortunately conservatives consistently vote against their self-interest, like the woman who voted for Trump and now is worried about losing her health care. When asked why she voted for Trump knowing he wanted to repeal the ACA she said because “I’m a die-hard republican”.
Republicans, led by Newt Gingrich, fought the Clinton’s health care reform effort in 1993, with success. Then when they controlled both houses during part of George W. Bush’s two terms they refused to address health care reform. If the republicans really cared about the American people why didn’t they work with the democrats to allow affordable health care?
You can have your own opinion but you can’t have you own facts, or as Kellyanne Conway put it, “alternative facts”! Most of what is stated by conservatives in general and in the Echo specifically, is wishful thinking because they are so emotionally invested in their beliefs that facts don’t matter and all they want is conformation of their beliefs, which is why 2-3 million watch Fox (Faux) News each day and why republican politicians can get away with telling half-truths or worse, like Obama not being an American citizen, or death panels, or massive voter fraud, etc.! Republicans are willing to say something that isn’t true and then do what ever they can to make it come true.
Frank Valenti
Leavenworth
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