{"id":2879,"date":"2015-06-09T18:08:57","date_gmt":"2015-06-09T23:08:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/?p=2879"},"modified":"2015-06-09T18:08:57","modified_gmt":"2015-06-09T23:08:57","slug":"republicans-going-all-in-to-take-health-care-away-from-millions-of-americans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/republicans-going-all-in-to-take-health-care-away-from-millions-of-americans\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans Going All-In to Take Health Care Away from Millions of Americans"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cObamacare is a failure because our sabotage has successfully slowed its implementation.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

So we’re approaching the Supreme Court’s decision on the King-v-Burwell<\/a><\/em> case<\/a>, in which the GOP turns a drafting error in the ACA into a\u00a0pry-bar\u00a0for taking health care away from some 7 million Americans. \u00a0I confess to still being stunned that they have consciously chosen to make this beastliness their calling card. \u00a0One wonders how\u00a0they’ll face their constituents\u00a0if they actually succeed.<\/p>\n

One thing we know they’ll do is try to blame their monstrous behavior\u00a0on someone else. \u00a0Like this (courtesy of Professor Krugman):<\/p>\n

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The Chutzpah Caucus<\/a><\/h3>\n

Sen. John Thune is coming in for quite a lot of ridicule<\/a> for this:<\/p>\n

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Obamacare is a failed policy, because we may be able to kill it with an absurd legal challenge! It\u2019s a policy version of the classic definition of chutzpah: killing your mother and father, then pleading for mercy because you\u2019re an orphan.<\/p>\n

But Thuneism is just a more naked version of the style of argument we\u2019ve been seeing all along. Conservatives are constantly belittling the ACA for its failure to cover all the uninsured \u2014 only one-third covered, it\u2019s often asserted<\/a>, although that number is out of date and also ignores the fact that the law wasn\u2019t supposed to cover undocumented immigrants. But what\u2019s the biggest factor limiting coverage? Um, refusal of red states to expand Medicaid<\/a> and their refusal to help implement the rest of the law:<\/p>\n

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In states that want Obamacare to work, most of the eligible uninsured have already been covered. So the general complaint is that \u201cObamacare is a failure because our sabotage has successfully slowed its implementation.\u201d Thune is just taking that logic a bit further.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A few more recent worthy pieces on the subject:<\/p>\n

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